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BRA DON WAS THE ARCHETYPAL REBEL WITH A COURSE!

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SOUTH AFRICA'S POWER CUTS TAKE A TOLL ON MENTAL HEALTH

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SOUTH AFRICA IS AT ANOTHER CROSSROADS

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Environmental activists from Somkhele protesting outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court, KwaZulu-Natal in 2018. Photo by Rob Symons

BIG MINING COMPANIES MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

By Thabang Mbulase

T

he names of environmental activists, Sikhosiphi ‘Bazooka’ Rhadebe and Fikile Ntshangase who were brutally murdered, at separate times, for fighting big, powerful mining companies, will always be part of the painful reminder of the war against extraction and pollution of the environment.

The names of these two martyrs were joined by those of teenag-

ers, Xolani Mthembu (17) and his 14-year-old friend, Sifiso Yende, who drowned in an abandoned coal mine while swimming.

Xolani and Sifiso drowned in an abandoned coal mine in Wesselton on the northern outskirts of Ermelo, Mpumalanga, in September 2016.

The mine was last owned by Imbabala Coal (Pty) Ltd. There are many others across the globe who have died fighting companies who violate their human rights.

Bazooka, chairman of the Ama-

diba Crisis Committee (ACC), was murdered by unknown assassins in 2016 for being in the forefront of the struggle to defend the land of his Xolobeni community in the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast against extractive capital.

Two years ago, environmental activist, Ntshangase, was shot dead in her home by four gunmen in front of her grandson.

She was a leading member of the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (Mcejo).

She was also in the forefront as a member of a group that was taking legal action against a coal mining company, Tendele Coal Mining Limited in Somkhele. Somkhele is situated near the oldest nature reserve in Africa, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal.

Residents of Riverlea, a township squeezed between Joburg and Soweto in Gauteng, are facing a problem of mines that are no longer used.

They have been complaining for years about chest problems and other

ailments caused by the dust from the mines and unsafe drinking water.

The struggles of the people of Xolobeni, Mfolozi, Wesselton and Riverlea are no different from the other mining struggles in other parts of South Africa and the globe, where mining companies are bullying communities in their quest to mine and destroy the environment.

Story Continues on Page 2

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Sikhosiphi ‘Bazooka’ Rhadebe was shot eight times at his home in Xolobeni, in 2016. Photo by Cheryl Alexander/WildAwake Images

Story Continued from Page 1 According to a report released in June by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the South African government has not taken adequate steps to ensure coal mining companies rehabilitate mining sites despite the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act that requires companies to do so.

The government, through the

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9 Main Road Farrarmere, Benoni, Johannesburg

Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), has done little to ensure sites are secured, let alone cleaned up after companies have abandoned them when they are no longer profitable.

HRW said there is an estimated 6,100 mines designated as derelict and ownerless as of 2021, an increase from the 5,906 derelict and ownerless mines reported during a previous audit in 2009.

These unsecured and unrehabilitated mines are a health hazard to domestic animals, children who use them as recreational facilities and the general population that resides near them.

Other members of society who are in danger are the artisan miners, popularly known as Zama-zamas, who hustle illegally for a living in these dangerous mines without following any health and safety precautions.

Many of them die underground.

The unfortunate part is that some have no traceable relatives because they are undocumented in the country. There are also no records kept by the government of the Zama-zamas who die in these mines.

The HRW report also states that other “long-term impacts on human health include liver damage or death” because of acid mine drainage (AMD).

AMD is caused by mines that are not cleaned. This results in leaching of highly acidic water.

“AMD can also release contaminants from ore such as arsenic, cyanide, mercury, lead and uranium.

Even at low doses, research has demonstrated these chemicals to be dangerous to humans, particularly children, causing health problems, including skin irritation, kidney damage, neurological conditions, and cancer.

Cumulative exposure to these substances can cause death.

Increased water acidity risks degraded soil quality, destruction of biodiversity and an inability to support aquatic life.

AMD impacts the ability of communities to access safe water for household needs, including drinking water, for livestock and to irrigate crops,” states the report.

Once a mine is abandoned, it is unlikely to be cleaned up, although there are legal mechanisms to try and

ensure the clean-up will happen.

On 27 – 28 July the Alternative Information and Development Centre, together with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and Lawyers for Human Rights, held a two-day indaba which focused on the United Nations Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights in Joburg, Gauteng.

The Indaba brought together activists, academics and trade unionists working toward dismantling corporate power in Southern Africa to unpack the importance of a legally binding mechanism on business and human rights.

According to the organisers of the Indaba, in June 2014, the UN Human Rights Council adopted resolution 26/9 to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

The resolution was put forward

by Ecuador and South Africa and adopted by a recorded vote of 20 to 14, with 13 abstentions. Out of 20 countries that voted in support, 10 were African countries, an indicator

that the continent is ready to curb corporate impunity and hold corporations accountable.

At the Indaba the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, said impunity regarding human rights abuses by companies is increasing. It said evidence shows that communities seeking to protect their human rights from the actions of corporations face growing levels of violence and intimidation.

The UN Binding Treaty is to pave the way for justice for victims like Bazooka, Fikile and the two youngsters, Xolani and Sifiso who drowned in an abandoned mine and to hold big companies which may have been directly or indirectly behind their death to account.

The DMRE and the municipality governing Carolina were given ample time to respond to questions sent to them by The Telegram. The DMRE, after having promised to revert back as soon as possible, did not do so at the time of going to press.

The Carolina Municipality also did not take up the offer of the right of reply sent to them.

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Published by The Telegram Media Illegal mining is a lucrative business for organised crime groups.

Photo by Rock Cafe

Fikile Ntshangase was killed in 2020 after refusing to withdraw legal challenges to existing and future mining operations.

CITY PRESS, 5 SEPTEMBER, 2021

news BRA DON WAS THE ARCHETYPAL PASTORREBEL WITH A CAUSE!

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

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news: VBS LIQUIDATORS GUN FOR VENDA KING

The liquidators of VBS Mutual Bank applied for a writ of execution at the Johannesburg High Court last month to recoup more than R10 million allegedly owned by a family trust whose sole trustees are Venda King Toni Mphephu Ramabulana and Portia Mphephu.

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LUKAU’S R50M RENTAL

SCANDAL

BY MONGANE WALLY SEROTE

MDUDUZI NONYANE

T D

mduduzi.nonyane@citypress.co.za

echnology distribution and warehousing giant Tarsus Shared Services is battling to recover a R50 million deficit allegedly controversial pastor Alph Lukau r owed DonbyMattera passed away and18 several his business on Julyof 2022.

He associates. was 87 The matter to a cancelled lease years old. relates An internationagreement pertaining to the premises of Alleluia alist, a Pan African and an Ministries International in Sandton, Johannesburg.

African Renaissance activist, an The company lodged a court application thisoutweek at standing poet, writer and journalist, the Johannesburg High Court, flagging three companies Mattera lived fullest. linked to Lukau for life failingto to its declare their company security arbitrationwas process as Bra registers Don, inastheir Mattera fondly prescribed by Companies Act, of citing thatbirth the known inthethe streets his information sought would enable it to track the intricate place, Western Native Township and web of companies that operate the church in South other townships like Sophiatown and Africa and throughout Africa.

Alexandra Township where he socialThe court papers also indicate that attempts to serve ised, rebelled, as did many young Lukau and a close business partner, identified as John Ferguson, with summons poverty-stricken have failed, as they have people in a those allegedly taken up residence in Portugal andcrime refuse to environments of squalor and accept service legal by counsel. which werethrough created the apartheid They emphasise that “the appellant requires the system. information in the registers in order to unravel the He straddled, rejected andand lived relationship between Lukau and Ferguson, the his life fighting those contradictions, respondents [King Vision Holdings, Alph Lukau Group right up to the endtoof his life. and Al Resident Holdings] recover the debts due by Lukau and Ferguson”.

Born of a Motswana mother and its arbitration documents, Shared anAccording Italianto father, and comingTarsus from Services has been trying to recover the debt since March a maternal line of the Griqua and 2018, relating to the period when the church was

PAY UP Alleluia Ministries International in Kramerville, Sandton. The church defended pastor Alph Lukau (inset) after he performed the so-called miracle resurrection of Elliot Moyo in 2019 PHOTO: LUBA LESOLLE / GALLO IMAGES

Companies linked to the controversial megachurch preacher evade debt collection as he and his business associates are said to be in Portugal

R1M

evicted from the premises early securities and/or members’ and last year because it could no directors’ registers follows multiple longer meet the R1 million monthly requests for access, and is such a rental fee. clear interference with an The company instituted, among unconditional statutory right. The other things, arbitration applicant requests that a punitive proceedings in which it claimed: cost award be made against each of . Arrear rentals and charges up the respondents.”

ACCORDING TO ARBITRATION to the date it cancelled the The applicants say this refusal has DOCUMENTS, TARSUS SHARED sublease; put a strain on the arbitration SERVICES HAS BEEN TRYING . Damages for the period the process, further delaying the TO RECOVER THE DEBT defendant was in occupation after recovery of debts.

SINCE MARCH 2018, LEADING the cancellation; They further highlighted that their TO THE PERIOD . Future loss of rentals and legal representative visited Lukau’s WHEN THE CHURCH WAS charges calculated from the date known place of business in June, EVICTED FROM THE PREMISES the defendant ceased to occupy but the representative was denied EARLY LAST YEAR, the premises as a church until the entry.

AFTER WHICH IT COULD NO expiry date of the sublease; and “The premises has access control LONGER MEET THE R1 MILLION . Restoration of the premises. and requires a security guard to MONTHLY RENTAL FEE The proceedings also reveal that allow access. I spoke to the security church leaders, including Lukau, guard on duty and asked that I be have blatantly refused to grant the applicants access to allowed into the property in order to deliver the request information pertaining to company directors. to the respondents to inspect the securities and/or “As the refusal to allow access to the respondents’ member registers of the respondents.

“The guard, who refused to provide me with his name, did not allow me access but told me to wait. He disappeared into the guard hut on the property and spoke to this supervisor, who came out to speak to me.

“After explaining the purpose of my visit and the documentation that I had with me, the supervisor also refused to provide me access.

“Similarly, he refused to provide me with his name. I could see that he had been speaking to someone over his cellular phone from time to time ... After seeing the letters attached to the gate, the supervisor said that I should come [back] the next day,” they say.

Lukau shot to fame over the past two years by performing so-called miracles during his church services, including when he publicly “resurrected” a man.

Lukau claimed that the man, Elliot Moyo, had died and the latter’s body was brought to the pastor by his family a few days later.

The incident angered some within the religious community, who called for Lukau to be investigated by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities after a video of his purported resurrection of Moyo went viral.

It also emerged in 2019 that Lukau’s church members regarded him as being similar to Jesus, proclaiming that he was crucified for helping to heal others.

The applicant’s lawyer, Andrew Scarrott of AB Scarrott Attorneys, declined to comment.

“I have received your enquiry, [but] I have no instructions to make any comment at this time,” he said.

Efforts to source comment from Lukau and the companies were unsuccessful.

Khoisan, he was alienated by the apartheid system whose objective was Don Mattera was a man of great repute. Photo by Neil McCartney to implement maximum exploitation of what it called non-whites for the benefit of the whites.

The system was used to implement stayed with Bra Don almost right up denominations. Father Huddleston received the wrath of the regime, political position through what he the means to divide and rule people. to the end, he disciplined himself by of the Anglican Church had great but was also most respected in the said when he assumed the so-called The apartheid system nurtured trib- engaging in politics.

Segapo’sof assets after the designer allegedly JULIA MADIBOGO BUSINESS influence on him,attach in spite the communities he came from and rose coloured position, even after the alism and the separation of people moved out of his place of business. julia.madibogo@citypress.co.za a poet. black consciousness movement had If he had not learnt of the ANC, fact that he was brought up in the to become a national figureISasSLOW on the basis of colour, language and which was at the height of its political Catholic orphanage. Segapo, who has styled celebrities Fashion including Idols SA As the Setswana saying goes, “… propagated that there is some semdesigner Businessperson Kabelo has accused celebrity producer and host ProVerb, award-winning musician class.

