People like Mowa and Ngobeni should be part of this project

I am sick and tired of reading about President Jacob Zuma, the Guptas and all those involved in corruption.

That is why my breath was taken away when I read about another young black man who has built his own motor vehicle from scratch. Nkamo Mowa is my hero. He built himself a red 4x4.

He follows in the footsteps of Moses Ngobeni, and both are from Limpopo.

Mowa drives his vehicle in the dusty village of Mashite in GaMphahlele outside Lebowakgomo.

Both Mowa and Ngobeni are proof that if the government had a good education system that could spot children’s talents from fairly early, we would have more Mowas and Ngobenis.

Mowa dropped out of school in Grade 8. He then started fixing people’s radios and television sets before creating his first small vehicle from scratch last year.

The vehicle runs on an old motorcycle engine. He has travelled as far as Polokwane in this car.

If our education system had technical studies right from primary school, Mowa would not have dropped out in Grade 8.

A clued-up teacher should have picked very early that Mowa is very talented and should have groomed him properly.

The government has to a bring balance to the education system that will focus on talent and skills. Such a system would spot talented people.

Our government must learn from countries like Mozambique where the education system is also skills based.

Most Mozambicans living in South Africa work for construction companies or run their own businesses.

Lesotho provides free education at tertiary level. The South African government needs to review our education system to check if the changes it made after 1994 are working or not.

In my view, we still have a long way to go because the apartheid regime designed an education system that did not skill or benefit black children.

The democratic government has to develop policies that will improve the education system at both primary and high school.

Principals and teachers must be accountable.

Some parents can afford to take their children to better schools while the majority of the population, who are poor, have no option but have to go to government schools.

A government programme introduced two years ago was meant to create 100 black industrialists and the Industrial Development Corporation committed R23-billion towards this project. The idea was to create black people who would own and manage their own businesses.

In my view people like Mowa and Ngobeni should be part of the project, but they are left somewhere in the rural areas of Limpopo.

Information about the project to create black industrialists has probably not even reached them.

Mowa or Ngobeni would need help putting a business proposal together.

What is at the heart of the problem is the education system that is failing people like Mowa and Ngobeni.

Mowa dropped out of high school, but is now a self- taught technician.

Mowa and many others like him need the support of government, but the government does not show any real support to those who are ahead of their time and are innovators.

It is about time that government devised ways to spot the true potential of the country’s children. Their future and the country’s success rests in the extent of support they receive.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR