http://www.dgmt.co.za/2012/01/youth-led-organisations-reminding-us-how-powerful-young-people-have-been-and-can-be-in-shaping-our-future/
this article was written by Rumbi from the DGMT after a visit with us at Naledi High School. you may find her reaction to our work and that of other young social activists working to actively make the world better – or as far as we can go with hear.
for those who do not know, Naledi High School is at center of what became the 1976 youth uprising. young people went out to peacefully protest the imposition of Bantu education which sought to ensure that the black child would remain in positions of servitude. the minister of education thought the education of the black child was to make them better servants. the story is entirely more complicated than i am presenting it here, what is important is that this school which is now classifies an under performing school was at the center of the struggle of black children and the black community for education and the recognition that poverty could only be broken once people could be well educated.
Naledi High seemed the perfrct place to start in reembuing the black child with the value of education to free all kinds of poverty which is killing the soul of our people. Naledi was once called the Star of the West 9naledi is the Sotho word wof Star) and we are happy to say that we are slowly but i have faith it will happen giving light back to this star which needs to be reminded how great it can be,
if i could write these on the soul of the world i would because the pride we feel can has no measure. i want to share these first sparks; this is the first groups of matric students who came through our programme. these are the brave ones who went against the tide of mediocrity and dared to dream they could do better. i love these children and share them with you with an open and over flowing spirit. these are the rising stars:
Naledi high School: class of 2011
H. Higher certificate. (8)
Thungo Melusi
Mkonza Thapelo
boikanyo ban
Dalisile Thabile
Deliwe Thembisile
Hlatshwayo Sydney
Lebenya Kanetso
Mahlumba Abraham
D. Admission for diploma (10)
Moloi Neo
Ngema Innocentia
Assegai Thabiso
Dlomo Nonkululeko
Khomo Refilwe
Maeyane Lerato
Loeto Moshe
Magwaza Siphiwe
Makgotlho Sina
Lebona Seipati
B= admission of bachelor degree (9)
Nhlapo Nkanyezi
Ntombela Olwethu
Segoto Tshegofatso
Shabalala Ayanda
Edward Lucia
Mbathile Sibusiso
mangoetse Thato
Mmabaso Dumisani
Majela Mamosala
Miyela and the tutoring team wish the class of 2011 well as they find out the results of their toil. To the matrics at Naledi high school; please know we love you dearly and are certain you will be great in whatever you chose to do from here. I spent a year warming you about this day but you are now officially no longer children and must make choices that will affect the rest of your lives alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, don’t be afraid to do things again if you need to but most importantly have courage as you take on the world. Here all I have are the words of Miss Nina Simone who asks that we remind our young that they are in fact “young, gifted and black. Yours is the tale that’s just began. There’s a world waiting for you and you are young gifted and black and your soul is intact; that’s a fact”
We love you and will stand as your pillars whenever you need to lean.
Join us at Love and Revolution (7th Street Melville) on Tuesday 8 November at 6pm for a round table on the occupations.
Thousands of sane, hard working, law abiding, women, men, young, old, poor, middle class, educated, illiterate, activists, PTA type people have disobeyed the law by sitting out outside institution of the economy with a many voices and many views reminding those who make laws that and financial decisions that what why do affects the rest of us in very real ways.
does it matter that they do not have one voice?
will this have any real impact?
is thsi important to you today?
whats is Malema doing in all this?
is this our fight?
Only when people talk can they start to give form to the world they long for. join us as we imagine, debate and contest the nature f the change we want.
peace and love
my friend please help us help our neighbours. Fiksburg and Duduza were hit by a tonado on Sunday (very random acts of nature) and hundreds of people have lost thier homes and all wordly belongings. this tonado hit the very poor community and thier needs have become much bigger and very basic.
please help us by contributing to a drive to collect NON PERISHABLE FOODS, CLOTHING, BLANKETS, NAPPIES, BABY MILK, SOAP, CACH DONATIONS, FURNITURE, BEDS, BANDAGES AND ANY THINK YOU CAN REALLY.
