Village Visionary ‘Keyboard cowboys’ click on to a way out of poverty
| Simpiwe Xatasi’s mission is to teach IT skills to children in a village best known for a serial killer
YOU probably haven’t heard of Toleni, a rural village outside Butterworth in the Eastern Cape — and if you have, it’s probably because of a murder spree that left at least 20 people dead between 2007 and 2012.
During those five years, Bulelani Mabhayi ran riot. Villagers often moved out of their homes and into communal rondavels just to feel safe. By the time Mabhayi was convicted, Toleni had become known as “the village of the dead”.
But Simpiwe Xatasi wants that to change.
“This is my village. I was born here. It’s where I went to school. My heart is here,” Xatasi said during a visit to his home earlier this month. “I don’t want Toleni to be known because of that monster.”
His house is modest; it has two bedrooms and is painted a peach colour. He also has a separate rondavel, painted the same colour. At the back of the yard is a kraal, and chickens and cows roam around.
It is in this humble setting — in an area with severe unemployment and poverty — that Xatasi is making a difference.
Every afternoon he welcomes as many as 30 children into his lounge, sits them down in front of two desktop computers and teaches them the basics.
During the Sunday Times’s visit, the children, the oldest of whom is 13, are learning to open a Microsoft Word document, type their names and fiddle with the font size and colour.
It’s a simple start, but one Xatasi believes is essential to their futures.
“I see the huge need for knowledge of computers in this day and age. This is the IT age. I want to teach these children that they must not be afraid when sitting in front of a computer. I think I’m creating keyboard cowboys here. I want these kids to be smart in front of a screen. I want them to be gurus,” he said.
Xatasi did a one-year computer literacy course at MSC Business College in Johannesburg, and followed that up with a one-year business management course. He also did an IT support systems course.
These qualifications have been essential — largely because he has had to build from scratch the two computers the children use.
He doesn’t earn a living from this initiative, instead surviving on a small stipend from a nonprofit organisation that he trained with as an HIV/Aids counsellor while living in Johannesburg after 2010.
Asked how he managed to put the machines together on a limited income, Xatasi smiled cheekily. “I’m a hustler, my brother. I find hard drives from one place, screens from another. It’s difficult, but I must make a plan. These kids, they motivate me. Every day they come here. Every day. One thing I’m learning about these kids, that’s not to disappoint them. Once you do that, they will never trust you again,” he said.
The computers might have taken him a year to put together, but as he spoke about the progress the children are making, his eyes lit up, his gestures became more animated and it’s clear he believes the effort is worthwhile.
He is passionate about the project, which he has called “The Reading Room”.
The project falls under the umbrella of the Toleni Development Initiative.
For Xatasi — whom the kids call malume, which means uncle in Xhosa — the project might have computers at its heart but he wants it to go much further.
“Sometimes they come late and say to me: ‘Malume, I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten at home.’ And I have to make a place. In the future I want to start something like a soup kitchen. Maybe from a distance people might see this as a computer programme, but it’s more than that,” he said.
Xatasi’s neighbour and best friend, Bulelani Mboniswa, said the project was making a difference in the lives of the village’s children. His nephew and nieces all go to Xatasi’s house daily.
“It really helps with school. Their marks are getting better. Simpiwe really helps them. He cares so much about these children. He does what he does without funds because of how much he cares.”
One of Xatasi’s pupils, 11year-old Somila Mafenuka, said he loved going to the lessons.
“He is helping us to read. He gives us ideas and makes us learn,” he said.
Somila wants to be a doctor, and it is exactly this type of ambition that Xatasi is trying to cultivate.
“I want them to go to university. I have one child here who wants to be a biochemist but doesn’t even know what that is. They just saw it on TV. I want to see them somewhere in 20 to 25 years, maybe even in parliament. These kids are not just going to be nurses or teachers, they are going to have these scarce skills,” said Xatasi.
For him to achieve his goals and overcome the challenges faced by the community, having a laboratory with just 10 computers would make all the difference. This would allow him to teach more children at once, and might even attract some of the high school pupils who have not yet bought into the project.
“To be honest, if I could have a computer lab, then even the sky wouldn’t be the limit. And if I could have games like Scrabble and Monopoly, so that these children can learn to spell and calculate with money, it would make a huge difference,” said Xatasi.
Starting with this group of 30 children he wants to change lives and, along the way, the image of his home village.
“If you’re introducing yourself as being from Toleni, people have heard of it because it’s the village of death. I’m trying to change the mindset of the people to say that there is more to Toleni than this monster.
“I want Toleni to be known as the village of IT. If you have a problem with a computer, the place that must immediately click in your mind is Toleni,” Xatasi said.
I’m a hustler, my brother. I find hard drives from one place, screens from another. I make a plan I’m trying to say there is more to Toleni than this monster. I want Toleni to be known as the village of IT