Just Thinking

Mbekweni has a long history of involvement in the struggle for liberation in South Africa.  This picture of a march in support of the ANC was featured at the back of the leftist publication, New Era, in the Summer of 1990.

It is less than two weeks before the local government elections.  Political Parties and independent candidates are trying to convince people to vote for them.  There is also talk that this could be the last stand-alone local government elections as there could be an overhaul of the election system and timetable by 2014.  In future, we could be going to the polls to vote for the President, Premier and the Mayor on the same date. What is bothering me is the stance that some people have taken against voting.  These are people who feel that they have been disappointed after lofty promises were made when parties courted their votes and these were not fulfilled.  Others argue that they are being used as voting fodder by politicians who do not have the community’s interests at heart.  This feeling is summed up by the New Frank Talk editor Andile Mngxitama in one weekly newspaper as he laments the loss of democracy’s meaning because the people are called upon ev...

The 2009 Grade 12 results are out and they don’t look good. There has been a 2% decline in the national pass rate when compared to the previous year. The Western Cape has declined by 2.7%. If we believe what the Minister of Education is saying then we are not doing well in an important indicator of the quality of our education system. Our education system is therefore forty percent from being excellent.  The Minister has already identified what she thinks are contributing factors to the parlous state of our education. Backed by a report on the Implementation of the National Curriculum Statement she sees an urgent need to improve the quality of teaching in schools in order to achieve. Her initiative in this regard is the establishment of a Teacher Development Branch that will focus on “increasing the support to teachers in terms of strengthening teaching skills and content knowledge.” Reading through the Minister’s speech one get the sense that she views teachers as the weakest li...

The Times really followed this story in 1959. It is nice to see that they featured a picture of the whole family of mama Elizabeth Mafekeng (Rocky), who was the president of African Food and Canning Workers Union (ACFWU) and the deputy president of the ANC women's league. Apartheid authorities forced her to leave with only the baby, leaving the husband and other kids behind.  (Click on the picture).

The Bafana “gees” has really gripped South Africa. It is heartening to see the patriotism that is expressed through the many South African flags that adorn cars and houses. The green and gold shirts declare in no uncertain terms where the loyalty of the nation lay/lied. It does not matter that the quality of the tee-shirt varies from genuine to imitations of the fakes. My employer is responsible for the two that I have.  Employers are also into the Bafana spirit. Employees are getting time-off from work to watch the Bafana games. Some employers (like mine) bought t-shirts for their employees and some spent a lot of money on match tickets. The controversy on the amount that government departments have spent on match tickets is at this stage not dampening the spirit. I guess we will deal with it later.  The national broadcaster – the SABC, played its role in psyching up the nation and rallying it around Bafana Bafana. It has been exciting to wake up to presenters who are...

The Soccer confederation cup has come and gone South Africa was not disgraced on the field of play. We were pleasantly surprised by the performance of Bafana Bafana. They held their own against big names in international football. Off the field of play a lot of good things were said about our organization of the event. One of the major shortcomings related to the country’s transportation system. The FIFA President, Sepp Blatter gave us a seven and a half out of ten and transportation was one of the issues he raised as needing attention before the Soccer World Cup in 2010.  I think a major problem with our public transport system is that it is not client centered. This is a diagnosis that is based on my experience with taxis, trains the bus service.  There was once a bus service in Mbekweni as I was growing up but we later got to depend more on trains to move to other areas. I still can recall getting onto trains that were, sometimes, without windows in winter and very late....

My hometown is covered in the British media.  This article appeared in The Times (London)  10 November 1959.  Click on the article to make it bigger. 

This is my great grandmother (sitting down) Mamdlane, Tutuse, Nomdimba. She was wife to Charlie Zantsi (Mqwathi). Charlie’s father was Melthafa and one of my grandmothers (we don't have great aunts in my culture) tells me that we have family members in the Eastern Cape who took the name Melthafa as their surname.   Another of Melthafa's sons was Dyan.   Charlie and Dyani’s grandchildren and great grandchildren can be found mainly in the Western Cape townships of South Africa.   Charlie’s children were Toni, Komanisi, Nonkcazelo and Bhaqiwe. My grandfather Toni married Sisiki Khethelo, known in Mbekweni as Tyhopho.   

