First Annual Motivational Lecture (part 1)

Program Director
Staff of Wits University
Colleagues
Friends and Family


On a day like this, on an occasion such as this, it would only be respectful for me to observe protocol and start from the beginning. Yet if I did that I would be following common routes that statesmen, businessmen, men of cloth and their likes have followed and that would be boring. Solely because if I do start from the beginning while observing this protocol I would be assuming a beginning similar to that of every speaker, and we all know that we come from different beginnings. So let me start from my beginning here it goes:
Mama, thank you for giving me the opportunity of life, the opportunity to express myself and grow through experience. You are truly the love of my life. Thank you.

The greatest protocol to follow is that protocol with which you have come to be groomed, that which is at your centre…and for me, my protocol comes from the Ubuntu principle that says: Sicala Ekhaya (we start from home). Now that my beginning has begun, let us continue

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for taking time from your business, academic and personal schedules to come and hear what we have to say. It truly is an honour today for me to celebrate this day with you.

I woke up this morning and there was just something about this day that engulfed my heart with joy. Though I am locked in the city centre with buildings towering over my view, with no tree in my backyard or grass in the front. I could hear the birds humming a joyful summer tune in winter, I could smell the sweet morning dew off the grass, and the freshness of the morning breeze comforted my innermost being. I had a hunch, a feeling deep down in the bosom of my heart that today, the 13th of May 2009 was going to be a great day. It is for this reason that I have no trickling of doubt in my mind that I am in the right place, at the right time, with the right people.



When I started SGM Motivations I went around seeking peoples’ opinions, looking for them to give me their stamp of approval. I went from friends to family, from teachers to fellow students, sub-consciously asking for their go-ahead. I wanted to make sure that as I ascended the motivational hills I had everybody cheering me on. I wanted all humans with whom I had relations, to be at peace with that decision. Amongst the many obstacles to progress, is the deep desire for those around me to cheer me on. I have longed for people to tell me “Yes Simon, you are doing the right thing, carry on.” Because this has not happened that much I have hesitated in putting SGM Motivations out there in the robust market, so that it can establish itself as a trusted business.
I have been held back by a few utterances that have stayed in my head…both by forces of failure and people alike.
I have asked myself, “What if they don’t like it?”, “What If they don’t trust it?”, “Who do you think you are Simon?”, “What have you achieved?” and this to a certain extent has held me back, still kneeling at the start of the race. I have been on my mark, already gotten set, yet I have hesitated to run even though the shots have been fired in the air, more than twice.

But I thank my creator that after some work, I have now grown the wings strong enough to fly against the winds of resistance. I have come to terms with this following fact:
SGM Motivations is a motivational business, with motivation coming before business. But we will by all means invest in our brand as much as we can, to establish ourselves in this market of supply and demand. I have decided with little advice from outside forces.

I have noted that the biggest rewards in life. Come against the greatest resistance. Resistance from the outside but greatly from the inside. If a human being can arrange a board meeting with his mind and heart, taking advice from his purpose and dreams, and consulting with his creator. If from that meeting he concludes that he will do something, he will most certainly do it. If a man can decide today that he will become president tomorrow, he can. If he can decide that he will win a war, climb a mountain, or swim the seven seas, he will…whether the general pubic approve or not…he will do so, solely because he has decided. There is great power in outside forces, I do not doubt that, but there is an even greater power in the intimate decision-making power within an individual.
I enjoyed a documentary on television sometime ago, detailing the role of the teachers in the Soweto uprisings of 1976. One of the interviewees, a principal on one of the schools had this to say, “We decided as a group of teachers, that we could not teach under these conditions, so we decided that we would stop coming to school…though it was tough, because we were not receiving salaries and our families were looking to us for income…it was a decision that we could not go back on”. The operative word in that statement is “Decided”. You see something happens when people decide…the universe cannot help but make a way for a decision maker. Something happened when Obama decided he was going to be the first black president of the United States. Something happened when Steve Biko decided he was Black and Proud. Something happened when Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and others decided that South Africa was a country for all who live in it. Something happened when Martin Luther King decided he was not a nigger, and when South Africa decided they wanted the FIFA World Cup to come to African soil.
Something happens and I don’t know what this something is, but it definitely does happen.

