WELCOME MESSAGE FROM DR. SIBUSISO NDEBELE : CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE IN KWAZULU-NATAL RSS WELCOME MESSAGE FROM DR. SIBUSISO NDEBELE : CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE IN KWAZULU-NATAL, NATIONAL MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA2013-05-17
We welcome you all to this, the 15th African Renaissance Conference in Durban. Our deliberations, and the sharing of knowledge and ideas at a conference such as this, can only help lead to an educated, informed, economically sound and unified Africa.
In May 2010 President Jacob Zuma appointed the National Planning Commission to craft the National Development Plan (NDP) whereby all South Africans will be able not only to see the rainbow, but live the rainbow by 2030. The National Development Plan is a new vision for South Africa. To achieve this vision
we, as South Africans, need to continue getting our house in order.
Continued and sustainable economic development is both South Africa and Africas means of becoming leaders on the global stage. We have the resources, raw materials and people, to achieve the vision of the NDP by 2030. However, we need peace and stability and the upliftment of the poor if we wish to achieve the required economic growth. No development can effectively take place in the
absence of peace and stability.
All our people need to feel safe and secure in their homes and the workplace. There needs to be moral regeneration and the rebuilding of the family unit. This can be achieved by investing in education and skills development programs. An educated and skilled youth will have a place in society and the workplace, enabling family units to sustain themselves without resorting to crime. This can be achieved by strengthening youth service programmes and by introducing new, community-based programmes offering young people life-skills training, entrepreneurship training and opportunities to participate in community development programmes.
In the Department of Correctional Services I have introduced two critical interventionist programmes: (1) Victim Offender Dialogues - which aim to bring offenders and their victims face to face in an effort to keep society openly deliberating about crime, and (2) the Reading for Redemption program, which aims to put books in the hands of every offender. Reading expands horizons, creates new perspectives and leads to greater confidence and a better understanding of the self. There is no need here to over-emphasise the correlation between low literacy, lack of skills and criminality.
The expansion of FET colleges for school leavers and unemployed young people will give them the opportunity to obtain economically viable skills. By becoming proactively involved churches can also strengthen moral regeneration by offering individuals and families a sense of belonging and a belief in a greater good.
Women make up a large percentage of the poor, particularly in rural areas. These women, plus those who have moved to the urban areas seeking employment, need to be economically empowered. The NDP makes provision for this by proposing a range of measures to advance womens equality. Part of the plan is to address the advancement of women""s equality and the empowerment of women and
children, thereby accelerating economic transformation.
Violent crime and the rape of women and young children is the scourge of our country. Addressing this problem to ensure that by 2030 people living in South Africa have no fear of crime and that women and children and those who are vulnerable feel protected, takes us back once again to the fundamentals of education, employment and moral regeneration.
By initiating the National Development Plan President Zuma has set in motion a process with a realistic timeline, which addresses all the complexities involved in achieving a safe, secure and economically prosperous South Africa by 2030.
South Africa is the Gateway to Africa, and the successful implementation of the NDP will assist in fast-tracking the North-South trade corridor and achieving the African Unions goal of an economically developed African Economic Union by 2038.d Africa.
Let our discussions and deliberations at this conference focus on achieving an African Renaissance that will empower all the peoples"of Africa, allowing them to trade with each other and the world and to prosper on a peaceful, safe and secure continent. Let us connect Africa!
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WELCOME MESSAGE FROM DR. SIBUSISO NDEBELE : CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE IN KWAZULU-NATAL, NATIONAL MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
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