Well, its been a very long time since I posted anything on my blog and so, to all those people who have visited my site and responded, I sincerely apologise for my absence. I have read your comments and, whilst I may not be able to respond to each individual, I want to assure you that I have noted all your responses to my blog, whether positive or negative.
It certainly has been a very busy time for us over the last few months and we have been getting on with the job of governing the Western Cape despite what our detractors might say. We have been ensuring that the provincial economy continues to grow at more than 5 per cent, that we continue in our quest to create jobs, ensure safer communities, improve the quality of our education, ensure that everyone has access to health and social services - and ensure that we continue to work hard toward our vision of making the Western Cape a 'Home for All'.
We have also been making great progress in our fight against drugs and gangs, as outlined in my State of the Province Address at the beginning of this year. That is why you will find alleged drug and gang lords like 'Mr Big' complaining bitterly in the newspapers about the fact that they've been arrested. In places like Mitchell's Plain, 189 people were arrested for drug-related crimes in September alone, bringing to more than 2 000 the total for the six months of this financial year(2007/08). These are just some indicators that we have taken the fight to the drug dealers who are destroying the lives of our children and tearing our communities apart. We are not saying that the battle has been won, but it certainly has started and we are making great strides.
Indeed, this is going to be a tough battle to rid our communities of drugs and gangs - and we are in it for the long haul! What we do need is for our communities to work with (and not against) the police because the battle against drug lords and gangsters cannot be won by either one on their own.
The Western Cape Government has also been hard at work to ensure that, whilst fighting gangsters and drug lords, we are also helping communities to unite in a bid to change the face of their neighbourhoods. We identified 21 Priority Areas which are most desperately in need of change and included them in what we have dubbed our 'Social Transformation Programme'.
We have been consulting extensively with communities in these 21 Areas and, after our first round of imbizos in April, we will be fulfilling our promise to return to those communities by the end of October to report on the progress we have made over the six months since then. Our officials have been meeting with community leaders, often late into the night, to help with setting up proper structures which will be the voice of those communities and make it easier for them to access government and all the services available to our people. Already, we have held a range of 'Service Jamborees' which attracted thousands of people to a central point where all government services were available. The police were there, home affairs officials were there, social services workers were there, and so on.
Now, in the week of 22-28 October, the Provincial Government and its leaders will again hold imbizos covering all 21 Areas, from Khayelitsha to Oudtshoorn, from Vredenburg to Delft, Clanwilliam to Retreat, Langa to Ladismith, and Beaufort West to Bishop Lavis, and many more.
We are looking forward to hearing from our people and their leaders about how we push ahead with this bold move to change our neighbourhoods and build communities in which we can all feel safe and be at home.
For now, let me wish all Muslims in our province Eid Mubarak and all Hindus in the Western Cape a happy Diwali!
Ebrahim Rasool
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Debate on renaming of streets and airports
I started a debate in my recent State of the Province Address about renaming streets and places in the Western Cape, specifically Cape Town. I would like to hear your views on my article 'Renaming our streets and airport is part of making the Western Cape a Home for All', published in the March 05 edition of the Cape Times. This is an edited version:
Often, the remark ‘we’re going back to South Africa’ can be heard on domestic flights out of Cape Town. Many of us who live in this province are quick to dismiss such comments. But many a truth, that old adage goes, is said in jest. The truth is that the Western Cape, specifically the ‘Mother City’, has long been seen by our fellow countrymen and women as not being a part of South Africa – and for good reason.
Almost thirteen years after the dawn of South Africa’s democracy, Cape Town and many other smaller towns in our province hardly have a single street of significance that reflects the heroes and architects of our freedom. In fact, in this Province we still live with the daily humiliation of Native Yards (NY1, etc, in Gugulethu) and boulevards named after those who gave us slavery, colonialism, religious bigotry and apartheid. This is not a black complaint. The Jewish community, too, cringe when Oswald Pirow, a Nazi sympathiser, is valourised. Surely enough time has passed to embark on a wide-ranging debate and campaign to find consensus on how to honour and memorialise the architects of freedom and democracy. When will we allow our children to engage with the legacies of patriots such as Autshumato, Sarah Baartman, Hilda Bernstein, Steve Biko, Molly Blackburn, Basil February, Imam Haron, Adam Kok, Alex La Guma, Chief Albert Luthuli, Sir Richard Luyt, Looksmart Ngudle, Dullah Omar, Gaby Shapiro, Christmas Tinto and many others?
