Step by step into future

752-KILOMETRE JOURNEY TO CAPE TOWN

- NAMHLA MONAKALI

The soles of his shoes tell the story better than words ever could. Four days, 323 kilometres, and countless blisters later, Zolani Zondani sits in George, roughly 430 kilometres still stretching ahead toward Cape Town like an endless ribbon of possibility and pain.

At 31, the Gqeberha-born community activist has already walked further than most people drive in a week. But this isn't about distance, it's about destinations of the heart, about proving to a generation of young South African men that when the world says “impossible”, you lace up your shoes and walk anyway.

When Zondani stepped out of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) on Monday 13 October, he carried more than a backpack. He carried the weight of unemployment statistics that hover above 30%, the silence of young men who've been taught that vulnerability equals weakness, and the dreams of township communities that have been waiting for someone to show them another way.