Helen Zille is Premier of the Western Cape, but more than anything she is a woman who possesses phenomenal leadership qualities. She is both a South African citizen and a human rights activist who stands for goodness. And of course she might not be perfect, but no one ever is.When she visited our group, Students for Humanity, on the 8th of May she shared with us what it was like for a non-racist, white woman like her to take up the challenge of becoming a journalist during, then, apartheid-rife South Africa. She says it was not easy because she had to be watchful of the kinds of stories she reported on, so as not to stir up conflict, but because she loved her job she strived for success. Her sharing with such a beautiful story about her background was very inspiring to the group. We usually see the premier on T.V debating about social issues, often with ANC, and think “She’s fighting for power…”  And today we got the opportunity to see the leader through different eyes, and not through those of the media. We learnt that being a leader takes enormous courage and perseverance. It was a very powerful message she ...

Refugee VI football club is an initiative by Ephraim Ntlamo 17 years old. Refugee VI is a youth soccer club based in Cape Town, South Africa.  It was formed in September 2009. The purpose of this team is not only to kick some balls around.  According to the United Nations Refugee Agency [UNHCR] South Africa hosts some 40,00 refugees and over 100,000 asylum -seekers. A large part of these refugees are unaccompanied children between the age group of 15 and 18 who fled their countries on their own without any friend nor family member. After the xenophobic attacks in May 2008  the relationship between foreign nationals from other African states  and South African local communities became fragile.  As a refugee child my self I thought it would be necessary to form a sport institution that will can be part of the solution towards the difficult integration process and that will also give refugee children something  to keep themselves busy thinking positively about life, bring back the the fun, friendship, self esteem and confidence which I learned we  refugee children miss badly. The real issue that drove me to spend most of my time getting this team together was the fact that refugee children face different sorts of discrimination. This discrimination becomes ...

Dear South Africa, I am one of the proudly South African youth that does not find Caster`s problem funny. We all know that Caster`s gender is neither a boy nor a girl, she is a hermaphrodite as we have seen and heard from the media. We as the group of students from COSAT running the organisation and website studentsforhumanity.com, do not find this matter as amusing as the media does. In considering this matter we think that at the moment the S.A`s 800m gold medalist Caster Semenya needs our support regarding to her situation. I, personally, never liked this thing gender testing but in sports it is all about fair play. If Caster was not tested and continued her career it would be unfair to her competitors. It is not up to us to decide what and how should be done. So we have to watch and correct what’s being done wrongly by the government. All and all I would like all the South African and others to support Caster Semenya during these hard times of her life. Regards, Yamkela (Yara) Hlehliso Dear Managers of sports, I'm one of the students that are part of the organisation called ...

Mlamli: Do you have a life when you don't have confidence, don't believe in your self and when you have a low self esteem? This a question that we need to ask our self as people and as a nation. We as nation have struggled in the past but we don't realize that we are still struggling. We are not struggling as a nation, we are struggling to gain confidence. We do not gain confidence if we don't encourage, love and care for one another, we would have a better nation were we as the people stand together to create a better South Africa. So by giving someone words of encouragement each day, you are making a difference in someone else life. All we need is support and we need to start believing in our self. The change is not in the government it is in us we need to change our selves to make our country better. Mfundo: The One. I woke up one day asking myself if am I the one, The one who is recognized by the world, The one who sets goals and achieves them, The one who wakes up every morning knowing his ambitions The one who is the one. Many ...

During the past, in the apartheid era protests, street-burnings and school burnings were common; it was done when ever people were requesting something they were in need of from the Government. And the government would then attend to their needs as quickly as possible, thus satisfaction will be found inside their blameless hearts. Lately, in the 15th of May 2009, my fellow neighbors demanded various services from the government which where basically consisting of the basic human rights in the accordance of the Legislation of South Africa. The first day of the strike, all government transportation was invaded, stoned and many vehicles burnt. As a result many innocent passengers got injured. It went on, other public transports were not allowed to pass on. They then started doing what lead to what I call ‘My communities misconception'. In a blink of an eye, over a distance of approximately 225 meters on the travel road, there were burning tires everywhere. Cardboard, cans, papers and plastics were burnt; no public or private car would have been able to pass through that extremely dangerous fire, or in a more precise way ‘combustion'. Teachers say "combustion, is a process in which a substance reacts with oxygen to ...

