MEC hosts breakfast for public service veterans
Nurses, school inspectors, ex-SAPS members, previous leaders of schools and Child Welfare veterans were treated to a meal and were given the opportunity to share their views on the current governance of KwaZulu-Natal, and how this could be changed for the better.
On Friday, the Health MEC, Sibongiseni Dhlomo, hosted a breakfast function at Blackrock Casino for retired employees of the public service in Newcastle.
Nurses, school inspectors, ex-SAPS members, previous leaders of schools and Child Welfare veterans were treated to a meal and were given the opportunity to share their views on the current governance of KwaZulu-Natal, and how this could be changed for the better.
Dr Dhlomo opened the event with a lengthy discussion of current policies of health management, and telling how the country had changed. He then invited the veterans to share their views and advice, saying that one could never discount the wisdom learned from years of experience.
“Some of you are beyond recognition for positions in the current government,” said Dr Dhlomo. “You are now at that level in life, where you can speak your mind.”
Dr Dhlomo spoke about the challenges Government had faced in the 1990s, in uniting the education system, as to eradicate racial prejudice, stressing that schooling was no longer only available to those whose parents could afford it.
“If you meet a child on the street who says that he is too poor to go to school, by rights, that child should be taken to the police station to be arrested,” laughed Dr Dhlomo.
He emphasised that Government was facing the same problems regarding healthcare, one of them being the pre-natal care of pregnant women.
“You are our forebears,’ he said. “Today, we will take this opportunity for you to sit down with myself and the Amajuba District Mayor, Jabulile Khumalo, so you may bestow upon us, the wisdom of your years.”
