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It is said that being a good neighbour feels like walking on hot sand for thousands of kilometres and then finding an endless oasis, where one can replenish oneself with the essential spirit of ubuntu.
In a society where being “neighbourly” is a cliché, the principles of ubuntu are echoed in one of the most unlikely places – a modest multinational neighbourhood in Roodepoort near to where I live.
It is a place where solitude reigns supreme, the clever blacks renouncing even the most basic tenets of ubuntu, which is greeting one’s neighbour.
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However, in a place where people only strike up conversations during body corporate meetings, I have been fortunate enough to encounter different and more welcoming neighbours in the unit next to ours.
A family of six, with their roots in rural KwaZulu-Natal, have brightened up the atmosphere of the units around me with their simple humility.
Sipho Zwane, his wife, his son and his three daughters are probably the kindest and most considerate neighbours I have encountered.
He first touched my heart when he invited me, a complete stranger at the time, to his private birthday celebrations, which mainly took the form of a braai. This gave me the opportunity to get to know his family.
From his humble beginnings in a single-parent household, he explained that respect for one’s fellow man had gone a long way towards paving the way for cohesive communities.
He believed that the moral decay of society was a direct consequence of abandoning the universal principles and spirit of ubuntu.
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The younger generation does not resonate with that spirit. I noticed this during a bus trip when a teenage boy refused to relinquish his seat for an elderly man.
So, through their actions, people like Sipho shine a ray of light in a rather gloomy era. They show that the spirit of ubuntu must be consistently practised if we are to reconnect in a postmodern society where everyone is obsessed with individual self-fulfilment, a myopic pursuit which generally undermines our shared humanity.
