The sound was brief, but its meaning was profound. It was not a laugh of joy, but a sharp dismissive chuckle that escaped Tebogo Malaka’s lips the moment an investigative journalist mentioned the unmentionable truth: that she, as head of the Independent Development Trust – an institution tasked with improving the lives of millions of poor South Africans – was complicit in robbing the very people she was meant to serve.
Her chuckle is more than just the evasive response of an official caught red-handed. It exposes a deeper malaise in SA’s post-apartheid reality: a fractured national psyche shaped by unhealed wounds, ongoing economic exclusion and systematic oppression by the majority.
To understand that chuckle is to diagnose a national sickness. The late clinical psychologist Professor Chabani Manganyi termed this the “psychology of the wounded”.
He described apartheid as a system of deep psychological trauma, and its legacy is a nation still grappling with collective psychosis.
Malaka and her cohort are emblematic of this condition. They belong to a black generation that, having won political power but inherited an apartheid economic structure still largely intact, faced a choice: dismantle the system or exploit it for personal gain. Malaka’s chuckle is the sound of that choice.
In Manganyi’s view, it represents a psychological defence mechanism – a way to deny a painful truth: that they have become what the people once fought against.
It marks their place within a new corrupt elite, one that operates with contempt for the people they claim to serve.
Their choice embodies a catastrophic loss of ubuntu – the African philosophy of “I am because we are” – twisted into “I am in spite of you”.
For them, community ceases to be a source of identity and becomes instead a resource to be exploited.
This betrayal is psychological, deepening the wounds of apartheid.
The criminal charges laid against Malaka for allegedly attempting to bribe a journalist to silence a corruption story are a crucial and welcome step.
Hopefully the law will take its course, and Malaka will be held accountable for her betrayal of public trust.
A functioning justice system that can convict the powerful is an indispensable pillar of any democracy.
Yet, seeing laying criminal cases as the solution is a mistake. Prosecuting Malaka addressed a symptom – a festering one – but the nation’s political body remains ill.
Her case is but one thread in a vast trajectory woven from corruption, ethical failure and a fractured psyche. The deep reset South Africa needs goes far beyond courtroom prosecutions.
While the National Prosecuting Authority pursues justice, the nation must embark on a parallel project – not merely punishing wrongdoers, but creating a society where wrongdoing is far more difficult, culturally unacceptable and socially toxic. It requires a multi-layered reset.
That reset must replace Malaka’s dismissive chuckle with a covenant built on several key pillars:
• Reinventing ubuntu not as a slogan, but as a demanding, active ethic and a measurable standard for public life. This can include establishing a public scorecard that rates political leaders and officials on transparency, accountability, community participation, and dignity.
• Name and Fame, as well as Name and Shame: fiercely celebrating businesses and leaders who serve their communities, while applying intense social pressure on those who betray public trust.
• Restorative economics rooted in healing rather than extraction. This includes land reform policies prioritising community ownership trusts over individual titled deeds – building collective benefit and productivity through support and mentorship programmes to ensure food security; broad-based black economic empowerment should focus on skills development, apprenticeships, and genuine support for small businesses.
• Addressing apartheid spatial design by promoting integrated, shared spaces, for example, by requiring affordable houses in all new developments and using tax incentives to discourage the creation of new economic ghettos or gated estates.
• Mandatory national service for school leavers involving young South Africans in projects such as environmental conservation, literacy programmes, or community safety initiatives to foster cohesion and forge a new shared identity.
• Curriculum reform: integrating the history and psychological legacy of apartheid into education, equipping future generations with the tools to understand and overcome its effects.
Malaka’s chuckle echoes the old, dying apartheid script. It is the sound of deflection, privilege and contempt.
But a new South Africa will be built by those who choose a different sound: the sober, difficult, and honest conversation.
• Lekota is a veteran journalist
