President Ramaphosa committed to serve SA

Thursday, May 30, 2019

President Cyril Ramaphosa has reaffirmed his commitment to serve the 57 million South Africans by addressing the triple challenges of inequality, poverty, and unemployment.

“I see myself as a servant; as being in this position to serve our people and to make sure that the challenges and the difficulties that our people are living through are eliminated. We address them, and we make their lives a lot easier,” President Ramaphosa said.

Addressing young girls at the Union Buildings on Thursday, the President said he takes his position to serve the people of the country seriously.

“We’ve got 57 million South Africans and many of them are still poor. So we've got to lift our people out of poverty and make sure that they lead a better life.

“My task is to get all the 57 million people in our country to share a common vision about where our country should go; to share a common future so that all of us can work together to achieve our vision,” he said.

The President hosted 70 Girl-learners of Grade 10-12 from various schools around Gauteng and Western Cape as part of the Take a Girl Child to Work programme.

“One of the things that we want to do is to increase the number of entrepreneurs in our country. We want to support them and want them to succeed.

“It is entrepreneurs that employ the most people. When we have more entrepreneurs, they will create jobs and once jobs are created, we begin to eliminate poverty. Poverty and unemployment are our biggest enemies. We are seeking to address poverty, inequality and unemployment,” he said.

He called on South Africans to be innovative and technologically advanced entrepreneurs who can create the much needed jobs.

The President also encouraged young girls to work hard in school.

“Nothing ever comes easy in life. You will never get your Grade 12 certificate on a silver platter. It’s going to come out of tears, hard work and sweating, sleepless nights and continued practice. It is hard and because it is hard, it’s got to be done,” President Ramaphosa said.

Take-A-Girl-Child to Work initiative

Hosted by the Presidency Employee Health and Wellness Unit, Take-A-Girl-Child to Work is a national initiative by Cell C that seeks to expose girl children to a work environment, positive role models and offer them an opportunity to make informed career decisions based on real work experience.

 The annual event is also aimed at inspiring girl children across the country to pursue their goals and ambitions without hindrance, as well as to reach their full potential, especially in relation to careers that were previously perceived as being male-orientated.

The Presidency exposed the girl-learners to various activities such as touring the Union Buildings precinct; presentation on the overview of the Presidency and work opportunities; bursary opportunities by Funza Lushaka; Department of Higher Education and Training presentation on Scare and Critical Skills; NSFAS fund and motivational talks. – SAnews.gov.za