Deputy minister leads back-to-school campaign

By Emily Setona

HARRISMITH – The Deputy Minister (DM) in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Pinky Kekana was accompanied by Kamohelo Mosikili – the Free State’s top performing learner and South Africa’s second-best learner of the class of 2023 – o her visit to monitor four secondary schools in Harrismith.

Kekana was joined by the executive mayor of Maluti-a-Phofung (MAP) local municipality Masetjhaba Lakaje-Mosia and the executive mayor of Thabo Mofutsanyana district municipality (TMDM) Conny Msibi to conduct frontline monitoring and a back-to-school campaign.

This happened on January 25, and they were accompanied by Mosikili and four top learners in the Harrismith schools, namely Harrismith Secondary, Sesamela Secondary, Lerato-Uthando Secondary and Kgetha Tsebo Secondary.

“As young people you should stay away from using drugs and do not fall in the trap of teenage pregnancy. Take your time and wait for the right time to have babies. Wait until you can provide for your child. Look at me, I waited until I was 25 years old and started working when I had my first child, Bafana Bafana player Grant Kekana.

“You must also be very careful of the things that you do while you are young because the internet does not have delete and it never forgets. Behave, because your misbehaviour might be captured on video and it will come back to haunt you years later when you have forgotten,” Kekana said while addressing learners.

Deputy minister Pinky Kekana with Kamohelo Mosikili FS top learner seated on her right.

Acknowledging the performance of the class of 2023 and motivating the class of 2024 to do better, Lakaje-Mosia said: “we are going to work even harder this year to improve on the 91.4 percent pass rate in Maluti-a-Phofung. We want to have similar celebrations this time next year, but with improved results.”

For her part, Mosikili said that he is not special and that setting goals and tracking one’s performance is the best way to achieve great results.

“Set goals and track your performance. The best competition to have is to compete with yourself by improving and doing better next time,” Mosikili said.