South Africa: Township reports

South Africans living in the townships of Port Elizabeth are reporting for the BBC World Service on their lives and the issues that matter to them ahead of the country's most competitive election since the end of apartheid.

Lucky hopes education will transform his township

Thamsanqa 'Lucky' Gadi Siko is a 29-year-old student and entrepreneur from White Location. Named for the colour of the first housing built there, the area is part of New Brighton township. He is studying education at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

My passion is to make a difference in my neighbourhood. New Brighton has always been portrayed as the kind of place that has no hope, and there's a high rate of crime and alcoholism.

So I've become involved in setting up Hybrid, a development and training company working with high school students and adults. There are seven of us at Hybrid, a mixture of ANC and Cope (Congress of the People) supporters, some of us unemployed and some students.

I believe education is the key to helping people in our communities, it's the best way to move forward, so we're setting up a tutoring programme for school students.

We're organising special classes on Saturdays, in order for young people to improve their grades, and some of the education students from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University are going to be helping out on the teaching side of things.

If someone can finish high school, they can go in whatever direction they chose Township reports: Background Meet Township reporter Lenny

Ishmael Nyezwa is one of them.

"I think more could be done," he told me. "The government should put more resources into initiatives like this one. It's something that should be supported."

Another of the teachers, Hlumeka Matole, told me why she is getting involved: "There is a high rate of failure in our communities, we want to enhance standards to raise the pass rate."

Currently we are targeting six high schools in New Brighton, going around trying to get the kids to sign up. Today we are at Lwandlekazi High School.

If you look around here there are broken windows, very few desks - you get something like three learners sharing a single desk.

The lock on the door is not working, meaning that anyone who comes to the school can gain easy access.

People steal the chairs to use them in taverns - the places where people drink around here - or to use as firewood.

This school has performed badly, so they need our support.

It's frustrating because the people round here want their lives to improve, and for me education is the key in order to do that.

But to run the Hybrid programme costs money - we have to pay for the teachers' travel costs, and because we have no money ourselves, the only way we can run these extra classes is by charging the children.

So they do want to learn but many of them don't even have enough money to buy food. That's why it's great to see that the students were so interested today.

Talking the talk: Prospective teachers have to be convinced to get involved

"I have to get good results in my exams," one of the students told me. "Just sitting at home isn't going to help me but hopefully these classes will."

In terms of politics and the elections, I hope people listen to what the politicians are saying, and make their decision based on the current issues.

Most of the time they talk about what they did in the past, what they did to save us from the apartheid regime. They don't think about the future, meaning the youth.

But they don't think about our grandparents, either, or ask themselves when they retire, what kind of retirement they will have.

Even though I think there are lots of problems in our education system the interest the students have show in our Hybrid programme makes me feel positive about the future, especially the future of our communities in New Brighton.

It shows there are some people here who are planning to go forward with their lives using education as a tool of real hope for everyone.

If someone can finish high school, they can go in whatever direction they chose.

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