Bra Don wasNcholo classified coloured The linguist he was, depending on kgomo e tswoaroa ka dinaka, motho blance of concession by the state for campaigns, activities and confrontaPaledi ka fashion designer Paledi apartheid Segapo of reneging Prince Kaybee, veteran actor Warren Masemola and US because of these laws.on a IN THE WHICH tion and fight against theSETTLEMENT apartheid AGREEMENT, social circumstances, BraTevin Don, whosewas hired leleme…”

(You cantoidentify thesays breed the condition of coloured. The fact Segapo repayment arrangement the pair entered into out of singer Campbell, by Ncholo in 2018 The system imposed harsh reali- regime in the fifties, CITY PRESS HAS SEEN AND WHICH IS DATED in townships other name was Monnapula cattle theirtohorns,hisand people remained that they are black peobusiness court after the latter allegedly failed to deliver the design attire forLebakhis wedding,of which was by scheduled ties upon what it called non-white like Sophiatown NOVEMBER 2020, THE SEASONED DESIGNER has been wedding-related items that Ncholo had ordered and in 2019 at Sun City, or Alexandra, at eng, had a feel for take andplace spoke many areNorth

by West. what they say). ple and it was possible to know his AGREED TO PAY BACK ABOUT R300 000 TO people: affected by paid for. cheap labour, which resulted The wedding did not take Here place that year Bra and Ncholo the time, he would have terrorised of the African languages including goes, Don A Poem: position about the apartheid system NCHOLO BY THE END OF NOVEMBER inNcholo rampant poverty, broCovid-19 dragged Segapo to thesqualor, Johannesburg High got married November lastAnd year Yet after obtaining the the community, as he did when he Tsotsitaal, a township linguainfranca, through what he said. ken families, hard labour - in PHOTO: OUPA Court in an effort toand recoup payments he made to the services of other designers. set his gang against the residents of which to a large extent was a passport I have known silences A strong non-racialist and demBOPAPE/ seasoned designer agreed to pay back about R300 000 Palse fashion label owner whileoppression preparing for histo According to Ncholo, the popular designer was also other words, severe Alexandra to stop thembyfrom being in the gangland. set to arrange a team that was Long and deep as death GALLO IMAGES ocrat, Bra Don also suspected that to Ncholo the end of November. wedding. meant to include a implement maximum exploitation involved in the bus boycott in 1957.

He an became a member the ANC When theand mind questioned the logic non-racialism did also discriminate “The defendant shall pay the plaintiff amount of Segapo was scheduled to appear at the Randburg weddingof planner, a photographer, a hair make-up for cheap black labour.

The good story-teller was, youthofleague, a member ofa the PAC Of frailty against those who were regarded as R297 000 inhe a full and Bra final settlement the dispute, Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday on a separate criminal artist, and booking for a segment in the lifestyle No wonder Bra Don and his peers Don always related [an offer] the plaintiff accepts the terms charge of fraud for the same transaction. television programme Top Billing. hiswhich adventures andonalso an and ardent follower and In the imminence of my destruction coloureds - because they were not became gangsters.

Noon wonder also dueas a gangster - jungle conditions containedguns, herein,” reads the settlement.

That matter was not placed the roll, however, To secure his services, Segapo reportedly a knives, supporter of the Black ConsciousBy men ruledrequested and ravaged by power lust black enough. At one stage, it was he became a father a young The conditions were that Segapo had to make the to the out-of-court settlementat agreement that age. the pair R150 000 deposit of the R300 000 he had charged the gang-fights, turffirst battles and fights ness Movement (BCM) at different I have known deep silences because they were not white enough. payment of R118 500 by the end of March, and the reached. businessperson for his suit, his bride’s gown and attire No wonder that at 20, Bra Don for (cherries) women, murder and all! times and stages of his life.

That is When thoughts like angry waves Bra Don would also take a strong other payments were to be made in R20 000 monthly National Prosecuting Authoritytrial spokesperson Phindi for the entire bridal party. was already awaiting for nine His strong-handed and nononsense an almost lifetime engagement and Beat against theforshores of my mind due tostand against the BCM posiinstalments until the end of November.

Covid-19 – not so some that he of could avoid making Mjonondwane confirmed that the matter was “not However, Segapo allegedly only created outfits the months, charged for gang murder. life style as a gangster is a staple for mental battle. tions, if he suspected that the views Segapo was also asked to pay Ncholo’s R30 000 legal to Ncholo. placed on the roll, pending consultation with the bride and the bridesmaids. Revealing the scars of brutal memoriespayment No wonder he became a feared leader narrators. costs on or before December 31 thisBeing year.

“Why would I discontinue my on businesses whileracist I complainant”.

The settlement letter statesAnd that failure by the of my manhood politically engaged turned the murder expressed leaned being ofNcholo a feared gang.a civil Hiscase strong noin However, says Ncholo, Segapo has only paid R85 000 have to [conduct] business?

I am not the first person to first opened againstand Segapo seasoned designer to pay what is due to Ncholo per Having been in a Catholic orphan- Bra Don into a different person. He And yet against the whites. nonsense a gangster wasofforthus far and is expected to pay R45 000 by the end of close their store at the moment because we are going April 2019 andlife then as opened a criminal case fraud age, Bra Don became the settlement agreement will trigger pursuit of a an ardent reader propagated non-racialism fervently. I cannot hate Is it the politics of oppression and ever told bysame both men and this month or Ncholo will move to obtain a judgment through a difficult time. in August of the year to push the women, latter to pay civil case. also.

He did, as he did in politics, and He was regarded as the enemy of Try as I want to exploitation which are difficult or is against him.

“What they are doing is making me look like I am a him back.

Yesterday, Segapo said he couldn’t comment as the including his peers. in his life, straddle different politiSouth Africa by the apartheid regime, I cannot hate…why? it that freedom itself is I acould complex But the businessperson says he is scared that, even if thug on the run when the truth is that not InWhile the settlement agreement, which City Press has matter was sub judice. the gangster mentality cal, social formations and religious on the one hand. On the otter, he was difficult he obtains a judgment, there might be no way to to pay rent,” he said. seen and which is dated November 2020, the However, he said his store in It Newtown was closedto identify Bra Don’saffordphenomenon?

TOP FASHION GURU MUST PAY BACK THE MONEY

R300 000

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

NEWS

WE MUST HONOUR DUARTE’S MEMORY

BY HEIGHTENING OUR ACTIVISM On 17 July Jessie lost her battle with cancer. A lot has been said about her. Accolades and heart-warming messages poured out toward the family and to the many of her comrades and associates.

BY BABY PENNY TYAWA

T

he period of activism following the 1976 unrests that spread from Soweto to the rest of the country was filled with danger and life threats that most of activists were exposed to by the special branch - a unit of policemen trained to deal with political activities - were all over our townships and in our homes at any time they deemed fit.

It is during this period that most of us, young women, emerged to organise and resuscitate the women structures that were dormant as most of the liberation movement structures were banned and declared communist movements by the apartheid system.

Duarte became one of those young women who championed the rebuilding of cells and underground networks of comrades we would not have known across races.

It was time to reorganise and rebuild women structures, an assignment that became critical.

She emerged with the energy, conviction, vigour, and commitment that most have spoken about.

She was actively involved, reaching out to women stalwarts who were banned and restricted to their homes.

These were women who, if found visiting you, would be arrested and put away for a long time under the state of emergency. These are matriarchs who anchored our struggle for a democratic South Africa.

Under the tutelage of stalwarts such as Albertina Sisulu, Sister Bernard Ncube, June Mlangeni, Francis Baard, Helen Joseph, Winnie Mandela, Maniben Sita, Ma Rita Ndzanga and Jesse Duarte, many young women were able to extend their work beyond the Transvaal.

They worked with more women in the various provinces, some of whom were banned but still strong and resolved to re-establish women formations in their respective provinces.

It is these virtues of selflessness that we need today, first from ourselves and from the younger women.

We should become the beacon of hope for young women. We should drive and sustain Duarte’s spirit of no-surrender to consolidate our democratic gains that we are at risk of squandering.

Duarte acknowledged the challenges faced by young women today, that includes the older generation.

The current challenges facing the women of South Africa of all races are femicide, violence and poverty.

The reality of our current situation is that women are still subjected to limited access to spaces of decision making. They still experience the glass ceiling that restricts them from advancing further.

A young Jessie Duarte has been described as dynamite. Photo by Africanactivist

The Women’s Charter and the rights of women enshrined in the Constitution provide the foreground from which to pursue the implementation of programmes that are meant to improve the lives of women. If women do not use these rights and the many passed legislations, they will forever stay underdeveloped.

To honour her memory, there is a need for heightened activism, the type that brings together women from various sectors of society.

The current legislations must work for young women; assist them to raise pertinent issues of development for women and girls.

In the same way that women were mobilised in the 70s and 80s, it is

possible to activate sectors that will measure the impact of democratic legislations on women emancipation and development today.

It is defeatist to just memorialise her in name only. All the women who care to keep Duarte’s legacy alive need to rebuild community and multi-sector relationships that include women across race and class, fight tribalistic behaviour that trivialises women’s needs.

We need to mobilise and rebuild networks in the fight against femicide, stop calling out for government instead of intervening and stepping in where there are needs in our communities. Reverse the helplessness nature of responses in the face of

Jessie Duarte was actively involved, reaching out to stalwarts who were banned and restricted to their homes. Photo by sahistory.org.za crisis. Honouring her requires scrutinising the impact of the current laws designed to improve women’s ascendance to positions of leadership and power. Women are also beneficiaries of this constitutional democ-

racy. The foundation is already there and legislations are in place. It is time to assess what impact these have had on the majority of women to date.

It is time once more for women to wake up. Tsogang Basadi!

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

NEWS

SOUTH AFRICA'S POWER CUTS TAKE A TOLL ON MENTAL HEALTH You can't do your work because there's no power. You eat late and bolt your food before the lights fail. And then to be at home, in the utter dark, gives you the creeps.

A

s blackouts unfurl across South Africa, triggered by problems that have overwhelmed its energy provider, stress is taking a mounting toll on mental health, experts say.

“People are frustrated, some (are) angry, some are experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,” said Sinqobile Aderinoye, a psychologist in Johannesburg.

“The consistent on-and-off of the electric grid is creating an air of disillusionment.”

South Africa has struggled for years with power cuts, infamously known as load-shedding, as Eskom fails to keep pace with demand.

But ageing infrastructure and labour disputes have added to the crisis - and in recent weeks, the country has been hit by rolling blackouts that lasted up to nine hours a day.

“There was a time ... I felt like I was going to scream,” said Blessed Dlamini, a 25-year-old father living in downtown Johannesburg.

For five hours, he recalled, he had no power as he struggled to work and at the same time deal with a hungry two-year-old.

“It was very, very hectic,” said Dlamini who works for a sexual health centre.

Dlamini said he has joined Twitter to follow the electricity updates more

closely.

Blackouts eased a bit last week, with cuts reduced to about two hours a day.

But the schedule of cuts provided

by Eskom is not always followed, giving rise to an unpredictability that leaves many people on the edge.

The crisis “is leading to feelings of hopelessness, which is associated with depression,” said Claire Lownie, a psychiatrist in Johannesburg's financial centre, Sandton.

Fight-or-flight Plunged into darkness with a sense of unmet basic needs, the human brain can be triggered into survival mode, leading to a fight-or-flight response, explained Aderinoye.

“The brain starts to think we are under attack. The body is then notified that we are in danger and we create an anxiety response,” she said.

At work, on the streets or around the dinner table, swapping tips on how to cope with blackouts has become a national pastime.

Some people prefer the romantic feel of candles to light their homes, while others resort to camping lanterns.

Others debate whether coughing up money for take-out meals is preferable to investing in gas cookers or simply eating at odd hours.

Load shedding has become a regular but depressing feature of our lives.

Photo by www.change.org

Yet, in a country burdened by high crime rates, outages are not a simple inconvenience.

Fear of burglary, assault or rape runs deep.

“You cannot go around when it's dark,” said Flora Sithole, 30, a domestic worker employed in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Rosebank.

“We are so afraid of that - it's not safe. Our country is not safe.”

The added stress caused by power cuts often compounds an already precarious situation, psychologists say.

Anxiety, depression and other disorders were already up almost twothirds since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Cheryl Johnston, a Johannesburg-based psychologist.

