The Colonial Debt, by Zanele Sidzumo Baqwa

South African psychiatry—so important to national healing—is in dire straits, argues Dr Zanele Sidzumo Baqwa

‘Please, Mr Gunman, may I have my new shoes back,” said my 11-year-old daughter, Nosizwe Lise, to the hijacker speeding off in the hired minibus he had taken from us at gunpoint. This happened outside the entrance to my sister’s house in Dobsonville, Soweto.

What did the feverish girl expect? That the gunman was some chivalrous highway robber who would charmingly throw her the shoes she longed for? She must have believed in his inherent humanity, despite his callous deed. She was shooed away by his partner, who also had a gun.

I will never forget the anger, frustration, self- pity, hopelessness and pain—all the emotions surging through me in the minutes and hours after the hijacking...