Talent abounds in this province with its high achievers

Be it sporting legends, top administrators, skilful politicians, inventive businesspeople or talented entrepreneurs, you will find a common thread running through all these areas of endeavour. Many of these successful high achievers either hail from, or have had links to the Eastern Cape and it is something we in this province are proud of. It is what sets this province apart from the other regions.

Run the credits and we find a tapestry of talented individuals from our own statesman, Nelson Mandela, to property moguls such as Pam Golding and Sisa Ngebulana.

On the sporting front we can boast of the achievements of the first black Springbok captain in Siya Kolisi and in recent times a man born in the dusty villages of Port St Johns hit on the idea to bring horse-racing to this neck of the woods.

What a success the Berlin November has been. It is thanks to the perseverance and determination of Luthando Bara that this event has been so well received with its concomitant success on the jobs front.

If this were not enough, we now have more inventiveness from another Eastern Cape guru.

King William’s Town-born Unathi September partnered with Rudzani Mulaudzi and Lebo Diale to build a comprehensive career guidance app. For this they won R3.5-million from the first Google Impact Challenge in Africa and this was fair reward for homing in on doing something for education in this province.

They got buy-in from 14 high schools in and around King William’s Town in 2014, and went on to assist more than 84,000 pupils from disadvantaged South African schools to plan and apply for a career best suited to them.

They paved the way for learners to enter their subjects and marks which are then matched with suitable tertiary institutions based on their qualifications.

September is the founder of Inspire Foundation Group Africa, a company founded on the principle of bridging the gap between village/township learners and their former model C and private school counterparts.

This help for the needy in this impoverished province is worthy of high praise all round.

Run the credits and we find a tapestry of talented individuals beginning with our statesman Mandela