Just Thinking

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.    They thus reserved Easter as one of the "big days" for going to church.   Som

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 serious.    Paying last respects to a person was and is still viewed as the least you can do for someone yo

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