Sept 4, 2008 – After Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990, he visited a number of areas around the country, including Etwatwa in Daveyton, Benoni. Concerned about living conditions there, and particularly about the children roaming the streets because there was no school in the area, Mr Mandela negotiated with what was then Nedperm Bank and the Independent Development Trust to help raise funds to build a school.
A couple of years later, on April 13, 1992, Mr Mandela officially opened the Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Primary School.
On August 19 this year, staff of the Nelson Mandela Foundation visited the school as part of Mr Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations. They were presented with a blue wax replica of Madiba made by the school’s pupils.
Sekete Khanye, the Foundation’s education specialist, delivered a speech to the assembled audience on behalf of Mr Mandela:
“Greetings to all; officials from the Gauteng Department of Education, members of the School Governing Body, members of staff, all guests, and learners.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation is thankful to be invited to such an important event, the celebration of the birthday of the former and first president of the democratic South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. I am standing here trying to postulate what uTata Madiba would have said if he was physically with us today. This is what I have attempted to put down based on my limited knowledge of who he is and what he represents.
Fourteen years post apartheid we are now faced with ‘demons’ which in my view are comparable with, if not worse than, the evil of apartheid. These, among others, are HIV and AIDS in the context of a deepening poverty, and a shortage of skills in critical areas of development in the context of a threatening illiteracy compounded by poor provision of education in many parts of the country. Further, at a broader national level, the integrity and credibility of the justice system and the quality of leadership in the country are becoming increasingly questionable.
Lest I depress you, let me quote what Madiba referred to recently at Alexandra when visiting one of the orphanages there. He suggested that no one would be accepted by the people as their leader if he or she was not educated. Beyond the importance of education in leadership, Madiba sees education as a critical tool through which we ordinary people can be emancipated from threats aforementioned. Even further, through education we can claim a place of prominence at the centre stage of the globalising world. We can compete cohesively as one people and competently as a people not afraid to be good, excellent and great.
To teachers and all adults who are here, Madiba would love to see adult education scaled-up and made vibrant again. Also, he would love to see every child attended to with dignity, warmth and love – remembering that they are, as individuals and a collective, God’s image and a mirror of who we really are. They are souls and not statistics, they have emotions and equally important, they have intellect and divine intelligence. They are our precious gift”.
Just as he would say at this point of his speech, I thank you.”
