Velenkosini Hlabisa, the president of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). | Supplied
Leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Velenkosini Hlabisa has revealed that should the party win the elections, it will re-open the country’s agricultural and teacher colleges which were closed down at the start of the country’s democracy.
In 1996, following the transition to democracy, the country underwent major changes in its agricultural education landscape with the proposed transformation and restructuring of colleges through a Green Paper on National Agricultural Training Institutes.
The goal was to restructure and transform existing agricultural colleges and programmes into Agricultural Training Institutes (ATIs), resulting in closure of some colleges.
The same was to become of the teacher education colleges which were closed resulting in a significant impact on the landscape of teacher preparation.
Hlabisa, who is on a campaign trail to various parts of the country, has revealed that these colleges, which were a big success in imparting the necessary skills to farmer and teachers, were closed down prematurely and without much thought by the ANC government.
“The IFP will consider re-opening the colleges of education and specialised on certain subjects which are greatly needed in our country, and ensure that these teacher colleges are used as refreshment centres for educators to be kept sharp in their careers. Some of these colleges will be re-directed to vocational training, as we need to focus more on practical and scarce skills in our country, because our education system is not focusing more on vocational education,” he said.
Hlabisa, who has been at the helm of the party since the death of its founder, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi last year, said food security cannot be left unattended if the country is to grow its own food.
“Like I have rightly said, the closure of the agricultural colleges was a blunder which the IFP says must be re-opened in order to train people who will contribute immensely in food production of this country.”
On the issue of the challenges faced by Ithala Bank, a bank that the party established to deal with small-to-medium enterprises, Hlabisa said the party has been clear on what needs to happen to restore the bank to its original mandate.
He said part of the problems faced by the bank is the ruling party, which has used the bank to loot it of its funds.
“We have been clear in our manifesto that Ithala Bank is the model of a state bank. It is supposed to be in the good hands of government at the national level. They should have taken the example of Ithala and model it into a state bank and focus it to cater for the previously disadvantaged people.
“This is because the original focus of this bank was the black people. We were not shy about that. It was meant to give out loans for people to start small businesses and/or increase and grow their businesses. Unfortunately, under the ruling party which inherited the bank from the IFP led government, it became a target of looting and corruption,” he said.
The Star
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