BY Tebogo Dikale / Phokeng, Rustenberg in North West Province – South Africa
I reside in Phokeng village, located near Rustenburg town which is a mining town. I grew up with mines around us witnessed new ones being established, and witnessed the degradation of the environment and rapid population growth due to mines which led to human rights violations, this led me to want to make a difference and protect the environment and find better social justice.
The inspiration to be an activist came naturally as I cared about the environment, the smell of fresh greens in the morning as trees give us fresh air. An activist is someone who cares about the surroundings in the form of environmental and social issues and wants to bring change socially and politically to which I aspire.
I’m an advocate for backyard farming, I was inspired by my grandmother who taught us to keep our area clean and backyard gardening. In later years that made me realise the importance of growing my food and reducing poverty and I fell in love with it and to this day I enjoy it.
Communities do not care about their environment. People create illegal dumping sites, especially near rivers which pollute the streams. I get to engage with some of them about their actions and find that some are ignorant and others are not aware of the negative effects of their actions due to lack of knowledge. Engaging and enlightening them on how to protect our streams and open areas is part of why I am an activist, as caring for the environment makes one pay attention to the surroundings and do research. That led to meeting like-minded activists in their rights and around 2004 we formed an organisation in our village to assist in tackling environmental, social, and service delivery issues in our village.
