YEAR END SPEECH OF THE PRINCIPAL TO THE COMMUNITY OF LEJWELEPUTSWA DISTRICT & STAFF OF GOLDFIELDS TVET COLLEGE
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me take this opportunity to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude to the entire Lejweleputswa community for their continued support during the challenging times of 2020 and ’21. It really feels great to be part of such an institution, with many years of excellence and good achievements within our community
It means so much to me, as the principal of Goldfields TVET College, to have had the support and sustenance from the Matjhabeng Local Municipality as well as the Lejweleputswa District Municipality, in the continued pursuit of skills revolution within our area.
Goldfields TVET College continues to make huge strides in fulfilling its mandate as an institution of choice, and academic excellence, this evident with the latest academic results of Trimester 2 of 2021, wherein the college attained position number 10 out of the 50 TVET Colleges in the country
This year we have achieved great milestones in ensuring that the College promotes the safety and security of all its personnel, students and clients, by completing the security upgrades project at the Welkom Campus. The College is committed to ensuring that the same is done in all its campuses in 2022/’23.
All the ablution facilities of our campuses have also been upgraded and enhanced, in order to ensure that our staff and students are in an environment that portrays high levels of sanitation, and ambience.
We are looking forward to 2022 with great enthusiasm and excitement. As a College, we fully embrace The District Development Model as initiated by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his Budget Speech in 2019. This new integrated district-based approach will assist to address our service delivery challenges [and] localise[d] procurement and job creation, that will promote and support local businesses, and involve communities. The most exciting, yet challenging, aspect of the new district model, is the fact that our service delivery challenges can also be turned into local level development opportunities, through localised procurement and job creation.
As a College, we would also like to congratulate the newly appointed municipality councils, both local and at the district level, and we would like to extend a warm embrace to them, and reaffirm our commitment to support all the niche areas within our area. These amongst others include, renewable energy, agriculture, transport & logistics, tourism, as well as the 4IR. We are excited as a College to announce to the community that as a College we will be launching a 4IR Centre in cybersecurity, and cloud computing at our Skills & Innovation Centre. This new initiative will ensure that our youth and communities will be ready for the future, especially within the cybersecurity and cloud technology space.
To our staff and students, we are always conscious of the hard work you always put to make Goldfields TVET College, a better place for all to be. As the Principal, and Executive we will forever be indebted to you.
“Developing a good work ethic is key. Apply yourself at whatever you do, whether you’re a janitor or taking your first summer job because that work ethic will be reflected in everything you do in life.” Tyler Perry. I wish to salute the strength and courage you demonstrated as men and women of Goldfields TVET College.
You have shown faith, a vision and a fighting spirit in making this college to achieve all the greater things to date. Today we pride ourselves not only with the various accreditations that we are continuing to receive and pursue from various SETAs, but also the excellent academic results that our students have achieved in the last quarter of 2021.
As a college we also managed to give all our lecturing staff laptops to support blended and on learning mechanisms, in response to the current challenges of social distancing. Our NSFAS beneficiaries also received their learning devices to ensure that they do access their lessons remotely.
Despite all the challenges that COVID presented, as well as the shrinking fiscus, we are standing firm in our belief, that the future is greater and brighter than the road we have travelled and this should give us hope not to turn back, not to falter, not to allow or wish the journey to end – so that history must judge us fairly. Let us continue demonstrating that we are an outstanding, talented collective patriot. Whilst celebrating, let us be mindful of the social challenges that continue to plague this country of ours.
As we approach the festive season, I would therefore, once again, appeal to every road user, both drivers and pedestrians, to respect what we all say, that this is a Season of Goodwill. That goodwill must mean that we take all the necessary measures to protect the health and lives of all road users, including our own. Let me end by congratulating all our young people who sat for their Matriculation examinations and hope them the best as they continue to develop themselves further. We will do everything we can to support them in this regard. Let us all continue to work together in 2022 to build the caring society we all want our country to be.
A merry Christmas to everyone, and A Happy New Year to you all! May God continue to bless you and your families!
