Bongani opens up about his brother being a car guard

I’ve been battling with the issue of my brother for almost seven years now. When I say issue, I don’t mean he is an issue, I just think our relationship is an issue. 

It’s been eating me up inside for the longest time. My brother is smarter than me, but because I knew I wasn’t the smartest I made sure I worked harder. This lead to him always being compared to me. My family was always like: “Why aren’t you more like Bongani?”. I think this bred resentment inside of him and he rebelled as a result of it.

I don’t know whether it is pride, guilt or anger, but I’ve never managed to help him out. It almost feels like it’s been too long now. I mean, how do you go back? How do you open up the lines of conversation? Where do you start?

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Last week, I went to visit my mom in Pietermaritzburg and I went to the shops to go buy a couple of groceries. As I was sitting in the car, I spotted my brother. He’s a car guard at the shopping centre.

I looked at him and he saw me. Emotionally, it hit me so hard that I turned around and drove straight back to Durban.

My producer pushed me to talk about this on air and ask for advice from KZN listeners. This is what you had to say: