INTRODUCTION:
Chairman, members of the Diplomatic Corp, members of OSAK, representatives of the OlAF Palme International Centre and Network for Southern Africa, ladies and gentlemen.
I often wonder how it is that I, a small town social worker, have ended up delivering a speech at what is really an international seminar or conference. The answer must be that it is the twinning process that has given me and so many others, the opportunity of exposure, for growth, for maturing, for developing new skills and finally to put back what has been given to me.
That is not to say that I am still not terribly nervous about having to deliver this address to all you important people.
I must start by saying that you must not expect a clinical definition of the twinning process and the requirement for successful twinning in the form of a formula.
In the Oskarshamn/Port Shepstone context it is an idea that was born out of our commitment to each other, an idea we have grappled with from one day. It is an idea that we have developed continually, but we are still far off from the degree of development and fine-tuning that we would like to see.
Twinning between Port Shepstone and Oskarshamn specifically and between South Africa and Sweden generally remains rooted in the struggle against apartheid and racism. It is important to keep this in mind because the challenges of creating a new non-racial society is what guides the work of the twinning committee, both in Port Shepstone and Okarshamn i.e. capacity building, skills training, economic development, job creation, reconciliation, tolerance and nation building. Same ingredients to make it a success.
Commitment and Dedication:
It is very important to be realistic about what can achieved. There is no huge budget to fund full time people working on this project. You thus need to find committed and dedicated people on both sides to keep the process moving forward. It has taken us almost 5 years from concept stage to where we have reached now. All our people hold full time and demanding jobs of their own. Apart from that many are involved in other public activities.The twinning process thus cannot be a major objective on its own or in a vacuum. But it can be used very successfully to cement and strengthen many other processes underway, in the reconstruction of our coutry.
Reconciliation:
You will see that despite its strong roots in the anti-apartheid struggle and therefore its association with the ANC, a great and conscious effort has been made to reach out to a wider circle of people. When we analyze the various delegations that had gone abroad you will see that it reflects all spheres in terms of race, gender and to an extent political affiliation.
*Questioned political affiliation
Even then we still face some criticism that we are an ANC body. This criticism often comes from the more conservative forces. We can ignore them but we cannot ignore the wider public. We must not give them any reasons for the public to give credence to these criticisms. It is thus important that we reach out to an ever-widening circle of people. We are still grappling with the most effective way to do this. On the one hand we need to attract a collective membership to share the workload of the process/and the workload is considerable. On the other hand we have to guard against opportunists whose only intention is to exploit the twinning process as a free travel beareau.
Economic Development:
When we first started discussions on the aim and objectives of the twinning process we dreamt that one day, perhaps in ten years it would start leading to issues of economic development. We are probably quite far from that objective. However it is very encouraging that in three weeks time a delegation from a Swedish computer company will be going to Port Shepstone to explore investment opportunities. This contact was initiated through the Twinning process.
Promotion of tourism is also taking off with many tour groups from Sweden including Port Shepstone on their itinerary and being hosted by the twinning group.
I will now try and brief you on the chronological sequence of events since the concept arose in 1993.
In June 1993, a group of 10 representatives from various organisations, disciplines and democratic groups from Sweden visited our country to deepen the already strong links. The purpose of their visit was to initiate contact as Sweden for so many years fought against apartheid through the isolate campaign. Due to the rapid changes taking place in terms of the pending first democratic election it was time to initiate a process of dialogue. The concept of people to people contact was one the ways to create a new climate of exchange.
Amongst the areas visited, the town of Port Shepstone was one of those. Due to the already established links in the anti-apartheid movement it was a natural process to initiate contacts with these links. The group met with key ANC leaders of the region, viz. the late George Mbele, at that time he was the chairman for the region, Ravi Pillay, Siyabonga Cwele, presently a member of parliament and others. On this delegation was Lillemore Nesset, 16 years old at that time and still a student and from my knowledge the only person from Oskarshamn . This delegation visited various NGO’s viz. Ziphakamise, Practical ministries, Child Welfare and including Inala School of which George Mbele was the principal. The roots in establishing contact with this school were forged during this early stage. This school is still involved in the twinning process. The present principal was part of the delegation in 1997 and at present we have in Port Shepstone Runo Hageberg, ex-principal of Komvux School sharing his knowledge of administration and school management. He is spending 8 weeks in two schools.
During this period, which was just prior to the first democratic election in 1994, the violence in the country and particularly Port Shepstone had reached its peak. Estimated deaths exceeded 2000 people from around Port Shepstone. Many of the leaders lives were in danger. It was highly political and concentration on any other issue besides peace negotiation and conflict mediation was impossibility. George Mbele was assassinated in February 1994 and most of the key people were in hiding. His dream and many others dream were realized in their life times.
