Mabuza tells youth to change rural economy

Schools benefit from state’s digitisation rollout

Deputy President David Mabuza has called on the Nkomazi community in Mpumalanga not to drag the government back by stealing the laptops and the

internet routers donated to two schools as part of the digital skills outreach programme.

Mabuza and minister of communications and digital technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams handed over laptops with internet service to Indlangamabala Secondary School at Block A and Nkomazi High School at Mangweni village on Friday.

Mabuza said the graduation of 34 young people recruited in 2018 was a way to help the youth enter the Fourth Industrial

Revolution and boost youth enterprises and access to internet in education.

“Nkomazi is poor municipality but its people have proven to be diligent in the use of their intellect to achieve many things.

“Youth enterprises are especially important because they provide young people with a hand-up instead of a handout. “As you know, there is direct innovation in investing in digital skills.

“What is done here today is a showcase of bigger things to be done in the country in making sure that no citizen is denied connectivity,” Mabuza said.

“We are looking forward to these learners who have graduated that they will pass the skills to their fellow young people. This time we say each one teach one.

“We are no longer going to have to get to these shops to fix cellphones but our fellow brothers and sisters will do it for us.”

Ndabeni-Abrahams said her department plans to digitise the country and focus will also given to rural areas unlike before where priorities were given to towns.

One of the 34 young people who were handed certificates of qualification on smartphone repair, Lindiwe Mbatha from Tonga, told Sowetan that she was given a chance that will change her life and her community forever.

“Us as rural areas this programme is going to help us train some among ourselves to know how to fix cellphones, unlike what we used to do going to some foreign shops where very few or none South Africans in the community knew how to fix a cellphone,” Mbatha said.