NOMPILO theatre productions spotlight Child Safety

20 Nov 2025

NOMPILO theatre productions spotlight Child Safety and ask deep questions about the Law and Education:

Lebitso lebe ke seromo is a Sesotho expression that may loosely be translated to mean a name predicts one’s successes and failures – well at least in the omen sense, and like any other omen, speculative, leaving room for further contestation. And so I have been thinking about the name Nompilo (mother of life). Nompilo. And the impact of NOMPILO so far; a Judicial Theatre Production for young audiences dealing with gender-based violence (child rape), that has recently ended in the Eastern Cape, the Free State and Kwazulu-Natal.

I have just returned from a trip where I witnessed NOMPILO being performed at Duduzani Primary School in Ntuzuma, Kwazulu-Natal. The principle of applied theatre is visible in this intervention: the first half spotlights the actors and the second half of the intervention spotlights the participants (in this case Grade 5 and 6 learners).

The desks are shuffled to create space for the staging; there is a buzz in the room. Learners pick their spots and sit down. There is anticipation for what is to come. A Grade 5 learner, Athandile, comes in carrying his school bag, full of books, his face strained a bit from the weight. “Can I sit here?” he asks. “Yes,” I reply. He puts his school bag on the chair, relieved, and sits next to me. Almost all the chairs are filled up. He sits on the edge of his chair, watching the show. I am glued to the production too, but at times my eye feels his energy. I side-eye him. Sometimes I see him smile, at times frown, or disapproving, mostly engaged. At the end he says he liked the play, shifts the attention and says to Nompilo (exceptionally portrayed by Haseena Hans), “You were an inspiration to other people. You helped me to learn that I never have to be rude at other women or people. Thank you.” Later Haseena shares, “That comment has touched me deeply. I realised I am not just acting. We are doing something more, something deeper”

I feel touched by Athandile’s comment, and at the same time conflicted about the impact of the play on young people.

Earlier in the day, I had been informed about an incident in one of the performances at another school, where I learnt that a visible cloud of pain hung in the room where the performance was about to take place. The crew later discovered that on Tuesday 21 October 2025, learners were doing door to door requests for donations. One may see this activity as an invaluable seeding of accountability, financial literacy and leadership mentorship.

However, when two girls (aged 10) knocked at the door of one house, the man of the house asked them to come inside while he went to get the pen to write his name on their sheet of paper. And so, the girls obliged. Only to be betrayed by the man in the house, as he allegedly raped them. The following day, the girls witnessed NOMPILO.

This has got me thinking deeply about the burdens, contradictions and sense of responsibility that interventions of this nature carry. We need to tread with delicacy, but also we need to see how NOMPILO may bring strategic partnerships to shape the network of support for learners, to protect children and provide services while we enable them to participate in the matters that concern them.

NOMPILO opened in the Eastern Cape on 15 September 2025 (co-directed by Thembela Madliki and Siphosethu Mankai, performed by Nonelela Mancangaza, Sisonke Yefele and Ntomboxolo Donyeli). On 22 September NOMPILO opened in Kwazulu Natal (directed by Zama Nande Mngadi, performed by Haseena Hans, Nokuthula Mpanza, and Mpumy Ndlovu). On 23 September, the Minister of Basic Education, Ms Siviwe Gwarube, made an appeal for the protection of children amid sexual abuse allegations in schools. The production and its tours to these provinces is a partnership with the South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges (SAC-IAWJ) and the Department of Basic Education’s Social Cohesion Department, with a focus on the life skills curriculum as found in the new Life Skills textbooks.

I end with the words of Dr Ayanda Khala-Phiri, where she argues that in applied theatre one is essentially saying that “people matter. The people you are doing the intervention about, the people you are doing the intervention with, the people you are doing the intervention for.”

With NOMPILO we are saying, dear learners, you matter. With NOMPILO, we are calling for all who believe lebitso lebe ke seromo to weigh in and shape the network of support for learners, the best way they can.

Lalu Mokuku is the Chairperson of ASSITEJ SA