How often do you hear about
the negative effects of excessive screen time and the dangers of social
media? We don’t always hear about the positive ways technology makes a
difference in our lives, especially when it comes to learning.
Technology in the classroom continues to level
the playing field by allowing students to learn to their full potential
in a way that suits their unique abilities. Even those with a slower
grasp of certain concepts are benefiting from this new wave concept in the education sector.
From
the creation and use of smartphones to tablets, we have seen how
technology has changed how students learn and teachers teach. Whether
it’s in classrooms or labs, we have seen how technology has made
learning more engaging and interactive, thanks to various innovations
that are being introduced in the education sector.
Technology
changes by the minute, and preparing students for this ever-changing
world is very important. In keeping with this, significant investments
have been made to improve education, and now many schools can access
digital resources to support the educational process. Technology’s
impact on today’s educational system has been quite significant, and it
has completely changed how teachers teach, and students learn.
What are the most creative ways technology enhances education and makes the learning process more engaging?
Technology
offers an easy and fun way to engage students in the learning process,
through tools such as interactive whiteboards. Students can watch
instructional videos or short movies, and teachers can make the most
interactive elements available through images, animations, and games.
Digital
games can communicate new material, make learning more fun, and make it
easier for students with a disability or special needs to participate.
By tapping into students’ competitiveness, they can also encourage
students to work harder than they otherwise might.
2.
Virtual tools can spark creativity and imagination for students by
giving them the ability to experiment with different ideas without
having any limits, such as materials, time, or any other barriers. Set
up a Google Cardboard which allows
students to experience VR in a fun, simple, affordable way. It’s a
cardboard box in which the user only needs to insert a smartphone into
the viewer to play immersive virtual reality games and let students explore the idea of what it would be like to fly or drive.
Most
math, science, and engineering concepts are not easy to understand
without visual aids. Virtual models and simulations help teachers
explain complex ideas. This mainly works well if the students are those
who learn best by tactile or visual methods.
3. Google created a Classroom
management resource – a tool that allows teachers to create classes,
distribute and mark assignments, send feedback, and see everything in
one place. It has been designed to be engaging and offer options for
students of all levels.
Students can continue learning their material if a teacher is absent or if their school has days off for weather events. Online
editing collaboration tools for online learning, such as Google Docs,
allow two or more students to work on their own pieces simultaneously,
creating an engaging atmosphere for discussion and feedback.
Technology is an amazing educational resource that will help teachers and students realize their true potential. The promise
of educational technology lies in what educators do with it and how it
is used to best support their students’ needs. This is why we have transformed
our online safety education from Ilizwe Lam into an innovative WhatsApp
learning bot called Kitso (Knowledge) that caters to teachers and
parents.
Kitso supports
your learning plan by empowering parents and teachers with the skills
they need to teach their students how to spot fake news on WhatsApp,
stay safe online, and so much more.
CAPE TOWN; South Africa – THE time has come for
the purpose and roles of Street Committees to be reviewed for our
collective revival.
In this article, we get to look at a wide variety of
perspectives from expert and community leader analysis on what needs to
be done to use this layer of leadership for effective governance.
Street Committees have the powerful potential to unlock service delivery
lock-necks.
According to the IGI Global Publishing House Street
Committees were committees created in the 1980s and were democratically
elected committees meant to cater for needs and challenges facing
community members in their respective streets or areas.
Published in Chapter: Entrenching Community (Participatory)
Governance Through Street Committees at Cato Crest, eThekwini
Municipality by Ndwakhulu Stephen Tshishonga (University of
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), this document seeks to illustrate the
purpose and role of Street Committees, IGI Global Publishing House,
shares some interesting thoughts on what and how Street Committees can
best serve the people.
In an abstract of the paper: this chapter explores the role
of street committees in retrenching and grounding community
participatory governance at Cato Crest.
The chapter is purposed to revitalise street committees as
street/area democratically elected and managed structures aimed at
restoring inclusive local democracy, peace, and order, especially in the
prevalence of domestic violence, crime, community disunity and
divisions, disobedient youth, and other antisocial behaviours.
The author argues that the current configuration of street
committees as partisan structures compromises their fundamental purpose
of uniting people regardless of race, culture, gender, and
socio-economic class.
The chapter also found that without clear developmental
roles, street committees are often highjacked to serve a party political
agenda.
In addition, the chapter is qualitative in nature when data
were collected through observation and face-to-face interviews with
street committees at Cato Crest.
The empirical data was also enriched by secondary sources in the form of journal papers, books, and government reports.