I deliberately set out, in my State of the Province Address two weeks ago, to evoke debate on our failure to reflect the changes in our country and honour our heroes across the political divide. In this vein, on behalf of the ANC, I proposed that Cape Town International Airport should be renamed after a son of our Western Cape, James la Guma, a leader of the garment workers in the ICU, a leader against the Stuttaford Segregation Bill in 1939, a World War II veteran, a leader of the Coloured People’s Congress and the Communist Party. We submitted this proposal in humility to kick-start a necessary public engagement that will hopefully take us closer to the common values that bind us together as the people of the Cape and South Africa. Towards deepening this debate, we lined streets across the Western Cape with posters of such freedom loving patriots to bring them to public attention as we commend them to the people for honour. I am pleased to see that citizens of our province have been airing their views in the media and around dinner tables. Political parties are also agreeing on the need to honour those who stand out in our history as people who fought for a democratic South Africa.
I welcome the fact that Mayor Helen Zille and the Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon have come out in favour of changing the names of our streets and airport. This support from the DA for our re-naming campaign means that, instead of dwelling on whether street- and place-names should be changed at all, we can now debate the detail. Leon’s suggestion that we consider naming the airport after Clements Kadalie, W. Schreiner or Abdullah Abdurahman is evidence that the debate is moving to another level. We are fortunate that in the DA opposition’s eagerness to embrace Taliep Petersen by renaming Keizergracht after him, they opened the door to a renaming process that up until now we thought they were implacably against. We would be the first to honour the likes of Helen Suzman, Anton Rupert and Colin Eglin because, regardless of where they stood in the battles against Apartheid, there can be no denying the goodness of these people. We will in the next few months seek to give every community, culture and group ownership over this Province so that we all see all our heroes and heroines reflected in our public spaces. There have also been objections along the lines that changing the name of the airport would confuse tourists. The same reactionary arguments were put forward by enemies of inclusivity to oppose the honouring of that great icon of our liberation struggle, Oliver Reginald Tambo. Pilots now proudly announce “welcome to OR Tambo International” to their passengers landing in Johannesburg. The simple point is that tourists travel to Cape Town the city, and not the airport.
The single objective driving this first African National Congress-led government is to make the Western Cape a ‘Home for All’, a province where we will all be able to live, work and play side-by-side in a united and sustainable environment. Having said that, I don’t think any other political party will contest the fact that this province must become a ‘Home for All’ if we are to overcome the legacy of Apartheid.
Whilst it may appear to us that the vision of a Home for All is elusive in the Western Cape and Cape Town, and whilst our fellow countrymen and women rightly point to our province’s lack of transformation, this is differently perceived by the rest of the world grappling with the hard challenges of migration, intolerance, religious fundamentalism, dogmatic certitude and economic marginalisation. In fact, many across the world look to the Western Cape for clues about how to deal with these twentieth century challenges associated with intensifying globalisation.
It is clear that whilst we have made some progress in building our ‘Home for All’, such as the rise of new, non-racial residential areas, there is still much work to be done. The legacy of the Group Areas Act and a host of Apartheid laws live on - it is for us to tackle these problems in a well-planned and sustainable way. The Western Cape is one of those parts of the country where Apartheid created particularly deep divisions between our communities. Uniting the people of this province through social and economic programmes which will make us all feel like we belong, that we are all have a future in this province. If we are to restore the dignity of our people and reply to those who mock the Western Cape’s lack of transformation more than a decade after the fall of Apartheid, the renaming of our streets and places without wasting any more time will bring us closer to a ‘Home for All’.
Often, the remark ‘we’re going back to South Africa’ can be heard on domestic flights out of Cape Town. Many of us who live in this province are quick to dismiss such comments. But many a truth, that old adage goes, is said in jest. The truth is that the Western Cape, specifically the ‘Mother City’, has long been seen by our fellow countrymen and women as not being a part of South Africa – and for good reason.
