Asanda Gonya

 My name is Asanda Gonya.  I’m 18 years old.  I grew up in New Crossroads, but now live in Philippi East, which is commonly known as Acacia. In 2003 I matriculated from Oscar Mpetha High School in Nyanga East, but because of lack of career guidance and finance I couldn’t proceed with my education.  When I arrived at Oscar Mpetha High, I became a core member of the Oscar Mpetha Book Club under the mentorship of Miss Kholeka Buhlungu and Mr. Bruce Totoyi.  In 2002 I wrote my first poem, “Confused,” and Mr. Totoyi motivated me to recite it in front of visitors from Switzerland.  Poetry was thus born at Oscar Mpetha.  In 2003 I joined the SAEP poetry group and was selected to serve on the SAEP-SA Management Committee at its first annual general meeting.  

In 2004 I became a gap year intern and initiated a relationship between SAEP and the Community Video Education Trust (CVET), which resulted in SAEP interns facilitating film screenings every Friday at each of the three schools where SAEP works . At the beginning of 2004, I became a co – founder of Thatha Mntwana (“Take Charge”) and was elected Creative Writing editor.  I have also contributed news articles, opinions, and poetry to Indaba Zasekhaya, the community newspaper of the Integrated Serviced Land Project (iSLP).  This year I have also continued to be active in the children’s rights program of Molo Songololo, another NGO.

  The beautiful thoughts and inspiring experiences of Sinethemba Senior Secondary School learners who are in my SAEP creative writing group will soon be in print: they have asked to publish a Creative Writing Volume called “Young African Voices Alive.” With the help of Alexia Smith (a film student at UCT), I have also started working on a script called “Buya” (“Come back”), which explores masculinity in South Africa: rape, circumcision, identity, and ideologies. The world has been waiting for a writer to speak about their questions and their wishes: “Buya” will take you from a white world into a black world and from a black world to a white world – it breaks all stereotypes.

 This year I am also studying mathematics under the supervision of an SAEP volunteer from the University of Cape Town so I can re-sit my mathematics matric exam in November.  In 2005 I hope to study film and media at UCT or another tertiary institution, and am exploring my options for admission and bursaries.

Nosisa Mhlathi

My name is Nosisa Mhlathi. I have been involved in SAEP activities since year 2000, when I was a Grade 10 learner at Sinethemba Senior Secondary School in Philippi.  I was involved in a number of SAEP activities at school, including debating, poetry writing, environmental education, and establishment of a student newspaper, Nazo Mfundi (“Hear the Learner).”  As a result of my writing and editing for this newspaper, I decided to pursue journalism as a career, and spent 2002 and 2003 studying journalism at the University of the Western Cape.   

This  year I was unable, for financial reasons, to continue at UWC, so I decided to become an intern at SAEP for six months, then work for six months to earn money to complete my studies at varsity.  Taking a break for me did not mean to sit at home and do nothing.  It meant finding an opportunity to develop my skills, further my education, and share with other township learners some of the things I got from SAEP while I was in school and learned in my first two years at UWC.  During the first six months of 2004, I have been engaged in a number of learning and community service activities at SAEP. 

Journalism. At the beginning of the year, I proposed to SAEP that we publish an SAEP student bulletin for the three high schools where SAEP does most of its work (Sinethemba, Oscar Mpetha, and Zisukhanyo) since the learners there do not have access to computers as we did when I was a learner.  My proposal was accepted, and I became Chief Editor of the new publication, which we decided to call Thatha Mntwana.  Not only I am gaining experience in laying out, editing, and writing for the bulletin; I am also providing journalism skills to learners in the three high schools through weekly workshops at each of the three schools.  Our objective is to give the learners the opportunity to improve their English and writing skills and to help the students fulfil their dreams of becoming good journalists in the future.  To date, we  have published three issues of our 12-page bulletin.  I have also been contributing articles for publication in Indaba Zasekhaya, a newspaper published by the Integrated Serviced Land Project. 

