At first glance, it is easy to mistake Boitumelo Thage for a 12-year-old.
But this 25-year-old Tshwane resident plans to use her youthfulness to dislodge the DA in ward 98 in the City of Tshwane when the country goes to the polls on November 1.
“When I go around people mistaken me for a child. On social media they said I was being prepared to loot, some called me a future looter and said the ANC recruits them from crèche these days, but I did not respond because I believe my work speaks for itself.”
When Sunday Times Daily met with Thage during a door-to-door this week, she said her immediate task if she is elected will be to focus on youth unemployment, crime, skills development, fighting a war against substance abuse in her community and attending to ageing water infrastructure.
“There aren’t many service delivery issues in my community but youth unemployment is a huge issue, because you find that some are graduates who can’t find work and others have matriculated but cannot afford to further their education.”
Thage caught the attention of President Cyril Ramaphosa when she led the reading of a pledge made by ANC councillors to “do better” at the inaugural “roll call event” at the Alberton Civic Centre in Gauteng.
With the youth unemployment rate sitting at an all-time high of 68%, Thage says she hopes to change the status quo. “That is an issue that is very close to my heart. I genuinely want them to be empowered and to live better. I do not believe in grants and I would like to focus on youth unemployment. Those are the things I would be advocating for in and outside council.”
I think if young people do not take the baton now, then we have lost it. It is important that we take over the ANC, especially while these elderly people are still alive and able to guide us.
— Boitumelo Thage
Thage, who was born in Brits, North West, cut her political teeth at the age of 21 when she joined student politics, serving in the South African Students Congress (Sasco) and the ANC Youth League at Unisa.
“I did not have any interest in the SRC but because you are leading a student structure, you have a say on what happens within the SRC. I think I learnt governance from there. But I strongly believed in community politics from there more than student politics.”
At the age of 22, she joined ward 28 in Theresa Park, Pretoria North. “I was initially recruited by the EFF but I never joined. We had a debate about it (with comrades) and I told them I believe in the policies of the ANC and I think the EFF is just a photocopy of the ANC.”
On why young people should give the ANC another chance, Thage said: “I think if young people do not take the baton now, then we have lost it. It is important that we take over the ANC, especially while these elderly people are still alive and able to guide us.
“If we do not do it now, there will be no bridge between the young and the old. If the elders do not relinquish power, then we will have to take it by force because they also took it by force. In that way they will recognise that we are capable. Even here when the ward councillor subject came up, people said: ‘No she is too young’.”
Is she worried about the image of the ANC? “Not really,” she says.
“I hope as the young people work towards entering and infiltrating the space, we will make a difference and redirect the ANC. From what I see on the inside, the ANC is genuinely self-correcting. They have the step-aside rule and the renewal project of allowing young people and women to come.”
In a time when ward councillors are getting killed, Thage said she does not fear for her life. “I don’t think twice. I think I live in a safe ward; the community is not hostile.”
Thage, who is inspired by people such as former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said she receives mixed reactions when she is campaigning for the ANC. “When I meet communities, people tell me that they are happy to see a young person and that shocks me because I always expect the opposite reaction.”
Thage has penned and published a children’s book called My Voice Matters, which seeks to educate young people about gender based violence, activism and using your voice.
In 2017, she founded a non-profit organisation called A Second Chance, which focuses on assisting homeless people in Pretoria’s CBD.
