Date: 24/02/2004
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: N Mahlangu: Opening of Mpumalanga Central Reference Library, 24 Feb
PREMIER NJ MAHLANGU's SPEECH AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE PROVINCIAL REFERENCE LIBRARY, Riverside Government Complex, 24 February 2004
Programme Director
Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture MEC, Sibongile Manana
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and gentlemen.
A very warm welcome to the official opening of the Provincial Reference Library. We are very privileged that one of the country's leading storytellers, Gcina Mhlope, and many distinguished guests are gathered here with us today for this joyous occasion.
Let me from the outset express my appreciation, and I'm sure that of everyone here, to every single one who was involved in this venture. Some may no longer be with us. But allow me to single out the International Society for Krishna Consciousness for the kind donation they are going to make here today.
Their continuing generosity to this library and to our province is little short of phenomenal. We are grateful that we have such good friends and that we have no shortage of great ideas. We hope this library will grow to become a national resource supporting the teaching and research needs of all the people of this country.
Who knows one day it might become an international and global collection. Indeed it is my fervent hope that this library will be a place where intellectual appetite is whetted. It is must be like a fitness centre for the brain and for those who have to look after countless volumes and thousands of readers, it may well be a fitness centre for the body too.
The Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture is surely entitled to be proud of the Provincial Reference Library. Particularly when one considers that they moved from a blank sheet of paper, where they wrote down plans for the library, to opening these today.
Let us remember this library is merely a repository of knowledge. It is a place where books are kept. It may remain a passive and empty monument in which books are kept, or it may come to life offering a wellspring of information, knowledge and opportunities.
The choice lies in every individual's heart. Please use it. As public servants all of us need to use it so that we can broaden our horizons of understanding. Not everyone who uses this library will find the answers to their questions but we need them to try.
Not everyone who uses this library will get things right but we will hopefully learn from what they get wrong. Every student, every scholar who commits to the adventure of learning will help themselves and the rest of us to answer the big and small questions, which keep us fascinated by life itself.
That this new Library greatly strengthens government's range of services is obvious but it also puts a great new resource at the heart of Mpumalanga's drive to become a centre of gravity in scholarly research. Many researchers are going to be eternally grateful that we cut the ribbon to this place today.
What pleases me is that this project has succeeded in addressing some of our concerns as government - access to knowledge and opening the doors of learning and culture. That to me is progress on the promise we made when we took the reigns after the 1994 elections - the creation of a better life for all.
When we opened the Legislature in February this year we announced that we could look back at the past years as years of big promises and great achievements. Indeed they are years of great achievements because we have spared no effort in addressing the educational and vocational needs of our children.
We have indeed moved to a position where we can safely say that we have made gains by laying a framework that has gone a long way towards ironing out the creases around the acquisition of high quality education. In the past 10 years since our country's first democratic elections, we have moved away from a fragmented, racially-based and inferior education system to one that is democratic and inclusive.
The opening of this library expresses the fact that indeed we have succeeded in opening the vistas of knowledge and opportunity to all the people of this province. Apartheid's unjust denial of education to so many of our people has resulted in an adult population that is in the main illiterate or semi-illiterate, unskilled or semi-skilled.
That is why they cannot find employment and can thus not move out of the depths of poverty apartheid confined them to. When we took over we took over almost 10 years ago, we set ourselves the noble goal of create a better life for all our people.
These included getting rid of a system education that had forever sought to make black people perpetual hewers of wood and drawers of water. It was an education that hoped to enslave our people and "develop" them no further than to be servants of those who thought they would rule over us forever.
Thanks to the contract we signed with our people, black and white, we were able to move our country out of the depth of catastrophe. Today we walk proud amongst the nations of the world as equal.
When we set ourselves the task of raising the level of our people's education, skills, experience and understanding of the world, we knew it was going to be an uphill struggle. But we did not despair.
Today we can proudly look back at a decade during which we prioritised the education of our children. Yes, we gave priority to developing human resources. Programme Director, we are on the brink of a new beginning with a chance to build on our previous successes and begin to launch a further onslaught on illiteracy and ignorance.
Education, training and skills development are key foundations of social and economic progress, and preconditions for addressing inequality and division in society. This was acknowledged by Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, when he delivered the country's budget last Wednesday. He pointed out that countrywide over the past decade school education numbers have grown by 1,5 million to some 12 million.
And that we had launched a skills development strategy, established 25 sector education and training authorities (SETAs), registered 478 learnership programmes, enrolled 70 000 learners and an estimated 29 per cent of workers underwent training in 2002/03.
All these points to a government that is serious about lifting the living standards of its people through education, including further education and continuous learning. Over the decade ahead, investment in the quality of education and promotion of work-related training opportunities will remain amongst the foremost priorities of Government.
That is why we need to develop skills and enhance vocational training. In this way, we may all come on board to create a more productive and more prosperous country. It is important that we continue to set higher standards in our education system. This will enable us to compete as equals in a globalised world.
But the ingredients for faster progress on all fronts of our work are there. The primary one among these is our collective appreciation that no one, and no one, can do for us what we should do for ourselves. Together as a people, we have made great strides.
The successes we have achieved make the clear statement that acting together, we can and shall continue to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life. As I declare this library officially open, I wish to impress upon all of us gathered to witness, that the power of knowledge lies always within our grasp.
It is up to us to reach out and touch it. With these words, I declare this library officially open.
I thank you.