Hiking.  Another of my responsibilities at SAEP has been to organize monthly hikes for the learners in the three schools sponsored and led by the Mountain Club of South Africa (MCSA). It is not easy to choose who is going on the hikes. The learners are all keen to go, but only 15-16 learners can go each time.  The major limiting factor is safety in the mountains, which requires that the group be kept small. Transport from the townships at 7:00 on Saturday mornings is also big problem.  

Working with SAEP has been a great opportunity for me. I have learned a lot through working with the other interns in a “team environment.” As for my learners in the schools, not only did I have to teach them, but they were also teaching me.

 My six months with SAEP ended at the end of June, and I have accepted a  paid internship for the next six months with another environmental NGO, Empowerment for African Sustainable Development.  In 2005, I will resume my journalism studies at UWC. 

Khangelani Mtyhalela

My name is Khangelani Mtyhalela.  I am 18 years old and first joined SAEP in 2000 in Grade 9, when SAEP expanded its programmes to work with the learners in the afternoon programmes.  In the range of activities SAEP offered, I was mainly interested in creative writing and journalism.  With the help of an SAEP volunteer from Duke University in the U.S., we launched a first ever student news bulletin at our township school written entirely by the learners themselves. We also published a collection of poetry that we wrote entitled “We are All Poets.”

 Throughout high school I continued with SAEP developing my leadership skills, computer literacy, and many more skills that helped me to be a leader within my school as a president of the Learners Representative Council (L.R.C.) and playing soccer in the development team of Santos professional football club.  Now, it’s like a dream come true that I’m an intern in the organization that has played a major role in shaping me as a skilled person.  The ball is in my court in many different ways, but most importantly I am here to better myself so that it will be easy to better others.

  Part of programme as an SAEP “gap year” intern is tutoring poetry in two township schools, namely Zisukhanyo in Samora Machel and Oscar Mpetha in Nyanga East. I also facilitate screenings of short African films at Zisukhanyo in partnership with the Community Video Education Trust.  During my gap year I am continuing my poetry and creative writing and studying film in a workshop conducted by an SAEP volunteer from UCT, Alexia Smith.  I am also studying mathematics and English in order to retake my matric exam in these subjects.  Like the other gap year interns, I am also contributing articles and poetry to the community newspaper Indaba Zasekhaya and am Assistant Editor and a regular contributor to the SAEP bulletin Thatha Mntwana.  

My academic goal has been to study Film and Television Production. I want to participate in positively shaping the way people think, feel and see things by creatively educating from my point of view.  In 2005 I hope to study film at UCT or Wits University.

Nezile Ntutha

 My name is Nezile Ntutha. I am 19 years old and I live in Mandalay. I graduated from Woodlands High School in 2002. All my years in high school, I was involved in managing a township hip-hop group called Black Seeds. The group and I always wanted the freedom to express our own ideas. So throughout those years we worked independently and also decided to study entertainment, which occupied all of our time.

 Last year I studied Marketing at Rosebank College in Cape Town. Due to financial problems, I had to drop out of college.  At the beginning of this year, I decided to take a gap year as an intern at South African Educational & Environmental Project (SAEP).  I am head of the Math Program, meaning I co-ordinate with other volunteers (mainly students at UCT) in tutoring Math in two high schools, Zisukhanyo S.S.S. and Sinethemba S.S.S. Two other volunteers also tutor science at Sinethemba.

 I also facilitate a creative writing workshop at Oscar Mpetha High School. The workshop offers a variety of things to build the students’ writing skills. Currently my creative class and I are doing a teleplay about people that live in Nyanga and the everyday challenges they face. As the youth of the community, we see these things happening and we are coming up with some solutions. There are also a couple of motivational speeches dedicated to the youth of this country in our teleplay. 

Next year I hope to return to tertiary education by studying film or theatre at the University of Cape Town.

