2 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Thulani Madondo Upskilling & empowering the youth of Kliptown Thulani Madondo at the KYP complex in Kliptown, Gauteng Sitting in Thulani Madondo’s bright office with the Kliptown Youth Program’s (KYP) 2025 strategic goals on the wall, it is easy to forget that the surrounds are one of the most impoverished and neglected areas in Gauteng. Madondo, 42, knows the circumstances of the 1402 children who benefit from the KYP’s programs all too well, as he was born only a few metres from the building’s front steps that he and a group of friends founded 17 years ago. He grew up in a single room shack with his mother and seven siblings. The modern building with a computer lab, numerous classrooms, a gender neutral bathroom, an indoor football pitch, and a large kitchen stands in stark contrast to the corrugated iron shacks and rubbish-strewn gravel paths surrounding it. “Our impact is really amazing,” he says with a beaming smile. “I lived here in this squatter camp, no electricity, no running water, everything communal. Today almost 99% of our team no longer live here in Kliptown. As we develop the organisation and empower the kids, we were also very fortunate to empower ourselves. “We have five of our alumni working full-time for the organisation now, with two of them in managerial positions. That is something to be extremely proud of,” Madondo says. “I always tell the kids: ‘the only thing you owe us is your success’.” Occupying a significant place in South Africa’s history, Kliptown became the first place where the historic Freedom Charter, that paved the way for South Africa’s democratic goals and ideals, was adopted in 1955. Despite the lofty aspirations of the Freedom Charter, residents of Kliptown were left behind and neglected for decades by the Apartheid regime and 30 years of democratic rule. The community lacks even the most basic of human needs such as schools, healthcare facilities, running water, electricity, and proper sanitation. Due to extreme poverty and little to no service delivery, the children of Kliptown are often the most vulnerable, with access to school uniforms, shoes, food and reading material inaccessible to many. Madondo and his friends saw these needs and came together almost two decades ago to do something about the grinding poverty and desperation that people in their community were faced with. Since then, KYP has developed and grown, catering to more children every year and providing more services to the entire community. These days children have access to tutoring, school fees and uniform support, a food program, online learning through computer labs with internet, a vocational program, performing arts, culture, and sport programs, a library, and psychosocial support, among other things. “All the work we do here, it is not for fame. It is to help people, especially children, to rise out of poverty. No one chose to be born in poverty, but how we respond to that and the challenges that come with poverty is the most important. There are so many opportunities for people, but it’s how they respond to them. That is what we are trying to do, to help people with the mindset to succeed in life,” Madondo says. But it is not just children who benefit from KYP and its many programs. Anyone from the community can come and use the computer labs to prepare for and apply for jobs, while there are dedicated staff on site to help people apply for social grants. “The best thing we can do as an organisation is to give full ownership of the centre to the community at large,” Madondo says, adding that residents of Kliptown were given job opportunities through a lottery system during the construction on the new premises. On a weekly basis, unemployed residents also get opportunities to earn some money by cleaning and helping maintain the site. Madondo says despite never going to university himself and giving up on his dream to become an accountant, he has championed more than R10-million as alumni of the program enrolled for tertiary education during the last 17 years. “Today some of our alumni are living lives way, way better than myself and I am okay with that,” he says. “That was always the dream. The more successful the children become, the better I become. I sleep very peacefully knowing very well how many people’s lives I’ve touched. And not myself, it’s a collective effort of course. I am constantly humbled, motivated, and inspired by our alumni.” < Previous Item Next Item >

