The death of his two-year-old nephew sparked Nkosikhona Swaartbooi’s fight for safer communities on the Cape Flats.
It was a traumatic gut wrenching event that sparked in him a mission to change the story of the gruesome realities of life on the Cape Flats.
“My nephew, two-year-old baby, drowned and died in a manhole opposite my sister’s door,” he told The Debrief Network of a turning point in his life.
Nkosikhona recalls the tragedy vividly: “A child left the home just in a split of seconds to go and play in the streets. We could not find him. We found his body lying dead in that open manhole. A manhole that we had reported to the municipality to say, fix this because this is hazardous for this community. And we lost him.”
His trauma is not unique in an impoverished area of Cape Town, marred by the indignity of violence and the lack of basic services.
From this loss, Swaartbooi launched the Right to Play campaign to create safe spaces for children in poor and working-class communities.
“As a way of trying to find justice for my nephew, I started the Right to Play campaign because there are no safe play spaces for children who are black in particular and coloured and living in poor and working-class communities that happen to be the Cape Flats.”
He also co-founded the Role Models Academy on the Cape Flats, using soccer to help young men confront trauma and start difficult conversations.
“The intention of the team was actually to start a conversation between young men and boys to ensure that there’s a conversation about some of the traumas that we have and have not been able to address,” Nkosikhona detailed.
The persisting trauma of life on the Cape Flats has resulted in staggering cases of gender-based violence.
Nkosikhona says they hope having conversations with young boys and keeping them busy will help.
“I am a co-founder of the Role Models Academy, which is a soccer team that we started in response to the gender-based violence matters but also linked to Cape Town and South Africa being a hotspot for gendered crimes in the world.”
Their interventions are going a step further. He detailed how they want to bring in professional help to change the trajectory of young people living in the area.
“We’re trying to get psychology and social workers to come into this community to train young people to hold space for other young people.”
Aside from community initiatives, Nkosikhona says that he is looking to local government for
accountability and support.
“The City of Cape Town is about 84 billion rand budget. we want to look how much is being allocated for poor and working-class people, particularly for children,” he said.
What began as personal loss is now a broader mission to ensure young people are supported and not left to face trauma alone.
Monique Lewis
