Youth Festival, Bhisho Stadium
10 February 2006
The Premier
Honourable MECs
Executive Mayor
Religious Leaders
Traditional leaders
Young people
Ladies and gentleman
I greet you all,
Today is a day where all the inhabitants of this lovely and colourful
Province of the Eastern Cape witnessed our honourable Premier deliver a State
of the Province Address that clearly gave a distinct indication as to where
this province is heading.
Firstly, let me commend our Premier for the address she delivered this
morning. It is up to us as people of the Eastern Cape old and young in our ages
to take cognisance of the programmes that the government is bringing to people
if we want to realise the benefits of the second economy that our President has
been emphasising.
One would easily conclude that, the task that has been entrusted to me of
conveying the purpose of the day is an easy one, but I would beg to differ. We
are all gathered here united in our diversity to work as a collective in moving
forward the programme of moral regeneration that was launched in the Eastern
Cape by our former Deputy President Mr Jacob Zuma in 2003.
This is a programme that strives to restore and inculcate in our young
people a culture of accepted norms, high values and standards. A culture of
tolerance and acceptance. A culture of forgiveness and helpfulness that will
promote âUbuntuâ. Many reasons, justifications and excuses have been attributed
to the moral decay in our society. Scholars, researchers and people at large
have pointed to decay in morals to the challenges of poverty emanating from
unemployment.
Day in and day out, we are bombarded with news that a six months old baby
has been gang-raped by four young people aged 16 to 19 years old. As if that
was not enough, you would hear that an 85 year old grandfather has been mugged
and robbed of his pension grant by six young people within the ages of 14 to 18
years.
Today, we are asking a question, where are we heading to as people of this
country if we cannot protect our senior citizens? Where are we heading to as a
province if we see multitudes of young girls aged 14 to 19 queuing for a child
support grant? Where is our pride if all our jails are filled with young boys
in their early teens? Where are young and dedicated people like the late
Solomon Mahlangu and Hector Peterson who are to carry this lamp of leading this
country forward?
Indeed we are saying, let us come and reason together. It is time to change
our mindset. Now is the time to look back wards and emulate great examples of
young people who when everyone thought it was impossible marched through the
streets of Soweto demanding a better education and equality for all. Many of
them lost their lives.
We feel honoured today that we are reaping the rewards because of their
sacrifices. We are saying today, let us go back to a time where a young person
would respect an adult and an adult wonât abuse and neglect his children.
Today, we are rebuilding our morals. We are saying, instead of having our
teenagers carrying babies on their backs, they should be carrying books on
their backs. Instead of having young boys filling our jails, they should be
filling our classrooms. Instead of seeing our old people being robbed and
abused, we should be seeing them being loved and cared for.
We are here today to say, let us build a society that is free for all. A
society that longs to honour the vision that was envisaged by the stalwarts of
our democracy.
Let us build that society.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Social Development, Eastern Cape Provincial
Government
10 February 2006
Source: Department of Social Development, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
(http://www.socdev.ecprov.gov.za)