81 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Ntsiki Khunju Economic empowerment for young women Ntsiki Khunju at the Outreach Foundation Community Centre in Hillbrow “I see myself as a conversation starter. I love having meaningful conversations that change lives, that get young people thinking about things we wouldn’t usually think about.” Ntsiki Khunju lives her life in the pursuit of change. Change in the way that young people see themselves and change in the way that the older generations see the youth. Although her activism starts at home, with the education of her young daughter, it manifests itself in all other areas of her life, from paid work to volunteering. Often the seeds of passion for advocacy are sown at home, through the parents, in the formative years of a child's life but Ntsiki was catalysed into action through a personal tragedy in her early 20’s. In 2016 her younger brother died at the age of 18, an event which she now sees as the turning point in her journey. “Initially I got into activism to blanket the pain I was feeling from my brother’s death. I got healing in that space and recognised that if the world wasn't as damaged he would probably still be with us.” This may be the event that lit a fire in Ntsiki but the world had been preparing her for a while. At high school, a friend guided her towards the Afrika Tikkun Uthando a child and youth development centre in Johannesburg where she joined an afterschool programme for girls called the Young Urban Women, run by ActionAid. Through this programme, she was exposed to discussions about feminism, advocacy and sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). “I was intrigued by the concept of SRHR to understand the challenges that young people faced at the time; accessing services, the stigma, the judgement and the prejudice. I wanted to pursue the continuation of that advocacy.” At the time the Young Urban Women programme was only for girls who were at high school, so leaving school meant leaving the programme. Seeing her potential, Afrika Tikkun offered Ntsiki a leadership position to study social auxiliary work which, in time, turned into a paid job at the centre. While doing this, Ntsiki was also studying child and youth care work, as well as taking up a volunteer position on the community advisory board at Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI). “Wits RHI is where I got exposed to the concept of STI management, clinical research into vaccines and HIV prevention. I realised that I could be a person who connects and bridges the community and the science.” It was around this time that ActionAid developed Young Urban Women to include a space for youth who had left school but wanted to continue with their advocacy; a space for active citizens to collaborate and develop. So in 2022, Ntsiki joined them again, this time as a writer, documenting the workshops, conversations and learnings of Young Urban Women and publishing them through Activate! Change Drivers, through their blog and social media. As a young woman with a passion for change, qualifications and professional experience in social work, child welfare, and sexual and reproductive health rights; Ntsiki has a unique overview of what is important for youth advocacy in South Africa. It is the current focus of the Young Urban Women that fascinates her the most. This year ActionAid have launched their feminist economy manifesto in order to produce more economically empowered active citizens, activists who would not be at the mercy of others for their survival but who, by virtue of supporting themselves, would be in a position to make informed decisions. “If you empower groups of young people you are creating an empowered community. A community that is economically empowered can be vocal about the importance of condom use because they are not having to beg for money anymore, they are not at the mercy of men.” It is this idea of economic empowerment that Ntsiki will take forward with her advocacy as it speaks to everything that she cares about through her work. This story was created in partnership with Action Aid < Previous Item Next Item >

13 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Kekeletso Khena A petition to stop statutory rape Kekeletso Khena at home Kekeletso Khena is deliberate about everything that she does. Every interaction and every gesture seems to be rooted in this question: “Is this a responsible and positive action for the people around me?” Kekeletso is a co-owner of the the Scalp Clinic & Spa in Randfontein where she mentors and trains other women who want to one day run their own business. Her focus is to encourage and upskill them and then to support them in the early stages of their new venture. From the spar, she also sells her own range of beauty products that use locally sourced ingredients, uplifting local communities by encouraging them to grow and sell the products that she needs. Through every step of the process, she is thinking about the people who are affected and how she can add value to their lives whilst also creating a high-end, saleable product. But this is not why I am here to talk with Kekeletso. I am here to talk about her petition to hold professional workers legally accountable for reporting incidents of statutory rape. In August 2023 she noticed a surge of posts on social media about young girls getting pregnant in South Africa. There was outrage over the story of a 10-year-old in KZN followed by heated discussions and passionate comments, but it felt to her like nothing was actually being done to address the issue. “We are a country of outrage. We see something and are outraged for five minutes and nothing gets done about it.” As a childhood rape survivor herself, Kekeletso decided that she could not sit on the sidelines and watch. She needed to raise her voice, create awareness and challenge the state to do something about it. She recognised that teenage pregnancy is usually made the problem of the girl and that they would often be blamed for allowing the crime to happen. Kekeletso passionately believes that this attitude needs to change and that, instead, we need to deal with the adults who are sexualising, abusing and raping children. It is also of major concern for her that the health professionals who are the most likely to identify when a child has been raped are under no legal obligation to do anything about it. If anything, the stigma and complexity of the issue make it easier for them to turn a blind eye. As the first step in her campaign, Kekeletso has taken to Change.org to start a petition. Not because she thinks that a petition will, on its own, bring about the change that she wants to see, but because it will make her campaign more official, raise awareness and build a strong following. “It has allowed what I care about to not be about me. I have about 7000 people who agree with what I am saying. When I call the Minister of Health I can do so as a concerned group, but if I go as myself it has no impact. It helps to give power and a voice to an issue.” Kekeletso wants the Department of Health to make pregnancies of a minor a notifiable incident. She believes that it should be the obligation of every healthcare professional, from the doctor to the doula, to report and that they should be held legally accountable for doing so. The online petition provides the foundation for Kekeletso to push for a safer society for every girl. It is all part of her mission to look after everyone around her, a value that her father instilled in her from an early age. “I come from the school of thought that says we are for each other. I am born to be of service which means we need to show up fully every day.“ < Previous Item Next Item >