Almost thirteen years after the dawn of South Africa’s democracy, Cape Town and many other smaller towns in our province hardly have a single street of significance that reflects the heroes and architects of our freedom. In fact, in this Province we still live with the daily humiliation of Native Yards (NY1, etc, in Gugulethu) and boulevards named after those who gave us slavery, colonialism, religious bigotry and apartheid. This is not a black complaint. The Jewish community, too, cringe when Oswald Pirow, a Nazi sympathiser, is valourised. Surely enough time has passed to embark on a wide-ranging debate and campaign to find consensus on how to honour and memorialise the architects of freedom and democracy. When will we allow our children to engage with the legacies of patriots such as Autshumato, Sarah Baartman, Hilda Bernstein, Steve Biko, Molly Blackburn, Basil February, Imam Haron, Adam Kok, Alex La Guma, Chief Albert Luthuli, Sir Richard Luyt, Looksmart Ngudle, Dullah Omar, Gaby Shapiro, Christmas Tinto and many others?
I deliberately set out, in my State of the Province Address two weeks ago, to evoke debate on our failure to reflect the changes in our country and honour our heroes across the political divide. In this vein, on behalf of the ANC, I proposed that Cape Town International Airport should be renamed after a son of our Western Cape, James la Guma, a leader of the garment workers in the ICU, a leader against the Stuttaford Segregation Bill in 1939, a World War II veteran, a leader of the Coloured People’s Congress and the Communist Party. We submitted this proposal in humility to kick-start a necessary public engagement that will hopefully take us closer to the common values that bind us together as the people of the Cape and South Africa. Towards deepening this debate, we lined streets across the Western Cape with posters of such freedom loving patriots to bring them to public attention as we commend them to the people for honour. I am pleased to see that citizens of our province have been airing their views in the media and around dinner tables. Political parties are also agreeing on the need to honour those who stand out in our history as people who fought for a democratic South Africa.
I welcome the fact that Mayor Helen Zille and the Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon have come out in favour of changing the names of our streets and airport. This support from the DA for our re-naming campaign means that, instead of dwelling on whether street- and place-names should be changed at all, we can now debate the detail. Leon’s suggestion that we consider naming the airport after Clements Kadalie, W. Schreiner or Abdullah Abdurahman is evidence that the debate is moving to another level. We are fortunate that in the DA opposition’s eagerness to embrace Taliep Petersen by renaming Keizergracht after him, they opened the door to a renaming process that up until now we thought they were implacably against. We would be the first to honour the likes of Helen Suzman, Anton Rupert and Colin Eglin because, regardless of where they stood in the battles against Apartheid, there can be no denying the goodness of these people. We will in the next few months seek to give every community, culture and group ownership over this Province so that we all see all our heroes and heroines reflected in our public spaces. There have also been objections along the lines that changing the name of the airport would confuse tourists. The same reactionary arguments were put forward by enemies of inclusivity to oppose the honouring of that great icon of our liberation struggle, Oliver Reginald Tambo. Pilots now proudly announce “welcome to OR Tambo International” to their passengers landing in Johannesburg. The simple point is that tourists travel to Cape Town the city, and not the airport.
The single objective driving this first African National Congress-led government is to make the Western Cape a ‘Home for All’, a province where we will all be able to live, work and play side-by-side in a united and sustainable environment. Having said that, I don’t think any other political party will contest the fact that this province must become a ‘Home for All’ if we are to overcome the legacy of Apartheid.
Whilst it may appear to us that the vision of a Home for All is elusive in the Western Cape and Cape Town, and whilst our fellow countrymen and women rightly point to our province’s lack of transformation, this is differently perceived by the rest of the world grappling with the hard challenges of migration, intolerance, religious fundamentalism, dogmatic certitude and economic marginalisation. In fact, many across the world look to the Western Cape for clues about how to deal with these twentieth century challenges associated with intensifying globalisation.
