Showing Up, Taking Ownership and Finding Common Cause

It is just over a week until the 98th running of the Comrades – the Ultimate Human Race! As anyone involved knows, it won’t be perfect. It can’t be. That’s not an excuse. It’s a reality. A reality shared by every big, complex, emotionally charged endeavour worth doing. But what it will be is the result of thousands of people showing up, working hard and doing their best with what they have. And that’s what matters.

In April, I wrote a blog titled We Don’t Need Perfect People, We Need Present Ones. This blog is, in many ways, the follow-up.

Showing up is the start. But what comes next is what the thinkers at High Agency so eloquently describe: taking ownership. High agency is the ability – and the decision – to act despite constraints. To make things better, not because it’s easy but because it matters. To see the constraints, and then work anyway. That’s what Comrades is made of. It’s what South Africa needs more of. And it’s what I try (imperfectly) to live by.

We are building the plane as it takes off. As a new CMA Board, we’re trying to plan a massive event while figuring out what’s possible, what the rules are, what levers we can and can’t pull, and most importantly, who will help us fly. The CMA team and members, our phenomenal volunteers, service providers, and community across the world have been extraordinary. We’re not in the stands. We’re on the road. And I hope you’ll give us the grace, and yourselves the challenge, to view this year with trust and perspective.

Because we need that now. Trust. Perspective. An ability to believe in good intentions. A refusal to default to cynicism. A decision to see the whole picture, not just the glitches. To expect the best from yourself and others. That’s the Comrades spirit. And I think it’s also the only way this country becomes what we want it to be.

On that note, I’m humbled to share that I was elected as Chair of the St Stithians College Endowment Fund Trust (SCEFT) at tonight’s Trust meeting. While not yet formally announced (that will happen at Founders’ Day on Saturday), I wanted to mark this moment here. With a deep sense of the responsibility this entails.

On Saturday we’ll pay tribute to my predecessor as chair of the SCEFT , Gary Morolo. A mentor, a transformer, a role model, a friend. For over two decades, Gary has guided, challenged and championed me and so many others. He and his family have given enormously to Saints and to South Africa. He makes you want to do more, and to be better. I’m grateful for him. I’m learning from him still.

Founders Day at Saints is always the same weekend as Comrades. It’s super special. This year, the Chair of Council, Emma Mashilwane, is our guest speaker. And while I will miss her in KZN, I know her speech will be exceptional. And we’ll run Comrades together one day – St Stithians chair of Council and chair of the Trust! Good luck also to Celeste Gilardi, our Rector, at the helm – always speaking with conviction, smarts and heart. I know it will be a beautiful day.

Speaking of voices that matter – have you come across Pieter Kriel? He’s a young South African making serious waves online. I don’t want to compare us. He’s smarter and more articulate than I was at his age (and possibly than I am now!). But I’m deeply grateful for his voice and read echoes of what I wrestled with as my identity formed at varsity. I don’t agree with every word Pieter says (who does with anyone?) but his courage, his insight and his refusal to play by stale ideological rules is inspiring. He reminds us that Africa wasn’t discovered. It was here. It is here. Home to complex, beautiful, deeply rooted civilisations.

We need more people like Pieter. Brave. Grounded. Honest.

South Africa’s pain is layered. There are murders of white farmers. They are horrifying. Singing “Kill the Boer” is bullshit. So is ignoring the suffering and structural violence that so many black South Africans still live with. This is not a zero-sum game. We need a society where everyone is safe, respected and given a chance. This is not about who suffers more. It’s about how we fix what needs fixing – together.

This week, Ngugi wa Thiong’o passed away. He was one of the great African writers of our time. I first read him in the early ’90s at Stellenbosch University thanks to Annie Gagiano, who introduced me to African literature (a gift I am eternally grateful for). His writing insists on dignity, demands decolonisation of the mind and invites us to tell our stories truthfully. He, too, was a voice of high agency that helped shape my thinking.

Each night, I write in a Moleskine on my bedside table. One thing that made me smile. One thing I learnt. One interaction that grew me. Even on the late nights, or the slightly tipsy ones, I jot something down. And then I prayer to say thank you, and to ask for forgiveness. It is a time of pausing. Recently, I’ve expanded this nightly ritual thanks to my friend Kate Turkington, who, nightly, asks:

What was my personal highlight today?
What am I grateful for today?
What did I learn today?
Did I help or was I kind to someone today?
What moment made me feel most alive today?

And then … she thanks her body.

Kate turns 91 this year. Her questions are simple, and brilliant.

My dad turns 87 this weekend. He too shows that age, like gender or race or wealth or sexuality, is not how we should judge people. Judge yourself and others, I think, by one thing: how you contribute. My dad’s contribution to his family and friends, he’ll hate me saying this publicaly, is legendary.

We don’t need perfect people. But we do need people. People who show up. People with high agency. People who don’t just point out what went wrong, but ask how they can help to make it right.

That’s who I want to be. That’s who I want to work with. That’s the Comrades, Saints, South Africa that I’m proud to be a part of.

With gratitude to all my fellow builders.

Carel