Khayakazi Tapile – The Visionary

At first glance Khayakazi Tapile, may look like the ordinary girl you encounter in everyday life, until she grasps your attention with a warm, wide welcoming smile, that assures you she is more than just a beautiful young lady, but carries within her an enormous loving heart. It is no wonder that she is fondly appreciated by those who know her, for the amazing spirit she carries within her.

Khayakazi Tapile is a 24-year-old young woman from East London in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. A law student who juggles around her academic endeavors with a mixture of social activities that serve to see that everyone around her, especially young disadvantaged kids, see social equality and equity through education. Not only is she a law student, she also serves as an Academic Officer for law Student Society (2019) at the Nelson Mandela University, she is also a social rights activist, Vice Chairperson and founder of The Rising Sun Foundation Board.

“I’m a relatively bubbly person, very kind hearted, generous, helpful, energetic and full of life. I love people and I believe that since as a country we are not doing very well to establish equality we should establish equity through education. What that means is that even though people do not come from similar backgrounds they should have access to the same facilities and opportunities.”

Khayakazi Tapile is a visionary, who beliefs in taking the right steps in implementing change and making a difference to the community, rather than wait on the ever-slow government to deliver services that alleviate many of the socio-economic challenges that our communities face. “Township and rural schools should have campuses which encourage children to go to school, play sport, better textbooks, laboratories, desks and chairs for everyone, etc… and give teachers pride to work there by having better looking staff rooms… It’s important to give our children the dignity to want to go to school and be driven. Better facilities encourage children to believe that it’s possible to go University and the right to dream instead of going to school with no dreams or purpose.”

Khayakazi is genuinely loving and caring. She easily portrays this through the various works she does for those less fortunate around her. It started from a very young age, where by she always noticed the little indifferences from kids who came from homes with working parents and those who came from non-working parents. “I grew up very critical as to why we do not have the same social standards as people. I was very critical as to why children my age do not have the same vision that I have, where a 16-year old girl like me wouldn’t believe that she can go to varsity, she doesn’t have the same social responsibility that I have, she’s got more responsibilities than I have, maybe she doesn’t have parents because of the HIV epidemic. So, I thought, what do you do with that 16-year-old vulnerable girl. How do you keep her in school, how do you keep her motivated to be in school and things like that?”

Khayakazi realized that there’s an indifference amongst kids who were fortunate enough to attend Model C schools – a defunct of semi-private government schools, and those from poorly managed government schools. This drove her to the initiative of starting a foundation, along with co-founder Lumka Cubeni, that would be aimed at counteracting some of the many challenges faced by disadvantaged kids. “Once I and Lumka started to go around communities here in Port Elizabeth, we discovered that these kids are not dumb, they’re just demotivated. They’re not certain as to where they’re going in life, they’re just drifting with no purpose. So, the best thing we can do is educate a person, so they can have purpose. Education does not necessarily mean well for us, it entails telling them that, you are going to university, there are funds for that, all you guys need to do is study hard and pass.”

After realizing all these social-ills, Khayakazi Tapile and her co-founder Limka Cubeni, established ‘The Rising Sun Foundation’. The foundation was established October 2016 and is a non-profitable organization, aimed at empowering the youth and bridging the gap between model C and township schools by helping disadvantaged kids on the many challenges they face. Some of the many services they provide is tutors to help these kids with their academics as well as unearthing all challenges that may be causing these kids not attend school. They also provide sanitary pads, for young girls who can’t afford sanitary pads, who have found themselves missing out on school, because of their menstrual cycles. They have worked with many schools around P.E and continue to do their work with various orphanages as well.

With her sense of optimism, Khayazakazi Tapile, co-founders and all members of the foundation have managed to spread their organization and have opened branches In Johannesburg, East London and Port Elizabeth.

Khayakazi Tapile is a visionary, who strongly believes that it is up to the youth to make a change. “Instead of constantly being told by adults that education is important, its up to us to fix our own society, even though we’re not the ones who contributed to the breakdown of our societies.