Unemployment is one of the most pressing problems facing South Africa today, because unemployment often leads to other issues, including poverty and crime. People try for jobs and eventually give up when they are repeatedly turned down. It takes great perseverance not to give up when faced with continual rejection. Perseverance is also needed in many other areas of life - in studying, in sporting activities, in remaining HIV-negative and especially in our relationships with others. If one has goals and a hope for the future, one is more likely to persevere than if one does not feel there is anything to hope for or work towards.

Articles on this issue produced by Heartlines Features:

  • Things will come right if we work together as a nation and persevere, we don’t need unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky propaganda, writes Rev Dr Mvume Dandala, patron of HEARTLINES.
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  • Elana Meyer is one of the country’s finest athletes. As South Africa honours its women this month and citizens engage in a national conversation on positive values, she spoke to Karien Jonckeere about how she finally got to her dream Olympics.
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  • For SA cyclist Elsa Karsten things were going great. She had just won the SA championships in her age category and seemed destined for even greater things. She had already bagged a world masters title in 2003. Then, early last year everything came crashing down when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. A mastectomy followed and she is currently still under going treatment. But next week will see the deeply determined Karsten setting off on her first international tour since being diagnosed. By Karien Jonckeere.
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  • At the age of just 14 Kass Naidoo announced to her family she was going to become South Africa’s first female cricket commentator. She spoke to Karien Jonchkeere about her latest achievement.
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  • Persistence pays – on and off the court. Karien Jonckheere reports on South African tennis player Liezel Huber’s charity to help hurricane victims.
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  • How long should we persevere and what for? A range of pro- and anti-South African websites has surfaced on the world wide web. Bate Felix checked some of them out and found that the question behind this raging debate taking place on these sites is whether to persevere or not.
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  • Headstrong and persisent, and reaping the rewards. Zweli Manyathi First National Bank’s chief executive of branches shares with Stuart Graham an amazing tale of perseverance.
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  • Living the dream. From garage cleaner to owner, Angela Ndziba, a smart entrepreneur tells Stuart Graham how it all happened for her.
    Read Story

COMPETING ON PAPER GOT ELANA TO OLYMPICS.

Elana Meyer is one of the country’s finest athletes. As South Africa honours its women this month and citizens engage in a national conversation on positive values, she spoke to Karien Jonckeere about how she finally got to her dream Olympics.

By Karien Jonckeere.

Like many South Africans growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, Elana Meyer didn’t even dream she would make it to an Olympic Games.

But as the years passed, and the country edged towards democracy and a return to the international fold, a flicker of hope ignited in the long distance star. Finally in 1992, her patient persistence paid off - she became the first South African to win an Olympic medal in 32 years.

“Growing up, the thought of competing internationally was so far removed from us. Zola (Budd) and I had been big rivals from when we were 13 and so when she went to compete for Britain in 1984, that’s when it became more of a reality,” explained Meyer, who retired from the sport only last year.

“I actually ran a qualifying time for the 1984 Olympics so I was watching with big eyes, but I didn’t have a British grandfather like Zola did, so I knew it wasn’t going to happen like that for me.”

Instead the determined Meyer decided to shift her focus and although she couldn’t compete against international athletes in the flesh, she devised another method of doing so. 

“After those Olympics, my focus moved from trying to be the best in South Africa to competing against the international athletes on paper and trying to better their times,” she explained.

“Then in the early 90s the political situation started to change and that gave me a lot of hope that we could be accepted back into international athletics.”

Meyer said that the early 90s were “very up and down times”, with hope and uncertainty among athletes.

“The lead up to the 1992 Olympics was a bit of a rollercoaster ride as to whether we were being accepted back and could compete in Barcelona or not,” she explained. “It was very on and off. I would get faxes saying it might happen and then it was off again because the two athletics bodies hadn’t unified yet.

“So the moment I walked into the stadium for my first heat was when I believed it was actually real. I could believe it and it wasn’t a dream.

“I had waited for such a long time so when I walked into the stadium I was very emotional. I had missed a few good years of competing internationally but there were a lot of great athletes in South Africa who never got to compete. It’s almost difficult to describe.

“It was all very emotional, and not just my race and the medal but just being there. I had looked forward to it for so many years. It was very, very special.”

After the long wait, it was Meyer who claimed South Africa’s first Olympic medal in 32 years, finishing with silver in the 10,000m.

“Obviously to get the medal was the cherry on top. And the silver meant gold to me. There had been a lot of political pressure and for me the celebrations afterwards were just spontaneous. I was just so happy. I had trained so hard for so many years and it turned out to be a great thing for all South Africans. It was great for African women. Derartu Tulu (the Ethiopian who won the race) became the first black woman from Africa to win an Olympic gold medal.” – Heartlines Features