Mduduzi Mabena Steps Up to Create Safer Schools While Inspiring Peers to Overcome Their Odds

At just 14years old, Mduduzi Mabena is taking the lead to create safer schools while encouraging his peers that it is possible to rise above the challenges they face on... The post Mduduzi Mabena Steps Up to Create Safer Schools While Inspiring Peers to Overcome Their Odds appeared first on Good Things Guy.

Jun 1, 2026 - 16:15

Mduduzi Mabena Steps Up to Create Safer Schools While Inspiring Peers to Overcome Their Odds

At just 14years old, Mduduzi Mabena is taking the lead to create safer schools while encouraging his peers that it is possible to rise above the challenges they face on a daily.

Johannesburg, South Africa (01 June 2026) – “In life, you must know what you want. If you come from a bad background, it doesn’t mean your back must be in the ground. Your address doesn’t define the address you’ll have in life. The place you start from is not the pace you have to finish in.”

These are the impressive words spoken by 14-year-old Mduduzi Mabena in front of 162 learners and stakeholders at a recent school-safety initiative in Sandton, Johannesburg.

The ceremony celebrated Mabena’s appointment as a Junior Commissioner in a Safer Schools campaign – a youth leadership role focused on advocating for safer school environments.

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The campaign is a collaboration between the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), and the BrightSpark Foundation. Together, they aim to create safer learning spaces by addressing critical issues such as bullying, violence, substance abuse, intimidation, and gang activity within schools and their surrounding communities.

Held at Henley Business School Africa’s campus, the initiative provided vital context to the country’s latest statistics, which show that youth unemployment reached 60.9% in the first quarter of 2026, while millions of children continue to drop out of school before completing their formal education.

That is exactly where the Junior Commissioner programme comes in.

At the school level, the programme creates a structured platform through which learners can represent the concerns and lived experiences of their peers while working alongside adults to develop proactive safety solutions.

As the new Junior Commissioner, Mabena shone as a powerful young voice, speaking honestly about the realities of growing up in a Johannesburg township while offering encouraging words that it is entirely possible to overcome them.

“I know what it feels like. Some of you wake up before sunrise to walk 5km to school. Some of you do homework by candlelight because there is no electricity. And some of you are the first in the family to think about completing matric,” he said, addressing his peers, acknowledging that while there are issues in the system, refusing to give up is where breakthrough and success lie.

The Junior Commissioner’s programme identifies school children, many of whom are at risk themselves, and gives them leadership training as well as mentorship and guidance, turning them into ambassadors and advocates for safety in their communities.

The ‘Safer Schools’ campaign was launched in 2023, and the founder of BrightSpark Foundation, Welcome Witbooi, says it turns around the lives of promising young children who might have fallen through the cracks, while empowering them to again help others.

“A majority of these children were facing futures of dropping out of school, being arrested for drug dealing and likely ending up in jail. We catch them and show them a way of staying in school and helping them stay alive and get an education,” says Witbooi, himself a reformed former gangster who has stepped away from a life of crime, gained a tertiary education and now is trying to help others as well.

Jon Foster-Pedley, dean and director of Henley Business School, believes reaching young children early is vital to turning around South Africa’s youth unemployment statistics.

Mabena couldn’t agree more, further motivating his peers:

“To the learner who thinks nobody from my township makes it. I did. To the learner who thinks my parents didn’t go to school, so I won’t either, to the learner who thinks I missed one year, it’s over for me. I say, it’s not over until you decide it’s over.”