
Loyiso Dyongman is a journalist and author for Times Media (Pty) Ltd writing articles for both local and national media. Born in Grahamstown he now lives in the Enkanini Informal settlement with his mother and little sister. After studying at T.E.M Mrwetyana Senior Secondary School in town he passed his matric in 2003. After that, he had to take gap years due to lack of money for further studies. He started to study for his national diploma in journalism at Walter Sisulu University in East London until he graduated in 2012. Straight after that, he started working for Grocott’s Mail for almost seven months. Trying to meet different people and environments, Loyiso started working for Times Media (Pty) Ltd writing stories for local newspapers until 2015.
After his contract ended, he continued to work for Grocott’s Mail for 2 years until 2017. However, because of internal problems, Loyiso left Grocott’s Mail which resulted in him starting to freelance for various newspapers. In 2018 Loyiso joined the Ikamva Youth Programme working as an intern doing administration work. The following year, he went to Rhodes University Community Engagement also doing administration work for one year.
Shortly after, he started freelancing for Ground App News Agents up until this day and will continue to do so in the future. Because of the help of Awarenet’s director Kjetil Torp, Loyiso was able to work in the Open Labs at the Joza Youth Hub. “Before working in the Joza Youth Hub, I used to work in internet cafes, where I always had to pay a lot of money to get access to WiFi and Power” Loyiso says with a smile on his face. He clarifies that being able to work in the Joza Youth Hub made a big difference for him. Because he now has free access to the internet, he can save a lot more money.
Loyiso realized that the Joza Youth Hub is not only helping him but is also assisting other people, both kids and adults. “Free access to the internet and other services the Joza Youth Hub offers such as a printer for public access or free maths lessons and much more really makes a big difference to the local community” he says. He also adds that “The Youth Hub has changed many people’s lives and people even from far away come here because it really makes a difference in their everyday life”. If there wasn’t a place like this, he would have to pay a lot of money for transportation and WiFi and computer access in internet cafes. Ever since he started working in the Open Lab, he doesn’t have to pay for any of these things because the Youth Hub is walking distance away from his home.
Even Though there are often kids around in the Youth Hub who make a lot of noise sometimes, he is still able to work concentratedly without being bothered because the caretakers keep good control over the place he says. Loyiso wanted to stress that he really enjoys the work he is doing and is very grateful for having the opportunity to do what he likes best. This is why he is definitely going to continue working as a journalist in the future.