  Are western '' non governmental organisations'' (NGO's) really doing what they are expected to be doing for Africa ? Please sit back and prepare to challenge  my opnion. What ever you  thought about Africa, think again. One can't ran from the naked fact that Africa is a troubled continent, devastated by civil wars, poverty and HIV/Aids. The good news  is having all these obstacles doesn't mean there is no hope for Africa. Let  me put it in this way: we Africans are very forntunaty, we must appreciate the truth that we are  not climbing the huge mountain to success alone. Our international  friends [ countries ]  are  helping us to pull ourselves out  this distress times.  But the question is: are Western  agencies as  a helping hand  apprecciated by masses of  Africans pulling us into the right direction? Here is what i suggest: It is very clear that Western NGO's are doing  a very great job for the ordinary people of Africa, but the question mark is: are our Arican politicians as happy as ordinary Africans with  this  great work being done by Western agencies?  The answer is clearly not at all.  Why do I say this?  because  NGO's are involving themselves a lot on domestic political issues, ...

  Are western '' non governmental organisations'' (NGO's) really doing what they are expected to be doing for Africa ? Please sit back and prepare to challenge  my opnion. What ever you  thought about Africa, think again. One can't ran from the naked fact that Africa is a troubled continent, devastated by civil wars, poverty and HIV/Aids. The good news  is having all these obstacles doesn't mean there is no hope for Africa. Let  me put it in this way: we Africans are very forntunaty, we must appreciate the truth that we are  not climbing the huge mountain to success alone. Our international  friends [ countries ]  are  helping us to pull ourselves out  this distress times.  But the question is: are Western  agencies as  a helping hand  apprecciated by masses of  Africans pulling us into the right direction? Here is what i suggest: It is very clear that Western NGO's are doing  a very great job for the ordinary people of Africa, but the question mark is: are our Arican politicians as happy as ordinary Africans with  this  great work being done by Western agencies?  The answer is clearly not at all.  Why do I say this?  because  NGO's are involving themselves a lot on domestic political issues, ...

  It is the day that honors the deaths of hundreds of Soweto schoolchildren, a day that changed the course of the country's history on 16 June 1976. The day where government and the police were caught off guard by the group of angry students fighting against Bantu education, living a large amount of brave dead students. These students were marching because they were against Bantu education, which was introduced by the national party in 1954 by the apartheid government. The Bantu education was introduced so that all students can be taught in Afrikaans. In that time about 10 % of black teachers had a matric certificate and the school was poorly equipped, had no science laboratories or sport fields and they were overcrowded. They fought for all of those things, so that their grandchildren will have a better education. June 16 is now being celebrated by the youth to honor and show respect to our heroes that made things to be possible for us to have this better life that we have. We now have poets and hip hop artist who speaks their lungs out in praising the ‘special ‘day of youth. The youth are very passionate about what they do ...

My name is EPHRAIM NTLAMO. I was born in March 1992 in a rural village, Binga in Zimbabwe. Being born in this impoverished part of the world, there are lots of challenges to overcome. For example, your own parents do not believe in education that much, they are very traditional and think that the child must either become a herd boy or a farmer. When I started school in 1997 my dream was to become an electrical engineer (The reason behind my dream, was to one day own a car, live in the city, where I would own a European style house -- oppose to a traditional hut where I grew up in).  Because of political violence and hyper inflation in Zimbabwe, our parents couldn't afford to pay our school fees/uniforms/stationary/books. And even if they did and we had the chance to get to school, there wasn't proper education anymore. Robert Mugabe's ruling party in Zimbabwe, helped by the militia, could just come and pick up students to campaign for ZANU-PF. Also, teachers were earning peanuts (very little- 70Rand/month). For them to survive they had to involve themself in corrupt businesses to survive, instead of teaching. In 2008 there was no food ...

This story is about two important men who are in a situation where they have to prove themselves to the world. They want to prove that they are ready to rule their countries. The first man is Mr.Barack Obama who is the first black president of America. The second man is Mr.Jacob Zuma who is the president of the ANC and possibly a future South African president.Mr.Obama is the first black president to lead America. The previous president of America was Mr.Bush who was a white a person, which made him a favourite to many people and a big enemy to Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe. Mr Obama has a big challenge to rule a powerful, complicated nation and fulfil his promises. As any president he has to make sure that his country is happy with his work. But Mr Obama is a different president and because of his black skin colour he has an extra task to perform. And that task is to prove to the American citizens and the world that it was not a mistake that he got elected president of America. Clearly Obama has made "HISTORY". Some people say that he is very young to take power and so ...