Other characters

Siziwe

In the novel Mother to Mother by Sindiwe Magona, Siziwe is Mandisa’s youngest child. Her father is Dwadwa, Mandisa’s current husband. She has two older half-brothers: Mxolisi and Lunga. 

When Mandisa first comes home after the incident in Guguletu and asks where Mxolisi is, Siziwe pretends not to know and even appears to be amused about Mxolisi’s disappearance and the fact that Mandisa does not know where he is (p. 41). Moreover, when Siziwe sees the state Mandisa is in when she arrives home, she does not bother to ask if Mandisa is okay or what happened to her, which shows that she is rather selfish and indifferent of her mother’s problems (p. 42).

After the police raid at her house, Siziwe is the most shaken: 

Eyes big and round, pushed out as those of a tadpole in a drying ditch, Siziwe squatted on the floor, right in the corner of the room furthest from the door (…). Elbows to knees, she crouched and from deep down her throat came this panicky cooing of a frightened dove. (…) Just a deep dull growl, a trembly sigh, filled with blind despair. On and on and on the terrible wrawl, shoulders heaving horribly. But no tears came from those grotes...