Last year, I began teaching a group of black South Africans at a Cape Town media project. Live Magazine is designed to give opportunities to young people from townships trying to find a route into South Africa’s creative industries. As one of the professional mentors, I help the students make videos and tell stories from their communities about music, youth opinion and career advice.
All my class are aspiring filmmakers, writers, photographers and designers. For them it is an amazing opportunity to gain work experience. For me, it has been a wonderful chance to discuss the hopes, dreams and frustrations of contemporary South Africa with young black people in a city that, 22 years after the end of apartheid, remains highly racially segregated.
The young interns all come from different areas of Cape Town, but share one crucial characteristic — they are trying to make their way in a society where youth unemployment is 45 percent and the economic situation shows no sign of improving.
My students quickly started teaching me Xhosa and their complicated local youth handshake.
I still get that wrong.
One young man, Manez, even joked one day that they would make me African, but for now at least I did resemble the 61-year-old Helen Zille (the white leader of the Democratic Alliance opposition party) in my glasses. A bit cheeky really, since I’m in my mid-40s.
Above all, from my point of view, the class was giving me a fascinating insight into the “born free” generation — those black people born after the tumultuous struggle by their parents against apartheid had been won.
I moved from London to Cape Town in 2006 with my husband and our two young children. Twenty-five years ago, in the 1980s, I was a politically active student and marched against apartheid in those huge demonstrations which used to end up in Trafalgar Square. Later, as a 23-year-old in 1990, I partied hard with my friends when Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
In those heady days, the exiled heroes of the African National Congress (ANC), the political force that led the anti-apartheid battle, returned to South Africa and most of the world believed that the change in people’s lives would be enormous.
Almost a quarter of a century later, the ANC is viewed very differently by my students. They all heard the stories of the battles fought by their parents’ generation “back in the day.”
Many of them still feel a loyalty to the party that liberated them and cannot see a credible alternative to the ANC, which has enjoyed unbroken political power since 1994, but they are growing increasingly cynical and frustrated with the pace of real transformation in their prospects.
My students told me that they did not trust South African President Jacob Zuma — they are turned off by the scandals involving his financial affairs and they disapprove of his decision to embrace Zulu polygamy and take four wives.
A sizeable number prefer Julius Malema, the firebrand ANC youth leader, who was expelled from the party after controversial remarks about the ANC’s leadership. He might be a rabble-rouser, but at least he is challenging the ideas of a complacent ruling party.
The Lonmin shootings in which 34 mineworkers were killed when police opened fire on demonstrators have shocked everyone in South Africa, not least in my class. To them the scenes were reminiscent of the apartheid era that they had learned about from their parents and in history books at school.
How could this kind of massacre really happen in a “free” South Africa?
In the wake of the shootings, I asked five members of my class — Manez, Papi, Asanda, Sikhulule and Mpho — to sit down and have a real discussion about what they thought of the South Africa that the ANC has created.
What came out was a feeling that political leaders were not delivering on the hopes of the post-apartheid era. They were disillusioned by the ANC and they could not trust the alternative. They were even starting to become disillusioned with former South African president Mandela.
The “born free” generation wants a new deal for the new South Africa.
Asanda Kaka, 24
You can argue about how Nelson Mandela sold our people out. A lot of people like him and a lot of people are in the process of starting to hate him because nothing has changed, you know. When I was young, when I heard his name, I wanted to cry, but now I’m older I want to know who benefited back then. He’s known as a guy who liberated the people, which isn’t true — there were a lot of other people involved.
Transformation and development is going at a very slow pace — better education could fast-forward the transition, but the government is not paying attention to education. It’s such a mess. If they change the system it would create skills and jobs.
I have voted for another party — I’m open about my vote and I voted for the Democratic Alliance (DA) because I felt like jumping from the frying pan and straight into the fire. I knew that when I voted for the DA there was no way they were going to win the election.
There is so much hatred among people — some of that hatred is color, nationality and all of that ... and if you ask more people why they wouldn’t vote for the DA, it’s not because of the DA’s policies. It’s because they are white.
Papi Mirelli, 23
Today’s ANC has lost its vision. From the days of Nelson Mandela becoming president until now, I think they don’t know their values any more. They don’t know what their mission is any more. All that is backing them up is they have a lot of followers.
Looking at the African National Congress Youth League, there’s the feeling they speak with the same voice as we do, that they understand where we are coming from and where we want to go, but we don’t want to see the country in the hands of white people again, so the ANC is the only way to go ... we don’t want to see that happening again. I don’t see myself voting for anyone else.
Growing up, you hear a lot of stories about how [people] thought and how they supported the ANC because it was their hope, it was their key out of the apartheid era, but I think, looking at it today, that [the ANC leaders] know that they are not delivering the promises they mentioned in the apartheid era. At their age, they feel like they still need to clear up the future for us.
Mpho Seoposengwe, 23
The Lonmin mine shootings were so reminiscent of the past. Rich people were being defended again and poor people were being attacked. How can you use live rounds on people?
The ANC say they try to talk to the youth, and try and help us out, and they talk about job creation, but I don’t think they do that much. I don’t think they speak in the language of the people. They will come through and campaign just before a vote. After they get what they need they are off — that is why we have riots all the time.
Both of my parents were political. My father’s interest has faded. I’m not very involved, but my mum was very strong in the political world. She was in the party for 20 years. My brother was born in prison because of her political activism and we had to be taken care of by relatives. I was born in Soweto. She was even protesting while pregnant with me.
There are a lot of young people who are trying to do their own thing and have a more positive outlook on how they are choosing to run their lives. That is what I admire about the youth of today. We are a very young democracy.
Sikhulule Ngxowa, 22
Today’s African National Congress is more like a brand. If anyone mentions ANC, I just think of Adidas, like as a brand. The vision that Nelson Mandela had does not apply to what they have in mind today. There’s a lot of corruption, with the ANC leaders.
At the last election I didn’t vote. Why should I?
If you are looking for a job in the government you will have to know someone. That’s ridiculous.
You can have a masters, a PhD, but if you don’t know someone in the ANC you won’t get a job. Only those who have seats in parliament or have high jobs in government are gaining, so why should I bother to vote?
Housing is such a big problem. If you go back to locations such as Khayelitsha [a township on the Cape Flats], you will see people living in terrible conditions. The president — if we could take him there for a day — he wouldn’t survive.
Someone has to be held accountable. If you go to the government and ask why [the houses] haven’t been built, the only answer you’re going to get is that “we are busy with that,” or “the money has been allocated.”
Mawande Manez Sobetwa, 23
The ANC are a very confusing party. They’ve got a massive membership, but there’s a lot of violence, a lot of division.
The biggest mistake they are making is they are not really focusing on governing the country. They are trying to keep competing with each other internally because of the promises they made to get elected into the structures within the ANC. They are paying back their dues more than they are governing the country, but what are the alternatives?
The Democratic Alliance, led by Helen Zille, think that they can paint this picture of a black party led by a white face and then we can all follow, but it’s not really working for me.
I wish there could be an alternative because [the competition] would help the ANC. There needs to be an emergence of a leader, whether from the ANC or from another party, to inspire people.
We need a [US President Barack] Obama to believe that we can bring about change to the current situation.
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