 
KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT THE LAUNCH OF THE ZIBAMBELE TRAINING PROGRAMME BY THE KWAZULU-NATAL MINISTER OF TRANSPORT MR S’BU NDEBELE25 August 2003
On 27 January 2000 it was my pleasure to launch the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport’s Zibambele road maintenance programme. In preparing for today’s launch of the Zibambele Training Programme – which will be administered through the Zibambele Savings Clubs initiative – I re-read the speech I gave on 27 January 2000. My reason for doing this was to create a benchmark against which I could judge the progress made by my Department in implementing the Zibambele road maintenance programme and how far we have come in the empowerment of rural women. The empowerment of rural women is not something that can be taken lightly. Our South African Constitution enshrines the rights and equality of women. Our legal framework demands that we are diligent in our efforts to advance the cause of women’s social and economic empowerment. There are good reasons for this. For centuries women in general and African women in particular have suffered various forms of oppression precisely because they were born women. Rural women in South Africa have been oppressed on the basis of race, class and gender. It is for this very reason that when we established Zibambele we specifically targeted women headed households to receive contracts. It is, for me, a shocking statistic that 46% of all black African children in South Africa live only with their mothers. In KwaZulu-Natal, of course, this percentage is even worse than the national average because so many decades of political conflict – black on black violence – widowed tens of thousands of young mothers. I grew up in rural KwaZulu-Natal and I know what it means to be poor. I have seen what it means to be a mother and to have no husband. I have seen the pain of being unable to feed one’s own children, to clothe one’s children and to be unable to send them to school. It is a terrible truth that this pain is a pain that is endured by the majority of rural women in KwaZulu-Natal. We know this from the fact that one third of all children in South Africa, between the ages of 6 and 14 who currently do not attend school, live in KwaZulu-Natal. We know that living with hunger in KwaZulu-Natal has become a way of life for more than 2,5 million people. We know this because of medical records that indicate that more than 40% of black African children in rural KwaZulu-Natal are stunted because of nutritional inadequacies. We also know that women are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS than men precisely because the legacy of apartheid and gender discrimination has undermined the status of women’s health and left them more vulnerable to infections. I could stand here and cite statistic after statistic that would validate the desperate plight of rural women and single mothers in particular. They are not statistics that I can ignore. As a political leader, as the MEC of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal I cannot and will not ignore the painful life that single mothers and their children have been forced to endure. Pushing back the frontiers of poverty – building a better life for all – cannot possibly be achieved unless we create work and business opportunities for the very poor. There can be no doubt that in South Africa the poorest of the poor are to be found in women headed households. Have we progressed? My officials supply me with statistics to prove that we have. They tell me that this year we will create more than 17 000 Zibambele contract opportunities and they will be working on approximately 11 0 50 km. I have met with many Zibambele contractors and they assure me that they value the Zibambele programme. Many of them even report that their lives have changed because of the Zibambele programme. They now feel skilled, respected and dignified. They are able to put food on their tables, feed their children and even send their children to school. The Zibambele contractors I have spoken to are full of hope for their futures and those of their children. They feel strongly that Government cares for them. This is something to be proud of. My officials also tell me that there have been instances where contracts have been manipulated by unscrupulous people and that Zibambele contractors have, at times, not been paid and even robbed of their monthly payments. They tell me that some unscrupulous officials and consultants have even created Zibambele “ghosts”. This is not something to be proud of. To those who have been involved in denying poor women their rightful opportunity I want to say “You have brought shame on yourselves and on your families”. We will root you out and we will have no mercy in dealing with your corrupt actions. Despite some rogue elements there is no doubt in my mind that we have made progress and that some rural women in KwaZulu-Natal today are better off because of Zibambele. When I travel on rural roads maintained by Zibambele contractors I do take pride in the fact that the roads are well maintained. I take even greater pride in knowing that the road is maintained by women contractors when, historically, contracting in South Africa has been the domain of men. Pushing the frontiers of poverty in South Africa is not just about creating jobs. It is also about undoing generations of socialisation into subservience. Women believing that they were inferior to men because men told them that they were. Zibambele contractors challenge this misconception. They have maintained rural roads, they have competed in a male dominated industry and, increasingly, their voices are being heard. Today’s celebration to launch the Zibambele Training Programme, which will be administered through the Zibambele Savings Clubs, will, I believe, prove to be a further turning point in the lives of the Zibambele contractors. When I launched the Zibambele programme on 27 January 2000 I set a target of 40 000 Zibambele contracts for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport. The immediate response I received from my officials was how on earth can we possibly supervise and train 40 000 Zibambele contractors. My response then and my response to you today is to organise the Zibambele contractors into groups and to develop systems of group supervision, group training and peer review. It is now our intention to organise all Zibambele contractors into Savings Clubs. Zibambele Savings Clubs will serve to streamline our administration and training of Zibambele contractors and ensure that their road maintenance activities are properly supervised. Why savings clubs? Our history has shown an amazing ability among poor people to come together to form stokvels and to save their money. Belonging to a savings club is not unlike belonging to a church. People who save together support each other, trust each other and care for each other. These are the reasons we have chosen to use the savings club system as a means of organising Zibambele contractors into groups to ensure the cost efficient administration and training of contractors. Our mandate, as the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport, is to maintain our provincial road network in a cost efficient and cost effective manner. Our mandate, as Government, is to uphold our South African Constitution to redress our apartheid legacy and to empower those previously so neglected and disadvantaged. It is therefore also our intention to support Zibambele Savings Clubs in such a way that we can break the poverty cycles of Zibambele families. For the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport the strategic objectives of organising Zibambele contractors to form savings clubs are:
To this end we will link Zibambele Savings Clubs with other Government Departments and appropriate Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) who will assist members to access a wider network of support systems and to invest their collective savings productively. We do not expect this to happen overnight because we are addressing centuries of oppression that will take time and patience to rectify. But we are convinced that we are taking steps in the right direction. We are alaunching these Savings clubs because we want the whole country to know what we are doing and we want partners to work with. It is for this reason therefore that we today also launch the CD by Vusi Ximba and Makitaza. The CD is entitled Ezemigwaqo Namathuba Emisebenzi (Empowerment opportunities in the transport sector) a tribute to women for the role they continue to play in poverty alleviation in this province. The CD is also about other departmental programmes including road safety. Through their humorous music Vusi Ximba and Makitaza have not only articulated the department’s programmes but they have managed to unite people in spite of religious, social and political barriers. As we celebrate the South African Music week during the Women’s Month, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport together with these two musicians would like to contribute this CD to the music fraternity. Thank you.
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