By Sam Nkogatse

We live in a world where sharing knowledge with others plays a very important role in growing our society. So in order to achieve a bright future in activism, we should practise and make it the norm that strategic collaboration is the key to unlock the doors of potential. Let us look at our country, we hear and read about different issues that affect our lives, some of them make our days difficult, the likes of human trafficking and gender-based violence. In order to end or act against them, we need to stand as one. I know is not easy because some people think coming together is all about money, either you contribute financially or you are compensated for the time or job you have done. However, organisations can still team up to share ideas or suggestions on particular issues. 

“Coming together is the beginning. Staying together is progress. Working together is success.” Words by Henry Ford, according to Wikipedia, he was an American industrialist and business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. I use his words as an example to convey my sincere appreciation with regards to working together with other young people to achieve our goals. 

The ACTIVATE! Change Drivers Programme gave me the tools to drive change in my respective community and craft my leadership skills. Today I am able to tackle issues that affect our daily living, because of the power of collaboration, I always find it easy to achieve my objectives.

After my graduation from ACD, I managed to collaborate with a variety of Activators on various projects. It is indeed advisable to collaborate with others to sustain the objectives of your organisation – I have collaborated with Rudy Bessit on my publishing company where we published his memoir. Our collaboration gave us a lot of exciting knowledge. During my mentorship programme at Polokwane in 2019, I had a chance to meet and greet Matome Malobela who helped me with branding, little did I know we were Facebook friends but did not have that solid chat till we personally had the chance to network. I also met with Abraham Letsoalo at the A! Literacy Imbizo in 2019 who served as our freelance editor in the African language department, Sepedi to be specific. Along with our collaboration, he managed to edit two books for us. During my time doing A! Radio talk shows late last year, it was great to know that other Activators are working together in their communities. It was a wonderful experience and that gave me the chance to get to know who does what. I continue to work with other Activators in different projects. It is always fruitful to come together. 

My message to everyone is to work as a collective. Always make sure you share the knowledge you have. If you are connected to other young people who are driving change like you do, then join forces. People are burning properties and leading violent protests. They use that as a method to communicate their concern. This is when activism should be constructive not destructive.