According to the Vukukhanye Community Upliftment
Initiatives the primary objective of Street Committees is to involve the
community of a particular area in creating a happy, peaceful and
productive environment by encouraging community members to take a
greater interest in, and responsibility for, their community.
The success of Street Committees hinges on community
involvement and effective communication with local government
departments, including, police, social welfare, infrastructure services
etc.
Ivan Ntsasa Mngqibisa in the role of street committees in
the governance of informal settlements: a case study from Waterworks
Township, Grabouw, published by the University of Cape Town.
The abstract goes: Community participation has become a key
concept in research on the development and governance of
underprivileged communities.
It is on these grounds that the post-apartheid South
African government has encouraged meaningful participation between local
communities and the state, particularly through structures of local
government.
However, the role that street committees can play in the
realisation of this ideal has received little attention from either
government or academic scholars.
For this reason, this study examines the role that the
street committee in Waterworks, Grabouw, in the Western Cape plays in
community governance. It analyses data from a qualitative study which
took place between 2007 and 2008, states Mngqibisa.
“In this thesis I argue that while the street committee has
a role to play in the governance of the community, that role is limited
by their lack of power. The street committee is not a statutory body
and this hinders their ability to participate in local government
issues.
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Despite these restrictions, the street committee in
Waterworks was largely perceived by the local residents as doing their
best in addressing pertinent issues. However, there were some who
accused members of the street committee of nepotism and seeking
political patronage,” noted Mngqibisa.
Former Minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula told Members of
the National Assembly (NA) when he delivered the 2017/18 Budget Vote of
the Police Department at Parliament: “We need to close the oxygen for
criminals. Their breath should be limited. Their conception of life
should be reduced to the ordinary. Their contemplation of reality should
be reduced into nothing. This is our war cry against criminals and
criminality in the Republic of South Africa,” emphasised Mbalula.
He said street committees are very important in the fight
against crime. “We are realistic that we cannot win the fight against
crime without the involvement of civil society. The Ministry is in the
process of reviewing the Community Police Forum Policy. This will ensure
that we build strategic partnerships with the communities in our effort
to push back the frontiers of criminality,” Mbalula added.
And according to the Bonteheuwel Development Forum (BDF); A
street/block committee MUST unite around issues affecting it’s street,
block or neighbourhood and can therefore not be aligned to any political
party, neither should it be open for use or abuse by any party or
political figure.
The BDF Mission is to combat poverty, inequality and social
ills through community centered social, educational and economic
development interventions.
In 2018, 7 March, as reported by the Grocott’s Mail,
citizens from Grahamstown East took part in an exciting event at BB
Zondani Hall in Fingo Village. The South African Police Service (SAPS)
in conjunction with Makana Municipality launched the community street
committees initiative as a way to improve safety and reduce crime.
The initiative serves as a way to empower citizens and
encourage visible policing within communities that suffer from high
crime rates.
Reverend Gxaleka opened the event by emphasising the
importance of building relationships in the community. “We must build
relationships so we can speak with one voice,” he said. Speaking to the
issue of halting crime, he said, “We need people to do umsebenzi [the
work].”
Street Committees have the powerful potential to unlock
service delivery lock-necks. In all likely-hood, Street Committees
should serve more as empowerment agencies if they are to be relevant and
effective going into the future.
Street Committees should be running Feeding Scheme programmes in partnership with other stakeholders.
And Street Committees need to also look for other problems
facing residents they can solve finding help from community structures,
business community, government and other sectors to improve the lot of
the people. They should be communicators of their constituencies on
everything developmental within and outside the street/community.
Moreover, Street Committees should make use of social media
tools like Facebook pages, WhatsApp Groups for all residents, to
further inform the residents on Job and Business opportunities,
workshops, seminars and any training that takes place in the street and
community and elsewhere.
Regular meetings at community halls or other easily
accessible venues like churches or schools to engage with all residents
on matters concerning their street.
Activities for different groups in the streets must form
part of the developmental imperative of Street Committees including
sport, recreation and arts for the young and old. In this way, Street
Committees will be bringing government and service delivery closer to
the people.
Africa should improve the quality of basic education to
ensure a skilled workforce that will create more and better jobs to
drive economic transformation on the continent, the Economic Commission
for Africa (ECA) said last week.
ECA acting Director of the Gender, Poverty and Social Policy division
(GPSPD), Sweta Saxena, said creating suitable jobs for its youth is one
of the biggest challenges facing policymakers in Africa, highlighting
that growing young and working-age population requires jobs if Africa is
to benefit from a demographic dividend and meet its development
aspirations.
