Keynote address at Injongo Primary School Media Classroom handover by Deputy Minister, Ms Pamela Tshwete, Khayelitsha, Cape Town
Programme Director,
MTN Foundation South Africa
The School Principal and Educators
School Governing Body Members
Local Councillors
Religious and Political Leaders
Parents and Learners
Regional Director (Mr Khan) and all Government Officials
Ladies and gentlemen
Molweni. Let me take this opportunity and greet you all in the name of the Department of Water and Sanitation and MTN Foundation our Baswa Le Meetse sponsor.
Ndicela nokunamkela egameni labazali, abafundi nootitshala bonke besikolo Injongo Primary School.
Mandilithathe kwakhona elithuba ndamkele kakhule abahlali ngokubanzi iindwendwe zethu eziphuma kwezinye izikolo.
Ndiyathemba ukuba nabo bazakufunda kulomzekelo wanamhlanje umhlekangakanana.
In recognition of the Women’s Month in the calendar of our country let me also recognise the women who are together with us especially those women who in the bringing up of their children sang with their babies.
The Injongo Primary School are the 2016 winners of the Music Category of Baswa Le Meetse. These are the children growing up sang with their parents. I today salute all those mothers.
The MTN Foundation support to and association with schools under the Baswa Le Meetse programme has gone a long way in empowering our schools through the use of technology.
You are today joining many schools who got this award before and your situation will also improve. Society rewards winners and the people follow winners and hence MTN Foundation and the Department of Water and Sanitation are here.
Congratulations to all in the Injongo Primary School family on their Award winning of the Media Classroom by MTN Foundation.
I must highlight that the Media Classroom is the first prize following the excellent performance in Music Category which saw them being position number one in this category.
The school also came into the second position in Drama Category in which my Department has awarded them cash amounting to R11, 000.00.
The first Western Cape Media Classroom Award under the Poetry category was given to Hibernia Primary School in 2011. This is a school from George.
The second Western Cape Media Classroom Award was under the Poster category was given to Amstelhof Primary School in 2015. Amstelhof Primary is a school from Paarl.
In order to improve our living conditions we must always work harder and position ourselves ahead of others in any race or competition.
Smart people and successful organisations set targets for themselves in order to achieve their goals and objectives in life within time and with good results.
Voluntarily you selected to be counted in the struggle against water loses, against degradation of the environment, against pollution of the water resource.
Your struggle has been a struggle for a responsible water resource management, a struggle about ensuring sustainability of water supply and about provision of water to all.
The Baswa Le MeetseAwards (Youth in Water Awards) is aimed at recognizing the role of learners in awareness campaigns related to water security, promotion of health and hygiene, stimulation of youth interest in water and sanitation related careers and promotion of cultural diversity by all South African national groups.
We are here today to celebrate with you because this is your own achievement and in recognition of your hard work it has been donated to you by the Department of Water and Sanitation and MTN Foundation, but please remember that it is your hard work Award.
No other school anywhere in this country will achieve a Media Classroom Award unless that school selects the route to participate in this struggle you have selected for yourselves.
Ladies and gentlemen you will also remember that the Department of Basic Education allocates Learner Support Material to all schools in the country.
The Department of Basic Education allocates books, stationary and desks to all South Africa schools.
We do not celebrate for these allocations because they are not achievements but given to all schools as a standard practice. We only celebrate with the winners.
This Media Classroom must ensure that your lives are improved. Through this Media Classroom you must learn more about the water and sanitation situation in the country and in particular here in the Western Cape and share that information with your communities and otherschools.
Your teachers, through this Media Classroom must improve the teaching content and research capability of the school to improve the level of quality teaching and learning.
All learners in this school must through this Media Classroom do research to present better school projects and improve their academic achievements and provide better clarity in the course content of the subjects they do.
The community must use this Media Classroom and assist the school to communicate with all parents and other stakeholders of the school.
Most importantly is that, the municipalityand government departments can also email messages to the school and those messages could be relayed through learners to reach the community.
What I have explained above means that this facility should remain very important to this community because it has a potential to benefit the entire community.
I will also from time to time sendmessages from parliament to all of you through this Media Classroom facility.
This facility is an important asset of this community and therefore, it must be protected from criminals and vandals.
It must be protected from cyber thieves and it must be protected from jealouse people.
In this community like other communities there are people who do not like progress and development. For example, when they want a clinic built in their community, or they want a community meeting with the local Councillor they burn and destroy an existing school.
We must teach them to communicate and forward their demands through proper channels and to the relevant authorities without destroying infrastructure.
We must cause them to appreciate good and modern innovations we are making as part of transforming our country.
You must allow those who want to learn from your best practices and experienceslearn without any obstacles. You must be careful of those who may want to destroy what you have achieved.
Although we celebrate here today you will recall that the whole of the Western Cape is still going through serious water shortages caused by the severe drought conditions.
The water and sanitation infrastructure requires the Western Cape Water Supply System to accommodate large volumes of storage particularly developing communities such as Khayelitsha.
We need more technical people to manage and maintain the water and sanitation infrastructure. This community must also produce plumbers, water agents, electricians and technicians who would assist in the maintenance of the water and sanitation infrastructure.
Water must be used sparingly. We cannot afford leaking taps in our homes, schools, clinics and other public or private facilities.
Here in Khayelitsha, the department has in 2015/2016 recruited 96 young people to be trained as artisans and water agents as part of the War on Leaks Programme.
These young people have completed the theoretical training and have now been placed on experiential training within the City of Cape Town Metro, Transnet and in the Non Governmental Organisation called ZEST.
We want more young people to join the War on Leaks Programme which is another attempt to save water through public education and maintenance of the old infrastructure.
The water and sanitation infrastructure in most municipalities is old and dilapidated.
- We still need additional technology that will help us provide water more efficiently.
- We do not have better technology to easily dispose human waste in our waste water treatment works.
- Our funding resources are also limited to rollout water and sanitation services to all communities.
- We need more qualified engineers to develop and maintain the current infrastructure.
I want to call upon you our children of this country to take education very seriously in order to change our country and the world and build a better life for all.
We must all ensure that we never lose a single academic year in our education and training careers because the more we lose a year, the more resources are wasted by both our parents and government.
This is a loss of our ability as a nation to produce the so much needed technical careers that has the potential to create new jobs.
These delays will result in poor service delivery, loss of more water through lack of poor maintenance and loss of financial resources through exorbitant rates by private service providers.
To all parents present here today I want to say education is the greatest investment most needed by our country and it is a life time gift for your child.
Chairperson, allow me to once again thank MTN Foundation our sponsor for being so kind and generous to the cause to save water.
Without them we would not have covered so many schools with these technological innovations in our Media Classrooms.
You must all remember that the MTN Foundation Media Classroom Award means that twenty (21) computers are donated to one school and they are all loaded with educational software, an interactive white board, data-bundles for a 24 months contract, computer lab desks and chairs.
The Media Classroom we have handed over today is also fitted with a security system and a plaque giving a brief history of this Award.
As I have said before we must all look after this facility in the name of the Department of Water and Sanitation, MTN Foundation, the learners and all the educators who made this day possible.
We must support this one initiative in order to encourage our educators and our parents to plan more projects and activities that will develop the school to greater heights and compete and participate equally with schools in the suburbs and private schools.
Please enjoy this facility and ensure that it makes a difference in this school in particular and the Khayelitsha community in general.
Enkosi
