Statement by the City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille
EU-funded civic engagement project supports City’s commitment
to building an inclusive city
Note to editors: the following speech was delivered by City of Cape Town
Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, today at the launch of the European Unionfunded Enhanced Civic Understanding and Engagement Project.
Head of Cooperation of the European Union delegation in South Africa, Arno
Schaefer
Head of the Cape Town field office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, Patrick Kawuma Male
Director at the Cape Town Refugee Centre, Advocate Vuyani Shwane
Professor Ebenezer Durojaye from the Dullah Omar Institute at the University of
the Western Cape
Members of the media
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the City of Cape Town as
we launch another project that will assist our efforts to build an inclusive city.
As part of our strategic objective to build an inclusive city, we aim to promote
a positive human rights culture and to respect and celebrate the diversity of
all people, cultures and religions.
We come from a painful and divided past but it should not be our present
and future.
The Constitution of South Africa, which is revered as the most progressive in
the world, is very clear about the kind of freedoms that each of us can enjoy.
It is also clear about our responsibilities.
The very first chapter of our Constitution states that our nation is a state which
is founded on a list of values.
The very first values they mention are ‘human dignity, the achievement of
equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms’.
It is only through living out these values that we can see a successful transition
to a peaceful future.
Our history has proven one remarkable thing, and that is that we can
overcome wrong with what is right, when we unite in our diversity.
I am therefore proud to welcome this new project which helps us build an
inclusive city.
Earlier this year, the Cape Town Refugee Centre received a grant of €421 908
(approximately R6,2 million) from the European Union (EU) to implement the
Enhanced Civic Understanding and Engagement Project.
The project will provide education to strengthen refugees’ awareness and
participation in the democratic processes in host communities, while
enhancing local government and other service providers’ capacity in order
to promote tolerance and social cohesion.
It will entail capacity development, mentoring and technical support to
community-based refugee organisations, workshops and dialogues between
refugees, community-based refugee organisations, officials, the South African
Police Service, City officials and ward councillors.
The EU funding will be used to implement the project in communities in the
Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
Officials and ward councillors will participate in this two-year initiative which
will be implemented by the Cape Town Refugee Centre along with its
partners, the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and
Human Rights at the University of the Western Cape and the KwaZulu-Natal
Christian Council.
We need to take a stand together – leaders and citizens – and lead the
charge to unity, tolerance and peace.
In closing, I give my sincere thanks to the European Union, the Cape Town
Refugee Centre and all other partners for their time and generosity in
implementing this project in Cape Town.
We welcome all efforts that seek to educate and promote peace and
respect for human rights.
Thank you, baie dankie, enkosi.