Nonhlanhla doesn’t remember the crash itself. She remembers the sound before it, and the silence after. She was driving her mother’s Polo home from a night shift on the N3 outside Pietermaritzburg when a bakkie crossed the median. She woke up in Grey’s Hospital with a fractured wrist and two cracked ribs, grateful, everyone told…
Thembelihle Zwane 21 September 2026 NgoSepthemba 21, njalo ngonyaka, umhlaba ugubha uSuku Lomhlaba Lwe-Alzheimer’s. Kodwa endaweni eziningi zaseNingizimu Afrika, lolu suku alubi nenjabulo nemicimbi – luvela njengelinye ihora nje kolunye usuku lokunakekela: ukugeza, ukuphakela, ukuphindaphinda amagama, ukulinda ukuthi uthando lubuye lubonakale emehlweni omuntu othandekayo osekungathi akasekho. Ngokusho kombiko iWorld Alzheimer Report, cishe abantu abangu-187 000…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
