The Directors of Programmes, Inkosi Bhekizwe Biyela, Chairperson of the Regional Authority of this District; Inkosi Zuma and other Amakhosi of this District and from other Districts.  The Rev Fr who led devotions and other religious leaders.

Our most distinguished guest His Excellency President Nelson Mandela.  His Excellency Deputy President Jacob Zuma; the Honourable Nkosazana Stella Sigcau, Minister of Public Works; the Honourable Premier of KwaZulu Natal Dr Mtshali; the Honourable Minister of Education and Culture Mr Narend Singh; other Ministers present, Their Worships, our Mayors; Senior Government Officials present both from National Government and from the Provincial Government; Indunas and Councillors, all distinguished guests present; our fellow citizens in the Kingdom of the Zulu people.

It gives me great pleasure to be here today in what has, indeed, become an extraordinary occasion.  It may be unprecedented that the opening of a school together with these new facilities is performed by someone of the stature of former President Nelson Mandela, and in the presence of such a distinguished group of dignitaries, such as the Deputy President of the country, the Hon Jacob G Zuma; the Minister of Public Works, the Hon Stella Sigcau;  the Premier of KwaZulu Natal, the Hon Dr LPHM Mtshali; the Provincial Minister of Education, the Hon Narend Singh; so many distinguished dignitaries; councillors and amaKhosi; as well as myself in my capacity as Minister of Home Affairs, Chairman of the House of Traditional Leaders of KwaZulu Natal and President of the Inkatha Freedom Party.  The presence of so many dignitaries highlights a matter of significance which is far greater than what affects just this school and its community. 

In fact, on this occasion, we wish to highlight an important example of how Government can increase on its delivery capacity and may improve upon how it operates.  In a certain sense, the story of this school reflects an important chapter of South African history which spans over thirty years. As the Chief Minister of the erstwhile KwaZulu Government, I established this school through my Department of Education.  When it became necessary to find additional funding to attend to the reconstruction needs of this school, the Hon Deputy President, Jacob G Zuma approached President Mandela to intercede with the Mandela Foundation to ensure that funding could be disbursed from that source.    We thank President Mandela for agreeing to get the funding for additional buildings.  We thank the Goldfields for making funds available.

However, the completion of this project also received the co-operation of other sources which are equally committed to the people of our Province, especially our young students.  The Divine Life Society, which has been a longstanding partner in this Province since the time when I was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile KwaZulu Government, has provided computer facilities and other support for the people of this region via the local municipality.  Therefore, the end product which we are celebrating today, is the product of the convergence of the efforts of many people over many decades.  In fact, throughout my fifty years of Government responsibility and commitment to the people of this Province, I have had the privilege of opening or inaugurating a vast number of schools, community halls and public facilities. 

The Divine Life Society which is represented here today by Mr Ishwar Ramlutchan, has walked the long journey with us as various communities of this Province, in the last 30 years in the construction of schools.  We shared with them the burden of building nearly a thousand classrooms since the early 70’s when I met the Head of the Divine Life Society Swami Sri Sahajananda.

When I was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile KwaZulu Government, we had little or no money available, because my Government was grossly under-funded by Pretoria, on account of my opposition to apartheid and my persistent refusal to take up independence a’la Pretoria for the Zulu nation.  Nonetheless, with the little money we had, we managed to deliver a large number of schools and other community infrastructures, because our Government formed a vast number of partnerships.  First and foremost, we formed partnerships with the communities themselves, which was the cornerstone of the culture of self-help and self-reliance which I had advocated and propagated.  Because we had little or no money for education, I decided that the bulk of our meagre financial resources should be spent on books and teachers, rather than buildings.  In order to build the necessary schools, we empowered local communities to erect the relevant buildings and to maintain them on the basis of a Rand-for-Rand programme.  Government funding was matched, not only with local resources, but also with the resources of partners in the private sector. 

For instance, we established the very successful partnership with the Divine Life Society, which helped us in building an enormous number of schools throughout the Province, the first of which was built in my own area in Mahlabathini.  This specific school which we are opening today, was built with funding from my Government, but so many others came into existence, and continue to operate to this day, because of the commitment and generosity of long-term partners, such as the Divine Life Society.

