User:Maphangat

WHAT ABOUT THE BLACK CHILD When whites took over our country they did what was necessary to improve the lives of their people. They planned and strategized and even put together laws to make sure that their communities developed. They legitimised separate development and even found scriptures to justify this project - and this must have helped them sleep at night. They were not apologetic about the initiative till the end. In 2012, the black people are in power, and the question is are we doing enough to develop our own people. Are we doing enough to change the lives of our communities more especially the black child? When the 2010 Soccer World Cup to this country South African under the leadership of the ANC was able to pump Billions of Rands into the economy to meet the stringent requirements of Fifa. South African tax payers paid for this infrastructure. Highly qualified consultants, programme and project managers were appointed to make this programme a success that it was. Roads were built, stadia constructed, hotels upgraded and airports face-lifted in order to meet first world standards. During this project a black rural child had limited, if any, benefit at all. Yes, my government was responsible for the project. Yes my ANC was driving the programme. I have been observing with keen interest how the white community invests in its young people. They invested during separate development and they still continue to do so in 2012. Their schools are still the best in the country. They still produce the best student academically and even in sports with a few blacks that can afford the significant cost barrier. White never stopped investing in their children. When I look at how the black communities and our black government have failed our black children I get shivers down my spine. Our schools have been left to crumble and die. When the ANC came into power it closed our teacher training and agriculture colleges. What is sad now is that rural andf township schools are being left behind with learners migrating to more developed, urban and funded school, where there is proper educational material and support. You find that even the teachers have moved their children out of their own schools because of the lack of quality education taking place in these schools. We have reached a stage where our department of education is now planning to close more schools because of the number of children remaining in rural and township schools. Once more children from the poor and rural members of our society continue to suffer. The black majority still continue to suffer 18years into the democracy. We still have black children studying in schools with libraries (only 7% have libraries). We still have school without laboratories (only 5% have laboratories. We still have school without access to Information Technology based services (only 1% of public schools have internet access). Every December we sit with baited breath for better results but we never change the inputs or the processes. What do we expect to come of the African Black child? I will defend the white community here because they are the shining example of what you must do with your children. They have developed them academically and in sport. The country is there as proof that their system continues to work even in 2012. Their companies continue to invest significantly in their schools. They continue to produce excellence in sport (rugby and cricket). We therefore cannot blame them for the failures of the black majority to develop its young people. We have failed our people and now are reaping the benefits of this failure. We the black people should hang our heads in shame for this catastrophic project. When our children don’t do well in grade 12, they are supposed to have a safety program that is fully supported by our government such that they can catch up and graduate from high school. What do we do? We close finishing schools! We stop the support to privately owned finishing schools! We set barriers and limitations to people interested in opening up these schools. The results are that only schools in urban centres function and once more the rural black child suffers. This is NEVER a white man’s fault. This is our fault. Pistorius, the Man on Blades is one example of how you support your own. He had to go through challenges simply because he had support from his family and his community. Do we support our own. The buses have been previously owned by white businesses and the previous government supported them with subsidies. Look at the black owned taxis industry, it is not being supported, and the question is, Why is my black government, in 2012, not supporting or subsidising the taxi industry and yet the buses are still being supported? The 2010 Soccer World Cup was the Pot of Gold for the taxi industry. We could have used the opportunity to change the face of public transport. We could have used this event to invest in the development a taxi industry that creates wealth, stable and economically viable. We missed this opportunity once more. Is our black leadership in public and private sector doing enough to change the lives of our black people (forget about the few millionaires) in a meaningful way? Are we investing enough in the development of our black communities? Are we contributing in the broadening of a black middle class? Are we using the buying power of government in local, provincial and national government to impact in the creation of a broader middle class? Are we investing enough time and money to develop long term strategies to sustain a particular growth line for the majority of our people? Yes, white people caused a lot of harm in the last 300 years but we can change our situation in the shortest possible time. However, we can review our systems of procurement, build capacity within government in order to control infrastructure investment and make sure that it addresses the long term aspirations of our country. Currently we are outsourcing every process with the infrastructure development programme, including the development of tender documents, implementation, project management and maintenance. In other cases we even outsource the bid adjudication and awarding of tenders. The implications of this approach are that the infrastructure investment decisions may not be aligned to the government’s developmental agenda. We must use these funds to impact on the social and community challenges facing the marginalised, the rural poor and the illiterate youth of our country. The black child cannot continue to disadvantaged even when the country is now governed by the black majority. We must see the empowerment and economic freedom sooner, else the country will be sitting on a time bomb that may explode anytime. The Arab Springs should be a lesson to our government that cannot be ignored for too long. We must develop the black child and give him/her a fighting chance in this information age. We must give them skills, education and experience so that they can fend for themselves. The time for this is now before the black child gets tired and angry, before the seriously start burning our country. We cannot continue to turn a blind eye on the failures of the current system. We need a change today..! Inkunzi isematholeni and the more we produce an underdeveloped child we are failing our people. Let us take the savings, the additional revenue collected by our revenue services and invest this is better education for our children. Let us increase budget deficit and improve the lives of our teachers. Let us make teacher profession a Profession worthy of being respected by the teachers themselves. Let us improve our schools infrastructure and make teaching and learning the centre of our attention for the next 10 years. Let us provide for free education from Grade 0 to Grade 12. This will ensure that our children are better resourced to make meaningful contribution to economic development of their own country. We must not forget the Black Child!!,.