“A lot of people are at or crossing over (their) breaking point,” she said.

The result can be “abnormal behaviour” as well as angry or violent outbursts, Johnston said.

Having a plan and being prepared to deal with the cuts is the best way to cope, according to health experts.

Better mental health awareness is also crucial, Johnston said.

“Being able to be honest with yourself about the emotions that you're having and waiting for yourself to be calm before taking action… is the best thing you can do,” she said.

– france24.com /AFP

Psychologists say the added stress caused by power cuts often compounds an already precarious situation. Photo by Pexels

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

John Tindo holds a picture of his daughter Alice Awor Tindo who died while working in Saudi Arabia in Elburgon, Kenya on Oct. 19, 2021.

Photo Nita Bhalla /Thomson Reuters Foundation

NO AMOUNT OF FOREIGN CURRENCY CAN JUSTIFY HUMAN ABUSE

By Eliud Kibii

I

n May, Beatrice Waruguru’s body arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Saudi Arabia, almost a year after she was reported dead.

Like many other young Kenyans seeking job opportunities in the Middle East, many of them women, her family says Waruguru left Kenya for Saudi Arabia in February 2021 and died under suspicious circumstances in December. The family maintains she was tortured. Waruguru worked as a house helper.

In 2010, Rose Adhiambo went to Beirut in search of a job at the age of 24, only to return home in a coffin six months later after being subjected to a catalogue of abuse by employers.

Jane Njeri Kamau (36) died under similarly harrowing circumstances in November 2014, in Lebanon, where she had been employed as a house helper. Njeri fell ill while in police custody together with her friend, 22-year-old Margaret Nyakeru. Both had been detained after fleeing from their respective employers because of “ill-treatment”. They had been arrested in May of that year and held for five months. Nyakeru lived to tell the story.

The above cases suggest that the ill-treatment and abuse of Kenyan workers in the Gulf is not new. The problem appears to be have worsened with the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis.

While the US remains the largest source of overseas remittances into Kenya, accounting for 63.2%, the Middle East has emerged as an important rival in recent times.

According to Kenyan Wall Street, remittances from Asia in the 12-month period leading up to February 2022 amounted to US$42.5 million, with Saudi Arabia being the largest source (US$19.2 million), followed by Qatar (US$7.1 million) and the United Arab Emirates (US$4.6 Million).

Speaking to the media, Sharon Kinyanjui, WorldRemit Director

for Europe, Middle East, and Africa Receive Markets, explained that this development is a consequence of growing rates of migration from Kenya to the Middle East, itself a reflection of increasing rates of unemployment, compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, back home.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey 2021, total employment outside small-scale agriculture and pastoral activities stood at 17.4 million in 2020, down from the 18.1 million recorded in 2019. In the same period, the survey finds, wage employment in the private sector declined by 10 per cent from 2.1 million jobs in 2019 to 1.9 million jobs in 2020, and “informal sector employment is estimated to have contracted to 14.5 million jobs.”

In July 2021, Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui said that since January 2019, the ministry had facilitated the employment of over 87,784 Kenyans in the Middle East, the majority of them working in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Bahrain.

But these young Kenyans are taking risks because states such as Saudi Arabia have an extremely poor record with regard to the labour rights and working conditions of domestic workers.

Reports of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia suffering physical and sexual abuse, or dying under controversial circumstances have continued to appear in the press.

Stella Nafula Wekesa left Kenya in August 2021 to work as a house helper on a two-year contract. She died on 10 February 2022. A medical report from Saketa Hospital in Saudi Arabia indicates that Stella succumbed to cardiopulmonary arrest, but her family has said she died after her employer refused to take her to hospital, and alleges that she had suffered mistreatment under previous employers.

Appearing before the Labour and Social Welfare Committee in July 2021, Labour Cabinet Secretary Chelugui told members of parlia-

ment that 93 Kenyans have been killed while working in the Middle East in the last three years.

Most were in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. The Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare also noted that 1,908 distress calls were reported between 2019 and 2021, with 883 being reported in 2019-2020 and 1,025 in 2020-21.

Chelugui had been summoned to explain the circumstances that led to the death of Melvin Kang’ereha in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Kang’ereha was also domestic worker, a job she obtained through United Manpower Services, a recruitment agency. She was reportedly abused and mistreated by her employer and did not return home alive.

In its 2021 report Amnesty International said migrant workers continued to be vulnerable to abuse and exploitation under Saudi Arabia’s sponsorship system, with tens of thousands arbitrarily detained and subsequently deported.

The situation is no better in Qatar, which has faced criticism of its human rights record in the build up to the 2022 World Cup. “In the decade since Qatar was awarded the right to host the World Cup, exploitation and abuse of these workers has been rampant, with workers exposed to forced labour, unpaid wages and excessive working hours,” reports Amnesty.

Lebanon, which is grappling with a deep economic crisis and growing poverty, is emerging as another problematic destination for Kenyan migrant workers.

The Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera, among other leading international media, have highlighted numerous cases that point to poor working conditions and abuse.

As in the Gulf countries, many of the affected persons appear to be female domestic workers, underlining the gendered nature of the threats faced by Kenyan and other workers in the region: A report by the International Labour Office finds that when it comes to “women’s paid employment and treatment of

migrants, the region is falling behind others.”

Why is labour migration to these countries so distinctly marked by exploitation, abuse and life-threatening conditions?

At the core of the problem is the notorious Kafala system, which the Council on Foreign Relations describes as a mode of sponsorship that gives private citizens and companies almost total control over migrant workers’ employment and immigration status. Institutionalized in most Arab Gulf countries and some neighbouring states like Lebanon, the Kafala system renders migrants vulnerable to the whims of employers who retain control over their legal residency and right to work.

The consequences for women are particularly harsh. Those who manage to escape abusive work conditions do so without their passports, which remain in the custody of their tormentors. It becomes complicated for employment agencies to intervene as they would be in breach of contract.

Despite the structural nature of such victimization, a good deal more could be done by the sending countries to protect the growing number of migrants opting to work in the Middle East. It is revealing that working conditions and levels of harassment appear to vary considerably depending on the country of origin of the workers.

According to the aforementioned ILO report, workers from the Philippines, for instance, receive higher pay. If on the one hand, such discrepancies are evidence of a racially segmented hierarchy of discrimination, they also reflect the extent to which individual governments are willing and/or able to guarantee the protection of their citizens abroad.

Critics of the Kenyan government point to its failure to offer meaningful consular assistance to victims of abuse. Consulates often do not arrange for flights back home and workers are often told to fundraise for the cost of their repatriation.

Mary Vimto, who went to Lebanon in 2014 through a broker who had no office, is now in her eighth year under the same employer. Mary’s experience has been good, but while she herself has not experienced harsh treatment, Mary tells me, “Kenyans are suffering in Lebanon.”

And does the consulate help?

“To speak the truth, the consul told us he doesn’t have any connection with the Kenyan government, so he cannot help Kenyans easily,” says Mary, who uses social media to raise awareness about the difficulties faced

by Kenyan women working in Lebanon.

She added: “Because I do YouTube videos, I [learn about] problems from different ladies as the majority don’t get help from the consulate unless you pay some money. Assume you don’t have the money?” she asks.

In a January 14, 2022 report, the Middle East Eye said that some 20 Kenyan women had camped for a week outside the Kenyan consulate in Beirut seeking repatriation. Most of the women were domestic workers, some of whom had suffered physical and sexual abuse that had worsened with the economic crisis in Lebanon and the Covid-19 outbreak.

The situation of these domestic workers is complicated because Kenya does not have an embassy in Beirut. But even if it did, there is little reason to believe that the situation would be any better than in Saudi Arabia where the Kenyan mission has been of little help to Kenyan domestic workers in that country, at least according to Kenyans working or who have worked there.

Asked whether the Kenyan consulate offered her any help, Vera, another Kenyan victim of abuse by employers in Lebanon, told The Elephant that it didn’t, and that at one point, the officer she spoke to told her she had to stay put.

Story Continues on Page 8

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

NEWS

Kenyan migrant workers camping outside their country's consulate in Badaro, Beirut on 11 January 2022. Photo by Matt Kynaston/MEE

Story Continued from Page 7 Vera called her mother and informed her about her situation but neither the agency in Nairobi nor the Ministry of Labour offered any help when Vera’s mother visited their offices.

The other key weakness of government policy is the lack of regulation to control the activities of brokers - individuals and groups operating recruitment agencies (some of which are unregistered) that profit from enlisting domestic workers on terms that amount to modern-day slavery.

For instance, one of the women who camped outside the Kenyan consulate in Beirut told the Middle East Eye that she travelled to Lebanon in November 2021, having been promised a salary of US$300 by her agents. Upon arrival, her employers offered her half the amount agreed US$150. She couldn’t accept the work as the money wasn’t enough to cater for her family back in Kenya, and became desperate to return home.

Rose Adhiambo, whose death in 2010 is mentioned above, had been connected to an employer by Interlead Limited, which describes itself as a trusted and accredited agent, “a pioneering Human Capital Management (HCM) Solutions Company that provides manpower sourcing services for organisations locally and across the globe…” Adhiambo’s employer subjected her to conditions akin to slavery. Her body was found on the first-floor balcony of a building in Beirut’s Sahel Alma neighbourhood.

“She is said to have fallen to her death from the sixth floor of a building in a bungled bid to escape from a house where she worked as house helper,” The Standard reported in September 2010.

Before attempting to flee, Adhiambo had called her family and informed them of her situation and her intention to escape.

The case of Vera, a returnee from the Gulf who was interviewed by The Elephant, is also illustrative. Vera went to Lebanon in August 2014 on a two-year contract, having deferred her education at Moi University in the first semester of her second year because she couldn’t afford to pay the fees. While at her home in Nairobi, she was approached by a woman who told her about opportunities to teach

English in Lebanon. Abela Agencies, whose offices were, at the time in Uganda House, Nairobi, arranged for Vera to travel to Lebanon. She was offered US$750; the contract was in Arabic.

Upon Vera’s arrival in Lebanon, she learnt she would instead be a domestic worker on a US$200 salary.

“I was connected to a lady employer.

The house was on the 16th floor in the middle of Beirut. They have these big windows and flowers on the outside. I was okay with watering the flowers but my problem was cleaning windows from the outside. I couldn’t do that as it was risky,” the beginning of problems with her employer which culminated in her employer taking her back to the agency in Beirut.

“I had not settled; I was not experienced as a housemaid. I couldn’t function well because what I got on the ground was not what I anticipated. I was also not well briefed,” Vera says.

Vera was employed by a second family for whom she worked for five months. She says that although they were not physically abusive, there were restrictions on what she could touch or eat, and she was only allowed to call home once or twice a month.

When one of the sons in the family moved out, she was asked to work for his young family and the situation escalated; the wife would leave her locked up in the house and she was not allowed to operate the TV. “They would go eat out and leave me without food. They would then tell me there is milk powder and sugar and I can make tea for myself.

She would bring bread on Monday and make me have it until the next week,” Vera says.

When the going got extremely tough, she demanded to return home. The response was harsh: “I paid a lot of money, I bought you and you have to work for at least seven months for me to recover my money,” Vera recalls. When Vera fell ill, she was not taken to a hospital.

Government policy In November 2021, Francis Atwoli, the Secretary General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions, termed the working conditions in the Middle East as slavery and called for the closure of agencies enlisting

Kenyans to work in the Gulf. “As a government, we should take care of our people. We are tired of watching our children coming back in coffins,” Atwoli said. However, Atwoli’s seriousness on the matter has been questioned given his preoccupation with succession politics rather than with the welfare of workers.

The government has rejected calls to ban the export of labour, with CS Chelugui arguing, “It is only a small percentage of Kenyans who are suffering, while more than 100,000 Kenyans were under favourable conditions.” Given the growing macro-economic importance of remittances from countries such as Saudi Arabia, it seems unlikely that calls for a ban will be heeded anytime soon, a fact which underscores the importance of addressing the need for better protections at the policy level.

There have been attempts by parliament to address the Middle East problem. In November 2021, the Senate Labour and Social Welfare Committee presented a report to parliament in which it accused recruitment agencies of riding on the absence of formal agreements or memorandums of understanding between Kenya and other countries to manipulate desperate jobless Kenyans.

