“To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and threat of eternal indecision.”  Dr. Maya Angelou

THE AIM OF RELIGION IN THE WORLD EMBELLISHED BY GLUTTONY

THE  FACE  OF RELIGION IS EMBELLISHED WITH GLUTTONY AND GREEDY PEOPLE WHO CLAIM  TO KNOW THE REAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE WORD

There is uncertainty to what religion means to us and the greater communities of our nations (humanity) in this latter day mission to faith. More and more focus is placed on acquiring material wealth, rather than reaching for the hearts of the “meek”. Many people are being doped, into assorted  religious affairs that promises eternal healing, giving endless riches to the verisimilitude leaders, however leaving many robbed of their daily essential provisions.

Around the world, especially in the African landscape, the aim of religion is obscured, with false Prophets arising out of the need to gain wealth from the needy rather than to improve the lives of those that are destitute. South Africa is one place that is filled with such occurrences of pseudo-instant-healing Pastors; who come in the form of Christian faith missionary leaders – cults, claiming the “WORD” as their weapon.  

In Johannesburg and surrounding areas, nomadic religious missionary cults are prevalent, with leaders from other countries in the African terrain. Making religion a business, filled with performances of the “WORD” and scams to make the faithful pull out their last “Rand”, their last “Dollar”, their last “Bread” hoping blessings shall be bestowed upon them, and they shall be saved from eternal damnation.

Karl Marx once cautioned, “…it is not the consciousness of men which determines their existence, but, on the contrary, it is their social existence which determines their consciousness.”

History is bedecked with people who are manufactured by their existence; people who claim that they are the chosen ones that will lead people from darkness to light, only paving the way to their extermination - using the “WORD” as their phony consciousness.

This new age uncertainty to phony wordy consciousness, coupled with greed, has marched the world into a chaotic order, and created false Prophets. Prophets who predict the end of the world; who go to hotels and lock themselves up for a whole weekend, only to wake-up to a reality that the world is still going around the sun, dawning in the east and dusking in west.

The unfortunate thing about the reality to life, is that no man on earth possesses supernatural godly powers, that enables one to bring the dead to the living, or take away a terminal disease from the terminally ill. Yes, the world does have people who can foretell the past and the future, however none of these people are Messianic in temperament and aptitude. They only aspire to be, however in so doing , do more damage.  

The truth about humanity and all its social stance, is that in the face of giving hope to the hopeless; love to the hated; healing to the beaten, and care to the needy – the face of religion is embellished with gluttony and greedy people who claim to know the real consciousness of the word. Its original purpose lost in tainted hands of humankind.

WORD TO THE NEW TRUE WORD REVOLUTION    

By Linda Sakazi Thwala    

Not a Nineties Baby, walk forged and shaped  by the tears formatted by the Gas. Dripping unto Mellow Yellows and Hippos. Shouted the unknown Mandela’s name barricaded by stones of Calvary – Kiwi, Coca Cola trucks going up in smoke; somersaulting, rolling with burning flames and blood in hand. Not a Nineties Baby! I was born in the seventies, witnessed the eighties’ uprising - Comrade! Word to the Power of Light! NELSON MANDELA, AND BANTU BIKO are my philosophy.

A Tribute to ANDREW MAPHETO: Thembisa’s Iconic Radiance to the Struggle, Gone Too Soon

YOUNG: Andrew Mapheto

The life of Andrew Mapheto, affectionately known as “Ranjo” by his comrades; a man that the street, Andrew Mapheto Drive in Thembisa (Formerly known as Tembisa, in Gauteng, Johannesburg) township is named after, was a collage of historical existence filled with religious and political activity that bestowed the Mapheto name with an honor that is refined by a burning radiance of love, misunderstanding, sorrow, a struggle for emancipation, democracy and a yearning for a better future for the people of Thembisa and South Africa as a whole – a fighter against white domination, which led to his incarceration in Robben Island after the Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial.

