Help me take my Cape Flats Story to Oxford

My first urgent milestone is the £525 conference registration fee, due by 31 October 2026.

From the Cape Flats to Oxford: Help Carry My Story Forward

I was sixteen years old when I began writing letters to political prisoners on Robben Island.

I grew up in Heideveld on the Cape Flats during apartheid. I had no title, no influence and no way of knowing whether my letters would ever make a difference.

Almost forty years later, one of those men returned my original letters to me on Robben Island. He had kept them throughout his imprisonment.

Those letters, bearing the stamps of the prison censors, reminded me of something I had almost forgotten: we don't have to hold power to make a difference in someone's life.

That experience became the foundation of Leadership Before Power, the work I now take into Cape Town high schools.

I speak with young people about the choices they make when nobody is watching, the pressure to follow others, the courage to speak up and the responsi...