Times Of Swaziland: WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
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By Martin Dlamini on 12/01/2018 00:31:00


“SOMETIMES I wrote my morning papers on an empty stomach,” recalled Phasika
Hlophe, who obtained a First Class pass in the 2017 Junior Certificate (JC)
examinations, as she narrated to our journalist the hardships of having to
overcome extreme poverty in her pursuit of education.
Hlophe, like many of our children today, has often had to get by on one meal a
day and was forced by circumstances to walk for about seven kilometres to get to
the school that provides this meal. Many a time meals ran out as the Education
Ministry struggled to deliver food.
She is a pupil at troubled Lozitha High School, one of the worst performing
schools with 93 failures in 2016 and 16 failures last year, which makes her feat
all the more significant.
Her school colleague Nokwethu Dlamini, who faced similar personal challenges,
passed with a Merit. Dlamini’s mother works at one of the textile factories in
Matsapha and she shares a one room flat with Nokwethu and her younger brother,
who will be doing Form 1 this year. Dlamini has also had to walk from Kwaluseni
to Lozitha to get an education.
Despite overcoming their adversity, both these pupils may not receive their
results because they owe school fees. Another pupil at the school, Siphosethu
Nkambule, who obtained a First Class pass, lives in a rented flat with his
brother who was doing Form V at the same school. His fees were paid for by the
20-year-old brother who did piece jobs on weekends.
One has great respect for these children for their ability to dig deep into
their emotional reserves to garner the energy to pursue a brighter future. They
deserve it and we cannot afford to fail them.
There are over 250 000 orphaned and vulnerable children today going through
similar hardships in a country where 63 per cent of the population lives on less
that E13 a day. The least we can do is to create the opportunities that would
help them realise the dreams that are fuelling their drive to succeed.
Having endured such challenges, nothing could harden their hearts more than to
find a country that had not prepared a future for them. The consequences to our
peace and tranquillity would be devastating and simply unforgivable.
To avert this requires a leadership whose interests are centred on growing the
economy and laying a good foundation for this bruised future generation to build
upon. Our role is to find the men and women of this country who fit the profile
of the leadership this country deserves.
Come election time, the challenges of our youth should guide the decisions we
make when presented with an opportunity to nominate the future. We should
remember that no child deserves to go to school on an empty stomach, by
prioritising food self sufficiency and increasing the national budget towards
transforming our agricultural sector.
Our schools also need to be well equipped, adequately resourced and properly
administered, to ensure effective learning takes place. We cannot afford to have
schools producing mass failures while officials, hired to avert such, continue
to enjoy their salaries without question.
We need to ensure that parents have jobs to wake up to so they can afford their
children’s school fees, bus fare, uniforms and be able to put food on the
table. The country’s re-admission to AGOA opens the door to more job
opportunities but these jobs do not cater for the graduates forming a large part
of the 28 per cent unemployment rate. This also speaks to the need for an
education system that produces entrepreneurs.
A healthy nation is essential if we are to increase the chances of children
being raised by their parents until they have graduated from tertiary
institutions. Stronger families make a stable society. There is no arguing that
the year 2017 is one to be quickly forgotten as it remains littered with a
myriad of challenges that have crossed-over into the New Year.
The Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini, is expected to take his charges on a
retreat soon, where they will map out a strategy for winding up their dismal
five-year term that has plunged our economy into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU),
given the -0.6 per cent economic growth rate.
Their task is to ensure that they leave a feasible exit plan that not only
cleans up their mess but also pays off all arrears to the service providers, so
that the incoming Cabinet can focus on ensuring that when Phasika Hlophe,
Nokwanda Dlamini and Siphosethu Nkambule complete their high school, they are
afforded scholarships and have good tertiary institutions in which to enrol.
These pupils also deserve to find job opportunities after they graduate and an
enabling environment for entrepreneurship.
“It will work out fine. I will achieve my Goals through God,” said Nokwanda
Dlamini, who clearly has put her faith in the heavens and not politicians, to
see her through.
May God help us all indeed! All the best in 2018 good people!