Baby X – the kindness of strangers can help to set South Africa free

Kumi Naidoo, human rights activist. (Photo: Sebastian Derungs / World Economic Forum/Flickr // Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Sebastian Derungs)

By Mark Heywood

15 Nov 2022

‘Acts of barbarity can happen fast and on a large scale… when enough people become numb. When we are indifferent, disconnected, atomised. Too busy with our own lives to care about others. Uninterested in and unmoved by someone else’s pain. That is the most dangerous emotion – the lack of emotion.’ – Elif Shafak, ‘How to Stay Sane in an age of Division’

Last week two heart-breaking stories in Maverick Citizen elicited a generous response from a number of readers.

The first was a report about a school in the Eastern Cape where hungry primary school children have established a stokvel (known as “Umgalelo”) to share food. We reported that: “Each day, one child exchanges the portion of food he or she has received from the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) with another, on the promise that the next day the other child will do the same in return. That way every second day each child eats a bigger, more filling portion.”

Read in Daily Maverick: “Inhumane and unconstitutional economic policy ‘takes food from the mouths of children’”

The next morning our inbox contained letters from several readers asking how they could help and offering to raise money to help the children with access to sufficient food.

The second was a report by Estelle Ellis about a starving baby girl and other severely malnourished children in Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Desperate mom in Nelson Mandela Bay keeps infant alive with cooldrink powder as food crisis hits SA”

Both stories open a window on the actual pain and suffering that lies behind the numbers we hear on growing child malnutrition. They were brought to our attention by committed community activists, but these stories are by no means isolated. They reflect the shocking neglect of children and children’s rights that our government has fallen prey to.

The fact is, people are forced to beg because there are no jobs. (Photo: Joyrene Kramer)

However, rather than limiting their outrage to dinner-table faux condemnation of government failures, the response of several readers was to step in themselves.

Read in Daily Maverick: “While starving Gqeberha baby remains in ICU, community workers step up to help other mothers battling to feed their infants”

According to Ellis, Maverick Citizen’s senior writer in the Eastern Cape, in the days after her article “we received more than 60 emails from DM readers about the baby and they had donated about R50,000 in aid to moms in distress in Walmer Angels [the NGO that assists hungry mums].”

People wrote from nearby townships telling of their plans to do more to support struggling mothers and from as far away as the UK offering financial support. One person wrote: “Even though I am currently unemployed myself it really put a huge lump on my throat and I would really love to help.

“Even if it means sharing my own food with one of the mothers and taking care of one babies’ needs, I would really love to extend my hand in this initiative.”

The Children’s Institute at UCT also got in touch and offered to help with applying for emergency grants. The government is always late to the party. As a result of the article a skills audit will be done, coordinated by social development MEC Bukiwe Fanta, as well as a community audit to determine who needs grants and who needs help and documents applying for grants.

Eastern Cape social development MEC Bukiwe Fanta. (Photo: Facebook)

We believe that the letters, donations and actions that followed our reports demonstrate that compassion still exists in South Africa.

In a small way readers’ offers of support can complement the hard work done every day in every community by activists, such as Walmer Angels, to assist the poorest and weakest among us.

The response shows that when the human impact of poverty on individual lives is described, when it’s given a face and a name, kind people are prepared to step up in support and solidarity. As we learnt with the tragedy of Michael Komape (the five-year-old Limpopo boy who drowned in a pit toilet at school) telling these stories, decoding the statistics into broken hearts, empty stomachs and strangled souls is a way of treating the numbness to suffering that affects us all.

This is part of the mission of Maverick Citizen.

Michael Komape drowned in a pit toilet at his school. (Photo: Supplied / News24.com / Wikipedia)

Recognising and resisting the abnormal

Sadly the kindness of strangers contrasts accusingly with the numbness most of us feel. Hunger and deprivation of even the basics needed for a dignified existence have been turned into a norm to which most people have adjusted.

Human suffering doesn’t move us as it should.

It’s worth noting that it wasn’t political parties or even government departments who were the first responders that offered to help. As usual, they only came on board once they detected the groundswell of shock the story had generated.

A week later, a response from the Eastern Cape department of social development’s Mzukisi Solani to Ellis’s questions about the failure to distribute food parcels for families and mothers in distress, has still not been received.

Their indifference is unforgivable, especially those politicians who swear an oath to abide by the Constitution which, among other things, commits the government to always act in the best interests of the child as well as to be “protected from maltreatment, abuse, neglect or degradation”. Most of them suffer from the opposite type of illness, a pathology veteran civil society activist Kumi Naidoo calls “affluenza”. Affluenza is a personal obsession with getting rich and material acquisition, often at the expense of others and the community at large. One of its commonest symptoms is disconnection from the suffering of people around you, suffering that you often contribute to.

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This same disease afflicts politicians of opposition political parties and many business leaders.

However, when it comes to you and me there are other reasons for the numbness that affects millions of people in South Africa and across the world.

On the one hand, millions of people, mired in poverty, literally have nothing material to give. But they are still connected. Hence the offer of one of our readers to share his own food.

But millions more have lost the ability to connect with other human beings. Compassion is blocked by anti-poor prejudice, racism and assumptions about how the other 90% live. This is why our resistance needs to be focused on the self-defeating culture of individualism.

One of the lessons from the generosity of strangers must surely be that we should get away from the notion that giving to destitute men, women and children on the streets encourages dependency. Rather than seeing a stereotype and making assumptions we should see the human being inside. We should greet and look the person in the eye because, as my favourite poet, Kae Tempest, points out in her book On Connection:

“Connection balances numbness. It is the first step towards any act of acknowledgement, accountability or responsibility. It offers, whether fleeting or long lasting, a closeness to all others.”

Read in Daily Maverick: “Tempest and Shafak On Connection and Numbness”

The fact of the matter is that an increasing number of people are forced to beg because there are no jobs; they are forced to beg because the social security systems are broken and hard to access if you are indigent; they are forced to beg because the Home Affairs Department is in meltdown and unable to provide millions of people with ID documents; they are forced to live in parks and on streets because although there are lots of empty buildings, there are no affordable houses.

Human rights activist Kumi Naidoo. (Photo: Sebastian Derungs / World Economic Forum/Flickr)

Yet, as Maverick Citizen homeless journalist Tshabalira Lebakeng explained in his reflection on the National Homeless Conversation that took place in Brixton, Johannesburg, last week, behind each destitute person there is a story.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Teach us the skills that will give us a second chance in life, say homeless people”

If it happened on a large enough scale, listening, looking and then showing kindness will establish a connection that reduces violence and “petty” crime and strengthens social cohesion.

The bottom line is that while activist citizens make demands on the government and organise for a better future, while we seek system change so that children don’t starve in the first place, children are starving in the present. As much as we build a country based on rule of law, and a pro-poor Constitution, we should be building a social foundation based on solidarity, love and compassion. DM/MC

The Gqeberha baby still lies in ICU and is struggling to survive. She has a name.

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Recognising and resisting the abnormal