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Date
: 27/08/2004
Source: Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry
Title: B Sonjica: Tree planting event at Total SA
ADDRESS AT THE TREE PLANTING EVENT AT TOTAL SOUTH AFRICA - ON THE
EVE OF THE LAUNCH OF ARBOUR WEEK, BY MS BUYELWA SONJICA, MINISTER
OF WATER AFFAIRS AND FORESTRY, 27 August 2004
Mr Jordan, Chief Executive Officer of Total South Africa
Members of the general management of Total
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is indeed a great honour for me to be here with you today.
Firstly, I want to note with appreciation the many successful years
of partnership that our Department has had with Total South Africa.
I can, with confidence say on behalf of our Department that the
last ten years of our new dispensation in South Africa has provided
all of us with an opportunity to learn from one another, to
exchange views and to share experiences.
Ladies and gentlemen, fifteen years of relationship is the longest
public-private partnership that I am aware of. But what is
important in that time is that we have jointly achieved much in
meeting the objectives that my department has set for Arbour Week.
Total South Africa has been an integral part of realising the
broader policy objectives as set out in the Reconstruction and
Development programme.
We have made strides in meeting the basic needs and providing
clean, running water to about 9 million people of South Africa
bears testimony to this. We have much more that we can cite towards
meeting the basic needs of South African people - in Health,
Electricity, in Education, in Sport and all other areas of social
transformation and governance.
We have to a greater extent democratised the state and the society,
successfully implementing our programme of nation building. We have
to be proud as South Africans especially when the world looks at
ours as a miraculous experience. Miraculous as it may seem to the
outside world, we know that it is through our collective effort as
South Africans that we managed to create a nation where all will
live side-by-side as South Africans, building a sustainable nation
and society for the future generation.
Much as we have achieved in the last ten years we still face
challenges to consolidate our gains and deepen our democracy. The
focus of our second decade of democracy, especially as reflected in
the State of the Nation Address of the President in February this
year, is that we need to continue to build our "first economy" to
be able to contribute towards strengthening the "second
economy".
In the area of forestry one of the programmes that we have is
"Community Forestry" which according to the White Paper on
Sustainable Development in South Africa "it is designed and applied
to meet local social, households and environmental needs and to
favour local economic development. This is a programme that is
implemented by or with the participation of communities. It is part
of the concept of Participatory Forest Management (PFM), which is
based on integrated approach to governance and development. This
particular approach supports other policy developments on local
economic development such as the protection and management of
natural resources and biological diversity and forest enterprise
development, among other things.
Mr CEO, looking around your building, it is stimulating to see how
you have incorporated trees and water into the design of your
building. Communities could learn a lot from this concept, which
has not only created a harmonious and beautiful environment but has
created a healthy, habitable environment, which is every citizen's
constitutional right in this country.
Programme Director, government has identified the problem of skills
shortage in our country. However, the most urgent challenge is that
of our country seriously lacking scarce skills. I personally have a
challenge because the Department I am deployed in needs such skills
for it to carry out its mandate. Hence government has identified
Human resources development as another huge challenge especially in
responding to the call of sustainable development. Human Resources
development is also an important factor in consolidating and
deepening our democracy.
The seriousness and the commitment of government to the issue of
Human Resources development was demonstrated in 2002 with the
adoption of the National Research and Development Strategy, among
other things. The Strategy seeks to address the huge gap we have in
the area of scarce skills, with an emphasis in Science and
Technology.
South Africa is said to have "a world-class forestry-research
infrastructure and personnel, with almost 2% of the forestry
industry turnover, from both public and private sectors, devoted to
research".
It is our responsibility, both government and the private sector in
the form of our oil companies like Total, academic institutions and
others to encourage this career direction for our youth. Maybe
Forestry needs a career guide like the water sector has already
started giving a career direction to motivate the youth, through
the Water Research Commission. We need to channel the career paths
to the scarce but much needed areas of socio-economic development -
Careers in Water and Forestry.
Although I have been with the Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry for a short time, I am very aware of the important role
that TOTAL has played in supporting the department with its efforts
to promote greening especially during the Arbour Week.
We can only thank you to have been involved since 1989 not only in
giving out funds but also in being directly hands-on in the
processes to establish projects that have assisted with job
creation like the establishment of community tree nurseries; the
development of community vegetable gardens that have helped to
provide food for people in disadvantaged areas; the greening of
schools and many others.
Mr Jordan, ladies and gentlemen, I trust that this partnership will
continue for many years to come. And in this year that Total is
celebrating its 50th anniversary, we wish TOTAL many more years of
life. May you have a proudly South African anniversary that is
celebrated within the spirit of our ten years of democracy. Most
importantly, may you have many more years of being part of the
South African business community. May the people of our beautiful
rainbow country be able to continue to share in your
successes.
Lastly I would like to thank Total South Africa and its staff for
choosing the month of August, the South African Women's month, for
today's tree planting event and for your 50th celebrations. This
month of August we look back with pride as women "Celebrating our
10 years of freedom, as women building a better South Africa and a
better World".
The attainment and the success of our democracy is but the best
monument we could ever build to mark and honour the contribution of
women of South Africa towards the society which we are all proud of
being its citizens today.
I thank you.
Issued by: Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry
27 August 2004
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