Safety in Mind: Why Psychological Safety for Healthcare Workers Is a Prerequisite for Patient Safety
Londiwe Buthelezi 16 September 2026 On 17 September, hospitals and clinics around the world will mark World Patient Safety Day. Most of the conversation on the day tends to focus on protocols, checklists and systems. But in wards and clinics across South Africa, another quieter emergency shapes whether any of those systems actually work: the…
Empty Plates, Empty Minds: What School Feeding Schemes Really Cost Us When They Fail
Thembelihle Zwane 16 September 2026 At 10:15 every morning, a queue forms outside the feeding kitchen at a primary school in rural Mpumalanga. Nine-year-old Lindokuhle Mahlangu says he can tell which of his classmates skipped the meal before the teacher even calls the register. “Some of them put their heads down on the desk,” he…
Book Review: How Depression Sold Me to Addiction by Kgomotso Molefe
There is a particular kind of silence that surrounds people who are struggling but still showing up: still going to work, still smiling in family group chats, still functioning in the eyes of everyone around them. Kgomotso Molefe’s memoir, How Depression Sold Me to Addiction, is written from inside that silence. It is not a…
The Silent Weight: Understanding and Overcoming Loneliness
Bianca Latchman Thulsi 14 September 2026 Loneliness is that eerie feeling that grips us without hesitation or compassion. You could lead the most active lifestyle yet feel that overwhelming weight of loneliness. Sometimes it’s unclear where it comes from or what triggers it; however, when the emotion hits, you find yourself in a place of…
Amadoda Aphila Ngaphansi Kwengcindezi
Thembelihle Zwane 10 September 2026 USipho Ndlovu waba neminyaka engu-47 ngoMarch bese walahlekelwa umsebenzi wakhe ngoJuni. Ngo-Agasti, uthi, wayeseyekile ukuphendula ucingo oluvela kumfowabo. “Bengiwumuntu okuthi uma abantu benenkinga bagijimele kimi. Manje ngangingakwazi ngisho ukubatshela ukuthi ngiyacwila,” kusho yena. “Lapho engivela khona, indoda ethi ‘angikho kahle’ ayithathwa njengendoda.” USipho akazange azame ukuzibulala. Wayenenhlanhla – umzala wakhe…
When the Feed Never Sleeps: Teens, Social Media, and the Silent Crisis
Londiwe Buthelezi 10 September 2026 Naledi checks her phone forty-three times before she’s even out of bed. It’s 6:15 a.m. in a two-bedroom flat in Pietermaritzburg, and the first thing she sees is a notification: someone she doesn’t like has posted a photo from a party she wasn’t invited to. By the time she’s dressed,…
Living Beyond Anxiety: My Journey Back to Myself
Charlotte Mugabe 9 September 2026 There was a time when anxiety became the centre of my life. I never imagined that something I had heard people casually talk about as “worry” could become so overwhelming. For me, anxiety was not simply feeling nervous or stressed. It affected my thoughts, my body, my confidence, my relationships…
The Psychology Behind “Main Character Syndrome”
Stella Moll 9 September 2026 What Is Main Character Syndrome? Picture yourself walking down a busy street with your headphones on, music playing, convinced, just for a moment, that your life has a soundtrack. Everyone around you becomes part of the scenery, and you are at the centre of the story. Welcome to “main character…
The Biggest Condom Is a Dream: Inside a Nurse-Researcher’s Search for What Really Shapes Teen Choices
Thabisile Gumede 7 September 2026 When Marthie Hauptfleisch sat down to analyse the responses of hundreds of Grade 11 and 12 learners for her Master of Nursing Science research, one number stopped her cold. Almost every young person in her study understood the basics of sexual health. Yet only 27% reported using contraception. The facts…
Book Review: Living Beyond Anxiety by Charlotte Mugabe
There is a particular kind of silence that surrounds mental illness in many African churches – the silence of believers who are suffering but afraid that naming their struggle will be read as a failure of faith. Living Beyond Anxiety speaks directly into that silence. Charlotte Mugabe, founder of the Botswana-based platform “All Things Anxiety…