Therefore, the concept of private/public partnerships can, indeed, be said to have been born out of the soil of this Province.  On this occasion we celebrate and appreciate how the same technique has been broadened and has also brought into the fold important institutions such as the Mandela Foundation.  We praise former President Mandela for having remained so proactive in spite of his age.  It is admirable that a person of his stature would find the time to be with us today, to see the fruits of his commitment.  President Mandela has given an outstanding example of commitment towards education and our country’s children.  I am very pleased that through his efforts, even when he was the President of South Africa, emphasis and focus have been placed again on the education of our children. 

In fact, only through education and hard studying will our children be able to secure for themselves the hope of a future which is better than the one which was offered to our generation.  For this reason, I was so concerned when in the 70s and the 80s some of our liberation movements encouraged children not to go to school – with slogans such as “Liberation now,  Education later”.  We responded with the slogan; “Education For Liberation”.  We countered the burning down of schools in this Province.  As a result there was a calm atmosphere in this Province and we developed a culture of education.  As a result I was even approached by my friend and contemporary  at Fort Hare University Dr Ntato Motlana of Soweto, who asked me to get a space for his son Karabo at KwaDlangezwa High School.  I was also approached by the Editor of the World, Dr Percy Qoboza to get a place for his son in the same school.  At the same time I focussed all the efforts of my erstwhile government towards education, in the same way that President Mandela has done, even more so ever since he retired our Head of State.  We highly appreciate what he has done in all Provinces, in our Province in particular.

It was under the Presidency of His Excellency Mr Mandela that our Government developed the policy of spending up to twenty percent of our State budget on education, which is a very high percentage when compared to that of other countries.  Just as I believed in it thirty years ago, I still firmly now believe that we need education for liberation.  There cannot be any genuine liberation for as long as our people are enslaved under the yoke of ignorance and superstition, because of their lack of education, knowledge and exposure.  We must move the frontiers of education forward because in so doing we are moving forward the struggle for our liberation.  The struggle for liberation is not finished.  There are people who think that the struggle is over, only because they have arrived in positions of power and comfort.  However, those like me,  and President Mandela who have lived all their life in South Africa, amongst the poorest of the poor, know very well that not only has our struggle for liberation not yet been completed but, in fact, it has just begun.  Reaching political freedom was only the beginning of the real struggle for social and economic emancipation.  Education, knowledge and information are key elements to ensuring that our people can grow out of their present conditions of under-development.  They offer the only opportunity of leap-frogging from a bleak today, into a bright tomorrow.

I wish to thank Amakhosi and their people for we did this enormous task of building schools with them.  I spoke to them always and we inculcated with our communities the culture of self-help and self-reliance.  It was not only facilities that we lacked.  Since our budget came from Pretoria all children in KwaZulu Natal got the lowest funding per head than children from any of the other so-called self-governing states and the so-called independent states.  It is a legacy which ended only a few years ago, as it went on even after we took over as a democratic government.

In fact, it takes time and effort which are often beyond our collective capacity to bring about physical development.  However, in respect of human growth and development, the real possibility exists for bringing about the genuine revolution that, within the short time-frame of one generation, may turn the tide around and level existing inequalities and imbalances within our society.  Education and information are what can enable our people to leapfrog from a past of ignorance, to a future of knowledge.  Like never before, information now offers the opportunity to people to break the narrow confines of the societal and cultural milieu into which they were born, to join in the cosmopolitan world of the global village. 

Today, a child in Mahlabathini where I come from or from Nkandla where I am today, who has access to a high speed, internet-linked computer, has the same access to information and potential for human growth and development as a child born and raised in downtown Manhattan, New York.  For the first time in mankind’s troubled history, the opportunity exists for real equality to be achieved amongst all of God’s children, and that opportunity lies in breaking the chains of inequality through education, education and education.  The  global village offers the promise of global integration that can break the barriers of ignorance, obscurantism and superstition.  We dare not fail this great challenge.  In the past, our people were convicted to ignorance because of the oppression under which we lived, and the lack of ways and means available to us.  Now that this oppression has been lifted, and modern society makes ways and means available at relatively little cost, for everyone to access the global wealth of information, depriving our children of the full measure of growth potentials available, would be nothing short of a crime. 

