Honourable Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Mr Mduduzi Manana,
The Vice Chancellor and Principal of Wits University, Prof Adam Habib
Honorable MEC of Education in Gauteng, Mr Panyaza Lesufi
CEO of Thusanani Foundation, Mr Mukovhe Morris Masutha
CEO of the National Education Collaboration Trust, Mr Godwin Khosa
Wits University SRC President, Mr Mcebo Dlamini
Members of the Seme and Makhathini families
Guest, Volunteers and Beneficiaries of Thusanani Foundation present

Good evening,

I am delighted to form part of the launch of this path-breaking initiative led by young people of our country.

Our country continues to be confronted by the triple but interrelated challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Given these challenges, our government continues to set education as an apex priority.

We do this because of our conviction that education remains a pillar of development for our society, and thus dependent on such initiatives as Thusanani.

The initiative we are launching today is important because it speaks to an important collaboration between government and the community sector and academia, in promoting youth education and empowerment.

The young people driving this initiative are products of the very society we live in.

We are thus celebrating the contribution of young people who are placing the education of an African child at the centre of their programmes.

They have learned from this society that the true tenets of Ubuntu are helping each other without expecting anything in return from the one you are helping.

Ladies and gentlemen

It is the commitment of government, through the Department of Higher Education, that no poor and academically deserving young person should ever miss out on a study opportunity in our institutions because of their financial background.

Government is doing much to assist learners already. I am specifically referring to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, the Funza Lushaka student support scheme, the bursaries supporting social workers, medical doctors and other professionals where billions of rands are providing the means to needy students to further their studies at universities and TVET Colleges. But this is still not enough. 

That is why we ask the private sector to also assist by funding education and providing bursaries, learnerships and other support to the youth.

We also warmly appreciate the contribution of organisations such as the Thusanani Foundation and many others to work with in furthering this goal.

Organisations such as the Thusanani Foundation remind us that no academically deserving learner must ever be excluded from the higher education system simply on the basis of his or her parents' socio-economic status.

When the plight of the students was first discovered, the Jacob Zuma Foundation granted the registration fees for this year, 2014 to 40 students at Wits University, 51 at the University of Johannesburg, 16 at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and four at the University of Pretoria.

After hearing of the need for financial assistance for students enrolled at eleven Higher Education Institutions around the country, the Department of Higher Education became involved and took the matter forward.

A total of 95 deserving students, all studying programmes in the scarce and critical skills areas were provided bursaries for full cost of study in their chosen programmes.

Faculties of study include Sciences, Engineering, Health Sciences, Commerce, Law, Management and Humanities studies.

I am happy to announce today, that the Thusanani foundation together with the Department of Higher Education will be launching two scholarships namely, the Pixley ka Isaka Seme Scholarship Fund and the Johnstone Mfanafuthi Makhatini International Scholarship Fund.

It is also important that we note the names given to these funds given the role played by these stalwarts of our revolution in the struggle against poverty, inequality and underdevelopment.

Former ANC President Pixley ka Isaka Seme is the orator, lawyer, intellectual and author who can rightfully be called the founder of the African National Congress.

The Pixley ka Isaka Seme Fund will aim to provide academically deserving but financially needy youth from townships and rural areas with scholarships to further their studies in public institutions of higher learning. This will empower them to pursue their studies in scarce skills programmes in our universities.

Johny Makhathini was a pillar of our efforts to lobby the international community particularly the Western Europe countries against the apartheid government. He was so instrumental that he was later appointed to head the ANC mission to the United Nations in 1977.

The Johny Makhathini International Scholarship Fund is a direct response to the commitment by the Department of Higher Education and Training to send rural and township students abroad in order to address our areas of skills shortages such as renewable energy, nuclear, gas, maritime and rail engineering.

This is aimed at growing our country’s skills base as informed by the National Scarce Skills list published by the department in May this year and our National Development Plan.

We therefore believe that this is but a step in the right direction in helping to develop our country.

I want to thank Thusanani Foundation for their willingness to work with government and run the race with us.

It has become critically important that our youth take ownership and play an active role in breaking the cycle of poverty and restoring the dignity of rural and township communities across South Africa.

This partnership should aim at promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics in our schools.  To excel in these subjects is important if we want to succeed as a country.

This partnership should therefore address this challenge through targeting learners early in their schooling life and encourage them to make the right subject choices and to follow career paths that are built upon sound subject choices and hard work.

I am also happy that this partnership is also aiming to promote vocational skills and artisan development as a career path of choice.

The Department of Higher Education and Training has launched the ‘Decade of the Artisan’ early this year, a very exciting initiative that encourages young people to take up careers in the trades. Ladies and Gentlemen, young and old – “It is apparently cool to be a 21st century Artisan!”

The importance of waging a Skills Revolution cannot be over-emphasized in order to tackle South Africa’s triple challenge of Unemployment, Poverty and Inequality.

The NDP makes it very clear that, the war on unemployment, poverty and inequality needs a collective effort from Government, Private Sector and Civil society.

This partnership therefore between Thusanani Foundation and the department of higher education speaks to this multiple stakeholder approach to development.

To the students in the room: Your future is in your hands.

You must work hard, make the right decisions that will see you realise your potential and prosper – and lastly, take responsibility for your own life and the decisions that you are making.

Let the words of Nelson Mandela inspire us: "Education is the great engine of personal development.

“It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine-worker can become the head of the mine; that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another".

It is my pleasure to now declare Thusanani Foundation officially launched and good luck with the steep work that lies ahead.

I thank you.