67 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Thato Thabang Mosoeu A safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community Thato Mosoeu at home in Bloemfontein Thato, also known as Thabang, is an activist for the sensitisation of the LGBTQIA+ community in Bloemfontein. She is passionate about providing a safe space for the community to talk about their experiences and, in turn, push for change by challenging local organisations to change how they interact with the LGBTQIA+ community. Through her experience working with various NGOs in the area, Thato realised the importance of going to the clinics and police stations to educate the people working there on how to treat the LGBTQIA+ community in a more sensitive and inclusive way. She also hosts support groups for the LGBTQIA+ community to talk about their experiences in order to gain a better understanding of what needs to be done. Thato was inspired by her own experience when a male police officer refused to refer to her as a woman. At the time, the police officer refused to listen to Thabang, simply telling her that she would always be a man. This 2018 encounter in the mall made her realise the important work that needed to be done to help create a safer and more accepting society for her community. < Previous Item Next Item >

18 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Sandile Soxokashe Campaigning for peaceful protests Sandile Soxokashe in Bekkersdal In 2013 the town of Bekkersdal was overrun by ten months of protests about the lack of service delivery in the area. Over time the demonstrations turned to riots, government buildings were burned, people were hurt and valuable infrastructure was destroyed. Sandile Soxokashe was a 15-year-old boy at the time, desperate for some way to change the community, he became actively involved in the protests. In hindsight, he sees it as a valuable lesson in his journey to becoming an activist, a steep learning curve teaching him how things shouldn’t be done and leaving the community in a poorer place than they were before. Government buildings that were destroyed have been demolished and the land has been left disused and vacant. Residents now need to travel long distances to access the government facilities in other suburbs. Ten years later Sandile has started his own initiative called Be The Future Foundation. The point of the organisation is to educate the local community in safe, legal and effective forms of protest. He is passionate about change, but he knows that it will not come about if communities make the same mistakes as they did in Bekkersdal. He sees how they destroyed their own community and wants to provide a better path. Be The Future Foundation is working together with the NPO Right To Protest to produce comprehensive workshops that educate the community whilst also training their own volunteers to become mediators between the community and the government. They are working on zero budget, but they are so passionate that the three directors and ten volunteers meet twice a week to produce the course that will lead them in their quest to give a new, more effective, louder and more peaceful voice to unheard communities. In addition to the training workshops for protesting, not rioting, Be The Future Foundation is also developing a series of workshops for schools to teach kids about their constitutional rights, in order to develop them into more active citizens. They believe that the lethargy that has befallen people in many parts of South Africa is a direct result of not knowing how to make a change and of having clarity of what that change should be. Sandile is not ashamed of being part of the 2013 riots. It shaped him into who he is today. And who he is today is a man who cares deeply about his community and wants them to be able to have agency and a voice, and push for effective and long-lasting change. < Previous Item Next Item >

