Mzi Bhembe

Mzi Bhembe
Children’s Rights and Positive Parenting
What is your educational or experience background that equips you to add value to this SCA team?

I have been implementing projects in the government and the private sector for the last twenty-five year as a project and programme manager, architect, analyst, developer, change champion and facilitator/trainer.

This enables me to understand people’s needs at personal, business and community level, convert them into a workable solution, implement/deploy them, monitor and evaluate/report progress until hand over to the user community to take over ownership.

I hold a BSC degree in Computer Science and Mathematics with all major Project Management methodologies as qualifications and minimum 17 years’ experience in the field.


Why are you a Social Cohesion Advocate?

I am a social activist by nature, having been touched closely by the scourge of challenges that are currently making waves in the country ranging from racism, domestic and gender-based violence, social inequalities, etc with all the negative impact they have in our families and communities. I went on to develop a methodology on how to fight and prevent these challenges. Being a social advocate is one of the best methods to reach out to the families and communities and implement these remedial actions in line with government policies and efforts.

What change are you passionate about seeing come about?

Change should be affected from individuals, families, communities and then to the nation as well whole through awareness session, identifying and sharing the root causes, strengthening interpersonal relationships and interdependencies to uplift all levels of the social structure (individual, families, communities and the nation.)

What makes you feel uniquely South African?

I have seen all the focus areas of this season’s social cohesion in my whole life in the country, worked on them to develop a solution that can be shared and implemented effectively around the country.

What is your dream for South Africa by 2030?

Individuals in this country will use their natural qualities and skills to make productive families from both a sibling and parent point of view. Productive families will combine to make a socially and economically strength community. Such a community will make a socially and economically powerful nation both locally and internationally. As a result, there poverty level will be negligibly low, the crime rate will be low, individuals will empower individuals, families will empower families, communities to communities, subsequently the nation and the world outside the country will be a better place for all of us.

What do you believe South Africans need to do to make this dream a reality?

Stand up, no finger pointing, let’s all take ownership of the problems around us. Invite everybody to work towards a solution, collect ideas, set target dates, implement those ideas, measure effectiveness, keep the nation informed on progress, report challenges and rectify them with the rest of the nation.

What topics are you equipped and at ease talking about in the media?

Child’s rights, Positive parenting, Gender-Based Violence, Racism, Youth and Community Development.

Who are we as South Africans?

We are a nation whose identity is no longer based on racial, religious and cultural differences but rather more on common needs, goals, vision through equal sharing of resources as well as personal and community development for social and economic upliftment.

Where do we come from (as a nation)?

We come from a fragmented society where with wide social imbalances not working together as one nation but disparate ethnic groups. Our past was based on a skewed identity based on racial, color, cultural and religious differences. This in turn affected our working conditions, social structures, ethnic-based economic status, access to resources as well as standard of human settlements.

Where are we heading?

We are moving towards a direction where as a society we will get together to understand each other’s need, work together to meet those needs, invest on each other through sharing of skills to empower individuals, families and communities to make positives choices that will shift us from where we are to where we want to be

How do we wish to conduct ourselves in SA?

We need to work towards fixing social imbalances, amongst other things, by putting more energy on improving interpersonal relationships to fight racism, hate speech, GBV, etc.

How do we wish to conduct ourselves (and to be viewed) internationally?

South Africa is one of the rare countries where, as a Rainbow nation, no community or ethnic group is dominant over the other. South Africans should live in such a manner that they offer true lessons of social diversity and equality for the rest of the world to learn

How do we hold each other’s hands as we build and form a cohesive nation?

Identify interdependencies amongst ourselves and use them to synergize, understands each other’s need, participate effectively in families and communities to cover each other’s weaknesses and work towards a common goal as one unit, one nation.