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ADDRESS BY MR SIBUSISO NDEBELE, CHAIR OF THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE DEVELOPMENT TRUST, TO THE CONFERENCE OF MAYORS HELD AT OCEAN CONFERENCE CENTRE29 March 2001
I bid you a warm welcome to the land of the rising democracy. You have arrived at the time of a magnificent re-birth of the soul of the people of this southern-most tip of our beloved continent of Africa, and I hope that when you leave you would carry with you pleasant memories of our strivings to re-affirm our nationhood as South Africans who are united in our destiny. All around us, there is profound change taking place - step by step, moment by moment, and epoch by epoch - towards a democracy nurtured on the seeds of the African vision of the oneness of our humanity. The horizons we seek represent a re-affirmation of the abiding spirit of Ubuntu - I am because you are - a legacy of our forebears from time immemorial. This is the vision that articulates the very essence of who we are, where we come from, and where we wish to go. It is the kernel from within which the spirit of the African Renaissance is beginning to sprout afresh against the oppressive slumber that once hung like a perpetual dark cloud over our people for more than three centuries. You have entered the shores of a society that is now not only open but also in its transitional phase to full democracy, in which the agenda of sustainable development serves as the anchor to the institutional framework for democratic central, regional and local government structures. South Africa's new constitution sets within its preamble the task of "laying the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is protected by the law". The goal of a democratic South Africa whose ultimate prosperity would derive from the sustainability of our developmental approach to governance is an imperative dictated by the utter neglect the vast majority of this country's people had to endure under past rule. As enunciated by President Thabo Mbeki in his state-of-the-nation address on February 9, 2001: "it is a past of endemic and widespread poverty and gross imbalances in levels of development and the distribution of wealth, income and opportunity". In local government, South African society is witnessing the final phases in the process of democratising its structures of governance. December 5, 2000 heralded the establishment of a new system of democratic local government for our country. The role of local government is clearly articulated in South Africa's constitution as follows:
The development role of local government is underscored by the following key imperatives contained in the constitution:
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