at the Logra Skills Training Centre Certificate Ceremony, Grassy Park
7 July 2006
Councillor George March (Independent Democrats), Vice Chairperson of the
Logra Civic Association,
Mr Alan Smith, Chairperson of the Skills Training Centre,
Robert Roberts, Vice-Chairperson of the Skills Training Centre,
Mr FW Farmer, Logra Community Skills Training Centre Manager,
Representatives of the following organisations/companies: BP, City Mission,
Napier Haven Night Shelter, Jenro Enterprises, Jovern Electrical (contractor),
the churches and the Steenberg Foundation (network partner),
Trainers, lecturers and staff,
But most importantly, the graduates and their proud families,
I understand that the Chairperson Mr Philip Bam is absent, but I want to
thank him and the Training Centre leadership for the opportunity you are
affording me to share in this joyous occasion with you. The celebration of this
6th Annual Certificate Ceremony of your training centre is a triumph for you as
a community in your efforts not to let history decide your fate.
I am familiar with the history of the struggles of Logra Civic and the
communities it served and still does. The previous regime neglected our
communities on the Cape Flats. I think in some cases the morale of our
communities has been damaged to the extent that they could see no hope, and our
youth turned to a life of crime and violence as a means of survival.
The apartheid government was hoping you would die silently in poverty and
degradation. Instead you refused, and with the same vigour that you fought the
apartheid system, you are now one of the leading communities in the fight
against poverty, and the struggle to reclaim the dignity of our communities.
The establishment of this skills training centre was not just about providing
training opportunities for the sake of training, it is also about reclaiming
your right to determine your own destiny.
As you plan now already for your next Certificate Ceremony, I think we as a
country, as a people, need to constantly remind ourselves that communities put
us into positions with specific mandates and expectations. As government, our
mandate is to fight poverty and create work. It is not only that we have to
fight poverty and create work, but it is also the way in which we do this, that
is important.
The centrality of partnerships with our schools, training institutions and
community organisations, and the manner, in which we interact with one another,
is critical. We shall never succeed without working together, and all of us
must work in ways, which build confidence within communities.
Just like Logra has a vision of becoming a self-sustaining institution,
facilitating community development and empowerment, similarly ours is to build
the Western Cape as a "Home for All". In order to build this "Home for All", we
have adopted an economic development strategy, Ikapa Elihlumayo, to grow and
share the Cape. One of the lead strategies for Ikapa is our Human Capital
Development Strategy (HCDS), with a focus on youth.
Our mission with this strategy is to provide our young people with relevant
skills, knowledge, values and attitudes that would allow them to participate
meaningfully in the mainstream economy, and be internationally competitive.
The fact that your mission is exactly the same as ours, "provisioning of
skills training to the unemployed members of the Logra community in order to
facilitate employment and life-style management" clearly demonstrates that we
share common objectives and challenges.
Our President, Thabo Mbeki has called on all of us to "move faster to
address challenges of poverty, underdevelopment and marginalisation confronting
those caught within the Second Economy, to ensure that the poor in our country
share in our growing prosperity." The President is talking about communities
such as these, which live in densely populated neighbourhoods on the Cape
Flats, characterised by low levels of literacy and high levels of unemployment,
poverty, gangsterism and crime.
In his State of the Province Address, Premier Ebrahim Rasool reminded us
that 26,3% of our citizens are unemployed. Most are youth between the ages of
16 and 35, which points to the massive skills challenge we face. That is why I
want to focus on the six priorities for youth development as identified by our
Human Capital Development Strategy, especially in the area of skills
development.
These priorities are: literacy and numeracy, Further Education and Training
(FET) in schools and colleges, infrastructure provisioning, school safety,
redesign of the department and building social capital in education.
We are rolling out our FET curriculum, which is providing our learners with
new relevant high quality subjects in focus schools, preparing them for the
world of work and higher education. The recapitalisation of FET colleges is a
major element of our national effort of delivering the skills capacity for our
government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for SA (AsgiSA).
Together with many other initiatives, such as the establishment of the Youth
Commission, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, the Sector Education and Training
Authorities (Setas), I believe our government offers hope to the young people
of today, hope and opportunity. Something, which worries me a great deal
though, is that too many of our young people drop out of school, get involved
with gangsterism and crime; use and abuse alcohol and drugs; and display risky
sexual behaviour. I think the central question that we as adults must ask
ourselves is: "are we doing everything we possibly can to deal with the
challenges of creating opportunities for young people"
I want to thank the business people and all partners for their involvement
in the Logra Skills Training Centre. The involvement of business in skills
provisioning and development creates opportunities for business to transfer
skills and to share ideas. Unless education and training institutions work
together with the private and public sector, it will never meet the needs of
those sectors. Without a close relationship, training centres will not be able
to produce graduates with the requisite skills, nor will individuals be able to
pursue new career opportunities.
My message to the students is this: if you work hard and are prepared to
make sacrifices, then the sky is your limit. With the skills you have acquired,
if you put in a bit of effort, you should not find it too difficult to get a
job. Consider this, the Soccer World Cup in 2010 in South Africa will present
immense opportunities for entrepreneurs in the hospitality, hotel and tourism
industry.
Our country needs to produce at least 13 000 engineers a year to build and
upgrade roads, housing and infrastructure, and we only produce just above 3
000. Therefore the training courses you provide are of immense value for our
country and economy.
As government we are also responding to some of the challenges, but we need
partners such as the Logra Community Skills Training Centre to create hope and
opportunity for the youth. I want to pay tribute to you and everybody else for
playing such a crucial role in providing skills, resources, information,
opportunities and employment to the youth of the Cape Flats.
The fact that this project has started with 21 trainees in 2001, and since
grown to train over 500 youngsters to date, is testimony to the kind of
leadership and determination of the Logra Civic Association. I am sure there
are a lot of success stories one can listen to the whole day.
Congratulations to the students who will be receiving certificates.
Remember, you can only enjoy this for a while, because you now have a duty to
apply your skills to help build your communities and our country.
Well done to the lecturers, and my congratulations also to the families, who
have had to provide money and made all sorts of sacrifices so that you can
complete this course and get this certificate.
Thank you very much.
Enquiries:
Gert Witbooi
Tel: (021) 467 2523
Fax: (021) 425 5689
Issued by: Department of Education, Western Cape Provincial Government
7 July 2006
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government (http://www.capegateway.gov.za/)
