Her goal is to bring back spirit of 1995 — starting with recruiting 90 young community leaders
Pumla Ngesi trained and worked in education in East London and is now using her skills as a volunteer with non-profit organisation Rivonia Circle based in Johannesburg, but with growing clout throughout the country.
“I have an ambitious project under way involving training the youth, but longterm success will only be measurable when communities fully understand exactly what is going on in their government, and promised changes in all living standards become a reality,” Ngesi said.
Ngesi was arrested and jailed in 1985 during the Duncan Village uprising, while still a school pupil.
“After graduating I went on to teach at Nompumelelo School, from 1994 to 2005.
“My next role was for the department of education, working with children at underperforming schools.”
She assisted at the Loaves and Fishes Network, which assists with the educational and other needs of young children from poor families.
She was also a programme co-ordinator at the Donald Woods Foundation, a charity aimed at fighting poverty through health, education and community-building.
“The youth are a focus of my work. Sadly, there is a prevailing and accelerating loss of hope among them, due almost solely to joblessness.
“If the cities are under pressure, imagine how much worse it is in the rural communities where starvation is a reality and the government appears not to notice.
“We grew up with a culture of imbizos, where our elders would sit under trees talking through problems with senior village people.
“Now all we see is councillors and that is infrequent; no national or provincial big shots.
“It is not good enough, because everything that affects communities must be exposed and thrashed out at community level.”
Her goal is to bring back the spirit of 1995, at a grassroots level, harking back to days when there was optimism, growth, housing projects and low unemployment.
“My first step is recruiting 90 young people to take part in a Democracy Builder programme.
“They must ideally already be community leaders of some form, and recognised as such.
“I want 60 from greater East London and 30 from the Amathole district.
“It will start with a threeday course aimed at training them to become trainers.
“Initially it will involve voluntary work, but I hope this can change when funds allow.”
The end game is to have a vast community of young people who can guide and inspire others, mainly from rural areas, where people are struggling to shed the messiah mentality in which they wait for help, and instead assist them to create their own sustainable future.
“The trainers will assist people of all ages to adopt a culture of commitment, responsibility and accountability.
“Linked to this is skills development, with a strong focus on farming.”
Ngesi stressed that Rivonia Circlewas not a political party.
“However our founder, Songezo Zibi, has written that: ‘RC offers robust and innovative insights on SA’S future [which must build] a new political culture. Insights flow from our research, activities in communities, town hall conversations and multiple convenings’.”
The Democracy Builder programme is open to people of all political persuasions, and is aimed at mobilising and supporting communities from all backgrounds and orientations to take action by creating solutions to local problems.