Each one! Teach one!
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Nobody can stop us!
Kick HIV! In our lifetime!
Program Director
Iinkosi Zwelakhe
Inkosi Zwelodumo
MEC for Education
Mayor of Engcobo Local Municipality, Cllr Jiyose
Speaker and your councillors present here
Reverend Dwangu
Mr Godfrey Ntoele
Officials from various government departments
Members of School governing body of Nyanga High School
Abazali kunye nabantu bokuhlala abalapha
Teachers and learners of Nyanga High School
All protocol observed
Ladies and gentlemen
Team, Department of Communications (DoC)
Today marks the day on which one of South Africa’s greatest political leaders and a global icon of wisdom and statesmanship was born apha eMvezo in Mthatha. I am, of course, talking about the leader eyanikela ubomi bayo kumzabalazo wenkululeko yomntu omnyama kweli lomzantsi Afrika.
Tata Madiba always stressed the importance of youth, and it’s no mistake that I’m standing in front of young people today. I want to stress that what we are here to talk about today is continuation of Tata Madiba’s work by opening up new opportunities to young people and inspiring them to take advantage of those opportunities.
Today’s launch also forms part of the comprehensive rural development programme led by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. Overall, the government has made good progress in providing electricity to rural areas, access to various radio stations and television channels, equal education opportunities, and free access to health care, ndingazibala kuze kuyovalwa. However, in this day and age, we need to pay special attention to providing communities and particularly the younger members of those communities with access to information and communication technologies.
These Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) are key not only to receiving services from the government but also to opening up new economic opportunities. We all know how many of our young people are unemployed today, and ICT skills offer them a way to access the work they need to build better lives.
In my budget vote in Parliament earlier this year, I spoke about how we are prioritising the provision of broadband connectivity to 1 650 schools as the first phase in the implementation of the National Connectivity Plan for Schools. This is a legacy project of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and aims to give schools access to ICT in order to strengthen and expand the learning and teaching processes, enable the sharing of educational resources and improve administration.
The Department of Communication is working closely with the Department of Basic Education to roll out this access to ICT to all schools as part of fulfilling our mandate to provide universal access to technology. We obviously cannot complete this massive task on our own, so partnerships with other departments like this one are obviously vital to our success.
I am happy to report that the service provider and sponsor Telkom, has already commenced with the installation of the wide area network (WAN) infrastructure and good progress has so far been made. Two hundred (200) schools in this province will benefit from this broadband provision in this financial year. We are hoping to complete this project by end of this year.
As we celebrate also the election of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma as the Chair of the AU Commission, we must recognise that rolling out technology is very time-consuming and needs everybody and all stakeholders to come on board, therefore I ask you all to be patient. It is very sad when people are dissatisfied about something, or demand to get something done for them by the government, and they go on a destruction spree. Batshise, badilize, babhodloze izinto ezikhoyo.
Alikho ke ikamva nesizwe esakhiwa eTarven, hlukanani neziyobisi kuba ziyalidodobalisa izinga lokucinga kwabantu, ubundlobongela nokuselwa imbeko is totally unacceptable and is pure hooliganism. If there are such elements, make sure u nail ezoo zigebenga and report those to the police ngoba they are literaly reversing the gains of freedom that Tata Madiba namanye ama qhawe omzabalazo fought for.
Program Director, we are here today to celebrate the delivery of ICT connectivity to one of the 1 650 schools I mentioned a minute ago: Nyanga High School. We are assembled here today to open a cyber-lab and hand over computers and other ICT end-user devices to the learners of Nyanga High School. This initiative is the DoCs contribution to the Department of Basic Education's 94+ Project for Madiba. The objective of the initiative is to celebrate Nelson Mandela's birthday and Legacy by giving hope and dignity to children in 94 schools across the country, through improvement in their school infrastructure.
This lab will give the learners and their teacher’s access to the Internet via a broadband connection. This connectivity will give both teachers and pupil’s access to a dedicated educational network and also to external environments. I see three main benefits:
- Firstly, this connectivity will enable a better flow of information between the school’s administrators and the Department of Education, as well as other schools. This will facilitate better administrative support for the school’s primary focus, which is the imparting of knowledge.
- The second benefit is the provision of a link between teachers here at Nyanga, their peers in other schools and the educational resources on the Internet. In this way, the project will help teachers to learn from each other, and learn about advances in the teaching profession internationally. Teachers have perhaps the most important job in the country ensuring that the next generation is prepared to take advantage of the fruits of our democracy and build a better South Africa and we hope they will use this resource wisely.
- The third and most important benefit is to give the pupils at Nyanga a way to connect with other pupils around South Africa and the world in order to learn from each other. The Internet, of course, is also a vast repository of information that pupils will find useful to supplement their schoolwork and to access information about future careers and so on. I’m sure I speak for all the teachers and parents here when I encourage them to benefit from this resource. However, I must add one word of caution: the Internet is a totally free environment, so the information it contains may not necessarily be objective or accurate. In order to use it well and it is a remarkable resource pupils must become discriminating, and learn how to assess the worth of any piece of information.
kuni bafundi baseNyanga, pls consider careers in the ICT sector when u leave school. This is a growing sector, and it’s a very exciting place to be working and we have a shortage of the right skills in this country. My department funds entities like National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa
(NEMISA), the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa, to train young people in the skills needed for digital media. And our E-Skills Institute is working with Walter Sisulu University focusing on the ICT development in the rural development sector.
My advice: Use your new link to the outside world to explore the opportunities available in the ICT sector, and begin to find out what skills you need to build yourselves interesting and profitable careers!
Mr Mayor, I would like now briefly to touch on the Digital Migration programme that will be launched by the 3rd quarter of this year. This programme aims to take the country successfully from an analogue broadcasting environment to a digital one. We have begun a campaign to educate the public about this migration, and it is also important to note that the department, through Sentech, has deployed the necessary infrastructure to cover 60% of the population already. We therefore urge u to invite us to your Integrated Development Plan (IDP) processes so that we help you deliver on it.
The advent of digital television opens up new possibilities for us all, but I particularly want to mention two that relate to the young people we have with us here today.
Digital broadcasting will mean an increase in the number of television channels. These channels will all require content, and we are committed to providing much of that content locally. This development opens up new job opportunities for young people with skills in this area for example animation movies, graphic and application designs for tablets and computers.
As part of this digital migration, we have created an integrated mechanism to provide citizens with set-top boxes that will enable them to receive the new digital signals on their existing television sets. In March this year, Cabinet approved a Scheme of Ownership Support to help needy households purchase these set-top boxes.
Cabinet has also approved the Electronics Manufacturing sector strategy for the manufacture of set top boxes. The strategy aims to facilitate the entry of 1 000 small, medium and micro enterprises into the electronics manufacturing sector in order to manufacture these set-top boxes. This is another business opportunity for all South Africans with the right skills. I should add that we have established an ICT incubator here in East London to provide aspirant ICT entrepreneurs with coaching in business skills.
To the School Governing Body (SGB) and communities here, I now leave these computers under your care, their effective use depend on you. As government we have done our part now it's your turn to do your part.
Nkosi Zwelakhe, Nelson Mandela showed us what a person can achieve through determination and hard work. He and his comrades gave selflessly to increase the opportunities that are available to young South Africans today.
I thank you on behalf of the Department of Communications and the government for sharing this special day with us here at Nyanga High School, and I hope that this school will become an example of how we as people can seize the opportunities that are offered to us, and to build a great nation that will make Tata Madiba proud.
Happy birthday Madiba!
