Businessman and president of the Institute of Directors SA Dr Reuel Khoza tore into the state of the country at the Sam Nzima Memorial Lecture, where he urged youth to take charge.
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Khoza took a swipe at the ruling party and criticised it for lack of accountability, corruption, unemployment, inequality and poverty.
The Sam Nzima Memorial Lecture was held at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Mbombela campus in Mpumalanga.
Khoza said during one of his chats with the legendary Nzima, who died in 2018 aged 83, he realised that democracy will never be a destination of comfort and repose.
Nzima took the iconic photograph of a dying Hector Pieterson during an uprising in Soweto on June 16 1976.
“I realised that it was a journey of ongoing reflection and struggles where the country was concerned among other things of poverty, dealing with stubborn unemployment and enduring structural social economic inequalities.
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“None amongst us doubts that for democracy to thrive our nation’s conscience must be roused; its pseudo propriety given occasional shock treatment and its hypocrisy exposed.”
Khoza outlined what June 16 meant to black youth today.
“This day reveals to them more than the other days on a number of things, including gross inadequacy and irrelevance of ill-designed tertiary education that guarantees no job opportunities; the painful injustice and socioeconomic cruelty to which they are the constant victims.
“Young people, take charge of your own destiny or someone will.
“Our shout for freedom and equality is a pungent smell to the nostrils of those suffering from gender-based violence amongst our youth. Our Republic’s prayers and sermons of thanksgiving are mere rhetoric in piety and shameless hypocrisy.
“The eloquent speeches delivered in high places are a fragile veil designed to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation,” Khosa said.
He said he could almost hear Nzima sternly admonishing today’s youth, saying “’everything notwithstanding, the future of this country is firmly in their hands, let them take charge of their own destiny.’ So, be masters of your own destiny!
“I sincerely believe a sense of excitement and possibility can replace the fear and resignation that is so often accompanying the nation, occasioned by lack of compelling national vision, politics of patronage, creeping kleptocracy and leadership devoid of moral authority and compaction that is a pricking of conscience.”
He said Nzima was an outstanding photojournalist who captured the diabolical crime committed by the apartheid regime against humanity in one iconic photograph.
“The same photograph has been spoken about, written about and narrated in various forums since June 16 1976. We also remember him as the ingenious fugitive that extricated himself from the evil neocolonial clutches of a farming dynasty in Mpumalanga.”
He ended the address by reminding the audience about an incident that happened in 2017 when former minister Nomvula Mokonyane said the rand must fall and she will pick it up.
“You may recall that as the ratings agencies downgraded our economy to junk status thereby rendering it difficult and expensive for us to borrow from the international money markets. We had a minister declaring that if the currency drops she will pick it up.”
The Sam Nzima Foundation announced plans to build a legacy centre in Mpumalanga in his honour.
His son and the foundation’s chairperson, Thulani Nzima, said: “This Sam Nzima Legacy Centre will have an interpretation centre because the strength of our people is indigenous knowledge. There will be a museum that is going to tell the story of people of Mpumalanga.
“We are going to build a journalism school of excellence and create a satellite centre. The aim is to train young women and men from rural areas to be journalists and we want to make sure there is sustainability. We also want to focus on the early development of children.”
The late photographer was given an honorary doctorate in photojournalism.
Speaking on behalf of the university, Dr Kenneth Netshiombo said: “TUT is the first institution of higher learning to recognise this legend by conferring an honorary doctorate posthumously. We did not do that because we had nothing to do. As TUT, we knew where wisdom comes from and we knew where to turn to in times of need.”
