Shadow of present fathers

Since July, we have witnessed the takedown of alleged criminal masterminds - men paraded through courtrooms, pleading for bail, some even professing their innocence through media appearances.

- KEKELETSO NAKELI

But beneath the spectacle lies a quieter tragedy: fathers standing beside their children, not to protect them, but to implicate them.

So, today, we speak to the men - those who looted the state’s purse and orchestrated deaths so brutal, so numerous, they've left a civic wound. These are the fathers who were present. And so we must ask: is a present, yet toxic, father truly better than an absent one?

At the other end of the spectrum we find fathers who abdicated responsibility entirely. Their sudden appearances - often during adolescence - shock us more than their absence.