For this reason, I hope that the presence of so many high-ranking political leaders on this occasion, which is so near to the election date, may signify our joint commitment to uplifting the people of our country by education.  I am glad that the Premier of KwaZulu Natal has inherited my legacy of utmost commitment towards education, and that today the Province of KwaZulu Natal is, indeed, a leader in our country, delivering quality education to all.  Premier Mtshali used to be my Minister of Education in the erstwhile KwaZulu Government and has correctly followed my teachings and has prioritised education, making our Province the pride of Africa.  Today is the first time that President Mandela and I come together at a public function of this nature in this Province. 

We did visit Catherine Booth Hospital near Eshowe with President Mandela.  He had managed to get funding for the renovation of the hospital from Mr Harry Oppenheimer, before he passed away.  I was on that occasion invited by him to be present when he and Mr Nicky Oppenheimer visited the hospital to announce the donation.  I hope that his presence here also signifies our collegial appreciation for the spectacular and outstanding track record of delivery of the Province of KwaZulu Natal in all fields of Government, especially in education.  Therefore, I feel that it would not be inappropriate on this occasion to celebrate  the successes of this Provincial Government which has given an example to the whole of South Africa.    We are proud to have as dedicated a Minister of Education and Culture in Mr Narend Singh.  He has upheld our commitment to education, education and education.

It is also significant that the inauguration of these facilities in this area is concomitant with the opening of a multi-purpose centre by my colleague, the Minister for Public Works.  I have had the pleasure of opening two of these multi-purpose delivery centres in the past.  One in Mpumalanga Province and one at KwaMakhasa in Ubombo District.  My Department, the Department of Home Affairs, is a participant in these multi-purpose centres which enable citizens to receive a broad variety of services of the central Government, including the birth, marriage and death certificates issued by my Department.  Step by step we are bringing Government closer to the people, facilitating the delivery of services.    We do appreciate that the Honourable Minister of Public Works dropped what she was doing in order to be here to perform the official opening of this facility.  We thank the Mayor of Uthungulu for all that he has done.

The journey we have begun is, indeed, a long one but, with the help of God Almighty, we shall eventually be able to fulfil the promise that one day all South Africans will be equally free and equally entitled to a dignified life without fear or need.  This long journey towards such an ambitious destination begins with small, but important, steps, just like the one we have taken today, and runs on the legs of the commitment of real leaders and Statesmen as those who are gathered here today.  Our country needs the type of moral, visionary and committed leadership expressed by those who are gathered here today.  Our country needs a new type of leadership which reflects the legacy of President Mandela and the great ANC leaders who came before him, and who were my mentors and friends.  Since the time of Inkosi Albert Lutuli who was at the time the ANC was banned the President-General of the ANC.  He was as President Mandela knows, one of my mentors.  At a younger age I was inspired by my uncle Dr Pixley Seme whom I knew and did errands for in my late teens, when I was doing my matriculation at Adams College.  This was also the former President of the ANC and the very founder of the ANC.  This liberation movement in which I was bred, was always rooted in the heart and soul of South Africa.   It has always been close to the needs, wants and aspirations of our people.  Our leadership has always been close to the people of South Africa as is demonstrated by all of us in being all here today. 

However, it now seems that many of the political leaders have become distant and aloof from the people of South Africa and they are suffering, to the point of no longer being responsive to many problems.  South African people feel that problems such as HIV/AIDS, crime, unemployment, poverty and corruption have been neglected and not properly attended to, and are now demanding that a new type of leadership emerges, to ensure that in the next five years change is brought about to enable such problems being resolved.  I feel that the presence of President Mandela amongst us today and the inspiration of his legacy, correctly gives us the direction of where the country should be moving towards. 

He has been vilified for his concern which I share with him, about our people who are either infected or affected with HIV/AIDS, the biggest challenge of all.