Prison journalism: My Challenges and Aspirations of a South African Citizen

Prison journalism: My Challenges and Aspirations of a South African CitizenWesley Leong was incarcerated at the age of 15 in 1996 at Pollsmoor Prison. He is currently part of Restore's research and reintegration project.

by Wesley Leong

08-11-2023 16:02

in Prison Journalism

Voting Image by Pexels

I've just registered to vote for next year's elections in 2024. I never thought I would ever want to make a change to the system, and now I find myself part of the system by having a criminal record that prevents me from bettering my life, even though I'm a South African citizen with work experience and traveling experience.

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Growing Disillusionment I never thought as a kid growing up that I would find myself in the situation where I'm an ex-convict and still locked up in the sense that I may not even be able to travel outside the country, restricted to grow freely yet still locked up. Every passing year that goes by, I watch my country and my community getting worse, and yet there are just more new buildings getting erected, new investors starting businesses, and more prisons getting built, with only a handful of people granted the chance to improve the quality of life.

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The funny thing is we seem to be growing in numbers, and it seems that the ghettos are the ones that seem to be growing, and crime seems to be on the increase, with no real social awareness of current affairs plaguing us as a developing nation. BRICS seems to be the biggest thing on the agenda at this current time as our elections seem to be just around the corner. At the end of the day, the big question is, do we have what it takes to make the necessary changes to actually transform from our current situations?

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The Importance of Information and Communication Socially, we have gone backward as a nation, with the lack of communication being a key factor in our stunted growth, with a large number of ghettos and rural areas being illiterate and uninformed about what is actually going on in the world. Nevertheless, our country and the only way, as I see it, is that we as a nation become more informed, and whichever political party makes use of non-profitable organizations and actually uses them as resources to inform those areas, communities, and those currently in the prison systems. In the end, I'm not even sure who to vote for!

ALSO READ: Prison journalism: Challenges In Pollsmoor Healthcare Facilities

DISCLAIMER: Submission published as received

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RESTORE is an NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa, providing inmates at Pollsmoor Prison with restorative justice opportunities.

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