Boipelo Maetla

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Boipelo Maetla

Boipelo Maetla is a South African public speaker, educator, debater, author, free-lance columnist and all round creative. Recently, she came in the top three of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation speech contest which awarded her the privilege to share the stage with deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, struggle icon Ahmed Kathrada and Business Day editor, Songezo Zibi. She is a once-off contributor for internationally based women and girl child empowerment company, Global Girl Media and a former volunteer for the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA). Boipelo Maetla is a published author, having been the youngest of the writers featured in the short story anthology by South African publishing house Black Letter Media, titled My Holiday Shorts (myholidayshorts.com). With the belief that solidarity for global cohesion is a social responsibility, the 18-year-old is also an on-call poet for the NGO, Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (PSA), a platform that managed to her learn from and share dialogues and stages with Gauteng premier, David Makhura and Road and Transport minister Ismail Vadi amongst others. “I always advocate for the empowerment of the youth through literature. Literacy is the first form of liberation. I also believe that creativity exists in all forms and in every context and is an underrated agent of social change”- Boipelo. As a poet, Boipelo has graced various stages, including Solidarity for Women of Palestine, Sandton Poetry Show and Poets in Offices under the pseudonym, Ben Jackson.