A learner from Dinwiddie High in Germiston was named the Gauteng winner in a national poetry campaign to oppose racism and xenophobia.
Nonhlanhla Mokoena beat 17 other finalists with her poem titled The meaning of acceptance.
The runners-up were Iketleng Mmako from Athlone Girls’ High and Desmond Pitso from Kgothalang Senior Secondary on the West Rand.
The secretariat for the National Forum Against Racism invited high school learners across the country to write poems about topics that included tolerance, diversity, “no to racism”, “we belong together”, standing up against xenophobia, and “arise South Africa arise”.
The secretariat is a division of the department of justice and constitutional development.
The Poetic Justice campaign was conceptualised last year as a way to stimulate debate among young people about tolerance – months ahead of the recent attacks on foreigners. The provincial winners will compete in a national final later in the year.
Phaphama Afrika Borwa Phaphama!
The ISM song…
by Iketleng Mmako
Chauvinism, sexism, fascism
Terrorism, racism,
anti-Semitism
This is the song of rebels
in the path to equilibrium
In the journey to
full-blown democracy
It is these policies that will
Boil and spoil the voices
that preach freedom.
The meaning of acceptance
by Nonhlanhla Mtshali-Mokoena
I ask not of your money
But for your helping hand
I ask not of your freedom
But for your caring love
I ask not of your opinion
But for your understanding
We are not of the same culture
We are not of the same home
We are not of the same colour
Although we are of the same God
Take me as I am
for I cannot change
Treat me not like an animal
for I am human too
Treat me with respect
for I will do the same
Take me as your brother
for you are mine too
I ask not of your money
But for your helping hand
I ask not of your freedom
But for your caring love
I ask not of your opinion
But for your understanding
Hear me when I say
Accept me as I am
Arise South Africa Arise
by Desmond Pitso
Let’s wipe prejudice of
political grudges –
Wipe the stain of history
with the cloth of unity
Arise South Africa Arise
by Willie Thulani Maseko
Yesterday I had a dream
of a broken heart
Because of racial prejudices
This heart had been broken,
broken into pieces like a
Bottle and it had been crying,
crying its tears fells into a river
It has been kicked like a ball
and it has been rolling,
rolling like a rolling stone
Extracts from the poems in the Poetic Justice competition