Youth must fight status quo - poo flinger
Boy has designs on uniting people with his drawings
A BOY, old beyond his years, sees his drawings promoting social cohesion among the youth of different races.
Mbasela Primary school pupil Lungelo Mjwara, 12, who has been hailed by his teacher Victor Gcabashe as a “Picasso in the making”, said his art was intended to promote social discourse and bring people together.
He said his favourite drawings were portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela because they fought for freedom and brought about social cohesion in different epochs.
The young lad’s talent was discovered last month by other Grade 6 pupils, who showed his drawings to Gcabashe.
When the Sunday Tribune visited the Inanda school, an elated staff, including Gcabashe, hastened to display Lungelo’s drawings on the wall inside the computer lab.
Gcabashe said he was speechless when he saw Mjwara’s work and he asked Mjwara to draw another piece in front of him. After that, he posted Mjwara’s drawings on social media which attracted more positive responses from his followers.
“Lungelo has raw and organic talent which needs to be nurtured. In helping him, we want the world to know that we have eyes that see and hearts that feel. We can see and identify excellence and genius among us.
“We are able to feel Lungelo’s desire to be great one day, we hear his inner cry for help and we are stepping in to ensure he becomes one of the greatest artists South Africa has ever had,” Gcabashe said.
Growing up in a family that cannot afford a proper drawing kit such as markers, pastels, watercolours and other accessories does not dampen his spirit. For a beautifully drawn portrait, all Mjwara requires are a piece of paper, a pencil and an eraser.
A self-taught artist, he started taking drawing seriously about two years ago.
STUDENT activist Chumani Maxwele believes the campaigns #Rhodesmustfall and #Feesmustfall exemplify how young people can chart a course for change.
Maxwele, 33, infamously flung human excrement on the Cecil John Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town and led the charge in a threeyear battle for free education. He says the challenges young people face require them to fight the status quo.
“The idea of young people in South Africa and their role
“I neither watch cartoons on television nor play games with other boys. My focus is always on drawing and I play soccer in my spare time,”
His family depended on his grandmother’s pension and child support grant to survive. Mjwara said he wanted to use art to change his family’s fortunes once he becomes a professional artist.
His unemployed mother Bonakuphi Mjwara, 36, said she was proud of her son’s talent. She was overwhelmed when she saw his portrait of her. “He is very unique in his approach to things. He often tells me I should not worry, he will support the family.” is a bit complex; the challenge we have is around imagining things anew because there is almost a standard set which dictates how things are and how they are going to happen,” he says.
“But 24 years into democracy, you can sense young people are losing patience with what is deemed democracy, and there were so many promises made by the ruling ANC, and you find a sense of impatience, especially looking at the economy and politics.
“Young people are still trying to find themselves and the frustration is around who controls what, whether the means of production is in the hands of black people, whether the direction of our country is led by young people.”
Maxwele says part of problem-solving requires young people to look beyond what society expects of them. “What we can focus on is pushing the existing boundaries and part of doing that is thinking differently to question the existing status quo,” he says.
“#Rhodesmustfall and #Feesmustfall were about pushing the boundaries. If you had come to UCT prior to this time, the institution and its people had certain limitations and their expectations were met in the sense that if you were at UCT as a black person, you must be happy that you are inside, therefore don’t question anything else.
“Now the university is a different place… that is the role of young people, we must not be complacent. These notions that you are lucky and a part of a few and must be happy with that, for us it’s about moving from that and changing that.
“We also have to change society’s expectation around the notion that the only way to succeed is through getting an education and getting a job. We neglect exploiting our talents, why are we still expecting people to give us jobs?”
Maxwele says young people need to play active roles in politics and business and emerge as big players, and do away with the culture of elderly politicians in power.
“That is an African phenomenon. It is a sad state of affairs that politics, as the most important vehicle in society, is led by those who are too old. We have leaders who spend decades in power.
“And what happens is that the EFF is showing us possibilities, and in fact you can be a young person in Parliament and address people’s lives.
“And as young people, we are gifted in the sense that we have the potential to change things quickly. We have not exploited that.
“The ANC also has a lot of young people, but they are in a long queue waiting for their grandmothers and mothers to disappear, so by the time they get to the front they themselves are grandparents who then need to keep those positions.
“One cannot undermine the role of Mmusi Maimane in the DA. As a relatively young person who is leading a party, it is a serious stride. But making sure that it is sustainable is a question young people have to answer,” Maxwele says.