Goodbye to my News24 readers
This is the last column I will write for News24.
After almost 400 columns our conversation will stop - in this format at least.
Eight years ago, when I was asked to write this column, veteran journalist Allister Sparks warned me that a weekly column would be gruelling and that it would take over my life. “It requires extraordinary discipline and no one lasts long,” he said. He was right about the discipline. And it did take over my life. But, I loved it.
Many columnists debate other columnists in their pieces. I never wanted to do that – to me, it was always about having a discussion with the “ordinary” people of South Africa. After a while I realized that I had developed this constant background noise in my brain. Every day, I would be watching and listening intently to what affected or troubled people and then I would internally debate how to use this space to tell their stories or to make sense of what might have felt hopeless.
It is a strange thing. I don’t know any of your names or faces and yet I quickly felt an affinity with - and even fondness for - you.
So, it was to you that I turned when my family got COVID in those early days – not only because it helped to control my own fear, but also in the hopes that it would help you as we went into the unknown.
After that column, many of you reached out to me and during the dark months that followed, it felt like we were holding hands.
The night my dad died, I sat in the dark with my laptop and poured my grief into a column, because it was the only way I could somehow manage the sadness threatening to engulf me. You responded with kindness and empathy.
Of course, you were also the ones who laughed with me when I discovered that my cat was three-timing me.
Yet, there was (and is) nothing more important to me than to be a voice for those who feel powerless or whose voices have been silenced. I will never forget the two little boys, Kutlwano and Segomotso Garesape, from the Northern Cape who were killed while defending their mother from being raped. Or Tshegofatso Pule, who was 8 months pregnant and found hanging from a tree with stab wounds in her stomach. Or the little children of the Eastern Cape who have starved to death. Those columns I regard as my most important work.
Of course, there was always the politics. During my years of authoring this column, we went through the craziness of Zuma and the Guptas. We debated whether land expropriation would happen and whether the growth of the EFF was something to be concerned about. We shared the shock of the Zondo Commission revelations and wondered whether our country could recover from all that corruption. When the riots exploded, we desperately tried to figure out whether this was the end of our peaceful co-existence. We also debated the crucial ANC conferences and speculated about the outcome of several national and local elections.
As all families know, politics and religion should be avoided if you want peace. Still, as I said last week, we are a complex bunch and we need complex solutions for the problems in our country. I have always tried to interrogate those complexities, so it was only natural that we would disagree.
When some readers hid behind anonymity to spew hatred, I tried to remind myself that hatred is most often born of fear. With others whose views may have differed with mine, I could still feel that beneath it all, we shared a common deep love and concern for our country. It is this shared love and concern that underpins the hope I feel each day for the future.
As sad as I am that our conversation through this column has come to an end, I’m hoping that we might continue to engage in other ways. I will be writing more frequently for Bloomberg, and while I work on a few other ideas, maybe you would like to subscribe to my newsletter on my website, www.melanieverwoerd.co.za
Now, to the thousands of you who have read my column every week: Thank you. I’ve never taken your attention for granted and it has been a privilege to have shared my thoughts and feelings with you.
Good Bye, for now.