of the African Charter on the rights and welfare of the child, State House,
Bisho
27 September 2006
Programme Director
Director-General, Dr S Muthwa
Senior Manager, Special Programmes, Mrs F Cassojee
All managers and officials
Children
Ladies and gentlemen
Before me I see the beauty of our rainbow nation! What excites me is that I
am talking to you as leaders of tomorrow. Amongst you I see the future
President of this country. I see people with dreams to become engineers,
pilots, doctors, researchers, politicians etc.
There used to be a young girl who every time she went to school would see
this old man chiselling away at the sculpture. She wondered why this old man
made such a noise beating away at this iron sculpture. But as she went past
everyday this sculpture took some kind of shape. Eventually one Friday as she
went past she saw that the old man was happy and he was looking at a shiny,
beautiful sculpture of a lion.
The young girl asked the old man, "Tat' omkhulu, how did you know that the
lion lived inside this iron?" the old man said to her, "in every one of us
there is a powerful lion waiting to be jump out". That is what your parents,
the government through such projects, the nurses when they advise you and the
church or synagogues when they teach you, are trying to do. It is to model a
lion out of you, a lion that will succeed and become a better person one
day.
Rights and responsibilities
The Director-General has begun talking to you about rights. You will hear
more about the rights of children today. But I want to say to you that rights
come with responsibilities. It is a right for a parent to give you food but you
must be responsible and not throw it away. I mean that you also have a
responsibility to help your parents and our government to do certain things.
What are these things? I will mention just a few so that you will not forget
them.
Responsibility not to hide bad things happening to you
If there is any one who abuses or touches you in a place where you feel
uncomfortable or where you know he or she should not touch you, tell someone,
tell an adult. It may be your relative or anyone you trust. Even if this person
says he will kill you if you tell someone, do not be cowed into silence. If you
do not tell someone you allow the abuse to continue and no one will know to
help you or your friend out.
Responsibility to say no to drugs
Say no to anyone who gives you drugs. It may be your friends who say you are
not 'cool' because you refuse to do what they do. Say no and tell them it would
not be 'cool' when you are in prison or in the rehabilitation centre where they
will have to try hard to get you off the drugs. Do not believe everything that
you see on television. When you see a popular person taking drugs it does not
mean the person is cool. Drugs will result in you dying young, aging quickly
because drugs damage your lungs, your looks and your future.
Responsibility about your life
A few weeks ago the national newspapers carried a story about how our
Eastern Cape children have wrong things (violence) carried in their cellphones.
It filled me with remorse because they spoke about it again on another radio
station over the weekend. As I said if anyone is doing something wrong tell
your teacher. Do not use cellphones to download material that you would not
want your parents or any adult to see, and pass it around. If you do that you
are killing your future and the future of other children. Love yourself and be
proud of yourself.
I want to see you as successful persons one day, 'that beautiful lion that
came out of the sculpture'.
I thank you children and have a lovely day.
Issued by: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
27 September 2006
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecprov.gov.za)
