My home, Ga-Radingwana is located at Sekhukhunel. It is one of the places where poverty is high and it lacks service delivery. What surprises me about my hood is that there is a huge dam, but we don’t have water running in our taps. We have land, but we don’t use it these days.

Ga-Radingwana is surrounded by mountains, it has a king and two chiefs. I think the first person who moved to this place, he or she wanted to hide from other people. That’s why even today it is still so hard for people to visit this place, not because it is dangerous, but because it is between mountains.

The place has twelve sections. People from those sections, back in 1986 when I wasn’t even born, fought for freedom. Others died, some got injured, and some houses were burned. They were fighting about politics. People from some sections were part of the ANC and the other sections were supporting AZAPO. This fight caused hatred between the villagers and even today the villagers don’t feel comfortable around each other.

What caused and is still causing havoc between the villagers is the service delivery. On the other side of Ga-Radingwana, there is a tarred road, taps are not dry and there is a clinic. Apollos work almost every day, unlike in the other sections where the villagers keep on fighting.
People from those other sections may have service delivery, but they are being bullied when they are at school because they attend high school in the other sections

People fight almost every day because we grew up with that hatred of our parents and the pain that our parents experienced in 1986 over the loss of our relatives and our burned homes. As a community we will never relax or feel safe in our homes because we fight everywhere (at school and when playing soccer or netball tournaments). We can go to other sections but that doesn’t mean we are welcome, because if you make one mistake you can lose a leg or an eye. People go around carrying dangerous weapons to protect themselves. No matter how old you are, even old men still go around with knives.

To be on the safe side in this place, you must make books your friend; that is going to save you. That’s why there are so many graduates and matriculates in Ga-Radingwana. It is because many people choose to befriend books rather than to make friends with people who will one day put them in danger. To be safe and be able to feel welcome around the villagers, first you must go to school to learn about good and bad. You must know about the law. That’s why in my community you will find that some of us are happy and always feel safe everywhere because we are close to people who know about the law. They can’t just do things that will at the end put them in jail.

In short I am trying to say that in my community these days people treat you the way you treat them. So after a few years we will all know about what is wrong and what is right. That means there will be no more fighting and there will be peace between the villagers.