A lettering compendium of an agent of hope, that placed Mapheto’s name into the confirms and archives of the African National Congress (ANC), for the underground; was forged by the unfortunate misgivings of the apartheid system which he was inadvertently born into on the 21st of October 1958, in Soweto, Molapo section, to his father Reverend Makgale Phineas Mapheto, who was the minister in charge of the Sophiatown Branch of Kgopotso Apostolic Faith Church and a member of the ANC and Communist Party (who later joined the Liberal Party, when the ANC and Communist Party were banned in 1962), and his mother Martha Mapheto bringing happiness to the Mapheto family.

As a toddler in 1959 Mapheto and his two sisters Rebecca and Meme were taken to Senekal in the Free State, the birthplace of their mother, by his mother, (where his parents were married in 1954) when his father was arrested under the Group Area’s Act, for entering Johannesburg without a Reference Book; an event that led to the untimely death of his mother, in 1962, to an unanticipated short illness in a Senekal hospital.

In 1963 after his father’s second marriage to, Ms Limakatse Martha Thobena, and a nasty paternity tussle between his father and his in-laws for his three children in the Free Sate, Mapheto and his two siblings moved back to Soweto to live with their father, however due to his father’s obligation to the Bantu Presbyterian Church which he joined in 1965 during a tent gathering by the Dorothea Mission, at White City, in Jabavu, Soweto that demanded him to attend ministerial studies, they were sent to live with their father’s parents in Malekapane Village in Pieterburg, were Mapheto began his scholastic education in GaMphahlele Village – later obtaining his primary school education in Bloemhof were the family had relocated due to his father’s ministerial commitments.

Later in 1965 when Andrew was seven years old, the Mapheto family relocated to Tembisa, were his father was to assume a leadership position as a Reverend for the Bantu Presbyterian Church, therefore was entrusted with a mission to start a new branch for the church. The church was initiated by a small troop of worshipers that gather in the dining-room of Reverend Mapheto’s four-roomed house, at no. 609 Mashemong section – troops, who shortly that same year converted their faith to the Baptist Church when Mapheto senior decided to join the latter.

Mapheto become a loyal follower of his father’s Baptist parish; he was a well mannered young man and incessantly attended the Baptist Sunday Bible School class, as result topped everyone that took part in those classes, in the whole Republic.

In the early days of 1976 Mapheto left Tembisa to visit the Selatle family, in Molapho and decided to register at the Central Western Jabavu High School (CWJ) and started studying there for his secondary education, whilst staying with the Selatles. However, due to the 1976 Student Uprising, and the chaos that ensued, Mapheto decided in June that year to go back to Tembisa and enrolled in Thembisa High School. (Popularly known as Thembisa High)

Immediately after enrolling in Thembisa High, in July 1976, as young comrade, Mapheto was an instrumental leader in mobilizing students in and about Tembisa to march against the injustices and defective Bantu Education system that forced Bantu students in the Republic to learn all their subjects in the apartheid oppressor’s propagated language – Afrikaans.

Following the March, Mapheto was hounded by the Security Branch (SB) and his adopted brother, Thabo Mapheto (born 1960) fell victim to the SB’s harassment tactics, when he was apprehended at Kgatlatso Primary School and beaten to a pulp, for not knowing his brother’s whereabouts.

Thereafter Thabo Mapheto fearful of the SB, clandestinely disappeared only to resurface in Lusaka as Moffet Mapheto, when his letter reached their father a month later that same year. ( Thabo committed suicide in Lusaka that same year – shot himself)

Mapheto’s first attempt to leave the country, with a friend, via a Alexandra Township contact was crushed when Mapheto and his friend, accompanied by Mapheto’s father, Reverend Makgale Mapheto learned that their contact was regrettably detained at a local police station. Nevertheless, Mapheto’s persistence, and “self-starter” attitude led him to an underground ANC route through an educator Teacher Nkosi, that led to Lusaka. (Nkosi was later sentenced for Aiding and Abetting the banned ANC and Communists - Mapheto’s father was asked to testify in his trial)

In September 1976 Andrew Ranjo Mapheto, aged Nineteen-Years-Old (19) succeeded in evading, both the Security Branch and South African Police, when he went to exile, reaching Lusaka, Zambia and pledged allegiance to the African National Congress, and joined Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), the Military wing of the ANC, after an intensive guerilla training in Angola and Lusaka. Mapheto subsequently rose to the rank of Regional Political Commissar in MK.

