Date: 12/04/2006
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: Fundraising Gala Dinner of Community Plough Back Movement
Address delivered by the Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the Fundraising Gala Dinner of the Community Plough Back Movement (CPBM) at the Civic Centre, Cape Town
Mayor of Cape Town, Hellen Zille,
MEC for Education, Cameron Dugmore,
MEC for Sport and Cultural Affairs, PM Jacobs,
Chairperson of CPBM, Professor Nomvula Mtetwa,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be with you tonight at this splendid gala dinner organised by the Community Plough Back Movement (CPBM). This event plays an important role in our communities in fostering the spirit of Batho Pele and Vuk'uzenzele.
There is an African saying among the Nguni and Sotho speaking people which says "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" or "Motho ke motho kabatho". When directly translated into English it means that "A person is a person because of other people". But, I believe this saying is deeper and more profound than that.
It tells us of the interconnectedness and dependency of people towards each other. This saying instructs us that our existence is dependent upon other people. Our successes are due to the role that our communities have played in nurturing and developing us. It speaks about the need for us to have a sense of community spirit as people. It says community members must play a constructive role towards the development of their communities. It also tells us about the need to give back to our communities what they have given us.
Firmly embedded in this saying is an injunction that, without the support of other people, our existence is meaningless. It instructs us that we have a central role to play in the empowerment of our communities, who are mostly poor and destitute.
Our country's past and the history of dispossession and neglect that took place under apartheid means that most communities today still find themselves at the receiving end, are afflicted by poverty, want and unemployment. As people who come from previously disadvantaged backgrounds there is a need for us to rekindle the spirit of self reliance, self help, and community involvement in order to deal with the eradication of the legacy of apartheid.
This gala dinner is a reminder to all of us, as members of different communities, that most of us are the products of our own communities; and that we are what we are today because of those communities
I am therefore happy to attend an event of this nature, which seeks to ensure that those people who have made it and are successful in their various fields and professions can contribute to the development of the communities they come from.
This function tonight also reminds us of what many poor African communities across the continent have been engaged in through efforts like the "Harambee projects" that were developed in countries like Kenya where the people are engaged in similar projects of "pulling together" and uniting in order to raise funds to be used in community development projects.
The main aim of the "Harambee projects" is to create significant and sustainable improvements in the levels of both educational opportunity and achievement so as to provide increased access to economic self-advancement by impoverished rural communities - where they provide and maintain physical infrastructure for schools, provide educational materials for schools, improve the ability of schools and communities to maximise their available resources through greater efficiency, co-operation and communication, and to make this process sustainable.
In Kenya such a project draws money from outside sources, relying on foreign donors, whereas with our similar actions, including what we are doing here through the Community Plough Back Movement, is that we look for the funds internally, from our own people. We also believe that it is not only funds that we are looking. We also want to tap into the skills, expertise and other resources at our disposal, which puts our chances of success at an advantage.
Professor Mtetwa, we are therefore glad when members of the community are seen taking up the gauntlet and doing something to ensure that the most desperate, the most needy, are given an opportunity to rise out of their unfortunate circumstances, through the efforts of the Community Plough Back Movement. Those who have a certain level of education, skills and resources can use those in the betterment of the lives of the majority of the people as a whole. This is in line, as well, with the promotion of our African heritage of people caring for each other; it shows that indeed we are what we are because of other people.
When the President opened Parliament this year he correctly characterised our age as being the "Age of Hope". In that declaration the President was making a call on all of us to play our meaningful role towards making that age of hope a reality. We must give meaning to what the President was saying from the point of view of government. We have different initiatives running in South Africa, and indeed need more, to make sure that we live up to that injunction.
We must try to ensure that our youth in particular are looked after and their conditions changed for the better. It is because of this that on 16 June this year we will be re-launching the National Youth Service Programme in order to deal with challenges that face our young people.
The National Youth Service Programme (NYSP) is a Special Presidential Programme, mandated to facilitate the implementation of National Youth Service in South Africa. The objective of the NYSP is to involve young people in community service to help build a nation and, at the same time, acquire skills that enhance their career opportunities.
In his 2006 State of the Nation Address, President Mbeki announced that "Among other things during the next financial year we will enrol at least 10 000 young people in the National Youth Service Programme and enrol 5 000 volunteers to act as mentors to vulnerable children."
This programme is part of the myriad responses to the challenge of youth development. In addition to the volunteer-based youth service initiative, we are accelerating the implementation of employment-based youth service in order to impact on the rate of unemployment among youth.
Among the people we target to participate in this programme are tertiary students, who should also be part of our home-grown Harambee initiatives. Students will benefit by doing community service (and in turn benefit their communities) in that they will gain work experience, which will enhance their chances of finding work when they graduate.
In practical terms we want students to go back to their communities and start volunteering their time and skills to improve the lives of the poor and vulnerable in their communities.
