Tsundzuka Yena.

Loko bubutsa ri gonyisa matimba
Loko xihuhuri xi ntlhantlha hinkwaswo
Loko mahlo ya ku ya khanisa mihloti
I nkarhi, tsundzuka yena.

Loko switsundzuxo swa ku swi ri mungwini
Loko miehleketo ya ku yi hlulekile
Loko swa ku swi gedzisiwa-gedzisiwa
I nkarhi, tsundzuka yena.

Loko vanghana va ku papalata
Loko gome ri ringela mbilwini ya ku
Loko swivavi swi tshovelela swirho swa ku
I nkarhi, tsundzuka yena.

Loko u famba ni vunonohwi gondzweni
Loko swindzingwa-ndzingwana swi hlometela
Loko vukhongeri ni ripfalo swi leva ku mbundzuka
I nkarhi, tsundzuka yena.

Masana, mapapa, vuphumeri kumbe ku vonakala,
Mahlamba-ndlopfu, kumbe vungumeri bya munyama
Hambi u dya, swe moo! Vuxaniseki ku ri hava
Na kona, tsundzuka yena.

Hi P.E. Ntsanwisi

Not emotional but thoughtful

Don’t tell me not to be emotional
When I decide to speak about issues that concern my well being.
You see “me, myself and I”
Comprise of the following : spirit, flesh, mind and emotion.
At any time where I have to forget one part of me.
Then I would be incomplete.

That will mean I am not completely thinking for myself.
It will mean I am neglecting an integral part of me.
Part of me that might need attention immediately after making a decision
Or later when the need arises.

I am a unit
No one part of me goes on leave while the rest works.
Not one part of me goes jollying while the rest sleeps.
Not one part of me is on the other side of town while the rest is here with you.

So, next time you think of telling me not to be emotional
Please make sure to engage the mental you and see if that makes sense.

Ooh! In no way is this an emotional note but a thoughtful note.

Unqualified Advisor

Check this, today is the first day of school.
Not that you don’t know because you have been posting pictures of your little one going to school
and possibly commenting on friends posts since yesterday.

You see this day means a lot,
it means more than just the pictures on Facebook, Instagram and the trends on Twitter.
This is the beginning of responsibility, this means the end of late nights at
the bar between Monday to Thursday night.
This means throw back is no longer just about pictures.
From today, throw back means you remembering all that you were taught at primary school.

You see from today, your child will want you at home.
this means your child will test your knowledge,
This means it is time for you to go back to basics.
It is your time to relearn everything thought you knew.
It is time for you to erase the short message language
and learn how to write proper and things which are grammatically correct.
You have to be able to explain why “one plus one is equal to two”.

I do not mean to scare you,
just saying that the responsibility does not end as soon as you drop your child at school
or only month end when you pay the school fees.
You are expected to play an active role in your child’s schooling life unconditionally.

I trust you will enjoy this just as much as your offspring will,
because this is the bases on which they will always refer to when they think about learning.

#UnqualifiedAdvisor

History Is The Best Reference

With the eye of the mind I take you back to those times that compare well with the current. There are questions and everyone claims to have the correct answers. We were always told that the past is a very good reference and should always be used as guidance whenever we are uncertain of our next action. I agree, times have changed but the past has always set precedence for the future. It is the best teacher.

Josia Tshangana Gumede was ousted as president after serving three years due to differences he had with other leaders and a new leader was elected to the helm. This man might have been the people’s choice and at some point had relevance but while in power brought confusion or misled the ANC. Maybe everyone agreed or some of the organisations members were in agreement but it appears those who had influence agreed that the solution was to put the organisation first and individuals who seemed to destabilise the existence of the organisation were stripped of their powers and redeployed to other spheres of the organisation.

So I ask myself what it is that makes president Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma different and above the organisation’s existence. Overlooking the country’s interest and rule of law. I believe in any organisation there are expectations and rules that any person elected as a member should adhere to. If individuals undermine and bring about division within an organisation they should be disciplined as per the organisation’s code of conduct. Upholding these rules sets an example to all members and emphasises that no one is above the organisation and that the rules apply to all members equally.

