31 December 2005
Fellow South Africans:
As we bid farewell to the year 2005, and welcome the year 2006, I would like, on behalf of our government and in my own name, to wish you all a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.
At this time of the year, many of us adopt New Year resolutions visualising a brighter future for ourselves. The birth of a new year also offers our nation as a whole the possibility to commit itself to work for the brighter future to which all our citizens are entitled.
We all know that as the year 2005 ended, with many of us enjoying ourselves in the traditional festivities, which will continue as we welcome the New Year, there are also many who did not have the possibility to celebrate.
These include all those who lost their loved ones as a result of the road accidents that still claim too many lives and maim many people, despite the appeals we make every year to all road users, both motorists and pedestrians, to behave responsibly on our roads.
The appeals - Don't drink and drive!, Arrive Alive! and Drive Safely! -are well known to all of us. But the continuing and unnecessary deaths and injuries on our roads communicate the message that some irresponsible people among us still refuse to respect the lives of our people.
Nevertheless, I would like to take this opportunity once more to appeal to all road users to Drive Safely! and Arrive Alive! Our law enforcement and traffic authorities will also have to continue working hard to ensure that all those who break the rules of the road are caught and punished.
We extend our condolences to all those who lost their loved ones during the year 2005 particularly as a result of road accidents and other forms of violence, including assault and murder.
Our sympathies and best wishes also go to those who could not join in the festivities of the season because of ill health. We wish all these a speedy recovery and thank all medical personnel in the country for sacrificing their holidays to attend to those in need of medical care. The good work they have done and are doing has brought much cheer to those afflicted by the pain caused by ill health.
We also know that as the year 2005 ended, many of our fellow citizens could not join the festivities because of the poverty which still affects so many of our people.
These are fellow South Africans who do not have enough to eat even on normal days, who do not have proper housing, and are everyday exposed to diseases of malnutrition and poverty.
As we welcome the New Year, all of us must renew our pledge to do everything in our power to create jobs and fight poverty, to give renewed hope to millions in our country that 2006 will be a happy and prosperous year for them as well.
Of course the good news is that during the year that is now ending our economy performed extremely well, reaching levels of growth it had not achieved for many years. This has given us the possibility to aim for even higher rates of growth and development, the creation of even more jobs and generating the wealth we need to fight poverty.
In this regard, I would like to thank all our compatriots who contributed during this departing year towards the achievement of the goal of building a new South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it. This includes those who are well off and have various professional skills, who saw it as their duty to join in the national effort to confront the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment, to help change the lives of the disadvantaged and marginalized for the better.
We will have to continue and intensify this united national effort as we begin to implement the programmes that will be instituted to pursue the goal the nation has set itself of achieving an economic growth rate of 6% and above.
The government will count on its social partners, business, labour and civil society to join this critically important initiative so that, together, they give meaning to the hope shared by all our people of enjoying a happy and prosperous New Year.
Our democracy, especially our system of local government, offers the important possibility for many of our people to participate directly in determining their future. It provides the space for the people to become activists in the national effort to create a better life for all.
It is therefore important that all of us register to vote and actually vote during the vital local government elections that will take place on March 1st, 2006.
These elections should serve as confirmation of our national commitment further to strengthen our democracy and our determination to elect public representatives who are truly committed to serve the people of South Africa.
The task we have set ourselves to achieve new advances in the struggle against poverty and underdevelopment during 2006 will impose new demands for an effective and efficient system of local government, in the frontline of the national offensive to accelerate our advance towards the achievement of the goal of a better life for all.
We extend our best wishes to all the candidate councillors, some of whom will be elected two months from now. All the candidate councillors must remember that all our people expect that, once they are elected, they will serve them honestly, opposing all corruption, and respecting the need for them to be accountable to the people.
The people expect that, acting together with our national and provincial governments, our new municipal governments will make an important contribution to improving their quality of life, including better service delivery, better safety and security, adequate social and economic infrastructure and more job opportunities, and therefore a better New Year for all.
Going beyond our borders, we must, once again, convey a message of solidarity to the sister peoples who had to bear much pain as a result of natural disasters, such as the Asian tsunami, the hurricanes that affected the Caribbean, Central America and the United States, and the Pakistani earthquake. We wish them success as they work to address the destruction caused by these calamities.
We extend a similar message of solidarity to those who fell victim to indiscriminate acts of terrorism, such as those that took place in the United Kingdom, India, Egypt, Jordan and Indonesia.
We also convey our thanks and best wishes to the members of our National Defence Force and Police Service who are deployed on vital peace missions in various African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Sudan and Côte d'Ivoire, and therefore cannot celebrate the New Year with their families.
However, the valuable work they and others of our compatriots are doing has contributed to such important African achievements as the conclusion of the Sudanese Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the holding of successful elections in Burundi and Liberia, and the equally successful conduct of the constitutional referendum in the DRC.
By their selfless actions they have assisted our country to contribute to the continuing efforts of our continent to ensure that all the peoples of Africa also have the possibility to enjoy a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Let me also congratulate all those learners who have passed their matriculation examinations and urge those who unfortunately did not to take advantage of all existing possibilities to seek further education and training.
I also wish our national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, success in the forthcoming African Cup of Nations tournament, which will be hosted by Egypt.
I am confident that during the New Year, working together, we will succeed to achieve new advances towards the realisation of the goal of a better life for all both in our country and our continent. Once more, I wish you all a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Thank you.