Date: 22/05/2009

Source: The Presidency

Title: SA: Zuma: Address by the President of South Africa at a graduation ceremony at the University of Zululand

The Rector and Vice Chancellor, Prof Gumbi
Chairperson of Council, Mr B M Ntuli
Deputy Speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Mr Mtholephi
Mthimkhulu and all MPLs present
Deans and all other members of the academic community
Presidents of convocation and the Student Representative Council (SRC)
The guest speaker, Mr Don Mkhwanazi
Graduates and their families and friends
Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning to you all.

I am delighted to be here during this joyous celebration. Last month millions of you voted into power our fourth democratically elected government. We have decided to make hard work, excellence, and achievement a cornerstone of our new administration.

I am therefore honoured to have this graduation, which is a celebration of hard work, as my first public engagement since the inauguration and the announcement of our new Cabinet.

As the Chancellor of the University of Zululand, I have the privilege of praising parents, students and the academia for their hard work, patience, and the sacrifice that has culminated in this graduation ceremony today.

Your achievements bear testimony to your courage, your tenacity and your spirit. Your achievements make us optimistic about the future, given our objectives and plans for this country. South Africa is positioning itself as a developmental state, meaning that key state institutions are geared towards economic and social enlistment.

The effectiveness of this will depend on whether or not we are able to achieve economic development and improved standards of living for the poor.

To achieve those goals, we need education and skills development to be at the centre of our national plans.

When we say we want to halve unemployment and poverty, and substantially reduce and eventually eradicate social and economic inequalities, we rely on you, our graduates, to help us achieve those goals.

You are our soldiers on the frontline of the battle against poverty and unemployment. We also encourage you to expand your horizons and look beyond your current fields of study or workplace. You must view yourselves as important players in the bigger scheme of building a successful and prosperous country. Unless we make a visible impact on the lives of the poor, we cannot call ourselves truly developmental.

To become truly developmental and to improve our policymaking and implementation, we have reconfigured the structure of government. We merged certain government departments and created new ones in other areas.

This was all with good reason.

As you are aware, the former Department of Education has been split into the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Higher Education and Training.

Those who live in rural areas know that the dream of a better education remains elusive in many areas, as resources are still skewed in favour of urban areas.