While the DStv Mzansi Viewers’ Choice Awards are all about the glitz and glam, the awards also seek to honour those who do good in society under the Enriching Lives category.
This year, it was 26-year-old Amantle Vikwane who bagged the award for the multiple uplifting projects that he has established from the age of 17 in North West.
While in grade 11 in Mojagedi Secondary School, Vikwane decided to give back to his rural community. It is riddled with various social ills like teenage pregnancy because, “there are zero opportunities for us here in Moumong. We literally have to stand up for ourselves or we are left to our demise,” he said.
Though his motivation is to change lives, it was his painful upbringing that sparked the initial motivation to do the work that he has achieved in the past nine years.
Things like running a cultural dance group to keep children off the streets, donating clothes and sanitary products to protect the dignity of others, collecting medication from the clinic for those in need, and contributing to the community’s food security. Vikwane also organises events to support victims of gender-based violence and teaches others about the LGBTQI+ community.
“My pain, my tears and my scars are the reasons that motivated me to do good to others. I didn’t want to see someone else go through the same route I went through. I did not enjoy my childhood at all,” he said.
This difficult part of his life journey, that he struggles to talk about, involved being raised by an emotionally absent mother and a stepfather. He dubbed his stepfather’s death as “the best day of my life, literally”.
“My mother worked as a domestic worker, which meant that we lived with my stepfather most of the time. But during that time, so much happened to me and my siblings including not getting food while he would eat among many other things I would rather not share,” he said.
Vikwane left home in his matric year and begged for food with the aim of completing his matric. He sold chicken feet at a local tavern and covered all his needs including this matric dance.
“All I ever wanted was my mother’s love or that validation, and that is what I want to give to the next person. Love, support and validation through my work,” he said.
As a poet, his first project naturally was an artistic one, the cultural dance group, which he dubbed Amantle Are Tiyang, which encourages people to be strong. The irony is that while he encouraged others, he was still knee-deep in his own problems.
“I wasn’t necessarily doing all this to forget my situation. I think I still need help to deal with my skeletons. But my work has helped me keep afloat. They gave me reason to live,” he said.
He then moved to collecting clothes and sanitary pads before initiating his first food garden at a creche.
The final-year Orbit College business studies student has big plans for the R100,000 that he bagged at the awards.
“A portion of the money will be used to open up an internet cafe that will not only sustain me but hopefully create jobs for some. Some will go towards my Mandela Day initiative of giving off sanitary towels to ensure that no girl misses school because they do not have them, and also establishing vegetable gardens in the 50 TVET colleges that we have here.
“Many college students drop out because they have no food. Our community is a poor one, coupled with the NSFAS challenges that some students still haven’t received their grants. I’d like to see students receive vegetables every Friday to ensure that they have something to eat. That would be a big dream come true.”
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