UN Support for the District Development Model Implementation in the Waterberg District Municipality, Limpopo

Thank you to the Programme Director.

Good afternoon to:

• The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Honourable Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
• The Acting Minister in the Presidency and the District DDM Champion, Honourable Khumbudzo Ntshavheni
• The Minister of Social Development, Honourable Lindiwe Zulu
• The Premier of the Limpopo Province, Mr Stanley Mathabatha 
• The members of the Executive Committee of the Province of Limpopo
• The Executive Mayoral Committee of the Waterberg District
• Executive Mayors, Chief Whips and Representatives of the Waterberg District Municipality
• Councilors of the local municipalities present
• The Director-generals of national departments,
• The Director-generals of provincial departments,
• Excellencies
• UN South Africa family and partners
• Members of the media
• Our Esteemed guests – ladies and gentlemen allow me to stand on the shoulders of the preceding speakers and say All Protocols Observed

On behalf of the United Nations in South Africa, I am happy to join you at the beginning of an important journey for Waterberg District and its people. 

The Waterberg is a place of astounding beauty and it’s a privilege to be here. Our colleagues in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have rightly recognized the Waterberg as an area of unique environmental and biological importance. These mountains have haboured and nurtured life for millions of years. They have sheltered the first peoples, the Khoisan, whose art still adorns these rocks. They have continued over millennia to be the key source of life and livelihoods for the people of this district. In the twenty first century our relationship with these mountains has changed, they still provide, they are still beautiful and magnanimous but now they need our help to regenerate, to shelter and protect them.  

This district has been blessed with natural resources, abundant minerals, staggering biodiversity and fertile soils, but it has been a blessing received by just a few. This district has not been spared from the damages of Apartheid or the brutality of its twisted geography, with whole peoples relegated to tiny unproductive areas, walled off from the prosperity that this land offered. We all know that 27 years ago, the people of South Africa, Limpopo and the Waterberg emerged from the dark tunnel of Apartheid into a new light of hope and opportunity. This week as I stood in Mapela, in front of the Thusong centre, bordered by towering mine dumps, hearing how service delivery is not a reality, but still an unfulfilled  hope – that euphoric light seemed dimmed. 

My dear Sisters, Ministers here with me, unequivocally agree that, 27 years after the demise of Apartheid the hopelessness of the jobless, the desperation of families living off grants, communities in sight of those majestic mountains who are still unable to drink clean water, is not acceptable. It is not acceptable to communities, who vented their rage against the Thusong centre in Vaalwater recently, and it should not be acceptable to us. We need to act with determination, passion and above all with urgency.

As His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa has said “Waterberg has great potential to become an economic powerhouse in Limpopo and dramatically improve the lives of its residents.[1]” But in order for this to happen, we need to address the concerns of the people of this district and ensure that the “municipalities deliver on their mandate to serve our people, and that they do it with the duty bearer’s obligation of accountability, transparency, and integrity.”

To help municipalities deliver, the District Development Model needs to become a driver of change. It needs to be centred around service to the people of this district and it needs to be implemented with urgency and resolve. Our signature projects will be a key component of the DDM. In these past few days, we have heard about the challenges faced and the solutions we need. I have been inspired by the passion and commitment displayed by the participants. 

The past two days have provided us with many lessons.

Our visit to the Thuthuzela Centres and Victim Support Centres in the District highlighted that partnerships between stakeholders are key to their success. A multi-sectoral and a multi-stakeholder approach is needed to ensure that victims of gender-based violence receive the support that they deserve and are empowered to re-integrate back into society. We need to support an integrated package of support services.  We need to build the architecture of our support by strengthening each and every part of the chain of actions within our victim referral systems. As we move forward, we MUST strengthen the preventive measures and also find ways to address the infrastructural and security challenges that leave victims feeling unsafe.   

In the Thusong Centres we have noted that we still need to articulate roles and responsibilities AND we need to engage and empower communities. Ladies and gentlemen, we also need accountability. We urgently need policy changes that are fast-tracked and reform that demonstrates the governments, duty-bearer, commitment to the welfare and wellbeing of its people, the rights-holders. 

For the Business Solutions Centres, we are presented with the opportunity to build on the efforts of an ecosystem of institutions that provide support to small business services. We are cognizant of the Plan/Strategy and encouraging efforts of DBSD.   We are also cognizant of the many contributions by numerous actors to expand the economy and increase the number  of stakeholders in the economy through entrepreneurship and enterprise development programs.   However, the success of these partnerships lies in us acting as one. We need to move away from working as silos. We need to coordinate, collaborate, and plan as partners. In doing so, we will see gains in efficiency, synergies, and knowledge building. It is our responsibility to the young men and women of this district who want to work, support their families, and contribute to our society to build the structures that will help them do so.  Together we must change this. Our youth are our future. Unemployment marginalises our youth, it disempowers them, and therefore it will disempower our future. 

Hon. Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, Our visits to these centres have emphasized the need to act as one. The DDM requires a-whole-of-society approach that is rooted in partnership, community and acting with urgency. It cannot just be business as usual. We need to bring disruptive change and a revolution in our mindsets. I would like to share with you three key factors that I believe are essential to the success of our shared endeavor. 

First, communities need to be placed at the heart of the DDM. Communities must be engaged, consulted and empowered. They need to be brought into the decision-making process. Communities confer legitimacy on what we do. We need to improve communication, improve consultation, we need to make sure that our policies are informed by a bottom-up process. 

Second, we must fully embrace change. The post-pandemic world cannot be as it was before. South Africa, Limpopo and the Waterberg District cannot be, must not be, left behind. Embracing change means change in how services are delivered, harnessing technology as it emerges to improve people's lives. It means a just transition from fossil fuels and embracing the Green Economy. It means fully embracing a mindset that truly embraces the concept of service to the people. 

Thirdly, I want to emphasize the importance of action. This means translating words, policy and dialogue into results. The people have been patient for long enough - we should not try their patience further ! The longer policies and plans take to translate into palpable, concrete results, the less legitimacy they have, the less legitimacy we have. I urge you all, we need results, and we do not have the luxury of time. We need a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. 

This means that the private sector and civil society must engage as our partners and as responsible members of our society. We need the  knowledge and resources; but most importantly we need the added energy to ensure the culture of responsibility, accountability, transparency and the respect of rule of law. 

Ministers, colleagues, friends. We have embarked on this journey together, we need to be inclusive, we need to embrace change to build a better future, we need to act and act now.

We have a challenge in front of us and I urge you to redouble your efforts and to rise up to the challenge. 

I Thank you 

[1] Cyril Ramaphosa Speech. 2019 Waterberg Presidential Imbizo