By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
The big religious holidays always remind South African workers of the apartheid era’s crazy migrant labour regime.
We brave the huge trek to our homes — on madly busy roads — for some wonderful, spiritually healing time with our families.
And so it was last week as thousands of workers from the country’s economic nodes of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban made their last minute dash home for the Easter Weekend.
Many employers hold on to workers until the day before Good Friday, guaranteeing there will be a mad rush.
Most are the main breadwinners and heads of big extended families whose death — God forbid — would leave dozens of hungry mouths.
This Easter, the usual bloodbath on the roads was particularly scary as thugs from the taxi industry attacked long distance luxury coaches from Intercape, shooting and throwing stones at them in parts of the Eastern Cape.
And on Monday, as I returned to Johannesburg from KwaBhaca, some 850 km from Scrolla.Africa‘s office, my grandmother MaRadebe Shushu could not stop praying when she heard that the road I was on, the N3, was blocked with a 41 car pile-up.
At least five died in that accident and almost 80 people were taken to hospital. So my 95-year-old grandmother feared the worst.
Born on 10 June 1928, she takes no medication of any kind, still tends to her gardens and eats mostly organic produce and meat from free range chicken and livestock.
We see her as the main pillar of our family. On Easter, her children and her grandchildren return from all corners of the country to break bread with her, giving thanks to the heavens and the ancestors.
We are a family raised and educated through the breeding and selling of livestock so we keep sheep, goats and cattle to slaughter for family feasts while the elders impart their knowledge and experiences to the young.
The modern day breadwinners fall victim to black tax but it’s all for a good cause.
Zenkosi Dyomfana, an investment manager at Investec, defines black tax as a term for financial support that a professional or entrepreneur of colour is obliged to provide to their family on a continuous basis outside of their own living expenses.
“Sometimes it is taken on subconsciously, as a kind of payback for sacrifices made by previous generations or family members.”
But after all is said and done, the Easter break is a moment of spiritual healing and reflection on our Christian and ancestral beliefs.
And I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
Caption Video: Entering Toleni Village in KwaBhaca, land of my birth
