Two inspiring young South Africans have been recognised for their community work by Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony in London.
24-year-old Siposetu Mbuli and Thamsanqa Hoza, who is 19, received the Queen’s Young Leaders Award which celebrates outstanding trailblazers from across the Commonwealth.
Transforming the lives of their communities and beyond, Commonwealth citizens received special Young Leaders Awards from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in London.
Mbuli, from Stellenbosch, has been recognized for her work in finding ways to tackle the stigma around albinism. She co-founded Love, This Skin two years ago and hopes the award will help her take her course to the next level.
“It was a big surprise and I’m so honoured and grateful. I think the prize really means that I get to connect and network with other people doing incredible work throughout the Commonwealth but also being able to be visible and elevate the condition to a bigger platform to talk about it, to educate.”
Hoza, from Welkom, has been awarded for helping young entrepreneurs. He leads by example after co-developing Hot Nozzle, a portable, battery-operated showerhead that saves electricity and water.
“It is a source of inspiration, not only for myself but also I think for other young people, young innovators who want to get into the scene and saying ‘if Thami can do it, if he can see a problem which he personally experienced and come up with a tangible solution that is recognised by Her Majesty the Queen, then mostly possibly, I’m faced with a lot of problems, I can be able to do the same.’ And so that is essentially what I think this award means for me.”
This is the fourth and final year of the Young Leaders’ Awards. Mbuli and Hoza join the 240 winners from 53 Commonwealth countries to have been recognized by the initiative. They faced fierce competition from thousands of other applicants working on projects including mental health, the environment and farming.
“I think that we may have some future Prime Ministers in there, I think the legacy could be enormous. What really strikes you about these young people are their values, they really genuinely have very strong values that are driving them forward in their work and if they’re the next generation who are going to be our future leaders. I’m really hoping they’re going to take those values as they move hopefully into positions of power and influence in the future,” says Chief Executive of Diamond Jubilee Trust Dr Astrid Bonfield.
The winners have had a two week visit to the UK which included leadership mentoring at Cambridge University. Organizers hope they will continue to build ties across the Commonwealth.
Mbuli and Hoza have already visited 10 Downing Street and taken part in master classes at the BBC and Facebook. The networking opportunities this award brings are aimed at inspiring young leaders like them to have even more impact, and drive change to make the world a better place.
