Allan Ridge Secondary School learners are motivated to take on the world

Allan Ridge Secondary School learners received some valuable lessons for a great future.

As part of Kuzondlula Motivational Tour’s back-to-school programme, learners received a visit from some of the most prominent names in the country on 29 January to help them start their school year with a bang as they strive to lead successful lives.

Kuzondlula CEO Matlhatse Leolo explained that they saw it fit to visit Allan Ridge in Rabie Ridge to help the learners perform better this year. He added that as part of their work, they identified problems in schools and adopted the schools to help the youth become successful after school, thus, also reducing the high rate of unemployment in the country.

One of the speakers on the day was former Home Affairs Department minister, Malusi Gigaba. He explained why he felt compelled and inspired to work with such organisations. “Growing up, my parents instilled in me the importance of education.”

“We knew at home that we can make our choices and decide a number of things except for three things, respect for our parents, obedience to God, and education, those three were compulsory and we needed to comply with them.”

Gigaba added that those values became something they were not forced to do but became a part of their lives. “That is why education and empowering our children is so important to me. We need to capture the youth now and help them at this stage because the future is not an accident, we need to start today to build towards it.

“We cannot come to these children when they are old and say to them, ‘You should have done this and that,’ because they would look at us and say ‘where were you when we were growing up, facing challenges of our youth?’.”

Gigaba concluded that he hoped Kuzondlula would continue growing so that they could do more work and impact children on a broader scale to be able to reach out to as many young people as possible.

After the event, Mandla Langa, a Grade 10 learner with the dream of becoming a surgeon, said he was really inspired and felt motivated. “Today I learned that focusing on my studies is important and that I do not need friends who will hold me back,” said Mandla.

School principal, Kaizer Phosa extended his gratitude to the guests and added that the school appreciated these types of visits, particularly when they have to do with motivating learners. “We would really love to have more of such events because we know that our learners are troubled but if they have people like this to share their experiences and are motivated and inspired, they will definitely achieve their objectives.

“I hope the learners will use what they heard today for their future successes.”

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