His Worship, the Mayor of EThekwini - Cllr Mxolisi Kaunda;

His Holiness, Bhakti Caitanya Swami - Head of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (in absentia);

MEC for Social Development in the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal – Mrs Nonhlanhla Khoza;

Member of Parliament - Honourable Brandon Pillay;

Mr Vivian Reddy - Chairman of Sibaya Trust;

Vidhor Mangaroo and members of the Mangaroo and Sukhlal Families;

Ms Nishana Baboolall – Chairperson, Newlands Food for Life;

President of Child Welfare Durban & District - Mr Rajan Pillay;

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;

Comrades and Friends;

Sanibonani nonke!

We stand on holy ground.

Is there greater virtue than freedom from hunger?

This piece of land donated by the Mangaroo family has been transformed into spiritual significance with the work of Food for Life.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness founder, His Holiness, Srila Prabhupada led by his teaching that:

“By the liberal distribution of prasadam (food) and sankirtan (chanting), the whole world can become peaceful and prosperous.”

We prize peace. We prize prosperity - in our land and in the world at large.

There is no honour in hunger or peace in poverty.

Throughout history, the hungry and the poor have risen in revolt.

The glorious history of our freedom struggle against imperialism, slavery, colonialism, indenture, land dispossession, apartheid, unfettered capitalism and patriarchy has been to reclaim honour, dignity and to live with each other in peace and prosperity.

We are informed that in 1974, the ISKCON founder urged his yoga students to liberally distribute sanctified food so that there would be no hungry people anywhere in the world.

The voluntary work of the students blossomed into the world’s largest vegetarian food relief programme - FOOD FOR LIFE which we celebrate today.

We are pleased to note that you are an independent, non-sectarian charitable service working in over 50 countries.

From this kitchen 12000 meals are served to the community of Newlands, KwaMashu and beyond.

We salute the Food for Life volunteers and benefactors.

On behalf of the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal, we acknowledge the generous financial contribution of Mr Vivian Reddy, Chairperson of the Sibaya Community Trust in building the infrastructure for this Food for Life kitchen.

The Sibaya Trust has a stellar record in reaching out to the poor and vulnerable in our society.

We commend Sibaya for their relentless work in creating a better life for all our people.

The words of the Holy Father, Pope Francis are relevant in celebrating volunteerism and philanthropy of every kind. We recall his sacred words where he says:

"When we are generous in welcoming people and sharing something with them - some food, a place in our homes, our time - not only do we no longer remain poor: we are enriched.”

We are enriched by this spirit of community, by religious injunction that as sisters and brothers we are each other's keepers, irrespective of race, class, faith, gender or sexual orientation.

When we speak of Newlands our attention turns immediately to the freedom fighters this community produced.

Please allow me to recognise the Bonhomme Family and in particular the brothers Comrades Trevor and Virgil.

Their entire lives were dedicated to the cause of South African freedom and the upliftment of the community.

They worked in among others the United Committee of Concern (UCC), the United Democratic Front, the Mass Democratic Movement and the African National Congress.

We salute their revolutionary morality and their commitment to community service.

Cde Trevor was also elected by Newlands to local government serving as Deputy Mayor.

As citizens, it is our patriotic duty to be registered to vote in the local government elections on 27 October. Please verify your registration with the IEC and encourage especially our youth to register.

Participating in strengthening our democracy will be a fitting gesture to remember the work of the Bonhommes and honour their legacy.

Even after 27 years of freedom, much more work needs to be done to ensure that all our people enjoy the fruits of liberation.

Our call is especially to the youth of this community to pick up the spear of the Bonhommes and other freedom fighters and work to move our country forward.

Every June, we celebrate Youth Month to honour the memory of the young people who sacrificed so that we may live in freedom and dignity.

The timing of the opening of this Food for Life project in Youth Month is also a symbolic historical moment in that it must again rouse our young people into action.

In spite of all our challenges as a nation whether Covid-19, unemployment or social ills, we must always work to inspire hope.

Working together, we can grow KwaZulu-Natal. Working together we can move our country forward.

While we applaud the free distribution of food, we must also be thinking how we liberate the poor from hunger and reliance on charity.

As the provincial government we have a programme of "One Home, One Garden". Through it, we support households to ensure there is food security.

We also have a programme of Radical Agrarian Socio-Economic Transformation (RASET) to grow the agricultural sector and support SMMEs and cooperatives in agriculture. This is a programme biased towards the empowerment of youth and women owned enterprises.

Additionally there are interventions like the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan as well as the Township Economy Revitalisation Programme. In this regard, we wish to encourage youth owmned enterprises with the potential of growth and job creation to apply for funding from the R50 million youth development fund which we announced in the State of the Province in February.

This community must claim its space in all those programmes aimed at radical socio-economic transformation. We call on the private sector to play their part in the skilling of our people, job creation, and enterprise development. This is what the National Development Plan Vision 2030 calls for – a partnership between government, the private sector, labour, and communities to reduce the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality.

This land is ours. Let us take on the challenge of working this land better.

Working our land so that it may feed us, clothe us, free us from hunger, from want, from unemployment.

We will continue to look at creative ways within the law to free up state land for community food production.

Azibuyele emasisweni. Asikhumbule ukuthi umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. Masikhumbule neziyalo ze- Silo u Bhejane Uphuma Esiqiwini obehlala esikhumbuza ukubaluleka kokulima ekuxosheni ikati eziko nokuthi umhlaba yigolide lethu. Siwuhulumeni, siyazibophezela ukuthi siyohlala siyiseka imiphakathi ukuthi ilime, ixosha indlala emakhaya.

One of our late stalwarts and veteran of the 1955 Congress of the People that gave us the Freedom Charter, Comrade Professor Ben Turok would often tell the story of exiled life in Tanzania.

While teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam, they had to respond to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere's call to plant food.

For certain hours of the day, all work would stop. Professors and students would be in the garden planting mealies and tending crops.

Professor Turok would tell us there were no flower gardens in the university, every inch of land was taken up by planting food.

Tanzania prided itself in food self-sufficiency in the early years of liberation from colonial oppression.

Comrade Mayor, Honourable Khoza, Honourable Pillay, is there any conceivable reason why state land whether sidewalks, schools or around government buildings cannot be transformed into food gardens?

As we celebrate FOOD FOR LIFE, let us take growing food as personal and policy challenge beyond our current instruments.

Let's plant food gardens rather than flower gardens.

There is an old African adage that says when you give a person a fish you feed them for the day, when you teach them to fish you feed them for life.

Let's ramp up serving Food for Life to Growing Food for Life.

We applaud all the stakeholders in this project and wish you onward success.

Stay safe. The third wave of Covid-19 is real.

Mask up, sanitise, social distance and vaccinate immediately your turn comes up.

Be safe on our roads and let us reduce road fatalities by complying with the rules of the road and exercising extra caution.

Nkosi Sikelel' i-Afrika!

Together Growing KwaZulu-Natal!

I thank you.