The mayor of Musina, Cllr Mihloti Muhlope, has warned young school girls about the dangers of blessers, alcohol abuse and drugs.
She was addressing 20 young girls from Musina and Renaissance High Schools during the Take a girl child to Work campaign at Musina Municipality last Thursday. The girls had an opportunity to work in various sections of the municipality for the whole day. The aim was to stimulate them to take education seriously and to assist them in choosing their future careers with ease.
Muhlope said the problem of the blessers affected all community members and everyone must join hands to fight it. "The worst part is that those blessers don't really love you, because they have their own families. All they want is to use you, dump you and destroy your future. They could not care less about your future because they are already enjoying theirs. They can afford everything they need, and they will lure you through nice material things. Besides that, they might infect you with sexually transmitted diseases that might lead to your premature death."
She encouraged the girls to take education as their priority. "When I look at you, I see future mayors, doctors, teachers, nurses, engineers and state presidents. Don't allow your poor financial background to determine your future because there are lots of bursaries out there to finance your education. We also have a mayoral bursary here at the municipality that assists deserving students to realize their educational dreams."
Muhlope said the municipality had a youth office with an obligation to empower and keep young people busy. "You are presently at the adolescent stage, and if you don't take care of yourselves, you might lose your future easily. We always make sure that our youth offices keep you busy by organizing educational workshops, sports activities and talent search campaigns. We have trust in you and we have no doubt that you will grow to be responsible future leaders of our country."
Siyanda Mda (18, a Grade 10 learner from Musina High School who was part of the group that worked at Musina Municipality for a day, said that the initiative was a learning curve "and I'm highly motivated to study hard. We thank the mayor and the municipality for giving us this opportunity and we grasped it with both hands."