Maxine Davids: From a Sunday School Invitation to a Call to Political Leadership

Maxine Davids is a 25-year-old 2025 activator from Saldanha Bay, Western Cape. Maxine is stepping in to the political arena by contesting in the upcoming local elections under the People’s Movement for Change…

Clerah Sethole: From Khutsong To The Corridors Of Governance

Clerah Sethole is a Gauteng-based activator, a public management student, youth development practitioner, education advocate, community leader and a passionate public servant. This month her commitment…

FROM RICE BAG TO BALLOT BOX: The Story of Activator Manganyi Nyiko Lovemore - ANC Ward 28 Candidate

In Ward 28 of Collins Chabane Local Municipality, where villages like Xikundu, Xifaxani, Magomani and Gonani share dusty roads and a deep history of resilience, a familiar face has emerged as the ANC’s…

Youth Network counts down to the local government elections, sending more than 100 young people as election observers across the country

Building on their year-long national campaign, Youth Network Activate Change Drivers gears for the local government election, calling on young people to participate in civic matters directly in their…

Xaba Builds Youth Participation And Accountability in Harding Ward 07

Siphele Xaba is a 2026 activator from KwaZulu-Natal, based in Harding Ward 07 within the uMuziwabantu Local Municipality. He is contesting in the upcoming local elections under the African National…

Breaking Barriers: Kamogelo Themba’s Journey As A Transgender Leader

Kamogelo Themba is a 2019 activator from Gauteng ward 71. She is transgender woman who was born and raised in Limpopo, Matome Village and later relocated to Attridgeville in Tshwane. She is contesting in…

Mandla’s Community Leadership Journey

In the vibrant town of Sasolburg in the Free State, resides an educator, entrepreneur and community activist who is passionate about developing future leaders, Mandla E Xaba a 33-year-old young man who’s…

Dimakatso Makhasane on Defining Leadership and Youth Power

Get to know 2019 Activator! Dimakatso Abigail Makhasane, a dedicated Child and Youth Program Facilitator, youth activist from Gauteng province, she is a founder of the impactful initiative Mentor Me 2, an…

Saldanha Youth Circles Creates A Space For The Change They Wish To See

Bathabile Dyonase, who is a 25-year-old 2025 activator from Saldanha Bay, Western Cape, is a co-founder of Saldanha Youth Circles. Saldanha Youth Circles is a youth-led, community-driven initiative aimed…

From Gymnastics To Social Impact

Raedene’s journey in sport started long before she understood that sport could become a career. She spent 10 years as a high-performance artistic gymnast, representing the Western Cape, and that experience…

How Siyasanga Hohana is investing in the township economy she calls home

South Africa’s township economy has become increasingly recognised as a crucial engine of entrepreneurship, job creation and local economic development. Its market value is estimated at R900 billion,…

How Evelyn’s grief and adversity led her into the taxi business

The transport industry remains largely male-dominated. On the roads, the constant buzz of taxis and non-compliant drivers racing to drop off passengers and earn the day’s wage is a familiar scene. Yet, in the…

The Cost of Silence: Transparency, Power and the Fight Against GBV

It is a grim world women inhabit. Whether she is outspoken or reserved, dressed to impress or simply to exist, someone somewhere will convince himself that her body, her voice, or her peace belongs to him. A…

Yolanda Mogano, Law, Leadership, and The Power of Being Open to Learn

In 2019, while navigating her first year of law school, Yolanda Mogona stepped into the Activate! Change Drivers network. What began as a friend’s referral quickly became a defining chapter in her journey.…

Gauteng 2018 Activate Change Driver Sibongile Mongadi Recognised Among Top Winners at the Hollywood Foundation Gauteng Bambelela Business Awards

Gauteng 2018 Activate Change Driver and technology entrepreneur Sibongile Mongadi has been recognised among the Top 20 winners at the Hollywood Foundation Gauteng Bambelela Business Awards, reaffirming her…

Xolile Mkhabela on Ivota Lakho Eleyi Thulusi and Women's Representation

Xolile Mkhabela, 2024 activator from Ward 20 in Umhlabuyalingana, KwaZulu-Natal.
Mkhabela is a young person whose commitment to community development earned her the confidence of community leaders, who…

Qwabe Leads Through Service and Community Action

Menzi Michael Qwabe, a 2015 activator from KwaZulu-Natal, Umkhanyakude District, Umhlabuyalingana Ward 20. He is contesting in the upcoming local government elections for the first time because his community…

KZN 2019 ACTIVATE! Change Driver Ntwenhle Nkosingiphile Leads Mandela Day House Rebuild & Health Drive in Imbali

