Apostle Simon Mokoena
Fellow Christians
Le sechaba sa Bloem ka bophara,
Thank you for inviting me to the 2011 Youth Conference of the Tyrannus Apostolic Church. It is a singular honour to be here among fellow Christians who love God and humanity.
When I was a little girl, I wished I was old enough to run my life, to take charge of my future, my fate and my destiny. The feeling burnt deep inside of me to be the captain of my soul.
Every young person has this urge. But my mama used to tell me that ‘child, when you grow up, you will say – how I wish I was a little girl!’. At school and in church, the same was said to me by my teachers and my pastors.
Here I am, today, standing unshaken in front of you on this blessed Sunday. I want to tell you your time will come. You must be patient. There is a time for everything.
The Holy Scriptures say, in Ecclesiastes (3):
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,...
a time to tear down and a time to build,...
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
This is “a time to plant”. It is a season “to build” and “to mend”. This is my message to you. It is the message the President said we must convey to you.
All we want to see are these beautiful young faces in school, in class, everyday, learning, in the true sense of the word.
Your thirst for education and your courage to say ‘this is a time for education’, will help us to instruct teachers to deliver better education to you.
Your teachers will understand better that there is a time to teach when there are dedicated learners who say this is our time for learning. I know that some of you, especially those in High School, are fascinated by William Shakespeare.
Never mind his old and ‘betimes’ unfathomable language, what he says is very relevant to our destiny and our success.
Shakespeare has Cassius say, in Julius Caesar: “Men at times are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
Yes, our context of schooling and worshipping unfolds in a political and cultural landscape. Yet we cannot sit back, fold our arms helplessly, and say, ‘there’s nothing we can do about it’ or ‘vele rona ko gae re madi mabe’. There’s no such a thing. For if there was, we would not have fought for freedom.
We could have probably folded our arms and joined those who were saying maburu ke dikgosi. Even Christ did not say because the heathens persecute the children of God, he is not going to preach the word of God. I appeal to everybody here, young and old, to take charge of their lives.
For this year’s Women’s Month, I want to say to mothers, sisters and young girls, that the ANC Women’s League is yours to use in such a manner that it improves your lives, in such a manner that it contributes to making our schools work.
August is the month to focus on enhancing opportunities for women. This can be done, and will be done, only if you all believe, only if you accept that the fault “is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
Like the teacher I am, I want to remind you what are “underlings” Cassius talks about.
They are oppressed souls, the downtrodden, the subjects without a voice and with no say.
A great psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon, who spent time in Algeria fighting against the status of being a “petty men”, said the underlings were “the wretched of the earth”.
I believe, no one here wants to be an underling. Nobody deserves a “wretched” life. The key is in your hands. You have the time. You have parents and guardians.
You have a very dedicated and resourceful Apostle. You have no-fee schools. You have a school nutrition programme that provides a decent meal so that you can concentrate better.
You can’t take the nearest window out of school because we’ve illegalised corporal punishment. Your government is spending a huge chunk of the national budget on education, to expand your chances for learning.
The Constitution of the Republic gives you the right to education. It protects religious freedom so we can choose a church we want. Choice is central. It is the make-or-break. You have a choice to say I want to learn.
You can choose to be a God-fearing child who honours his mother and father so that her days can be longer. Every parent wants you to learn.
The simplest way to honour your parent or your guardian, or your granny, is to get education.
In getting education there is a promise of getting a better life, a life free from poverty, crime, unemployment, disease and underdevelopment.
The choice for education is a choice for life. With education you know you can stay far from deadly trappings of the adult world. There’s AIDS everywhere! This is not “a time to die”. It is “a time to plant” the seed for better education and justice for all.
This you should know with the wealth of information from government, churches and community-based organisations. This is a time to learn and live.
“There is a time for everything”. This is the time for each parent to act like a parent. An ideal parent gives children education, ensures knives and drugs are not brought to school. For parents, this is “a time to plant” the seeds for a better life.
“There is a time for everything”. This is also the time for each teacher to act like a teacher. A loyal teacher goes to school every day and spends every second in class, teaching.
A bad principal is a recipe for disaster. And thus we have taken a conscious decision to review the manner in which we choose principals for you. This is a time for principals who perform.
This is not “a time to tear”. It is “a time to mend”, a time to extend to the African child equal opportunities and lifelong benefits of education.
This is a time to stand together, to work together to make education a societal issue. The Tyrannus Apostolic Church has taken an important step. You chose education. ‘Thank you’ for dedicating this time to the youth and to progress.
‘Thank you’ Apostle Mokoena, for leading by example. You were right when you said: “The church has the responsibility to take care of the needy. This gesture is to show that there is a God and that He doesn’t forsake His children.”
Education is the best way of reaching people and reviving lives. Years from now, we should be able to say that through the Youth Conference we have changed lives of “underlings”; that we have produced professors, mathematicians, accountants, historians, great writers and world-renowned economists.
Lastly, I challenge Tyrannus to use its Television Ministry to help us build community support for education. You’ve done a lot as a church to uplift the people. You’ve financed the education of graduates like Tebogo Mokoena and have reached out to orphans with no food to eat. If we work together we can do more for a better life for all. I thank you.
Source: Department of Basic Education
