Simply Philile

In 2005, at age 26, I met and fell in love with a man who impressed upon my life immensely. This man’s spirit of purposefulness, his abilities towards self-development and the advancement of others were extraordinary. He was married to Nonhlanhla. They had one child – a girl. He had built this small family of his a three-bedroom house complete with its own study and library using his own bare hands. He also used the study to conduct marriage counseling sessions because he was passionate about the institution of marriage too. When we met, he was in the process of writing a book titled ‘Dignified by Indignity’. Not a big deal you would think. Probably not, except Joshua Simelane from Maliyaduma was blind since age two. He was 32 years-old when I first met him in 2005. He had great ambitions of ensuring that the needs of all people living with disabilities were integrated into the day-to-day Swazi lifestyle and culture, starting with education at the University of Swaziland where he h...

The other morning, on a Saturday, I was minding my own bae business and preparing to water my lawn and veggie garden when I heard a voice greet me in a whisper. It came from my neighbor’s balcony. So I looked up and hesitantly acknowledged her greeting and stayed gazed at her to say ‘What do you want?’ She starred back, hurriedly looked sideways and to the horizon, over her shoulder and then back at me. This time my facial expression was in capital letters “What do you want FROM ME?”  She repeated the same indecisive body movements. I was confuzzled – firstly neighbors in this part of the world don’t greet neighbors just for the just... nje ! We don't have time. Secondly, I consider greetings by strangers a nuisance.  So, you can imagine how at that moment I was hating my nameless neighbor (I honestly don’t know her name) for disturbing my emotions with her rubbish greeting. As I carried on with my chores, she whispered again. This time it was worse because she...

I know, I should be joining the rest of the region in dedicating all my energies to praying for the rains to fall and end this devastating drought, but I can’t. I have to get his off my chest first because it’s of equal national importance and urgency. Here’s the thing; it’s either men cannot count or women had no business taking Additional Mathematics lessons in high school because now we’re not in sync when it comes to adding a simple sum based on only two numbers - 50/50. The other day my friend went to the movies with her children. She came back mad. As hell. Mad because her lover of two weeks had invited himself to the outing and the end result was my friend exceeding her budget for the evening. She had never before experienced such a man - a man who not only expected her to pay for his movie ticket and pizza but also had the audacity to invite himself knowing full well that he would not pay for his entertainment… even when requested to do so. And this is a grown man with ga...

To read from a national newspaper that the Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala, failed dismally to explain what programs his ministry has to address the growing scourge of drug abuse amongst young people was disappointing. But certainly not surprising. At all. To read of such unapologetic incompetence five days before the continent collectively commemorated Africa Youth Day on November 1 was discouraging and sad, but again, not surprising. I mean, we are in the year of our Lord two thousand and fifteen, where globally, most cabinet ministers and politicians (un)worthy of our tax are using all available communication platforms to reach their target audiences with relevant messaging in real time – twitter, Facebook, Instagram, flicker etc. Yet our beloved Cruiser has absolutely zilch information to share about existing interventions for this significant segment of the population, not even to share with his own colleagues in parliament. The q...