Sandile Soxokashe
CAMPAIGNING FOR PEACEFUL PROTESTS
Sandile Soxokashe in Bekkersdal © Thom Pierce 2023
In 2013 the town of Bekkersdal was overrun by ten months of protests about the lack of service delivery in the area. Over time the demonstrations turned to riots, government buildings were burned, people were hurt and valuable infrastructure was destroyed.
Sandile Soxokashe was a 15-year-old boy at the time, desperate for some way to change the community, he became actively involved in the protests. In hindsight, he sees it as a valuable lesson in his journey to becoming an activist, a steep learning curve teaching him how things shouldn’t be done and leaving the community in a poorer place than they were before.
Government buildings that were destroyed have been demolished and the land has been left disused and vacant. Residents now need to travel long distances to access the government facilities in other suburbs.
Ten years later Sandile has started his own initiative called Be The Future Foundation. The point of the organisation is to educate the local community in safe, legal and effective forms of protest. He is passionate about change, but he knows that it will not come about if communities make the same mistakes as they did in Bekkersdal. He sees how they destroyed their own community and wants to provide a better path.
Be The Future Foundation is working together with the NPO Right To Protest to produce comprehensive workshops that educate the community whilst also training their own volunteers to become mediators between the community and the government.
They are working on zero budget, but they are so passionate that the three directors and ten volunteers meet twice a week to produce the course that will lead them in their quest to give a new, more effective, louder and more peaceful voice to unheard communities.
In addition to the training workshops for protesting, not rioting, Be The Future Foundation is also developing a series of workshops for schools to teach kids about their constitutional rights, in order to develop them into more active citizens. They believe that the lethargy that has befallen people in many parts of South Africa is a direct result of not knowing how to make a change and of having clarity of what that change should be.
Sandile is not ashamed of being part of the 2013 riots. It shaped him into who he is today. And who he is today is a man who cares deeply about his community and wants them to be able to have agency and a voice, and push for effective and long-lasting change.