He was sent back to South Africa in 1979 to reconnoiter, mobilize and execute military sabotage orders for MK and securely, immediately returned to his camp in Lusaka.

Mapheto came back to South Africa with an Identity Document as “Mandla Natalie Khumalo” for the second mission in late 1979 and was captured in Tzaneen that same year, together with Jimmy Ngobeni and others; they were taken to John Vorster Prison, then Modderbee Prison . Later, he was charged for High Treason and sentenced to fifteen years to Robben Island in the famous Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial.

In Robben Island Andrew Mapheto and his fellow comrades, Ronnie Mamoepa, Joseph Molabo, Sakhi Macozoma, Grant Shezi, Mzi Khumalo, Thomas Masukhu (who was responsible for recruiting Solomon Mahlangu), and David Moisi, to name but few - were in the “Paint Span” (Paint Job) and were in charge of the communication network between the top brass and the outside world. And they were all dedicated to their studies.

”We were the scholars of politics and the revolution, studying other revolutions – how to bring other revolutions into our ideology. Understanding the history of humankind and the world, studying the history of the ANC. We were revolutionaries.” reminisced Ronnie Mamoepa (Department of Home Affairs’ Deputy General for Communication and spokesperson)

While in prison, Mapheto had a Junior Certificate (JC), and strived to farther his education, obtaining his Standard Eight to Matric through correspondence, with only four subjects (five subjects were required). He then enrolled for a BSc Degree with the University of South Africa (UNISA), with Mathematics and Statistics as his majors. Leading up to his release from prison Mapheto had almost completed his Degree.

As prisoner 19/5710, Mapheto served eleven years of his sentence and was released, together with Tokyo Sexwale and some of his comrades, on the 9th of June 1990. (PRISONER 19/5710 MAPHETO ANDREW 10 MPHO BAPTIST CHURCH; TEMBISA; KEMPTON PARK DATE ADMITTED : 79.11.15 - DATE RELEASED : 90.06.09 - Robben Island Political Prisoners | South African History Online) 


When he was released between 1990 and 1994 Mapheto was involved with the Reorganising Committee for the ANC in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (P.W.V) region branches which incorporated Katorus, Johannesburg, Tembisa, and Greater Pretoria, for the upcoming National Election that summoned the start of our Democratic State.

He was the co-founder of the ANC branch in Tembisa and was elected Chairperson, whilst Doctor Mamathole Motshekga was elected vice-chairperson for the region. He was also extensively involved with the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa (IDASA).

Later in 1994, because of his “unique qualities” in finance, the ANC sent him to attend in one of the world’s leading and influential Banks, JP Morgan Bank, in New York City, were he stayed for two years refining his trade; returning to South Africa in the middle of the year in 1995. Where in August that year he joined the Rand Merchant Bank as a Senior Manager entrusted with numerous responsibility, including the Restructuring of State Assets.

In October 1995, two months after his return, aged 37 years old, Andrew Ranjo Mapheto’s light of life was prematurely extinguished when his car overturned, in Sasolburg, Free State on his way back from a funeral that he had attended with friends, colleagues and family members. There were three other people with him in the car that he was driving.

Lamented by his family and friends as, “an educator, manager, initiator, leader, organizer, thinker and facilitator – an assertive person on matters of principle”, Tembisa’s iconic radiance to the struggle and freedom, gone too soon.

“The man that the street Andrew Mapheto Drive in Thembisa township is named after”

WORD TO COMRADE ANDREW MAPHETO'S FORGOTTEN REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala

Linda Sakazi Thwala

Occupations: Journalist, Poet and Spiritual Healer

Contact: 0606454754
WhatsApp: 0658384039

e-mail: lindasakazithwala@gmail.com

I HAVE A MAN BUT DO OTHER MEN!!

