Failure Isn't Final. Harold Mawela

The War in Your Will: A Gethsemane Strategy for a Nation on the Brink By Harold Mawela Akasia, Pretoria The jacaranda trees outside my window in Akasia have just exploded into that furious purple bloom—October’s divine confetti carpeting our streets, sticking to tires, clinging to windscreens like God’s stubborn grace. But this morning, as I scraped petals off my old sedan before heading to the AFM church, I found myself staring at something else: the fuel gauge. R3.06 per litre more for petrol. R7.37 more for diesel. Paraffin—the lifeline of our poorest—up by nearly R12. A 15% jump in petrol. A 35% leap in diesel. And somewhere in Hammanskraal, a mother lights a paraffin stove in a one-room shelter, three children studying by a flickering flame, wondering how she will make next week’s SASSA grant stretch to cover the hike. Just yesterday, labour federations announced coordinated action against this soaring cost of living, warning that workers are being “trapped” by rising prices, unem...