Mzwakhe Ntlakane
Mzwakhe Ntlakane (26) was born on 10 September 1996, in Lesotho. In 1998 He moved to South Africa and currently lives in Protea South, in Soweto, South of Johannesburg. He attended primary school at Protea South Primary School and then later went to Altmont Technical High. He then joined The Perfect Storm which later changed its name to Page To Stage. As an artist He is passionate about his journey of art, He participated in the Asifikeni and Phepha Road to Safety campaigns which were activated in taxi ranks where there are commuters.
Ntlakane is mostly interested in telling untold stories affecting the black working class. He believes that topics that are mostly shifted aside are some of the factors that serve as boundaries for the youth.
Enrichia Smith
Enrichia Smith (25) is a young activist who lives in Kliptown, South of Johannesburg. She started school at Florida Avenue Primary School and finished matric at Missourilaan Secondary School in Eldorado Park. She studied the Child and Youth Care Work Course through the National Association of Child and Youth Care Work Institution (NACCW). She also did trauma counselling with Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA). Smith’s mother was her role model and she was HIV positive, this gave her motivation to work with vulnerable children who are also infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. She has also experienced how children’s rights are not respected and their voices are not heard. She wanted to teach people about children’s developmental needs. Smith currently works at Khanya College as a Poetry Buddies Coordinator and an organiser for the Health Project.
Poppy Makhubo
Poppy Makhubo (30) is a social entrepreneur living and working in Thokoza. Makhubo is an environmental activist advocating for women in social change. She is inspired by her mother who is an entrepreneur, seeing her mother starting her business from scratch and running it influenced her to start a business. As a young person who grew up in a working-class neighbourhood, she was conscious of the fact that the environment doesn’t have conducive spaces to build, spaces for positive peer-to-peer engagement and also not having access to skill development programmes. As a woman activist and community leader, she faces challenges such as being undermined by men who refuse to acknowledge women’s leadership. She is the co-founder of Habitat61 and one of their biggest victories was in April 2019, when they did a place-making strategy to clean up a dumping site.
Ellicuia Walters
Ellicuia Walters just started working at Khanya College. She is an administrator for the Study Group and Health Projects. Walters studied Human Resources (HR) administration, secretarial studies as well as acquiring a TEFL certificate. She was born and bred in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal. She moved to Johannesburg which has been her new home for the past 25 years. She regards herself as a passionate, loving and caring person. She has a passion for life and chooses to live each day like it’s her last.
Muelekanyi Mirriam Tshilande
Muelekanyi Mirriam Tshilande is an Artis/ theatre performer and a member of Page to Stage. She has previously performed at Theatre competitions, the likes of Zwakala Festival Market Theatre, and Phepha road safety awareness. She attended school at Mveledzndivho Primary School and Matriculated at Vuwani secondary school in 2018. She is currently enrolled at the University of South Africa. Tshilande is mostly interested in participating in future constructing topics, programmes, self-awareness and meditation sessions.
Viwe Mazwana
Viwe Mazwana is a Social Activist, born and bred in the small rural town of Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape. Mazwana is deeply committed to issues related to community development, solution-driven dialogues and social cohesion. She is well-versed in issues relating to movement building, heritage documentation and social cohesion. she is also a Forum Activist Journalist at Khanya College documenting social issues in working-class communities.
Mazwana has proven expertise in project Coordination and facilitation. She is currently heading a Public Relations and Communication Office at Habitat 61 Creative Hub. Mazwana’s working style celebrates creativity, resourcefulness and innovation combined with a strong commitment to always putting the best foot forward to deliver outstanding work.
Searatoa van Driel
Searatoa Van Driel is a young black feminist activist who became active as a Wits student during the #FeesMustFall movement in 2015. Since then, Searatoa has done facilitation, political education and capacity-building work with in- and out-of-school youth, reclaimers, Community Healthcare Workers, casualised workers, and community and social movements activists. She is currently the coordinator of the Forum of Activist Journalism project and editor of Karibu newspaper, a small but growing publication produced by and for the working class of South Africa. Searatoa also has a great love for all cultural and artistic forms, particularly theatre, because of its magical and transformative power.
Kgaogelo Leso
Kgaogelo Leso (25) was born in September born in 1998, in Daveyton Ekurhuleni. He became an activist when he joined Equal Education, as an Equaliser because he saw the need to try and eradicate the gap of equality between the model C & township schools. I worked with South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCA) and became a certified YADA member. After matric, He started a Black Panda Creatives Clan. Black Panda Creatives clan focuses on trying to remove youth in proletariats communities from the streets by bringing them a step closer to their artistic dream (Modelling, drawing, music & etc).
I always had a dream of becoming an econometrist but due to funds ended up doing marketing. He then joined Khanya College and deepened his activists.
Masai Dabula
Masai Nkululeko Dabula is a poet, cultural worker, facilitator and social activist of the working class in the creative industry. He is a co-founder and Creative Director at Habitat61 Creative Hub, an independent hub situated in Thokoza. Raised by his grandmother, who is an activist herself, he witnessed the power and resilience women possess in changing societal issues. Masai is passionate about imparting knowledge through facilitating and mentoring young people, especially women from all walks of life.
In 2018, Dabula worked as a copywriter at King James Group, where he designed 360 degrees campaigns for different well-known brands. He also curated and designed over 15 Literature festivals including the WordnSound literature festival, the AFRWEKA poetry festival as well as Slam For Your Life Poetry Challenge. His work is published in two poetry anthologies, titled The Grounds Ear and Poetry Is Where the Mic Is.
Lerato Tala
Lerato Tala (22) lives in Maboneng, Johannesburg. She grew up in Daveyton, Ekurhuleni. She had a very fun childhood growing up with her younger brother and taking care of him. She has always looked up to her mother as she was her pillar of strength, and her mother made her interested in Forensic pathology. She has always dreamt of becoming a Forensic Pathologist but due to lack of funding, she didn’t reach that goal. She also loves coding, programming and games. She wishes to become a game developer and create games. Tala currently works at Khanya College, in Information Computer Technology.
These biographies were submitted as part of the Imbila Yesu publication produced daily for the duration of the Winter School in 2023 (23-28 July 2023). It appeared in Edition No.4, released on 28 July 2023.
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