By Louise | Managing Director
Avuxeni! Minjani? Umfikile Minjane!
I hope you are well.
Last week or so I spoke about some of the challenges we are facing with other stakeholders in the communities we serve. I want to highlight two of them, one funny, one not so funny.
Last week the CLA (Cluster Level Association), as part of their mandate, organized with the Community Policing Forum to attend a local high school and speak about the dangers of drugs, alcohol and teenage crime. The CLA organized the event with the Principal of the school, and the police to be in attendance and give the presentation, KTD196 was present in a supportive role to ensure it all went smoothly.
On arrival, the teachers new nothing of the awareness program, the Principal was absent and had not informed his staff of the program. Sadly, the senior policewoman became very angry aggressively demanding her way with the CLA, blaming the CLA women for not confirming and wasting her time. She refused to allow the children to come into the hall to attend the training by grades, instead demanded they all stand outside in the blazing sun, for a once off presentation. We are talking about an hours presentation in 38C. No shade.
She became increasingly unreasonable. She was yelling at the CLA ladies, remember these are the poorest of the poor, and they are used to being treated badly so this women proceeded to embarrass and debase them in front of anyone who would listen. Finally, my staff member stepped in and addressed this woman in English, that stopped the tirade, for a moment, the policewoman realised my staff member was educated, and would not contend with her behaviour. Eventually it was decided to reconvene at a later date and go through the process again of arranging another date.
The policewoman, having been shut down, proceeded to ring the local Induna (who was newly installed and who didn’t know KTD196 or our work) and was furious about the debacle and told the Induna, she would have the women arrested for wasting her time. The Induna, not knowing us or what had really happened believed the policewoman and began abusing the women. Again, my staff member stepped in and convinced him to come to the school.
The policewoman left, the Induna came. He was very aggressive and refused to listen to the CLA, once again my staff stepped in and rang the policewoman and told her the Induna was now present and proceeded to explain what had really happened. The policewoman backed down very quickly, the Induna was shocked about the lies told. What an introduction to the work we do. Thank goodness we had already made an appointment to meet with the Induna in the coming week to introduce ourselves to him, but what a way to make a first impression.
Following this unnecessary, extremely upsetting situation, my staff have held meetings with the Policewoman’s seniors and laid a formal complaint regarding her behaviour. Other community members in our program who are very poor also have very negative interactions with this woman. Her role is to be the Community Liaison between the Community and the Police. Her Senior was very shocked, the staff whom she worked with also exposed her behaviour as a bully who would at every turn be abuse and rude. I will keep you posted as to the outcome; an investigation is currently underway.
A more light-hearted situation arose recently at a training with some very traditional Sotho Induna’s. My trainer, Elizabeth (Xitsonga lady not Sotho) was doing the training, they wanted her to wear a scarf over her head, a long skirt, and to be very subservient to them as a sign of deference and respect. She compromised, despite it not being her culture, but they took it too far!
During the break for lunch, Elizabeth and the other facilitator prepared the lunch. When Elizabeth went to the Induna’s to inform them lunch was ready, they demanded that she enter the room on her knees and then lie down on the floor to inform them lunch was ready. Elizabeth stated that it was not her culture to do that, she had compromised with the dress code but that was as far as it went. She then proceeded to inform them, that she would not be on her knees or grovel on her belly and if they needed that to be able to be free to eat the food as prepared, then she would just pack up the food!
Needless to say, they came sheepishly in for lunch, the power of the tummy won them over! Culture is always a challenge, whether it is South African culture (Sotho, Xitsonga or Venda – which are the predominant local cultures) or Zimbabwe and Mozambiquean culture with the odd Australian (me) plus we also have on staff two Xhosa speakers. It is always interesting.
I hope you enjoyed these stories and have a better understanding of some of the challenges we contend with.
Blessings to you
Louise
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