Dear Diketso Setho…

It’s been over a week already since we’ve laid you to your final resting place and I don’t know if I still have the right words to say to you or how to properly describe how your loss has not only affected me personally and the Lebone Rivoningo Developments organization as a whole. What I do know however is the right emotion and state of mind I am in at this time, which is one of bitter-sweet emotions and memories while reminiscing all your fruitful contributions to our lives and as a valuable part of our organization. 

What an amazing soul you were and I am thankful to God and your ancestors for borrowing us the time you spent with us. The five years you spent with us at Lebone were remarkable.

Diketso (actions) – what a powerful name to have and how befitting to you and your many actions and work that have truly embodied its meaning and relevance.

I have never interacted with an individual so passionate, dedicated and determined to succeed such as you. I loved how you engaged with everyone in the team, from the leadership structure to fellow mentors and mentees. Your passing has really shaken us apart, young man. You’ve touched so many lives at your tender age and have achieved incredible success that many of us will take almost a lifetime to even come close to. Many of the speakers at your funeral also reiterated this fact.

Your accolades, from being honoured as one of the Top 200 Young South Africans by Mail & Guardian in 2021, Top 15 young Geek of the year 2019, Raising Legends innovation recognition of 2021 amongst many others, boldly attest your incredible legacy that remains.

Your projects, work and media presence (as recollected on the references below) have put you on a deserving pedestal of glory and grace – Oh, what a young powerhouse and legend you were!

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sebenza-live/2020-11-09-young-entrepreneur-opens-online-mall/

https://www.builtinafrica.io/blog-post/diketso-setho-ghetto-heroes-tech-innovation

https://www.itweb.co.za/content/4r1ly7RoGbdMpmda

https://200youngsouthafricans.co.za/diketso-setho-24-2021/

Your name and its many associations to it, lives on!

I still take my hat off to you for teaching yourself how to code and then making it your mission, through your NPO Ghetto Heroes Tech Innovation to impart the skill to many youngsters around your hood through the various activations and interventions you undertook. You did not do this alone, you created GH Tech with other young passionate coders and as a result, shared that platform and space with many of them as well. You were a young futuristic leader, who was ahead of your time. I was still awaiting for many greater heights your spirit and determination were channeling you towards but I must commend you on how you ran your race, with distinction, under very limited time and resources. You somehow realized that your time with us was borrowed to an extent that you lived your life with impact and the need to enlarge your influence as immediate and as genuinely as you could.

You’ve inspired so many young people of the world through your story of determination and hope. I know that many have been inspired to action the change that they so desperately need in their lives by not waiting on anyone but themselves to initiate it. Ground breaker, innovator, powerhouse, a force to be reckoned with, a warrior of light and hope, an original Phara-Preneur – there are so many adjectives to describe you. I loved your heart, kindness and how a respectful young lad you were. You really stood out.

Thank you for adding significant value to our team through your ideas, suggestions and inputs each time. I appreciate you for seeing our work as something worthy of an international space by helping us set up our website, organizational email addresses and accounts, helping us with our branding through our various posters and initiatives – we’ve really lost a vital digital contributor to Lebone as a movement. Thank you for professionalizing us. Thank you for walking the talk and for spearheading the vision and mission to make young people of our townships greater citizens of the future. I remember how you also came up with the idea of making our sessions have free Wi-Fi access and how our mentees fell in love with that idea. For always being resourceful and handy at our monthly mentoring sessions, everything was well taken care of when you were there. For always getting to the Youth Centre on time even after having walked a significant distance from Mayibuye and for deciding to spend many of your weekends with us even when you had very pressing business-related meetings to attend to. For always prioritizing time with Lebone, I will forever thank you. Thank you for teaching me how to blog – I promise to get back to the game more often this year. Thanks again for letting us into your world and for sharing all that came with it, the good and bad, with us. For leaving behind such great energies all round and an incredible legacy!

You have made the community of Mayibuye proud by being its proud product and for putting the kasi lifestyle and way of doing life at the core of who you are. Through how you would dress, speak, conceptualize ideas and strategies, set up your business focal points i.e. GH Mall and so many other things around you. You were an authentic Phara-preneur! Your community is proud of the person you became.

I will try my best to look after your family, the best way I know how to. Thank you for being such a significant unifier of our team and for doing your best to unite our staff even when your health was compromised. I have since heard of your interventions and I appreciate them all. You were the one link that sewed the division and you did so without us having to intervene.

We will ensure that your legacy of innovation lives on at Lebone and I will work hard towards designing the idea surrounding that and executing it by this year end.  The Lebone team pulled together and supported each other in your send off and it was a beautiful experience for me – how everyone united, came through and had beautiful words and stories of recollection about you, had me moved. How each and everyone contributed with their time, hands, energies, finances and efforts was beyond incredible. The speeches, the programme and how it was driven, your blanket, your pictures, slideshow and how with ease everything else went, amid the trying circumstances. I know you witnessed each and everything that took place and everyone’s value-adding acts. I am humbled by this because it shows how human we are as an organization, that we don’t only serve and work together but do life well together as well. How we not only laugh and celebrate but also cry and comfort each other as a team. That to me is the heartbeat of what we do as Lebone and for it to be practiced and not only preached, speaks of the community we have created. It’s the bread and butter of our organization and your passing signified that in a big way.

You were such a breath of fresh air to the world, and my world. You were indeed the light and will continue to be, now more than ever. You had this zeal and aura about you that not only made you easy to engage with and liked but a well-rounded awesome young guy – a Ghetto Hero. We are one less male voice at Lebone without you.

As torn apart as myself and the team are, we’ve asked the powers that be to enable us the strength to release you and allow you to rest as we believe you’re in a much better place and space now. Devoid of harm, pain and discomfort. A place where there is eternal rest, freedom, bliss, health, wealth and where people like you belong. We are grateful to your family for allowing our team members an opportunity to see you and bid their individual, final goodbyes to you on the morning of your burial.

Siyabonga for ukugqamisa umsebenzi wethu (Thank you for highlighting & shining a spotlight on our work) and for adding your unique signature, look and feel and colour to it every time. We will miss you. I will miss you but thank you for everything you have done, both the small and big tasks, everything you did. May they all multiply to your many rewards where you currently are and for your family that’s still here with us.

In the words of Aaron Freeman through his ‘Eulogy from a Physicist’ revised extract – “Your energy is given off as heat with the warmth that flowed through you in life and is still here and still part of what we are. According to the many principles of physics, your energy has not died. Your energy, every vibration, every bit of heat, every wave particle that was you, remains in this world. You can only hope that your family and loved one’s will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they be comforted to know that your energy is still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a single bit of you is gone.”

Good night, young man.

You will forever be loved and missed.

Until we meet again on the other side….

Sunrise – 29th May 1997
Sunset – 08th May 2022
Laid to rest – 13th May 2022.

With love,

Sithenjwa Talent Mzili