Pretoria - Prominent South Africans, including professionals, graduates, chefs, lawyers and politicians were among the 600 people who took part in the 3km Achievers’ Walk in Atteridgeville on Saturday to promote the importance of education in honour of the late political activist and lawyer Tiego Moseneke.
Moseneke died two months back after he was involved in a car accident.
Former first lady Gugu Motlanthe, Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink, Tiego’s brother retired Deputy Judge President Dikgang Moseneke were in attendance at the township’s Mbolekwa Sports Complex, where this year’s Supreme Cadets Institute’s Achievers Walk was hosted.
The institute was founded by Tiego’s wife Koketso Moseneke in 2016 to provide a platform for young people to better their lives through education.
Part of the institute has “rangers” made up of post matriculants, unemployed youth and graduates providing mentorship to young people from Grade 6 up to Grade 12.
Koketso said: “We are trying to show children that there is more to life than just the drug lords that they see. We are trying to tell them to stay away from drugs, from pregnancies. We have children that fall pregnant from the ages of 10. Isn’t that sad?”
Her late husband was a patron to the institute and funded its activities from his company and his pocket.
Most participants donned in their academic regalia walked the streets as part of encouraging young people to take their education seriously.
Motlanthe, who was the key speaker, used the opportunity to pay respect to Tiego, who was her friend for more than 30 years.
She described Tiego as supreme debater, loving to his wife and family, loyal ANC member and considerate to communities’ needs.
She said Tiego always taught that the power must be accountable to the people and that he was “an accomplished cadre of our generation who brought democracy closer to the people”.
“Throughout more than three decades that I have known him as a friend and a comrade Tiego made time and related to everybody,” she said.
Motlanthe remembered that at the height of the #FeesMustFall protest Tiego and his other activists raised funds for university students.
Miles Nzama of Funder Nzama Foundation said: “According to Tiego an achiever is someone who has made great strides in society, in changing the life of his and his family and the community against all odds.”
He said it was important to celebrate the Achiever’s Walk in the manner that recognised what Tiego wanted to achieve.
He said Tiego loved his family, he was a game-changer and was behind an initiative to build the classrooms.
“We were so proud and glad to see our first initiatives unveiling and handing over (to former Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi) the classrooms in early 2020 at Sefako Makgatho senior primary as it was known then,” Nzama said.
Moseneke scholarship beneficiary, Mduduzi Mamkeli, motivated young people to align themselves with education and make use of opportunities presented to them.
“When I look back on my journey, it was paved with challenges, sacrifices and moments of self-doubt. But there was one underlying thing throughout the journey: a determination to succeed, which Tiego Moseneke always supported,” he said.
Brink, who officially opened the walk by cutting the ribbon and sounding the siren to get the walkers on the road, expressed the desire to work with the institute in future.
He said: “I didn’t arrange this. I can’t take credit for it. But it is my privilege to be here and to support it and support the important work being done by the institute.”
Pretoria News