Chapter 3. By now we were some few kilometres away from reaching the South African – Swaziland border gate, ‘Oshoek’ border-gate it was called. Before we reached Oshoek, in the car would be a dead silence, possibly due to everyone being tired justly from the long journey. My thoughts began to wander about as the homesickness that had now built a mansion inside me seemed to take control of my feelings. I was then taken back in my mind to what had happened at my work place, Discovery Health. Before I joined the systems department of Discover Health I was temping at a subsidiary company of Discovery which has its core operations based in the UK and supporting office here in South Africa. A company known as PruHealth were I was doing admin work. I instigated a meeting with the Chief Executive of Discovery Health, a man by the name of ‘Dr. Jonathan Broomberg’. Oblivious at the time to the fact that this man would come to be one of the people I would grow to admire immensely, he was to be at a later stage a mentor and a friend; and a very important person, well to me of cause. I cannot be certain if the relationship and connection was mutual to us both. I can’t say whether or not he reciprocated this friendship, but this was never a problem to me, to me our friendship was as real as love is. No one can tell you of this nor can they see, touch or even smell it, we just know it is there, and affects us in remarkable ways. I guess this is part of the reason why my thoughts were constantly at Discovery though I had very little regret of my resignation. I met Jonny Broomberg in an effort of mine to initiate a great idea I had at the time I was temping for PruHealth, so naturally an end this odd relationship wasn’t the most pleasant thing to have happen to me, or to us both I hoped. Jonny Broomberg was by any respect no ordinary CEO; I met this man for the first time on a Friday. I remember this as if it was yesterday; I was formally dressed while everyone in their jeans and T’s. Due to this event being a meeting with a Chief Executive I prepared myself to shine up like the Sirius star, the brightest star in the sky viewed from a mountain top on a starry night. To my amazement Jonny was in his Cricket gear as it was a big day for this sort of sports. I don’t know why I’d expected to meet someone with a 50k suit, but the sense I got however was incredible. This man was welcoming, incredibly smart and had humility you would not expect to find from a head of a corporation, and he is responsible for an organisation that accounts for over 2million lives under its medical insurance. On my last day at Discovery I had written a small emotionally filled letter in the form of electronic mail to Jonny Broomberg informing him of my status as an imminent ex-employee, the letter read. “Dear Sir Hope this mail finds you well. I am writing this letter following the mail I sent you just a while back with an effort to really drive the heartfelt message I have for you, and all of Discovery in fact. I have taken the decision to resign myself from the company, a decision that has not been easy; in fact this has to be one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make. It is a decision that comes purely and solely from me and not influenced by anyone from the company, following the immense amount of struggles I have experienced this year struggles that affected me and my role severely. The reason for writing this letter is to sincerely extend the contents of my heart towards you and the company knowing that I can only communicate this better in writing, and not to undermine your busy schedule I sincerely wish you read this letter to its dept. I feel that I was given an opportunity and for the reasons influenced by my life taking a turn for the utmost of difficulties especially here, that of cause perpetuated to this very point, it has not been easy to make this decision because I have never believed in quitting anything, but actually this isn’t at all quitting, in fact I will look at this as a change in energy output – this is necessary action for me and all involved at present and no matter how scary and heart breaking this is – I believe in a long run this will make me a better person, a person I know me to be, it cannot make sense right now but I know it will in a long run looking back, as we cannot connect the dots looking forward. I write firstly with an apologetic heart as you have believed in me so I feel I might have disappointed you in a way, I truly do apologize for this action, but I know that I will make you proud someday, this is as inevitable as the rising of the sun, so I take some comfort in knowing this and this somehow softens the blow, I hope it does to yourself as well. You have been an inspiration to me and I promise that this will not change no matter the course I now take on, and Discovery will still be a big part of me that will stay deeply rooted in my heart, I love this company – we have been a company that innovates while touching the lives of South Africans and that speaks to me immensely – for this I am for ever touched. May I ask that we keep this unwavering behemoth of energy that shines in all of Discovery stuff – this is the energy needed to build country states and change the world; please keep it alive! I have met incredible people during my stay here – yourself (and I was forever changed putting this to words is near impossible); my previous manager Ben Pillay whom I am copying in this mail (a person whom I have tremendous respect for, a person with amazing leadership abilities, my work under your leadership has taught me a lot); my most recent manager Tsepo Khabele, also copied here (however things turned out, I urge you not to lose face, my decision is not influenced by you, you’re an amazing leader and your zeal for your work will catapult results of great enormity, you will connect the dots looking back, keep the energy going always). And this goes to all at Discovery and especially to those that I have had the pleasure of knowing and meeting. Thank you Sir for all you have done, for reading my articles, for listening to me always and mostly for believing in me, you have no idea how that has moved me, moved me to be a great person and know the capabilities I and all at Discovery possess, these will not be lost but will translate to individuals of great qualities. I would love to meet you again soon to personally discuss these in person as sometimes writing an email of this nature cannot equal to the personal expression of the gratitude. Again thank you. With kind regards, Sipho Mazibuko” Yes my name is ‘Sipho Mazibuko’, and by now me and the rest of my car’s occupants Tshilidzi, his uncle and aunt, and a women from our neighbourhood who would play intermediary and an important part in the ‘lobola’ negotiations - An overly confident woman I soon would learn were at Oshoek border gate, a mere few hundred metres from exiting South Africa and into Swaziland. For the first time in a long drive we needed to pause the driving, basically stop for a while for the border-gate customs office. In there, officials would check our passports for proper authentication. We also would need to pay a fee for