GALLERY: The future is now

The Provincial Government in Gauteng is making stakeholders in different industries of the country part of their Youth Expo for the month of June.

On 13 June, Minister of Small Business Development Lindiwe Zulu was guest speaker in Nasrec where she addressed high schools on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Actress and education ambassador, Nonku Ndlovu brought great energy as moderator, telling the audience that they were the diamonds of the new frontier. She started off with a recap of history, telling the youth about great Africans, including activist and lawyer Victoria Mxenge and the creator of peanut butter, George Washington Carver, who was an African-American inventor.

“You are going to change the country and the future is in your hands. Do not let the injustices of our history hold you back.”

Chief risk officer at Royal Fields Finance Thabo Ntseare began by sharing the inspiring story of Siyabulela Xuza, South Africa’s youngest innovator and a Harvard graduate in energy engineering.

Siya’s development of safer and cheaper rocket fuel won him two grand awards at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the biggest student science event in the world. In 2012, Nasa named a planet after the Mthatha-born rocket scientist, the Siyaxuza, found near Jupiter.

Minister Zulu reiterated what Ntseare said and encouraged every pupil to start investing in their future today.

“I am where I am today because I was raised by my grandmother, who strongly believed in me and in education even though I did not believe in myself. At that time we did not have a government to assist us. Banks did not lend money to Africans. It was during that time that the youth got together and decided enough was enough and they changed history in 1976.”

Zulu said every person had a choice, to either listen, mock or build their future. She added that the enemy today has changed. “Today the enemy is poverty and unemployment. If you want a better future, you start working on it today.”