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Fellow South Africans
We are coming towards the end of the year
2001, the first year of the 21st century. As you know, we have called
this particular century the African century. What has happened during
this first year of the century has shown what can be done and what needs
to be done.
We have moved forward towards peace in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and during this coming year South
Africa will be hosting the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, which will enable
the Congolese people to take their country forward.
We have moved forward with regard to
peace in Burundi, the transitional government is in place, and units of
our National Defence Force are in Burundi to assist the people of
Burundi to move further forward.
During this year fundamental steps have
been taken towards the African Union and the New Partnership for
Africa's Development. The first summit of the African Union will be held
in our country and therefore during this coming year, South Africa will
assume presidency of the African Union. The executive headquarters of
the New Partnership for Africa's Development is being hosted by South
Africa at the request of other African states.
As you know, later this coming year we
shall also be hosting the World Summit for Sustainable Development, an
important process regarding issues of the environment and of development
that would impact positively on the poor people of the world.
This year we also held the UN World
Conference against Racism very successfully.
All of these things demonstrate the
confidence of the rest of the world in our country, in our people. The
world is confident that we can contribute to issues of peace, of
democracy, of development throughout the world. This is inspired by our
own achievements as a country and as a people.
I would therefore like to congratulate
all of us, all the people of South Africa, all the political organizations
for ensuring that we did indeed overcome the problem of political
violence in our country. I would also like to salute our legislators and
all our executives from municipal level, provincial and national, for
the work they have done, in order to reinforce the process of democracy
in our country.
We have also made strides with regard to
the challenge of development, and further progress has been made with
regard to such matters as housing, schools, clinics and other aspects of
social development.
I am also very pleased that we have
managed to kick off our Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Program,
as well as our Urban Renewal Strategy. In particular in this regard, I
would like to congratulate our municipalities that have worked very hard
to make sure that we have programs in both rural and urban areas that
will actually address the issue of raising the standard of living, of
improving the conditions of life of the poorest among our people.
We have also had the experience this year
of visiting our people through a process of Imbizo. We are very inspired
by the mood among our people who are confident about the future, who are
very keenly interested themselves to get involved in the processes of
the renewal of our country and our society.
During this coming year, we have to pay
particular attention to the issue of human resource development. We have
got to make sure that our people are better educated, are better trained
in ways that would help them to get employment, so that we can continue
to address the matter of reducing the levels of unemployment in our
country.
I think we should also be proud that our
economy has performed well despite the economic crisis around the world,
despite the global slowdown. And in this regard I would like to
congratulate both our workers and our business people for the work that
they have done to make sure that the economy improves, because it is
really only on that basis that we are able to address matters of poverty
and underdevelopment.
It is clear that we continue to face many
other challenges.
Quite correctly people have continued to
focus on the issue of crime, and we must focus on this. And as the year
came to its end, we concentrated on rape and in particular the rape of
children and infants. This demands that everybody should be involved in
fighting this horrible crime. Rapes occur in our homes, they occur
amongst relatives, they occur among people who know one another. We must
make sure that indeed we break the silence with regard to this, that we
report the wrongdoers to the police and make sure that the system of
justice punishes these people appropriately. But this is a matter on
which both government and the people have to act together.
We have also continued to focus on the
question of the health of our people, an important question, including
the issue of AIDS. Among other things, what we have to do is ensure that
within the public health system, within the clinics, we all act together
to fight against theft and corruption, because medicines and drugs
continue to be stolen, linen continues to be stolen, food continues to
be stolen, which results in making it very difficult for doctors and
nurses to carry out their responsibility of looking after the health of
our people.
The rural development program and the
urban development program have given us the possibility to make sure
that the ordinary people of our country get involved in the process of
the reconstruction and development of our country. Not merely to sit and
wait for government to do something. We must during this coming year
take advantage of these programs to make sure that our people are mobilized,
mobilized to unite in action for reconstruction, for development.
We must exploit the spirit amongst the
masses of our people for change to ensure that we do indeed call on the
masses of the people to participate in dealing with all of the
challenges that face us. And that will include ensuring that we receive
the many thousands of guests that will be coming to our country during
this coming year, that we receive them well, that we look after them
well, and that we show to them the progress that we are making to
overcome the problems of the past.
During this period I trust that everybody
will continue to drive carefully. It is important that we reduce
radically death and injury on our roads. All of us have to arrive alive,
and that requires that all of us act together to protect the lives of
our people.
We go into a new year of hope, a new year
during which we will attain further progress, but this is a year in
which we must reinforce the processes of acting together as South
Africans, to make sure that we build the kind of South Africa that we
would be proud to call home.
I wish all of you a happy new year.
Issued by The Presidency, 28 December
2001
Last Revised: Tuesday, October 09, 2007
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