Siza was born and raised in the township of Soweto – in his own words, he was a very shy youth, a “good kid” who was very clever at school. Both of these sentiments were echoed by his family on a recent home visit by Hlumelelisa. During his years in high school, He began hanging out with friends who were a bad influence and he spent his time just trying to fit in. Siza was raised in a loving yet firm Muslim family – they simply wouldn’t give him money to support the activities that would allow him to fit into his new crowd: money for drinking, cigarettes and to maintain a girlfriend. During grade 11, he left school and took to crime to finance this lifestyle.
Photos of Siza as a teenager in school and with his family in Soweto.
On 23 December 2010, Siza was released on parole from the Leeuwkop Correctional Facility after seven years retention from his very first arrest. Sitting down with Siza, he is quick to indicate that his incarceration was the result of his own actions – he was raised by a loving, caring family who has, it must be said, recently welcomed him home with open arms. He simply fell into a trap that was very common in his community – low self-esteem as a teenager, coupled with a desire to fit in and a lack of funds that led him to crime.
Siza is a graduate of Hlumelelisa’s horticulture training programme conducted at Leeuwkop during 2009. As a student, he was quiet but showed a keen interest in learning and his steady progress was noted by Hlumelelisa’s training facilitators and staff. Siza was asked to return to Hlumeelisa’s training facility as a monitor for the class of 2010 – he worked at maintaining the nursery and assisted with training courses.
Siza has solid plans for his future – he plans to open a landscaping business of his own in two years time and wants to work as a counselor in schools to help kids who grew up like he did. He is drawn to work in the field of horticulture as it is a field that not many people in his community are working in and he sees lots of opportunities, not to mention the fact that he is “just plain good at it”. (to be continued)
Siza in Leeuwkop Correctional Facility and with his family and Hlumelelisa Project Manager Paul Bruns on Family Day 2009.
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