Masisi pays glowing tribute to Venson-Moitoi

Lerato Maleke | Tuesday December 16, 2014 20:12

 

Masisi mentioned the public strike by teachers and that it presented a stressful experience for Venson-Moitoi who nevertheless emerged triumphant. However, he said her journey was successful with the assistance of his two former ministers Keletso Rakhudu and Patrick Masimolole who all lost in the general elections.

Paying glowing tribute to Venson-Moitoi, Masisi had the audience eating out of his hands when he kept addressing her as “Mma-V”.  One could see that there was clearly a brotherly and sisterly love between the two.

The Vice President said when he was transferred there, Venson-Moitoi had already dealt with a number of issues.

Masisi conceded that it was not an easy ride for “poor Mma- V”. For her part ,Venson-Moitoi acknowledged the difficult terrain she had to traverse as the minister of Education.  “Think of the teachers’ strikes, the unions, which were giving me all the headaches but I can say I am glad because I defeated all the odds and this is because of being passionate about my work,” she said.  Venson-Moitoi mentioned, among other topics, the poor school results and that she was never a peace with herself when she witnessed the dismal results.

She said that she managed all these challenges with the assistance of Rakhudu and Masimolole.

Venson-Moitoi described Masimolole as an age mate and Rakhudu as a little brother.

She said the long queues at the Ministry, especially at the beginning of the year, for students are a thing of the past.

She also said that she won’t forget the nightmare and stress brought about by students agitating for their allowances.

But she said that she is glad that all of that is now “water under the bridge”, adding that she that it was tough joining the ministry because she is not an educationist.  “You taught me a lot as my juniors in the ministry because I didn’t’ know the difference between a syllabus and a curriculum and remember you were always polite to take me back and explain all to me.

“I can now go and look for a job at UNICEF as an educationist with the experience that I gained.  “You taught me all. Ke a leboga bagaetsho,” Mma-V said, then breaking into song and the audience joined in.

Earlier on Masisi said that upon joining Venson-Moitoi at the ministry, it was very tough and but he dealt well with the stress because of “MmaV”.  “This woman taught me a lot and I learnt a lot from her and together, we were able to polish up the ministry,” Masisi said.

Rakhudu also described Venson-Moitoi as a hard worker.

“Working with Mma-V was very difficult at the start but we did get along at the end,” he said amidst laughter.  Masimolole also addressed the crowd made up of senior government officials, among them the new assistant minister, Unity Dow who promised that they would carry on where the previous three left off and promised to do their best as a new team.