Councilors, community leaders, overseas visitors, community members and all who have come to celebrate with us today…

It is with a sense of deep pride that I address you today.

In the mid nineties the slogan “Think Global, Act Local” was coined, as an international movement for sustainable development got underway. As a result many, many conferences were held all over the world, any many thousands of tress had to be felled to make the paper that these conferences generated! Not to mention the many tons of fuel that was burnt to transport delegates all over the show.

Even as we speak today, the Millennium Development Goals approved by no lesser an institution than the United Nations, is being seen as yet another paper wasting exercise. As we plunge into what now appears to be an energy crisis that is here to stay, it will once again be the poor who suffer the most.

Where then, do we look for hope? Where is the globally connected, local action that promises a better world; a cleaner world; a fairer world; a happier world?

For all the rhetoric and paper, it is here on the sandy soil of Khayelitsha that sustainable development has been implemented in a bold and exemplary way. By a community struggling with literacy, displaced by the worst excesses of apartheid, building tin shacks to fend of the elements, bedeviled with unemployment and a host of other challenges.

It was KERIC, a Khayelitsha based NGO, that approached the then City of Tygerberg in 1999 to facilitate the establishment of what is now the Cape Town Aachen Local Agenda 21 Partnership. A small but fiercely determined group of councilors, officials and NGO representatives went to Germany to set up a partnership with a small city whose name they found very difficult to pronounce. Their goal then, as it our goal today, was sustainable development through poverty reduction.

Through these efforts, more than R100 million in donor funding has made its way to Khayelitsha through partners such as KfW and INWENT in Germany. But even more astonishing has been the hundreds to contact and projects established in the fields of arts and culture, environmental management, sport, youth development and education.

Some of these projects include 21 Households where local change their lifestyle to be more sustainable; the Bicycle Recycle project, where old bicycles are sent to Cape Town and refurbished for use; the Music Education Initiative where old music instruments are sent over from Aachen and used here on the Cape Flats; and also the “bauwagen” and lessons-in-a-box which focuses on improving the school environments.

Thousands of people’s lives have been enhanced, and no small impact has been made in helping our German and European colleagues to better understand the needs of the global South, and to taste the joy, hospitality and spirit of Africa. Over 200 exchanges have taken place through the partnership in the last five years.

One of the projects, which the city has been involved with through the partnership, is Mural Global; a UNESCO supported initiative in over 20 countries, which promotes sustainable development through art. Six murals have been painted in Aachen and three here in Khayelitsha. The first is at the Desmund Tutu Centre and was unveiled in 2001. Another is just across the road from here the Zenzeleni School and today we celebrate the unveiling of the third mural here at the training centre.

The theme of the mural depicts the importance of partnership, friendship and working together. Of sharing ideas; sharing cultures; sharing resources and making a better future by doing it together. The mural was also developed through a partnership process called “swops” where the artists from Khayelitsha and Aachen worked together for two weeks using their common language – ART.

But before we walk around to see the mural, I ask you to look around at the pictures on the walls. These pictures were created by youth from Manenberg, Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha. They also used the “swop” process to exchange ideas and work together; learning from each other under the guidance of the artists. These are the ways in which we bring our communities together.

You will also notice a few younger hands exhibited here today. These are children from the Fikelela Children’s Home for AIDS orphans here in Khayelitsha, where Michaela Frank from Aachen is currently volunteering as an art therapist. Her work here is also changing the lives of young kids as they express their sadness and grief through art.

The Manyanani Peace Park, where we will be enjoying the Freshlyground concert a bit later, is another icon in the proud story of Khayelitsha and an example of working together. The project was launched as a partnership between local and international organizations led by Abalimi Bezekhaya, another powerful NGO working in Khayelitsha. Young people from many parts of the world have grown in their understanding and promoted global peace by planting Peace Trees in over a dozen countries and we in Khayelitsha can be proud to see the results of our local action at the Peace Park later today.

Behind all these achievements lie some common keys to success.

The first is leadership. Even as we look to city, national and international leaders to solve our problems, it is our community leadership that has been the backbone of continuing struggles for a better life, a sustainable planet. We need our youth to become the leaders of the future, but remember to lead in your community, by your efforts to serve. Let each one of you be as the trees around us; breathing oxygen and refreshment into those around you.

The second is the courage to dream big. As the German philosopher Goethe said: “What you can do, or what you can dream; you can become it”.

The third key to success is doing it together – working in partnership. Even today has been made possible through working in partnership with various council departments and civil society organizations. Time and time again we are reminded that our strength is in our people.

One of the lessons we have learned from Sis Madlamini Kaba is that there has to be a climate in which new ways of thinking, perceiving and questioning are encouraged. Creativity is the joy of not knowing it all; which refers to the realization that we seldom, if ever, have all the answers. We always have the ability to generate more solutions to just about any problem. Creativity and innovation always walk hand in hand.

After all, you cannot do something new and exciting if you just stay in the same old rut. The real difference between people is their energy. A strong will, a settled purpose and innovative determination can accomplish almost anything. And it this lies the distinction between little people and great people.

I thank you