South Africa’s school drop-out rate and limited university spots are a vicious contradiction that doesn’t bode well for a country where a third of the population is jobless. Most of those job seekers are young people. So, #SliceofGasant columnist Gasant Abarder was extra inspired by a group of Hanover Park matriculants who passed despite impossible circumstances.
Last Wednesday, I found myself at a rather extraordinary event. On paper, you could argue the reason wasn’t all that extraordinary. The group of matriculants being honoured weren’t top of the class in the province. But the fact they had even reached Grade 12 was a feat to be celebrated.
These are kids who went to school every day not knowing if they would make the walk there and back alive. Some weren’t even safe inside their school.
For this reason, two organisations working with youth at risk gathered at a Baptist church to lay on a spread fit for royals and lined up an impressive list of speakers to give hope and advice to this particular group from the Class of 2024 of Hanover Park.
Ashraf Allie, the president of Hanover Park Cricket Club, and Bryan Toerien of NPO Breaking Boundaries Building Bridges had worked non-stop for weeks to celebrate this group who refused to let their circumstances dictate their future.
They live in a suburb where each day they run the gamut of bullets flying indiscriminately amidst innocents as rival gangs battle each other, joblessness, poverty and drug abuse. That they didn’t drop out is an achievement on its own.
The future for them looks bleak though with just a matric certificate. That is why a list of inspiring speakers was lined up by Ashraf and Bryan to encourage them. First up was Erika Bornman – an award-winning author who broke the shackles when she escaped from a cult in KwaZulu-Natal. Reaaz Ahmed, a successful businessman, told the story of how his father and mother worked their fingers to the bone to carve out a better future. Perhaps among the most impressive was Saleh Abrahams, who somehow manages a debilitating stutter and is a top business owner hailing from Grassy Park.
What each speaker was trying to impress was that they were just like these school leavers and they overcame massive odds to reach for their dreams and achieve them.
The evening started with the matriculants being greeted by a group of Harley Davidson riders at the venue. The guests, among them Deputy Minister of Social Development Ganief Hendricks, were treated to Bryan’s four-course meal of seafood gratin, butter chicken and naan, beef wellington and roast leg of lamb and dessert. I rolled out of the venue feeling bloated but inspired.
Only two of the matriculants out of the group of 16 said they were studying this year, while others were trying to find work. Deputy Minister Hendricks told the young people they could automatically qualify for the government’s student financial aid scheme if a parent or guardian was on a Sassa grant. He reminded them it was not a loan; they didn’t need to pay the funds for tuition, meals, transport and a personal computer.
There was one particular young man named Raeez Williams I chatted to. Raeez is part of Bryan’s intervention programme in Manenberg – an equally challenging environment to grow up in. Raeez was studying robotics at a TVET college and was eager to learn what kind of programmes were available at the university level. I hadn’t heard a young person so switched on and focused in a while and I promised to find out more for him.
Driving back home reminded me I was also prone to challenges growing up in Mitchells Plain and later the sketchier parts of Woodstock. Getting searched by the police as a 12-year-old without my parents’ consent was normal, I thought. I also had to work hard to make sure my kids did not have to go through the same struggles.
For the rest, who are looking for work in this group, we dare not let them give up. They can work and study and those of us who have need to do everything in our power to help. They are living proof that determination and hard work can break the chains. It takes one person to make it and to change the fortunes of an entire family. And if that is black tax, I will happily subscribe to pay up!
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Picture: Supplied
