Open Letter to Ace Magashule
Dear Honourable Elias Sekgobelo “Ace” Magashule
Premier Ace, I would hereby like to take this opportunity and stand in for every young person in the Free State province and say we would really like to thank you for planting seeds and unlocking doors that enables us to stand up and believe in ourselves again because great leadership is indeed about unlocking people’s potential to become better, and with that said, we fully understand that it will take time to heal and undo what the apartheid government did to our parents and the system. In SOPA 2016 you tinted that the African National Congress declared 2016 as the Year of Advancing People’s Power and we are therefore happy and welcoming the opportunities that are being established for us to have a better future and we are fully refusing to allow our minds to be polished with negative views and thoughts because they will automatically marry us and create us negative people who will only see negative things in life. As President Zuma always says “Inde le ndlela”, I’m saying yes it’s long and roads usually have speed humps, stop and go’s, robots, potholes, curves and more that can delay one but it is imperative to stick to the road rules to have a safer trip to vision 2030. During my motivational talks in high schools and empowerment seminars when I try to erase the negative mindset from the youth, I usually say “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget your personal mission because if you complain and don’t comply then you will get complicated”.
Seaparankoe Tata Nelson Mandela once said “Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.” Whenever someone is called “Ace” we already know that there must be something special about them and it is with no disbelief that you are called “Ace” because you are indeed the most humble Ace leader that serves his people with love and gratitude, a leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if he had no title or position, and a leader that understands that education is the mother of leadership. It is also with no shock that you are the longest serving provincial chair of any ANC province in the country and why YOU ARE RATED THE NO.1 PREMIER IN SA. William Arthur Ward astonishingly says "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.", Premier whenever you are in FS towns whether big or small, you always go around to hear the demands of the people you serve face-to-face and that reveals the honest spirit of leadership you possess, I also admire how you get to the grounds yourself and become your own inspector at schools, clinics, hospitals and other government facilities. Some leaders are celebrities these days and don’t have time to have face-to-face interactions with people they serve but your ear is very significant because your ear is always open to listen and we love that. “An intelligent man believes only half of what he hears; a wise man knows which half” said Evan Esar.
Thomas Sankara once said “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.” Premier Ace, you and your dedicated cabinet has indeed re-created Free State to be the better place and I therefore regard you as one of the madmen who are giving it their all to invent the respectable, solid and bright future for Free Staters, I use the word “madmen” like the great Sankara because you have endured in the spirit of the human kindness and the greatest part of our existence enfold in service of humanity. There have been critics, doubts and negative media about you, but I realized and learned from you that you must have a crocodile skin as leader if you want to serve with reverence. I have also comprehended that the secret to strong leaders is that strong leaders are strong because they have been tempered by the negative; they have discovered the secret of combining the negative and the positive to produce their very own power plant!
Ke rola katiba ho bontsha hlompho le boikokobestso jwalo ka motjha wa Foreisitata. Ke re ke se ke o hlomphile e moholo.
My name is Teboho Thuswa (22), I’m a motivated speaker and not a motivational speaker because challenges I encountered at an early age motivated me to speak and change people’s lives with the gift that God gave me.
I was really motivated to write this letter to you because you have illustrated and firmly demonstrated the true essence and characteristics of leadership. I was again also thrilled to write to you because we have an art of saying good things and beautiful words to people when they are dead whilst we fail to let them know when they are still alive since it’s more than vital for one to know when they have touched huge parts of our lives with their humble souls and good work. I have therefore decided to break this barrier and especially when it comes to our own leaders who govern us, we are always expected to paint our leaders as selfish people who are only looking out for themselves even if that is not the case of truth at all. Ntate Magashule, as a young man who was born and raised in Bethlehem, you have made me to be more than proud of my province and showed me that a great leader is indeed born and raised from the dusts since you also grew up in a small town of Parys. Free State used to be seen as one of those provinces that are not worth visiting with people from other provinces looking down on it but today it is seen as a place of value and one that is more than respected since it has a wonderful “Operation Hlasela” story to tell.
Premier Ace, I would hereby like to take this opportunity and stand in for every young person in the Free State province and say we would really like to thank you for planting seeds and unlocking doors that enables us to stand up and believe in ourselves again because great leadership is indeed about unlocking people’s potential to become better, and with that said, we fully understand that it will take time to heal and undo what the apartheid government did to our parents and the system. In SOPA 2016 you tinted that the African National Congress declared 2016 as the Year of Advancing People’s Power and we are therefore happy and welcoming the opportunities that are being established for us to have a better future and we are fully refusing to allow our minds to be polished with negative views and thoughts because they will automatically marry us and create us negative people who will only see negative things in life. As President Zuma always says “Inde le ndlela”, I’m saying yes it’s long and roads usually have speed humps, stop and go’s, robots, potholes, curves and more that can delay one but it is imperative to stick to the road rules to have a safer trip to vision 2030. During my motivational talks in high schools and empowerment seminars when I try to erase the negative mindset from the youth, I usually say “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget your personal mission because if you complain and don’t comply then you will get complicated”.
Hon. Magashule, a sign of a good leader is not his position but his vision and Proverbs 29:18 highlights this beautifully and says “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. Under your leadership that introduced the powerful change-catalyst or integrated service delivery model called Operation Hlasela, we saw you ensuring that the investment in youth should be a priority as we are the future leaders of tomorrow. Hon. Ace, today Free State has outdone all other provinces in terms of its investment in education and students from other provinces even get so surprised when we tell them that our caring premier “Ace in the pack” provides bursaries and laptops to the talented young students and that makes us realize how special we are to you and how much you love us. You once said “Our hope is in our young people, and they must have the required tools. We must ensure that our young people become job creators not job seekers”. Premier Ace, I can proudly count more than 50 students who told me that meeting you personally have changed their lives because you sat down and listened to their pleas and then changed their lives for the better without hesitation.
