What Soweto teaches us

I was humbled to be in one of South Africa's proudest and greatest communities in June. A community that has raised, lost and buried great South Africans. A Community that has made a proud contribution to a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it!

Because of the people and potential of such communities COPE says: Let's go back to basics! Let's go back to our communities! Let's go back to our roots, to our values and to our principles. But above all, let's go back to our people!

Thirty four years ago in that community young South Africans demanded to be heard and showed they can bring about change. And today, young South Africans like us have a responsibility towards our communities, to our people, to ensure that the riches of this new South Africa is shared by all who live in it. We have an obligation to ensure that this great nation belongs to all who live in it, this new South Africa built on the blood of the children, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers of Soweto.

Young professionals in this new South Africa are given new opportunities to prosper, new potential to reach incredible heights and to bring about real change. We have a duty, as young South Africans, to get involved not only in the improvement of the conditions of the youth, but also in the improvement of our people.

When we met in Bloemfontein in 2008 we said let us resurrect Kliptown! We came together – black and white – and said let us bring back the Congress of the People! Let us demand that South Africa belongs to all who live in it! Fifty five years after we are yet to see a South Africa that belongs to all; a South Africa in which we all share in its riches. In 1977 Desmond Mpilo Tutu, someone familiar with the needs of this community, asked after the death of Stephen Bantu Biko: "Oh God, how long can we go on?" How long can we go on watching politicians live off the fat of the land while our communities suffer? While they turn a blind eye to our communities, where many of them come from?

How long can we, as young South Africans, go on accepting the dismal state of our families and our local communities? That is why COPE says "let's go back to our roots, let's go back to those values we as South Africans hold dear". Let us provide a space What Soweto Teaches Us for young South Africans to contribute to shaping the future of their families, their children, their communities and their own futures.

Let us invite all South Africans and create a space in which you can contribute your skills, your experiences, your potential, and let us come together as one and build a nation that we can all be proud of.

Thina sonke masakhane!

Let us go back to basics! To umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. To the ideals of Oliver Tambo and Nkosi Luthuli. This is why Ntate Lekota in 2008 said no to corruption! No to jobs for pals! No to wasting the people's money! No to taking power from the people! No to values that are not in the spirit of ubuntu!

This is why Ntate Lekota said no to these values, this kind of behaviour, not only in government, but in our organisation. This is why Ntate Lekota said let us build an alternative that distinguishes itself from those who treasure these activities.

Young South Africans, rise up like the children of '76, rise up and take your future in your own hands! Young South Africans, let us demand a new agenda, an agenda that we shape, an agenda of real change and an agenda of real hope not only for ourselves, but for our parents and future generations!

Written by Marius Redelinghuys, a member of the Congress of the People in Centurion and Tshwane Head of Communications and spokesperson, in his personal capacity.