Zuma: Our people need skills

"This is not the time to rest. This is the time to intensify the fight for a truly united, non-racial, non-sexist, and democratic SA," he said in a speech prepared for delivery in Khayelitsha.

The struggle should be intensified on a number of fronts, he said.

"At the core of our efforts to build a winning nation, must be the task of ensuring access by all South Africans to decent education.

Skills

"Our people need skills. Our country needs skills," Zuma said.

Referring to the ANC's campaign for quality education for all, he urged local education officials, teachers, learners, parents and community members to commit themselves to a "code of quality education".

By committing themselves to this code, they each took responsibility for contributing to improved schooling in their area.

Local department officials should ensure all schools had the books,stationery and other resources needed for teaching.

Teachers should teach with enthusiasm, be on time and properly prepared, and eliminate unprofessional behaviour, while learners should accept they were in school to learn and grow, to respect the legitimacy and authority of teachers, and to oppose anti-social behaviour like theft, vandalism, and assault, alcohol and drug use.

Parents should create a home environment conducive to study and take an active interest in the children's education, and communities should ensure that every school-going child was at school and protect the school and its assets from vandalism.

Aids

Communities should also take the lead in achieving health for all, Zuma said.

"We must acknowledge that we are in the middle of a devastating epidemic.

"Every weekend we have to attend ever more burials, as many of our young people succumb to Aids-related illnesses," he said.

"But we are not helpless in the face of this disease. We have the power to prevent the spread of HIV through responsible behaviour.

"And we now have the means to ensure that HIV-positive people stay healthy for longer through effective treatment, including through the provision of antiretroviral treatment.

"The responsibility lies with each and every one of us. We must take responsibility for our own health and for the health of others," Zuma said. "We salute those people who, under the most difficult conditions, have taken the fight to the criminals."

These were police officers and reservists, prosecutors, magistrates, security guards, members of community policing forums, and those members of the public who provided the police with vital information about criminal activities.

"We must do better to support these people, and ensure they have the means to fight crime. We cannot allow criminality to breed in our midst."

Communities had to organise themselves into street committees that would identify and report criminal behaviour, and would keep the streets safe in the day and at night.

"We face many challenges, as the people of Khayelitsha, as the people of Cape Town, as the people of the Western Cape, and as a nation.

"If our history has shown us anything, it is that we can overcome even the greatest of challenges if we are united, and if we work together," Zuma said.

- Sapa