I never knew that thinking of yourself first, especially when it comes to the vanity of upholding a good moral standard, it terms of relationships, makes one ‘self-centered’. I never knew that, not until a girl that I met in a taxi on my way home, who happens to live in my vicinity, sent me a rather confusing message, after I had suggested we exchange numbers and communicate for a while, she readily agreed.

A Short Message Service (SMS) beeped through my cell one evening, that read: “So I guess I’ll be losing out on a wonderful friendship but I can understand that, some people would rather have 0 (zero) contact than to continue in the direction extremely opposite to their expectation. I see this is a very familiar pattern with you and I’ve not known you long enough to come to any clear conclusion about you but don’t you ever feel like maybe you should do some introspection since the common denominator in the cycle is you. I’m not being judgmental or trying to play therapist but there are a few things you can do that might bring you different results next time. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes. I am girl, I have a little knowledge about this breed but hey 0 (zero) contact is cool by me.”

Yes, I had formatted expectations about her, the third occasion I saw this graceful dark deliciously scholarly poised young lady in the same route home, with a book in hand. No, my expectations were not just a rudimentary friendship with just a woman. I wanted to know her and everything about her – what tinge made her body and soul tingle and appease; her likes and dislikes, her perceptions, optimism and skepticism about life.

I decided to give it a shot, give her a call and we initiated transverse cellphone conversations, stretching three weeks; chatting about this and that and everything under the sun, her biblical beliefs and library collection, her preferred emotive color and musical taste. Our conversations went on until, she earnestly, distinctly told me she was not seeking for a relationship with any other man because, she is in a long-term relationship with a guy that she evidently adored and had christened her “Man”.

When a woman tells you that she is in a loving relationship with her man, and is not seeking an alternative to what she has. And you are a ‘single’ guy, that had formatted dreamily ideas of falling in love, had stated your intentions initially, of being in a loving relationship with that same woman. Not a platonic relationship but, a fully fledged romantic courtship; and were told to quell those thoughts not for now or maybe later but forever, that means you are not getting anywhere.

Therefore, I politely asked this beautiful scholarly poised young lady to forget about me calling her and conversing with her about this and that and everything under the sun. Why? She unequivocally stated that she had a “man” that she unquestionably adored, and was not thinking of letting go anytime soon. “Zero contact” I pleaded with her.

Hence, the dubious reply that convicted my personality to the confines of “self-centered” dome. I was utterly flabbergasted! How can I be “self-centered” when I was single in status and she was in a supposedly loving relationship with a “man” she undoubtedly adores, however wants me to constantly call her for long late night chats? Am I missing something? Do you love your man or do you want me?

Vanity goes a long way, and one of these self-important ways is knowing that other people do have feelings too, especially other men - wrecking another man’s house falls short to self-importance.

I did an “introspection” after she told me she was in a “loving relationship” with a “man” that she faithfully adores very much, the common denominator in the cycle being her “man”, not I. Thus, decided that to save us getting into an emotional whirl-wind that will lead her to infidelity, I have to distance myself from this palpable ‘tragi-romance’ situation. I guess in retrospect, I failed to foresee that her intentions were to be unfaithful. If it means I am “self-centered” so be it.

WORD TO A NEW LOVING RELATIONSHIP REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala

http://www.facebook.com/SAKAZI

"The virtuoso of Politics worldwide: Rhetoric – Oil, Rhetoric – Military Power, Rhetoric – World Domination; whilst the rest of humanity are just pawns and casualties of an idiotic game of words, currency and bullets." Linda Sakazi Thwala

THE VIRTUOSO OF WORLDWIDE POLITICS

The world is marveling at Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s stubbornness and resilience to stay in power, even after a vigorously convincing, bottom-shoe-showing-hailing revolt by the native masses of Libya; Libyans want him out, and others are gunning for his blood. Alas, Gaddafi will not concede to what the masses want, hence the military standoff between pro and anti Gaddafi Shia and Sunni Muslims that has amassed the state of Libya of late.

The Western world and United Nations Organization (UNO), has entered the fray, by sanctioning “No-Fly-Zones”, and wordy reprimands to Gaddafi’s forty-one year old administrative rule. Mainly due to Gaddafi’s rebellious history against western powers and any allies that lobbies for a westernized agenda upon self-governed African states, particularly his own state Libya.

