ANC's lack of compassion: apartheid lives on

Lenasia demolitions 'about corruption': The demolition of houses on land intended for government housing in Lenasia was part of the fight against corruption, Gauteng Housing MEC Ntombi Mekgwe says.

The so-called Killer mom should not be jailed

A woman from one of the poorest provinces of South Africa was condemned to 12 years in prison for murdering her 5 children. Venolia  Siwa said she stabbed four of the children – disabled 13-year-old Sizwe (Sizwe means a Nation), 10-year-old Lukanyo (his name means Light), Edward who was 5 and 4-year-old Naledi (Naledi means Star) with a knife. She said she drowned the youngest, Reatlegile (2). Reatlegile is a Tswana name which means We are Victors.

Such beautiful names. It almost makes you believe that these children were planned and conceived with love. It will just take their names for the gates of heaven to open for them. Just unbelievable that they perished at the hands of the woman who gave birth to them. She is now pregnant as she goes to jail. Does she not have control or a say over her reproductive health? What kind of demon possessed her to accomplish the mission to kill her own offspring?

My friend Margaret Mothibi, a journalist for the SABC in the Northern Cape, covered her story. Venolia is a member of the ZCC church. Margaret says community members described her as sweet, quite lady. Some even said she was a great mother. Like millions of South Africans she was unemployed. With five children and a sixth on the way? On top of that, she had problems with her partner. No support. 

Northern Cape province has a reputation of women (and men) who abuse alcohol even in their pregnancy. Venolia wasn't a drinker. She was just a woman from Magojaneng, who may have been suffering from Post Natal Depression. Dis-empowered like many South Africans; probably no education, no access to decent health care and most certainly submissive to her partner. I'm not in any way making excuses for her. But the conditions we live in put us in the situations we find ourselves in. Human soul can only take so much suffering. The climax of her suffering and frustrations ended with her children dead! Dead! The impatience and frustrations of the Marikana miners ended with more than 34 people dead. The inhuman living conditions of South African farm workers has led them to burn vineyards that generate millions for the country's economic. But nothing for them.

"Motherhood without assistance is hell" someone told me once. Margaret tells me that some women in court who didn't even know Venolia, wept with her or even for her. I too weep for her. I feel sorry for this woman. What kind of life will she lead? When she sobers up from the demon that drove her to kill. She will die. Her spirit will die and  follow her children.

This country gives me heartburn sometimes

It's travesty and a tragedy when a rhino or a white person suffers, but when it's black person suffering it's just another day at the office. This week it wasn't the Khayelitsha shack that were on fire. It was the luxurious holiday homes in St. Francis in the Eastern Cape. Thankfully no fatalities. 

But I'd like to add that I feel nothing for the owners of the homes that were razed to the ground by the fires. In my view, there was just too much air time given to this story. All they lost are pictures and insured appliances. 

There were hotels around St. Francis offering the so called victims of fire accommodation.

In a shack fire in Diepsloot or Khayelitsha it is the churches and schools that will offer soup and shelter. In these fires most of the black population, will have lost Identity Documents they use to get access to the social grants. All  their livelihoods are contained in shack. And those stories dwindle so fast in the media. Simply because the shack fires happen too often. Sometimes shack fires are just not headline stories at all if there is no one dead. 

Do you want me to talk about the plight of the farm workers? Should I remind you of the more than 34 lives it took before mine workers could earn a reasonable wage? Constant reminder that life black life is cheap. The gap between whites and black is just wide and getting wider. 

In 2012 we have a government that demolishes homes because they are built on illegal lad!? Really? Does it not take you back to forced removals of the apartheid government? The Gauteng Department of Housing defended the demolitions and said they were in line with the law. So we have a government that would rather be on the right side of the law that to make the welfare and interests of its citizens a priority. I am quite certain Nomvula Mokonyane could have found a way to bargain with the people pf Lenasia. The Gauteng Premier suffered at the hands of the apartheid government, but she ignores the cries and screams of the women and children of Lenasia.  

There's a disco light at the end of the tunnel

Hardness yields to softness…

Eventually, every time.

I try to remember this when I hit a place within myself that is rigid, tensed against life.

Trying to blast through does not work & can cause damage & pain.

Allowing myself to continually yield to the pull of that which moves my soul softens those places in myself & lets the life force flow more freely. 

My job has become like a cheating husband.

The one you chose, the one you love and have invested so much in.

But, because I love him (my job), I continue to be lifted and carried to an impossible place by my "grandmothers".

I think I am taken there so that I may see how that which appears static and set - might be freed by the magic of my imagination. 

Malawi police ordered to stop arresting homos

Malawi has dropped its humans rights abuse of persecuting homosexuals "for the time being". Apparently Malawi police have been ordered to stop arresting people in same sex relationships. Authorities say the suspension has been made to allow lawmakers time to hold further debates on the issue.

A recent report sent to the President Joyce Banda suggested that decriminalizing homosexuality could help the country's fight against HIV/AIDS. And that makes sense because men who have sex with men (not necessarily gay) are the ones at risk of contracting HIV. They eventually die of Aids because they pushed into wilderness by the persecution and the stigma around being and HIV positive. 

Like many African states, homosexuality is illegal in Malawi and is punishable with 14 years in prison if convicted. You will remember Malawi came under the world spotlight in 2009, when a gay couple was arrested after staging a public traditional engagement. The first of its kind. 

However they were released after western donors threatened to withdraw aid to the country.

Aluta Continua!!