Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker wants to bring peacemakers to the Cape Flats

The southeaster was blowing furiously on Thursday afternoon, but it didn’t stop Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker and Cape Town mayor Dan Plato from planting a symbolic tree together on the violence-torn Cape Flats.

Whitaker is in SA to celebrate the work of his organisation, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI). The organisation is working with young people from the Cape Flats to develop a network of about 350 trained peacemakers, and impart peace-building skills to more than 1,000 schoolchildren. This while growing at least 60 grassroots businesses in the area over the next four years.

Called the Youth Peacemaker Network Program, the initiative is underpinned by Whitaker’s belief that “peace is contagious”.

Having met the young people who were chosen to be trained as trainers, he told those gathered in Bridgetown, Athlone, on Thursday that he had been blown away by their passion.

“I am so impressed and inspired by the young peacemakers being trained here on the Cape Flats,” he said. “I have no doubt that you have the capacity to spread hope and opportunity, and to give others something to aspire to.”

Whitaker’s organisation has also made inroads in Mexico, South Sudan, Uganda and the US, where his team has reached out to former child soldiers, refugees and others pushed to the margins.

“I am inspired by the people I have met along the way who have overcome challenges to become change makers. And here on the Cape Flats, I have been so impressed by how those being trained as peacemakers try to go deep into the core to find answers, and are taking a real stance to address conflict.”

He said they would need to remember that “things will be hard”, but that “you are a beacon in the dark for others”.

Sesethu Tyali, one of the trainees in the programme who lives in Khayelitsha, said, “When I was first introduced to this initiative, I had no idea what peace was. I thought peace simply meant a quiet place. But since then I have learnt that peace is a triangle — you can make peace, build peace and keep peace. It is contagious.”

Joseph Jacobs, who was chosen for the initiative earlier this year, said he had grown up in the violent community of Delft with his single grandmother. Over the years he had lost many friends through the violence of gangsterism.

Almost breaking down in his tears, he spoke of his journey thus far in the initiative.

“This is what my heart has been longing for,” he said.

He turned to Whitaker and said, “Thank you for choosing the Cape Flats.”

Plato told Whitaker, “I am honoured to be in the presence of a real hero. For you to come down to our level as citizens of Cape Town, is something for which I want to thank you on behalf of us all.”