The District Mayor of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati Rre Tladinyane
Mayor Naledi Municipality Rre Langa Modise
Councillors
DG and HOD’s
Residents of Naledi
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Dumelang,
During this time, we remember the 1976 generation of young people who fearlessly took to the streets to challenge the then apartheid machinery.
It is throughout this month, that we celebrate the 36th Anniversary of the 1976 Uprising under the theme “Together we can do more to build infrastructure, and fight youth unemployment, poverty and inequality”. Wherein the aforementioned generation, fought for better and quality education which knew no colour divide and was accessible to all.
The generation of today should continuously and be consistent in advocating for better life for all which will not undermine the plight of the African Child. This is concomitant to our thrust for Economic Freedom in our Lifetime, as a change in the patterns of ownership of the means of production, do not require intellectualised rhetoric but the birth of new and youthful ideas!
Programme director, as we celebrate this august moment in the life of young people we need to stop and take stock as to whether are we still representing what the Youth of 1976 stood for? Today, Freedom and economy is in our hands, we need to emancipate ourselves and start being innovative to empower ourselves and have a better life for all.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Department of Economic Development, Environment,
Conservation and Tourism’s mandate is to support small businesses by ensuring equitable access to business opportunities including access to markets, access to finance, business skills development for the purposes of ensuring competitiveness and growth for both new and existing businesses. This is what the department offers but if we can work together with you we can do more.
We are gathered here today as the Department together with the municipalities to handover Naledi car wash as an initiative that is aimed to empower young people. This is to boost local economy and decrease the rate of unemployment and poverty amongst the youth in the province. Our hope is that several intended cooperatives that will be established here will be protected as you will protect your own child.
Government and the municipality has invested more than R2 million on the project and above all this has invested so much, the beneficiaries of this project have gone through some training such as financial management and marketing courses that will assist them to be able to run their business professionally.
This is an incubation project and it has the life span for three years, hoping that at the end of three years the others will come in as the present beneficiaries will have accumulated more skills to start their own business.
Please Huhudi community respect your projects and do not do what we have seen done by other communities destroying what they have.
We hope that this identified youth will treasure this project and we commit to further lobby all government departments in this region including municipalities to utilise all the services offered by these young economic fighters in this project. This project is intended to advance economic participation of youth and women not only in this region but in the North West Province.
Let me take this opportunity to thank the Naledi municipality and the department for the job well done, Ke a leboga!
As I close I will like to steal from one of our own South African poet and political activist Don Madi Mattera: “God Bless Children of South Africa, The white children and the black children, But more the black children, who lost the sea and the sand, God Bless South Africa.
I thank you
