‘You can turn your life around’
After a five-year life of crime, Lungisa “Nyana” Bonga has turned his life around and now not only works for SANParks as an intern, but is also an active member of the Lawaaikamp soccer side, Simunye FC.
George Herald chatted with the 26-year-old, who is living proof that one can come back from destructive behaviour to lead a healthy, positive life.
Born and bred in George, Lungisa lives in Thembalethu in the close-knit circle of his small family - his mother Nontobeko Bonga, older brother Lazola Bonga and younger brother Akhona Bonga. They lost their father when Lungisa was very young and his mother raised them in a church environment in a home where no one smoked or used alcohol.
Lungisa attended MM Mateza Primary School and Imizamo Yethu High School. Not having a father was a big challenge and he started behaving in an ill-disciplined manner. Lungisa failed Grade 9 twice in 2009 and 2010, and recounts how his “terribly wrong behaviour” became worse by the day, culminating in stealing a classmate’s cellphone.
As is to be expected, he was suspended and banned from the school’s premises. In 2011 he moved to Mossel Bay, where he attended Indwe High School. Here he again met up with a wrong group of friends and quickly succumbed to peer pressure. “Then my mother decided to send me away to South Cape College in Mossel Bay, where I ended up doing IT,” he says. “During that time we kept on stealing and threatening people’s lives. We ended up taking another cellphone in Mossel Bay.”
He was arrested, spent three weeks in jail and was released, while his friend was charged and convicted of theft and jailed for two years.
“My mother brought me back to George without me completing the IT course.”
Back home, he changed his life. He realised that he had led a dark lifestyle because of peer pressure at school, where all his friends were engaged in anti-social activities.
Bonga is sending a strong message to the youth of George and the region who are still in the game of crime. “Crime doesn’t pay and there is always a chance to change in your life.”