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In line with her commitment to improve living conditions in the Northern Areas (Port Elizabeth), Premier Noxolo Kiviet will today, 12 October handover educational resources to Qhaphelani High School, which is one of the schools she adopted. After seeing the living conditions of people in the Northern Areas who are affected by number social ills including crime, poverty, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and HIV and AIDS.

The Premier felt compelled to have a special intervention in this area. She believes that the people of this area should not be left to live in squalor conditions in a drug and crime infested area which has robbed them of their dignity. The Premier initiated a number of projects in this area to turn the situation around focusing mainly on education, safety, health and community upliftment projects.

She cites President of the African National Congress (ANC) and our country uTata uNelson Mandela quote which says “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 farmworkers 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", as an inspiration for her passion for education.

She says to defeat social ills of poverty, unemployment and inequality; we need a strong education system. This priority of the ANC led government is not something that people should try and score cheap political points about, we are dealing with the future of this country here and at all times we should be sober in our interactions when dealing with education.

If we keep on politicising the challenges that we face in education, we in fact destroying the future of our children. We will have more drop outs which can lead to a lost generation of youth who lose hope and fall victim to alcohol and drug abuse and other heinous activities like the rape of the elderly and children.