The Forty-one year old authoritarian rule by Gaddafi has been clouded with clandestine terrorism activity, crimes against humanity and illegal procurement of mass destruction weaponry; hitherto, proven and unprosecuted connections of his involvement in the Lockerbie bombing and the disappearance and public executions of dissidents that renege against him and his dogmatic loyal regime, widely infamously broadcasted on state television. And his policy of aiding political assailants and assassins without compromise.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, leadership skills over the years has seen him expand his fortune to a multi-billion for himself and his entire family, the people of Libya rallying for him without questioning his intentions.

Ex-President Ronald Reagan nicknamed Gaddafi the, "Mad dog of the Middle East". Does the Middle East and Arabic nations share Reagan’s sentiments and analysis of Colonel Gaddafi?

The fact that Gaddafi and his dogmatic cronies are irrepressible; attacking the very people that toil, sweat and shed tears for their own country daily, shows the cold heartedness of Gaddafi and his government. What is the measure of a man that has lost his head in his own home? Gaddafi is a headless man, croaking unwanted sounds in his own home, thus his measure is to run around like a headless chicken, trying to grip and control tarnished chicks of dictatorship.

The wheel of change in Libya will be tainted, painted and scared with blood and wounds, some immortal others temporary, overflowing with murdered human casualties, whilst the west continues to sing its political rhetoric of change in the world, and the sky rocketing cost of living globally, keeps on pressing civilization to the edges of self and mass annihilation.

The prospects of Libya’s politics and liberation are surely moving towards the people of Libya winning their country back, however through a hard, long fought civil war that will see the country gaining its first ever democratically elected president – history in the making.

It is undeniable that the world’s tribulations are accredited to the Islamic community loathing the west, namely the United States of America, its policies, accrued business world domination and its westernized lifestyle; consequently the Arabic nations’ stance on protecting their own turf’s minerals and greatly sought-after Oil rich terrains, and refineries of the dry Arabic lands.

Colonel Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi is radically known for his distaste and malevolence against the western nations; and the west for its political rhetoric to seize and control other nations’ wealth generating sacks. Who’s fooling who?

The virtuoso of Politics worldwide: Rhetoric – Oil, Rhetoric – Military Power, Rhetoric – World Domination; whilst the rest of humanity are just pawns and casualties of an idiotic game of words, currency and bullets.

WORD TO A NEW LIBYAN REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala

Love is an everyday thing
It is now, it is sweet, it is true
It is a fountain of all senses
A tranquil delightful stream
Love is eternal in its youth
Flawless exuberance of youth
Its words are all soulful, nation
It is now, it is sweet, it is true
It makes one bold in their hunting
It comes, with your heap’s canvass
Love’s mixed footsteps flaunting
It leaves one winched in an elation
The heart beat geared to eruption
Its destined spectrum called trance
Our hot body drooling to its trounce
A tangled dance in its royal feet
It is red wrapped in a white sheet
Love is an everyday thing
It is now, it is sweet, it is true

by Linda Sakazi Thwala

THE POLITICS OF POWER – THE UNITED STATES VERSUS THE WORLD

The dwindling of the world’s economy has been extensively attributed to the United States’ failure to distinguish, political and social commonality with the Arab/Muslim nationalities, internationally – especially Islamic extremists. Foreign political fallibility, particularly pertaining to Oil reefs, and to the United States’ Foreign Aid policies, cannot be solely pointed towards one state, country, or political party; as all fiscal or non-fiscal foreign policies are negotiated as cross national bipartisan negotiations. However, the United States Military advantage has created allegiances and allies far more reaching, combined with their international Economic Aid, and Foreign Aid policies.

The power that the United States of America wields in the Military and Macroeconomic arena, places them at an advantage in terms of Economic prosperity, and playing liberator to politically, economically trenched nations, with the dollar being the second strongest currency in the world. Therefore, in enables the country to gain territorial progression in lesser militarized regions, globally.

