Category Archives: Uncategorized

This feature was sponsored by the Anthony Sampson foundation and first published in the 4 November Mail & Guardian Health supplement Ketiwe Myeni is sitting at the only table in her family’s small house trying to finish her grade 12 homework, … Continue reading →

Dear Minister Aaron Motsoaledi Everybody writes an open letter these days so now it’s my turn. Your speech at the Cosatu conference, shows that you continue to back medical circumcisions in areas hard- hit by HIV. But the word “medical … Continue reading →

I went to a church in Pongola this morning. There was a token black person there. Then I sat outside church when it ended and saw the white congregants leave in their cars and new people, mostly on foot, arrive. … Continue reading →

Put it on your head, he said. “Bheka Panzi”. The eleven-year-old boy picked up the 20 litre bucket of water and balanced it on his head. He told me to do the same with the other large heavy bucket. I … Continue reading →

When the local grocery store here in Ingwavuma, rural Zululand started selling pumps to put enemas up baby’s bottoms, the hospital doctors got together and wrote a protest letter to complain. They included statistics and threatened media publicity. The shop … Continue reading →

Media Headliner and unchallenged ANCYL president Julius Malema, speaking at the ANC Youth League’s elective conference this weekend, said that teachers must be well paid but shouldn’t be allowed to strike as they fall under essential services, according to an … Continue reading →

Mielies kept inside Mielies stored for food. Mielie Grinder Dr Heese loves to tell the story of the man with no hand who came to apply to the rural KwaZulu-Natal hospital for a Disability Grant. He told Dr Heese, superintendent … Continue reading →

If Nosipho lost a pen as a child, she would be beaten. Nosipho’s one year old baby with fluffy hair, a sign of malnourishment, was sucking her mom’s school pens. We were sitting in their concrete house in rural Zululand … Continue reading →

Dinner conversations in Zululand: I need to paint a picture of Ingwavuma where I am staying for my newspaper stories. I wonder how can I describe the place and the people? So I asked an American who came, as part … Continue reading →