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A lot of you might be wondering, "What is this Native Yards Brand thing and where does it come from, what is its purpose... What do I stand to gain from it if I join in?"

To put your minds at ease, let me then tell the story of this brainchild called The Native Yards Brand...

A few years ago I had this urging desire to have something that we as the citizens/dwellers of the LaGuNya (Langa, Gugulethu and Nyanga) area may call our own, something that would best serve the needs of my people, be their voice where they saw themselves as voiceless. Something that could serve as their watchdog, where they could discuss issues relevant to their well-being and livelihood all the while they could still be entertained and feel at home in their places of residence... It hit me, there's only one form or medium that could best serve these needs and that was starting up a radio station. A community radio station to be specific, as this would be ours as a community and people of LaGuNya. By that a decision was made, a radio station it was then.
Within the time of my research on the relevance of a community radio station, the requirements to start a radio station and gunnering support from the masses in forming as well as building a formidable community radio station, I met up with 3 very wonderful people... Highly gifted individuals to be quite honest. They were Siviwe "Ta Siv" Minyi (@Siviwe_Minyi), Zandile Mazwayi (@ZandileZaza005) and Sonwabo Phillips (@SonwaboPhillips).
It was in the meetings held between myself, Zandile and Ta Siv that the name Native Yards Radio came about and we knew that with this name we had a winner. This was something our people could dearly relate to, because of its history.

The unfortunate part of it all is that we never got the chance to push our dream and initiative forward as much as we wanted to, this was due to restrictions placed on us being given a frequency. But we pushed and are still pushing, which means that we will get what we had promised our people. We will give them their own radio station.

We didn't let in though because of us not getting or being given a frequency... Native Yards Brand came about. This was the right hand of this body we were constructing. A body that will see to the upliftment of our area and South Africa at large, with our eyes set for the continent of Africa as a whole.

The purpose of Native Yards Brand was to form up an amalgamation of minds and mindsets, bring them together to form up an umbrella initiative that would see to the betterment of our area. These different forms I'm referring to are as follows:

1. Education,
2. Entrepreneurship,
3. Life Orientation workshops,
4. Concerntration on all sporting codes practised in our area,
5. Mentorship programs,
6. Motivation sessions,
7. Entertainment,
8. The progression of our area, in any form.

The main focus would be to champion these issues through the youth, whilst involving adults that are fully capable and are willing to come on board either through initiatives that they're linked with and are fully involved in, as well as through their wanting to come on board on the basis of bringing in their wisdom and tons of experience. We will also work with those who have acquired immense success in the abovementioned forms and were birthed, groomed and are products of the LaGuNya area.
We're blessed to have a lot of people that are quite successful in their fields of interest and expertise, people that are what we call a "Native Yards Brand" and would push forward our agenda of unearthing another breed of "Native Yards Brands".

All we needed and still need though, is the full on participation of those who reside in our beautiful area. Hence our plea for people to join in and participate in this great initiative. Native Yards Brand has a Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/NativeYardsBrand) and a twitter account (@NativeYardBrand) where we share our ideas, give out information and where we can converse if you have any additions or would like have a chat with us. You can also follow me on twitter @MasixoleNcusane and add your comments there as well.

Here's to us progressing ourselves...