“And where they exist, the agreement falls short of taking care of the interests of the workers,” the report by the Senate Labour and Social Welfare Services committee reads in part.

The committee also reported that recruitment agencies and employers were taking advantage of the lack of policy and a legal framework on labour migration to exploit Kenyans working in the Middle East.

It further reported that Kenyans working as domestic workers do not receive consular assistance to protect their rights. “With the growing numbers of migrants to the Middle East, there is a need to streamline key prerequisite processes for effective governance,” the report says. It recommended the immediate suspension of all labour migration of domestic workers to Saudi Arabia, where abuse and employment conditions akin to slavery are particularly rife.

When I asked him whether the government is doing enough to protect Kenyans in the Middle East, Senator Sakaja, chair of the Labour and Social Welfare Committee, told

me it doesn’t and that, in fact, the government is squarely to blame for the problem. “First, the reason they go there is because there are no jobs here. There are more than 18,000 Kenyans in Saudi Arabia, the majority are domestic workers. But some have been successful,” he said.

Sakaja noted that most of those who have gone there through the Musaned system are okay. “In that system, you can check the house she is working in, the contacts and where the passport is,” he explained.

However, Sakaja spoke of the presence of rogue agents who run the business as human trafficking.

“Because for every girl you send out, you are given almost US$1,500, it is as if they are putting potatoes in sacks. They don’t care. You should have insurance, their return ticket and be recognized by that [Musaned] system so that there is proper reporting,” he said, adding that all the agencies should be vetted afresh.

Sakaja argued that the Philippines has over 300,000 workers in Saudi Arabia but they don’t have cases of their people being killed or harassed because their government has set up a system to liaise with the government of Saudi Arabia. He also decried the shortage of personnel to handle consular issues. “We only have one labour officer called Juma. From Riyadh to Jeddah are thousands of kilometres. So, we said we must have more labour attachés and officers in Jeddah and Riyadh and safe houses in case of anything,” he said during the interview.

Sakaja also said that there are Kenyans languishing in deportation centres, and others who have been buried in cemeteries in Saudi Arabia.

(Sakaja’s remarks in parliament are reported in the Hansard from page 23.)

Before resigning to join active politics, former Foreign Affairs Chief Administrative Secretary Ababu Namwamba said he was leading a review of the Diaspora Policy and, together with CS Chelugui, reviewing the bilateral legal instruments with all the Middle East countries “that are causing Kenyans a lot of trouble.”

A Labour Migration Management Bill was to be passed and a Migrant Workers Welfare Fund established following a government directive at the Cabinet level. The bill is still stuck in the National Assembly, while

the fund is yet to be operationalized.

What is so difficult about establishing bilateral agreements, vetting agents and putting in place a system that works?

Interest groups are active in pretty much every sector in Kenya—individuals working in government or have influence in government who use their power for financial gain.

If Haki Africa is to be believed, the migrant labour sector is no different.

In a report published by the Daily Nation, the Mombassa-based national human rights organization claimed one government official owned 10 labour recruitment agencies.

So powerful are some recruitment agencies that they have reportedly bribed members of parliament to go slow on a clampdown, a claim corroborated by Senator Sakaja who went on to allege that some members of parliament and officials from the Ministry of Labour own the recruitment agencies. Cotu’s Atwoli is on record saying, “most of the recruitment agencies in the country are owned by senior people in government and operate with impunity.”

Needless to say, confirming such allegations is far from straightforward. It would nonetheless explain why, despite Sakaja’s report and former Nominated Senator Emma Mbura’s April 2015 petition in the Senate seeking better policies for Kenyan migrants in the Middle East, not much has been achieved.

Mbura, a human rights activist, had proposed that the government develop a framework that spells out the minimum entry-level salary, weekly and daily rest periods, and signs a special employment contract with Saudi Arabia to protect Kenyan workers. The framework, she said, would also provide Kenyans with paid leave, non-withholding of passports and work permits, free communication and humane treatment.

Whatever the obstacles to reform, one thing is clear: a complete overhaul of the entire labour export industry is necessary because unless substantive reforms are undertaken, Kenyan migrant workers, particularly women, will continue to return to their families abused and mistreated.

Unless we listen to those who live to share their tales, others will continue to arrive in body bags - a state of affairs no amount of foreign currency can justify. – africasacountry.com

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

TECH

More students are looking at technology careers. Photo by Tech Cabal

SIX REASONS MORE STUDENTS ARE CHOOSING CAREERS IN TECHNOLOGY

By Luis Monzon

S

outh Africa’s youth unemployment rate has risen to one of the highest in the world.

With that, students are actively looking for opportunities and skills that are in high demand both in the country and all around the world. The main benefit of technology skills is that they can be implemented anywhere with the new normalisation of remote work. Many learnerships are also now providing remote opportunities in the information technology sector.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, the technology sector has gained immense scope and has replaced a lot of offline processes.

From substituting meetups and gatherings with video calls to replacing physical classes with e-learning, we are moving to a more digital world.

The eight best tech jobs Technology is the field of innovation and is not limited to social media or engineering, but it has immense scope and revolves around various fields. Some of the highest-paying jobs in South Africa are now in the technology sector.

For instance, the ten best tech careers whose demand is rising dramatically in South Africa are: 1. IT managers (Information Technology managers) 2. Computer Systems Analyst 3. Software Developer 4. Software Engineer 5. Computer Research Scientists and data scientists

6. Information Security Analyst and Data Analysts 7. Machine Learning Engineer or Artificial Intelligence 8. Computer science and computer programming 6 Reasons students are looking at technology careers The top 6 reasons why students are looking at technology careers are: 1) The world has gone digital We live in a digitalised world where people cannot stay away from the internet because its need is rising continuously. Numerous apps and software are under development to ease the lifestyle of humanity.

With the urge to move with the world, gain immense success, and not wanting to be left behind, students are becoming interested in pursuing their careers in the tech field.

2) Technology; the limitless and portable career The second benefit which students are looking toward technology careers is that it is not limited to one area.

For example, if you are a tech specialist, you can find opportunities in marketing, finance, entertainment, and the healthcare sectors. In almost every field, there is a need for tech experts.

Examples of technology in various fields ● In the health care sector, medical professionals require continuous tech advancement for earlier diagnosis and treatment of patients. For example, health wearables, artificial organs, and 3D printing are some of the significant technological advancements

in the health sector. ● Technology is required in pharmaceutical industries for the development and handling of machinery used to manufacture drugs. For example, the use of direct compression machines to formulate tablets. ● When it comes to marketing and entertainment, technology allows marketers and advertisers to generate more compelling and eye-catching ads for the web, TV, and social media.

For example, using modern editing tools or artificial intelligence like chatbots and SEO. Technology as a portable career Apart from needing the degree, technology is more of a portable career. You don’t always need a particular workplace to utilise your knowledge or earn, but having skills matters the most and brings vast employment opportunities.

3) Opportunities for everyone As mentioned earlier, technology is not limited to one area, but it brings opportunities for everyone. A lot of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges are now offering more courses in technology.

From graphic designers, marketing professionals, HR experts, and IT-related individuals to programmers and developers, the tech field needs everyone.

The rise in opportunities and demand is motivating students to start their careers in technology.

4)Tech is the field of innovation Technology is an industry that is

moving continuously and rapidly towards advancement and development.

It allows a country to prosper faster through the development of new creative product ideas.

While some other careers may cease gradually, the need for innovative products, ideas, and advancement will always remain.

5) Shortage of experts Another most common reason why students are looking forward to tech and particularly IT careers is because of the high demand but a shortage of experts.

According to research by the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA), there is an immense deficiency of ICT professionals in the country.

Moreover, the following fields remained less occupied in the past 12 years in South Africa: ● Software developer ● ICT system Analyst ● Computer network and system engineer ● Programmer Analyst ● Multimedia designer and advertising specialists 6) Great Demand Although South Africa is in some ways only just starting to experience more of the new digital world, it has been in the global tech markets for years. Hence, the need for software developers and computer programmers in businesses is growing rapidly, persuading students to choose technology as their career.

What are the benefits of having a career in technology?

Some of the major benefits of a tech career are: ● Remote work opportunities ● High demand ● Career flexibility ● Innovative field ● Vast opportunities and limited experts Rising poverty, unemployment, ground realities, lockdowns, and work from home have taken the world, especially less developed countries, in a completely different direction.

Using technology to start your own business Apart from the mainstream technology roles which have been discussed above. Young people are also looking at some more enterprising opportunities that are becoming available in the digital industry. Everything from making money by selling physical products, either making and selling items online or by purchasing from abroad or wholesales and then marketing the products in a process commonly known as drop-shipping.

Those that are more creative can now make careers in their own content and share it on one of the many media platforms such as YouTube or Twitter.

Wian Magician is one of South Africa’s most followed TikTokers with over 13 million subscribers. This shows the possibilities out there and how you can make money online.

Technology is the most in-demand career offering vast opportunities to students in South Africa as the field has a shortage of experts. That’s the main reason why nowadays, students are looking more towards tech careers as compared to other fields.

– itnewsafrica.com

YOUR TAKE

11

FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

SOUTH AFRICA IS AT ANOTHER CROSSROADS

When the orgy of looting, violence, and destruction of commercial property and infrastructure in July 2021 erupted in the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC government was paralysed and did not know what to do. Photo by Andre Swart/africanews.com/AP

A

government that is not capable of providing security to the nation must be replaced – democratically – by one that can.

South Africa is yet again at a crossroads. This means South Africans must make a major decision regarding their future.

At the last crossroads in 1994, South Africans had hoped for a bright future that democracy would bring about. Large numbers flocked to the polls and 62.65% of them voted for the African National Congress (ANC).

Ten years later an even larger number, 69.7%, voted for the ANC to bring about the promised land South Africans had fought for during 300 years of struggle.

South Africans have now reached another crossroads – brought about by the failure of the ANC government that South Africans had placed so much faith in to deliver on its promise of a better life for all.

ANC government failure and the cost to South Africa Twenty years ago, South Africa was the largest economy in Africa by far. It had the most developed and diversified manufacturing sector; it had the largest railway network on the continent and one of the largest in the world; it was the largest producer of electricity in Africa; it had the largest port in Africa, Durban.

By 2019, a year before the Covid19 virus struck, South Africa under ANC government had gone into steep decline. Misguided economic policies led to employment collapse; for example, in the footwear sector, where employment fell from 27 882 in 1995 to a mere 12 035 in 2002.

Today, South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in the world and not surprisingly 27% of children under five are stunted as a result of extensive malnutrition.

South Africa was overtaken by Nigeria in 2013 as the leading economy in Africa. It was later also overtaken by Egypt in 2020.

Its manufacturing sector had shrunk from 20% of gross domestic

YOUR TAKE

BY MOELETSI MBEKI

product (GDP) in 1994 to 13% of GDP in 2021; South Africa’s railway network was ravaged by mismanagement and lack of maintenance so that most of the country’s freight moved on road; the state-owned electricity company became a byword for incompetence.

The Port of Durban and other South African ports, according to a 2021 study by the World Bank, were among the least efficient ports in Africa and the world.

South African ports were ranked as follows: Ngqura 363, Durban 364 and Cape Town 365 out of 370 ports worldwide. The highest ranked African port was Djibouti, which is ranked number 19.

The failure of the ANC government was not restricted to economic failures; it extended to the critical area of human security.

In 1990 South Africa had one of the most developed militaries. It could field a well-trained and wellequipped army of half a million soldiers. It had highly developed military industries that had grown notwithstanding international sanctions.

Today the South African army has

been described as a welfare agency rather than a warfare agency.

Its army of 81 500 (66 500 active, 15 000 reserve) is ill-equipped, unhealthy, aged, and unfit. Most of its active service personnel are above the age of 40, and so are their fighting vehicles. The defence budget has collapsed from 2.6% of GDP in 1994 to 0.93% of GDP in 2019/2020.

The equipment procured for the air force and navy in the early 2000s is all but inoperative due to lack of spare parts and lack of qualified personnel to maintain and operate it, according to Lindy Heinecken, author of South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Military: Lost in Transition and Transformation. Less than a third of the 37 Oryx helicopters are operational; only five of the 26 Gripen fighter jets are operational; and only five Hawk trainers out of 24 are operational.

