SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH – MORAL REGENERATION
28 JUNE 2012
ADDRESS BY THE EXECUTIVE MAYOR, ZANOXOLO WAYILE
Dear organisers, ladies and gentlemen, and our beautiful young people
Thank you for this invitation to address you on this wonderful initiative of the Unit Two Federation of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The topic of my speech to you today is moral regeneration. When I received this invitation, I wondered how receptive my young audience would be to such a serious topic, given that you are all relaxing and enjoying this camping experience. I thought long and hard about what I would share with you today, so will you please sit back and listen to me?
Let us look at right and wrong choices in life and why it is in your interest to make good moral choices and conduct your life in a moral way. I promise I will not preach at you, I am not a preacher, but today I truly want to give you the benefit of my experience as an adult and also as a leader in the local community.
First of all, I wish to commend you for being here. Everyone of you chose to attend this camp. You exercised a good choice. It signifies that you already have the desire to seek wisdom and to develop your faith and that you are willing to submit yourselves to rules and regulations.
My first request of you is the following: Moral rules and regulations are vital in life. Obey them, abide by them, follow them. When I was young, it seemed to me that there were too many rules and regulations about conduct – one couldn’t enjoy life. It seemed that older people had forgotten how it felt to be young and how to enjoy themselves. When one is young, one has a sense of adventure, fun, experimenting – all nice things that seemed not to be allowed. But as one grows older, you will find that life teaches you many hard lessons. Often, these lessons are very painful. Sometimes you will have to live with the wrong choice you made as a young person for the rest of your life. Let me tell you that the choices you make and the choices you will be making in the next few years as young people, will affect the rest of your life. It will affect you as an adult of 30, 40 and 50 years.
Those many rules and regulations that govern your lives, that are taught at school, at home and here in your church, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, are not intended to spoil your fun or your enjoyment of life. They are intended to protect you against harm and prevent you from making wrong choices. They will guide you towards a life in which you can fulfill your potential and be the best you can be.
Dishonesty, stealing, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual promiscuity, laziness, lying, cheating are all empty, harmful and damaging practices that stand in the way of you fulfilling your potential and reaching your life’s dream. You all have dreams, deep inside yourself you know that you have ability, you know that you have it in you to make something of your life, to study, to get an education and qualifications, to hold down a career, to progress in life, to raise a family, to contribute to your community. I am sure that each and everyone of you have dreams of making a difference one day, whether in your career or in your personal life or in the community: you have a vision of making a positive contribution, making a difference to society. You do not want your precious life to be wasted, and in the end not to have meant anything.
This is where those boring moral rules of conduct come in. They are the collective wisdom of the ages. They are the end product of many, many generations of young people’s experiences and struggles and painful lessons – so do not feel restricted or limited by all the moral rules and regulations you are taught by your family, your school, your church. Rather, embrace these rules, follow them – they will keep you from harm and from making wrong choices that could negatively affect you and scar your entire life.
Let’s have a quick look at some positive moral values that will enrich your life:
· Honesty – it is wrong to steal, to cheat, to lie. If you do that, people will gradually find out that you are a liar and cheat. They will not respect you, they will not trust you and they will not believe what you are saying. Let me give you a very easy choice: Do you wish to be a respected, trusted person whose word is his or her honour, or a person who is not trusted or respected? I started out with honesty, as dishonesty seems to be a common practice in modern society. People cheat. Every day we read in the papers about more cases of corruption, theft and embezzlement at all levels: whether in government, in society, in business. But being dishonest, stealing and cheating is a choice. I ask you not to make that choice. It leads to ruin and disgrace. Be an honest person who makes good choices.
· The second value that I want to examine is treating others with kindness and respect. It is the second Biblical commandment: love others like you love yourself. This can be hard, as people can be mean, selfish and hurtful, but if you respond by being mean and hurtful yourself, all hope for society is lost. An eye for and eye, and soon everybody will be blind. I ask you to set out in life to build bridges, to be kind, to make friends and to treat others with respect, and you will meet respect and kindness throughout your life.
· Now we come to a sensitive topic: the relationship between the sexes, sexuality. The attraction between the sexes is very, very strong. This is a good and natural and beautiful thing. We all want a partner in life. But this attraction could have a very dangerous side. In the world in which we live sexually transmitted infections, HIV and Aids are rife. Given that this is the world that we live in, I ask of you to protect your precious health, protect your heart, protect your valuable future. Do not throw away or risk your health and your future for sexual adventures and experimentation. Another thing, birth control measures sometimes fail: another unwanted result of sleeping around, is babies. When they come at the right time, babies are the greatest blessing and the greatest joy on earth, but an eighteen year old should not become a mother or a father.
In 1994, when South Africa became a democratic nation, the broad majority of South Africans, who are Black or so-called Coloured people, for the first time could access the rights and privileges that were previously reserved for a minority. As a Municipality, we have over the years made great strides in service delivery, so that many of our residents could access services, such as water and electricity, for the first time. Many people’s quality of life has improved. We acknowledge that this is happening too slowly, but are restricted by limited funds and the backlog in services that we inherited. We need our communities to behave in a responsible way by not destroying public property as happened recently and by paying their municipal accounts so that we can continue to provide and accelerate service delivery. After eighteen years of democracy South Africa is still battling the problems of poverty, inequality and unemployment. We have many programmes in place to stimulate job creation in an effort to eradicate poverty and improve the standard of living of residents. One sure way of continuing the cycle of poverty in our society is an unwanted pregnancy in a teenager. Sex does lead to pregnancies. Please do not put yourself in a position where you become a father or a mother who is unable to take care of your baby.
· Equip yourself for a better future. Do not dream about a better future: Work for it right now. Study hard to get your Matric Certificate or get that qualification. Do not be distracted by friends of social events, and do not be lazy. I ask of you to have big dreams for yourselves. Believe in yourself and your ability, but know that you have to work at it. Accept and believe that only the best is good enough for you. Live a moral life full of integrity. Be honest, be kind and respectful towards others, be sexually responsible and conservative, and study hard to get that qualification.
· I promise you that you will succeed and that the best life has to offer will come your way.
My prayers and best wishes accompany you on the road ahead.
I thank you.