The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Finance, Ms Ina Cronjé, has encouraged elderly people at Inhlazuka (Richmond Municipality) to use every available opportunity to educate themselves so that they would be on par with new developments around them in society.
Speaking as uMgungundlovu District Political Champion, MEC Cronjé was addressing local people who converged in the area to launch the Literacy Day. She said it is important for everybody to be literate so that they can be able to read, and count their money. Ms Cronjé said as the leading department, the provincial Department of Education has identified Inhlazuka as one of the areas with high rate of the illiteracy in the district. She explained that government was on a mission to mobilise all the people who were deprived of opportunities to get access to education in the past.
Speaking on behalf of the Department of Education, Mr Muzi Mahlambi (0825191420) the Senior Manager for Adult Education and Training said that “realising that education is a societal issue, and seeing the challenge that there are people who are illiterate, we made a submission to the cabinet that this year’s literacy celebrations must be staged under the auspices of Operation Sukuma Sakhe in all eleven districts with political champions presiding, and all departments participating in a form of operation Mbo (all departments working together in the same area).”
Mahlambi went on and said that “there are immediate benefits of working in an integrated model because departments that would not necessary know about the adult education programme now know and they are able to promote the programme in their respective departments.”
Speaking at the function Deputy Mayor of Richmond, Ms Philile Ngcobo (0725829349) said that “this is a good project because even if you did not get an opportunity in the past to educate yourself but now this programme opens opportunities for every one young and old, especially because most people in Richmond were involved in political violence in the past and most of them did not get an opportunity to go to school. At list this programme enables to read and write.”
The local Inkosi, Moyeni Mkhize, expressed his excitement over this programme saying that it will go a long way to eradicate illiteracy in the area.
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