the car to pass through, the cost of cause was 50 South African Rands a relatively fair amount by any standard, well considering the magnitude of the endeavour. After our passports had been stamped with a Swaziland pass the car was searched as per custom, though to my surprise we did not encounter stringent processes to the event. The searching and clearing for us to venture through into Swaziland was pretty much mellow. I recall thinking “well this is fairly easy access into another country”, but no doubt it was exciting times. We stopped for a while just metres into Swaziland still at Oshoek border-gate for food, and seeing as I was still able to pick up the Vodacom network from my mobile phone just moments before I would lose it – this was an ideal time to call people back home, my fiancé, my mother and so on. The border-gate to my surprise was full of people from all sorts of walks, White, Black, Chinese, Indian, and some conspicuously not at all from this continent, possibly people from the middle near-east. I recall wondering ‘‘what on earth would people from perhaps thousands of kilometres off Africa be doing entering a small country surrounded entirely by South Africa’’, the country has about 3 percent Europeans from the 97 percent Africans as its natives, so you would imagine far fewer races either than Africans to be wandering about. These thoughts however lasted about as much as one would spend time thinking about something so insignificant. Lo and behold we were now well into Swaziland, we had made it, and boy was this only the beginning to the African adventure. Just off Oshoek, the scenery was no doubt pretty, lush green mountain ranges and what appeared to be African hut-styled houses just flowing on the mountains. This of cause completed by endless life of cattle, goats and perhaps wild animals, but of cause who would know for sure, we were in unfamiliar territory and all that followed would be new game to be learnt. Swaziland is as a small landlocked kingdom in Southern Africa, bounded by South African and Mozambique, with a population of about 1337200 as per estimation – with capital city being Mbabane and languages being Swazi and English both official of cause. Swaziland was a South African protectorate from 1894 and came under British rule in 1902 after the Second Boer War. In 1968 it became a fully independent Commonwealth of Nations state. We were told that from Oshoek we were to head towards ‘Manzini’, at ‘Mbabane’; of cause this was all good and well in theory but practically as good as being told to pull a rabbit out of a hat. We had no idea where to even begin. The plan of cause arose, the people we had come to visit would send someone by car to drive some 100km or more from their segregated location, home of ‘Makhosazana’, the girl to be traditionally wedded, and the plan was for the car being sent to come get us from the border gate. The drive that would take what seemed at the time to be forever, with the sun fast settling off the mountains and the Swaziland winds beginning to show some level of hostility. I was beginning I must say to be a bit uneasy. My car parked at a Caltex garage at Oshoek shone so beautifully, I don’t believe I had ever seen it looking this pretty. No doubt accentuated by the near rural environment, and this coupled with the fact that I was pretty impressed with its performance, this no doubt added to the car’s cosmetic mantle, my Clio was a strong and somewhat comfortable little bugger. Just next to my car was a strange looking Automated Teller Machine (ATM) of cause this was no doubt native to Swaziland, green in colour it read, ‘Bank of Swaziland’; and just next to it was a Standard Bank ATM. You’ve no idea how easing it is to encounter familiar things in foreign lands. By the time the arranged car got to us to pick us up from Oshoek it was already after 5pm, and the weary sun had already lost most of its luminosity, it had decayed to a rusty yellowish-orangey attempt at lighting the atmosphere as it began to retire over the mountains. It was a small tired looking Peugeot, perhaps 308 or something that had come to collect us from Oshoek and we were to follow it. Inside the car was a modest looking woman who was the driver, she appeared to be in somewhat of a hurry and this sense of urgency did little to bother us as we already had waited for what seemed to be a long time already. So in essence we also were in a hurry to get to our destination for god’s sake. Naturally we tagged along behind the frail looking Peugeot doing about 90 to a 100 kilometres an hour, my Renault Clio following closely behind would demonstrate no sign of struggle in keeping up. I believe we were headed towards ‘Mbabane’ north western part of the country whose estimated population is about 78,000. A relatively tiny amount of people by my experience, guess not many places around the world are similar to Johannesburg. A city cultivated by gold-mining at the centre of its economic heart-beat, were just over 2million of the 49-50million people in South Africa reside. My city certainly dwarfs Mbabane effortlessly in population comparison and no doubt also economically. Although a bit tired from the long driving, I began to enjoy the drive all over again along the mountain passes. We drove along what seemed to be an unending, waving freeway crossing through beautiful Swazi mountains. Though tempted to open up once again the heart of my little Clio’s four cylinder power-plant to rush through these passes, I found myself faced with the fact that Peugeot in front could possibly do no better than 100km/h. Consequently I kept myself restrained, and succumbed to good behaviour. We drove until we got to what seemed to be township segregation, no doubt low class or in fact as rural as rural can get. The tarred road ended and we were forced to drive on gravel road, you could see that whoever made this road put little, if no effort at his attempts as this was as uneven as an evening tide, or as uneven as the contours of your under-arms. Tread carelessly and you’re bound to shave off a generous chunk off the surface. Tall grass on both sides of the car, we inched along the pathway as the sun had now completely set over the mountains. I don’t believe I had ever seen such darkness at round 7 in the evening, of cause this is due to the fact that there aren’t any street lights in the area nor are any lights in actual fact. Electricity seems to be a scarce commodity in these lands. Finally we got to the gate which was opened of cause for us to drive through and park just next to a small house which we did. A house completely enveloped by the surrounding dark as there weren’t any lights all around. And Lo we were there, we had made it to our destination and boy was it the beginning of an adventure, though the loneliness feelings had become at home inside me I paid little attention to them. I was indeed curious of the current happenings, and no doubt thrilled by the prospective of the unknown. Thrilled and lured to it blind sighted as a moth would be to a flame, I was indeed curious.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:27:31 +0000
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