COLLECTION AT ON 5TH OCTOBER 2011 5 -8 PM AT KICHENER’S IN BRAAMFONTEIN.
please call us if you can not make the time but have things to give and we will make another time and place for collections. you can also check out gift of the givers for more information and collection points.
humbly yours
the miyela team.
our team is mostly made up of women. we are young women who believe fervently in our ability to contribute positively to shaping the world; even if it is one child, one word, one cookie at a time. we are African women some of us mothers making unusual choices in our lives and families to use our lives differently in the service of a bigger cause. it was with great sadness that we hear about the passing of Mama Wangari Maathai; the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Price for her work as a social activist and environmental champion. Mama Maathai born in 1940 and educated in kenya’s only high school for girls and then went on to study over seas is one of the pillars from which we draw strength. Mama Maathai started the Green Belt Movement in Kenya workign to protect the forests form unsustainable and destructive development and helping in the planting of some 40 million trees. the movement has created opportunities for some 30 000 women in Kenya giving the people who benefit the most from the forest and the natural resources power to control and protect this resource.
for our team it is not the Nobel Peace Prize or the international recognition this lady has called to the Forests and environment that we are proud of but the fact that she was a woman in service of her people and the world around her at great cost to herself. we believe it will take such visionary leadership form African women to being shifting the tide in Africa.
i am in awe of the wisdom to understand that a seemingly small act of having women plant tress can become political, social, restorative and empower women and girls on the continent. planting trees; a small and simple thing is about making people increasingly aware of their impact on the wild life, on seasons, on the rives and thus have them be more responsible to the world around with themselves and nature in dance for balance. planting trees not only locates people but opens doors to talk about power, talk about social injustice and equality and more to begin to speak truth to power in Kenya, on the African continent and gloablly. we are a team of women, some of us mothers and we are encouraged to see the bigger picture in the work we do and the choices we make with our own families.
Mama Maathai’s work was to have young African people know they can make a difference in taking small actions, small actions everyday can make a differecne that will change and shape generations to come. i think of all her work and accomplishmetns; we will carry with us the idea that a small Kenyean girl could stand so high and make a difference. as we work to possitively impact on the world we will honour Mama Maathai and her life.
in loving memory of Mama Wangari Maathai: 1940 – 2011
Opulence will ignite anger
Some commentators worry that conditions here are similar to those in the UK and North Africa Mandy Rossouw mandy.rossouw@citypress.co.za South African leaders’ tendency to show off their wealth, coupled with high youth unemployment levels and huge inequality make the country a tinderbox that could explode at any time – just as London did. The British capital and key cities like Manchester and Birmingham went up in flames this week with youngsters looting and burning shops and businesses. British writer Zoe Williams commented in The Guardian: “This is what happens when people don’t have anything, when they have their noses constantly rubbed in stuff they can’t afford, and they have no reason ever to believe that they will be able to afford it.” In South Africa similar uprisings are imminent, according to Ntsake Mkhabela, managing director of Miyela, a youth development organisation that tutors high school learners. “Currently all these young people are buying into this thing about waiting your turn. But we all know it will only happen for a small minority. “There are those who look at the Julius Malemas and Kenny Kunenes of the world and don’t want to work or go to school, because they believe if they wait it will come.” Mkhabela says it won’t be long before they get tired of waiting and “take it for themselves”. “Soon they’ll start lashing out and saying we are supposed to be at our peak, and we have nothing. “It is important to understand their frustration and shape the discourse within which they operate. We need to speak positively to young people and they need to be pushed to understand what hard work means and that there is hope. “They need to be told: ‘You’re worth it’.” According to political analyst William Gumede, increasing job losses are impoverishing families and adding to the frustration that young people are bottling up. “There is youth unemployment, the youth being unemployable because of lack of skills, and inequality that young people have to deal with. Combine this with seeing other people do well and if you are poor by comparison, it causes an even bigger problem. “And increasing job losses and families losing their income is an element that provides for real danger,” he says. The combination of the middle class feeling the pinch because of job losses and a disaffected youth is what sparked the protests in North Africa, says Gumede, and a similar response cannot be ruled out in South Africa. ANC Youth League leader and MP Mduduzi Manana believes young people in South Africa undoubtedly have the capacity to take to the streets like their peers in London. “They’re sitting on the street corners doing nothing, so they have the time and the energy. They don’t even need to find weapons somewhere, they will just use whatever they have.” But University of Johannesburg sociology lecturer Mariam Seedat-Khan believes the chances that South Africa will see riots like those in London are slim because family values have not eroded to the same extent as in Britain. “Family values are the basis of how South African society has survived apartheid – we take care of each other,” she says.
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Have you been to game or dion lately? Lap tops for 2K, electronics I can afford (top of the range), things are actually cheaper. The unions trying to stop walmart deal forgot to mention that ordinary consumers (including the working class) would get goods for less. Our money can actually afford us what we want and need. Even as JZ tries to undo it (as though he was on the moon when we were all talking about this) let’s be honest mazmart was not paying great wages with benefits, they also casualised workers and got most of their second grade goods from china not south african manufacturers. The attempt to block the deal benefit capital chinese goods.
From this socialist I am grateful that we now have competition and not the over protected capitalism which protects those with money. (An issue to consider as julius and the mines)
Off the cuff, miyela
