Dear South Africans

By NTOMB’YELANGA

Dear South Africans

Yes, you—

the ones with no other passport tucked away,

The ones with no dual citizenship

no second place to run to. I am talking to you

This is our only home,

our earth, our street, our sky.

Politicians poisoned our minds with false narratives,

history handed us truths bitter and sharp.

But we are here in a new abyss now—

called not to sink,

but to mend, to heal, what racism tore apart.

To correct what BEEE distorted,

Let us refuse to be used and abused

to be taxed and left broke, falling in potholes, eating crumbs from beer pot bellies of greed

to collectively stop watching passively as corruption destroys the very fibre we are mending,

let us fight for US, for what we are worth, for our country

Ukuthi uyakhuluma Want ons praat, re ya buwa,pula pula, nomasiya thetha, or speak we are in it deep,

Together.

We have no second place to run to,

so we must face the fight,

creating the promised land

hand in hand.

Our common enemy is not each other,

but those who still run

old narratives of division and seclusion.

No more empty symbols,

no more jerseys waved as heritage—

we are not threads of cloth,

we are the people inside them:

a nation woven from diversity.

No more guilt, that keeps you locked up in gated communities, and high walls creating an us and them narrative

no more festering hurt in shacks of poverty

We are called to heal ourselves and

the fibre of our society itself.

We all have a responsibility and obligation to actively participate on this land

Belonging—

May you know you matter, you belong.

Trust—

To look one another in the eye,

and believe we can rebuild together

Participation—

Is that our hands, our votes, our voices

shape the future together.

Shared values—

that in our many languages

we still say one thing:

we are home, we are one.

Dear South Africans,

let us not inherit ashes,

but sow on fertile ground.

Let us not rehearse old wounds,

but write new songs of solidarity.

Yes, you—

all of you.

This is the time

to belong, to believe, to build.

In a world of possibility even broken crayons color in the beautiful pictures

Poverty is negligence we can all cure

In honor of freedom fighters and post apartheid whistle blowers of our Beautiful Country named and unnamed

Freedom Fighters & Activists

• Steve Biko–(1977)

• Chris Hani–(1993)

• Ruth First–(1982)

• Neil Aggett–(1982)

• Solomon Mahlangu–(1979)

• Ashley Kriel – (1987)

• Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge–(1981 & 1985)

• Dulcie September–(1988)

• David Webster–(1989)

• Ahmed Timol–(1971)

• Hastings Ndlovu & Hector Pieterson–(1976)

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Whistleblowers in Post-Apartheid South Africa

(many targeted for exposing corruption and state capture)

• Babita Deokaran–(2021)

• Ronnie Bernstein–(2002)

• Mosiuoa “Tiro” Abram Onkgopotse–(1974)

Dear South Africans

Yes, you—

the ones with no other passport tucked away,

no second place to run to.

This is our only home,

our earth, our street, our sky.

Our country South Africa Azania