I remember last month walking past the post office in Schoemansdal; I asked a grade 11 learner if he knew who the Deputy President of the country was. To my surprise he thought for a moment and responded saying: “No.”

She is a powerful woman; since she became Deputy President she had been busy with the likes of ASGISA and JISPA, last week she delivered a powerful speech encouraging learners. I have been contemplating around the points she was making, many of them have been articulated by Patriot Mandla_ from Boschfontein.

“I look around me and see a promise that can benefit our beloved country. Our country is alive with possibilities and opportunities, especially with our youth.” She said. She also emphasised the importance of completing education, Pity because people are not serious about education, all they know is falling pregnant at a tender age. She stressed that women hold the key to end poverty. I should have asked her about the government grants, because in many gatherings I have attended in Nkomazi the grants are denounced by many, contending that it is the major cause pregnancy.

“Without educated women we are doomed, and if women are poor we can never alleviate poverty in the world.” She added on. She also said that sustainability of our country depended upon the youth’s contributions, its future and that of the country. If she knew that the youth we have does not value being youth she would never have uttered those words, but it was easy because she said this in Durban where the level of poverty is minimal. What touched me much in her speech was when she said, “The youth are the leaders in the making, especially in the fields of technology, arts, sports, and in the fight against HIV and Aids.”

On the same breath we must know that the same youth are destroyers of technology (theft), are anti sports, and are kingpins in the spreading of HIV. Why do I say so, because they are reckless, many of them have many girl friends yet they never use condoms, many of them love “one night stands”. Young girls give sex in exchange for money without any feeling of remorse.

Yes, a grade eleven learner does not know or even care to know the Deputy President, they say knowing her is politics. What is politics by the way, maybe we should give lectures to the nation on what politics is and what it is not.

Lastly, the youth must never seat in the “comfort zone” because they will never know what they are capable of. When it is time to face the world one must face the world.

Regards,
Sabelo G