Sandiso Phaliso 

I was born in 1986 in the Eastern Cape, but grew up in the Western Cape from an early age.  I am the third child in a family of five.  I started going to school in 1992 at Siyazakha Primary School in Philippi.  I got the nickname Sara when I was doing grade five.  When I graduated from primary school in 1998, I entered grade eight at Sinethemba Senior Secondary School.

 When I first came to Sinethemba I was lost, confused and did not have friends to share my views with; but along the way I started having friends among my classmates.  I was lucky that shortly after I arrived at Sinethemba, the Southern Africa Environment Project came to our school.  When SAEP came to the school things, started to look brighter for me. I joined the debate society, poetry, journalism, and environment programmes, which were the major programmes SAEP offered to the school.

  As I grew up, I noticed that I like reading and writing.  Everywhere I went I would read and take a pen and write what-ever that I felt writing.  I realized that being a reporter would be worthwhile for me, especially reporting about issues that affect teenagers.  Whilst I was in grade nine, I used to go to soccer games to watch and take notes of the game. Doing interviews was the part I liked best.  After I had watched the game, I would write notes down and draft a story that would be read by the whole school.  When I finished writing I would copy the paper and paste it on the wall where everybody would be able to see it.  That is how I realized that I can write and people can understand what I have written.

Members of the Debate Society approached SAEP to start up a news bulletin that would be able to accommodate the whole school.  Publication of a newsletter was approved and titled Nazo Mfundi.  The paper started with few pages, but as time went by it had more than eight pages.  When Sinethemba Senior Secondary School was still engaging in practices that the government banned such as corporal punishment, it was the duty of the Nazo Mfundi editors to make the learners aware that this kind of punishment was no longer in use.  We wrote articles that taught learners of their rights and the way they should react and behave in school. 

One of the things that I became aware about myself was that my English language skills were poor.  The way I wrote articles was not always proper, and my sentence construction was poor in a way.  As a result, I got criticism from people who read the paper, mostly educators. They gave me constructive criticism. 

I was elected as sports editor of the paper.  I was also expected to write articles and obtain them from outside contributors.  The thing I liked best about being an editor was editing other people’s work. I tried to be fair and edit the way the readers expect the article to be published. 

You should know that when I began, I could not type. I knew nothing about computers and could not do anything in front of a computer.  In 2000, SAEP organized interns from the USA who tutored us in computer literacy skills.  I was interested in knowing computers; everyday I wanted to learn something new, so my computer literacy improved.

 I was also involved in the leadership of the school. In 2000, I was elected to be organizer of the student body; in 2001 I became chairperson of the student body and 2002 when I was in grade 11, I was elected President of the student body.

I finished my Matric during the year 2003, my major subjects were geography and history and I did English and Xhosa on higher grade.

 I wanted to go to tertiary, but because of financial problems I could not.  But that is not the only reason: when I was at school, academic and vocational guidance classes were not offered at the school.  I was not aware of the many careers that I might prepare myself to be involved in. In simple words, I was confused and did not want to go to tertiary not knowing what to do.  My worst fear about tertiary was choosing a degree and a specific career, then ending up regretting that move.

 Before the end of my matric year, I approached the Executive Director of SAEP to ask to do a gap year in which would organize myself and where I would gain personal development.  The gap year programme would also help me know what I want and what career would best suit my talents and my needs. I was selected as one of the interns for the year 2004. 

 My duties are to organize debate tournaments that are run by the Township Debating League formed by Southern Africa Environment Project and the University of Cape Town Debating Union in 2003.

 My other major activity involves journalism, writing articles for SAEP bulletin titled Thatha Mntwana.  I am a sports editor for the paper and contribute articles.  I also contribute articles for publication in the community newspaper Indaba Zasekhaya.

 On Friday afternoons, I conduct screenings of short African films at Oscar Mpetha High School.  I also participate in the monthly hikes sponsored for the gap year interns and high school learners by SAEP and the Mountain Club of  South Africa.

 I hope to study journalism next year at Rhodes University, which is near my homeland in the Eastern Cape, or at another tertiary institution that offers journalism and media studies.

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