Leizl’s dream is to create a children’s magazine to help make kids fall in love with reading at a young age. I liked her idea because I had always wanted to run a children’s writing competition where kids write their stories and we choose the ten best stories to edit and make into a nice kiddies’ book. If the magazine became a reality many kids would be challenged to write their own stories and have fun. What they’ll be unaware of is that they will also be learning while having fun. When learning is fun kids will look forward to the next lesson. Leizl works hard to get people to sponsor our kids’ magazine. We often meet once if not twice a week to discuss and meet potential sponsors who can help with funding. Often nothing comes of it because people and companies are more worried about making more money instead of how they can make their extra money useful to make this country a better place.
It’s hard to see a good thing even if it’s right in front of you. Liezl and I both want this magazine to happen and it breaks our hearts after all the effort and the love we’ve been giving to this baby, that not one organisation or person with enough financial power believes in us. R500 000 would enable us to give a thousand kids something new to read every month for the whole year and the magazine will be available free. Both Leizl and myself are dedicated to getting kids reading. We won’t make a cent out of this and just want children to be excited to read a magazine and learn from it and share their excitement and love for reading and look forward to the next issue. Our payment will be the smiles on their faces and the knowledge that we played our part. Is that too much to ask for? We are not out to enrich ourselves but to enrich the minds of our future leaders. If we want to live in a better South Africa, we should open up our hearts and start uplifting others.
All these encounters liberated me from the anxiety of wondering whether or not my book will ever be published. In a sense, this diary of encounters liberated me.
For South Africa to improve we need more people like Peter Walters, Busani Ngcaweni, Dean Lotter, Leizl Eykelhof, DJ Sbu, Mike and Desiree Gullan, Lisa Skinner, Deborah Strydom, Cynthia Robson and many other people who have helped me to help my kids. Please don’t say, He is only telling us about his friends which we know nothing about and don’t care about. If you could be so kind as to take the old books you no longer need, or buy stationery or a pair of school shoes for one needy kid out there, your name could make it to that list. To some people, less is more – they didn’t have to donate hundreds of thousands to make a difference. Do you think the kid who you bought their first pair of school shoes for will forget who you are?
Stop being greedy! When was the last time you gave to the needy? I might not have millions in my bank account but if you put a millionaire and Philani Dladla in the middle of Joburg city central and asked the kids who they’d like to spend a week with or who they’d want to be like when they grow up chances are that the kids will choose me. Kids don’t care about how much money or flashy things you have; they only care about how much you care about them. Kids don’t care about what you can give them in the future; they care about what you gave them in the past. They don’t care about what you can do for them, they care about what you already did for them. Everything you see out there started as a dream, so dream a better dream and work hard to make it a reality. Have dreams that will improve other people’s lives. Stop dreaming about money – too much money is not enough money, if you love money, you will be chasing paper until the day you die.
I like how simple and good our education system was when I was in primary school. When I was in Standard 3, my class teacher Mr Ngubane made everything easy to understand for us learners. When he defined the word history, he told us that history tells us about people, history tells us what people did at different times and in different places. You don’t need to be a politician or a war hero to make history. Many years from today, when people tell people about you, where you lived and what you did, history will be remembering you. Just like some people started successful businesses with less than R10, you can improve many people’s lives with what you have today. Please start with what you have today because if you wait until you have enough money, I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait forever.
I always hear people say I have got a lot of money but I have never heard anyone say, I have enough money. I often hear people talking about their success stories, but I never hear people say, I always wanted to be successful but first I had to wait to have enough money to make me the success story that I am today. Successful people made the most of what they had in order to create what they have today. DJ Sbu likes saying procrastination will slaughter your dreams. If you believe that you can do it, don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not good enough. I’m giving you my stamp of approval. Yes you can do it! History has shown us over and over that ordinary people are capable of achieving greatness.
You can decide to step out of the ordinary right now. Go and make things happen for a struggling child who needs financial assistance so she focuses on her studies without worrying. My dear reader, complaining won’t make things better, complaining won’t solve problems.
Let’s be a generation of Doers! Let us make things happen for our families, our communities, our country, this beautiful African continent and the whole world. Complaining is just a waste of our precious time. When you see something that makes you unhappy about living in your country, before you blame the government, first ask yourself what you as an individual can do to change it. Ask what needs to be done. How? Is there anything you can do to make things better? You should always find a solution to a problem instead of making silly comments and pointing fingers. How can you expect government to change something that you don’t know how you would change if you were in government?
Hope is good. I know how dangerous being hopeless is: hopelessness is a poison that kills young, beautiful, talented South Africans every day. Young brothers do crime and don’t care if they get killed or arrested because they don’t have any hope left. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for them because they believe that they were born to suffer.
