We are thankful that you have responded to our invitation to join with the City and District Mayors as well as members of the Provincial Government at a time when we can freely say that Political leadership may not be enough to tackle the challenges we face. Indeed we may go so far as to say that what we come to address may in part be contributed to by the need for the politics of the Province at local level to settle down.
In large part, though, we are again in one of theose times in the Western Cape when there is an anxiety, a tension, a discomfort.
Sometimes it is palpable through the division and polarisation amongst our people. At other moments it threatens us with acts of violence and killing. Poverty and inequality are always at the root of many of our challenges, but we need always to guard against it justifying wrong actions.
What I refer to here are those events, incidents, tragedies, acts or media reports which appear disparate and random, but given our Provinces predisposition to them, require us to examine them together and to confront them collectively.
The last weeks have seen gangsters strutting about Hanover Park ordering killings to advance their illicit trade activities. Hanover Park was just the most recent example. We are witnessing the phenomenon of hired assassins wreaking destruction between rival taxi operators to secure for them and their Associations the most lucrative routes. We are scarcely able to secure a school when acts inimical to the very process of learning manifest themselves through stabbings, shootings and racial intolerance at other schools. The City Mayor herself has been subjected to intolerance and threats. Across our Province life for many young people is defined by unemployment and Tik. Many families struggle in their daily life against the many manifestations of poverty. As we prepare for Africa Day we see again the intolerance and violence unleashed against other Africans. Again Plettenberg Bay was just a further example of xenophobia. What shocked us all last week was how easily a strike that should have won and retained our sympathy for the correctness of it's cause, lost both its way and our sympathy when it degenerated firstly into low intensity intimidation and then into open violence in Cape Town.
It would be easy to point to the many successes in dealing with what I've just described. The police have prevented open taxi and gang wars, made significant arrests, and confiscated both weapons and drugs.
Volunteers have rallied to the schools to ensure safety. We have successfully intervened to curtail any further violence related to the strike. This meeting is therefore not about pushing the panic button.
I have felt it necessary that we come together to broaden the leadership to respond to these challenges so that we can prevent their deepening and do so in ways which go to the heart of the matter. I do not believe that we can win with the police what is going wrong with the soul of our community. The police will not shirk their responsibility, but neither should we. There are many brace efforts as the coalface that need recognition, affirmation and further leadership.
The leadership must be moral. it must be about the values we choose to live by. It must give a sense of right and wrong. It must create a consensus about what is acceptable. It must isolate, not mainstream, unacceptable behaviour. Gangsterism must be a scourge, not an ambition.
business must remain ethical, and the ends can never justify the means.
Similary, poverty is not a justification for anyone to act as they please.
The soul of our community will only come to rest when we create the conditions in which people are comfortable in their own identities, when respect for difference emerges, and we act in ways which are inclusive.
I don't believe that political leaders are sufficiently equipped to do this job alone. We have called you together that your wisdom, your efforts, and your accesses into our various communities may assist in giving the leadership required.
Thank you very much for being here.
Media queries:Shado Twala
Spokesperson
Office of the Premier of the Western Cape
Address: Provincial Parliament, Mezzanine Level, Office of the Premier, M7, 7 Wale Street, Cape Town, 8001
Tel: 021 483 5642
Fax: 021 483 5636
Email: stwala@pgwc.gov.za
Visit our website: www.capegateway.gov.za
