LIMPOPO – Young aspiring writer, Alpheus Chabalala (20) from Mokopane encourages his fellow peers to attend school and work hard in order to make something of themselves when they join the working environment.
Alpheus has written a book which he says is inspired by life in his community and immediate environment. A book he hopes will inspire the youth to work at harnessing their passions and talents so that they may reach their full potential after school.
He explained that his book is based around the incidents that occurred in Zebediela during a strike in 2015. The strike had broken out as a result of a massive civil war between two villages in Zebediela and due to the strike learners were forced to remain at home for over three months.
“I was one of those learners and during that time I felt like my life has stopped and there was no hope as we were not allowed to go to school and study. It was a scary situation because we did not know when or if school would resume, but what concerned me the most was how some of my peers were not bothered about the fact that we were not being schooled and that we were falling behind.”
With the book the youngster says he is hopes to make communities aware of the dangers of children missing school.
“Some of my peers indulged in unhealthy activities such as drugs and alcohol abuse, unsafe sexual intercourse as I guess boredom got the better of us as there is not much one can do in the rural areas. Depression was also a result for some of us who loved and enjoyed school as all we could do was sit at home with nothing to look forward to,” he added.
Alpheus has just finished writing his matric final exams and is confident of his results. “I want to study towards a qualification in Law so that I can acquire basic knowledge about laws and policies that people need to abide by as professionals,” he said.
His book titled Streets of Volop (name of a village in Zebediela) is set to be published soon.
