Trevor Manuel motivates young minds
Cape Town – Bursaries worth R10 000 each were awarded to 16 students from Mitchells Plain by a Mitchells Plain Bursary and Role Model Trust on Wednesday night.
The students were from high schools in the area.
The founding trustee of the Trust, National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel said that the day was to celebrate the minds of the achievers from Mitchells Plain.
“There is significance to this day; 20 years ago we lost one of our finest politicians but all we can do is try to live by the values that he lived by and put honesty and service in what we do.”
Manuel was referring to SACP leader Chris Hani, who was assassinated 20 years ago.
“This is a day to celebrate the young minds and achievers… It is the people of Mitchells Plain that we will celebrate, a community that is determined to turn itself around.”
The event was held at the Liberty Promenade shopping centre. The students, parents, teachers and other dignitaries were entertained by spoken word artist and musician Janine van Rooy, known by her stage name Blaq Pearl, singer Keeno Lee and others.
Blaq Pearl performed a poem written by her late brother, titled Ignorance. She said that the piece was meant to inspire the young bursary recipients to be conscious and not ignorant.
“Be free, be you and be who you are… Education is an important thing, education is your key to success and I hope you learnt from this poem to always be conscious.”
The Trust aims to better the lives of the students by allowing them to further their studies.
Mitchells Plain Education Forum chairwoman Coleen Horswell said that an event like this would prove that there is more to Mitchells Plain than the negative aspects usually portrayed by the media.
“This proves that great things can happen in Mitchells Plain, because too often we hear only about the bad things.”
The trust has been supported by donations from Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
The vice-chancellors of University of Western Cape, the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University also pledged their support. The three Cape Town FET Colleges, False Bay Northlink and Cape Town College, also provided support to the trust.