BUILDING AFRICA’S FUTURE Keynote address by Professor T.T. Mboweni, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, 6th Africa Regional Girl Guides Conference, Cape Town.  1.    INTRODUCTIONGood morning Premier, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen. I thank you for inviting me here today and I am honoured to be included on this occasion. Some of your responsibilities as members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts lie in preparing the young women of today for the positions of strength and leadership they will occupy in the future. These young women will be the ones we look towards for guidance and leadership in the coming period. We have a duty to lead them, instil in them solid values, ideals and morals, among these a respect for democratic authority and education, such as your organisation upholds. If we fail in this duty, we will be doing ourselves and future generations a great deal of disservice. It is vital that we instil a sense of discipline in the youth in our care. It is this sense of discipline which will mould them to grow up to be reliable, respected, and independent-minded adults. I commend you for the worthy tasks you have both set for yourselves and achieved. The youth you lead and nurture have a vital role to play in the future of this country and this continent. They are the leaders of the African Renaissance. The future we envisage is very different to the reality of today but it is heavily influenced by it. I will give a brief overview of where we stand in Africa and in South Africa, particularly. And then I will discuss the possible path ahead of this continent and country and how the young people you have under your wing could make a valuable contribution. 2.    THE NEED FOR CHANGEYour organisation is, as is this continent, in the throes of immense change. I was particularly struck by a statement contained in one of your pamphlets, and that is: "Why change is necessary". Change is inevitable, we cannot stop it. What we can do, however, is to manage change so that it becomes an instrument for the better, not worse, of all our people. The Girl Guides South Africa and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girls Scouts are well-placed. As part of an international organisation you are in a prime position to reach beyond your national boundaries, to become citizens of the world and draw on your immense human resources in making life a little brighter for all our people. There are windows of opportunity within this process and it is up to all of us to identify those opportunities and choose how we are going to take advantage of them, how we are going to turn night into day. The transformation of South Africa to democracy is a good example of how change could be managed for the good of all. It is painful for some, joyous for others, and the outcome could have been a costly confrontation with destructive consequences. Yet, as most of you know, some have referred to this change as a miracle. But I fear that the time has come when we can no longer ride on the coat tails of that "miracle", we in South Africa need to get down and do some serious work. This continent and this country face a number of key challenges going forward. Just as you strive to alter the face of your organisation to deepen certain values and to embrace others, so we as a country and a continent broadly face the challenge of developing our people, and in so doing, propelling our continent to the fore in the international arena. When President Thabo Mbeki was inaugurated on 16 June 1999, he had these words to say: "Recorded history and the material things that time left behind also speak of Africa's historic contribution to the universe of philosophy, the natural sciences, human settlement and organisation and the creative arts. Being certain that not always were we the children of the abyss, we will do what we have to do to achieve our own Renaissance."We trust that what we will do will not only better our own condition as a people, but will also make a contribution, however small, to the success of Africa's Renaissance,