Furthermore, says ECA, ECA supports Member States through the
convening function, which supports the identification of key collective
challenges facing the continent along with appropriate responses.
“The Commission also functions as a think tank which includes
conducting interdisciplinary research and analysis of key challenges
facing Member States and Africa as a whole, as well as the promotion of
peer learning and development.
Furthermore, the ECA provides direct policy advice and support to
Member States and this usually comes about from meetings and
interactions such as the Experts Group Meeting.”
Research shows that in a globalized world with ease of movement of
capital, goods and services, the mobility of skilled workers across
international borders was a natural consequence of global integration
and orderly migration.
It brought many benefits, including remittances, investment, and
trade linkages with countries of destination but the situation was
different in Africa.
Speaking at the Opening Session of the Expert Group Meeting of the
Social Policy Section, organized by GPSPD, Saxena said Africa is
challenged in terms of providing jobs for the youth. She cited the lack
of adequate skills by the young population in Africa.
Moreover, data shows that nearly a quarter of the children enrolled
at the primary level do not complete primary education while less than
50% of young boys and girls complete lower secondary education, compared
to around 80% in South Asia and Latin American countries. Worse still
the tertiary level enrollment rate is less than 10%.
“The quality of education is also very low, and so as a result, young
people in Africa enter the formal labour market with few employable
skills,” Saxena said, commenting that it was no wonder that nearly 90%
of the youth start their working life in informal employment and almost a
quarter of businesses name lack of skilled workers as among the main
constraints.
Saxena lamented that the “loss of skills is worrisome for countries in Africa that already suffer from low human capital.
As tertiary and professional education are financed from severely
limited public education budgets, in effect poor African countries
implicitly subsidize rich countries through migration of highly skilled
labour.”
Research also reveals that another big challenge for Africa was
having significant numbers of their trained people ending up unemployed
and working in areas unrelated to their training or emigrating to other
countries, which is a misallocation and waste of resources that these
countries can ill afford.
According to organizers, the two-day Expert Group Meeting has drawn
technical experts from 16 countries including experts from government,
academia, think tanks, and the United Nations system to review the key
findings of the draft report, Jobs in Africa or Jobs for Africans. The
report aims to inform and stimulate debate, contribute to better
policies, facilitate further research, and identify prominent knowledge
and data gaps.
In addition, the meeting provides an opportunity to discuss questions
related to the issues of demography, education and skills migration in
an integrated way so as to accelerate national and regional-level
actions for increasing employment opportunities for young Africans.
Saxena said expert group meetings were important for the ECA as they
contributed to the Commission fulfilling its core mandate of promoting
economic and social development among our member States.
Properly managed migration presents an immense opportunity for
alleviating the challenge of job shortages for skilled workers in Africa
with development benefits for all parties.
“Creating a skilled workforce requires improvements in both access
to, and quality of, basic education,” Saxena said, urging for rethinking
education under a New Social contract.
A quick engine search on how many supporters Kaizer Chiefs
have will lead you to various estimates from 15 million plus to 16
million plus to 20 million plus supporters.
With one research library revealing that Chiefs have more supporters inside South Africa and in neighbouring countries.
The site reads: “It is also the most supported club in South Africa
and the neighbouring countries of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia etc. It has
been estimated that the club has over 100 million supporters.”
It may not be easy yet to provide an accurate figure of how many
supporters Chiefs have, but there’s overwhelming material on the
Internet and eslwehere that Kaizer chiefs continue to gain millions of
supporters inside and outside South Africa.
A study of this ever growing brand and clearly the biggested sporting
brand in South Africa and in the Southern African region, has led the
Club to be declared as “The Biggest Club” in Southern Africa.
With a revenue of $25 mil. – $50 million, Kaizer Chiefs employs 100 –
250. The Club falls under the Industry of Sports Teams & Leagues,
Hospitality.
As a special part of the Kaizer Chiefs family, being a card carrying
member of the Amakhosi Supporters Club means you get to enjoy a whole
host of incredible benefits from insurance and retail among others.
They are the most supported club in the country, drawing an average
home attendance of 16,144 in the 2019–20 season, the highest in the
league, hence the Club is dubbed “The Biggest Club” in Southern Africa.
The Kaizer Chiefs Youth Development Academy is a programme that is
FREE of charge for all players across the different age-groups. We
currently have five age-groups namely our under-13, under-15, under-17,
under-19 and the reserve team.
“Our responsibility as a football club is to set and maintain a
standard of excellence at the training rounds. We expect extremely high
standards of our players, and we expect them to understand that their
development starts every day that they walk through the gates of the KC
Village.
