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Solidarity today announced a network of work with a budget of R4,5 billion. The Solidarity NetWork will include a comprehensive alternative school system, an occupational training college, a university, financial aid for education, a youth movement, a network of occupational guilds, mentorships, job placement, protection in the workplace, and continued education. According to Dr Dirk Hermann, Chief Operations Officer of Solidarity, the NetWork will accompany its members throughout their whole career path.

“The Solidarity NetWork is a major leap into the future. Although emigration has become a focal point of discussion again, most of the people remain here. It does not help to become despondent. We have one alternative and that it is to use what we have and build with it. We must take the bull by the horns and create the conditions to stay here freely, safely and prosperously. The very reason why we will be successful is because there is no other alternative,” Hermann says.

The Solidarity NetWork depends strongly on education and training. The largest projects we will launch is the development of Akademia to a fully-fledged university with a campus, sports facilities, residences, and an active student life. Solidarity’s occupational training college, Sol-Tech, will also receive a new modern campus with residences and sports facilities. Another new initiative of the Solidarity NetWork is the development of a comprehensive alternative Afrikaans school system by the Centre for School Support which will not only support public schools but will also establish a new school network. A comprehensive Afrikaans world-class private educational pipeline will be offered.

“The fact that the Solidarity NetWork is investing so much in education and training is a strong political point of view with the message that we shall stay here and plan for the next generation. The Solidarity Research Institute recently published a report which states that the birth rate of especially Afrikaner families have risen again. Therefore, we must plan and build for the following generation who is now building sand castles at preschool institutions,” according to Hermann.
The Solidarity NetWork will still focus strongly on protection in the workplace.

The fight against the government’s obsession about race will be intensified and more court cases and further complaints to the United Nations can be expected. A new development is that a network of occupational guilds will be founded. These guilds will support the youth to enter the workplace and will start a mentorship programme. The guilds will act in the interest of the profession and will facilitate continued education through Solidarity’s new company S-leer.
 
According to Hermann, the Solidarity NetWork is an answer to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and to a weakening state. Many services which was delivered by the state before, must now be provided by the Solidarity NetWork. The main theme of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is disruptive knowledge. We want to keep our participants in the NetWork at the forefront of knowledge, but the Solidarity NetWork and the system which will link it all together will also be disruptive knowledge. New knowledge provides new answers to questions for which there have not been answers before. We can launch the NetWork because of new technology. The disruptive knowledge also erodes the power of the national state, and a minority can receive answers in an unfriendly environment which seemed impossible before.

The initiatives will be financed by different sources, but one of the largest new initiatives is a new property investment company, Kanton, which will facilitate a partnership between capital and culture. Investors will be recruited to invest in building the future with a healthy return. The community can, for example, invest in the construction of the Akademia campus and receive a financial and cultural return.
 

Issued by Solidarity