Summary: Yonela Msongelwa promotes social cohesion through community engagement, peer education, mediation, and peace-building campaigns in South Africa. He is the Community Development Coordinator at Africa Unite, an organisation dedicated to promoting human rights. Msongelwa’s work is not without challenges: He and his colleagues have been misconstrued as supporters of illegal immigrants and threatened by criminals; in addition, funding for his organisation is limited. However, for Msongelwa, “The current world order leaves me with no option. It has to be changed.”

Profile: Yonela Msongelwa was born in the rural Eastern Cape in the Western Pondoland in Libode Ntlaza. Growing up, his family nurtured his activism. Raised in a traditional African society, Msongelwa gives credit to his father and paternal grandfather for his commitment to community development. His father was a former liberation war fighter and a trade unionist who taught Msongelwa the value of Pan-Africanism and solidarity: “Both of them,” says Msongelwa, “instilled in me the nature and the character of the South African struggle and the need to find ourselves counted and representing our communities and families.”

At only 13 years old, Msongelwa became the branch chairperson of the Young Communist League of South Africa; his community work and activism took off from there. Today, he works with a wide network of young people, seeking to achieve a united, prosperous, and peaceful Africa. As a result of his work, Msongelwa was elected a board member for the Youth4Parliament, a Zambian youth movement, and is part of several Southern African Community youth movements.

Noting increasing cases of crime and violence in informal communities and townships, Msongelwa has mobilised his peers to fight crime. In July 2022 he founded Qaphelani 43, an organisation that works in Khayelitsha, an impoverished community southeast of Cape Town, to bring about safety and development. Through this experience and others, Msongelwa nurtured a perspective that is meant to achieve the unity of African people.

A graduate of Africa Unite’s Human Rights for Social Cohesion training and a human rights peer educator, Msongelwa rose through the ranks to become the Community Development Coordinator. Today he is responsible for the recruitment and induction of young people as human rights peer educators as well as facilitating capacity-building opportunities and mentoring peer educators: “We have been able through the programme to establish other programmes within Africa Unite, inspired and created a space for youth to start various programmes and initiatives, and we have been able to successfully extend the social cohesion programme to two African countries—Zambia and Madagascar. We have been able to train more than 2000 youth and reached millions of young people through direct and indirect contact. We impacted many communities with various programmes, projects, and initiatives.”

Noting that young people in informal settlements are more exposed to crime, violence, and drugs, Msongelwa and his colleagues started a campaign to promote literacy among young people in informal settlements. Some of the results of the campaign include a community that built a library for itself and another community’s provision of assistance for local police. Every year, Msongelwa's organisation trains about 30 young people from across the African continent to educate them on human rights and service to their community. In 2022, his organisation intervened in the Robertson farming community where a group of Sotho farm workers and Zimbabweans fought for jobs. In addition, Africa Unite promotes youth participation in electoral democracy and takes measures to ensure transparency of electoral processes: “During the election period,” says Msongelwa, “our youth are part of the observer teams to ensure that elections are free, fair, and credible.”

Of course, there are challenges to this kind of activism. Finances are slim. Also, Msongelwa and his colleagues have been misconstrued as supporters of illegal migration. The political situation and the rise of right-wing extremist groups in South Africa has made the work of Africa Unite more difficult and risky. Working in communities where "some leaders have accepted bribes," Msongelwa and his colleagues are often threatened by criminal syndicates in order to silence them. Recently, a key witness in the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry—a judicial commission of inquiry into criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system—was assassinated, reportedly for his role in exposing corruption.

Despite the risks, Msongelwa defiantly perseveres: “I will never stop activism. It is my reality, and the current sociopolitical status leaves me with no choice but to continue working for my community.”