My First Inspirational Speech, At the EWS &ABSIP Women's Month Gala Dinner

Last Thursday, the 13th of August 2009, a little after 9pm, I gave my first ever motivational speech at a Women's month gala dinner. alongside amazing women, under the theme WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE ... the first speaker was Ms Hixonia Nyasulu, who is the current Chairperson at Sasol. her profile is amazing...- google her! Mamu' Nyasulu spoke about Women in Business - The Challanges and Opportunities. the second speaker was Yolanda Cuba, who is the current CEO at Mvela Group. she spoke about Young women in prominent positions- Challanges and opportunities. then Matona Ntshona, station manager of Metro Fm spoke about the Challanges of being the first female Commercial Station manager. .. and then there was me, Unathi Twala, who spoke about Being the granddaughter of the 1956 generation. I look up to the women that spoke big time,and they spoke so eloquently, so frank. Women reall are amazing.. and i will never stop being grateful about the platform that was extended to me. Never mind the fact that i was not sitting at the guest speakers table, and that i was not added on the programme. I really was looking at the bigger picture...

this is how muy introduction went, i recorded it. And was intimidated by the intro itself. and i thought, well, wh csnt the intro be the speech.. can i crack it, after such?...

'Our next speaker is our fellow student, her name is Unathi Twala. She’s a third year Media and International Relations student. She’s the former editor of Campus Times which was previously under Mail and Guardian. She was also a presenter for VOW. She’s written for many publications and websites such as True Love Babe and Ymag, she continues to write for Seventeen and Student Village. She’s a strong believer in Student Advocacy Social development and Youth Development. When she is not on campus, or writing her rage articles she’s out motivating students from underprivileged societies with her friend Precious Kofi under Precious productions ( should be (Kofi Productions) . Ladies and gentlemen lets give a warm welcome to Unathi Twala…. '

and this is how my speech went....

My Speech for the EWS (Every Woman Society) and ABSIP (Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals) Women’s month Gala Dinner. On the eve of the 13th of August 2009.

When I received the approach by Every Women Society about partaking this evening on the topic of being a granddaughter of the 1956 generation, I was excited and at the same time nervous. Because even though this is a topic I’m constantly reflecting on, its one close to home. It’s about our generation with its many names. The Y-generation, the sometimes labelled as the problematic generation, the mxit generation and m favourite, the facebook generation.

So I’ve been asked to converse and share from my vantage point about our vantage point.

Which is why my Main Theme this evening is ‘The Many Faces of this generation,’ and what I think that means…

One of the core attributes to our ability and the opportunity for us to be here tonight looking all glammed up, pursuing our degrees’ and qualifications at Wits- with no inhibitions , is our history. With its many faces and struggles , including the Women’s Struggles. We know that!

We know that we are a walking monument and reminder of what never used to be, something that was never there 6 decades ago. But something that was well fought for and well founded. Our Freedom, our Liberation and our Empowerment.

Our grandparents layed that foundation. We’ll stay away from name dropping tonight , it would take a lot more time quoting the names under all the different struggles. Overall,they all planted the tree from which we are enjoying the shade.

MY REFLECTION as a granddaughter of the 1956 generation observes that as much the march to the Union Buildings falls part of our vital history today, Those women then could have been oblivious to the fact that they had laid a foundation for all sorts of women empowerment, that we enjoy today. The wanted a change yes, but of what magnitude we don’t know. What we know is that the crack has spread thus far POSITIVELY!

Coming back to us, the grandchildren. I don’t think we are a helpless generation at all. Yes you get the different faces of our generation. You get the empowered youth with all the resources and privileges. And you also get the youth trying to benefit from those resources. Then the youth that even though has all the seemingly progressive resources , the are still battling within their struggles. Perhaps we call this predicament LIFE AND GROWING UP, our own LIFE’S JOURNEYS!

One thing I hope that we can take out tonight from these empowerment privileges and talks, is a reflection of how we would like to be known for by our upcoming generation of grandchildren. I hope that we can DEFINE our LIFE’S STRUGGLES and be brave enough to tackle them in unison, as young women and men, and lay our own foundations for an even brighter future. There’s still a lot of work to do.


Think about it this way, when another young woman and man is given the very same platform I have today, in 50 years to come… WHAT DO YOU WANT THEM TO SAY ABOUT US?....

I thank you.. Okey, well, I didn’t say ‘I Thank you’.. Just Thank you – lol…