Ayanda said bullies do not exist only at school but also in the police force, parents, colleagues etc.
“The fact is...bullies are not just the ones wearing school uniforms. Let's not fool ourselves. Bullies are everywhere. They are in our workplaces posing as our bosses or HODs telling us how useless we are, in our schools teaching children and calling them stupid, colleagues who lie on us and discredit our characters, they are the loud and funny friends whose bullying tendencies are disguised as jests or the "sacred ones" who give you the silent treatment because they are protecting their energy,
“(by the way, the silent treatment is a form of emotional bullying), they are in the police force telling us "we wanted it because of what we are wearing", when we report a rape case, they are our husbands who think they own us because they bought us from our parents, they are our mothers who take out what they endure on us...”
She said people tend to hide in their corner just to protect themselves from sinking.
“We keep boxing these barbaric "acts" as if they are random ...its "GBV" one day, "bullying" the next, and "police brutality and insensitivity" the next. To hell with boxes, let's talk about why the box exists in the first place.”
Ayanda also weight in on inequality, she also explained that kids are the reflection of their parents.
“We are a "nation" with a rotten soul. Isizwe esingana nembeza. Angithi nina nathi akwenziwe iTRC so we can microwave heal our wounds? Did you not say let's introduce BEE but benefitted a few elite, what must happen to the rest? The poor in the rural areas have no running toilets? I could go on and on...
“You strip people of their dignity and you breed a nation without a conscious. People are hellbent on normalizing what is inhumane because that's how every pillar of society treats them. Our children are a reflection and extension of us. Period. Asiyi esihhogeni. Isihhogo sila. (We are not going to hell. Hell is right here.)”
“Stop bullying others, depression is real, parents listen to your children, let’s end girl hate, don’t teach your kids violence, stop girl-on-girl fights we are trying to raise kids who won’t need healing from childhood trauma caused by other kids in school.”
Sharing her personal story, Mome also added that people should normalize making others feel good about themselves.
“Let’s do it for their generation. I remember sitting in a restaurant in Melville, I saw a lady walk, I said to Mo, wow she looks so beautiful, the waitress said yoooh seriously u see another woman as beautiful like that I said yes I do, she said no I don’t hey. I was like really why not, I said to her I think u beautiful too and she smiled, I said u see what matters is how it makes u feel when I say it to u, the smile simply meant I contributed to making her happy today, that’s just how I was raised to learn to make others feel good about themselves and life in general without expecting anything in return.”