The current African National Congress has proved that certain individuals are more equal than others. There are individuals within the organisation that enjoy benefits that not even the actual organisation would have. There is a lot of cover up and protection that the current leadership and members are giving an individual. In no way does this affect the existence of the organisation but it sure does affect people’s confidence in the organisation. This also dampens people’s aspiration and goals, people who still fight for their beloved country on a daily basis.

I hope the words “the people shall govern” will one day carry weight. I trust our legacy as a collective will be more important than individuals or a collective few.

16 JUNE – I See you in School Uniform

16 June 2014, I see you in school uniform,
Is this all with good intentions
Or are you just caught up and trying to fit in.
Trying not to be seen as a misfit
A chance to flaunt which model-C school you went to.
Most of all are you doing it to honor some of the fallen heroes
Those who fought against apartheid domination through education.

Today we proudly wear school uniform,
Proudly carry cooler-boxes filled to the brim.
Holding expensive imported spirit drinks.
Come tomorrow, all of this will be forgotten.
A splitting headache will cut my sleep short.

No one can enforce or dictate how we should celebrate the past and its achievements.
But in honor of those we mention in this celebration.
And most whose names we have come to forget
The countless activists whose names are never mentioned.
I hope we could actively take the fight forward
Unlike use this day as another excuse for social meetings.
Just another holiday in a year,
Just another opportunity to indulge in alcohol until the early hours.

June 16, Next time I see you in school uniform
We will proudly celebrate the stolen lives
Some of us will have completed our matric
Having completed a couple of short courses
Most will be graduates from universities all around the world
This would prove the uprising was not in vain.
But that the youth of 1976 fought for better education
Fought for us to attend any school
Fought for us to be taught in any language
Fought for us to be progressive

June 16, Next time I see you in school uniform
Let it be remembered that it was all for the right to be educated
The right to be taught with pride
The right to free and competitive education

Tribal War – K’Naan

I drink poison
Then I vomit diamonds
I gave you mandela, black dalai lamas
I gave you music
You enthused in my kindness
So how dare you reduce me to donny imus
Timeless in case we never been acquainted
Flyness who made it
It gets duplicated
Mindless violence
Well let me try to paint it
Here’s the 5 steps
In hopes to explain it

One!
Its me and my nation against the world

Two!
Then me and my clan against the nation

Three!
Then me and my fam’ against the clan

Four!
Then me and my brother with no hesitation
Go against the family until they cave in

Five!
Now who’s left in this deadly equation?
That’s right, it’s me against my brother
Then we point a kalashnikov
And kill one another.

From Distant Relatives by Nas & Damian Marley

Copy and Paste Nation

With my layman understanding of labour and how it affects everything, I am wondering why is it that most of South African citizens are not really employed in the restaurant sector. Slowly most are no longer taking positions in the so-called low paying jobs. Are we so spoiled that we feel we’d rather go hungry than eat a slice of bread without butter. Do we remain unemployed because we’d rather be jobless than take a low paying job or maybe we will not settle since the government promised us jobs and many other services at no cost to us.
My basic understanding tells me that even the social grants that we so rely on are not sustainable because only few people are contributing towards them. All the foreigners doing the low paying jobs are taking the last cents back to their country of birth, this is that last cents which was supposed to be channeled towards the social grants. In short, my understanding tells me that we are loosing more than just the so-called monthly low salary.

Until the government can deliver, are we going to remain seated? Will we continue organising more and more matches and vandalising everything on our way in an attempt to make sure that we are heard? Are we finding it hard to stomach the fact that government says employment, development and sustainable growth should be brought about by the private sector?

For me, the most challenging question in South Africa is any question aimed at getting a solution to the current unemployment problems that we are experiencing. In an attempt to answer or come up with solutions to this problem. Many people and our government believe that our answers will come from Brazil and what they did will improve our current status.

