When 22-year-old Peterson Sebati first picked up a shovel on a quiet Monday morning, he had no idea he was about to spark a movement.
What started as a one-man effort to clean a neglected park in Promosa, a township in Potchefstroom, has grown into a youth-led organisation breathing life back into public spaces, schools and communities across the North West.
Sebati is the founder of Retsa Tsela, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to cleaning, restoring and beautifying neglected areas. He says the idea came to him one afternoon while passing through Promosa Park, which had become an illegal dumping site.
“I remember seeing children playing among the rubbish, using pieces of waste for games,” Sebati recalled. “It broke my heart. I prayed and told myself that if I could just get the help, I would clean that park.”
Armed with only gloves, a rake and a wheelbarrow, he started alone. But as the day went on, volunteers began showing up, one after another until 15 people were working beside him.
Sebati said: “It was one of the most beautiful sights. People saw what we were doing and wanted to be part of it.”
We are making a way for future generations, where people said there is no hope, we want to show that change is possible.
— Peterson Sebati
That single clean-up effort turned into a chain reaction. Word spread and residents began calling Sebati and his small team to help clean other spaces from local parks and taxi ranks to schools and post offices.
Within weeks, the initiative evolved into Retsa Tsela, meaning “making a way”, a name that Sebati says represents hope and restoration.
“We are making a way for future generations, where people said there is no hope, we want to show that change is possible.”
The organisation now has seven permanent volunteers, most of them under 25. On public holidays, dozens more join in to help.
Together they have restored parks, cleared overgrown schoolyards and repainted public spaces often with little more than donated tools and buckets of paint.
One of their biggest challenges was cleaning a local high school.
“The place was completely overgrown,” Sebati said. “Bushes were so thick you could not even walk through. There were just four of us that day, but we worked from 8am to 3pm and did not stop until it looked like a school again.”
Their most rewarding project, he added, was restoring a primary school’s playground.
“After we finished, the children asked to play for just a few minutes. Hundreds of them rushed in with so much joy, it was one of the most emotional moments for us”, Sebati said.
The movement has not only transformed public spaces but also the lives of the volunteers themselves.
“One of the guys told me he would rather be cleaning with us than sitting in the community doing nothing. He said this project gives him peace and purpose,” said Sebati.
Community feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Residents now take more responsibility for keeping areas clean, and many have stopped using public parks as dumping sites.
Still, Sebati says, they face challenges — mainly a lack of equipment and funding.
“We need proper tools like bush cutters and safety gear. Sometimes we cannot do big jobs because we do not have the right equipment.”
Retsa Tsela relies on small community fundraisers and donations made through crowdfunding platform BackaBuddy.
Despite the challenges, Sebati’s faith in his team and his community remains unshaken.
“I have developed love for my community I never knew I had. I was away from Promosa for a while, but now I cannot imagine being anywhere else.”
His message to young South Africans who feel powerless is simple but profound: “There is hope. The hardest thing is starting but once you start, everything begins to change.”
Sebati dreams of expanding Retsa Tsela across the North West, and eventually the whole country, empowering young people to restore their own communities.
“We are not just cleaning parks, we are cleaning mindsets, showing people that they can take pride in where they live”.
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