Reclaim Your Voice!

Mandisa Malinga at  Bush
 Radio Station

In addition to the pressures of organising a Youth Day Campaign, I also had the opportunity to be interviewed by a radio station for the very first time, something a colleague of mine called a 'radio virgin'. The interview was requested by Bush Radio Station as part of their show called Sakha Isizwe, which profiles organisations that work towards building and strengthening communities. This show also profiles events that work towards community development, hence the interview.

The experience was great, who would not want to be on radio? I made sure all of my friends knew about it and listened to it. It was a great opportunity which led to a second telephonic interview with Radio Helderberg. Lets just say I felt like a star for the week, which fueled my energy for the campaign. Now the campaign has passed and I get to listen to the interview clip and I am thinking about going into broadcasting, and plus the lady who interviewed me told me I sound like I do this everyday. So lets just say I have a back-up plan.

I thought it would be nice to share the interview on the blog so people can listen to it to hear what the campaign was about, but also to comment on my "radio voice" just before I make the worst career move. Hope everyone who listens to it will enjoy it. Please click on the link below to listen to the interview:

http://www.divshare.com/download/launch/18877827-aee

By: Mandisa Malinga

Are SA leaders exempted from behaviour advocated through campaigns?

DADDY'S GIRLS: President Jacob Zuma's
daughters, from left, Phumzile, Thuthu,
 Dudu and Gugu

The Metro FM news bulletin announced last week that the government is set to launch a campaign to encourage people to have fewer children and encourage birth control measures. Now in my understanding, our government is led by the ANC, which is led by our President Jacob Zuma, who at this point happens to have just over 20 children.

Please do not misunderstand my concern to be that of criticism against the President and his ‘traditional’ lifestyle, but rather as a sincere concern about the way our traditional way of learning and modelling behaviour has been ignored in all these campaigns.

This reminds me of the ‘one girlfriend, one boyfriend’ campaign advocated by Julius Malema, who was at the time under the leadership of our president. Needless to say that it seems to me that we have become a hypocritical nation, legitimising behaviour from certain well esteemed individuals while condemning the same behaviour when it involves by our general population.

Being a member of this general population I know at this point that due to my financial situation of lack of a financial situation, I cannot bring children into this world. Children are not only an expense, but they also require a certain level of emotional maturity from the parent. Parents are role models for their children, and it is likely that if you behave in a certain way, your children are likely to do the same; it is called social learning and modelling. Similarly, citizens of this country may not see why they are constantly being told to have fewer children, use family planning options when our President does the opposite.

This whole ‘do as I say not as I do’ thing does not work in South Africa as we have seen and we should know by now that people are not as ignorant as we may think they are. People are aware of what happens around them and as part of forming their own identities, may pattern their thoughts, feelings and actions after the President who serves as a role model for many South African citizens. You ask a few young people what they would like to do when they grow up and they tell you they want to be the president, not because they want to assume his position, but rather because they want to be like “him”.

So before we go on about what needs to be done to change people’s behaviour and how we can stop them from having too many babies, let us start at the top, let us ensure that people have role models that will model the kind of behaviour we advocate to ensure that we get the results we hope to get.

This post was first published on TimesLIVE on 13 July 2012 and can be viewed on the following link:

http://www.timeslive.co.za/ilive/2012/07/13/are-sa-leaders-exempted-from-behaviour-advocated-through-campaigns

Social cohesion means talking against the everyday talk of racial segregation: iLIVE

Wednesday marked the beginning of the social cohesion summit being held in Soweto. The summit is being hosted by the department of arts and culture and aims to promote social cohesion, national identity and nation-building. Addressing the summit Dr. Dlamini Zuma, minister of Home Affairs, said that in order for social cohesion to be realised South Africans must practice equality.

This past weekend I was with an acquaintance and a programme on the radio was discussing the summit. She chuckled when the radio presenter mentioned the World Cup and social cohesion present between all South African. At this point acquaintance announced that “black people just think differently”.

My heart sank. I have been in this position before and it is beyond uncomfortable. I always want to confront the person making this type of statement but for some reason good manners prevail and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. So, as usual I go silent and I think my discomfort becomes evident in my body language. I thought about this woman – well she and I may be similar in terms of culture but we surely don’t think alike. I think she sensed my disapproval and asked me whether I work with black people. My response – I work with people.

So what does this have to do with social cohesion? Why do we stereotype and form what psychologists refer to as in-groups and out-groups? It is simple – we are always trying to form, reshape and reinforce our identities and whilst we mostly think of identity being central to individuals, group identities are just as important. By creating a group identity we strengthen cohesion within that group and this also contributes to our individual identities. The flip-side of this however is that by making our in-group identity stronger we run the risk of widening the gap with out-groups and this hinders social cohesion between groups.

In our rainbow nation we are suppose to be one society – South African. However we cannot deny that there are differences and at the moment there is still a trend to create ones’ identity in relation to others of similar race, culture and classes. This tendency results in us turning other races, cultures and classes as outsiders, even antagonists. A shift needs to occur where we place more of an emphasis on our national identity in order to increase social cohesion.

South African identities are also rooted in ideologies of segregation. I still know of instances where people let their domestic workers use different plates to the rest of the household. I know this was common practice under Apartheid as it perpetuated the legitimised ideology of different races and superiority and inferiority of certain races. The fact that people still practice segregation of crockery is indicative of an ideology, whilst not legitimised, still exists. When I see this practice, I am too polite to say anything. What I really want to ask the person is ‘what will happen to your plate if someone else uses it? Really, what is the worst things that could happen?’

But I am so disappointed in myself. I know the saying that ‘bad things happen when good people do nothing’. By not addressing this sort of statements that represent an ideology that needs to be changed I am, and surely many other South Africans are tacitly perpetuating the ideology. So I promise that the next time I am faced with a statement that threatens our sense of nationality I will in some way address it. Not in a rude or mean way but in a way which hopefully makes the speaker reflect on the statement and realise the damage that it causes to a socially cohesive nation.

This post first appeared on Times Live http://www.timeslive.co.za/ilive/2012/07/06/social-cohesion-means-talking-against-the-everyday-talk-of-racial-segregation-ilive