We are a group of youth between the ages of 17 and 22 who come from two small townships in Pietermaritzburg, Thembalihle and Eastwood. Our aim is to make our communities a better place for our next generation by bringing youth together and looking at the problems where we live. We don’t want to be the problem, we want to be part of the solution, because as the youth, we are the future. At the moment, we are a group of seven, but we are still growing. For now, we are calling ourselves the Youth Development Team (YDT).

A few weeks ago we attended the Reconnecting the World Social Forum meeting which was our first time to attend a workshop, and it was a great experience because it taught us things we did not even know as youth. It taught us that struggles do exist and was our first time to be called COMRADES. This workshop has showed us that you don’t need to be wealthy and famous to make a difference. But what you need is hard work and dedication. At the same time you need faith and hope. You also need to be strong as a unity. Umuntu umuntu ngabantu—which means ‘a person is a person because of others.’ Let’s start cleaning where we are standing. The whole world will be clean.

The housing issue was also brought up many times in the workshop which is also a problem in our community, especially in Thembalihle. People are not living in proper houses. People have their own land, toilets, water and electricity, but the government has not built the people RDP houses. People are still living in shacks made out of mud, which can be easily destroyed by rain. The people from Abahlali really inspired and motivated us on the way that they talk in which, they have a passion for what they are doing and they are willing to fight for what they believe in. Also, the Willow Gardens story was sad when we heard that a man committed suicide, because he could not pay his rent. Government should be building houses for people, which is a basic need for a human to have shelter.

The next day after the workshop we visited a friend who lives in Thembalihle. That evening there was a strong rains which destroyed many houses in the community. There were strong winds that were blowing the roofs off of people’s houses. Houses were turned into dams. While sitting in his house, the water came flooding in. We were thinking that the wall was going to fall on us. These are not real houses for a human being. They are dangerous.

The next day we decided to take photos of the damage that was caused by the rains. We did this because it is easy to criticize someone without proof. We wanted the evidence of the conditions of the houses. At the end, we decided we’re tired of being customers of the politicians. We want to be treated as equal citizens of uMzansi [South Africa]. In that way we mean “No house no vote”—which you can see in the little poster we made for our last photo. We want the rights of people to be answered. So after that we decide to interview some of the local people of Thembalihle to get the information of why the houses haven’t been built. Also, they are older than us, they know better than us the history of why there are no houses.

We did all this and wrote this article to let our situation be heard out there and also to let it be known that we want to change the way things are for the better. We want to fight for the rights of the people. We met great people at this workshop, people who showed us the way forward, that we are also in a struggle of our own, and we should fight!
– The Youth Development Team (YDT) — “Learn, Build, and Grow with YDT”