SPEECHES: Goodluck Message to GMM Class of 2016

We are cognizant of the fact that some of the students in other parts of the country have been studying under very daunting circumstances due to a variety of reasons including the unfortunate situation in Vuwani, Limpopo Province.

It should also be mentioned that certain people in our communities have been using the education of our children in order to achieve their selfish political interests. As the Executive Mayor of the Govan Mbeki municipality, I would like to seize this opportunity and condemn in the strongest possible terms all these political machinations which are harming the education of the South African child.

We strongly believe that the success of this country lies in education. As you sit for your examinations, regard this opportunity as golden because there are children somewhere else in the world who have been denied the opportunity to learn due to a variety of reasons, chief among them being war and civil strife.

In line with the spirit and philosophy of the Dawn of the New Age, we are called upon to rise and play a role in the education sector which calls for a wide range of imperatives which include amongst others, the re-instillation of the culture of learning and teaching in all our schools. As President Zuma would say, learners must always be in class learning and educators must always be in class teaching.

I am using this Matric Message to re-emphasize the fact that education is a critical backbone of any nation in the world and that if African governments in general and the SA government in particular, can invest more on education, all nations in the entire globe can flourish in all spheres of human endeavour and our country can take its seat in the league of developed nations.

And indeed, the future of any country rests on the shoulders of its youth and that youth must be educated and be empowered with all the necessary skills aimed at managing the economy effectively, efficiently and proficiently.

As leaders of this century, we have a responsibility of ensuring that we continuously influence the policy discourse of this country in order to argue for the introduction and implementation of Pro-Poor policies, radical policies that will obliterate the current two-nation economy which favours the rich and defecates on the face of the poor masses of our people.

As the Class of 2016, history has placed you in this socio-economic and political epoch in order to for you to be the catalysts of change of the 21st Century which has been declared as the African Century by the African Union and its eminent luminaries.Despite all these challenges that you are faced with as the Class of 2016, we pray that you will defeat the odds and pass your exams with flying colours. I am so confident that you will emerge victorious simply I am a true and proudly South African who exudes the total patriotism and an indefatigable spirit of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

I hereby urge all of you to unleash your intellectual power in making the final preparations for the 2016 Matric Examinations and may you achieve great marks which will be raising the bar higher.

We call upon parents to support your children and give them encouragement as they write these examinations. As parents across the colour lines, we should stand up and play a positive role in the education of our children because these children are definitely leaders of tomorrow.

WE WISH YOU ALL THE BEST IN YOUR FINAL EXAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!