Langa Gets To Deepen The Debate On ‘Freedom’ During A Freedom Day Imbizo

ON Thursday, April 27, 2023 South Africa
will mark 29 years since the democratic election took place in 1994.

As I’m writing this article today April 26, I can’t help not to stress
that I may not get to finish this article, should the rolling
black-outs bequeath itself on the populace as has become the norm.

As I’m writing this piece from the Langa Public Library of Cape Town,
where a thought-provoking and yet somewhat emotional event
commemorating Freedom Day has just ended.

The Freedom Day Imbizo was organized by the Langa Public Library.

Interestingly, this year marks the 100th year of the birth of Cape
Town’s oldest township, Langa, which came about due the Cape Town City
Council, passing the 1923 Urban Areas Act, an act driven to restrict
and control the movement and lives of the indigenous Black African
population.

Needless to say, the staff of the Langa library quite outdid
themselves for at least managing to get some of the elders of the
community to come out and share their experiences, thoughts, and
knowledge about colonial oppression and Apartheid.

The elders of the community also would get to urge on what the
community, especially the youth ought to stand up and fight for their
rights and what is rightfully theirs, rather than wait on the
government and other people to do things for them.

In all, the crowd of about 30 people who participated in the Imbizo
(community gathering) shared their views on what they understood about
the meaning of freedom, while some raised the point that the lack of
economic freedom for the Black majority meant that real freedom had
yet to arrive.

From unemployment to crime, residents and organizers set to reflect
their disappointment and unhappiness about the post 1994 dispensation
which has fail to offer South Africans of even the basic human needs
like electricity, acceptable housing, water and food to name a few.

The residents also raised concerns around the quality of education of
the Black child, which was strongly influenced by western values and
neglected the African perspective, including African languages.

But an important development of the gathering was the question of the
youth kept coming up.

An example of this was when a female representative of the local South
African Police Service (SAPS), gave a detailed account of how the
youth had failed to organize themselves as the opportunities for
empowerment including the Junior National Commissioner Project were
available especially under the current incumbent Minister of Police,
Bheki Cele.

She explained that the Junior Provincial Commissioners falls under the
Junior National Commissioner Project, which sadly was absent in the
Langa community.

The Junior National Commissioner Project is one of the SAPS’ Youth
Crime Prevention flagship project that seeks to provide the youth of
South Africa an opportunity to contribute and play a meaningful role
in ensuring a safe and conducive learning environment in schools.

And according to the SAPS, among the objectives of the Junior
Commissioner Project is to advocate for the development and nurturing
of leadership capacity, skills and mentoring of young people in
communities.

“There has been a growing trend in the number of young people,
including those within the schooling environment, who are involved in
crime either as perpetrators or victims. This is indeed one of the
strategic interventions that is focusing on institutionalizing school
based crime prevention and working on the psychology of these
children, a critical element of developmental crime prevention” – said
then National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Khehla Sitole, in
2019.

Back to the Freedom Day Imbizo, another area that received serious
attention from the residents was the issue of the lack to absence of
such gatherings (Imbizos) on a regular basis and when just gatherings
occur they are not well communicated to the rest of the community and
after they occur there’s usually little to no action to follow up on
matters discussed.

In this regard, the staff of the Langa library committed themselves to
playing their part in addressing this matter by working with their
contacts and networks and promised to deliver more of just community
gatherings with leaders and representatives from various sectors
playing a role in the education, informing and empowerment of people.

This point of regular meetings and youth organizing themselves,
probably stood out during this gathering more than anything else.

Just like self introspection became another rallying cry for people to
fix themselves first before looking at the outside world, this would
not necessarily close-shop on collaboration and collaborations of all
stakeholders, especially those people in need of resources and means
to make a play their part.

Along with the failures of elected representatives, government
officials and community structures, which are meant to serve the
people, Langa residents have once again, like many others throughout
South Africa sent a strong message that whatever has happened or not
happened until now, the changes that are needed would have to come
from the people’s efforts themselves.

And if you ask me where South Africa has gone wrong and is likely to
go wrong in the future, by all accounts I would have to say the lack
of youth leadership and development would be high among the reasons
for this breakdown of this nation.

Of course, the lack to absence of these community forums and Imbizos
for all citizens; and lack to no action of fixing the problems are
what South Africans need to urgently address.

Mgudlwa is an award-winning journalist and resident of Langa.