DUNDEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

PRESIDENT OF INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY

DUNDEE : March 11, 1999

It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to continue my dialogue with the business community of Dundee. I believe that the business community of this region has a pivotal role to play in the social and economic development of our province. We all know that there is great potential for social and economic growth in KwaZulu Natal, and yet often there is uncertainty on how to capture and exploit these potentials. Many efforts are made by the private and the public sectors but often they do not produce the intended results.

I believe that much more could be achieved if we can jointly produce a clear vision to direct our efforts and co-ordinate the many activities of the private and public sectors aimed at developing our province and fostering economic growth. At times we feel that we are doing a lot and that we cannot be expected to do more. Government often has that feeling of operating at its maximum capacity and yet the results do not match our efforts. We must shift emphasis from doing more, to the awareness that the time has come to do better. If Government cannot do more it must learn to do better what it does.

If I were to choose a slogan that could bring our province together in a joint developmental effort, I would suggest the following: 'we need a business-government partnership to make sure that business and government can operate better'. We need the contribution of business to enable government to become more efficient, more effective and relevant. We need the contribution of government to enable business to flourish. We need the joint contribution of government and business to solve the grave social problems which still impair South Africa from being the great place it could indeed be.

I am pleased that in his policy speech delivered at the opening of the KwaZulu Natal Legislature, the Premier of KwaZulu Natal has announced a comprehensive programme to promote economic growth and employment in the province. I think that the approach set out by the Premier, L.P.H.M. Mtshali, in his policy speech should become the object of close scrutiny and intense debate within the business community. I think, that the most important feature of that speech is the statement that this Government is willing to listen to what the business community requires in order to promote growth. This has always been my attitude and the attitude of the IFP. We are deeply aware that government does not create economic growth and greater employment and that if we wish to achieve these important results we must assist business with what it requires. In order to do so we must be willing to listen.

The willingness to listen should be more than a political statement and should become a characteristic of the way government operates. For this reason I must praise Premier LPHM Mtshali for having announced his intention to establish a permanent liaison office in his department to interface with the business community. As he has indicated, in order to operate properly his office should not be just another branch of government but, should indeed be partially staffed by representatives of the business community.

The interface between government and business should not only help government to better understand and serve the needs of business, but should also enable business to make a contribution to improve on the quality of the governmental machinery. You will remember that even when I was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile KwaZulu Government I always had an open-door policy for businessmen willing to help us running our Government better and more efficiently. The Premier of KwaZulu Natal has announced very ambitious programmes which will improve on the quality of government's performance. He wishes to introduce output auditing and performance controls in each government office so that one can begin assessing the productivity of government. He also wishes to tie output auditing with the assessment of costing and value.

It is very important that government begins attaching a price-tag to what it does and what it produces and determines the value of this action. We need to know how much each service rendered by government is really costing the tax payers and we must assess the value of programmes, offices and structures funded or maintained by government. This approach will set the objective bases to pursue the long held IFP policy of privatization. In fact, this process should identify what services and products can be more effectively delivered by the private sector.

The Premier has also indicated his intention to proceed with a comprehensive budgetary reform to re-prioritize spending in accordance with government policies. Too often we put too much money into things which are not that important for our communities. Many large businesses nowadays are looking at identifying their so-called core business, liquidating assets and activities which are less important. I think that in many respects governments must undertake a similar exercise for each of its line functions to determine how much of our expenditure really goes into the public service or the aspects of delivery for which the relevant function of government was established. We need a government with less overheads, less waste and foremost, less corruption.

I am very concerned by the fact that corruption within government is becoming so widespread. To a certain extent, this despicable phenomena can be explained, even though not justified, because of the exceptional times we are living in. We are in a time of transitions in which the previous moral code is being challenged without a new one having yet been established. Transition and transformation are undoubtedly very positive aspects. Nevertheless, they uproot people from their social paradigm and throw them into a limbo of uncertainty and confusion in which their roles, uses, responsibilities and social positions are often not clear.

For this reason, it is very important that government becomes the catalyst of a new culture of social stability, order and discipline. I am very proud that the KwaZulu Natal Government has become the champion of the cause of social discipline in our country. I think that the new Premier has sent a shiver of respect and discipline throughout the structures and offices of his government. We need to ensure that throughout all our communities people embrace transformation and the call for change, but do so together with the spirit of social discipline and responsibility. We must consolidate the rule of law and the most positive and constructive aspects of the diverse cultures of our various communities.

