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Saldanah Bay, 3 December 2014 Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans E.R.K. Maphatsoe's Speech on the Occasion of the Graduation Ceremony of the Youth Leadership Development Programme Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Candice Mashego-Dlamini Chief of the Navy, Vice Admiral Hlongwane Chief Director of Human Resources, Maj Gen Fakir Maj Gen Gqiba (Retired) General Officer Commanding Special Forces Brigade, Brig Gen Maphwanya Flag Officers & Senior Officers Officer Commanding SAS Saldanha, Capt Malepe Our distinguished guests, the graduates of the NYS Leadership Programme Ladies and Gentleman, We are pleased to stand before you today, on the occasion of your graduation ceremony. Yours has been a gruelling but surely interesting 3 months, in which you have learnt a lot regarding leadership, and how to conduct yourselves to make a huge impact in your communities. You have been given skills to lead and become better persons in your communities. We need you to go back to those communities and lead with humility, to ensure that you become part and parcel of the developments which our government is implementing in your communities. Without you, the youth, the rural areas would become dead areas with no prospect of development. But with you trained and empowered, your areas are bound to raise themselves from begging baskets, to productive havens which would poise themselves to feed the country. Our pride in you as activists of development in the rural areas is unparalleled. Our hope that you shall go back to your areas and become the shining lights, and assets to your communities is certain. We believe that the training you have received has moulded you into men and women of a very high calibre. The 352 of you were selected in a period of 17 days, to ensure that you fit the criteria in all respects, and that all of you 154 females and 198 males would be here to complete your 3 months leadership training in the scheduled 3 months, and this you have done. Today you are graduating after having received strict training from the officers of the South African National Defence Force. One can tell that you are able to tell the difference about your personalities, attitude towards others and about your country. One is certain that today you have a better understanding of what is patriotism. One can imagine that this particular program, which the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is undertaking in partnership with the Department of Defence and Military Veterans, is one of the best to transform our country. One is saying this because it is a given that when you want to transform the country, you transform the people first, especially the youth. We therefore view you as the beacon of transformation in your communities and we earnestly believe that you shall not disappoint. We have our hope on you. You are part of the 8183 youth which the DoD & DMV in partnership with the DRDLR has trained since 2011. The course content of your training, and its technical aspects, put you in a position, not only to theorize, but to be practical leaders in your communities. As such we expect you to go and make an impact in your communities. We expect to see marked quality changes where you come from. In this vein one cannot overemphasize the value we place on you as graduates of this very important initiative. In this year 2014, you are the third of a group of the annual total of 1998 which has been trained and successfully graduated in the Youth Leadership Development Program. This year, others before you have trained and graduated in May and October. Your group is the last for this year, but not at all the last in our plans. This is going to be an ongoing program as it has been provided for in the medium term expenditure framework for both the DoD & DMV and the DRDLR. Therefore be very good examples to those who will come after you. At this point, one would like to thank the members of the SANDF and the officials of the DRDLR who have shown dedication and deep commitment in their work to patiently take you through this training. You came here having different paces, understanding and appreciation of what was expected of you. But through their single minded effort, you leave this place as graduates with a common, shared, united vision of what is expected of you. You move at the same pace and have a similar understanding of what you must do. To all of you, congratulations! I thank you. -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. 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