Only one of the four navy frigates is in service.

Anyone can walk across South Africa’s borders and do practically as they wish once inside the country.

Foreign poachers kill hundreds of rhinos every year. Importers of heroin and other drug merchants have a free run of the country.

When the orgy of looting, violence, and destruction of commercial property and infrastructure in July 2021 erupted in the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC government was paralysed and did not know what to do.

It issued an order to the police in Durban and Pietermaritzburg to do nothing. The police and the army made cameo appearances at riot scenes.

In a period of eight days when the two provinces were engulfed in riots more than 340 people were killed in the mayhem, many trampled to death during the looting, others killed by vigilante groups and private security companies, some burnt in the fires that destroyed malls and distribution centres.

According to insurance company Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality, property worth US$1.7 billion was destroyed.

The July 2021 riots that followed the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma confirmed what many people had suspected for a while – that South Africa is ruled by a failed government that is not capable of providing security to life and limb of citizens, is not capable of protecting the country’s assets, and has lost control of the country’s borders.

Allianz estimates that social upheavals are here to stay.

In the increasingly unstable world that South Africa is also part of, a failed government adds to the dangers the country faces.

“Incidents of social unrest are unlikely to abate any time soon given the aftershocks of Covid-19, the cost-of-living crisis and the ideological shifts that continue to divide societies around the world,” writes Allianz.

“Business needs to be alert to any suspicious indicators and designate clear pathways for de-escalation and response which anticipate and avert the potential for personnel to be injured, and or, damage to business and personal property.”

This is very good advice, but business on its own cannot provide the security that is the responsibility of government to provide.

The message should therefore be clear to the country: a government that is not capable of providing security to the nation must be replaced democratically by one that can.

Key indicators of ANC government failure are in the areas of security, international relations, and economic policy. These three are a crucial measure for government performance because they cannot be outsourced.

We have seen above how the government has failed to provide security; it has fared no better in international relations.

ANC government’s floundering foreign policy In 1990 South Africa was a giant in Africa. It had one of the largest armies on the continent, with a sophisticated industrial military complex.

In 1994, after years of apartheid, it emerged as a credible democracy with a leader, Nelson Mandela, who after many decades of prosecution by the apartheid regime, was preaching reconciliation and nation building.

For several years, Africa and the world adored South Africa and looked forward to it becoming Africa’s lodestar. As we have seen, since Mandela, South Africa has fretted away whatever strengths it had. Today South Africa has been described as Africa’s lost leader.

According to James Hamill, in his book Africa’s Lost Leader; South Africa’s Continental Role Since Apartheid, South Africa has failed to meet the conditions of a leader in Africa.

Hamill says the following were the conditions that South Africa needed to meet to become a leader in Africa: “The country would have had to view itself as a hegemon and be prepared to assert a strong claim to African leadership; acquire sufficient material power to make its hegemonic aspirations credible, as well as the ability to translate that power into concrete policy outcomes; and convince other African states to accept its leadership as beneficial for the entire region.

“The country would also have to demonstrate strong ideational appeal within the region, allowing it to build coalitions that promote core norms and values; and help stabilise the continent through the provision of public goods, particularly economic development, and mechanisms to maintain security and order.”

Under the ANC government South Africa has failed miserably to meet any of the above conditions of leadership.

It is largely because of the strengths and sophistication of the country’s private sector and academia that the world still invites the South African government to sit in its high councils. – moneyweb.co.za Moeletsi Mbeki is deputy chair of the South African Institute of International affairs, an independent think tank based at Wits University in Johannesburg

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Editorial POLICE ARE NO LONGER HELPERS AND PROTECTORS OF THE PEOPLE

I

n 1994, as the winds of change swept apartheid in a different direction, we all thought inequality, socio-economic ills and crime would be adequately and efficiently dealt a blow.

We envisaged that with the ANC in power, there would be commitment to achieving the social, economic and political goals to which it had been devoted to from the time of the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955.

The winds of change placed us in a space where we assumed that the new order will dedicate itself to working with the citizens in ensuring that South Africa experiences a modicum of safety and a system that would make us prosper.

The ideals and objectives that underpinned the struggles that earned the ANC access to power have been sold down the river. The party that continues to inappropriately accord itself the mantle of being the leader of society has become an enormous predatory creature. It has deserted the social rationality of the Freedom Charter.

Today, the contents of this important document exist as a cataclysmic admonishment to the governing party. It is therefore of little or no surprise at all that the ANC is deliberately allowing the Freedom Charter’s importance to fade out of public view and consciousness.

A markedly destructive attribute of the governing party’s Judas kiss of the values and undertakings that stimulated the struggle against apartheid and begot it power, is the socio-economic desertion of the black majority.

This neglect has driven some of our youth to crime. Our prisons are packed beyond capacity and we have Bheki Cele boasting that “the police put those criminals there”.

It’s a pity that nobody is willing to tell Cele that it should not be like that. By all means, arrest criminals but there is a need to transform the economy to reduce the crime rate.

That said, we have a police force that is not trusted by the public. The top echelons of our police service are wrestling in the mud of greed while criminals are having a field day.

The weakening of the South African Police (SAPS) service has been taking place for a while now and it is worsening. Even more heart-wrenching is the fact that evidence of a solid plan to tackle problems that have weakened policing is thin on the ground.

In September 2019 the Democratic Alliance revealed that “only 16.1% of police stations had enough police officers to meet the United Nations’ suggested police-to-citizen ratio which is 1:220”.

What was even more disturbing with the revelation was the fact that some police stations have had to endure unbelievably lopsided ratios of police officers assigned to protect people within their jurisdictions.

Examples of some police stations with overwhelming police-to-citizen ratio: ● Flagstaff police station in the Eastern Cape - 1 police officer per 2236 people or 1:2236. ● Mashashane and Nebo South African Police Service (SAPS) stations have to operate in communities where the ratios are 1:2121 and 1:2107, respectively.

No matter how dedicated a police officer can be, these conditions are a hindrance in the fight against crime. It is no mystery that we have low levels of visible policing, down in the dumps investigative capacity and insufficient intelligence services to fight crime.

As Cele goes around the country showing off his unequalled talent speaking out of turn, citizens are left to find ways to deal with crime in their respective areas.

It also does not help that South Africans, according to a 2019 survey by Global Corruption Barometer Africa, view the SAPS as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country.

This, regrettably, also stains the image of honest and hardworking police officers.

The Freedom Charter, which has become a scary document for the ANC, states the following: The police force and army shall be open to all on an equal basis and shall be the helpers and protectors of the people.

All people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed, and to bring up their families in comfort and security.

Where to from here?

In 2021, Johan Burger, a consultant on Justice and Violence Prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, wrote: “Given the ongoing mismanagement and criminality among some at the highest levels, it’s no wonder the SAPS cannot use its annual budget of over R101 billion to improve policing and public safety.

“Implementing two key NDP recommendations could help solve the leadership crisis. First, an independent panel should be established to conduct a transparent, merit-based process for identifying the best possible person to be recommended as national commissioner to the president.

“Second, a multi-sectoral National Police Board should be appointed to undertake a performance and integrity assessment of the senior management echelon, starting with the 199 generals. Top commanders performing their functions well should have their authority enhanced.

Those who are failing can be redeployed or removed from the SAPS. “Police leaders must have the necessary expertise, experience and skill and their integrity must be beyond reproach. Only once top managers comprise the highest calibre staff, will the SAPS be able to start improving its professionalism and performance to the benefit of all in South Africa.”

Bheki Cele.

Banyana Banyana are the new queens of Africa after coach Desiree Ellis led them to victory at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium. Photo by @CAFWomen

BANYANA BANYANA VICTORY HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMING

H

istory was made in Rabat, Morocco, on Saturday, 24 July when the South African women’s football team burst into the African and global limelight with dazzling brilliance and class.

Rising above all other national sporting teams here at home, Banyana has put the Madiba nation back on the world map, for all the right reasons.

Hats off to master coach, Desiree Ellis, the diminutive and unassuming 59-year-old from Salt River, Cape Town, and her gifted players.

South Africa is proud of award-winning Andile Dlamini, her fellow players and sisters, the likes of Bambanani Mbane, Karabo Dhlamini, Hildah Magaia and Jermaine Seoposengwe, among others.

Their emphatic 2-1 drabbing of the host nation to clinch the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) for the first time stunned spectators who had packed Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium to rafters into silence.

And that moment rightly belonged to coach Ellis who worked hard for this well-deserved victory.

A few days before the final, she was crowned the queen of all women football coaches on African soil. In a royal gesture, befitting of the magnanimous prayer of gratitude, Ellis fell on her knees to offer a prayer to the heavens when Rwandan referee Salima Mukansanga blew the final whistle.

The gesture was appropriate. With that blow of a whistle, Mukansanga confirmed Ellis as the only woman coach ever to win this title!

It was a long time coming. This was her sixth attempt; the last five finals were without success. It was also her third successive Women's Coach of the Year Award.

The build-up was steady, focussed and consistent. Ellis started by turning around the fortunes of the women's team from 2016 when she came in as a caretaker coach while the South African Football Association (Safa) searched for a “suitable” coach.

She remained in the job for nearly two years before Safa offered it to her full-time.

From then on, the name Desiree Ellis became synonymous with outstanding women's football in South Africa. She was in charge of the 2018 Women's Africa Cup of Nations final - losing on penalties to Nigeria - and

MY TAKE

MBANGWA XABA

qualified for the 2019 Fifa Women's World Cup for the first time in the national team's history.

What is more, she has booked South Africa’s spot at the 2023 Women's World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand.

And that’s not all. She has also unmasked an endemic disease that has been plaguing football for years.

It has been unnoticed until now - the foot and mouth disease.

Not to be confused with the farm animals' ailment, this one has to do with big mouthed football and political bigwigs that put their foot in their mouths each time they are hoodwinked by the beautiful game.

The most recent and conspicuous patient of the deadly “pandemic” is Hugo Broos - the loud mouthed seven-decades-old Belgian pensioner who works as our men’s national senior team coach.

After a string of spectacular failures, not forgetting the embarrassing effort to appeal a Ghana match that got us booted out of the World Cup qualifier wagon, we became a world laughing stock. Fifa publicly, through the media, lectured Safa and its “world-renowned” coach on regulations governing football as if they were illustrating to primary school boys.

And there’s more. Ahead of the Ellis magnificence at the African

championships, Broos, once again put his best foot in his mouth. He cried his lungs out about how South Africa was not producing "quality players" and how the level of the PSL was "not high enough".

"We don’t have those players like our three last opponents, Ghana, France and Morocco, have. When you see those teams - Ghana, 90% of the players (play in) from Europe. France, I don’t have to explain which players are playing in the team of France, all players are in big teams in Europe,” he bemoaned.

His list of complains was so long it only lacked the absurdities of the “white witch doctor” - one Philippe Troussier.

With an astonished nation, of course he was forced to eat humble pie instead of his foot. With an uncooked egg on his face, he offered an apology.

Then there was Sports Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa who appears to have his foot permanently in his mouth. He found himself at loggerheads with media personalities. I cannot decipher why, but he tweeted a congratulatory note to Banyana.

Correctly so, media personalities Bonang Matheba and Pearl Thusi lambasted Mthethwa for not offering more than empty words to the poorly paid ladies.

Women’s football is not professional in this country - these ladies basically play for free, coupled with the fact that Mthethwa has a R22 million to spare from a failed flag project. I think the minister can still do better to up the ladies game than heaping empty congratulations.

But there is an even bigger foot. It is the biggest nonsensical and sexist foot to enter any foul mouth.

Shortly after the Wafcon, Safa proudly announced that it would be paying players R400,000 each for winning the Women’s African Cup of Nations. In 2019 the same organisation paid the men’s team R520,000 for reaching the quarterfinals. They were promised R920,000 each if they brought the cup home.

Like the president’s expensive cows, the men’s Ankole team has no proven return on investment. This makes the call for an equal pay for Ellis's team with Bafana an insult to the champions. Pay our girls more, they deserve it.

