While the whole country is still gripped in mourning, following the passing away of the Mother of the Nation, Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela-Mandela, as usual, her sad departure has been met with a lot of emotion, promises, tributes and endless speeches in her memory.  

 

Nothing new and this has become a norm over the years. Nothing is going to change anytime soon. Nothing will come out of this sad loss, just like the ones before and, unfortunately, the ones to come. This is a sad reality facing our country where we are all about talk but no action. We are a reactive bunch that continues to do the same things over and over again and expecting different results, which is commonly known as insanity thanks to the late German-born theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein.  

 

Instead of celebrating our people while they’re still alive, showing them the love, respect, acknowledgement and appreciation, we choose to do so posthumously which doesn’t make sense at all. It is the same as starving and neglecting your parents while they’re still alive and then going out to buy the most expensive casket, getting beautiful decorations, giving them the best sending-off money can buy and giving the best eulogy when they’re no more. While that is well and good in the eyes of the living, it is meaningless to the departed because what they remember is their experience while they were still alive. That’s what they leave with – whatever you do afterwards means absolutely nothing to them and you’re only doing it to the gallery. They would rather you spent your money on them when they were still alive instead of showing off to people who don’t even matter.

 

The lesson here is to learn to appreciate our own while they are still alive and stop with this nonsense of praising people when they are no more! What is happening with the passing of the late struggle icon is exactly what happened with her late ex-husband, Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani, whose 25th commemoration was just yesterday and many others. They were not alone in the struggle, but we are going to wait until more of them departs before we start making noise about the role they played in demolishing apartheid. More and more Struggle icons are living in abject poverty while those in power continue to enjoy the fruits of their hard labour and sacrifices, without lifting a finger to secure our freedom. Both Mandela and his ex-wife stood for human rights, equality, non-racialism, tolerance and freedom. 

 

Instead of remembering our fallen heroes through fancy speeches, how about we do as they’d do in the positions we find ourselves in? Do you think they would be happy with the segregation policies in our workplaces, where certain groups of people enjoy special privileges because of the skin of their colour? Would they be happy to see the same bosses who hero-worship them keeping certain opportunities and privileges for people of certain colour? Would they be happy to know that the same bosses pay their employees according to their skin colour? Would they be happy to know that the sport loved by so many, football, is also used to promote these injustices behind the scenes, where people are treated differently owing to the pigmentation of their skin? Would they be happy to know that the same people who praise them for putting their lives on the line in order to free our people and obtain equality are now treating women as lesser human beings to their male counterparts?

 

Would they approve of female footballers representing their country being treated differently to their male counterparts? 

If you know that you don’t treat people fairly, don’t respect them, don’t value and invest in them while they are still alive, then you have no right to shout these Struggle icons’ names. It would be hypocritical and blasphemous of you to praise them for their heroic actions and then not practise what you preach. That would be tantamount to spitting on their graves, so there are many ways to remember Winnie Mandela since she’s the latest departure. Let’s start right here and right now to right the wrongs and practise what we preach.  

 

On a different note, this is the piece of information I have been dreading to share with our readers because I wish it could be avoided. Soccer Laduma’s cover price will increase from next week’s edition of April 18th, 2018. The difference will be 20c so, from next week, a copy of Soccer Laduma will cost you R3.90c and this is because of the recent VAT increase among other things. We have always tried to keep our cover price as minimal as possible, which is why this is the first increase in almost three years. The last price increase was in July 2015 when we applied a 20c increase from R3.50c to R3.70c and we hope you, our wonderful readers, will understand and continue giving us your unwavering support.

 

Cheers,

VeeJay