LAUNCH OF JOHANNESBURG (INNER CITY) URBAN RENEWAL
STRATEGY: ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI
Master of Ceremonies,
Today we are assembled in the center of a great city - the city of
Johannesburg. Like to all great things, give tribute to where tribute is
due. This is a city to which outstanding musician Hugh Masekela paid bitter
tribute.
"There is a train that comes from Namibia and Malawi
there is a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe,
There is a train that comes from Angola and Mozambique,
From Lesotho, from Botswana, from Swaziland,
From all the hinterland of Southern and Central Africa.
This train carries young and old, African men
Who are conscripted to come and work on contract
In the golden mineral mines of Johannesburg
And its surrounding metropolis, sixteen hours or more a day
For almost no pay.
Deep, deep, deep down in the belly of the earth
When they are digging and drilling that shiny mighty evasive
stone, Or when they dish that mish mesh mush food
into their iron plates with the iron shank.
Or when they sit in their stinking, funky, filthy,
Flea-ridden barracks and hostels.
They think about the loved ones they may never see again
Because they might have already been forcibly removed
From where they last left them
Or wantonly murdered in the dead of night
By roving, marauding gangs of no particular origin,
We are told. they think about their lands, their herds
That were taken away from them
With a gun, bomb, teargas and the cannon.
And when they hear that Choo-Choo train
They always curse, curse the coal train,
The coal train that brought them to Johannesburg".
Despite the truth told in these words, this city, Johannesburg, like Cairo
in Egypt and Lagos in Nigeria, is one of the great cities of Africa.
For a century, it has stood at the heart of the process of the birth of our
nation. Built by both black and white hands, it constitutes a tribute to the
industriousness of all our people, their creativity, their spirit of
enterprise.
It stands at the heart of the birth of our nation, because it attracted to
itself all our people, regardless of language, culture, colour, gender and
ethnic rigins.
Thus it can be said, that Johannesburgers were among the first modern South
Africans, who could speak one another's languages, enjoy one another's
cultures, and blend their localised origins with the great character of one
South African nation.
As the eloquent words of Hugh Masekela indicate, Johannesburg is the
product, not only of the people of the city but of South Africa and the
entire "hinterland of Southern Africa".
From this point it follows that the renewal of the city should also mean a
renewed relationship with the people who have contributed to this city's
growth and development.
It is our understanding that the concept of the city encompasses all
communities which contribute to its growth and to its prosperity. Those are
the communities who should be the main beneficiaries of that renewal, growth
and prosperity.
In the case of Johannesburg, the extent of the significance of this point is
multiplied many times over.
The broader perspective to the challenges which face this city is
instructive for several reasons.
Firstly, the economy, life and culture of Johannesburg is impacted upon, and
in turn impacts upon, not only on national life, but also in the life of the
entire Southern African region. The experience of this city and the region
with the migratory labour system is a graphic example of this
interdependence.
The social, economic and cultural renewal of the city will depend on the
success of the renewal of our social, economic and cultural relations with
the people of the region. As a result our work will be greatly enhanced if
it is in tandem and harmonised with our national and regional programmes.
Secondly, the success of our renewal strategy depends on the success of our
policy of reconciliation, national and regional unity, as well as social and
political stability. Johannesburg needs a nation and a region of mutual
trust, peace and well-being.
Thirdly, it is important for us to realise that, to a large degree, the
current border conflicts and tensions in some parts of our country, derive
mainly from uneven socio-economic development between different areas of our
country.
The confounding factor is that most of our provincial boundaries coincide
with the geography of ethnic concentration.
Speaking in this truly African city, we must make the point that we should,
at all times guard against the danger of pursuing regional or provincial
interests in a manner which poses the danger of turning these differences
into antagonistic ethnic, racial, regional or provincial conflicts in the
course of the scramble for limited resources.
We believe that an important aspect in our renewal and our celebration of
this day is the need to make a total commitment that the past and all its
horrors shall never happen again and that the bad legacies of that past
which are still evident in the larger city shall be eliminated with the
greatest
possible speed.
The arrival of the democratic order, with its opening to free economic
activity, the freedom of movement by the people, has emphasised the point
that all of us share a common South African existence and a common economic
resource.
Irrespective of colour, race, ethnicity or creed, indeed all of us belong to
a single neighbourhood.
Master of Ceremonies,
The economic experience of the city of Johannesburg has also brought to
sharp focus the fact that it is risky to build and anchor your economy on a
reservoir of diminishing natural resources and potentially volatile
commodity markets.
For this reason, part of the renewal strategy should entail diversification
and shifting resources steadily from the extraction and procession of
primary products, to the production of competitive manufactured goods and
services as a basis of our economy as we enter the 21st century, which will,
in part, be defined by the impact of the revolution in information and
communication technology.
Master of Ceremonies,
The changing international economic flows in production, finance and service
industries has also necessitated a paradigm shift in the way in which cities
structure their economies.
The greater mobility of human resources and economic activities within and
between countries has engendered greater competition for investment between
cities across the globe, beyond the confines of national borders.
We see the strategy of the renewal of the city of Johannesburg as
constituting an important element of our national Masakhane campaign. The
Cabinet has declared the 1st to the 7th of September, this year as the
National Masakhane Week.
I take this opportunity to call on the nation - in our localities, in the
schools, prisons, government structures, civic organisations, the private
sector, sport and cultural bodies, etc.. to take part in a campaign which
should help us develop an outlook which is in line with the kind of society
we are trying to create, consistent with the demands of service to the
people and which is conscious of our collective responsibility to our shared
existence.
Masakhane is not simply about paying for services but it is about
rediscovering our oneness as South Africans who appreciate and understand
our shared democratic rights as well as our social obligations.
Master of Ceremonies,
Today the city of Johannesburg is experiencing it s rebirth. Today
Johannesburg is placing the people at the center of its philosophy. Those
people who have, all their lives placed their brains and their brawn to its
service, should be the first beneficiaries of its renaissance.
We are talking of the street-child who has given it its survival instinct,
the street vendor who has given it its informality, the aged whose vitality
it has tamed but not vanquished, the investor who has given it its industry
and the worker who has seen it grow from a paupered dwarf to an economic
giant.
We can now all look forward to a day not too far, when the sound of a
Choo-Choo train will make none of us curse the coal train which brought them
to Johannesburg.
Indeed, this renewal should mean that we all begin to own the city of
Johannesburg and the fruits it is going to bear, because the contribution of
all of us in its renewal, its growth, its prosperity is recognised as
indispensable.
It should not be that a poor worker who burrows out of a mine shaft, the
workers forced to live in squalid conditions in the HIllbrow flatland is
driven to ask the questions the poet Bertold Brecht posed:
"Who built Thebes of the Seven Gates? In the books you will find the
names of kings. Did the king haul up the lumps of rock... Where, the evening
that the Wall of China was finished Did the Masons go? Great Rome is full of
triumphant arches. Who created them?"
On behalf of our president, Nelson Mandela, I bring you the warm greetings
of the national government of our democratic Republic and its commitment to
side by side with you as you resuscitate the heart of the city of
Johannesburg.
Issued by: Office of the Deputy President
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