OPINION & ANALYSIS

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PARENTING IN THE INTERNET AGE IS NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED O

ur children – unlike those of us who grew up before the internet era – are laden with an array of activities that are buffers that hinder them from facing the challenges of growing up. So, as a 21st century parent you are compelled to be present and pay attention and do it the healthy way.

I emphasise, it behoves us as parents, amid the massive challenges our children face today than we did, to provide direction.

It can be a daunting task because there is no manual on how to do it the healthy way. It is a learn-asyou-go minefield.

There are parents who tend to overcompensate because when they grew up life leaned heavily on the tough and rough side. A sizeable number of us are products of an era when lack was the norm and to delete that past we tend to do too much for our children.

Those in the know will tell you that doing too much for children is as bad as giving them no supervision at all.

This overcompensating is one of the reasons so many young people today have a gargantuan sense of entitlement which, when ignored, drives them to rough bouts of anxiety and/or depression.

You have probably seen parents who plead and bargain with their children.

They rustle up ineffective attempts to get children to mentally subscribe to the “respectable behaviour”. They go to as far as loading children with money, latest hi-tech gadgets and all gimmicks which regrettably end up producing a hedonistic kid with a sense of entitlement and a phony sense of security.

Our parents were not perfect also because perfect parenting belongs to TV stories. There existed a period when the parenting approach had fathers and mothers resorting to excessive backlash, reacting with less than appropriate force or intensity or going into total denial.

Where I was born and bred, eKhenza in Soweto, there were parents who made excuses for their murderous children’s behaviour. They fell short of selling their limbs to protect the thuggish behaviour of their children. They provided wrong protection and choices versus guidance.

They triggered confusion in children when all that was required was creating boundaries and giving direction.

There were parents whose interaction with their children was reserved for unleashing a tirade of harsh words, beatings and exerting destructive pressure. These are the types who demanded nothing less than top academic performance and all other imaginary acts of perfection.

Unfortunately, this placed tremendous stress on children which ultimately led to depression and limited the freedom to make their own choices in life. A number of those who were subjected to this militaristic parenting have become overcompensating and/or emotionally detached from their children.

Over-parenting It is worth taking into consideration that not every child-rearing form is in the child's best interest. Psychologists have pointed out there is a thing called over-parenting.

Photo by www.auntybimbo.com

life (interests, friend groups, school work). ● They have difficulty expressing their feelings, even with adults. ● They’re unable or unwilling to provide comfort during emotional distress. ● They’re unwilling to engage in any feelings — positive or negative.

The psychcentral.com also talks about Dr Zeynep Biringen’s emotional availability assessment model which includes other signs, such as: ● They neglect a child’s basic needs or offer only the most basic level of care. ● They behave hostilely or intrusively toward the child. ● They freely express negative emotions such as frustration, annoyance or boredom during interactions with the child. ● They act as though the child is incapable of doing age-appropriate tasks.

This, they reckon “can cripple children as they move into adulthood and render them unable to cope with the merest setbacks”.

There exists, among us, parents whose style of raising children is akin to “eagle-eye parenting”, where children are overly supervised to keep them out of harm's way. There is also “street truck sweeping parenting”, whose function is to remove any potentially hazardous obstacles from a child's path. These habits have the potential of harmfully impacting a child's future self-determination.

Experts say it can lead to problems with mental health and create a sense of low self-esteem.

Detached parenting There are parents who are emotionally detached from their children.

I heard some people call it “undersized parenting”. Research has proven that absence of parental emotional engagement results in unwholesome behavioural patterns in children. An emotionally detached parent leaves the child no choice but to be too dependent on peer influences and social media.

Emotionally disconnected parents are not responsive in moments when emotions are anticipated. They lack the aptitude to extend their emotional responses in the face of a child’s emotional needs. While there may be

no precise guidebook on how emotionally absent parents act, an article penned by psychcentral.com states the following: According to Nancy Denq and Sarah Epstein, both marriage and family therapists, common signs include the following: ● They lack the ability to “mirror” (reflect the same emotional state that a child is experiencing). ● They respond to children’s emotions with impatience or indifference. ● They avoid or prevent discussion of negative emotions. ● They’re dismissive or overwhelmed when the child has in emotional need. ● They’re not interested in the child’s

A teenager’s tale of an emotionally detached mother I'm my daddy’s daughter more than I am my mother’s. The woman I call my mother is an emotionally detached person.

All she does are the basics and she has a sickening habit of putting up a façade in the presence of visitors. In the absence of visitors I feel rejected.

In my memory, never once do I remember her ever expressing love towards my siblings and me. It is something she is completely incapable of; that much I have deduced.

Her obsession is with her mobile phone and partying. Every time I see her on the phone, I feel unwanted, angry and jealous because she is more focussed on her friends or whoever it is that tickles her fancy.

I don’t have any recollection of receiving emotional support from her, except from my dad. I have no emotional connection with the woman who is supposedly my mother. If I need help with anything, I’d rather talk to my dad because my cries to emotionally connect with her go unnoticed.

What I find strange is that if I put one foot wrong she beats the living daylights out of me. As a girl I need my mother’s emotional connection, attention, positive affirmations, support, encouragement, nurturing, love and affection; I realise it will never happen.

I’m grateful for the presence of my dad, otherwise I would have long fallen into a dark pit of negative emotions; mood swings, depression, inability to emotionally connect with others, anxiety, stress, inability to speak up for myself when an occasion calls for it.

With her not connecting with me emotionally fills me with a fear that a time will come when I will not talk to her because she is one of the causes of my distress. I have mixed emotions…I don’t think I can ever trust her. The uncomfortable and scary part is that I do not love her as a daughter should love a mother.

As for respect, I have none whatsoever.

I don’t openly deal with her badly, but I will forever keep my distance in any manner necessary.

I have sought counselling for this teenager before she completely loses all her marbles. The ultimate objective of parenting is to do our utmost best to be loving and caring but firm, while allowing children room to choose their interests, to delve into individuality, and to encounter failure.

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FEATURE

WARSAN SHIRE’S PRAYER FOR THE UNMOURNED Warsan Shire is a British-Somali poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. Photo by Yves Salmon/Flickr

By Farah Bakaari

not necessarily a site of lament, but a source of refuge. Here, loneliness is neither denied nor medicated, and therefore has the potential to be temporarily alleviated.

Throughout the volume, loneliness trails people like ghosts; it is unspoken though often shared, intimate, familial, corporeal, sticking to the skin like monsoon mosquitos. Girlhood, for instance, is first and foremost characterized by abject loneliness, a loneliness born precisely out of knowledge encountered too soon and language acquired too late.

The collection opens with a poem titled Extreme Girlhood, a sort of an ode to what it means to live with the noisy solitude of girlhood unheard.

But my favourite on the subject is The Abubakr Girls Are Different, which relays the quiet violence through which girls come to see themselves as girls whose presence is, consequently, always contested and often unwanted.

In the poem the girls observe each other as observed, becoming aware of their changing bodies and how the world contains and disciplines such bodies. The last two stanzas witness the girls’ circumcision and worth quoting in full: After the procedure, the girls learn how to walk again, mermaids with new legs, soft knees buckling under their raw, sinless bodies.

We lie in bed besides each other, holding mirrors to the mouths of our skirts, comparing wounds.

W

arsan Shire’s first fulllength poetry collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, is a kind of a prayer for losses unmourned. The collection tackles a wide range of subjects from mental health issues in immigrant communities, to botched sex education, to femicide.

It creates an environment of a young poet eavesdropping on private outrage and public shame, walking in unannounced on family secrets and immigrant dreams transported in the wrong language. It is as if in this act of unsanctioned witnessing that the young poet also discovers her voic - the poet as not only the one who looks but she who names and addresses what gazes back.

Shire is a British-Somali poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. The inaugural Young Poet Laureate of London and the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature, she became widely known for her collaboration with Beyoncé. Yet, Shire was one of the early poets who had become famous within the “pop poetry” or “Instagram poetry” scene - featuring either short videos of original poems read by the poets themselves or social media posts quoting pithy verse.

Although Shire is barely online these days, there remains an instilled eagerness for her online persona, evidenced by the fact that most reviews of her new book are profiles on her rather than critical engagements with her work.

She first published her poems in 2011 as a chapbook called Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth. With this volume Shire’s poetry enters a new, more adult phase, experimenting with longer, formally inventive poems that cannot easily be accommodated by an Instagram caption or a refrigerator magnet.

A phenomenon this collection definitely and repeatedly engages, or more accurately, blesses, is the quiet loneliness that plagues immigrant lives. There is the loneliness of those who never learned how to properly leave a world behind.

One of my favourite poems in the collection bears the somewhat awkward title, My Loneliness is Killing Me, which captures the loneliness conveyed in the melancholic reminiscences of an older Somali man living in London.

The speaker “observes” her uncle on a rainy afternoon as he chainsmokes, drinks strong Somali tea, and recalls a childhood spent on the beaches and streets of Mogadishu to the tune of Hassan Aden Samatar. He is waiting for a sign. I put “observe” in quotation marks because while the poem is told in the third person, the reader is nonetheless acutely aware of the presence and the look of another; a sense of loneliness

intruded upon.

In the last stanza, the absent presence of the poet is made explicit. The stanza begins with the line “cidlada ka aktaw, Abti,” which, in an unfortunate tendency of the text, translated as “be stronger than your loneliness, Uncle.” But this is only one of two possible translations as it is much more ambiguous in Somali.

The noun “abti” can be used to address the niece as well as the uncle,

so the line can be uttered by either party.

And so, the first translation (where the niece instructs her uncle to be stronger than his loneliness) lends itself to a reading of a poet - and by extension a reader - repulsed by the scene into whose witness she has been conscripted. In the second translation, (where the uncle is addressing the niece), the uncle’s shrine to ghosts of dreams past is

These extraordinary lines stage what Natalie Diaz borrowing from Berger termed the pre-verbal, “as in the body when the body was more than body. Before it could name itself and be limited, bordered by the space body indicated.” Shire’s verse captures the bewilderment of bodies dwelling in the border between recognition and cognition.

Yet, language is not universally priced in Shire’s text, for to acquire language is to acquire shame, which is to say, to know less. This is the case for Bless Maymuun’s Mind, where a woman is prescribed antidepressants as she sits suspended in between two worlds, neither of which sees her.

When she calls home, they remind her “how blessed she is, how proud they are, how all their hopes depend on her.”

Story Continues on Page 15

FEATURE

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

Warsan Shire is a British-Somali poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. Photo by Yves Salmon/Flickr

Story Continued from Page 14 And the doctors, unable or unwilling to probe beyond the symptom, up her doses. Language fails her once more, this time because it names a little too specifically. She listens. “She imagines she will die here, alone, far from home.”

Shire is at her best when she does not over-explain but holds back and trusts her readers to take the interpretive leap. A brilliant example of this is Bless This House, a dark funny poem that exploits aphorisms - “are you going to eat that?” and “oh, this old thing” - for an irate meditation on the ubiquity of domestic violence and rape culture.

In the poem, patriarchy is represented as a form of death drive, where men inflict violence on women as a mode of self-annihilation. The poem ends with: “At parties I point to my body and say/ Oh this old thing? This is where men come to die.”

But sometimes the collection falters as the tone becomes more didactic, and the form less inventive. For instance, reprinted in the volume is one of Shire’s most frequently circulated poems, Home. Despite its popularity and the formidable passion with which it addresses forced migration and treacherous journey to refuge, the poem lacks any substantive formal sophistication.

It is hard to find poems like Home or Hooyo Isn’t Home wanting, given the gravity of their subject matter.

But, instead of distilling the truth, the prodigious literalness of these indignant verses have the undesirable effect of making the readers’ eyes gloss over, becoming numb to the text.

Shire’s predilection for over-explaining makes me wonder who exactly are her imagined or intended audience.

There is an awful lot of translation and transliteration in the volume.

Non-English words and phrases are almost always translated in the poem, and in the few instances where they are not, the translations are provided in a glossary at the end of the volume.

The insistence on translation as well as the tendency to italicize non-English phrases so as to visually mark them as a linguistic “other” might signal not only an awareness but also a certain capitulation to the gaze of a white reader (and perhaps to the demands of a white publisher).

The work of linguistic translation is only but one part of the cultural translation that is demanded of the

minoritised, racialised artist.

