Premier Phumulo Masualle, bidding farewell on Wednesday to about 200 Eastern Cape youths starting a nine-month stint on cruise liners around the world, left them with some important words.
“Go there, not just to work as assistants on these cruise liners, but to extract as much information as you possibly can so that one day we can own these cruise liners ourselves.”
“Learn how this thing is done. We need to have cruise liners owned by South African people.” He urged them to study the whole maritime industry to help create more jobs in South Africa, adding that the chance to work on cruise liners was a privilege granted to few, while many young people wanted the same opportunity.
“Stay focused and make the best of it. We want focused young people who can transcend the problems we have as a country,” he said, warning them not to be swayed by people with huge dollar bills.
Masualle officiated at the formal sending-off party of 180 young people on the banks of Mbotyi Beach in Ingquza Hill municipality’s Lusikisiki.
The youths are part of a maritime youth development programme which is a joint venture between Masualle’s department – the office of the premier (OTP) – and the South African Maritime Safety Authority to create job opportunities in the oceans economy. It targets youths from disadvantaged backgrounds who have passed Grade 12, have a clean record and are unemployed.
This year’s intake will join 97 other Eastern Cape youths from last year’s programme.
Odwa Geja, 21, of Komani, said she was overwhelmed and excited at the same time by the opportunity to work on a cruise liner, despite never having been inside a ship before.
She had to drop out of her studies at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth in 2016 as her family ran out of money. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Aviwe Mnguni of Lusikisiki was working as an Uber driver in Durban when he stumbled across a WhatsApp message on his phone detailing the programme.
He didn't think twice about applying. And now that he has been chosen for the MSC cruise liners, he wants his mother to quit her job as a teacher and let him take care of her.
Ingquza Hill mayor Pat Mdingi asked the premier to build a small harbour at Mbotyi Beach to encourage the youths chosen for the programme to come back and “own the cruise liners” one day...