As the FIFA World Cup is about to kick off in Russia I am reminded of what I wrote before the 2010 one in South Africa. : I can still vividly remember the day FIFA decided to give Africa a chance to host its first soccer world cup. I wrote in this column of the excitement as I watched the event on TV in the town of Springs. I can also recall the disappointment I had when I went back to my suburb blaring the hooter and people behaved as if they don’t know what was going on. It brought to me, once more, how divided a nation we were. My excitement made it difficult for me to sit down at home. I could not understand the stoic posture of former President Mandela’s security guards when these news were announced. One of them was a son of Paarl whom I later asked about his state of mind at that moment. He told me that his work demand that he suppress his emotions and focus on the job as that moment could have been an opportunity for would-be assassins. A lot has happened and have b...

It is interesting to read how my hometown is covered in the British media.  I will continue to share articles like this one that appeared in The Times (London)  15 December 1959.  Click on the article to make it bigger.

We have all heard the saying that knowledge is power as it has been repeated a lot to the extent that it sounds more cliché.  One would expect that, by now, everyone jumps at the opportunity of gaining knowledge.  This is not always the case as some people use all excuses to stay away from acquiring knowledge and some take offense to suggestions that they need to learn more. One of these instances of taking offense to knowledge acquisition relates to a story about one particular church where disagreements had ensued about the handling of a matter on more than one occasion.  One person suggested to the church leadership that an authority on the subject be invited to shed some light with the expectation that this would be  viewed as an opportunity for everyone to learn and put the uncertainties to rest once and for all.  To this person's surprise and frustration, this was viewed as an insult to the leadership.  In their collective minds, it appeared as a...

I must confess that I was not excited when Pravin Gordhan revealed ways of fighting tender corruption.  In fact, I did not even pay attention to the TV news when this was shown.  This is because I have heard of initiatives to curb corruption but it somehow seems to rocket. What is worse is that one gets a feeling that culprits don’t pay for the wro ng they do.  They move on and get rewarded with more opportunities for corruption. There are examples of this lack of accountability.  We’ve heard for a while now that the Minister of Housing, Tokyo Sexwale, is busy demolishing RDP houses that were shoddily built.   This is a good project that assists in bringing the dignity of our people back because they should not continue to live in such houses under a democratically elected government.  Better built houses must be given to them.  What bothered me about this campaign is that I did not hear what will be happening to those contractors that f...

One of the government’s stated aims is to bring back and protect people’s dignity. This noble aim is sometimes defeated by the actions of civil servants. They sometimes treat people as if they are doing them a favour. What is worse is the impunity with which they do all of this. South Africans have got many stories to tell and I just want to focus on two of these relating to the public health system.  The first one is about a cousin of mine who went to the Phola Park clinic on the 13th March 2009. She went to the clinic because she was not feeling well as she had a fever, her head was aching, her eyes were watery and her nose was blocked. They ran tests and she was told to go wait for her turn to see the nurse.  When her turn came the nurse asked her what the problem was while she was looking at her folder. As she was getting into detail with what was wrong with her, the nurse asked her to open her mouth and she complied. She took one look at her from a distance and t...

A lot have been said about government’s lack of effective communication with the country’s citizens.  Some of the service delivery protests are blamed on lack of effective communication by the government to the public. You also listen to people on the street discussing government and its programmes and you realize that there is a serious need for government to communicate directly. This lack of effective communication is pervasive and it affects all levels of government.  The 2009 State of Local Government Report identified lack of communications as part of the huge challenges that are faced by municipalities.  The Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) was formed as a response to, amongt others, government's haphazard and ineffective way of communicating. In light of the above I find myself puzzled by the outcry against a government newspaper as envisaged by GCIS’ Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jimmy Manyi.   Some see this as wanting to...

