Free State Young Communicators winning speech

The ‘Born Free’ generation

By Zinhle Novazi from St Michael’s School for Girls

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Ladies and gentleman they call us the born free generation where they say it is now more than ever that we are born free to be liberated, born free from all forms of operation, born free from the laws of apartheid that once restricted us.

I do not know about you, ladies and gentlemen, but I still feel oppressed. I am oppressed by the high amount of socio-economic issues that our country faces on a day to day basis! I am oppressed by the high amount of corruption going on in our government but mostly ladies and gentlemen; I am oppressed by systems that have been put in place to rectify the mistakes of apartheid. With this being said I pass my salutations.

Firstly ladies and gentlemen, on the subject of systems that have been put in place to rectify the mistakes of the past, I am basically talking about affirmative action at University. Allow me to take you back in history... now if we go back in history we notice how in apartheid we had so called “all white universities” and “black universities”, now what our government has cleverly done to rectify this mistake is that they have forced the “all white universities” to comply by a legislation where they have to take in an x amount of black people to balance the equity marks. Brilliant plan, right? No - simply because the system does not  adapt to the times we are living in, because it is based on the “previously  disadvantaged” and so it does not  make sense for a child who is born into democracy to be still listed as “previously disadvantaged” simply because they are black.

Secondly if we go back to the vision and mission behind the whole concept we notice that government was trying to get all the black people who needed liberation to be liberated as well as empowered. However, what the system is currently doing is that it’s empowering all the black people that are at the top, that don’t need empowerment, and its leaving the black people who need empowerment suppressed.

Allow me to use an example to illustrate what I am trying to say. Let’s say there are two of me, a Zinhle from St Michael’s and a Zinhle from a disadvantaged school. We both apply to an “all white university” like UCT. At that point in time UCT does not really care about our socio-economic background, all they need is a black student to balance their equity marks. So let us say they decide to do extensive research and they realise that St Michael’s has a consecutive 32-year pass rate of 100% ....great, but when they research Zinhle from the disadvantaged school, the school doesn’t even have a website running because perhaps they are not fortunate enough and let’s say they did get publicity in the past but it was bad publicity for a 0% pass rate. And so they decide to choose Zinhle from St Michael’s because she’s the ultimate choice. Zinhle from the disadvantaged school gives up on her dream to go to a well recognised university, can you blame her? No, because the system that was set out to help her has ironically turned against her and put her at a disadvantage.

Moving on to the second half of my speech, that being the leadership of our country. Firstly if we go back to the days of  apartheid we notice how struggle heroes were willing to die for the rights of the people, they were willing to spend 27 years in jail just for the liberation of all people. It was all about the people! How many of you know FW de Klerk, Nelson Mandela and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu? These are some of the most world renowned leaders; I’m talking Nobel peace prize winners from South Africa. Struggle heroes set a very high standard in terms of the type of leadership that one can expect to get from South Africa. In the 21st century this has taken a toll for the worse, because leaders are no longer in leadership positions to serve the people but for their own selfish reasons. Leaders have put themselves on a pedestal so high they can’t even scoop down to meet the needs of the very same people that put them in their positions. One wonders how long will we continue to have leaders like Ms Madonsela who are fighting the good fight of a non-corrupt society.

In conclusion, government needs to ensure that if they have systems that are put in place to rectify mistakes of the past, that these systems adapt to the times that we are living in, seeing that we are a transforming society.

And secondly, if we are going to have leaders that call themselves leaders, let them to what their job entails, and that is to lead and serve the people of South Africa.

And lastly, ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you as someone that dreams of being the first female black president of South Africa - not because I’m black or because I am a woman but simply because I am the best candidate for the job.

We owe it to ourselves to live in a colour-blind society where it is no longer about race but about bridging the gap between the rich and the poor.