In the startling spool of images and footage to emerge from convulsions of violence and looting that have taken place in parts of KZN and Gauteng and which spread after the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma, many have stood out.
But one in particular begs for a moment of pause.
It is a still taken from footage captured by BBC videographer and producer Thuthuka Zondi of two-year-old Melokhule Manyoni in freefall dressed in a nappy and red hoodie from the second floor and then the roof overhang of a burning Durban building.
The child was saved when she was caught in a human safety net made up of the strong, collective, outstretched arms of strangers.
Fighting to stay alive in a broken country: No jobs, no
dailymaverick.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymaverick.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
This is a moment for lasting solutions based on all con
dailymaverick.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymaverick.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Why can t we live together? The conflict between subu
dailymaverick.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymaverick.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Harriet Perlman:
Getting from here to there; trying to inch your life forward little by little. Making anything happen when you have nothing – is always blisteringly hard!
You have the chance to tell it like it is. Hopefully earn a little money too. But your old second-hand computer crashes. Again. So you write things down in an old-school notebook. You say you will take the computer to a guy in Diepkloof when you can borrow some money for a taxi. The deadline comes and goes.
The editor suggests “start by sending voice notes on WhatsApp”. But you have no data, so you borrow a couple of rand for that. But you are fast running out of friends before it’s payback.