For instance there is no reason that stops young people who are studying agriculture from going to rural communities to plough back their skills in the form of helping small crop farmers by teaching them about crop rotation, animal care and water harvesting.
There is nothing stopping those students doing accounting from helping non-governmental organisations (NGOs) existing in their communities with accounting skills or helping spaza shop owners in financial management and accounting skills, so that their businesses can grow.
We want students who are studying town planning to assist in their municipalities or in rural municipalities with their skills and knowledge for the benefit of those rural municipalities. They should share knowledge on human settlement planning and integrated development planning.
The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) has as its central pillar an objective of developing our economy by 6% in order to halve the rate of unemployment and poverty.
For this to happen we will need to develop the skills level and capacity of our people so that they can acquire skills that will help our economy to achieve the growth rate we require.
One of the interventions of AsgiSA is around the issue of skills development, hence we have launched the Joint Initiatives on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) which will look specifically at developing scarce and priority skills. I believe that our JIPSA ties in perfectly with the objectives of your organisation of trying "to deal with disintegration of our communities, especially around the education system and the general moral degeneration".
When we were consulting around AsgiSA the youth sector agreed with government that Business Process Outsourcing, Bio-Fuels, Agro-processing, Tourism and Minerals Beneficiation have enormous opportunities for young South Africans. In the short, medium and long terms, we will be keeping track of, and increasing, the number of people benefiting from these opportunities.
It raises our hopes, therefore, to note that the Community Plough Back Movement will also deal with issues of youth empowerment and capacity building. The wealth of experience that lies among your board of directors is encouraging and we hope you will play a meaningful role in helping us to develop the scarce skills we are talking about.
We hope that what this organisation is doing here today will be emulated all over the country and we will see a rise of community organisations infused with the same spirit of vuk’uzenzele, letsema, and Batho Pele. We hope this effort will inspire among our people the new patriotism that our country so greatly needs.
Our objective is to ensure that development taking place in our country should be based on a strong partnership between all sectors of our society, which includes all components of the private-public partnerships. It should be based on strong community participation; there must be strategic interventions geared towards ensuring that we meet these goals.
We look forward to working closely with you, particularly around JIPSA where we have a common interest in developing the skills capacity and entrepreneurial skills of our young people. It is only when we work together with a common direction - "united in our diversity", as the Preamble to our Constitution puts it so aptly -that we can really deal with the challenges that face our country.
Let us vigorously press ahead in this cause, inspired by efforts such as those which we salute on this occasion.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
13 April 2006
Source: SAPA
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: Fundraising Gala Dinner of Community Plough Back Movement
Address delivered by the Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the Fundraising Gala Dinner of the Community Plough Back Movement (CPBM) at the Civic Centre, Cape Town
Mayor of Cape Town, Hellen Zille,
MEC for Education, Cameron Dugmore,
MEC for Sport and Cultural Affairs, PM Jacobs,
Chairperson of CPBM, Professor Nomvula Mtetwa,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be with you tonight at this splendid gala dinner organised by the Community Plough Back Movement (CPBM). This event plays an important role in our communities in fostering the spirit of Batho Pele and Vuk'uzenzele.
There is an African saying among the Nguni and Sotho speaking people which says "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" or "Motho ke motho kabatho". When directly translated into English it means that "A person is a person because of other people". But, I believe this saying is deeper and more profound than that.
It tells us of the interconnectedness and dependency of people towards each other. This saying instructs us that our existence is dependent upon other people. Our successes are due to the role that our communities have played in nurturing and developing us. It speaks about the need for us to have a sense of community spirit as people. It says community members must play a constructive role towards the development of their communities. It also tells us about the need to give back to our communities what they have given us.
Firmly embedded in this saying is an injunction that, without the support of other people, our existence is meaningless. It instructs us that we have a central role to play in the empowerment of our communities, who are mostly poor and destitute.
Our country's past and the history of dispossession and neglect that took place under apartheid means that most communities today still find themselves at the receiving end, are afflicted by poverty, want and unemployment. As people who come from previously disadvantaged backgrounds there is a need for us to rekindle the spirit of self reliance, self help, and community involvement in order to deal with the eradication of the legacy of apartheid.
This gala dinner is a reminder to all of us, as members of different communities, that most of us are the products of our own communities; and that we are what we are today because of those communities
I am therefore happy to attend an event of this nature, which seeks to ensure that those people who have made it and are successful in their various fields and professions can contribute to the development of the communities they come from.
This function tonight also reminds us of what many poor African communities across the continent have been engaged in through efforts like the "Harambee projects" that were developed in countries like Kenya where the people are engaged in similar projects of "pulling together" and uniting in order to raise funds to be used in community development projects.
The main aim of the "Harambee projects" is to create significant and sustainable improvements in the levels of both educational opportunity and achievement so as to provide increased access to economic self-advancement by impoverished rural communities - where they provide and maintain physical infrastructure for schools, provide educational materials for schools, improve the ability of schools and communities to maximise their available resources through greater efficiency, co-operation and communication, and to make this process sustainable.