It is clear that whilst we have made some progress in building our ‘Home for All’, such as the rise of new, non-racial residential areas, there is still much work to be done. The legacy of the Group Areas Act and a host of Apartheid laws live on - it is for us to tackle these problems in a well-planned and sustainable way. The Western Cape is one of those parts of the country where Apartheid created particularly deep divisions between our communities. Uniting the people of this province through social and economic programmes which will make us all feel like we belong, that we are all have a future in this province. If we are to restore the dignity of our people and reply to those who mock the Western Cape’s lack of transformation more than a decade after the fall of Apartheid, the renaming of our streets and places without wasting any more time will bring us closer to a ‘Home for All’.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
State of the Province Address - 2007
What is the Western Cape Government doing for its citizens? What are government's priorities for 2007? What's being done about drugs (especially tik) and gangs, crime, housing, social security, jobs, 2010, our changing climate and the economy in our province?
Read my State of the Province Address presented in the Provincial Legislature on 16 February 2007 to find out.
I welcome your comments.
Read my State of the Province Address presented in the Provincial Legislature on 16 February 2007 to find out.
I welcome your comments.
About this Blog
My name is Ebrahim Rasool, Premier of the Western Cape province, South Africa. Welcome to my blog!
I am very excited about this new medium of communication with citizens of our province and anyone else interested in our project to make the Western Cape a 'Home for All'.
Please accept my invitation to make comments on any aspect of the posts that are published here. This is meant to be a public forum for debate, and we expect users to be civil and respectful of others. Any comments may be moderated in compliance with the rules of this blog.
Rules of Ebrahim Rasool's Blog
Messages posted to this blog or blogs may be moderated before or after they are displayed live.
Messages may be removed if they:
- Contain email addresses or other personal contact details (valid website addresses will be passed but will be checked for authenticity);
- Appear to impersonate someone else;
- Are considered likely to provoke, attack or offend others;
- Are racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable;
- Contain swear words or other language likely to offend;
- Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation and contempt of court;
- Advertise products or services for profit;
- Repeatedly post the same or similar messages, i.e. spam;
- Are written in anything other than the three official languages of the Western Cape Province, namely Afrikaans, English or IsiXhosa;
- Contain links to other websites which break these rules;
- Describe or encourage activities which could endanger the safety or well-being of others;
- Post personal or offensive comments about individual members of the public or people who work for the Provincial Government of the Western Cape or the Western Cape Provincial Legislature.
The blog moderator reserves the right to remove such messages and take action against those responsible.
Further conditions:
- Under-16s must get permission from a parent or guardian before contributing to this site;
Links to external websites:
- Neither I nor the Provincial Government of the Western Cape endorses the content of any website linked to from this blog and is not responsible for the content or actions of those sites.
If you break these rules:
- Your message will not be posted.
- I am unable to contact you with a reason why.
- Or your message might be edited to remove the parts that do not comply.
The blog moderator reserves the right to edit, move or delete any message, at any time, for any reason.
And finally...
The blog moderator's decision about the suitability of all posts is final.
Messages may be removed if they:
- Contain email addresses or other personal contact details (valid website addresses will be passed but will be checked for authenticity);
- Appear to impersonate someone else;
- Are considered likely to provoke, attack or offend others;
- Are racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable;
- Contain swear words or other language likely to offend;
- Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation and contempt of court;
- Advertise products or services for profit;
- Repeatedly post the same or similar messages, i.e. spam;
- Are written in anything other than the three official languages of the Western Cape Province, namely Afrikaans, English or IsiXhosa;
- Contain links to other websites which break these rules;
- Describe or encourage activities which could endanger the safety or well-being of others;
- Post personal or offensive comments about individual members of the public or people who work for the Provincial Government of the Western Cape or the Western Cape Provincial Legislature.
The blog moderator reserves the right to remove such messages and take action against those responsible.
Further conditions:
- Under-16s must get permission from a parent or guardian before contributing to this site;
Links to external websites:
- Neither I nor the Provincial Government of the Western Cape endorses the content of any website linked to from this blog and is not responsible for the content or actions of those sites.
If you break these rules:
- Your message will not be posted.
- I am unable to contact you with a reason why.
- Or your message might be edited to remove the parts that do not comply.
The blog moderator reserves the right to edit, move or delete any message, at any time, for any reason.
And finally...
The blog moderator's decision about the suitability of all posts is final.
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