My domestic worker tells me the story of a five-year-old boy who woke up one Saturday morning with turmoil in his heart.
He wanted his father. He wanted to see and touch his father. And he wailed all day, to make his demands known.
These were reasonable demands - there was no reason why he should be punished and pay for something he did not choose. His mom and dad were estranged and his father was living with another woman and a child they had brought into this world.
But that was not the burden of the five-year-old boy. He wanted his dad. He cried all day and in the afternoon, when my domestic worker could not bear it any more, she asked her sister, the boy's mother, to take the little boy to his dad.
She refused. Her heart was still broken and she was not in the mood for the ugly confrontation a love triangle creates.So just before dusk, my domestic worker walked about 4km through Marikana, taking her nephew to his father.Biyela was gunned down in front of his mistress and daughter a few hours later on the evening of September 22. He joins dozens of miners and union members who pay with their lives in a war we are yet to define as a nation.
The massacre of 34 miners was a seminal moment in our history but it did not mark the end of the killing fields. Prior to that fateful day in August 2012, 10 people were killed.
But in Marikana, there is no aftermath. The killing fields are awash with blood and dead bodies. Long after the country has moved on, people are dying. Assassinations and suicides are the order of the day. But the country limps on from one scandal to another. The brutality and horror of living in Marikana, like many of our collective traumas, goes unacknowledged.
The thing about trauma is that it creeps up on you, it demands your attention when you least expect it and the events that cause trauma don't just end by themselves. They demand concerted effort, an iron will and a conscience.
The man who held his son for the last time on September 22 had a name. A complex life. He was a flawed human being, as evidenced in his infidelity.
But family vouch for his undying love and unwavering commitment to his children. His estranged wife lacked for nothing materially and their child was taken care of...