Presidential social summit kickstarts in Tzaneen
The summit came into being after President Cyril Ramaphosa committed to hosting a national social sector summit during his 2018 State of the Nation Adress
Limpopo became the first province to hold a Social Sector Summit on Thursday, January 24 held at Hotel@Tzaneen.
The summit came into being after President Cyril Ramaphosa committed to hosting a national social sector summit during his 2018 State of the Nation Adress in recognising the critical role that civil society plays in tackling poverty, inequality and related social problems.
Therefore, the summit sought out to see through to adopting and implementing a platform that helps build and sustain the relationship between the state and social partners, as civil society organisations play an important role in communities through their social activism.
Various organisations were in attendace such as; Disabled People of South Africa, NGO’s, NPO’s, NEDLAC, Faith based organisations and Traditional Leaders just to name but a few.
“There is currently no formal fixed engagement mechanism for the state and civil society, however, the call for a Social Sector Summit resonates with government’s commitment to achieve greater social cohesion in line with the objectives of the Constitution and Outcome 14 which seeks to strengthen nation building,” said Nkhensani Mthembi, Nationala Development Agency (NDA) Senior Manager of Operations.
MEC for Education, Ishmael Kgetjepe, was the key note speaker on behalf of the premier and was accompanied by the Executive Mayor of Mopani District Municipality, Nkakareng Rakgoale; Greater Tzaneen Municipality Mayor, Maripe Mangena and MEC for Social Development, Mapula Mokaba-Phukwana who was the program director of the day.
“It is the responsibility of government to lead the efforts of building a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa.
The truth is that achieving the goals of unity, non-sexism, non-racialism and prosperity cannot be done by government alone.
What is clear is that these important goals cannot be achieved by government acting alone. We have to work with our social partners; hence we have convened this crucial dialogue.
It is our understanding and hope that a meeting of this nature will go a long way to strengthen our efforts to build social cohesion, inclusive economy and propel us to a destination of a better life for all,” explained Kgetjepe.
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The summit was a collaboration between the Limpopo Office of the Premier, Department of Social Development and the NDA.
The summit created an opportune moment for all the organisations and delegates present to voice out the challenges they have faced or may be facing within the civil society sector, these challenges were then discussed under four commissions as a method to try and come up with ways in which the challenges and other underlying issues may be tackled going forward.
How everyone was given a voice and a chance to be heard was done in the form of a dialogue, the entire concept behind the summit was focused around communication in the form of a dialogue, as this would give each present party an opportunity to engage where they felt consideration was not being given fully to other issues.
The commissions submitted their recommendations to the congregation and they were all adopted.
The other eight provinces are also busy with their summits and a national event will be held at a later stage this year.
“As the NDA, we cannot make the final decisions. That is why we are now hosting these dialogues.
The social compact of all provinces, once agreed upon within and during these dialogues, will be sent to the President and signed by him,” concluded Mthembi.