Issued by: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
24 February 2004
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: N Mahlangu: Opening of Mpumalanga Central Reference Library, 24 Feb
PREMIER NJ MAHLANGU's SPEECH AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE PROVINCIAL REFERENCE LIBRARY, Riverside Government Complex, 24 February 2004
Programme Director
Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture MEC, Sibongile Manana
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and gentlemen.
A very warm welcome to the official opening of the Provincial Reference Library. We are very privileged that one of the country's leading storytellers, Gcina Mhlope, and many distinguished guests are gathered here with us today for this joyous occasion.
Let me from the outset express my appreciation, and I'm sure that of everyone here, to every single one who was involved in this venture. Some may no longer be with us. But allow me to single out the International Society for Krishna Consciousness for the kind donation they are going to make here today.
Their continuing generosity to this library and to our province is little short of phenomenal. We are grateful that we have such good friends and that we have no shortage of great ideas. We hope this library will grow to become a national resource supporting the teaching and research needs of all the people of this country.
Who knows one day it might become an international and global collection. Indeed it is my fervent hope that this library will be a place where intellectual appetite is whetted. It is must be like a fitness centre for the brain and for those who have to look after countless volumes and thousands of readers, it may well be a fitness centre for the body too.
The Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture is surely entitled to be proud of the Provincial Reference Library. Particularly when one considers that they moved from a blank sheet of paper, where they wrote down plans for the library, to opening these today.
Let us remember this library is merely a repository of knowledge. It is a place where books are kept. It may remain a passive and empty monument in which books are kept, or it may come to life offering a wellspring of information, knowledge and opportunities.
The choice lies in every individual's heart. Please use it. As public servants all of us need to use it so that we can broaden our horizons of understanding. Not everyone who uses this library will find the answers to their questions but we need them to try.
Not everyone who uses this library will get things right but we will hopefully learn from what they get wrong. Every student, every scholar who commits to the adventure of learning will help themselves and the rest of us to answer the big and small questions, which keep us fascinated by life itself.
That this new Library greatly strengthens government's range of services is obvious but it also puts a great new resource at the heart of Mpumalanga's drive to become a centre of gravity in scholarly research. Many researchers are going to be eternally grateful that we cut the ribbon to this place today.
What pleases me is that this project has succeeded in addressing some of our concerns as government - access to knowledge and opening the doors of learning and culture. That to me is progress on the promise we made when we took the reigns after the 1994 elections - the creation of a better life for all.
When we opened the Legislature in February this year we announced that we could look back at the past years as years of big promises and great achievements. Indeed they are years of great achievements because we have spared no effort in addressing the educational and vocational needs of our children.
We have indeed moved to a position where we can safely say that we have made gains by laying a framework that has gone a long way towards ironing out the creases around the acquisition of high quality education. In the past 10 years since our country's first democratic elections, we have moved away from a fragmented, racially-based and inferior education system to one that is democratic and inclusive.
The opening of this library expresses the fact that indeed we have succeeded in opening the vistas of knowledge and opportunity to all the people of this province. Apartheid's unjust denial of education to so many of our people has resulted in an adult population that is in the main illiterate or semi-illiterate, unskilled or semi-skilled.
That is why they cannot find employment and can thus not move out of the depths of poverty apartheid confined them to. When we took over we took over almost 10 years ago, we set ourselves the noble goal of create a better life for all our people.
These included getting rid of a system education that had forever sought to make black people perpetual hewers of wood and drawers of water. It was an education that hoped to enslave our people and "develop" them no further than to be servants of those who thought they would rule over us forever.
Thanks to the contract we signed with our people, black and white, we were able to move our country out of the depth of catastrophe. Today we walk proud amongst the nations of the world as equal.
When we set ourselves the task of raising the level of our people's education, skills, experience and understanding of the world, we knew it was going to be an uphill struggle. But we did not despair.
Today we can proudly look back at a decade during which we prioritised the education of our children. Yes, we gave priority to developing human resources. Programme Director, we are on the brink of a new beginning with a chance to build on our previous successes and begin to launch a further onslaught on illiteracy and ignorance.
Education, training and skills development are key foundations of social and economic progress, and preconditions for addressing inequality and division in society. This was acknowledged by Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, when he delivered the country's budget last Wednesday. He pointed out that countrywide over the past decade school education numbers have grown by 1,5 million to some 12 million.
And that we had launched a skills development strategy, established 25 sector education and training authorities (SETAs), registered 478 learnership programmes, enrolled 70 000 learners and an estimated 29 per cent of workers underwent training in 2002/03.
All these points to a government that is serious about lifting the living standards of its people through education, including further education and continuous learning. Over the decade ahead, investment in the quality of education and promotion of work-related training opportunities will remain amongst the foremost priorities of Government.
That is why we need to develop skills and enhance vocational training. In this way, we may all come on board to create a more productive and more prosperous country. It is important that we continue to set higher standards in our education system. This will enable us to compete as equals in a globalised world.
But the ingredients for faster progress on all fronts of our work are there. The primary one among these is our collective appreciation that no one, and no one, can do for us what we should do for ourselves. Together as a people, we have made great strides.
The successes we have achieved make the clear statement that acting together, we can and shall continue to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life. As I declare this library officially open, I wish to impress upon all of us gathered to witness, that the power of knowledge lies always within our grasp.
It is up to us to reach out and touch it. With these words, I declare this library officially open.
I thank you.
Issued by: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
24 February 2004
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