Calling on fathers to help eliminate violence

The glass shattered first. Then hands pulled the door open. Then fists. Then gunshots. Certain details have stayed with Themba Dlamini from the hijacking that nearly took his life. One of these details is how young the men were.

“Young enough to be my classmates. Young enough to still be someone’s sons,” he says. “And the question that has stayed with me ever since is: where were their fathers?”

Dlamini is a husband, father of four, pastor, chartered accountant and author of Village Boy: A Memoir of Fatherlessness. He believes this question – “Where were their fathers?” – sits at the heart of the Heartlines’ Fathers Matter programme, which is calling for a broader national conversation about the role of fathers and father figures in shaping safer, healthier communities.