I have often said that the partnership between government and business must create sufficient motivation, pride and positive feelings to defeat the crippling culture of indolence, entitlement, rebellion and criminality. I hope that we can make KwaZulu Natal the best place for business to do business. An important element of this objective will be that of ensuring that our province can be proud of a culture which underscores a rigorous work ethic and the commitment to workplaces. When I was in Taiwan a few months ago, I saw firsthand how the success of that small nation of people who were stranded on an island with little or no resources, really depended on the social discipline and will to survive of the Taiwanese. I believe that the characteristics of the people are the most important aspect of our economic equation in respect of which government must make a contribution to add value.

We must educate our people and promote their personal and collective growth. I could not think of any more important priority than educating our people. Our human potential remains the most important resource in our country which still remains to be exploited. We need to accept the need of making long-term investments to exploit this national resource. This responsibility cannot be carried by government alone. We need to transform education into a function which is carried out by anyone who plays a significant role in our society. We must educate not only our children but all the members of our communities. The majority of our people still would not know how to open a cheque account or to perform basic functions in a modern society. The plight of illiteracy still hinders the personal growth of our communities.

We must provide for an endemic function of education of which government must be as responsible as business and all other institutions of civil society. People must receive civic education, primary health care education, and basic information to free them from the yoke of ignorance and superstition. I am surprised by how little it often takes to free the mind of people, and I remain even more surprised when I see how even such small efforts are not made. For instance, it would take very little for large businesses to provide a space where people could watch educational programmes after hours, or to distribute to their employees basic documentation and reading material to promote their education. I hope that education, training and civic growth will remain the most important priorities to be pursued by the Premier of KwaZulu Natal both before and after the next elections. I hope that in this effort he will receive the full support of the business community.

However, I believe that these efforts aimed at transforming and improving upon the very structure of the social fibre of our communities must be framed within a long-term vision for the development of our province. In his policy speech the Premier has drawn some of the initial parameters of what could become a macro-economic plan for the development of the province. Business and government will need to co-operate for the development of this macro-economic plan and, if necessary, we will need to jointly lobby the central government to receive a delegation of additional powers necessary to pursue it. For instance, I think that it is important that we pursue the transformation of our ports into international hubs for shipment, trans shipment and industrial processes.

Last week I was in Antwerpen where I met with the authorities of the second largest port on the globe. My visit prompted a renewed interest in joint co-operation between the port of Antwerpen and the province of KwaZulu Natal. I personally arranged with the President of the port of Antwerpen for a delegation to come to KwaZulu Natal towards the end of April to renew negotiations with Portnet and with national and provincial governments. These negotiations had somehow lagged behind because of insufficient lack of political attention and I am pleased that my visit offered the opportunity of putting them back on track.

The strengthening of our ports and the construction of a new international airport should be some of the major infrastructural works that can promote growth and development in our province. Last week the CSIR issued a report indicating that the development of petrol-chemical clusters associated with the growth of the port of Durban could create about 14,000 job opportunities and that by the year 2000 the adequate development of the southern basin could create an additional 40,000 jobs. As we look at these long-term projects we must be very careful to redress the imbalances of apartheid, amongst which is the environmental deterioration of these sensitive areas which provide for the needs of large segments of our population. We can not allow progress to continue to create harmful environments for the poorest of the poor and a long-term macro-economic plan for the province will need to stress environmental protection along with conflicting priorities.

Tourism remains one of the most important components of a long-term macro-economic plan for the province. As the Premier has indicated we must ensure that we develop a Waterfront at Durban which is a project with great potential that has not yet received sufficient attention because of political wrangles and lack of political determination. We must also make a firm commitment to avoid that urban centres become the object of social decay. We can not allow the centre of Durban to fall prey to the same destiny which has effectively destroyed down-town Johannesburg.

Within these parameters it will become easier to conduct our fight for a better province in which crime, social instability and uncertainty about our future remain nothing but a ghost of the past. I believe that together we can create social stability and economic progress in this land which we all equally love and which we all equally wish to become the paradise in which all our grandchildren can prosper.

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