67 Minutes

Week 29 – 20 July 2012

 

The Madiba Magic carries on and it is with gratitude that South Africans pay homage to him and the role he played in creating a free society for all its citizens to live in.

His name is also closely linked to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund for the upliftment of children to assure a better life for them. This also sends out a strong message to parents to look after their children and ensure that they will have a secure future once they grow up.

The parents are the only real instrument that can make this a reality. No school, institution or government can replace the role that the parent plays in the life of the child.

Unfortunately, the message that we should spend 67 minutes doing something to better the life of someone close to you in the community in honour of Madiba, is not doing anything to prevent the neglecting of the youth, in particular, the new generation of learners who are supposed to be able to look after themselves in a safe and secure environment.

We have entered the third term of the 2012 school year. Still the minister of education and her provincial heads of education in a few provinces, blame the lack of schooling facilities and the non delivery of text books on incompetence due to the previous regime. This also goes for the maintenance of the collapsing infrastructure throughout the whole of South Africa.

Communities in our own municipal area are still deprived of basic services like water in areas that the local government would rather erase from their facts bill. Money budgeted for the wellbeing of the society still does not reach the target and usually disappears into the pockets of the people who were appointed to see that the money is well spent.

Forget just a moment about your 67 minute plight. Is the above situation really worth just 67 minutes to discard what Madiba stood for? Education of the youth is a lifelong commitment and to do that, parents should have the right to a job. Do you really care about your children’s future if you decided to honour Mandela by staying away from work on his birthday?

Did you think of the wellbeing of your company where clients’ queries could not be answered or attended to while you were out celebrating? Did you perhaps consider that your client might withdraw his support from your company and that you will be the one that would be left without a job because you could not care to be at work in order to earn money for your kid’s future?

I am pretty sure that this was not what Madiba intended. Sure, celebrate his birthday but do not sit back and loaf the whole day.