Mark Heywood, Daily Maverick Journalist Profile

Articles

Another world is possible - Bob Nameng, the Soul Rebel of Kliptown

2 weeks ago | dailymaverick.co.za | Mark Heywood

Unlike many activists, Bob Nameng had never left his community, despite the ample opportunities that come to someone with his charisma and spirit. He realised that escaping poverty often meant escaping the poor, leaving people to the elements of poverty. For him, people’s power was not a slogan, but a mission that could be practised every day. “The father of Kliptown”, Soweto, Bob Nameng (1 July 1970-19 April 2025), is no more.
SA experts explore summit’s key topics

1 month ago | dailymaverick.co.za | Mark Heywood

THE WORLD IN AFRICA In a series of articles, experts from the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town will this week provide an overview of the key themes and issues to be discussed in more than 140 major official meetings until the G20 Summit in November 2025.
Why funding health sufficiently will stimulate economic development in SA

1 month ago | dailymaverick.co.za | Mark Heywood

HEALTHCARE DECLINE OP-ED Urgent action and investment to bring about improvements to South Africa’s declining state of health and health systems are needed now. But tragically, this is not happening because for more than a decade, health reform has been paralysed by the polarisation between those who believe ‘NHI must die’ and those for whom it’s ‘NHI or die’. We need a change of mindset now. Significantly increased spending on health will also bring about economic benefits.
The anguish of literature and the unexpected links between the stories that we read

1 month ago | dailymaverick.co.za | Jennie Godfrey |Geraldine Brooks |Mark Heywood

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE Thinking back on the books I had read during 2024 I was struck by patterns I hadn’t noticed at the time I read them. I found books talking to each other, whether their authors intended it, or not. Theme clouds formed. Ideas and plots riffed off each other. Why? How? Perhaps there’s a book sprite that guides us, as we dither undecided at a bookshop, towards books that connect meaning to life.
A call for stories that bridge divides, ignite understanding

Feb 14, 2025 | dailymaverick.co.za | Mark Heywood

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE We need to read good literature to help us once again find connection with one another. Tragically, we have been desensitised and dehumanised by the ceaseless exposure to what is abnormal in human relations, real and imagined violence that comes at us through our screens. In fact, we no longer even register many of today’s horrors as abnormal. One of my happiest recent discoveries in contemporary fiction has been the novels of Irish writer Sally Rooney.
World Cancer Day highlights SA’s huge challenges with care

Feb 9, 2025 | dailymaverick.co.za | Salomé Meyer |Mark Heywood

Last week, another World Cancer Day came and went. It is globally commemorated each year on 4 February. This year the Union for International Cancer Control, a global organisation with more than 1,000 members in 170 countries, launched its advocacy campaign, United by Unique, to focus on people-centred care. This theme resonates with the priorities of South Africa’s Cancer Alliance, as our focus is on promoting equitable and timely diagnosis and care of cancer for all. Don't want to see this?
We’ll be forever loving Jah: Bob Marley turns 80

Feb 5, 2025 | dailymaverick.co.za | Mark Heywood

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE On 6 February 1945, a star was born. In the Parish of St Anne’s in a village named Nine Mile in the mountains of central Jamaica, Robert Nesta Marley was born to Cedella Malcom Booker and an already absent father, plantation manager Norval Sinclair Marley.
South Africa: Stilfontein Massacre a Stark Reminder of South Africa's Ongoing Struggle With Human Rights Violations

Jan 28, 2025 | allafrica.com | Mark Heywood

The death of up to 100 miners at Stilfontein reflects a callous and couldn't-care-less attitude that has developed in the government, and sadly throughout much of society (white and black). It is that the desperately poor are disposable and not deserving of life and dignity.
South Africans need to rediscover compassion and solidarity

Jan 27, 2025 | dailymaverick.co.za | Mark Heywood

Mark Heywood is a social justice activist and former Editor of Maverick Citizen, a section of Daily Maverick. He is the former Executive Director and founder of SECTION27 and has been a human rights activist most of his life. He has also advised Change Starts Now and Rise Mzansi on issues of social justice.
Unleaving Ingrid de Kok’s speaks truth in our troubled times

Jan 20, 2025 | dailymaverick.co.za | Mark Heywood

BOOK REVIEW At the end of 2024 South African poet Ingrid de Kok published Unleaving, a significant collection of substantial new poems. At a time of growing anxiety, uncertainty and violence a revival and reassertion of one of humankind’s oldest forms of expression and social commentary — poetry — is desperately needed. Speaking for myself, de Kok’s poems were just the antidote I needed to the crucifixion of truth and connection that occurs in so much of today’s language of expression.