Youngsters guided from despair to success by tutoring organisation in Langa

Bathi Lugwadu was top of his class at Isilimela Comprehensive School in Langa in 2021. At the age of 19, now in Grade 11, Lugwadu took the podium in Cape Town on 7 February as a prestigious French human rights prize was conferred on Just Grace, the Langa-based nonprofit tutoring organisation that has shaped his life.

Beaming, the pupil told the audience: “I’m very grateful to testify in front of you, ladies and gentlemen. I’m so grateful to be a participant at Just Grace, which helped me to be a top achiever. This is something that I’ve been wanting all my life and it finally happened. I thank everyone that is here, and also Just Grace.”

After speeches streamed from France, a small audience applauded as the French ambassador to South Africa, Aurélien Lechevallier, handed the prize to Just Grace’s business development officer, Lindiwe Kers.

Kers pointed out that Langa – one of South Africa’s oldest townships, and home to about 60,000 people – has an estimated youth unemployment rate of 53%, and only 41% of young people have matric certificates.

“Over the years, we have seen what education can do for young people, who would’ve otherwise become destitute simply because of their backgrounds,” she said. “We have seen young people lift themselves and their families out of poverty, and we are excited to play a role in this.”

After the speeches, Lugwadu opened up to DM168 about his extraordinary life, thwarted early by severe illness and domestic abuse – obstacles he overcame to become a top-performing pupil.

After living with his grandparents in Willowvale in the Amathole District of the Eastern Cape, Lugwadu moved to Langa to be with his parents when he was five years old.

“I was experiencing a lot of illness… In Cape Town, I went to the day hospital, after which I was transferred to the Red Cross [War Memorial Children’s] Hospital. I had a blood cancer… School progress was very difficult for me. But when I was 11, they told me the cancer cells were gone.

“But after I was cancer-free, I experienced abuse at home. My father was abusing my mother. My mother decided to move back to the Eastern Cape. But in that time after we left, my father hung himself at our home in Langa.

“I was 12 when my father died, and I went into a depression… Then I was helped by a programme… I learnt that I wanted to know myself. That I’m an innovative person.”

Lugwadu enrolled at Just Grace in 2021, attending its programmes based in six rooms and a container at Langa High School, three to four afternoons a week.

“I was told about Just Grace by my friends,” he said. “They were attending these coding classes there. So, I jumped for the opportunity… to be honest, I jump for all the opportunities I get.

“There’s coding, life skills, academic programmes and Bible study… Langa has different cultures and different beliefs. Some in their homes are believing in ancestors, some are believing in Jesus. So we are given a choice to attend or not.”

Lindiwe Kers in one of the Langa High School classrooms used by Just Grace to offer classes and tutorials to pupils in the Cape Town township. (Photo: David Harrison)