Leadership, Events & Reports

To our former Teachers and former SGB Members,
Members of Management Executive Committee (MANCO),
Alumni Members Friends and Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I bring you special greetings from the out-going interim leadership of Velalanga Alumni Association (VAA), on this momentous occasion of our 1st official Alumni Anniversary, the 17th July 2026.

This is to thank all of you, more-so the Almighty for being able to travel together under difficult circumstances.

Until now God has been with us (Ebenezer), kude kwalapha u Thixo enathi.

Today marks the 1st Velalanga Alumni Anniversary since we started last year on the 17th July 2025.

You may all be aware of the internal strides we made in attempting to lay a solid ground, and a firm foundation by constituting Committee Structures precisely to confront the socio-economic challenges that are facing our communities today.

In the same year under review, we have managed to build crucial fraternal relationships which now exists between the Velalanga Alumni Association, Walter Sisulu University (WSU), Ikhala TVET College, Government Entities, Parliament and the Private Sector companies.

This is what is exciting about this journey, because it is full of potential opportunities and possibilities, despite the open skepticism from the doubting Thomases whose hearts were never part of this initiative, in spite of their pretentious presence from the onset amongst our ranks, something which is understandable and forgiven.

So, on behalf of the entire interim and outgoing leadership of Velalanga Alumni Association (VAA), please do accept our warm gratitude for being granted the privilege to serve and to have played our part in laying the foundation. We are grateful to have been entrusted with an opportunity and responsibility to serve. It was not our birth right to lead you, but a serious privilege, which we will never forget.

Despite its inherent minor challenges, this tenure has been good and educational so far; and because of that I must say, with polite and measured confidence we shall definitely overcome.
The face of Velalanga will ultimately change no matter how long it will take, but it will and must change as long as some of us are still alive. It will happen during our life time too and there is no doubt about that.

Further to this, it would have been remiss of me if I don't thank and acknowledge all former Principals, Parents and Teachers of this institution for their dedication, foresight and hard work, that have successively brought all of us together thus far. It is them who came before us who laid their hands to build and bequethed this Velalanga to us. A Velalanga that was destroyed by some "walking disasters".

History tells us that, this school was built by our parents, with their moneys. This should never escape our minds. Little did our parents anticipate that some "lost souls, and malcontents" who never built it, would come to destroy this precious educational asset (Velalanga).

Ours is to make them proud during our lifetime through the reconstruction and building of a modern University Satellite Campus.

The Eastern Cape, our Province as a developing economy is faced with a lot of challenges in all sectors and that of education is no exception. Over the years, accessibility to higher education in the public institutions has been a challenge; lack of modern infrastructure including libraries and ICT facilities, lecture rooms, teaching and learning materials such as modern technological text books, studios, workshops and student accommodation, inadequate staff in terms of quality and quantity resulting in large class sizes with unfavourable student-teacher ratio, high staff turnover/staff exodus in some places, frequent industrial actions, challenging working environments and conditions of service, funding gaps, graduate unemployment, student ill-discipline and low female enrolment, among others.

In a large measure, many of these problems apply to both private and public academic institutions as well, but for whose effort to help bridge the gap would have made the critical situation of lack of accessibility, even worse.

Velalanga Alumni Association rises to be counted as an equal opposing force to these challenges in the Eastern Cape Province.

Of course this will make the running or management of our Alumni difficult somehow; requiring good and capable leadership with good hearts, with good and clean intentions, with well established administrative structures and skills, with lots of creativity and innovation.

For Velalanga Alumni in particular, a team that understands to a larger extent, the dynamics of the current educational landscape and terrain will be more important than ever before. We are going to be the 1st Rural Tertiary Education success story in the half a century. My emphasis.

From now onwards, we should exude ethical uprightness, and passion to serve and transform society. This is what we expect from the incoming new leadership once the election operation is concluded.

To all of you alumni members, you must be models and agencies of change you seek to achieve. I know it is not easy to maintain this feat without compromising on excellence and integrity as others are doing, but I know it is doable, its something all of us can do and should do.

This should make you unique and this you must squarely live up to.

I also want to charge the Committee Chairpersons and their Deputies, as Nehemiah charged the children of Israel, "Rise up and Build" for we are going in a new dispensation.

Please let us be true to ourselves and committed to the vision and heritage of our forefathers we are trying to rebuild and modernise.

This can only be achieved through team work. A good example of team work which always challenges me in the Holy Bible is that of the battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites at Rephidim (Exodus 17:8-14).

Joshua was asked to go into battle with his own select army whilst Moses went to the top of the Hill with the Rod of God in hand with Aaron and Hur.

When the going got tough in verse 12, they both held Moses' hands high till victory was achieved.

As I bring my speech to a close, we need to open the net a bit wider by establishing strategic enabling relationships with all the local stakeholder teams through our special envoy (Mr Zolile Chulayo), namely; the religious (church) entities, farmers, taxi industry, sport fraternity, local schools, traditional and cultural groups.

We must do all of this with the following question at the back of our minds ---what type of community and society do we seek to become in the near future?