Now Reading: “On Palestine” by Noam Chomsky & Ilan Pappé. Below are excerpts from the introduction written by Frank Barat in September 2014.

Yesterday marked the first day of #16DaysOfActivism. And for the full 24 hours, I went silent on social media in solidarity with @standardbanksa’s #HearHerVoice initiative, which is intended to raise awareness of the silencing of survivors of GBV+F. In my own experience as a survivor of rape, I know how devastating and crippling silence can be - the silence of those you finally find the strength to tell your story; the silence fuelled by fear; the silence from those who are meant to serve and protect.

I have been struggling to put into words my thoughts on the discourse surrounding the convicted child rapist mayor, Jeffrey Donson. First off, it's not a mark against a singular party with regards to the fact that this man is where he is today. Icosa worked with the ANC and DA from 2006, working with latter in Outdtshoorn as recently as 2020 and 2021.

There is a general acceptance of him across party lines.

ICU is full of the unvaccinated – my patience with them is wearing thin | Anonymous theguardian.com/world/2021/nov… "Yes, vaccinations are unpleasant. They cause side-effects. They hurt. You may even still catch Covid afterwards. I have many colleagues who have felt awful after vaccination and a few who had to take a day or two off work."

To the white SAns in my mentions, your understanding of events is not the only version. You may live in a world where you feel consoled by the idea that FW de Klerk “saved” us all - but that narrative comes at the expense of those who gave up their lives in the fight for freedom. His passing ultimately serves to remind us that nearly three decades of democracy has not yet brought about justice for the crimes of Apartheid or the ill-gotten gains of unjust laws that were largely protected in the negotiated settlement.

I think what's unfortunate about FW De Klerk's passing is that he not only never stood trial for his actions & the actions he authorised, but he also demonstrated several times over that he hadn't learned anything in the time that has passed since he served the apartheid regime. We saw this in his belief that the democratic Government was right to shoulder the apartheid Government's debts, and his belief that Eskom was fully functioning prior to 1994 (which it was - when serving the minority, of course).

As seen on “The Embrace Project” IG: I guess #BhekiCele is pretty pleased to have the pandemic to blame when it comes to accounting for the spike in statistics for #GBV&F. All this demonstrates, however, is that he is devastatingly incompetent.

I just had a call with my dad, and to be honest, he sounds shattered. He says things at the hospital are dire. Current statistics there show that almost 98% of people who are put onto a machine, die. They've reached the point where they can't even put a patient with Covid-19 who develops kidney failure on to a machine because firstly, the machines aren't available and secondly, someone with kidney failure almost likely will not survive.