Douglas MacArthur beautifully says “A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent”, that is you My premier, and because of you and Hon. Tate Makgoe’s guidance, Free State is the first to have more than 7 000 bursary holders in various tertiary institutions across the country and in foreign universities it has 201 medical students studying in Cuba, 38 students studying medicine, civil engineering and international trade in Turkey, 277 students in China doing various courses including agriculture, 9 in India studying pharmaceuticals, 4 in German studying for their master’s in geology, 104 students have just returned from India after completing an advanced IT course. And because you are still in your Hlasela magics, an additional of more than 400 students were also afforded the opportunity to pursue their studies in the Russian Federation, Bulgaria, Belarus, Germany, Turkey and Madeira in Portugal. Our matriculants in the FS province have also been in the top 3 for the past 3 years whilst obtaining number one spot in 2013 in which I fully know that you only want it to remain on the number one spot in the coming years. Premier Ace, because of your solid vision, 10 years from now our province is going to be the most educated province that will also be filled with job creators and not job seekers.
Seaparankoe Tata Nelson Mandela once said “Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.” Whenever someone is called “Ace” we already know that there must be something special about them and it is with no disbelief that you are called “Ace” because you are indeed the most humble Ace leader that serves his people with love and gratitude, a leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if he had no title or position, and a leader that understands that education is the mother of leadership. It is also with no shock that you are the longest serving provincial chair of any ANC province in the country and why YOU ARE RATED THE NO.1 PREMIER IN SA. William Arthur Ward astonishingly says "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.", Premier whenever you are in FS towns whether big or small, you always go around to hear the demands of the people you serve face-to-face and that reveals the honest spirit of leadership you possess, I also admire how you get to the grounds yourself and become your own inspector at schools, clinics, hospitals and other government facilities. Some leaders are celebrities these days and don’t have time to have face-to-face interactions with people they serve but your ear is very significant because your ear is always open to listen and we love that. “An intelligent man believes only half of what he hears; a wise man knows which half” said Evan Esar.
Jesus Christ said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).”From how you handle yourself and your business of serving the public with honesty, I distinguished that great leaders teach other leaders the infinite intelligence that enables them to have plenty of all things and live the good life. Theodore Roosevelt once uttered that “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." As a young leader and emerging entrepreneur I have learnt so much from your governance style that if I want to be a noble leader then I must know that I can’t make a noble leader if I want to do it all for myself or to get all the credit for doing it and from how you appointed the best cabinet, I also now know that I must align myself with people who clearly share the same vision with me if I want to succeed and not only share the vision but who are also willing to implement it and assist me with my ideas while they share theirs. Most young entrepreneurs and young politicians today are turning into the political inclination for all the erroneous reasons that brand them as power hungry. In Youth Indaba 2012, I paid close attention when you steadfastly said that we as youth must answer how we should solve the problems because opportunities are created for us and you also muscularly exemplified that we must get education and not aspire to be tenderprenuers as it is not aligned with the government’s vision and mission of serving the people and creating a better life for all. You made me realize that we possess valuable capabilities and capacities that can make us better people by helping others only if we can take time and learn from our valuable leaders like you.
Ntate Sekgobelo, you have changed many people’s lives with your charismatic leadership style and we are honouring you for that, a lot of people don’t know that you sometimes take your own salary to help your people. My biggest wish is to have 50 copies or clones of you that will stay in every town of the FS province because your voice activates Operation Hlasela machine that transforms lives when it speaks. John C. Maxwell once said: "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." I know you can’t reach everyone as much as you would like to but I want you to know that we do applaud you for always trying to reach out whenever you can and have time and we love you dearly for your humble soul and accurate direction. As I was doing my research about you and your work, I realized that I can actually write a book about your good work and I am so sad that I can’t put all of them in this letter as I would like to. I confidently have no doubt that the vision 2030 initiated by President Zuma will be more than a tremendous success that would have created a holistic and stable South Africa especially in the Free State because I am witnessing the seeds that are planted together with how they are watered. When motivation flows, people see work as interesting as music. They enjoy it till they do more than they could have done. Leaders motivate people to do greater things.
Thomas Sankara once said “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.” Premier Ace, you and your dedicated cabinet has indeed re-created Free State to be the better place and I therefore regard you as one of the madmen who are giving it their all to invent the respectable, solid and bright future for Free Staters, I use the word “madmen” like the great Sankara because you have endured in the spirit of the human kindness and the greatest part of our existence enfold in service of humanity. There have been critics, doubts and negative media about you, but I realized and learned from you that you must have a crocodile skin as leader if you want to serve with reverence. I have also comprehended that the secret to strong leaders is that strong leaders are strong because they have been tempered by the negative; they have discovered the secret of combining the negative and the positive to produce their very own power plant!
On behalf of young people, I would formally like to thank you once more Honourable Premier Ace Magashule together with your devoted cabinet, districts and municipalities. We are affirming you that we will not disappoint you because we know that you have faith and hope on us as future leaders.
Ke se ke kgumame ka mangole ke o rolela kgaebane, ke re pula!!
Warm Regards
Teboho Thuswa, The Kasi Preacher, The Motivated Speaker
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