But how might we reassess the politics of translation when the artist herself inhabits an in-between space, and where linguistic and cultural translation are compulsory for everyday survival? In Shire’s text, dark humour becomes a way to enunciate the struggle to reconcile the incommensurable demands of belonging to more than one culture at once.

Consider Bless the Bulimic, in which the speaker seeks God’s forgiveness for her eating disorder: “forgive me please,/ famine back home.”

The absurd humour of drawing parallels between her compulsion to forcefully eject food from her body to the epidemic of famine and mass starvation in the ancestral homeland is demonstrative of the perils of translation.

As a result, she is unable to exercise self-compassion or recognise her bulimia as a legitimate medical disorder precisely because she equivocates the incommensurable. Translation, then, is at once a symptom and a remedy for a certain linguistically mediated diasporic schizophrenia.

In interviews, Shire speaks about the predominance of poetry in her Somali community in London. But this influence, at least at the level of form, is virtually indiscernible in her own poetry, which shares no formal characteristics with Somali poetic tradition and whose strict adherence to metrical scansion stands in sharp contrast to Shire’s stream-of-consciousness style.

Instead, her free verse has more in common with the genre of hees or Somali ballads, an affinity to which the volume itself concedes in its invocation of great Somali vocalists, such as Hasan Adan Samatar and Magool instead of, say, Hadraawi or Hassan Sheikh Mumin.

Regardless, the collection has something to offer for Shire fans and sceptics.

There is a certain unflinching truth in her verse, that while not always formally interesting is always daring, even accusatory. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is a tender offering for the bulimic, the lonely, the homesick, the depressed, the abandoned, the misfit, the paperless - an audacious uneven volume from a talent who might just be getting started.

– africasacountry.com Farah Bakaari is a doctoral student at Cornell University and researches 20th and 21st century African literature, postcolonial studies, and trauma theory. She was born and raised in Somaliland.

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is Warsan Shire’s first full-length poetry collection.

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LABOUR MATTERS

USE OF CANNABIS IN THE WORKPLACE I

n this column we look at the case of Bernadette Enever v Barloworld Equipment, a division of Barloworld South Africa (Pty) Ltd, case numbers JS 633/20 and JS926/20. The judgment was delivered on 1 June, 2022.

According to court records, the applicant (Enever) was employed by the respondent (Barloworld), from 11 April, 2007 until she was dismissed on 30 April 2020. At the time of her dismissal, the applicant occupied a position of Category Analyst which was a typical office or desk position.

At the time of her dismissal, the applicant had an unblemished record.

The applicant testified in court that she had suffered severe constant migraine and anxiety which affected her general well-being, as well as tempering with her sleeping patterns.

Consequently, she was prescribed medication by her doctor for pain and anxiety which proved to have some side effects on her. During or about May 2012, the applicant was prescribed pharmaceutical drugs which required daily consumption of about 10 pills (including sleeping tablets) to ease pain and assist with sleeping.

Following the Constitutional Court

UMSEBENZI TEBOHO MOKOENA

case which decriminalised the use of cannabis, especially in private spaces, and during or about October 2018, the applicant gradually moved away from consuming pharmaceutical pills to using cannabis oil and smoking rolled cannabis as an alternative to

achieve the same results.

The applicant further testified that she also used cannabis recreationally by smoking rolled cannabis every evening to deal with insomnia and anxiety. This, according to her, also improved her overall health, outlook and her spirituality.

According to the applicant, smoking cannabis makes her feel closer to God which also assists in her quest to addressing her internal struggles.

The court heard that the respondent has an Alcohol and Substance Policy which the applicant was aware of.

In terms of the respondent’s Alcohol and Substance Policy and in order to gain biometric access to the respondent’s premises, employees are required to undergo screening and/or medical tests.

On 29 January 2020, the applicant was made to take a urine test.

The results came back positive for cannabis. On the same day, she was informed that she was unfit to continue working and was ordered to immediately leave the premises of the respondent.

She was subsequently placed on a seven-day “cleaning up process”. As part of the process, the test would be

repeated on a weekly basis until the applicant was cleared by negative test results.

Her accumulated annual leave would be utilised in lieu of the time off while on the “cleaning-up process” and in the event that the annual leave was depleted she would then be placed on forced unpaid leave.

The court established that it was common cause that, at the time of undergoing the urine test, the applicant was not impaired or suspected of being impaired in the performance of her duties nor was she performing any duties for which the use of cannabis would be said to be a risk to her own safety or that of her fellow colleagues.

The applicant was also not in possession or suspected of being in possession of the cannabis while working at the respondent’s premises.

The court heard that during the period 29 January to 28 February 2020, she was denied access to the respondent’s premises as her further tests continued to detect cannabis in her system. This was so because the Applicant continued to use the cannabis for both medical and recreational reasons.

The applicant was accordingly

charged with breach of the respondent’s Alcohol and Substance Abuse Policy and on 25 February 2020, a notice to attend a formal disciplinary hearing was issued to her. The disciplinary hearing sat and the applicant pleaded guilty to the charge on the basis that she has indeed tested positive for cannabis.

During mitigation, she indicated that she did not plead guilty to being intoxicated or impaired at work. She also indicated that she was never “stoned” at work and reiterated the importance of smoking rolled-up cannabis every evening as well as daily use of CBD oil to relax and maintain her improved medical benefits which reduced her pharmaceutical drug dependence.

A summary dismissal was imposed against the applicant.

The chairperson’s rationale for imposing dismissal as a sanction was that a final written warning would not serve any purpose because the applicant had refused to give up consumption of cannabis.

The Labour Court, having listened to arguments from both parties concluded that the applicant’s two claims of discrimination and automatically unfair dismissal must fail.

I am of the view, taking into account all of the circumstances and the law and fairness, that, notwithstanding the outcome of these two claims, there should be no order as to costs.

This case, like all others that I have shared on this column, raises critical issues which require further interrogation and elucidation.

I have therefore decided that the next column will continue to focus more on this case.

I will delve deeper into the arguments and counterarguments which were at play in this matter. Briefly, among others, I will focus on the following: ● Provisions of sections 6(1) and 11 of the Employment Equity Act which deal with Discrimination and Unfair Dismissal respectively; and ● The provisions of The General Safety Regulation 2A of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 11.

I will also look at the following case law which this court relied upon in arriving at, and framing its judgment: 1. Transnet Freight Rail v Transnet Bargaining Council and others (2011) 32 ILJ 1766 (LC) at para 19; 2. Harksen v Lane N O and others 1998 (1) SA 300 (CC) at para 4; 3. Kroukamp v SA Airlink (Pty) Ltd (2005) 26 ILJ 2153 (LAC); 4. Tanker Services (Pty) Ltd v Magudulela [1997] 12 BLLR 1552 (LAC).

5. Exactics-Pet (Pty) Ltd v Petalia NO and others 4 (2006) 27 ILJ 1126 (LC) at para 12; 6. Mgobhozi v Naidoo NO and Others 5 (2006) 27 ILJ 786 (LAC); 7. Gcwensha v Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Others (2006) 27 ILJ 927 (LAC) at paras 24 and 32; 8. Sethole and others v Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality [2018] 1 BLLR 74 (LC) at para 69

MOTORING

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

VW MIXES THE OLD WITH THE NEW!

I

t’s common knowledge that there is growing resistance to the continued use of fossil fuel.

Car manufacturers are doing all they can to prepare themselves for when fossil fuel becomes obsolete.

The fear to be caught napping has seen car makers go on overdrive - coming up with hydrogen and electricity-powered vehicles… the future of mobility.

Tesla has been leading the way in producing electrically powered vehicles. This has had ripple effects that even old school vehicle manufactures are investing heavily on hydrogen and electrically powered technology.

VW is one such company.

It has ramped up its technology such that companies like Mahindra rely on the tech for their own battery powered production models. One of the VW battery-powered vehicles is the VW ID Buzz.

VW has been torturing all car enthusiasts with teasers of the Kombi sibling for the past five years. Finally, we got to see what the VW ID Buzz looks like.

We are told it has been completely taken off fossil fuel…the ID Buzz is totally electricity-powered.

Most of the teasers we received were actually concept versions – the production version is a bit toned down.

The clever design has taken the car back to its origins; well, minus the large engine at the front. It bears a naughty welcoming front grin. It has a futuristic look while carrying the 1950 Types 2 VW Microbus DNA. As some of us know, the VW Kombi is a classic and icon which, a car museum is incomplete without resurrecting it and combining it with futuristic looks was an act of genius.

It set the internet ablaze upon the first announcement.

The iconic T1 was an in-thing around the 60s, you would know if you are a dinosaur like me. Several models have followed in its footsteps but none could quite fill those shoes.

The VW Caravelle almost came close but not quite. It lost some of that happy mood street cred hype.

It has always been a market priority of VW to resuscitate the recipe with several hit and miss attempts.

The trick is to balance the introduction with something as spectacular as the T2 sibling. If the studio photos and European test results are to be relied on, they might just have found the winning recipe.

RIDE ON DUMI XABA

What we know so far It is boxy like the original celebrity T1. The body is compact – there has been some weight-shedding.

VW has been toying around with the two-tone paint for some years and the ID Buzz will retain that tradition.

The semi triangular LED lights are stunning, especially in studio pictures taken in the dark.

The individual LED fog light sets it apart from anything you have seen before. Like most EVs, the interior is clutter free and stunning. The 10-inch LED screen (12 inch is optional) which comes standard with navigation function blends quite well with the dash.

The Euro spec length is 4,712 mm with a height of 1,937mm and the width is 1,985mm. The front seat comes with adjustable arm rests and two-tone interior.

The launch vehicle is a 5-seater.

However, VW has promised a 6-seater in the later life cycle of the ID Buzz.

The centre airbag is a new feature to protect passengers in a collision.

The back seat is a bench seat. Non animal material can be ordered as an option for those who are sensitive about the wellbeing of creatures.

The Euro spec comes powered by a 154kw and 310N.m battery motor.

The actual performance figures from this power train including battery range have not yet been officially disclosed.

You have an option that allows reverse charging. As such, you can power some appliances with electric-

ity from your EV. The wheels enhance the I-have-arrived appearance on this vehicle.

VW is a bit reluctant to announce if we would be getting one in the near future or if it will be one of those cars that remain stuck on our wish lists.

If it does come to South Africa, one has to strike a balance between making a decision to save on fuel or be caught wanting during load-shedding. It takes roughly 53 minutes to fully charge the batteries.

The Euro spec is priced at around £58 000 which is just a rev shy of R1 million.

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

FEATURE

Sibongile Mphuthi’s original idea was to build a home for senior citizens.

SIBONGILE’S STATE-OF-THE-ART BACK2BACK RESORT TO PUT SEBOKENG ON THE MAP

By Thabang Mbulase

I

f the glitz and the glamour that was witnessed at the launch of Back2Back, a resort perched at the foot of a koppie just outside Sebokeng in the Vaal, is anything to go by, the residents of this area are in for a great time.

At the launch, the excited owner of the place, Sibongile Mphuthi, told guests that her initial idea was to build a home for senior citizens because they are close to her heart.

Sibongile said: “I have worked with abogogo and love and understand them. So, I wanted this place to be their home. But this place will not be suitable for them. I wish I can get a cool, quiet and right place.”

The name Back2Back is “borrowed” from her mum’s shebeen of the 1960s, a popular spot in Small Farms, Evaton, which used to be frequented by mostly the elite class, including whites, who were forbid-

den at the time to be in the townships.

She thanked everybody who had been a pillar of support since she identified and started her journey of turning this dry, unattractive space into a lively playground for the Vaal fun lovers.

A lot of thanks went to her four sisters, husband and close friends, who she said had prodded her on to run with the idea.

Sibongile said as she was toying with the idea of starting a business, specifically a home for the oldies, she was fortunate to meet a Mr Mokoena, who told her he had land that he was no longer using.

“A distraught Ntate Mokoena said he had abandoned his farm because since some people moved into the area, all her cattle had been stolen.

"He said whenever he looks at that place, his heart sinks with pain. I told him I want that place.

"He asked me how much I had. I said I had no money. I went to my

husband and asked how much he had. We put our money together,” Sibongile said to appreciative laughter.

