Category: Families
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They cut his life short
CEBISILE YAWA CALA, EASTERN CAPE Andile Yawa took his first train journey 36 years ago – to the mines. He was 20. “I didn’t have a blanket, only a blazer, and my mother had bought me a pair of secondhand shoes that were too tight,” he says. “That was the first time I wore shoes.”…
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How do we survive
THABISO THELEJANE PABOLONG, EASTERN CAPE The peach trees in Makopano Thelejane’s yard are withering in the late autumn dryness. The peaches in the front are for the neighbours and the ones at the back are for the family, Makopano tells us in a lighter moment. That’s what her husband, Thabiso, used to say. “He was…
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How can you love me?
BONGANI NQONGOPHELE ELLIOTDALE, EASTERN CAPE Marikana’s grapes of wrath have produced a bitter vintage for the families of the dead. Trauma, unresolved grief and impoverishment converge in desperation and, sometimes, squabbles for the scant resources left behind. The death of Bongani Nqongophele has torn his family apart, as acrimony grows over how best to use…
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I’m beginning to be free
NKOSIYABO XALABILE MTHATHA, EASTERN CAPE Lilita Xalabile spent just 19 precious days together with Nkosiyabo Xalabile as his wife. They were married on July 7 2012. He returned to Lonmin’s Marikana mine after their honeymoon, and died in the massacre on August 16. At our first meeting with Lilita, in March 2013, she was mourning…
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There is only salt and soup
NTANDAZO NOKAMBA KHALANDODA, EASTERN CAPE “I’ve been having visions of my brother. I have this dream of seeing my brother and child staring at me as if we are talking. They are always on my mind,” says Molokwana Nokamba. Molokwana’s brother, Ntandazo, was killed at Marikana on August 16. His own 11-year-old child died “immediately…
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The pain still feels new
JACKSON LEHUPA MATATIELE, EASTERN CAPE Culture and poverty connive in the aftermath of the Marikana massacre. For Malukisang Lehupa it means marking the end of the mourning period for her husband, Jackson with a “semi-umembulo” — a cleansing ceremony. “We can’t afford to slaughter a cow now,” says Malukisang, “So we are doing half the…
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Mandela would have come to us
MZUKISI SOMPETA LUSIKISIKI, EASTERN CAPE The massacre at Marikana has sent ripples of death through the families of the men that died that day. Mabhengu Sompeta says that when police killed her son, Mzukisi, on August 16 2012, they also killed her husband, Mxolisi. “He died two weeks after we buried my son on September…
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He dreamed of flying
MOLEFE NTSOELE DIPUTANENG, LESOTHO The dead fly to Diputaneng. Or sometimes they ride, strapped across horses. For the living, it’s a three-hour drive out of Maseru and past Semonkong on increasingly steep and treacherous roads before parking at the scattered hamlet’s local school and completing the last two and a half hours on foot or…