We have allowed the maiming of Madiba’s memory

It has been five years since Nelson Mandela’s death. Five years since what we believed held us together as a nation was laid to rest.

Five years since every person of colour can boldly declare they have an expectation for the land to be returned.

In this time, we laid to rest his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. We buried a peacemaker and a rebel with a cause – but where have their lessons led us a country?

Have the rights of the minority been diminished in the emergence of a majority voice – no matter the lack of resources available to that majority? Has the safety, security and the recognition as equals of women and girls become of grave importance? Are children safer? Are the youth becoming employable?

Are we growing as a nation?

Sadly, as women, we are unsafe. Legislation is drawn up, commissions of inquiry give recommendations – but when do these recommendations translate into being more than just words? What has government done to translate all these gatherings, all the protests and anger into legislation that protect women?

The plight of the child is heartbreaking. Some fathers have taken leave of absence. Children are born into wedlock and the split of the family unit has become acceptable. Suffer the little children who will grow up in broken homes as they will become broken adults.

This society is just churning out broken souls and we have accepted this as a norm and mask our broken form behind memes and sarcastic jokes.

The continuous looting and corruption has found residency within our community, leaving the nation bewildered by sticky fingers and brown envelopes bursting at the seams with public funds.

The corrupt and those who serve in office are not ones who put the flag before the lining of their pockets … so where do we get the nerve to mourn Madiba’s loss, when we have allowed the maiming of his memory through the strangulation of everything he stood for?

Indeed, may we cry the beloved country.

Kekeletso Nakeli-Dhliwayo.

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