This brings me to the conclusion that the reason why some of us are living the way we are, is because we have decided to live that way. South Africa is the way it is today, because we as South Africans have decided that that is the way it should be. You see because we are at war today…in our beautiful republic today, there is a war that threatens the sovereignty of the South African flag. We are at war with HIV/AIDS, we are at war with crime, we are at war with teenage pregnancy , drug and child abuse. We are at war with the fact that today right now as we sit here there is a school in Soweto that has a broken science laboratory and bear minimum equipment. A school that has no library, to feed the young minds of South Arican students. A school that has dehumanizing environments for both teachers and students, where bathrooms wreak of unmentionable odours.
We are at war with the fact that that particular school houses a black generation that is expected to do well and produce matriculants that will be fit enough to cope and succeed in university.
We are at war with the fact that today somewhere in the sweetness and hope of the morning a young girl woke up, took a bath and dressed in her bright coloured school uniform. She hugged and kissed her mom after scoring some pocket money and hopped her way to school. But when she got to the school gate, she didn’t go into the school grounds…she chose rather to spend the day in the company of someone other than her fellow students, in the supervision of someone other than her school teacher.
We are at war with mediocre leadership, where leaders are put into positions of trust and responsibility but take it upon themselves to pocket as much monetary benefit as they can from that position.
We are at war with amnesia where people are easy to forget where we come from as a nation, and quick to undermine our present and potential brightness of our future.
We are at war in schools, in government and churches. We are at war whether walking in the street, the mall or in the comfort of your own home. And this calls for firm decision makers, because sometimes the reason why we lose these wars is because someone chose to turn a bind eye. Sometimes we fail not because we are incapable of succeeding but because one of our counterparts chose to turn the other way. You see because the only thing that is needed for evil to prevail is for noble men to do nothing. People who decide not to decide.

Over the past month Karabo Masia, Obakeng Lebethe and I got together and created a Non-profit organization called Moti-Vision. This organization will adopt a school in Soweto. We adopt this school and commit to giving them motivational talks, mentorship programs, and career exhibitions. The aim is to ensure that matriculants come out of that school with at least a full view of the possibilities that await them in the world outside. Yet that is the minimum requirement.

We do not think of ourselves as angels, impeccable saints or world changers. All we know is that we cannot stand aside with our hands folded while our brothers and sisters struggle to ascend the academic hills. We will do all that is in our power to ensure credible mentorship and educational inspiration.
All we know is that quality education should not be words that only exist in the dictionary and the mouths of politicians. They should not be words that only exist during election campaigns and television commercials. They are not words only to be echoed in parliament or the suburbs, but they should be words that are alive in the most remote of villages and roughest of neighbourhoods. It should be alive in Sandton and Soweto, Witbank and Winchester. It should be alive in Senoane Secondary School and St. Stithians School.

Fellow South Africans, as we enter into the coming presidential term let us remind ourselves that a country is only as good as its people. Our country is not a land of political parties but a home for all South Africans…if there is anything that needs to be changed let it not be at the discretion of a manifesto, or the guidance of a policy. If there is any growth let it not be dictated by economic forums, but let it be up to us. If there is any delivery let it not be stalled by bureaucratic redtape, but let it be secured by us.
Let us remind ourselves that democracy is a government by the people, for the people to the people. Let us remind ourselves that a country’s success or failure is not determined by its presidents but by its residents.

There are enemies that are raging war against South Africa’s 14 year innocence. Some are secretly creeping in under closed doors some are not even afraid to hide their faces. If there is one mechanism for the defeat of these obstacles to progress, it is the alliance of all decision makers. We may not defeat these enemies, they may overpower us and take over our homes. They may ascend the hills, come through the city gates and tear down the city walls. Yet let us not go down easily, let us stand firm and know this, we will try all that we can, we will fight as much as we can and God will do for us what we cannot. Because we asked him to, remember we asked him to be with us…we got down on our knees and asked:

Nkosi Sikelela i-Afrika
Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo
Yizwa Imithandazo yethu
Nkosi Sikekela Thina Lusapho Lwayo

But we did not stop there, we continued on to say,

Morena Boloka setjhaba sa heso
O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho
O se boloke O se boloke setjhaba sa heso
O se boloke O se boloke setjhaba sa- Afrika


It is for this reason that we shoud stand tall and say to all our enemies, these forces of bad and evil
We stand against all forms of hate and anger, violence and fury. We stand against all forms of bad and evil and we say unto you: Bad And Evil, bring all your friends, your cousins and machinery of death. We challenge your fury and confront your laws. In defiance we rage war against you; on the battlefield we challenge you... we stand not alone.

And as you come we warn you:
You may kick and shoot, hit and boot;
You may punch and grab, smack and stab;
But if God is for us no-one can be against us.

You may bully and push, slap and swoosh;
You may wrestle and hit and your poison spit
But if God is for us, no one can be against us.

And after all war has been raged and weaponry used. If it is in times of despair and darkness in air, even if it has taken our physical bodies and their agents celebrating… we will rejoice in our spirit, sitting with our God, singing “If God is for us, no-one can be against us”