This Nelson Mandela Day, youth leadership turned 67 minutes into lasting change in Imbali Unit 18. Ntwenhle Nkosingiphile, a 2019 ACTIVATE! Change Driver from KwaZulu-Natal, spearheaded a dual-impact…

Ramoloti is helping Moruleng's children find purpose through the Arts

For many, royalty exists at a distance, admired from afar. But for a group of young creatives in Moruleng, their songs, poems, paintings and performances echo within the very heart of the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela…

In Komga, Amanda Dumisa Is Turning Mandela Day Into Everyday Work

The small office in front of her house was not ready yet, so people came inside. Furniture had to share space with wet clothes, hungry bodies, donated bread and the smell of soup being stretched as far as it…

Celebrating Mandela Through AI Creative Challenge

As South Africa and the world prepare to commemorate Nelson Mandela Day on the 18th of July , the Gen AI Africa Podcast is calling on young people to honour the legacy of the father of South Africa’s…

How Emmanuel Prosper Mafuma Turned Farming into a Mission of Social Justice

Every July, South Africans are reminded that Mandela Day is far more than a symbolic date on the calendar. It is an invitation to confront the uncomfortable question of whether acts of service can outlive a…

Beyond 67 Minutes: A 2026 Mandela Month Blueprint for Active Citizenship

July 2026 marks 18 years since Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s passing. It also falls three years after the 2024 national and local elections, which brought coalition governments to most municipalities and raised…

Sipho Mnisi: A Commitment to Building Peace and Everything In-Between

Sipho Mnisi is a 2017 Activator, a passionate individual about youth and LGBTIQA leadership, a facilitator, and a former community radio presenter from Soshanguve, Pretoria. His dedication to empowering…

Mpumelelo Bernice Mjekelo: Empowering Youth Voices Through Poetry and Storytelling

Mpumelelo Bernice Mtjekelo is an activator who founded and manages Spoken and Unspoken Word (Pty) Ltd, which is a creative arts company she established in 2019 and is located in Bloemfontein, Free State. Driven…

Thabiso Hendrik Majoe: A Community Builder Committed To Serving Ward 7 Finetown

Thabiso Hendrik Majoe is an activator from Finetown, Gauteng. Majoe is a proven community leader and founder of various community projects that has earned him the trust of his community members in ward 7 as…

Our evolving reality: The becoming of South Africa’s youth demographic

Since the early 2000s, I have been working in the youth sector, and I have benefited as a youth development practitioner and as a young person in South Africa. I came into the youth development sector…

More Than a Game: How Chesterville Basketball Academy is Changing Young Lives

In the heart of Chesterville, where many young people grow up surrounded by social pressures, unemployment, substance abuse, crime, and limited opportunities, one community initiative is using sport to…

The Trauma Parents Choose for Their Children: Is Pain the Price of Raising Resilient Adults?

Every child experiences the world through a unique emotional and psychological lens. What may appear as a minor inconvenience to one child may be deeply distressing to another. Pain is not processed uniformly;…

The Father Behind the Paintbrush: Polelo Huma Challenges Society’s Narrow View of Modern Fatherhood

For generations, fatherhood has been measured through a simple but complicated question: “What does a father provide?” In many communities, especially within the South African context, a father’s worth has…

Yes, We’re Clapping for the Fish for Swimming: The Radical Rise of the Millennial Dad

Every June, South African social media timelines split into two completely different cultural realities. On one side, corporate marketing engines push a polished, commercial version of fatherhood, filled…

Moral Decay in Mzansi: Alcohol and the Dangerous Normalisation of Addiction

South Africa does not merely drink. It glorifies drinking. We are a country where bottles are stitched into celebration, heartbreak, masculinity, grief, birthdays, funerals, and weekends that supposedly “don’t…

Building Futures at Home: The Story of Reolebogile Mohotlheng, Educator in Tlakgameng

For many young graduates from rural South Africa, career success is often equated with relocating to major cities. Reolebogile Mohotlheng,27, is challenging that narrative by applying her skills where they…

From Activism to Action: How Tebogo Motlana is Building a Legacy of Community Leadership

In the heart of Tsakane, where stories of struggle, resilience and hope have shaped generations, one young leader has dedicated his life to ensuring that communities do more than survive, they thrive.…

Building Brain Waves: How Lesego Masethe is Transforming STEM Education in South Africa

Some people spend their lives waiting for opportunities. Others create them. Lesego Masethe has spent much of the last decade doing exactly that. As the founder of Brain Waves Development, a science…

Youth Voices in the Digital Age: Safeguarding Digital Democracy Beyond 1976

Fifty years ago, South African youths took to the streets of Soweto, armed with placards and protest songs, demanding an end to injustice, inequality, and the denial of equal education. Today, a new generation…