She said Mokoena was kind enough and told her they can even take five years to pay him back, there was no rush.

She said: “Here I am talking about unmatched kindness. Then, I started making my plans. They did not pass.

I was anxious to see my dream coming to fruition.”

She said when she told inspectors who had come to check the land and her plans, they told her she couldn’t build an old age home with an entertainment area side-by-side.

“They said the two can’t go together, because when people are drunk, they are going to cause a lot of noise for the oldies. That is when the idea of a Lifestyle entertainment centre came in. I am grateful to the Diphoke family who own that kind of business in Evaton.

“They shared their ideas with me

without reservations. Again, here I am talking about kindness.

"They showed me all the ropes of how to go about with that kind of an entrainment place. They were generous with their knowledge and experience. The fact that I am standing here today, it is because of them.”

The resort boasts a guest house with 12 rooms, a self-catering house for 16 people, 12 braai areas and four swimming pools. There is also a huge playground for kids.

Back2Back started operating in November 2021 before it was officially launched recently.

So far, many well-known DJs have spun their stuff there.

Though it is perched in a semibushy area, its beauty and attractive colour is visible from about a kilometre away as it stands out boldly.

The glittering function was attended by many socialites, including former Emfuleni Local Municipality speaker, Maipato “Phado” Tsokodibane, Basic Service Lead

Administrator Silas Zimu and other famous citizens of the Vaal Triangle and politicians.

Sibongile’s friend, Tshidi Morake, said one of her mate’s strength was her humility.

“Humility is her greatest strength.

This woman is so humble and I sometimes wish I can emulate her. With her on my side, everything we plan, we execute,” she said.

Tsokodibane said it was time for the Vaal to raised its hand. She hoped this place will put them on the map.

Zimu said he was grateful that the Vaal township has given birth to such a beautiful place.

“You must support this place instead of going to places that are far like the Emerald and others while you have an entertainment place in your own backyard.

"With your support this place can grow in stature. I will be one of the first ones to sleep here when he rooms are made available,” Zimu said.

SPORT

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FRIDAY, JULY 29/AUGUST 11

Story Continued from Page 20 The family moved eight-year-old Naomi – then dreaming of becoming a marine biologist – and older sister Mari to Florida to train in professional settings, spurred on by her agility and court poise.

She describes her sister – who retired from tennis last year and is now a fashion designer – as her best friend: “[Mari] is an incredible artist and trailblazer. I could never beat my sister until I was about 12 or something... that pushed me and probably made me the player and person I am today.”

At the age of 10, Osaka began representing Japan – a decision made by her parents to champion her heritage – and shortly before the age of 16, she went pro. It was in 2014 that a tentative path crystallised. “It was when I beat Sam Stosur, who had won the US Open,” she says.

“I was only 16 and ranked outside the top 400, so it was a shock result to some. To me, that was probably when I realised I could have a really good career.” At 18, she was playing at the Evert Tennis Academy, which boasts alumni like Lauren Davis and Madison Keys. The late Kobe Bryant was a brief but important presence in her life: “Kobe was a mentor and big brother. I miss him.”

Osaka’s biraciality has augmented her world-view. Her Australian Open triumph in 2019 made her the world’s No. 1 female tennis player and the first Asian person to take the title in either men’s or women’s tennis.

“I feel like this is really my strength: being unique and also having diverse life experiences which have made me more tolerant, accepting and curious,” she says.

“I can feel myself having different characteristics from each parent, which directly reflect the nationalities. I am quite soft-spoken, which is definitely from my Japanese side, but I think my fierce competitiveness comes from my Haitian side.” So far, Osaka’s life and career have been about percolating in her multitudes, which she hopes to lean into.

“I feel like this is really my strength: being unique and also having diverse life experiences which have made me more tolerant and curious," she said.

Captivated by fashion Fashion has captivated Osaka from her first trip to Tokyo’s Harajuku district as a child, with its high-octane, expressive street style.

“I have always loved fashion, from the time my sister and I would sketch while driving to tournaments up until today and being able to actually design my own collections,” she says.

“Fashion is about taking chances, and what I love most about it is that there is never a right or wrong – it’s more about expression and art.”

Osaka has been sponsored by Nike since 2019, joining the likes of Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe as an ambassador for the brand.

The partnership has borne three apparel collections that speak to her playful, colourful aesthetic and love for technical pieces – her first capsule was finished with her own personal logo, a rendition of the Japanese flag, while a shoe collab with Nike and Comme des Garçons used her signature and the handwritten mantra “home is where the heart is” as intimate motifs. She calls Nike boss Phil Knight “one of my mentors and favourite people in the world”.

“It’s such an incredibly collaborative process with Nike. I feel that, as I evolve, so do my designs,” she says of the brand, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

“I love to be playful by mixing fun prints and patterns and using bold colours and versatile styles that can be interchangeable. My second signature collection really embodies this approach and certainly blurs the lines between sport, style and culture.”

This year, her sneaker game has been striking – an electric oil slick of blue, green and black for clay-court season – though the colourful designs might not be hopscotching Henman Hill to pass Wimbledon’s tight dress code just yet.

Osaka is carving a personal space in fashion. She has collaborated with Levi’s and is a Louis Vuitton ambassador. She spoke of her and Nicolas Ghesquière’s shared love of Japanese style, and mutual curiosity for each other’s work.

“I learned that if you don’t know, then ask – and that in fashion [if] you go with your heart, your love for art, then you can really never go wrong,” she says.

Adjacent to her fashion ventures, she launched her own pioneering skincare line, KINLÒ, designed for melanated skin tones.

The brand’s name is derived from the Japanese and Haitian words for gold.

In collaboration with Nike, Osaka’s Play Academy initiative launched in Japan to encourage young girls to enjoy movement and get into sport.

It has since expanded to Los Angeles and Haiti. The project is rooted in

Osaka’s experiences of racial and gender inequality, her transcontinental heritage and sporting career. “We focus on breaking down barriers for young girls in sport and levelling the playing field,” she says.

“It started in Tokyo, where I read about the huge disparity in girls dropping out of sports earlier than boys.”

Since 2020, the initiative has given multiple grants to grassroots organisations to support girls in sport.

There is still much to parse – the scorching heat of the spotlight, sponsors, creative control, and the weight of being a cultural symbol in a conservative sport. But there are also life’s pleasures – gaming with Fortnite

and Apex Legends, vibing to Cordae’s new album, and her dog, Butta.

In the final hours of 2021, Osaka tweeted: “I’ve never been more excited for a year to be over.”

Osaka’s 2022 is on an incline, but the path is not linear. A spectator heckling “Naomi, you suck” rattled her at the Indian Wells Open, but her coping mechanisms are improving.

Now she’s seeing a therapist regularly.

“Very proud of myself,” she tweeted, “for reaching a point in my life that despite the lows, I would still rather be myself than anyone else.”

At the Miami Open in April, the light seemed to have palpably shifted, as Osaka threw explosive backhands

to reach her first final since Australia.

“I know I haven’t been in this position for a little while,” she told the hometown crowd with a smile.

“The outcome wasn’t what you wanted, but hopefully I can keep working hard and be in a position to do this again soon.”

Whether stacking slams, resetting the narrative or cultivating herself, Osaka is far from the finality of game, set, and match. – dazeddigital.com

Taken from the summer 2022 issue of Dazed

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NAOMI OSAKA: ‘BEING UNIQUE IS MY STRENGTH’ N

aomi Osaka is one of tennis’s hardest hitters, with a powerful serve that topped 125mph at the 2016 US Open. It’s a swiftness and strength that, two years later, won her the first of four Grand Slam championships, beating her idol Serena Williams at just 19 years of age.

Osaka’s most seditious statement required no super forehand or even any words. At 2020’s US Open, she wore masks sporting the names of seven Black Americans killed by police – Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile, and Tamir Rice.

“Looking back, I think that was definitely the first time I realised that I had a voice, and it could be used in a positive way,” the 24-yearold says today. “I just went with my instincts.”

It’s these instincts that guide her towards serenity, self-worth and a success story that transcends the scoreboard. Osaka has cultivated a soft power in her break from tennis, reflecting and pursuing other creative and commercial ventures.

Last year, she decided to pull out of the French Open rather than submit to press commitments stipulated by the competition. She was fined $15,000.

The goal was to protect herself and her mental health first – she has spoken of the stress and self-

At just 24 she’s won four Grand Slams, lit the Olympic torch, and changed the way we talk about mental health in sport forever. Hitting back against her critics, Naomi Osaka reflects on the quest for self worth that transcends trophies doubt post-match media conferences give her. “The intention was never to inspire revolt, but rather to look critically at our workplace and ask if we can do better,” she wrote in an op-ed for TIME. The moment also reflected broader pressures she sees foisted on sports stars. “I think as high-level athletes, we are accustomed to being trained to win at all costs, but actually there are more important things in life, and it doesn’t define who we are as people,” she says.

“It’s a big change, but also quite subtle at the same time.”

High-profile athletes like basketball’s Steph Curry, sprinter Usain Bolt and tennis legend Billie Jean King voiced support for Osaka. In 2021, she opened up about the bouts of depression she’s experienced since 2018 – the same year of her US Open win against Serena Williams, where she was visibly upset by the crowd’s fierce heckling.

Lighting the torch at the Tokyo Olympics that year was a “career highlight”, but her quick exit and loss “sucked”. Later that summer, Osaka shared a tearful admission at the US Open: revealing that win-

ning no longer made her happy, she announced her second hiatus from the sport. Osaka’s stand against the relentless pillaging of athletes’ personhoods and impassioned protection of her mental health has shifted the mental health paradigm in sport. She has recently gotten behind the mental wellness startup Modern Health.

Others across the world of elite sport have begun to get candid about the toll taken on their mental health, like Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles and record-breaking swimmer Simone Manuel. The pressure to be peerless, for mental as well as physical toughness, is being sloughed away. Tennis has always been a tradition-bound sport, steeped in rituals, match etiquette and strict dress codes – Osaka heralds a new generation.

‘Chaotic neutral’ is a descriptor derived from Dungeons and Dragons, but you’re more likely to have seen it volleyed around the internet. The term describes characters who forgo the rules, follow their hearts, and prioritise their freedom. So far, so Osaka.

“As a kid growing up, I never really talked; I was the quiet one,” she

wrote on Instagram in 2020. “I was the one that wanted to just skate by unnoticed and conflict-free. But the beauty of growing up is learning and seeing things for yourself... As I grow I will learn more things, but at the moment I can only hope I’m using my platform well.”

Osaka is known in the public sphere as quiet and introverted, yet she’s also fast emerging as a prominent voice for social change on and off the court.

“To be upset at an athlete expressing an opinion is bizarre to me. It’s archaic and ignorant, but it doesn’t bother me too much now,” she said.

In an essay for the New York Times, Osaka wrote that “sports have never been apolitical, and as long as they continue to be played by human beings, they won’t be”. She mentioned her personal hero, LeBron James, once told to “shut up and dribble”; Muhammad Ali, sentenced to prison during the Vietnam war for refusing to be drafted because of his religious beliefs; and Coco Gauff, a rising tennis star and passionate vocal supporter of Black Lives Matter.

Osaka’s own actions in navigating acclaim and celebrity, emotional well-

being and speaking truth to power have garnered backlash. “It’s archaic and ignorant, but it doesn’t bother me too much now,” she shares. “To be upset at an athlete expressing an opinion is bizarre to me.”

Days after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Osaka and her boyfriend, rapper Cordae, flew to Minneapolis to participate in her first-ever protest.

Osaka refused to play a semi-final match at the Western & Southern Open in August that year after a police officer shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times. She also swerved a match to appear in a tribute video to Floyd, “Racquets Down, Hands Up”, by tennis player Frances Tiafoe.

In a testament to her growing influence on the sport and broader culture, the tournament rescheduled the match rather than have her forcibly withdrawn.

Osaka was born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father in Osaka, Japan. The family moved to Long Island, New York, when she was three. Her father, Leonard François, was a self-taught coach who homeschooled his two daughters and modelled his training programme on that of Richard Williams, Venus and Serena’s dad – “the blueprint”, he has said, “was there”. (Osaka loved the recent Oscar-winning biopic, King Richard.)

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