Ms Basetsana - A role model in the making

How can we aspire to be someone when we do not have anyone to look up to?

We salute all the people doing great things for our country -- Nomzamo Mbatha, Black Coffee, Bonang Matheba and Trevor Noah. Just to mention a few.

But I have always believed you are more likely to aspire to be someone who is around you. So, who do you aspire to be if there is no one to look up to?

My name is Basetsana. I live in a small kasi (neighbourhood) called Phiri, where having a good role model is a fluke and the only people to look up to are thugs and gangsters. I wake up to drug smokers, teenage pregnancy and crime. I refuse to follow any of those. I have always known that I was destined for great things and I have always said that I want to be someone’s role model. I want to show young girls from my neighbourhood that there is more to life than partying, drinking, having unprotected sex and falling pregnant.

About 2 weeks ago, I was walking back home from taking a walk. You see, I like late night walks. They help clear the mind and help one stay calm when they feel like their world is falling apart. As I was walking, I bumped into a girl that I went to the same primary and high school with. She is 2 years older than me which meant she was always 2 grades ahead of me. I am not sure when, but while we were at school she dropped out of school because she had fallen pregnant. When her baby was just 1, she fell pregnant again. She never went back to school and now all she does is stay home and do God knows what. As I continued with my walk, I saw her walking with a young girl  from my neighbourhood (probably 16). Now if a young girl does not know how great life is when one does not have a baby and they are educated, how will they want that for themselves? If all she wakes up to are drugs, crime and all that is wrong, how will she know there is more to life than what she is constantly exposed to?

It hurts to see so many young girls around my neighbourhood fall pregnant at such a young age and not go back to finish their studies. We deserve so much more. What are we saying? That we do not deserve to drive our own cars? Own homes? Have businesses or even have degrees to our name?

We can’t always wait for a celebrity to do it before we can. I refuse to see my fellow sisters live a life that our grandmothers and mothers lived, cleaning up after others.

I see myself growing up in a different neighbourhood. Where there are role models. Where all children are educated or getting an education. Where crime is not rampant. Where the unemployment rate is not high and lastly where black businesses are striving to make the community and the people in it better.

It is a dream which I strive to work hard for. If need be, a dream I will die trying to achieve.