FACE 2 FACE

What does your job entail?

I work with people doing community engagements and also consult with civic society with regards to programmes that are in their scope to link them with the community needs.

I partner with government departments, higher education institutions and private sectors to formulate collaboration and seek resources that will assist communities.

I also assist in the founding of community-based organisations and help formalise them so they can be included in beneficiation programmes.

What do you like about what you do?

There is always something new to learn because people have enormous wealth of knowledge, so once organised, they bring out the best in each other and I am always amazed by what they bring to the table.

Ultimately, I get my satisfaction from seeing people working together as a developmental machine.

When they are happy after receiving support and solutions for their problems, it thrills me.

What impact do you want to make?

The impact I want to make is simply activating communities to start working together for benefits that will see future generations working together.

United communities become learning organs and the ultimate beneficiaries are children and youth.

What makes you proudly South African?

SA is not only for the ones born within the land or native citizens.

What constitutes SA is the people (whether foreign or visitors) whose passion is to assist the government and communities in creating a conducive environment for children to grow up in and for women to be freed from all forms of subjugation and oppression. This is what makes me ‘Proudly South African’.

What societal issue do you feel does not get enough attention?

Child development and proper parenting. I could easily declare gender-based violence (GBV), but this serious issue has been growing in people’s conscience and receiving a lot of attention.

However, lack of proper child development is a silent killer that feeds on the very fibre of our society’s morality and makes for the prospect of a bleak future.

When parents are only focused on providing shelter and food, they believe it’s enough to result in a child being well-groomed; well, that is an illusion or escape mentality.

Children need to be consistently monitored and protected from themselves more than anything else.

If one were to conduct a research on thieves, murderers and rapists, you’d discover there is equal representation of those growing up in rich families and those from poor families.

The common factor is lack of proper nurturing and society needs to organise to reverse this saddening reality. So, child development and parenting is key to solving crime.

Who would you like to invite to your dinner table and why?

Well, that’s an easy one; Patrice Motsepe. He is not just a successful business mogul, he is the father of human development and is making a huge impact in many families’ and young people’s lives; it is as though he is the government, yet a normal human being like me and you.

He profits nothing from his philanthropic programmes yet he uses his profits to create employment, educational opportunities and restore human dignity.

What book are you reading and what have you found interesting about it?

Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist.

What I find interesting in the read is the resilience displayed by the shepherd.

He has a vision, he sets goals and no matter the circumstances he finds himself in and no matter what turbulences; the young shepherd never deviates from his goal and mission.

The lesson in the narrative is that “when you want something with all your soul and might, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it”.

What has been this year’s highlight so far for you?

When Mavuso Msimang resigned from all civic duties.

This is symbolic of elders with a conscience giving way to the young and fresh to take up the reins. This for me is quite refreshing because we rarely see such a thing in the current dispensation.

Our government has been a circus of recycling old and seasoned politicians at the expense of grooming young leaders and graduates.

What did you want to be when you were young and how did that go?

I wanted to be a lawyer and human rights advocate.

I particularly looked up to legal counsel Mr [M W] Vabaza, whose landmark practice was to defend political activists during apartheid.

Bursaries were hard to secure and poverty forced me to work at an early age to assist my parents and my for my own wellbeing.