It’s not demons, drugs or unhappy ancestors – mental illness is a reality

The case of Zandile Mafe, who is accused of burning down parliament, highlights once again the issue of mental health.

Whether he is unstable or not, is neither here nor there. But this incident is a conversation starter that it is not necessarily witchcraft, nor “the calling” that “messes with one’s head”.

Black society worries me when it comes to mental illness. If one suffers from depression, bipolar disorder or even schizophrenia, it cannot possibly be a mental condition.

It’s demons, drugs or the ancestors are unhappy, but it can never be a mental illness. So many people go untreated because, as a society, we have decided to shelve an issue that affects the lives of many people.

I know someone who suffers from a mental illness, one who refuses to admit that psychologically they may require help. One day he may put his and the lives of others at risk while he seeks to slaughter a goat or a chicken, when he could simply pop a pill or two and keep things going in life.

ALSO READ: Life Esidimeni inquest shows why ‘mental health must be taken seriously’

The truth is that, sometimes, we refuse to believe the mental health of some people is not at the level we would like it to be, and it has nothing to do with external factors, but an internal struggle. People with mental problems are, if untreated, very dangerous.

They are a bomb waiting for the most inopportune time to go off. The issue at hand is that when someone’s life is hanging in the balance of reality and that of invisible ghosts, sometimes we need to recognise the struggle for
what it really is.

People with mental illnesses do not lose their status as human beings, they still count as people
who matter… If the government had remembered that, those people today would still be alive and, on the road to recovery.

We need to take care of those with mental illnesses, thus equipping them to carry on the good fight for their own survival. Tragedies of mental health, such as Life Esidimeni, should never happen again. We need to protect those who are not in position to care for themselves.

The cracks of our society are too full of vulnerable people that we neglect because of standards we have created – at the expense of others.