I didn’t see the rape video of the 17yr old mentally ill girl. But I have witnessed a rape. Yup, I actually watched it with my family. We huddled around a laptop in a dimly lit bedroom on a winter night. It was shocking but, well, not entirely life changing or enraging. Why not? Well,...
Author: Vus Ngxande
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Rape (Part 1)
There was a video of a 17 year old, mentally handicapped girl allegedly being raped by 7 men that went viral in South Africa. The country was up in arms at this appalling incident. There was anger and frustration from every sector about everything from woman and child abuse, lack of leadership, a lost youth to...
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Auntie – In The End (Part 3)
“I will not cry…I will not cry” Says Sinah, or Grapes – as her family called her. I call her Auntie. An elderly coloured lady who has become more of an emotional presence, than person I know. She says this as she uses my jersey to wipe her tears. Inhaling deeply to summon back the...
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Auntie – In The End (Part 2)
I’m anxious about what Auntie is about to tell me. The story of how she ended up living on the street, she had said. I’m anxious not just about the story but also because of the fact that I’m already late for my own farewell dinner. A farewell that I’m dreading because, at the end of...
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Kasie – The Betrayal. The Glory (Part 2)
One day, one day… I remember Stones were soft, red knees shining stoeps bright like Sunbeam Cobra’s sliding across shiny kitchen floors. When old timers rode sticks and grannies sniffed Taxi’s We pushed Ferrari bricks and lived in mud mansions. Dusting of soles so that North Stars shine forever. Before I had her FB profile...
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Kasie – The Betrayal. The Glory (Part 1)
It’s December holidays and as with every year, I’m at my mother’s house in Mohlakeng. It’s a medium sized kasie (slang for township) house 45 minutes outside Jo’burg. It’s around midday and I’m sitting outside the house on the pavement with my 9yr old nephew and his friends. They are telling me what they want...
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When Your Best is Not Good Enough …
What do you do when you fail at the one thing that you believe you are best at? When you don’t just fail but you are utterly crushed by defeat in a way that rips out your very heart out? It is the 2nd July 2010 at Soccer City in Johannesburg, the world bears witness to, perhaps, the most...
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Nelson Mandela …
For most of us who were born in the 80’s, it wasn’t really clear what the commotion was about during that time. We knew that we were born in to a system that, essentially, didn’t want us. We knew from a young age that there was this thing called being black and it meant that...
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Letters To My Son (Part 3)
SINS OF THE FATHER By the time you were 5yrs old you had developed this thing of grinding your teeth when you’re asleep. It is a loud crackling sound that causes as much cringe as it annoys, it’s called bruxism or something. But to say you ‘developed’ it is only a part of the truth....
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I Like It In The Dark …
“Bring on the night, couldn’t stand another hour of daylight”, this was a dope house joint way back. I love the night. There so much that can be said about how things change the minute the sun hits the deck. A single hour in the dead of night contains more truth than the entire day...