Amidst the uncertainties and anger, amidst all the injustice and hunger, there is this beautiful certainty about togetherness. Together, we can overcome everything. Noone can take it away from us. The pandemic has given us the opportunity to come closer. Maybe as close as never before?

Speaking about the ‘us’ – who are we actually talking about? It’s obvious that we don’t speak about a homogeneous group of people. Our society is deeply wounded by traces of Apartheid. Injustice and separation are, unfortunately, deeply entrenched and it is so hard to change structures based on our history.

However, this tiny little thing Corona has put our world upside down. All of a sudden, we are all called to change and fight the virus together. And finally, there is this common sense of togetherness that we could not have thought of before. The pandemic has somehow offered us the opportunity of building bridges – far away from differentiating between your color of skin or ethnicity. The necessity of connecting reveals the beauty of discovering each other’s worlds between communities that have not interacted as much before.

And still, it’s obvious that there are forms of power structure, discrimination and privileges that we can’t neglect. Especially in times such as these, when patterns of injustice come to the shore, we are called to share our resources and split the costs of vulnerability as far as we can.

The community response and collective fight with people of different backgrounds gives hope. The video shared by Paul Weinberg and Stephen Schmid gives just a glimpse of what that means for a community like Vrygrond or Muizenberg.