27 November 2000
Your Majesty King Mayitjha III ka Mabhoko, Hon. Members of Parliament and MECs; Your Worship the Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen -
I am honoured to greet you, Your Majesty, and all our friends gathered here today. I do so in the name of our President, Thabo Mbeki, and in the name of the government of South Africa. I remind all of us present here today that government's role is to serve the needs and aspirations of all of our people to the best of its ability, and to use the resources entrusted to us by the people in the wisest and most responsible way possible.
We should never forget that power and the resources used for government flow upwards from the people, and must flow down to the people again in the form of improvements to their lives which they can see and touch; improvements which they themselves have identified and asked to see carried out.
Your Majesty, we are not an equal society. We carry a heavy burden from our past, which is written onto the face of our land and our people in terms of stark contrasts between wealth and poverty, opportunity and suffering. Our government therefore has one obligation which overrides all others, and it is this: in developing the health and competitive strength of the national economy we must hear the voices of those who are most in need. We must find effective ways of ensuring that the benefits of economic growth reach the poorest of our people.
The way towards achieving this lies in open dialogue and ever-increasing community participation. It lies in making available to our people the infrastructure, the education and the services that will empower them to participate as full citizens in our society. Today's struggle is twofold: On the one hand, it is to reverse the legacy of marginalisation which saw so many millions of our people consigned to locations, townships and reserves far away from cities and other centres of economic life, facilities and amenities. On the other hand, it is to create the conditions which allow our people to fully express the talents, the energies and the capacities which were systematically stifled and suppressed for so many years under the weight of apartheid.
Your Majesty, transport holds the key both to economic growth and to the opening up of economic opportunity in the form of access to jobs, services and community development. Without the means and capacity to move people and goods efficiently and affordably we perpetuate inequality and division and we restrict our capacity as a country to compete effectively in a tough and unforgiving global economy.
I therefore see a project like the Moloto multi-purpose centre as a key building block - a critical first step towards realising the integrated rural development that this region, all our South African rural regions, and the wider SADC region so desperately require.
Its political role is perhaps not readily apparent, but it is an important one. Transport must help to unite the energies of all spheres of government with those of the private sector and our rural communities, so that we can learn to coordinate and share the skills that transform lives. Improved rural roads infrastructure and transport systems must support initiatives like the Moloto multi-purpose centre, so that they can play their full potential role. Every centre such as this must serve as a dynamic nucleus for rural socio-economic growth, helping our communities to concentrate resources and develop new capacities. In so doing, we find more direct routes to the types of delivery that make a real difference to people's lives.
Our President himself has indicated that our processes must be such that they lead directly to speedy results. Processes are important. If they are good, they include people and release creativity. If they are bureaucratic and distant, they isolate people and breed cynicism. Good processes are not easy to build. But we have made a start. The provinces have already identified their own integrated rural development goals and drafted their delivery plans. What we now need to do is to ensure that these plans are properly coordinated, that adequate funding is provided, and that the community is kept close to the implementation process.
I am aware that most of the rural transport studies undertaken in South Africa to date have largely defined rural access in terms of a community's distance from the public transport network, its distance from an engineered gravel road or in terms of the total travel time taken by public transport from the nearest large town.
It's important to get good information on these questions. But what these studies have so far failed to unravel is how people move and interact between villages, how this also conditions their daily lives, and where it leaves them placed in relation to other rural development initiatives. I am therefore very glad to recognise that the Moloto project has begun to break down some of these access barriers and has brought public transport much nearer to the rural community.
In conclusion, allow me to express my appreciation to His Majesty the King for the invitation extended to me to share in today's important event. I am sorry that it has taken longer than any of us would have wished to arrive at this moment and this meeting.
Finally, let me warmly commend the Moloto community's courage and patience in the development of this project. You have been patient because you have understood that it takes time to develop the integrated approach that is necessary to give life to a genuine community-driven initiative. What you have done as a community is therefore very important. It is a big thing - as BIG as THE BIG TREE.
I thank you.