In Kenya such a project draws money from outside sources, relying on foreign donors, whereas with our similar actions, including what we are doing here through the Community Plough Back Movement, is that we look for the funds internally, from our own people. We also believe that it is not only funds that we are looking. We also want to tap into the skills, expertise and other resources at our disposal, which puts our chances of success at an advantage.
Professor Mtetwa, we are therefore glad when members of the community are seen taking up the gauntlet and doing something to ensure that the most desperate, the most needy, are given an opportunity to rise out of their unfortunate circumstances, through the efforts of the Community Plough Back Movement. Those who have a certain level of education, skills and resources can use those in the betterment of the lives of the majority of the people as a whole. This is in line, as well, with the promotion of our African heritage of people caring for each other; it shows that indeed we are what we are because of other people.
When the President opened Parliament this year he correctly characterised our age as being the "Age of Hope". In that declaration the President was making a call on all of us to play our meaningful role towards making that age of hope a reality. We must give meaning to what the President was saying from the point of view of government. We have different initiatives running in South Africa, and indeed need more, to make sure that we live up to that injunction.
We must try to ensure that our youth in particular are looked after and their conditions changed for the better. It is because of this that on 16 June this year we will be re-launching the National Youth Service Programme in order to deal with challenges that face our young people.
The National Youth Service Programme (NYSP) is a Special Presidential Programme, mandated to facilitate the implementation of National Youth Service in South Africa. The objective of the NYSP is to involve young people in community service to help build a nation and, at the same time, acquire skills that enhance their career opportunities.
In his 2006 State of the Nation Address, President Mbeki announced that "Among other things during the next financial year we will enrol at least 10 000 young people in the National Youth Service Programme and enrol 5 000 volunteers to act as mentors to vulnerable children."
This programme is part of the myriad responses to the challenge of youth development. In addition to the volunteer-based youth service initiative, we are accelerating the implementation of employment-based youth service in order to impact on the rate of unemployment among youth.
Among the people we target to participate in this programme are tertiary students, who should also be part of our home-grown Harambee initiatives. Students will benefit by doing community service (and in turn benefit their communities) in that they will gain work experience, which will enhance their chances of finding work when they graduate.
In practical terms we want students to go back to their communities and start volunteering their time and skills to improve the lives of the poor and vulnerable in their communities.
For instance there is no reason that stops young people who are studying agriculture from going to rural communities to plough back their skills in the form of helping small crop farmers by teaching them about crop rotation, animal care and water harvesting.
There is nothing stopping those students doing accounting from helping non-governmental organisations (NGOs) existing in their communities with accounting skills or helping spaza shop owners in financial management and accounting skills, so that their businesses can grow.
We want students who are studying town planning to assist in their municipalities or in rural municipalities with their skills and knowledge for the benefit of those rural municipalities. They should share knowledge on human settlement planning and integrated development planning.
The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) has as its central pillar an objective of developing our economy by 6% in order to halve the rate of unemployment and poverty.
For this to happen we will need to develop the skills level and capacity of our people so that they can acquire skills that will help our economy to achieve the growth rate we require.
One of the interventions of AsgiSA is around the issue of skills development, hence we have launched the Joint Initiatives on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) which will look specifically at developing scarce and priority skills. I believe that our JIPSA ties in perfectly with the objectives of your organisation of trying "to deal with disintegration of our communities, especially around the education system and the general moral degeneration".
When we were consulting around AsgiSA the youth sector agreed with government that Business Process Outsourcing, Bio-Fuels, Agro-processing, Tourism and Minerals Beneficiation have enormous opportunities for young South Africans. In the short, medium and long terms, we will be keeping track of, and increasing, the number of people benefiting from these opportunities.
It raises our hopes, therefore, to note that the Community Plough Back Movement will also deal with issues of youth empowerment and capacity building. The wealth of experience that lies among your board of directors is encouraging and we hope you will play a meaningful role in helping us to develop the scarce skills we are talking about.
We hope that what this organisation is doing here today will be emulated all over the country and we will see a rise of community organisations infused with the same spirit of vuk’uzenzele, letsema, and Batho Pele. We hope this effort will inspire among our people the new patriotism that our country so greatly needs.
Our objective is to ensure that development taking place in our country should be based on a strong partnership between all sectors of our society, which includes all components of the private-public partnerships. It should be based on strong community participation; there must be strategic interventions geared towards ensuring that we meet these goals.
We look forward to working closely with you, particularly around JIPSA where we have a common interest in developing the skills capacity and entrepreneurial skills of our young people. It is only when we work together with a common direction - "united in our diversity", as the Preamble to our Constitution puts it so aptly -that we can really deal with the challenges that face our country.
Let us vigorously press ahead in this cause, inspired by efforts such as those which we salute on this occasion.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
13 April 2006
Source: SAPA
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