A lot of creative, talented brothers are crammed into prisons around South Africa – Durban Westville, Sun City, to the C-max prison in Pretoria. Some are lying six feet under because they lost hope and resorted to desperate measures. Many of my beautiful sisters can be found in all corners of our big cities and small towns selling sex. See how dangerous hopelessness can be? I mean how can you earn a living out of sleeping with different men every day? Prostitution is a quick way of making money and to the grave for my sisters because many are HIV positive. Sex with a different man every hour of every day can only lead to disaster for that person. Our sisters are brave and being brave is good but our sisters are stupidly brave. They sleep with men whether he uses protection or not. It’s okay as long as he has money. If a man has a car, girls treat him like a king; they even kiss his behind.
The reality is that HIV/AIDS doesn’t care how fancy your car is, or how much money you have in the bank. At the end of the day, these brave sisters get all the money they want but also the bonus they didn’t need – HIV, or even worse, AIDS. Precious lives get wasted because of desperation. That’s why I say hopelessness is dangerous.
I don’t want to see any of the kids in my book club feeling hopeless. I want them to go to school and look forward to a better future. I want them to know that there are people out there who believe in them. If prisoners can get out of jail after so many years and govern a country, surely a kid who is growing up under extreme poverty in downtown Joburg can grow up to be a successful entrepreneur, astronaut, doctor or influential politician? They can be all that and more if only people believed in and invested in them. Nelson Mandela cared about our future leaders. When the first group of kids from my club graduate from college my greatest wish is that he will look down and smile.
Just like I refused to let my life be destroyed by drugs, I will also refuse to let being poor prevent me from living my dream. I often see families dining
together at fancy restaurants and I promise myself that someday my kids will have the financial power from their education to take their families to those same fancy restaurants. I live in a world where everything is possible.
I love everything inspirational – that’s why I read those sorts of books. I admire the courage of entrepreneurs like Doctor Richard Maponya, Sir Richard Branson, and guys like Jack Walsh, Alan Knott-Craig and the many others who have built empires from the ground up and led big companies for many years, growing them from strength to strength. I like peace, I like people who dream big, I like growth, I like nature, I like diversity, and most of all I like Africa. I’m proud to be a South African and I don’t want to even begin to imagine living in a South Africa where Nelson Mandela never existed. He made South Africa the land of opportunities it is today. Every time I read about other African countries in newspapers, all I see is sadness written on innocent people’s faces.
Many Africans don’t know the difference between a white man and a coloured man – for them they’re both the same. Some think all white men are English because they never grew up in a Rainbow Nation like ours. Their leaders were filled with hatred and anger. They never thought about the end results of their decisions and now thousands, if not millions, of innocent people are suffering today. They only took time to plan revenge. There are some African countries who’ve been at war from the day I was born on 27 February in 1989. I bet those countries wish they’d their own icon like Nelson Mandela whose name history will remember for hundreds of years to come.
I can’t just hate somebody because that somebody is from a different race, tribe or religion. I read the newspapers and see sad stories about Muslims killing Christians. Millions of Christian men, women and children have been bombed and shot just because of their religion. I have got only one God and he is the almighty Creator. If I have to be judged for my religion I would die standing up for what I believe in. I have never killed or hated any man, woman or a child because they belong to a different religion than mine and I’m going to keep it that way.
My Bible doesn’t teach me to hate, it teaches me to love because God is love. I love life, I love seeing people happy, I like seeing people making their dreams becoming a reality, not like those losers who keep complaining about how unfair life is. I like doers who make things happen no matter how hard life is. I like being around people whose dreams sometimes frighten them because they are bigger than your average dreams.
I don’t like being around the complainers who always make excuses for themselves and blame others for their misfortunes and failures. They see others making moves and working hard but choose to waste their time complaining about how hard and unfair life is. They forget that nobody has it easy and are always unhappy, envious under-achievers.
In townships you find bitter, lazy young people sitting indoors for the whole day eating, smoking and sleeping, just wasting food and stressing poor parents. If you suggest job hunting or starting a small business they say they won’t start a small business slaving for peanuts but are waiting for their turn to win the lottery. They gamble for years without any luck and never read the fine print that says winners know when to stop. Some can’t read and those that can don’t know what it means. I was reading a local book entitled African Cook Boy the other day and learned that real luck is what you make yourself by using your hands and your head.
I believe, the reason why our streets and our cities are filled with street kids is because kids’ minds are dirty. A kid can tell you that they have got rights but a kid won’t tell you that they have got responsibilities. Teen pregnancy is so high because fathers warn their daughters about the kind of boys they go out with, only to have their daughters act ‘smart’. When parents try to show teenage boys the right way to go in life, boys start complaining that parents want to control them or say they hate or abuse them. Then they leave home and decide to live on the streets and people call them homeless.