I wonder if the plans to learn from Brazil in a way include Reconstruction and Development Program or Growth, Employment and Redistribution. I ask myself if it includes focusing on using the urban areas and not just developing most of them into big metropolis. I ask myself if it includes lower labour cost and Brazils favorable climate? While we learn from Brazil’s rise, are we also looking at the possibilities of high priced goods or it does not matter since most of the population will be earning an honest leaving and should afford what will be on offer.

I hope as much as we learn from Brazil, we will take the time and accept that all of the learning from Brazil will just be copy and paste if we do not take the time and research. Only if we could insist on custom made solutions for South Africa and not those intended for Brazil to be tweaked here and there. I hope more focus will be directed at improving our education system, reality is we can not all work in offices, in front of a computer. Part of our population has to learn how to get their hands dirty, how to refurbish the infrastructure we have, how to repair the trucks aimed at transporting all the goods we produce and at the end of it all, be able to educate the younger generation even if we get paid peanuts in the process.

Not an Open Letter

I am not formally or informally a member of any political party, within or outside the borders of South Africa. My support of the ANC has and always been based on what my grand parents and parents endured under apartheid and that has always influenced my decision to or not to vote during the past national elections. As we draw closer to the 2014 national elections, that struggle is slowly creeping up and got me taking stock and wondering how do I hold those I voted accountable. How do I make sure that they hear my cry, my suffering and about my daily struggles?

I am writing this after reading the ANC’s response signed by Jackson Mthembu, to one of those open letters. The first paragraph reads: “The African National Congress will not enter the recently fashionable fray of trading insults in the public domain. Indeed as recently articulated by the Secretary-General of the African National Congress, Comrade Gwede Mantashe, “the ANC is convinced that the mainstay strategy of the opposition forces in all formations and structures is that of agitation for discontent. These opposition forces have nothing to offer. We must seek to avoid responding to these provocations and lies, trying to correct every individual detail or allegation””…. And to me it sounds like the ANC is not interested in listening to us the citizens of South Africa, they decide to address issues of Zuma being called a monster than address other issues raised in more than one of those open letters. The ANC decided that anyone who asks questions with regards to national government and how it operates should be labelled as an opposition force. The ANC should be building and making sure that it unites all South African citizens, labelling brings divisions within the organisation and country as a whole.

The definition of leader according to few dictionaries is: One who is in charge or in command of others… In trying to address this Mr Mthembu found himself shielding the person of President Jacob Zuma. I hoped in trying to keep in line with the opening paragraph, the statement should have sort to protect the leadership of ANC and not single out an individual. The ANC should stop viewing our concerns and complains as provocations and lies but continue to value our input in trying to improve and build this beloved country of our forefathers since the struggle does not belong to the current leaders of ANC but us the citizens.

Yes, the most recent open letter is addressed to Jacob Zuma and the honours to respond should have been left to Mr Zuma. I believe that if the Presidency feels that the letter undermines the Head of State, then they should address those points and set precedence if necessary. This should be addressed according to South African laws and constitution and not how it is done else where in the world.

“… There are no facts that prove the above to be true therefore the wild accusations are a deliberate intention to insult and undermine the leader of the African National Congress and the Republic of South Africa” Since there are no facts, Mr Mthembu can not dismiss the statements or claim “such statements as disrespectful, distasteful and insulting to the person of the President and the ANC.”. What I consider disrespectful, distasteful and insulting. Is when we are treated like we don’t understand anything with regards to how people who hold key positions can influence decision making within the country just to make sure that they benefit inappropriately. Decisions to have information kept as secret from us to avoid accountability, the continues decision to ignore calls for clear and fair discussions with regards to e-tolls, the inability to shut down or speak against “Boeremag” camps in the country but choose to speak against an open letter raising concerns of more than one person. That to me are some of the things that make me feel disrespected and insulted.

There is one thing though that I agree with, that is said by Mr Mthembu. President Jacob Zuma is part of a collective, and they all share the same believes or similar style of leading. Lead by threats and discourage constructive criticism “The membership of the ANC is well aware that others who have traversed this route of insulting the leadership of the ANC have expelled themselves from this glorious organisation. History has ample examples of these characters.”