36 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Christinah Mdau Defending rights against mining threats Christinah Mdau with Mariah Moleme , Pintli Molalasi ,Ditlallo Lehula , Lerato Koloi ,Martha Koloi and Peter Selloe As we sit in the “community centre”; a rudimentary tin-roofed, open-sided structure, Christinah tells me that the local mine won’t be blasting today because they know that I am there and that for the time being, I am safe. However, If I had arrived two months prior it would have been too dangerous, I could have been intimidated, beaten or escorted away by the supporters of the mine. Even so, a police vehicle circles us, looking at me as we speak, and a large group of men stand close by but don’t engage. It has been 13 years since at least 850 homes in Mmaditlhokwa Village in Marikana were relocated so that Tharisa Minerals mining company could exploit the land underneath them. Individuals and families were promised permanent housing, water, electricity and sewerage, but to this day they are still in the shacks built for them as temporary housing back in 2010. The mine is yet again encroaching on their homes and the blasting that happens almost daily provides a shower of rocks and dust, accompanied by a piercingly loud siren warning them to get inside, or better still move under the “community centre” for protection. The school is now under threat as the area that is being mined has moved closer to its walls. This is no way for anyone to live. There are people in the community who support the mine, they hope that the opportunities will out way the risk. Although they were promised jobs, a few short 2 to 3-month contract jobs are all that have materialised. There is strength in numbers, and so Christinah and a local group of concerned residents got together to form an organisation that they have called DEHRVA (Defenders for Environment and Human Rights Violations in Africa). Its sole purpose is to deal with the immediate threat to their livelihoods. DEHRVA believes that the human rights of the community have been violated by the mine and the National Government. Through their various programs, guided by section 24 of the South African Constitution, they hope to remedy the situation by involving those who they consider to be responsible for redressing the impacts that the community has faced. This includes both government and private entities. What they want are the promises to be kept that were made to them all those years ago. They want a safe life for themselves and their families, away from the air and noise pollution of the mine, away from the rocks falling on the roofs of their houses, and away from the daily intimidation and imposition of blasting. But it is more complicated than that. The longer they live in one area, the more connected they are to the land, and the more family members have been buried and rituals have been established. They are not asking for the world, just their basic constitutional rights. As I sit under the shelter, surrounded by these seven determined Actionists, I can see that they are not scared, that they will not be intimidated. As I sit with them I am not scared either. But when I leave on my own, I hurry to get home. < Previous Item Next Item >

40 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Candice Chirwa Championing period positivity Candice Chirwa in Delta Park, Johannesburg The self-styled “Minister of Menstruation” knows what it’s like to feel shame about being on her period. From the age of 10, it was a secret that was never discussed at her school, and that all the girls went to great lengths to conceal. “I really did feel like I was going to die. It was as if my childhood had come to an end and I had to mature quickly and hide this thing from everyone for 11 years. Nobody was talking about it.” When she left school Candice knew that she wanted to do something to help others and address issues of gender inequality. She had a background in dramatic arts, debating and public speaking, and the passion to challenge the tired norms that she experienced on a daily basis. “We have to call a period a period. We have to call a vagina a vagina. If you are offended by that then you are offended by biology!” In 2018 Candice founded QRATE, an NPO that gives workshops at schools and workplaces around the country. Their aim is to create a safe, period-positive society that does not regard menstruation as shameful but openly embraces it as a normal part of life. Their workshops are designed to facilitate workplaces, schools and homes in developing more accepting practices which provide support, information and resources in an empowering and affirming way. Through a process that they call ‘Eduliftment’, Candice aims to enhance the critical thinking skills of young people to help them navigate the more difficult parts of growing up. At QRATE they do this through service, education and advocacy. As well as running her NPO, Candice hosts the podcasts “What The Relationship” and “Patriarchy Popcast”. She has also co-authored two books, the latest of which is titled “Flow - The Book About Menstruation”. In 2020 Candice became the Minister of Menstruation and from her position as a social media thought leader she has created a platform to speak openly about periods, advocate for legislative change and to inspire everyone to be period-positive. Given that at least 50% of the population are people who menstruate, that cannot be a bad thing. < Previous Item Next Item >

50 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Thato Mphuthi Challenging disability stigma through education Thato Mphuthi at home in Soweto, Gauteng So much Actionism is driven by personal experience and the need to make sure that nobody else suffers in the same way. No more so than for Thato Mphuthi, a powerful voice for the rights of people with disabilities. At 8 years old Thato was diagnosed with TB of the right hip. She had to rely on crutches to get around and took a long time to adjust to her new way of moving. Not only was she in pain and drastically restricted in her movement, but she also became alienated from her friends and fearful of being picked on. For a year her classroom was on the first floor and, only being able to cope with navigating the stairs once a day, she had to stay upstairs for the whole day, unable to join in at break time or enjoy lunch with her friends. In high school, the bullying got worse and she became more introverted. She wrote a poem called “Imizwayami” (My Feelings) for an assignment and performed it in front of her class. It was a raw expression of her experiences as a person with a disability. The performance prompted a change in attitude from many of her fellow students and lit a fire in Thato, proving that she had the ability to change people’s perceptions of her. After leaving school Thato slowly started to engage with activists. She was introduced to the One In Nine Campaign, working with survivors of GBV and the Young Urban Woman Movement and Activate. I am so grateful for the experience that came with having this condition because it changed my outlook on life and opened me up to different things ... I often say to my friends that this feels like a hug to my 8-year-old self who could not speak for themselves at the time. The work that I am doing, as much as I am passionate about it, is also my way of healing. In 2020 Thato started her own NPO, Enabled Enlightenment, as a way to educate children about issues relating to disability, encouraging them to live as good examples to others in their communities. Once she started to run workshops in schools, the program was broadened to include issues of consent, body autonomy, GBV, and sexual and reproductive health. Thato is wearing the Disability Pride T-Shirt designed by tebo x emeka which can be bought through the link in our online store. < Previous Item Next Item >

