The Real Network The Ma(i)de Sessions

The Ma(i)de Sessions

Domestic workers and cleaners occupy a unique position in a society. They are simultaneously the most ubiquitous and invisible among us. They are ever-present in our personal, professional and public spaces but often go largely undetected. These women have the potential to be the most powerful and astute social commentators as they hold a mirror to ourselves, to our children, and to our fellow citizens. Be a fly on the wall as we gain their unique perspectives on an interesting range of matters that characterise South African society.
Weekly English South Africa Society & Culture · Health & Fitness
69 Episodes
12 – 32

A Gate in Time

Robert Botha is a middle-aged white South African male who wrote a poem about a special person, probably a domestic worker, standing outside a gate in time. Don't miss his pearls of wisdom on identity, connection, servanthood, and the power of silence. Enlightened doesn't even cut it!
27 Jul 2017 51 min

Worker Stories

When last have you had someone speak for you or tell your story? It can be entertaining or flattering at the best or inaccurate and even insulting at worst. Workerstories.org decided to collect the stories of those often spoken for, in their own words, through creative literature. What more unbeatable…
20 Jul 2017 17 min

At Your Gate

Today we review a poem called 'At Your Gate' by Robert Botha. 'White male' can appear in many ways to be the opposite of 'domestic worker' but his piece is nothing short of haunting and insightful. A true testament to the beauty and complexity of the South African artist.
13 Jul 2017 34 min

Outrepreneur

Nelly's always been an intrapreneur. Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organisation. Lately however, she's taken it a step further and is looking to gradually start her own cleaning business. Guess what that's called... outrepreneurship? Whatever the term, Nelly knows more than…
6 Jul 2017 27 min

Mind Maze

In our second instalment of "what would South Africa be without 'help'?" (since it is a question we are always asked), the hosts explore a range of hypotheticals in a mind-warping conversation with many interesting twists and turns. Talk about a mental workout... phew!
29 Jun 2017 24 min

Matopia?

What might South Africa look like if 'help' was re-envisioned? Tuliza takes it a step further with a news broadcast from 2074. Fifty bucks says you push replay... more than once!
22 Jun 2017 10 min

The Commodities Market: Hope

Is hope a sellable product? Is it a skill? Is it both? Either way, some seem to have it and some don’t. Better yet, some seem to know how to use it, while others don’t know where to begin to find it. So people sell it to us in the…
1 Jun 2017 44 min

The Answer is a Question

What does your domestic worker know about you that nobody else does? A slightly awkward question for us all, no doubt, but we recently asked it to a large group of 14-year old boys at St. John's College... and truly remarkable things happened. We've invited their teacher Lizzy to chat…
25 May 2017 47 min

Undressing ReDress

The ladies FINALLY chat to the three UJ students who were chosen as the winners for the redesign of the domestic worker uniform for Ma(i)de's ReDress Project. They share the philosophy behind their design as well as how profoundly this process has enriched the ways they practice as SA fashion…
18 May 2017 40 min

Help-less?

Our dear Tuliza Sindi has never had help. Everrrrr(ish). And yet she's alive and well to tell the tale. To many this may sound a not-so-small miracle. Right?!? How on earth did she do it? A combination of boys and neighbours apparently, and some healthy childhood... mechanisation. A fascinating journey,…
11 May 2017 42 min

Wanted... or unwanted?

Would you respond to a job ad that required you to smell 'nice', bath twice a day, be free of illness, and hand over your passport? How exactly do you screen someone's bath times anyway? What is this cryptic illness? And, isn't it called trafficking when you take away someone's…
4 May 2017 53 min

A Road Twip with Elana Afrika

Where is the intersection between work and leisure? In a recent Twitter faux pas on the 'therapeutic value' of domestic work... we think Miss Elana Afrika may have gotten ummm... lost in Twanslation. Join us as we try to map her route and leave a few breadcrumbs along the way.
28 Apr 2017 40 min

Innocent Creative

It’s one thing to want to pursue a career you can get a degree in that your parents don’t quite approve of, like art history or theatre arts. It’s no coincidence that both of those examples have the word ‘art’ in it. Now imagine explaining to your parents that you…
20 Apr 2017 41 min

Redress through Dress

The Nocebo effect, as panellist Timothy Maurice rightfully pointed out, is when a negative expectation of a phenomenon or experience causes it to have a more negative effect than it otherwise should. Sometimes if we expect to be judged in the clothes that we wear, we will feel judged, even…
13 Apr 2017 1 hr 15 min

Our Urban Glitch

Urban design is, simply put, about public space: the spaces that we share. What we are comfortable to share is a reflection of the type of people that we are. Others learn about us through our public spaces. Apartheid spatial planning designed hostile and exclusive public spaces. The only thing…
23 Mar 2017 42 min

International Women's Day Special

To extend the International Women's Day celebrations from yesterday, The Ma(i)de Sessions dug up some good ol' inspiring moments of womanhood throughout the shows to date and as you can imagine, there are plenty! The ladies have somehow managed to narrow it down to 5 moments; 5 whole moments that's…
9 Mar 2017 27 min

The Ma(i)de Sessions - Broken Home: Curse or Opportunity?

Innocent and Koketso are 21 year old twins. They have only known each other for a month. Innocent, a boy, lived with their mother and Koketso, a girl, lived with their father, with only one of them aware that the other exists. Innocent was told that his father had died…
2 Mar 2017 43 min

The Wage to Live

Nigel "the white guy they don't want you to know about" Branken discusses how he got to pay a living wage, rather than the minimum wage to his then domestic worker, Loice. He helps us understand how this is no small feat, by tying into what we've come to know…
23 Feb 2017 1 hr 02 min

The Help: Review Part 2

The ladies round up their impressions on The Help - the movie that tracks the journey of Skeeter, a young white female writer determined to write something meaningful with the courageous black maids in her town of Jackson, Mississippi in 1962.
16 Feb 2017 1 hour

The Help: Review Pt 1.

Over the next two weeks the ladies review The Help, a 2011 American film directed and written by Tate Taylor, and adapted from Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name. The film and novel recount the story of young white woman and aspiring journalist Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan. The story…
9 Feb 2017 52 min
12 – 32