It’s been almost six years since students took to the streets to protest for access to free education in the Fees Must Fall movement yet students continue to face the same struggles. This time, students took to the streets to protest against the non-registration of students due to outstanding debt.
This prompted Lasizwe, Sibu Mabena and Ayanda "MVP" Mhlongo to take it upon themselves to lend a hand by urging the public to donate towards the registration fees of students. This is how the #R10GoesALongWay initiative started.
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“We are private citizens on a mission to assist students who can’t afford registration fees for higher learning institutions. Donate any amount to the following details please,” the poster of the initiative wrote.
In less than a week, the trio managed to raise their target goal of R1 Million. Corporate companies such as KFC, Pick n Pay and African Bank also donated large sums of money towards the cause.
An excited Lasizwe revealed that they had reached their goal and thanked everyone who donated.
“WE DID IT JOE! We raised R1 000 000.00 for students to get registered in Universities in 5 days!!! We literally did it! Thank you to every single one of you who contributed R10 to this initiative. WE REALLY DID THAT!! #R10GoesALongWay!,” he tweeted before sharing how deserving students could access the funds.
Speaking to TRUELOVE, Lasizwe said that the initiative was inspired by students who voiced out their problems and suggested crowdfunding as a means to raise money for their plight.
“I didn’t know how to [start] the conversation of giving away R10 000 to students so I did an Instagram Live where Sibu Mabena and Takkies joined. Sibu suggested that we add students to the live and we did. Then the students told us that their biggest problem is getting registered,” he began explaining.
“King Aya (Ayanda Mhlongo) joined and one student suggested crowdfunding and we all agreed,” he said.
Lasizwe also explained to us how the money that was raised would be allocated to students.
"We've never done fundraising before, so we partnered with FUNDI," he told us. "FUNDI is an organisation that facilitates conversations between students and universities; they have access to universities and can pay the funds directly to them. They have agreed to help us administer the funds and make sure that all the students that apply are correctly admitted and given an equal chance to enter. Everyone will be picked at random."
