Programme Director;
Honourable Premier of the North West Province: Mme Thandi Modise;
Your Worship the Mayor of Rustenburg Local Municipality: Cllr Mpho Khunou;
Councillors;
Magosi a a leng teng fano;
Chairpersons of Water Boards
General Manager of MTN Foundation; Mme Kusile Mtunzi-Hairwadzi;
Governmental officials
Members of School Governing Body;
Headmasters;
Educators;
Learners;
Members of the media;
Ladies and gentlemen
Dumelang Bagaetsho
I am indeed privileged to be here today, to celebrate the achievement of the three young girls Lerato Kobue, Ofentse Ngwato, Lesego Lekwati from Retlagona Primary School in Meriting community, North West province.
These three girls won the national prize of Baswa Le Meetse Award, poetry category. They did put North West Province on the Map as they scooped the national prize in a national competition whereby schools from nine provinces participated.
They won a big prize sponsored by MTN Foundation which is a media classroom to the value of R1, 8 million, consisting of 21 computers, fax machine and 3 in 1 printer, data projectors and internet service and a cash prize of R6 000.
A big thank you goes to the parents, educators and the principal for supporting them. If it was not for their hard work and love they wouldn’t have won. They deserve a big round of applause. Success is a result of commitment and ownership, determination, dedication amongst others.
This media classroom will take teaching and learning to another level at this school as the pass rate will improve drastically. South Africa is a better country today than it was twenty years back.
This success reminds us of wise words of the former president of the Republic of South Africa and father of our nation, Tata Madiba, who once said: I quote “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” Unquote.
Ladies and gentlemen, South Africa is a water scarce country which loses a lot of water through water leaks and inefficient use of water. Thus the implementation of national education and awareness about water conservation targeting all water users- households, schools, hospitals, hospitals, clinics, churches, car washers, hair salons, hotels, industries, farmers, mines amongst others. Water loss is a big challenge and we cannot address it alone, we need everybody. Water Conservation is everybody’s responsibility.
One of our public and awareness projects is called 2020 Vision which educates learners about water conservation, environmental conservation, climate change and promote careers in the water and environment sectors. This programme addresses these key challenges of water scarcity and water sector skills shortages in a sustainable way by educating and empowering learners on water conservation.
Baswa Le Meetse is one of the action projects of 2020 Vision. Grade six learners convey water conservation and health and hygiene messages through drama, traditional music, poetry, praise singing and posters. The competition starts from district, provincial and culminate to national level. The national competition is one of the activities of our national youth summit held in June annually. Retlagona Primary School became national winner of this national competition.
Bagaetsho, It is true that “Lore lo ojwa le sa le metsi”, meaning that we must teach our children responsibilities whilst they are still young so that when they grow old they should continue to respect, conserve and enjoy what we have taught them; which in this case, is to use water wisely.
Premier, allow me to outline the succeses of this programme in your province
- Since the inception of Baswa Le Meetse project, seven schools from North West won the national prize, this means that 100 computers are benefitting children from this province. 60 computers are benefitting children from Bojanala District Municipality.
- 1200 schools participated in different projects of the 2020 Vision programme
- Partnership with the Department of Education has been established
- Provided curriculum aligned educational resource materials to schools and capacitated educators from various schools
We still need to reach all schools in this province, involve the municipalities in this programme, curb the water leaks in all schools and also involve schools in the Adopt a River project. All winners of this project must be model schools in water conservation, waste management, environment conservation, greening, food gardens, thus my directive to the 2020 Vision team to implement Eco Schools Project which will realise this vision.
The 2020 vision team led by Mr Bogoshi and Mr Mabena will have to present to me a clear programme of action to address the latter mentioned challenges before end of this year. My office will coordinate that. I will give you a feedback Premier and we will discuss on how your office can also be involved.
In conclusion, allow me to appreciate the following:
- Premier, Mayors for attending this event to celebrate this achievement
- MTN Foundation for the continued support since the inception of the Baswa Le Meetse Project. One thousand two hundred computers to 45 schools nationally are connected to internet, equipped with maths and science programmes Learners from rural schools can now connect with the world. We are really grateful.
- Department of Education for supporting this programme;
- Water Boards for supporting us on all we need for this programme;
- Task team composed of representatives from various institutions which made this event so successful;
Mabogo Dinku A A Thebana (One hand washes the other.)
Khetsi Ya Tsie E Kgona Ke Go Tshwaraganelwa (Working Together We Can Do More)
Bagaetsho, Ke a leboga