47 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Tshepiso Makoni Using t-shirts to tackle stereotypes Tshepiso Makoni at home in Soweto, Gauteng Art changes the people who engage with it, sometimes in the most subtle ways. Artists find inspiration and meaning in different places, the motivational drive to create is fed by the feeling of making something with purpose. Purpose, to Tshepiso, comes in starting conversations that change the way her community sees themselves, and each other. As one half of the artistic duo Tebo X Emeka, Tshepiso creates T-shirts that fuse photography and graphic design to gently push tired old narratives in a new direction. For their first project, Taxiology, they focused on the taxi industry around Soweto. They wanted to celebrate the industry for its unique position in South African culture, accepting the perceived view of taxis as inconvenient, noisy and dangerous whilst also celebrating the positive interactions that they facilitate. You can’t find the culture that we have here anywhere else. When you get inside a taxi you have to greet everyone, you combine your money with the other passengers and send it to the front. You tell jokes, you discuss the news. Tebo X Emeka wants to help people see themselves for who they are and who they could be by providing representation of township culture in fashion, using the T-Shirt as an accessible, portable gallery for purpose-driven artwork. More recently Tshepiso has designed and created the disability pride t-shirt, again looking to change the conversation around a subject that has been stigmatised and stereotyped. T-Shirts are a way to begin a conversation, for us to be able to represent people with disabilities. It allows for their voices to be heard and for them to be seen. Her hope is that the t-shirts will start a conversation and become a driving force for action. They want to partner with the government to use disability pride shirts as a starting point to create a new language around disability, public consciousness and acceptance. By creating work that has meaning, and the intention to drive conversation, Tshepiso is planting the seeds of change in her community. To change the way that people view their community and therefore themselves is no small idea. < Previous Item Next Item >

44 The Actionists About Partner With Us Contact Us FAQ ____________________ Thom Pierce Studios Menu Close Luyanda Mazwi Developing an eco-fridge for street vendors Luyanda Mazwi (left) with Gladys, a street vendor in Brixton, Johannesburg In a small church in the Johannesburg suburb of Brixton, a rowdy crowd is singing along to Doo-Be-Doo by Freshly Ground, which is being performed by a small, enthusiastic choir. It is the last performance of a night of music and poetry that has been organised by Luyanda Mazwi, an astrophysics master's student from the University of Johannesburg. He has planned and funded the whole night for one purpose, to ask if anyone has a 3D printer that he can borrow. Whilst still an undergraduate student, Luyanda and a friend decided to build a community farm in a village in Limpopo. They wanted to provide an alternative to the lack of food security in the area, to see if they could encourage the community to get involved. They didn’t think about it too hard, they just went and did it, and they made lots of mistakes. But it started a journey for Luyanda that centred around using his time, energy and education to help others. Over the years, the idea of creating a small community farm has grown into a dream to overhaul the supply chain of fresh food, from organic community gardens to street vendors. As a first step, Luyanda has designed a portable, electricity-free cooling system, made out of recycled plastic, that could provide street vendors with a cheap and efficient way to keep their fruit and vegetables from spoiling if they do not sell them all in one day. It is a simple, water-cooled system, that could be developed and constructed at a minimal cost using materials that are readily available and already being collected by waste pickers around the city. His prototypes are promising, but the precision needed for the cooling system makes it difficult to produce by hand, hence the 3D printer. Using down-cycled plastic bottles, Luyanda wants to 3D print the prototype and develop it into a product that can be easily reproduced. Together with small community gardens, the “fridge” could allow for a more productive supply chain that includes many other members of the community. The intention is not to make money, he wants to develop the product and then release the IP so that anyone can build could build and sell the fridges. This is a big idea that could change the lives of street vendors and could be the starting point for job creation and a more inclusive supply chain. But for now, Luyanda just needs a 3D printer. If you can help Luyanda to get access to a 3D printer which can print over 260 degrees Celsius and is not PTFE lined please let us know in the comments or get in touch. < Previous Item Next Item >