Simply Philile

Firstly, congratulations to EFF leader Julius Malema for his BA degree graduation.  For me, it’s not even about the weight or meaning of the academic qualification but more about what this young man and his infant organization sell; they sell confidence and fearlessness in our life time and Malema has demonstrated exactly this with his university graduation this week. It’s key to note the confidence and fearlessness with the same importance as the phrase IN OUR LIFETIME because Malema’s story of a poor boy from the grassroots level of society, raised by a single [grand]mother, rising to become a powerhouse, is a story we have heard before but always remarkable, and to witness it IN OUR LIFETIME makes many people who are the target audience of the EFF buy into their campaign for economic freedom IN OUR LIFETIME.  Malema’s is also a story of a young man who faced many hurdles in the sometimes deadly game of politics but HE CHOSE not to be distracted or defined ...

I once wrote somewhere that in this day and age, we should be teaching children more about leadership rather than HIV/Aids (which in essence is teaching them about sex).  I still believe in these words that I publicly shared for the first time about four years ago. Before you throw your toys out of the cot, please note that I’m deliberately choosing to address the sexually transmitted kind of HIV in this article for the purposes of my larger argument about leadership, because after all, in Swaziland, like in many parts of Africa, the disease is mostly transmitted from one person to another via sex. There seriously should be many other useful life skills that ought to be taught from as early as 10 years old; the same age that is targeted for sensitizing (especially girls) to HIV/Aids prevention and care messaging.  We need new ways, new norms and stuff because we need to change the way we function as a society…we need to think outside of sexual reproductive heal...

What a week of mixed emotions it’s been for me!  From the good news that Ghana is moving towards where all progressive Africans have always wanted to go;  free movement of Africans within Africa,  to the not so great news that the country I live in is run by a family rather than a government.  Kung’phindzel’ etulu mncwi (talk about real time déjà vu);  to the same country’s deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, announcing the good news that government is considering decriminalizing the oldest profession in the world – sex work;  to the ever present reality that the raging and abrasive Donald Trump could be my next boss;  to songbird Mshoza’s insistence on going under knives and daggers just so that she can resemble some other woman that her ancestors don’t recognize;  to some Swazi bachelor declaring that the reason Manzini Magistrate, Sebenzile Ndlela,continues ‘to destroy other people’s lives is because she does not have a spouse’....

In my conclusion of last week’s article which focused on International Women’s Day, I asked what there is to celebrate for elderly women on this day if they are still expected to live on a monthly grant equaling the price of a case of 24 beers.   I also asked if and why tax paying Swazis are even okay with the paltry grants given to the elderly and disabled. Coincidentally the minister of finance, Martin Dlamini addressed the issue of the elderly in parliament earlier this week, albeit with no good news at all.  The minister told parliament on Tuesday that there is no way in the near future that the E265.00 grant for the elderly would be increased to keep up with inflation (although keeping up with the living standard of first world countries where we’re headed would be more ideal really). In the same sitting, the minister confirmed to parliament that government is looking to spend 50million bucks during the August 2016 summit of the Southern African Developm...

I wrote the below article on International Women's Day 2013. Thought I should share as its content still remains my truth. Still, so many unanswered questions because sometimes, as women, as parents, as professionals...we just never question those who owe us answers. It seems peaceful that way. But does it have to be that way? Shrug. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last night as I lay in bed thinking about how we’d all be celebrating/commemorating International Women’s Day today, I remembered a joke by American comedian Chris Rock.  Chris jokes that from a very early age females are constantly ducking the one thing that men willingly and readily offer to give and how much or a burden it must be for women.   Chris says “From kindgarten when that little boy says do you want to share my lunch? He’s actually saying ‘how about some dick (penis)?’”… When he says “I’ll open that door ...

Next Tuesday is International Women’s day. One of my friends remarked how boring a topic this is when I told her I was considering it for today’s article.  For my part, I was reluctant at first to write to this subject because I feel that I’ve been writing quite a lot to women’s issues over the past few weeks. But sanity prevailed when I realized that for the first time since I started ‘teaching’ about Women’s Day over two years ago,  I have national reach through this column, to help correct the inaccuracies around Swazis celebrating ‘Women’s Day’.   Yes, we seem to be the perpetual victims of passive alien culture consumption, leading us to celebrating historical events that have nothing to do with us. Quite frankly, it’s been excruciating to observe practically the whole country – public and private entities, invest financial and emotional resources to commemorating Women’s Day on August 9 of each year.   As, I recall, there was e...