A Mandela Day reflection on youth development in South Africa, NGO sustainability and the future South Africa is building around artificial intelligence.
It was my first time intentionally participating in a Mandela Day initiative.
I attended an Ingelosi Foundation event that recognised young people, some only 15 or 16, for the contributions they are already making in their communities.
The hope young people carry
But being surrounded by so much youth made me uncomfortable in an important way.
African babies carry such visible hope, even when the circumstances they come from can make us weep. You can see it in the shoes, the shy confidence and the way they carry themselves.
But above all of that nuance, what stayed with me was their hope.
These young children see opportunity ahead of them. They want to participate, to contribute and to believe that there is a place for them in the future we keep speaking about.
Are we creating pathways for them?
Which begs the question: do we ever stop to ask them what they need?
Are we creating pathways for them to participate in these new opportunities?
Are we teaching them how technology can be used to create, build, earn and solve problems?
Or are we simply discussing the future amongst ourselves and saving our own skins for AI 2027?
I had to ask myself a personal question as “Rakgadi” because, dammit, that snap, crackle and pop can no longer be denied.
What am I doing, within the power and access that I have, to help create opportunities for young people?
Who supports the people supporting communities?
Yes, corporations have NPO and social-impact divisions. Events are held. Impact is photographed. Donations are made.
But what about the operational support and sustainable funding needed by organisations outside corporate structures?
Who supports the people supporting communities?
AI agents?
No?
A Mandela Day reminder
As I travelled towards the Ingelosi Foundation event, we drove along a six-kilometre stretch of Nelson Mandela Drive. I looked across and saw the Nelson Mandela Bridge. Later, in my hotel room overlooking Braamfontein, there was a large image of Mandela.
The experience felt almost ironic.
We are speaking endlessly about AI agents and the future, while many of the young people who will inherit that future are living in cities affected by financial mismanagement, poor service delivery, job insecurity and staggering youth unemployment.
Responsibility beyond remembrance
Perhaps the reminder was not simply about remembering him.
Perhaps this experience was about responsibility towards the young girls and boys who are becoming the men and women of society. They already have hope.
The question is whether those of us with experience, platforms and access are building anything strong enough for that hope to land on.
