LIFESTYLE | Top celebrities perform in Mamelodi as social justice organisation turns 5

The civil rights movement, Not In My Name International, celebrated its fifth year of existence at Mamelodi West Cricket Pitch on Saturday.

The movement aims to fight for social justice, uplift, empower and protect community members.

The celebration, attended by community members and the organisation’s representatives, saw South African celebrities such as Somizi, Emtee, Kota embassy, Stoan, Cici Worldwide, Laas D and Thabisile Zikhali sharing the stage.

Delivering his main address, Not In My Name International president Siyabulela Jentile described their five-year journey as a difficult and painful experience.

Jentile said some key members of the organisation had passed away.

“Along the way, we lost one of our comrades to a bullet. Lethabo Nkoana (25) was shot dead during a scuffle that erupted at a political gathering at the Temba stadium in Hammanskraal in November 2019,” he said.

He described Nkoana as an activist who was instrumental in the formation of the #NotInMyName Bafundi (educational) programme in Mamelodi.

Jentile said they later lost another member Mduduzi Ntsibande owing to illness. Ntsibande was leading the organisation’s scout programme that is operating under #NotInMyName Bafundi programme.

He added that some of their friends and colleagues had been injured during a protest outside the Zimbabwean Embassy in Arcadia at the hands of “trigger-happy SAPS members” in 2020.

Police shot at them with rubber bullets during the march aimed at calling an end to allegedly injustices and atrocities that are happening in Zimbabwe.

#NotInMyName saw it fit to intervene in the Zimbabwean matter because it is an international organisation, Jentile said.

Although the movement has gone through a difficult time, he said it succeeded in effectively executing its tasks, adding that “Not In My Name has been very hard at work in the past five years”.

More than 93 000 people have benefited from its food parcel donation programme, more than 28 water tanks had been donated to various rural areas in the country and more than 1.2m litres of clean drinking water have been distributed to the northern rural areas of Gauteng.

“We have attended hundreds of court cases in support of victims of gender-based violence,” Jentile said.

He said the next phase of their work would be guided by gender equality, social relief of the distressed, education and development.

“We will continue to commit ourselves to strengthen the foundation of South African democracy by assisting the citizens to understand the power that they possess through the Constitution.”

He said their mandate was inspired by four essential principles of social justice: human rights, access, participation and equity.

The general secretary of #NotInMyName, Themba Masango, said it was important for people to know that the organisation was not a political party.

“We are not canvassing for votes but we are helping our people out of love,” Masango said

He accused politicians of being dishonest.

“Politicians come and lie to us to get our votes and they forget about us after we have voted for them.”

He said, unlike political parties, #NotInMyName had a good track record of completing every task it had started.

“We do not make false promises.”

He said when they follow court cases, they follow them until the end, and when raped victims seek their intervention, they help them for free.

In relation to education and development, the movement said that it had been successfully registered as one of the official structures at the Tshwane University of Technology.

The process to register the movement as official structures at Unisa and the University of Johannesburg is underway, Jentile said.

“It is important to speedily finalise the registration processes at the two universities to assist students of those institutions of higher learning.”

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