Boy children will learn a man can be emotive, affectionate and love loudly

Culture must not stifle men's desire to be present fathers for kids

Mbuyiselo Botha Gender Imbizo

My kids, my responsibility. These were the words of Solomon Mondlane, whom I wrote about in this column at the beginning of 2020. Mondlane has been in a painstaking process of trying to gain access to his children, who moved in with their grandparents following the death of their mother. Mondlane has been in this war to access his children for three years and seven months. He tells me that his elder daughter said to him: “Let it go papa. You tried and we all know.”

No parent should have to fight a long, and almost always financially draining, case to see their own children, especially when the father has not been given a substantive reason as to why this is the case. And children should also not be subjected to witnessing such pain, so much so that they ask their dad to give up on the entire process...

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