One of the documents that I value is a testimonial letter by my school principal Mr  Makhosandile Ndzuzo , written  almost 26 years ago. I felt good after reading it, even though, I do not think I ever submitted it anywhere as I got a place at the University of Cape Town and a bursary through the Institute of Race Relations without applying for them. I kept it for all these years. It continues to give me confidence and I feel honored that he sees me in this way. Enkosi Gaba. We all need encouragement from time to time. A good word goes a long way.

my friends ask me what is the nature of our relationship and I never know how to respond How would you want to respond when your friends ask I want to say we are having an affair Then we are having an affair

I’m off now  She said and went for the door  Hoping he’ll stop her  Before moving out  Following her pride out  Whilst her love  Bound her to him.  Her display of pride Was a cry for help And a plea to him To give them a chance To continue being Without her Resorting to threats Of being off now. Where was he During her moment of torment Did he care or was he just Being a man Failing to decode the message and unmask the threat of being Off now as meaning Hold me and tell me not to go For you need me 

We are approaching the Easter weekend and people are going to be observing it in different ways. Christians will be    celebrating the death of Jesus Christ on Ester Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday.    The significance of this in the Christian faith is that it demonstrates the power of the belief in a risen Lord.    This is viewed as giving assurance and credility of salvation.   Someone reminded me on Facebook of Easter in Mbekweni especially when I was growing up.    It brought back memories of two events that dominated Easter in our township.    The first one was the church gatherings that brought visitors.    Easter meant that even those who have not been in church in a while went to church.    As this group we went to church in pursuant of different objectives.    Some saw the importance of the Easter weekend and remembered the sacrifice of God in redeeming mankind.  ...

I recently attended a funeral of an old classmate and cellmate in Mbekweni.     We were classmates in  Simon Hebe   High school  and we were cellmates in the Paarl Police station cells.    We found him in the cells with bandages and in pain from bullet wounds in 1985.    Two of those bullets are said to have been linked to his death a couple of weeks a go.    I got reminded of how one day tear-gas was shot into the cells and in the struggle to survive within those four walls forgot that there was a sickly person incarcerated with us.    We left him after after some time as we found him, with no proper medical care.    Here I was now at his funeral. Like many funerals in Mbekweni this was some kind of a re-union for the township’s children.    It brought those who are still in the township and those who have left it together.     We were all brought up to take funerals ser...

Tolerance is a very important concept. It is based on actually respecting what others hold dear. This is what I have learnt growing up within organizations that valued diversity in all its forms. Strategic mobilization in Mbekweni meant understanding that there are many people who go to church and thus a conscious attempt at all times to bring them into the Mass democratic movement fold and not alienate them. Mass meetings were called in a way that they did not clash with the church programs and notices were in fact sent to the churches notifying people of community programs. There was a clear understanding that the church is an important social structure in the community. I did not belong to any church and did not even believe in God but I always had respect for faith based organizations. Many things could be burned down in Mbekweni but I can’t recall ever hearing of a church being deliberately destroyed. A number of events and occasions could be disrupted but never ...

The social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter have taken the world by storm.  This has been helped by the fact that many cellular telephones can be used to access them and thus you do not really need a computer. I am on facebook but not yet on Twitter and it has allowed me to reconnect with many people I got acquainted to in the journey of my life.  I also get to read good articles that some of my facebook friends post like those of Drakenstein Municipal Manager Dr. Sidima Khabanyana.  I also use facebook to debate a lot of issues that would have not found space in other forums.  Given what is happening with the Congress of the People (COPE) today, the fact that it looks dead and buried with two Presidents fighting over what looks like carcass, I would like to trace my Facebook analysis and debate about COPE from a while back.   Just a day after the 2009 national elections, as the results were streaming through, I wrote on Facebook that ...

I wrote this in 2010 as I was bothered by what I observed then: The relationship between journalists and organizational spokespersons is a very interesting one. It is normally a love-hate relationship that regularly swings from one emotional spectrum to another. It is influenced by a number of things that include the personalities involved and the nature and interest that govern their respective jobs. It is true that  organizational communication like that of government and the media are two independent institutions but having one audience. The media has a huge following in the community because many people read newspapers, still more people listen to radio and watch Television. Both organizational spokespersons and journalists want the community to consume the information that they dish out. As it can be expected these messages can be conflicting at times. This relates to the differing mandates of these communicating institutions. Government communication is driven by the nee...