Community's needs come first: KZN Premier

"In a democratic country, gone are the days when government employees and politicians behaved as if they were doing a favour [for] members of the public. We are public representatives elected through a democratic process and we serve at the will of the people," said Mchunu.

He was speaking at a Freedom Day celebration event at the Embuzweni Sports Field in Ladysmith.

He said intellectual capacity, technical qualifications and possession of rare administrative or specialised skills were a prerequisite for an efficient and effective state.

"However these attributes are meaningless if employed to abuse the system to the disadvantage of ordinary members of society. Your skills as civil servants must benefit the community. It is for that reason... you were employed in the first place."

Before addressing the gathering Mchunu visited the Sbongile and Sithembile townships in Dundee and Glencoe respectively to hand over title deeds to the new home owners.

He said, it was "heartening to see them appreciating what the government has done for them. We have dealt a hard blow to the apartheid's government’s policy of segregation".

"The architects of apartheid, including those who still have an apartheid hangover, are visibly angry as they see a white woman married to an Indian man both living in the township side-by-side, in harmony with fellow African neighbors."

Mchunu said when he handed over a title deed to a Mrs Mitchell Goosen he was reminded of former president Nelson Mandela and thought the gesture was a fitting tribute to the late icon.

(File photo)