Programme director, Mr Mdluli
Members of the Limpopo Legislature
The HOD and his team
Staff and Extension advisory officials
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, the youngest ever receiver of the Prize, Martin Luther King junior said in 10 December 1964; “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self- centred men have torn down, men other-centred can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and non-violent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.”
Program director, friends, ladies and gentlemen, we meet here tonight to celebrate achievements, perseverance and positive minds. You have witnessed here men and women who on their daily life will never make the headlines of tomorrow’s newspapers. Their names will by the end of the night have been forgotten. These men and women are the ones that make sure that we eat the food we are going to enjoy hereafter. They are the ones who are the coal front of the beginning. That’s why I agree with the Reverend martin Luther King Junior when he said; “You honour the ground crew without labour and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headlines and their names will not appear in who’s who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvellous age in which we live, men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization, because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness’ sake”.
How true these words sound tonight. My humble appeal is that these awards, coupled with the departmental excellence awards should say to those who are still coming you can do better. That woman who makes your tea, the man that watches over your vehicles, the lady that cleans your toilet, are as important as you who sit in the office with a tie and a pen. In actual fact, our work as agriculture is more in the field than in the office.
In conclusion, I wish to thank the organisers and the winners of the awards for excellence. Let’s meet next year on a better page and bigger issues.
Congratulations.
Source: Limpopo Agriculture
Province
