ONE of the City of Cape Town’s youngest councillors has made it his mission to ensure that poor residents get access to service delivery and that young people become invested in community activism.
Last year’s local government elections saw a significant number of young politicians stepping up to contest elections and among them was Lwazi Phakade, 27.
The province saw the ANC’s 24 years-old Chad Louw elected as the province’s youngest mayor of Oudtshoorn, while the DA’s Jason White, 23, was the youngest councillor.
For Phakade, growing up in the Western and Eastern Cape drove him to political activism.
He said living in the old migrant labour hostels in Langa, he was always exposed to the dire inequalities that affected residents.
Phakade grew up in between Langa and Egcuwa in the Eastern Cape. He always marvelled at the disparities between the two.
“One is a village with very little or no services at all and the other is a township with inadequate services,” he said.
He explains how the challenges facing poor citizens drove his love for activism.
“It paved the way for me to be an activist as I (pushed) for some of the wrongs to be corrected,” he said.
At the age of 14, he joined the ANC’s Youth League in Langa and was subsequently elected its branch deputy chairperson at the age of 16.
His activism grew stronger in the lecture halls of Stellenbosch University where he graduated in a BA degree in social dynamics.
At the height of the transformation debate at the institution, Phakade was among the group of student leaders driving the #FeesMustFall movement for free higher education.
He led the students of Stellenbosch University as a member of the SRC and represented Western Cape students as a provincial convener of the South African Students Congress.
"The fight for free higher education in South Africa was our mission when we were students in Stellenbosch University,“ he told Weekend Argus.
“As per Frantz Fanon's assertion, fulfil it or betray it. Though still more needed to be done, I believe we fulfilled it."
Phakade is a firm believer in widening access to opportunities for the township’s poor, a constant challenge he faces as ward councillor in Langa.
"Service delivery is a key element of local government,“ said Phakade.
“This is (how) our people get first-hand experience with governance and its services. I believe that if we can fight to make things better at this level, we can effect more change in the lives of South Africans."
Phakade said he was often undermined due to his age.
"This position has always been reserved for the elderly, but I push every day to show that I am more than capable and equal to the task at hand,“ he said, adding that it was his responsibility, as a young person, to bring a paradigm shift.
“In order for us to do this, we must grab each and every opportunity that comes to us. Gone are the days where young people are not decision makers at the table that sets tomorrow's agenda.”