Opening address at Youth Camp in Tulbagh

Opening Address by Adv Lyndon Bouah at the Youth Camp in Tulbagh

Welcome / Acknowledge

The representatives of SRSA Ms Sehume Raghudu, Mr Lucas Mmako, Ms Thabilisi  Khoza, love life representative Ms Nomzi Abrahams. Paul Hendricks director sport development at DCAS, representatives if DCAS, Mr Meyer and Mr Siljeur, Mr Andre Enslin, regional manager of Boland Cape  Winelands, Mr. Macwili and his team, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, DCAS.  It gives me great pleasure to address you her this afternoon at the 2015 Youth Camp opening.

The youth camp is an important initiative of SRSA and supported by all provincial sport and recreation departments. The themes are to learn, to lead and to serve.

The activities will focus on leadership, character building, social cohesion, national building and community service.

You are now in an important a phase in your life. Many of the decisions you take will serve as the platform for your future. The subject choices you make, the organisations you join, the friends you make will all determine the path in life that you follow. This camp for the week will assist you to make those important decisions.

Theme one: Learn

The foundation of success in the modern world is information. Every day we are learning no matter what work you do or what age you are. Many of you would have noticed that I do not have my speech typed out because I am reading from my iPad. This is technology at work. When I conclude my speech I will email it to our communication section and they will upload it to the website. This is technology at work.

Learning happens every day and the sources of learning vary greatly.  The school is the obvious place where you learn. Learning however starts in the home. It is important to listen to your parents and elders. Your parents have life experiences that you do not have and want the best for you. Listen to them. Learn from them. Take the time to understand what life was like when they were growing up.

In the not so distant past all our parents could strive to be were teachers, nurses, factory workers and farm workers. Nowadays you can dream and become anything you want if you apply yourself.

It is important that you take your learning and education seriously. Set goals for yourself. Go study and learn as that is the first step in your chosen path. You need to obtain the fundamentals in order to be the best in your chosen field. Let's use this week to learn as much as we can and go out there and apply the knowledge better together.

Theme two: Lead

South Africa has produced many leaders of international stature. They have made an impact in politics, science and sport. I have a book in my library that I am quite fond of. The book is by Rudy Giuliani and is called Leadership. He was the mayor of New York when the twin towers were bombed in 2001. He says leadership does not simply happen. It can be taught, learned and developed. There are many ways to lead. Some people make stirring speeches, other lead by example, others are brave and exceptional speakers. Ultimately however you will will know what techniques and approaches work for you. And those that you lead will tell you.

The youth camp intends giving the tools to augment and enhance your leadership ability. The fact that you have been chosen to be here already says that we believe that you have leadership potential. What need to happen now is for us as government to nurture the potential.

In science we talk about latent energy. What we want to do this week is to make the latent energy kinetic energy. We want you to use your energy to better serve the communities you live in, the schools you attend and the society we hope you will change. Your leadership must serve as the catalyst to build the society better together.

Theme three: Serve

Leadership has many strands but the strand I want to concentrate on today is servant leadership. Democracy is defined as government of the people, for the people and by the people. This means that we as society chose our leaders. When you have been chosen it means that you have been called upon to serve the serve the people. I want all of you to take this very seriously. Leaders must serve the people and not the other way round.

A week ago I as a leader had a very humbling experience when I went to meeting with 25 older persons. They were all over the age of sixty and the eldest person there was probably about mid-seventies. She called on me to understand what it means for the older mature citizens in our communities to participate in sport. It gives them a sense of dignity and pride that at their age they are able to compete and be active members of their community. I have now come to appreciate how important social cohesion and social inclusion is for that segment following my interaction with that particular constituency. Mr Hendricks and I agreed to host a workshop in November so that we can learn what their needs are. That ladies and gentleman, boys and girls is an example do servant leadership.

Use this week to learn from your coordinators, to lead groups when requested and interact with people from different areas. You may have more in common then you realise. Learn about about nation. All of us have a sense of pride when we see the Springboks, Bafana Bafana, the Proteas win or Wayne van Niekerk win the 400 metres at the world champs, or Trevor Noah making it big in the world. You will earn about our national symbols and what they represent.

Boys and girls, ladies and gentleman thank you for listening to me this afternoon and I wish you well.

Media Enquiries: 

Tania Colyn
Head of Communication Service
Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport
Tel: 021 483 9877
E-mail: tania.colyn@westerncape.gov.za