The chess boards of political advantage, however powerful they may be set towards the United States’ gains, do not advocate the world to be idle and docile around the table of discourse and implementation of Foreign Economic Aid, and Foreign Trade Policies.

African and Arab leaders who become tyrants against their own population, often together with the oppressed masses, reproach the USA’s economic aid activities and their Foreign Policies, when everything else fails in their respective states. What the populous does not identify with, before the finger is pointed, is the nitty-gritty surrounding the policies that were set during all foreign aid policy discourse, thus aim at deficiently inverting the failure of their leaders, on the very hand that brings peace and harmony in their territory.

If truth be told, the world doesn’t really know Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda’s renege against the United States of America. The Bush to Bush (George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, father and son) administrations were coiled in negotiations with Bin Laden family, the Oil reefs of Saudi Arabia were centralized as being the main cause to Osama’s rebelliousness, ultimately his militia terror attacks towards the USA. What really happened between Osama and the Bush family after his military training in the United States? Yes, the Republicans or the ‘Grand Old Party’ (GOP) were involved, as many Oil trade policies were administered by them during these family affiliated presidential incumbency. However, foreign conflicts are widely opposed by GOP.

The current uprising in Egypt is unanimously blamed not at the tyrant leader, Mubarak’ s failure to acknowledge his country’s Economic shortcomings, and the widening gap between the poorest of the poor and the privileged rich in that country, but at the United States and GOP in particular. Why is Mubarak still in office after three decades?

The United States will always be a scapegoat, whether Independents, Democrats or Republicans. Why don’t we Africans and Arab nations, acknowledge that our leaders’ agreements and signatures to discourse and implementation on Foreign Policies is clouded with intent of filling their own greedy sacks, and not improving the lives of the masses. Mark these words: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood, will be blaming President Barack Hussein Obama and the Democrats, if and when they do take the reins from Mubarak.’

WORD TO A NEW ECONOMIC REVOLT REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala

SOUTH AFRICA: The course to a sustainable Economic Growth-Path

Developing the right economic Growth-Path for South Africa’s volatile Economy will prove a significantly taxing task, given the past’s pre-Democratic policies of Separate Development and Free-For-All attitude that come post-1996.

A strategic approach to formatting the correct formula to a sustainable Economic Growth-Path that will create jobs for the currently unemployed; measurably creating a sustaining employment economic development opportunities for posterity, is what South African bureaucrats are searching for.

With ante-investment partners that supported the banality of Westernize development-economic-policies to Africa, experiencing an economic submergence due to an economic global crunch. The prospects of world leaders to lessening the deficit between socially thriving economic hubs and lower impoverished class within their respective countries, was thwarted by market trading hikes stemming from unreasonable global Oil-Fuel-Hikes over the past decade, filtering austerely to industrial, trade and investment sectors worldwide.

This brought about worldwide austerity, with a great number of lower class and some middle-class families unable to sustain themselves from daily, monthly expenditure with their meager disposable income – hence, the recent Austerity Protests in England, Greece, China, and the well publicized chaotic economic revolt in Egypt, where anti-Mubarak protesters want the incumbent President booted out.

The Growth-Path is aimed at creating sustainable employment and aid in developing essential township infrastructure and speedup service delivery across Municipal structures. South Africa’s incumbent leadership, in keeping with the current successful economic growth trends, has to dilute regional boundaries that were formations of Separate Development in the past, and decrease economic volatility by implementing a reasonable fixed price-trade-agreement policies to most imports, to eliminate losses, price rigging, and maintaining concurrent pricing in all respectable trades, and food pricing – value differences must be distinct, however not exploiting ordinary plebs. With a fixed Electricity Rates services across the board, in all Municipalities in our country and bring competition in the Power Generating Plants industry – we cannot allow Eskom monopolize the Power Generating Industry and suffocate electricity consumers by hiking its rates, inconveniently plunging families, communities and businesses into darkness.

