Address by President Jacob Zuma at the occassion of the National Children's Day Science Expo at the Sefako Makgatho Presidenti​al Guest House, Pretoria

The Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr MalusiGigaba,

Eskom Chairman, Mr Zola Tsotsi,

Eskom Chief Executive, Mr Brian Dames

Chairman of Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, Prof. Ian Jandrell,

Senior officials,

Learners and teachers,

Distinguished guests,

Good afternoon to you all.

Let me begin by extending once again, our condolences on the tragic death of six workers at the Ingula plant in Ladysmith yesterday.

This tragedy at one of the flagship infrastructure projects has caused all of us a lot of pain. Our hearts go out to the families who have lost theirl oved ones who are still going through shock and disbelief. We also wish the injured a speedy recovery.

Boys and girls,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House.

We are meeting with you today a day before National Children’s Day. The first Saturday in November is National Children’s Day in our country.

There can be no better occasion to such a day than to spend some time celebrating the achievements of South African children and youth.

In most cases we use National Children’s Day to highlight and raise awareness about negative things that affect children such as abuse, rape and neglect. This is extremely important.

However, in highlighting the negative, we tend to omit balancing it with the positive. We hardly showcase the wonderful achievements and successes of our children.

We decided to do things differently this year and celebrate your achievements, and the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists is the best way to do so.

We are happy to host budding young scientists, and appreciate your sharing these exciting science projects and innovation.

Government’s biggest challenge is to make maths and science exciting and popular with learners. In you, we have living proof that maths and science can be exciting, inspiring and interesting.

Through you, we want to encourage more young people to take up maths and science as subjects.

Science offers students the ability to access a wealth of knowledge and information which will contribute to an overall understanding of how and why things work the way they do.

Through science you will be able to explain the mechanics and reasons behind the daily functioning of complex systems, which range from the human body to sophisticated modern methods of transport up to the workings of the Square Kilometre Array telescope that our country won the bid to construct.

Beyond all of this, through producing more science and technology graduates, we are assured of a bright future economically. It means our economy will have all the scientists, technologists, engineers, artisans and other skills that we need for economic development.

It also means we will have all the expertise we need to prevent and cure diseases or to fight poverty through better agricultural methods.

While the education system in our country is gearing itself to providethe required maths and science teaching, we need support beyond the schoolyard.

We therefore congratulate Eskom for supporting this programme. Our state owned companies must invest in education and skills development. They must invest in our youth, the future of this country.

Eskom is therefore proving that its role goes beyond keeping the lights on.

It realises that its role must also to become a shining light for our youth in terms of supporting innovation and development.

Congratulations to all of you for making us proud and showing interest in the field of science.

Congratulations on your hard work that enabled you to win the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists awards.

The future of this country is in your hands.

Go out there and continue exploring! Your inquiring young minds hold the key to the future of our country.

I thank you.

Issued by The Presidency