Remember to Log-off.

Over the past few days, I’ve heard few people I know complain about their Facebook, Twitter or any other social media account being hacked or used by someone they do not know. The Identity thief would have access into your social network profile. Copy as much information as possible and download pictures of you. They will later create another profile of you and possibly delete your old profile then start inviting most of the friends you had in your original social media profile.

Just like you, I ask myself why do all of this. But possibilities are endless.

All that got me thinking and wondering how a person you don’t know gain access into your virtually protected space. Then it hit me, taking into account how many phones I lose a year. Sometimes I never even bother wiping my information from the lost phones, given all the platforms to register a device and wirelessly sync your information daily, weekly or monthly and should the need arise, reset the device wirelessly.

I realised that if anyone was to have access to my phone let’s say over the weekend at my favorite chilling sport. This person will have access into my Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and LinkedIn. They will be able to even change my password to each of my profiles and manage to confirm the request without me suspecting that all of that happened. They will even delete the trail mails or requests to confirm the change.

All because of my laziness, when I get a new phone I configure the above mentioned profiles and after click on “remember me” and after gaining access into my profiles, I never log-off. All of that I am doing with the aim of making sure that I will have easy access every time I want to update my profiles or check what my virtual friends updated. All of that makes it easy and there is no reason for me to remember none ending passwords or pin codes after all I have enough to worry about between my bank card pin, online banking password and my work pc logon details. Technically I can say the risk is less when it comes to the social platforms in comparison to the other profiles I mentioned above.

With that said, I realise that actually the easy access is meant for me but not only limited to me. It then becomes easy access to anyone who will one day have my phone and feel the need to have access to my virtual space.

As of today, I made a decision, never to be always logged on into any of my profiles via my smart phone, tablet or pc. Never will I allow my pc to remember my personal passwords and I will always un-tick that little box that says “remember me”. Oh yes, I created a separate email address to be used mainly for social media registration and I will never in a single day configure that email address on any of my smart phones or tablets.

Phones, Attention Seekers.

Growing up at my grandparents’ house, we had a rotary phone. Every time the phone rang, my siblings and I would race to answer it. Being a boy and the eldest, I had an advantage; I always outran them and answered the phone. Until my siblings came up with a plan and it was to wait by the phone. This made them to miss out on other things.

After reading “Thoughts on the phone”, an article by Wayne K. Spear. It got me thinking about the effects of these modern phones aka smart phones. Their effect on our awareness of the environment and immediate spaces we live in.

Jokes are made in an attempt to have those without the smart phones feel inferior “how do you sport a person without a blackberry in a circle of friends? – the one not facing down does not use a blackberry!”. Even the saying “chin up” lost its meaning because walking around without your phone in hand and looking at the screen is un-cool.

How many times have you been in a situation where you were busy with your phone and missed out on something happening around you? It could have been an accident or just someone missing a step and having the ground catch them. Maybe we no longer get to be finders-keepers of money because we never see it on the ground. We no longer hand out money to the needy and less privileged because we never notice them at road intersections and road side pavements. We bump into each other at malls because we don’t see each other approaching.

While driving on the M1 south, just before the Marlboro Bridge on the right hand side of the highway I used to notice a company that made inflatable jumping castles. After it moved, I always wondered what would happen to that building. Only yesterday I realised there is a nearly complete three storey building. But I drive past there nearly every day; honestly it is just five days a week. For some reason, I never saw when they were laying the foundation or when they started building the walls and planting the pillars. Please don’t remind me not to use my phone when driving, because this device is an attention seeker and it is irresistible. Can you believe it; even now I am using it to write this piece.

A lot has changed since those years of the rotary phone back at my grandparents’ house. We now carry the smart phone with us everywhere we go. In them we have access to the different radios stations, some of the novels and books we would like to read, friends and family are always a touch of a finger away and our favourite news publication cost less with the latest news always available.

Remember, to not let life pass you by while giving your phone attention. Be aware of your environment and what is happening in your community.