A developmental approach to diluting regional boundaries is to allow Macroeconomic hubs to flourish, with the removal of Recruitment Agencies. It is governments social responsibility to instruct the corporate sector to recruit, train and deploy workers within their own capacity, utilizing their own ‘Human Resource Departments’, as it was done in the past. By so doing, all these salary share pillaging Recruitment Agencies will be abolished, allowing a worker to earn the salary that was initially allocated to them – not a salary allocated by the Recruitment Agency. This will increase skills training and allow workers to balance the ratio of expenditure and lifetime savings. The situation at this moment, is hand-to-mouth for many families.

In the townships, micro-businesses i.e. vendors, with fake goods have to be close down and allow proper aspirant business owners to bring it accredited goods to the township consumer that cannot ferry themselves to town.

Our Housing policy needs to be scrutinized considerably and lowered to an affordable price for all South African. A house, as it is known appreciates in value, thus it is deemed as a good asset for investment, however how can one invest on something that is monetary unattainable, even if you were to save to attain it. Real Estate prices are appalling. This coupled by monthly Property Tax – in hindsight Property tax is the same as renting your own house, from the government, whilst paying a bond on that same house.

WORD TO A NEW ECONOMIC GROWTH PATH REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala

THE STIGMA OF BEING AN ABUSER

It is a monastic attitude to attach a label on any individual that rebels against a system of abuse; in any abusive form. It is a universal ideological stand point that an abuser is made – no woman or man, wakes up and decide that today, I am going to be an abuser.

A fundamental question to ask is: ‘Why does an individual become an abuser?’ It is a pragmatic concept of fighting fire with fire. When an individual lives in a secluded environment and is constantly being bombarded with impromptu verbal abuse about things that do not concern them, or things that do not have any bearing on their livelihood; it creates verbal altercation which ends up with someone getting slapped or gravely beaten up.

What a Verbal Abuser doesn’t comprehend, is that when you shout at a another person without explaining or communicating your concerns in a proper grown up way, they create a mental confusion to the recipient of that verbal attack. In the cloud of that confusion nothing the Abuser says is coherent because of the way it is communicated, alternately renders a similar reaction from the shouted-at-recipient or abused.

In most cases, women are Verbal Abusers to their spouses and at times to their siblings. Some women want their way out of a relationship hence succumb to verbal abuse as an instructive or defense mechanism, to ‘this is what I want and I am going to get it, as I want it’; or as frustration to what life is dishing up for them, ‘I am not content with you, so I am going to shout at you to make you leave me or make you change’.

No one wants the stigma of being an abuser, however when an individual goes into a home environment, they want to lay back, do an introspection and retrospection about their life, what’s to come in their life, and how to approach certain situations. No one wants to go into their homely environment and be verbally attacked or shouted at about things that they cannot change.

When I am a sensible, quiet man and my woman comes and shouts at me, my initial reaction would be: ‘What is going on? What does she want? Why are you shouting?’ And if that shouting continues I am inadvertently going to get angry at ‘what are you shout at me for?’ I will take my hat and walk away, however if my woman sees that picture of walking away as some form of weakness; constantly wants a reaction from me as man, night after night, week after week: ‘I am shouting at you! What? You not man enough to stop me?’ The mouth is mightier than the hand.

The stigma of abuser will fall on me as a man because, by societies standards I am physically stronger than my weakling woman that shouts to stir up trouble – then cites abuse as justification to what happened in the relationship. My man is an abuser, not me, him! The hand is mightier than the mouth.

Conclusively, an abuser is a victim of another abuser. Relationships are based upon reciprocal attitudes. When you treat me with respect, I will in turn reciprocate that respect to you. Taking my hat and walking away in the heat of an argument, is an ideal honorable thing to do when you are verbally harassed. However when you continuously give me fire, I will undoubtedly overtime return that fire with a more vicious intent. Why? Because, I am also a sensual human being that feels, and that doesn’t want to be verbally, emotionally harassed.

Abusers are made, therefore when an individual wants to instigate a violent reaction towards another individual, they do that as a cry out for help. They do not know better than perpetuating the same abuse that was reciprocated to them.

WORD TO A NEW RESPECTFUL RECIPROCAL REVOLUTION

By Linda Sakazi Thwala