As a country, we have seemingly given over custody of our youth to the forces of civil society. Those forces, as well-intentioned as many of them are, do not always operate with the well-being and care of these young people at the front of their minds. They do rely heavily on young people and the energy and passion and renewal they herald in order to push their particular agendas.… Read More Our Children’s Keepers
Even if we can’t agree on the lessons of COVID, I am sure we can all agree that the price associated with a crisis of that scale is far too high. Isn’t it worth our while, then, to make sure we never again have to pay it?… Read More Body Politics
And yet. Even in 2020, hope springs eternal in South Africa. Reconciliation Day acknowledges brutality and loss whilst celebrating how far we have come in a few generations. It is not a perfect peace but it is far closer to peace than the horrors of colonialism and Apartheid. The violence that turns a river red with blood will eventually abate as the water cleanses and soothes. Reconciliation of these two states of being is the South African lot. … Read More The Reckoning
I am dreading Election Day. It’s been two years since I first cast my vote as a bona fide citizen and the lustre has worn off. I am still in close touch with the crushing responsibility, but I am now also aware of the helplessness of making this single set of choices when there are… Read More The World’s Cruelest Country, Maybe
Our national fixation with the hero(ine), the big (wo)man around whom a narrative of resilience and hope can be built is never more obsessive than when it is regarding former president Nelson Mandela. He has always been more myth than man. When he disappeared from public sight in 1964, and the apartheid state proceeded with… Read More Let’s Cancel Mandela Day
In South Africa, the average post-rehabilitation life expectancy for someone who survives a traumatic spinal cord injury is 2 years. That means that, in this country, if you break your neck, and live with a severe disability as a result, chances are you will die within 2 years of your injury. The injury itself won’t… Read More What we owe each other, or a note to Premier Helen Zille
As Day Zero – the day when the taps in Cape Town will run dry – approaches at certain speed, I find myself increasingly worried and confused. Worried for obvious reasons. Confused and confounded by the clamour and chaos of our collective responses to this crisis. Cape Town is hardly the first city in the… Read More Troubled Water
Marikana was an echo of where we have come from but Life Esidimeni is a sign of where we’re going. That should scare us all, but not enough of us are paying attention because disabled people were the victims.
If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings. Arthur Quiller-Couch Ten years ago, I watched a documentary on the life of Nelson Mandela. Instead of… Read More Killing our darling: A meditation on Nelson Mandela’s Legacy
According to all manner of South African media, it was #BlackMonday yesterday. Although I did not wear black or pray for the lost lives of South African farmers, I could not escape the blackness of the day. It rolled over me as I scrolled through pictures of white people proudly displaying the old South African… Read More Just another tragic Monday
Rumbi Writes 
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