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SPEECH BY PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA AT THE LAUNCH OF THE WARRENTON
PRESIDENTIAL SCHOOL PROJECT

Warrenton, 30 August 1996

Premier of the Northern Cape Province, Mr. Mannie Dipico;
Provincial MEC
for Education, Ms Tina Joemat;
Representatives of Shell International and
Shell South Africa;
People of Warrenton;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies
and gentlemen.

One of the most heartening things about our new South Africa is our people's
commitment towards education. This is partly because education is associated
with our children who are very close to our hearts. Equally it is because we all
understand that education is the key towards realising our vision of a better
life for all.

Today's function is all the more important because of the urgent educational
needs of this province. With severe shortages of school buildings, close to
sixty per cent of the province's young people are not attending school. For many
of those at school the learning conditions are so bad that the annual
matriculation exemption rate hovers around ten per cent.

The province is also short of teachers. As we consider recruiting teachers
from other overstaffed provinces we have to address the question of their living
conditions. In the past many teachers quit local farm schools here because of
transportation and accommodation problems. Consequently, most pupils had to make
do with unqualified teachers.

Apart from there being too few schools, many African and Coloured schools
were also built along a clay belt that runs across this province. The movement
of this belt has caused most of the buildings to crack and deteriorate. Schools
that were built less than fifteen years ago are already falling apart. To rub
salt into the wound, though communities were promised proper schools in the
past, few were built. Hence Ms Tina Joemat is left with a huge backlog of school
buildings.

These things, we do know, are legacies of apartheid. But it is now our
responsibility to correct those wrongs. Blaming things on the past does not make
them better. Our immediate task is to provide our young ones with proper
education.

This is a challenge for all of us - teachers, parents, pupils, the business
community and government. The problems must be addressed urgently, and they must
be addressed in a joint effort. Government cannot solve the problems on its own.

It is with this in mind that I would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude
to Shell South Africa for its magnificent contribution to this project. When
last year I approached the chairman of this company, Mr. John Drake, for
assistance with one of the Presidential Lead Projects of the RDP, he readily
agreed. He did so because Shell shared the Government's ideals of the
Reconstruction and Development Programme.

In true RDP spirit, Shell didn't regard the project as its own, but placed it
in the hands of a School Building Association comprising different stakeholders.
Development is a joint responsibility. What we are witnessing today is the
success of the entire community. The Warrenton community, Shell and the Northern
Cape Province have provided a model of the kind of partnership that is
rebuilding South Africa.

That spirit will stand us in good stead as we enter a truly exciting period
for education in our country. The South African Schools Bill which is now before
Parliament has widespread support. It will establish for the first time in our
history the framework for a single, national public school system. When it is
passed, this Bill will usher in changes for the benefit of all school
communities. We shall all be able to work together to realise our ideal of a
non-racial, non-sexist and fair system of schooling.

The school we are launching today will become a part of that new system of
schooling. Let us congratulate the children who will be occupying the school and
those who will be following them as the second and third phases of the project
are completed.

And let me say to the children: the best and only was to show your gratitude
to your parents and teachers, to Shell South Africa and to the government, is
for you to study hard and excel. Your performance in the new school must be
clearly better than your previous records at the hostel. Make the best of this
opportunity.

Our nation needs you. Our future depends on the education you will receive
here and what you make of it. Good luck.

It is now my privilege to unveil the plaque which will commemorate the
official opening of the launch of the Rolihlalhla Primary School.

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