the occasion of the handover ceremony at Imfundo Senior Secondary School,
Kokosi
8 September 2006
Programme Director
The Executive Mayor of the Merafong Local Municipality, Honourable Councillor
Desmond van Rooyen
Honourable councillors,
Senior managers in government departments,
Community leaders,
Members of the Ward Committee,
Members of the School Governing Bodies of Imfundo School,
Parents,
Educators,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
One of our struggle heroes and the first President of the African National
Congress Youth League (ANCYL), Anton Muziwakhe Lembede once said, "We are not
called to peace, comfort and enjoyment, but to hard work, struggle and sweat.
We need young men and women of high moral stamina and integrity; of courage and
vision. In short, we need warriors. This means that we have to develop a new
type of youth�of stoical discipline, trained to endure suffering and
difficulties. It is only this type of youth that will achieve the national
liberation of the African people."
Programme Directors, when Comrade Lembede said these instructive words, life
was very difficult for the oppressed masses of our people who were considered
third class citizens in the country of their birth. Under the dehumanising and
brutal apartheid system, education for the African majority was meant to
prepare us to serve our oppressors.
Under those circumstances and against all odds, Comrade Lembede started with
his formal education at the age of thirteen. As a determined and disciplined
young person he managed against all odds to become a teacher and studied
part-time with the University of South Africa (Unisa) obtaining Bachelor of
Arts (BA) and LLB degrees over a six-year period.
I presume that most of us if not all, are aware about the history of our
country prior to 1994 as it is well documented. Today we live in a democratic
country but the words of Lembede are more relevant to us than ever before.
We are gathered today in Kokosi, to witness the delivery of government's
commitment to provide proper learning facilities for our learners and to phase
out the "learners under trees" phenomenon.
This day represents another step towards the realisation of the vision of
the Freedom Charter that, "The doors of Learning shall be open to all." Indeed
unlike in the past, where quality education was meant only for a certain race,
the school we are handing over today simply says things have changed and for
good. Every South African child now has the constitutional right to education
irrespective of colour, race, gender and religion. This celebration of the age
of hope for the community of Kokosi is also a celebration of the people's
contract for the people of Merafong. It is a celebration of partnership between
government and communities for the confidence they have in the African National
Congress (ANC) government to eradicate the apartheid legacy of inequalities,
inherited infrastructure backlogs and imbalances in infrastructure provision.
This R7,9 million school building project that we executed for our client, the
Department of Education, consists of an administration block, a science
laboratory, 18 classrooms and two blocks of toilets.
On behalf of the provincial government we wish to congratulate the
professional team led by Neren Mistry architects who were principal agents on
this project, Paresh Chiba Quantity surveyors who were Structural and Civil
engineers, MDC Consulting Engineers and Infuturum Consulting Engineers, who
were Mechanical and Electrical engineers respectively for delivering this
school on behalf of my department and the Department of Education. I also wish
to congratulate our partners in service delivery that is the two contractors
who were involved in the Joint Venture for the execution of the contract, Black
Hawk and BT Projects for a job well done.
Programme Director, the Accelerated and Shared Growth and Initiative for
South Africa (AsgiSA) has identified the shortage of skills as one of the
shortcomings in the Construction and Infrastructure sector. This includes
professional skills such as engineers and scientists, project managers, and
skilled technical employees such as artisans and Information Technology (IT)
technicians. In order to address this, government has fast-tracked the Maths
and Science (Dinaledi) programme for 529 high schools, to double maths and
science high school graduates to 50 000 by 2008.
Last month during the National Construction Week, I had the opportunity to
visit a few schools in our province and host learners for project site visits
as part of the construction awareness campaign to promote the profile and image
of the construction sector among grade 10 Maths and Science learners.
As a department we were Asgisarising our sector as we were urging learners
to make the build and construction their career of choice and explained to them
that the construction sector is an exciting industry with a guaranteed future.
I also wish to take this opportunity to call on learners in the maths and
science stream to consider following rewarding careers in the construction
sector. Imfundo Secondary School should also produce candidates for fields of
study in civil, structural and mechanical engineering, architecture and
quantity surveying. As Comrade Lembede said, we need young men and women of
high moral stamina, integrity, courage and vision. We need youth that is able
to resist the temptation to be involved in crime, that resist the temptation to
do drugs. Most of our schools are under threat from criminals and drug dealers
who are targeting our youth for addiction and destruction. Let is stop the
scourge of drug abuse by ensuring that this does not happen in this school by
exercising zero tolerance to criminal activities in our schools.
I urge learners to follow the spirit of Lembede by being young men and women
of high moral stamina, integrity, courage and vision. Our country needs
warriors who can abstain from drugs and alcohol. Drugs kill and alcohol
destroys. I wish to appeal to the community to ensure that this facility is
protected at all times and becomes the centre of community life.
I understand that late last year izinyoka stole electric cable in this
school. Let us make sure that these things do not repeat themselves by
reporting any criminal activity to the police. We must know that as long as we
hide criminals in our homes and use drugs, we are playing with our future and
that of the country. It is my honour to hand over keys for the facility to the
Executive Mayor of Merafong Local Municipality, Honourable Councillor Desmond
Van Rooyen, to officially open the school on behalf of my colleague, the
Honourable MEC for Education, Reverend O J Tselapedi.
Ke a leboga.
Issued by: Department of Public Works, North West Provincial
Government
8 September 2006
Source: Department of Public Works, North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za)
