“I am not writing this article. A writer cannot write about another writer!” Zukiswa Wanner says to me.
“No, you must! Who else is going to write about writers and their work?” I shoot back.
“No, not happening. A writer’s work should speak for itself!”
I don't know whether newspapers publish emojis but if they did, imagine the yellow grinning face wearing sunglasses right here. That's the mood. My job is simply to lay the preamble before handing over my pen. I mean keyboard.
Yesterday, 30 July 2026, Zukiswa Wanner turned 50.
Today, 31 July 2026, Sibongile Mkhabela turns 70.
Two birthdays. Two remarkable women. Two generations. More authors born in 1976. All in one courtyard. 10 August 2026. Public holiday. Book Capital Circle in Melville.
The cause: '76 INKED! A one-day Women's Month literary festival.
All born in 1976: Nozizwe Jele, the author of Happiness is a Four-Letter Word, will open the day with her It Starts with a Word session; a practical workshop on writing, editing and publishing. Kagiso Lesego Molope is set to host Staged: Mothers of the Nation, Daughters of No-one, bringing together powerful conversations on identity, belonging and inheritance. Bulelwa Mabasa will lead Black Women and Land: When Do We Get It? Angela Makholwa will take audiences into worlds where crime fiction meets screen storytelling with Crimes to Edit, Films to Make.
Not born in 1976: Phemelo Motene will also be on the line-up. To unpack what it means to sustain South Africa's literary economy in an age increasingly dominated by streaming platforms, algorithms and shrinking attention spans.
And then there’s also the woman around whom this year's ’76 INKED! celebration gently revolves. Sibongile Mkhabela. Born in 1956.
My guest co-author needs no introduction. She of The Madams. She of Behind Every Successful Man. She of Men of the South. She of many more books.
The last time I saw her was around 2015/16 in Soweto. Since then, she has moved back to Johannesburg from Kenya, co-founded Paivapo Publishers, found herself in a tricky situation aboard an international flotilla attempting to break an 18-year blockade of Gaza alongside civilians from 43 other countries, survived that and wrote Flotilla: A Journey of Conscience. It is out now.
As if that were not enough, on 14 April 2026 the University of the Free State conferred upon her an honorary doctorate in recognition of her contribution to literature.
Here is Dr Zukiswa Wanner in her own words:
The year is 1976. On 31 July, Sibongile Mkhabela, a child of Zola in Soweto, turned 20 years old. There is no cake. There are no flowers. No friends and no dancing. There is teargas and fear of arrest. Her comrades are dead. Some have been taken by the apartheid police. Others have managed to cross the border into neighbouring countries and they are now exiles. But she will know this later. Much later.
The child of two Mozambican immigrants, Sibongile's mother is no longer there since she was 14 but she will reflect and be honoured to be raised by a man who loves her and her siblings.
On 31 July 1976 when she should be celebrating her 20th birthday, Sibongile is focused on safety only. She is petrified of what the future has to offer her. But her fear for her own future is less important than her conviction for what she feels needs to be achieved. She hides.
They come for her on 24 August 1976 in a one-room home where her sister Thoko and her partner have given her refuge. John Vorster Square. That's where they take her. Notorious for detainees who are more hostages than detainees "committing suicide" by falling from the ninth floor, hanging themselves or slipping on soap as the late Chris van Wyk, himself a child of 1976 from Riverlea, Soweto would immortalise in his poem In Detention. Will Sibongile survive?
Sibongile survives. Many of her comrades do not. They are killed in different prison cells across the country. They are shot on the streets. They are killed via parcel bombs in exile. A few are offered money and become informants to the system before 1994. Some are offered money or shares in corporate companies that marginalise most of the population after 1994 and decide that they did not struggle to be poor. They need to live comfortably for their contribution to the struggle because they matter more than everyone else and the only black lives that matter are theirs and their children's.
Sibongile survives. Among the Soweto 11, she is the only woman charged and convicted for the events of 1976. She is held hostage in Kroonstad Prison in the Free State and in C Max in Pretoria from 1978 until her release in 1982. A release which includes a banning order for three years.
Sibongile survives. But she does not take her survival as a way to move on. She takes it as a way to continue serving, teaching and pushing to make South Africa a better place.
Today, 31 July 2026, Sibongile Mkhabela turns 70. She turns 70 at a time when South Africa is marking 32 years of democracy. Sibongile Mkhabela turns 70 today when the country she fought so fiercely for, that she was imprisoned for, is telling the world that the children of Africa born in the same conditions as her in her Zola, in Khayelitsha, in KwaMashu, are being told they are “less than”. That they are “irrelevant”. When they are being told Mabahambe! They must go.
Sis’ Letta Mbulu has not stopped reminding us that it is not yet uhuru. But at this pivotal moment in South African history, I ask you, compatriots, that you recognise that just like in 1976 when Sibongile Mkhabela fought and was imprisoned, the enemy remains white supremacy and capitalism. When the spaza shop that sells us teabags singly on credit is closed and Pick n Pay that is ending 20 000 jobs in a month stays open, it should be clear who the enemy of the people is. Capitalism and white supremacy thrive when we are divided.
Here's to Sibongile Mkhabela. May we celebrate her. May we be her. May we be honoured to be alive at a time where we can learn from her example. In a world where Jacintas exist, may we thrive to be Sibongiles. In this 70th year of Sibongile Mkhabela and 50th year of Youth Uprisings, may our solidarity be as borderless as their profits.
*The ’76inked! Festival programme starts at 9am till late on Monday, 10 August 2026. First 50 to arrive get a copy of Sibongile Mkhabela’s Open Earth & Black Roses. Free entry, but RSVPs necessary: bookcirclecapital@gmail.com