This fugitive nature of Black life under a brutally racist regime necessitated, even for the most law-abiding Black subject, a certain flexibility and alertness without which mere survival would be severely compromised.

Nothing could take anything away from the event, however. It wasn’t every day that officials from national government accompanied the Mayor, and indeed the ‘opening’ of a new bridge, all three and a half metres of it, was an even rarer occurrence in such remote parts.

Where this prevention-focused approach would prove ineffective, the focus would then have to be on the most effective methods for disaster relief interventions, taking into account natural (physical) as well as socio-economic factors.

“The blues is how we live, this jazz is how we speak, there is life in this swing we have suffered long enough to know for sure this getting happening ain’t simple stuff.” – Mphutlane wa Bofelo.

Such a great pity that the weather could not be governed. The Mayoral Committee had been planning the thing for a whole month, but as soon as the week of the well-funded occasion began, rain, heavy and non-stop, poured down for days on end.