Diwali 2025: celebrating hope amid SA‘s challenges

THE transition from darkness to light is celebrated with hope as Diwali 2025 approaches.

- DR SHEETAL BHOOLA

Indian South Africans prepare for Diwali, celebrating good over evil, positivity, hope, and community building. During Diwali week, a day is devoted to family bonding and strengthening ties through thanksgiving, prayer, and spiritual practice.

However, collectively, we need a transition from darkness into light more than ever. There are too many instances of evil, darkness, and divisiveness that have been reportedly continuing to prevail despite the fact that we, as a democracy, have advocated for accountability, transparency, and equality in all spheres of life. If anything, the economic gaps between the wealthy and lower-income classes have only widened. South African mass media platforms continue to educate the nation on all the evil and injustices that dominate and have become normalised in society, yet the trajectory continues. The instances continue to divide our society further and break our spirit of Ubuntu and collective growth. The worship of income through fraudulent means, coupled with instances of no respect for human life, truth, and centres of development in South Africa, divides us further as South Africans. Yet we resiliently have patience and perseverance as we continue to develop our society.

As much as Indian South Africans celebrate Diwali in 2025, the community grieves the loss of brave citizens, such as Babita Deokaran, who initiated the investigation into one of the biggest instances of embezzlement and corruption at Tembisa Hospital in Gauteng. Yet we celebrate the role she played and her values that she upheld during her term of employment at the hospital. Her role as the chief financial director made her privy to suspicious transactions that exceeded the value of R850 million, and post her murder in 2021, the investigation continues to unravel large sums of money that were misappropriated.