Address by President Jacob Zuma at the COSAS Learn Without Fear Rally

18 March 2016

Director of the Programme

President of COSAS

Members of the National Executive Committee of COSAS

Member of the ANC NEC, Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela

All COSAS Convocants present here

Representative Councils of Learners

Leadership of the Progressive Youth Alliance

Compatriots

Comrades and friends

Receive my heartfelt greetings.

I am pleased to address this vibrant rally of learners under the auspices of COSAS drawn from schools across the length and breadth of our country.

I took interest to come and speak to you because we firmly believe that learners in COSAS constitute a very important layer of leadership that must be nurtured and whose youthful energy must be directed towards the development of our country.  

Programme Director

This event takes place just two weeks after the voter registration weekend conducted by the IEC in preparation for the fifth democratic local government elections which will be held later this year. We thank all the learners who are eligible to vote who went out in their numbers to register to vote for the very first time this year.

COSAS must play a leading role in encouraging those remaining to take advantage of the next registration weekend on the 9th and 10th of April so that they too can play a meaning part in the strengthening of our young democracy.

This rally also takes place just three days before we celebrate human rights day which will be used to unite South Africans to fight against the scourge of racism.

We will on that day remind our people that South Africa belongs to all who live in it and that we all enjoy the same status as humans. Racism and racial discrimination has no place in our country.   

Comrades

Let me congratulate you on this campaign and programme, The Learn Without Fear,which is aimed at highlighting safety issues in our schools.

This programme calls on all of us to work together to ensure that our schools become insulated from any form of violence. Our schools must be no-go areas for gangsters and hooligans.

On this note, we must express our concern about the small but significant number of learners who see the need to go to school carrying weapons.  No learner must take a weapon to school. schools must be safe learning environments. We have lost a few learners in schools who have been stabbed or shot on school premises.

Also totally unacceptable, is the practice of bullying in schools. Bullying negatively affects academic progress for many learners.

Government is employing a multipronged approach to this problem which we believe is also psychological, mostly perpetrated by children who themselves are victims coming from families with a deep rooted culture of violence.

Also important is to completely root out corporal punishment in schools. There have been children who have been seriously injured after beatings by teachers. This is unacceptable and must stop.

Let me also emphasise that  efforts to rid our schools of violence and ensure that learners learn without fear must necessarily be accompanied by efforts against the use of alcohol and drugs in our schools.

The role that COSAS must play in this regard cannot be overemphasized. No leaner must drink or abuse alcohol or use drugs even when they are not at school, including during school holidays.

Any child falling within the school going age cannot by law be allowed to drink alcohol, let alone abuse it. We equally call on all our people to desist from sending school children to taverns and other liquor stores as this may place children at the risk of underage consumption.

We also call on our law enforcement officers to improve their monitoring capacity to ensure that those who continue the unlawful act of selling alcohol to children face the full might of the law.

Police must determine hotspots for alcohol and drug abuse and execute random search operations at our schools in order to ensure the safety of our children.

Needless to say, this must be done in a manner that does not impede on the primary function of a school which is that of teaching and learning.

 Compatriots

Connected to the question of safety in our schools is the empowerment and protection of the girl child.

You, as young leaders, must therefore seize the opportunity to bring to the fore the plight of the girl child in our communities and in our schools. In this regard, we welcome the initiative by COSAS called the Mantombazane Convention or the Emma Sathekge Detachment which is aimed at building leadership qualities among girls and simultaneously dealing with a variety of challenges faced by school girls on a daily basis.

This type of initiative is necessary if we are to successfully conscientize and mobilize the whole of society to deal decisively, among other things, with the evil tendency by some of our male teachers to prey on and harass vulnerable young girls.

As leaders of learners, you also have a responsibility to instil confidence among school girls to refuse and report to the authorities any attempt by any adult, including teachers, to establish an unsavoury and indecent relationship with them.

You must ensure that the relationship between teachers and learners mirrors that of a parent and a child at all times.

You must do this with the full understanding that any other relationship between learners and teachers which is not informed by parental love contaminates the school environment and will inevitably erode any prospects of meaningful teaching and learning.

By the same measure, this conference must discuss the troubling phenomenon of teenage pregnancies among learners.

Over the years, teenage pregnancy has had dire consequences for many people, especially women who had to drop out of school in order to raise children; a task for which they were never ready both financially and emotionally.

Thus teenage pregnancy has robbed too many of our citizens of a career and a bright future.

In other words, it has condemned many of our people to a life of poverty and unemployability as well as the resultant dependence on social grants. It is for this reason that you must work out an elaborate programme aimed at discouraging school children from early indulgence in sexual activity.

I believe that you will make a great impact in this regard if you discourage each other as peers in support of government's efforts.

As the old English adage goes, patience is a virtue. Abstinence and self-discipline are the most effective ways to deal with teenage pregnancy which has dramatically negative economic implications for the country.

Young people should not rush into serious relationships when they are still too young to even understand the consequences.

The prevalence of HIV and Aids as well other Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Infections among learners resulting from early indulgence in sexual activity is thus a cause for concern for us as the ANC and government.

Government launched prevention and sexual health in schools programmes recently which learners must make use of. But we still emphasise prevention and delay.

You, the learners, youth and children of our country, are a precious national resource on whose shoulders rests our future.    

You are the most important people in our country as you represent the future. We want only the best for you. This is why we are spending time today reminding you of all the matters that you need to take into account as you build the future.

Our beloved founding President of democratic South Africa, Tata Madiba once remarked that:

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.Education is the great engine of personal development”

It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine; that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”

I encourage you as leaders to lead by example and fight in the classroom in order to guarantee a better future for yourselves and your families. We will do everything possible to ensure that you have a conducive environment for learning and teaching.

We are working hard to fix where there are challenges including scholar transport, school infrastructure, school nutrition and all other challenges which may hinder smooth learning and teaching.

We applaud COSAS for choosing these progressive campaigns. This is leadership at its best in our schools, keep up the good work.

We will support you all the way as the ANC and the ANC government.

Say No To Teenage Pregnancy.

Say No To Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

Say Yes To School Safety.

Say Yes To Academic Excellence.

I thank you!

Amandla!           

Issued by The Presidency, 18 March 2016