Phumzile Van Damme@zilevandamme
What a devastating shock.
In a past life, I was a Spokesperson. I fought vigorously and passionately with many a journalist. Ah yes, the political party, ever the eternal victim of journalists who, we convinced ourselves, critiqued not for truth but from deep personal hatred.
Over time, I learned a harder, humbler truth: we were not the only ones who felt like victims. Journalists too carried that weight, perpetually vilified by politicians and political parties alike. I stopped seeing them as enemies and began to see them as people: flawed, passionate, committed to their craft. And I came to understand that the mark of a great journalist is not to please but to provoke, to unsettle everyone equally so that no side can ever fully claim them. Tshidi embodied that spirit. Every party, at some point, felt itself her victim. That is the hallmark of a great political journalist. And that is who South Africa has lost.
Many say they love South Africa, but few care deeply, personally, and genuinely about its fate. Tshidi cared. And it is devastating to lose someone like that. Many claim bravery, but few step willingly into the arena, stare down the bull, and refuse to flinch. Tshidi did. She didn’t write to fill a quota, she wrote because South Africa mattered to her. She didn’t speak because it paid her bills, she spoke from conviction, from a fierce desire to see this country live its full potential. Nowhere was this passion more visible than when she confronted, head-on, the poisonous “white genocide” lie.
Her passing is a grave loss, not only personal, but national. I grieve, deeply, for the absence of one of the rare, brave ones who carried South Africa’s burdens with honesty, courage, and care.
South Africa has lost a good one. Tshidi, us’shiyeleni? Gone too soon. Truly, far too soon. 💔