If you take the train off the track it is free, but where does it go? It’s derailed. If everybody was free to take or do whatever they want, anywhere, anytime, would you call that freedom or chaos? Child abuse is wrong and should never happen, but the youth should know the difference between discipline and abuse. You can’t just leave a comfortable home and go live on the streets and say your parents are abusing you because you want to make your own stupid rules. Kids need to know that parents want what’s best for them. As soon as they learn that, there will be fewer homeless people on the streets.
Drugs led me to good people. I’m not saying you should try them because I know they’ll kill you, turn you into a hobo or destroy your dreams. My life has been an adventure, but if you think drugs are going to make yours one too you’re mistaken. You’ll get lost in your own adventure and drugs will slaughter your dreams. What some might have survived for years can kill you on your first day for we aren’t all the same. Others have tried but they didn’t make it, and are resting six feet under. Some lucky ones swallowed their empty pride and went back to wherever they came from to make peace with the people they wronged or the parents they ran away from. Those who sleep on the pavement don’t often get sick, because there’s no space for sissy guys or girls out there and they have already developed thick skins, their bodies adapted a long time ago.
I can tell you one thing, everybody belongs somewhere. Everybody has a family despite what I have told you about my father’s cruel family and how they treated uMa and me. Especially for us black South Africans, both your mother and father can die and you might be left alone, but if you respect people and respect yourself you will always have a family, because the spirit of ubuntu never dies. Your neighbours, uncles, aunts and your grandparents can always give you a place to call home and people to call family. This is why our parents teach us to have respect. They tell us that any lady of your mum’s age is your mother and every man of your father’s age is your father.
My story does not end here. This is just the beginning. The Pavement Bookworm Foundation is now up and running, and people are donating books, dictionaries and other learner support material. I am invited to speak at important gatherings. My network of book clubs is expanding daily: all the hallmarks of progress and success.
I have a plan to manufacture Pavement Bookworm bookmarks that will be available from my website, my mobile bookshop and any other shop that cares about making a difference. My bookmarks will sell for R20 each and every bookmark sold will go toward supporting children. My aim is to make school exciting for my kids – I want them to look forward to going to school every day when the sun rises. I believe in myself and in the book readers who buy books from me. I know we will make this work.
I have a great plan to make my goals a reality. My plan is to set up a non-profit to raise funds to pay for the kids in my readers’ club to go to college after Grade 12. As long as I’m alive, I want to give kids reasons to look forward to going to school every day and to do well in their studies. A lot of kids don’t care about going to school. If you ask them why they don’t like school, they tell you that their sisters and brothers passed Grade 12 but are still not working and so for them going to school is just a waste of time. They didn’t even go to college. I want to change that. I want kids to do well at school because they hope to do well enough to go to university or college when they finish.
Some day soon, I will tell you all about it. One thing is for sure: I ain’t gonna die yet and drugs will never win against me. No circumstance, as traumatic as it can be, will break me: I am the Pavement Bookworm after all!
Acknowledgements
THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY PEOPLE to thank for the life and opportunities I have had in my nearly three decades in this world. If I listed all those who have touched my life, the ink would run dry before I could finish. This chronicle mentions many people who contributed to the making of Philani Dladla, the Pavement Bookworm.
For the purposes of this book project, I wish to thank the following people: Busani Ngcaweni for taki
ng the challenge of editing and producing this book when it all seemed a distant dream that one day I will have my name on the cover of a book. Thabiso Mahlape, thank you my sister for believing in me and associating your new publishing imprint, BlackBird Books, with this book. Hope we will publish and work together more!
Thank you Adelaide Steedly, ‘my mother from America’, for opening your home to me and investing many hours reading through and commenting on the manuscript. My brother’s keeper Leizel Mattison-Eykelhof, Dudu Mazibuko-Nchoba and Nozipho Mbanjwa, your support is much appreciated.
Desiree, Kathryn and the whole Gullan and Gullan family, much is said about you in this book. For now I say, salute!
DJ Sbu Leope, I run out of words of gratitude when I think of your contribution in my life. I dare say, I am alive today because of you.
Truth be told, I would be an unknown entity today had it not been for the film-maker who made a YouTube feature about me that went viral. Tebogo Malope, imisebenzi yakho iyabonakala!
My brother and role model, Phillip Ramphisa. Thank you for being there for me when most people turned a blind eye on me. Remember the worst days, when I was in hospital and your car got stolen while you were visiting me. You kept me going when I was stuck back home in KZN. Even when most people were too busy for me, you never were.
Peter Walters, my heavenly sent brother. Honestly I am out of words, P. Thank you for being a part of this adventure, tears are running down my face as I write this. Even though you are younger than me, you have been like a big brother to me since the day we met. I thank God for introducing me to you, bro. You have saved my life in many ways. Much love, I wish you and Sarah a happy and healthy marriage and many kids.
The Pavement Bookworm Page 10
