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2010 |
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Mayoral Bursary Fund 2008 Function
Keynote Address by Executive Mayor
Councillor Zintle Peter
THANK you Councillor Ntoni. Thank you Programme Director. Good morning everybody.
A special word of acknowledgment to our Councillors, the Municipal Manager, Directors and staff of Buffalo City Municipality.
Mandibukhankanye kambe nobukho babazali apha phakathi kwethu, ngokunjalo nabanye abantu abanondla kulo mcimbi sidibene ngawo namhlanje.
Today will forever remain one of the fondest days of my tenure as Executive Mayor of Buffalo City. Now I can breathe a sigh of relief because, at last, I have been able to make a start towards fulfilling my dream of becoming involved, instrumental and effective in assisting our young people to accomplish their desire for education and training.
Ukuzalisekiswa kwamaphupha ke kuhamba nemiyiyizelo. Nam ke ndenza umbongo ongapheliyo ngaphakathi kwam xa ndibona olu lutsha luthe nqwadalala apha, luze kwamkela uncedo lokuqhubela phambili kwizifundo.
Liyinyaniso elokuba, ukunqaba kwamathuba empangelo kuneempembelelo ezimbi kwintlalo nemfundo yabantu bethu, ingakumbi abantu abatsha.
That is why I made it my business for the Buffalo City Council to become directly involved in the fight against lack of opportunities for our young people.
Ndiwajongile amaphulo namalinge enziwa ngumasipala neminye imibutho ukuncedana nomntu omtsha, ndafumanisa ukuba phantse ewonke afuna ukuba umntu abe uzuze imfundo okanye uqeqesho kwizakhono ezithile.
And so I decided, amongst other initiatives, to target education and training as an area of urgent attention and assistance.
And so, during my State of the City address in May last year I made a strong plea to Council to intervene financially in the education of underprivileged scholars as part of our holistic Youth Development Strategy.
In doing this, I was mindful of the fact that it will be totally impossible for this Mayoral Bursary project to provide for all the needy and desperate scholars of Buffalo City.
But my conscience was telling me that I had to do something for our struggling children. We had to make a start, with the hope that our financial resources, coupled with prospective assistance from other sources, will be able to sustain the fund well into the future.
Ndinento endiyiqondayo ke, le yokuba kuza kuvela iintetho ezithi sisebenzise umkhethe xa sinichonga as this year's beneficiaries of the Mayoral Bursary Fund.
Criticisms will vary from political to family considerations. Kuza kuthiwa sinikhethe kuba sizalana nani, okanye sinikhethe kuba abazali benu bengamalungu eqela lezopolitiko esilixhasayo.
My advice to you is that you should concentrate on your studies with a clear conscience. Leave the arm-chair critics to us. We have by now learnt to live side-by-side with them.
Whilst it is true that we had to draw from meagre resources to create this bursary fund, it was also prudent of us not to shy away from our constitutional responsibility to be responsive to the needs of our communities.
We had to move beyond the rhetoric of youth development policies and actually invest in human capital and empowering our young people in Buffalo City.
We did not reach this decision unilaterally. During my Izimbizo campaign in October last year, eleven out of the eighteen clusters called for practical youth development programmes.
The Buffalo City Youth Summit held a month later endorsed training and skills development for youth as an area that needed urgent attention.
We involved the Buffalo City Youth Council and ward youth structures from the onset. The application forms for the bursary were distributed through our Youth Advisory Centres in Gompo, Mdantsane and King William's Town.
The criteria for selection were spelt out in advance, and the final selection committee was drawn from different stakeholders within the municipality.
And so history will judge us as having done all that is democratically possible to ensure that the entire process from announcement to selection was open, accessible and beyond reproach.
But, in endorsing you as the official recipients of this year's bursary assistance, I want to impress upon each and every one of you that you are also the very first people to benefit from this fund.
You therefore have a joint moral responsibility to justify the use of public funds to assist you to attain the educational training and capacity that you aspire for individually.
You have to convince Council that the money we are spending on your education is not a waste of public resources.
Council is investing in your future as citizens of Buffalo City and, understandably, will be expecting to reap the necessary dividends from such investment. We are assisting you to gain the professional skills and training that have become a principal requirement for entry into the job market.
And so, whilst we do not seek to control your lives or tie you up with puppet strings, we will be expecting you to practise your skills, initially, for the benefit of Buffalo City Municipality in particular and the Province of the Eastern Cape in general.
By assisting you to acquire professional qualifications we are in essence creating a database from which we will draw the skills needed for us to develop Buffalo City and its people, while simultaneously extending a helping hand to the advancement of the Provincial Growth and Development Programme.
You are all bona fide citizens of Buffalo City, into ethetha ukuba nani ninoxanduva lokufaka isandla kwiintshukumo neenkqubo zokuphuhlisa esi sixeko neli phondo lethu kuzo zonke iinkalo.
Mandigqizele ngokucela intsebenziswano kubazali abakhoyo apha phakathi kwethu. IsiXhosa sithi ingqeqesho iqala ekhaya. Mandiluphose kuni ngoko uxanduva lokuqinisekisa ukuba aba bantwana bazinyamekele izifundo zabo, banyanisekile kwiintshukumo zabo ezikolweni abakuzo, kwaye bewathobela amagunya aphetheyo.
It now remains for me to congratulate all the Mayoral Bursary Fund recipients for this year, and to wish them a happy and prosperous academic year.
I thank you
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