She joined the MDM to help fight poverty, abuse and land grabs.

“My participation in this  MDM is to have more understanding of the formation and its core values and how it has impacted our lives. The MDM was a step in the right direction as we are non-sexist, non-racial and non-discriminatory. Looking at our current situation, I can relate to Black Consciousness leaders when they criticized the MDM for being elitist”.

Me being an activist is inspired by many things, mainly our poor communities, the lack of education drive, drugs and alcohol abuse by both young and old people, crime, and the influx of undocumented foreigners and land-grabbing that is taking place. Our voters are aggrieved and they’re blaming us as leaders that we’re not doing anything about it.”

Comrade Charmaine has learnt humility and integrity.

“Since I joined the ANC in 2008, I learnt from others never look down on any other person regardless of their status, where they stay, how they look and above all who they’re and what they’ve achieved. I see myself as a philanthropist – this means I must be grounded, all the time, as a person of integrity and humility”.

“I also learnt to keep learning – either by reading articles of ‘Arambulo’ or books. I recently took up online courses at the OR Tambo School of Leadership during Level 5 lockdown. I wrote a letter to Doctor Naledi Pandor requesting she assist us with short courses to learn more about DIRCO – especially for those who are keen to learn about foreign affairs and African countries”.

“My core values include to keep on learning about the ANC and to engage my fellow comrades about social issues that affect us on daily basis – especially economic transformation.”

She wants to help black Africans with business ventures

“I feel that we’re far from being transformed as township communities. There is still red tape for black people to tap into businesses SMMEs. As South Africans, we are treated as second best – when it comes to business fund- ing. It’s tough to be a black person – what’s more painful is that it is our black people in some offices, who are making things difficult for us”.

Education is her mission

“My mission is to have a strongly educated branch – either academically or skills-wise, for instance where our people can learn to do things with their hands – sowing, planting, being a mechanic and so on. In that way, I have a branch that does not look to the government to do things for them but a branch that can assist the government!”

She hopes young South Africans will have jobs and become leaders

“My hope is to have a free flow of economic transformation, by job creation of permanent jobs – not these short-term jobs, which give stipends and are orchestrated by labour brokers.”

My aspiration would be the strengthening of the binding together of the underlying ideologies of the Tripartite Alliance (ANC, SACP, and COSATU) so that radical transformation can be achieved”.

“Currently we live off piece jobs, which are not sustainable. That makes for an unsettled society – that is why crime is skyrocketing”.

I wish to see the youth transformed by its leaders – as leaders, we need to walk the walk and talk the talk. We need to pinpoint real people and change their lives so that they too can change other people’s lives. My wish is to see a working-class youth that is not dependent on social grants or making babies for social grants”.

Inspired by her ANC stalwart uncles, Comrade Angelina began her Struggle in Ga-Rankuwa “My mother comes from the chieftainship of Manganeng Ga-Sekhukhune and is a younger sister to ANC stalwart, Isitwala`ingwe John Kgoana Nkadimeng. I learnt about him and that he left the country with his family. In 1983, in Attridgeville, my uncle inspired me – he was passionate about his brother – how brave he was in the union as a secretary and how he established Sebatakgo- mo in Sekhukhuneland, to defiance of the Apartheid regime”.

“He took me and my two cousins to Tsogo High School in Ga-Rankuwa, to be educated and to fight the apartheid regime. My uncle had to painfully explain the absence of his brother and that he did not want to lose us too. He inspired to be politically active – but not to play in the hands of the Bophuthatswana police”.

“Travelling by bus daily to Ga-Rankuwa sharpened our political environment. They were explaining what role we must play at school to instigate learners to boycott classes and singing revolutionary songs lead by Cde Floyd. We were tasked with encouraging learners to distribute class boycott pamphlets or to support workers’ strikes in the Roselyn industrial area, where we were beaten and subjected to police brutality. Soldiers and police were always in the schoolyard arresting activist leaders, and we work on the ground were harassed, so I fled to Johannesburg on my uncle’s advice”.

Comrade Angelina could not finish high school, due to her political activities. In 1985, she migrated to Johannesburg and stayed with her unionist aunt who worked in the textile industry. “I began attending meetings and workshops with her at Khotso House, and later joined the Civic Movement of ACTSTOP participating as a volunteer, mobilizing residents and fighting against high rentals led by Cass Coovadia”. Her aunt would always talk about how white people do not care about our livelihoods and learnt a lot during that time.

“In 1993, I moved to Midrand Kanana (now Ward 80) and worked to establish ANC, ANCYL, ANCWL and SANCO, and later SACP structures. I was instrumental in the establishment of the community Self Defense Unit (SDU) lead by Member of Parliament Commander Wally Mogane Serote, Thabang Samson Phathakge Makwetla and MPL Jessie Duarte, as MEC of Safety and Security as deployed to Parliamentary Constituency Office (PCO) to the former Kyalami Region”.

She learnt the values of discipline, loyalty, and discipline

“I learnt to understand the values, principles, and organisational traditions and that participation during workshops must be non-negotiable. A member of the ANC Alliance must be disciplined and attend political programs and respect the leadership. Trust, loyalty, and honesty.”

“As members of the SDU, we collected money from the community and after 1994, we called the community and informed them of the weapons handover to the police with the guarantee, that no weapons will be subjected to forensic testing. We agreed that some members of the community would be deployed to SAPS and some would serve as police reservists”.

“Discipline is the backbone of every revolution, yet young people in the ANC are driven by money. Most are not interested in attending political, economic, and organisational culture workshops and training. This contributes to the failure to build COSAS and the Youth League and is an indictment to the current leadership”.

Her generational mission was to overcome apartheid

“The mission was to reject and overthrow the apartheid system of government, and to disrupt the system of suppressive laws and oppression of people`s rights. It was to boycott payments of municipal rent and to encourage communities not to recognize the local municipality councilors. The ‘Freedom now, Education later’, ‘Release Mande- la’, and ‘Right to Disrupt apartheid Bantu Education’ campaigns, helped to render the country ungovernable. The mission was also to render apartheid institutions ineffective and to advocate for strong sanctions against South Africa”.

She hopes young South Africans will obtain economic freedom “My aspiration of young South African is that they obtain economic education as a tool to unlock the chain of the economy – still dominated by whites. They must strive to ensure that other young people are accommodated in the economy of South Africa, SADC, and the African continent”.“As parents participating in the SGBs, we must shape the curriculum to enhance and accommodate our young people to understand and be competitive in the global economy.

It is linked to our local economic development. If the driving factors that determine the economic drivers are well placed, they can help conceptualize the economic recovery process. We could intensify political-economic workshops to demystify the concepts of the economy”.