London Conference to celebrate SA freedom

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Polity

Published: 23 Oct 2003

London Conference to celebrate SA freedom

The Cabinet yesterday said it had noted the publication of the government research booklet, "Towards a Ten Year Review", which details some of the key areas of progress in the implementation of government programmes in the last nine-and-a-half years.

Cabinet said after its meeting in Pretoria that it had also noted the up-coming conference set for this weekend in London, United Kingdom, to celebrate South Africa's first 10 years of democracy, an important landmark in the country's history and its development as a democracy.

The London Conference will begin tomorrow and go on until Sunday at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster.

The South African High Commission is organising the major conference and participants will look at the past decade of freedom as well as the decade ahead. The conference aims to rekindle the international solidarity built up through the former Anti Apartheid Movement and to welcome new allies in the future transformation of the South African Nation.

A number of South African ministers and other dignitaries will attend the London Conference. During South Africa's struggle against apartheid, the UK played a crucial role in opposing the apartheid system and continues to be a significant global partner in supporting the new South Africa.

The celebration will thus mark both the demise of apartheid and the international community's role in especially bringing forth the democratic changes in the country.

The conference will also offer the South African delegation a special opportunity to continue dialogue with their counterparts in the UK Government.

Cabinet said in its statement that the conference would be bringing together friends of South Africa in all areas of life, to share views on progress in dealing with the legacy of apartheid, and to forge stronger partnerships of solidarity in support of reconstruction and development in South Africa and the rest of the continent.

It also called on all sectors of the South African society to debate the issues raised in the synthesis report on implementation of government's programmes (or the Towards a Ten Year Review) and conduct assessments of their own sectoral experiences and identify challenges for the Second Decade.

The Towards a Ten Year Review, published last Thursday in a booklet seeking to promote discussion, was overseen by a steering group of ministers and received inputs from individual departments in government.

Government's head of Policy Co-ordination and Advisory Services Joel Netshitenzhe said the review primarily reflected government's performance in realising its objectives and did not seek to examine in detail the evolution of various sectors of society in the last nine-and-a-half years.

The 10-year review states, amongst others, that almost 2-million housing units have been built at a cost of R24,22-billion between 1994 and 2003. – BuaNews.