So the Emalahleni Development Conference has passed and it has been a very emotional experience, partly because it was one of the greatest ideas I have ever concievd, and partly because I have never experienced so much disappointment from so many people in such a short space of time.
The idea was born sometime during my exam time, I got all excited bout it, but chose to draft a brief skeleton and shelve it lest I get distracted and forget about Finance 3 which has given me a whooping before.
After my exams I engaged a couple of individuals who I believd would make a substantial contribution to the event, some of them live in Johannesburg and others in Emalahleni, all of them very close to me, trusted confidants.
These people were game, all three of them thought the idea was a noble one and expressd their intrest in it.
The two difficult tasks in organizing the conference was the speakers and sponsorships, the speakers part was not all that difficult, the relationships I had with all the speakers or with people who knew the speakers were the catalyst in the process, and a special thanks to Carol Mkhize and Monde Ndlovu for setting us up with our guest speakers, speakers we would not have otherwise had.
Sponsorship was the biggest headache of them all. My initial hope for the finance side of things was that we could secure sponsorship from the black business community who I had hoped would back this event wholeheartedly. I avoided big corporates because of the hassle of red tape.
My approach to the businessmen would be 'let us develop the youth', and most of them liked the sound of the tune, I had secured a potential sponsor within two weeks and a cousin of mine who had expressed an intrest in sponsoring and a couple of other directions. I saw no reason for signing letters of intent because of the very close relationships I had with these people...a decision I would later deeply regret.
When it came to delivering on the promises both people backed out. Another had a genuine investment problem, and my one cousin stoppd answering my calls completely.
I tried other business people, and their declined responses ranged in their negativity. One man came out right and told me 'NO' another gave me a two week run around and finally said 'NO' and another kept on postponing, and postponing and postponing.
There was another deep blow to the event: MARKETING. This aspect I will not discuss at length, I will however let you know that concrete plans that were set up. Our only hindrance was the finances and a thousand postponements from our appointed marketing manager. I will however take full responsibility for that failure; my indecision to react swiftly when the clock was ticking was a lack of decisive leadership on my part.
With no sponsorship and no marketing to help in running this event I had a decision to make. Either cancel or postpone the event.
I personally think it would've bin criminal to postpone the event, solely because there is no perfect time or condition to begin a revolution, for an event of this magnitude and aim is similar in magnitude and thought as any revolution, whether it be a revolution of arms like the armed struggle, or a revolution of the mind like black consciousness...it is a revolution nonethless. I decided that it would be more of an evil to run the event and fail, than not run the event at all. From that point onwards ther were no two ways about it, we were going to hustle this event into being, and hustle we did.
My mother and family member’s decided to chip in, Mr. Jerry Makhudu also helped me out financially with a bit of marketing and in the band. I think he did so with realization of my desperation (a true blessing indeed), the Local Municipality gave us the hall free of charge, Peace Sibanyoni gave us free coverage of the event, Pearl and Twister from Prolific designs did a wonderful job on the designing and printing on the posters...we got going. Thabiso Mabogoane also helped us out with some of the large expenses.
On the day of the event as I hustled I was torn apart by the numbers...I couldn't believe that the amount of work put in would be from an average of 50ppl on all three sessions...but at that moment I had a choice to make... to be de-motivated by the many who had decided to stay at home, or conjure up the little strength for the few who had the determination and resilience to stay and be part of such an initiative.
I enjoyed myself though, I wouldn’t have spent my time doing anything else.
I have heard Dr. Naves speak before, obviously because of the tremendous amount of time I have spent with her, but Mr. Lot Ndlovu blew me away, the intellect the honesty and the effort put in his speech shows that he counted us among the cream of the countries youth, it was captivating indeed. What was even more fulfilling was that they are Witbank’s very own proud products.
Carol and Kabelo carried the baton wonderfully and didn’t disappoint, they upheld the standard as I knew they would. What I liked about their message was that it wasn’t theatrical but simply honest and testimonial, what more could one ask for.
If you ask me if the event was a failure or success I wouldn’t answer you, I don't know. I am the worst judge of such things. I think the best judge of this event will be the future...yep the future... the future events, future conferences...and the future generations. Another good judge would be those who were there. I am just looking forward to the next one.
As I said this generation of the youth of Emalahleni will influence the continent...I have no doubt about that.
