Growing up with families in what seemed to be two parallel worlds — Port Elizabeth’s Bethelsdorp and Lovemore Heights — Reyaaz Scharneck is acutely aware of the continuous after-effect of apartheid on SA’s non-white communities.

This is what propelled the 24-year-old to pursue political- and human rights-related studies and land himself on platforms such as the Community of Democracies in Poland, an intergovernmental body aimed at upholding democratic values and standards in various states...