‘ Take leaf out of South Korea’s book’

IF SOUTH Africa was serious about rebuilding its crumbling economy it should learn from South Korea which worked tirelessly to recover after it was bombed to ashes during the 1950s, said Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

She was addressing parents, teachers and community members of Adams Mission, south of Durban, yesterday during the official opening of a stateof-the-art computer laboratory donated by Samsung at Adams College.

Dlamini Zuma said South Africa should grab potential opportunities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution in order to be developed.

“South Korea is an example of a country that was the second-poorest in the world, but they did not sit and lament about poverty. They said ‘poverty is not in us, we are not going to live with poverty’,” she said.

Dlamini Zuma also said while South Africans and South Koreas had similarities of loving flashy cars, the difference was that the latter chose to build its own cars while South Africa only assembled cars that were manufactured by other countries.

“Now we are driving their beautiful cars while Koreans have taken very bold steps that nobody thought was possible. Now South Korea is one of the biggest shipbuilders in the world.

“There are lots of other things that they have done for themselves, and I am mentioning this in order to inspire ourselves,” she said.

She said at one point even China was poorer than Malawi, but it turned its situation around.

“With the will power, the determination and using technology they got where they are and they are still growing further.

“So we can also decide,” said Dlamini Zuma.

She also warned community members to desist from destroying government properties when aggrieved by the lack of service delivery.

“I feel very sad when the road has a pothole and you go and burn the school and destroy the future of the kids; it is absolutely wrong to burn community property when you want something else.

“When you want shoes you don’t burn your suit, if you want a shirt, you don’t burn your trousers,” she said.

| ZANELE ZULU African News Agency (ANA) MINISTER of Co-operative Govenance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and president and chief executive of Samsung Electronics Africa Sung Yoon with pupils from Adams College, Zamanxamalala Zuma and Izwakele Cebisa, both 17, at the official launch of its computer laboratory.