The KC development houses some of its players at the state of the art
KC Village in Naturena where players are under the tutelage of house
fathers and mothers. The academy team does not hold open trials as most
of our players are scouted around the country, and then invited for
further assessment,” the Club notes.
“Kaizer XI Run Riot”, this is how the headlines screamed in The World
newspaper the following Monday after Kaizer’s boys had routed the
Transvaal Coloured Professional Invitation XI 4-0 (on Saturday) and the
District Invitation XI 9-1 (on Sunday). Not an elegant headline, an
attention grabber that captured the essence of it all, as Chiefs
remembers.
After these two games, there was no turning back for the Club.
For the next 53 years such headlines became synonymous with Kaizer
Chiefs. Chiefs entered the game not only with the bang but elegance as
well.
There is no contradiction in Kaizer Motaung’ statement, “We changed the face of the game,” He is not presumptuous either!
Amakhosi scored an amazing 106 goals in 30 games in that
record-breaking NPSL season, finishing nine points ahead of league
runners-up Moroka Swallows.
Chiefs have made several ‘Firsts’ in local football more than any
other club. The First team to have more full time professional players;
the First team to have several players campaigning abroad at the same
time (Shaka Ngcobo, Ace Ntsoelengoe, Pele Blaschke were all campaigning
in the US at the same time in the 70s), the First team to be registered
as a company, the first team to have white registered supporters.
It was Kaizer Chiefs who made a history of sorts in 1975 when they
brought out former Brazilian international Jairzinho to this country.
The Club continued in the 90s to ‘revolutionarise’ South African
football becoming the first local club to have a clubhouse, Kaizer
Chiefs Village in Naturena, the Club adds.
The Kaizer Chiefs Supporters Club, according to the fans, “Gives us
an authentic feeling of belonging as it proves our affiliation to
Amakhosi.
As a true supporter we need to attend home games, wear only authentic
gear, and have a Kaizer Chiefs Mobile SIM card and a Kaizer Chiefs
insurance funeral policy.
We also need to buy our monthly copy of the Amakhosi magazine and
follow the Club on all social platforms, including regular visits to the
website.
Our support makes a difference to the team – we are the 12th player on the field and a vital member of this Family.”
This all started on the 7th January 1970.
Kaizer, who was playing his trade in America, found his friends and
teammates at Orlando Pirates in 1969 sidelined. He played a vital role
in the formation of what is currently the biggest sporting brand in the
country, Kaizer Chiefs.
Together with the likes of Thomas “Zero My Hero” Johnson, the late
Ewert “The Lip” Nene, Edward “Msomi” Khoza, Ratha Mokgoatlheng and
others having toured the country successfully with Kaizer Chiefs XI in
1969, they decided to form what is known today as Kaizer Chiefs.
Kaizer Motaung remembered vividly, “It was at this meeting before I
returned to the United States of America that I was pressured not to
abandon the Kaizer XI. My father also played a huge role in convincing
me, saying, “This will help you to have something to fall back on when
you come back from the USA”.
We needed strong administration as I was going to be away. I then
recruited the late Clarence Mlokoti who was a good administrator. We
also had people like China Ngema (currently a Director at the Club).
This is how Kaizer Chiefs was conceived,” revealed Motaung.
When Chiefs started, they had their slogan, ‘Love & Peace’ and
the brand attracted a ‘Hippie culture’ while they were winning fans on
the pitch with their brand of football.
Most Chiefs players spotted trousers with flares while among the
clevers in the township and a majority of ordinary people-trousers had
turn ups. Chiefs female supporters also showed traits of more liberalism
in their dress sense.
Chiefs founder member, Zero Johnson recalled, “We wanted to be a team
with style, not only on the field of play but off the field as well. I
suddenly became a ‘dance teacher’ for the players. It was important for
Kaizer Chiefs players to be able to dance when there was a call to do
so. Fans loved mingling with players and dance so this was a strategy to
wow more crowds,” he said laughing.
Life was not as easy though, as Club’s legend Michael Bizzah Dlamini
revealed in a television show recently, “There were tough times at the
beginning especially financially but we soldiered on. We were determined
to take on the best in the country,”
Side by side with success, death has been a constant visitor to
Chiefs. The deaths of Ewert Nene, former captain, Ariel “Pro” Khongoane
in the early 70s were shattering so was the death of the likes of
Gilbert Sekhabi, Elkiem “Pro” Khumalo, Clarence Mlokoti and the
legendary, Patrick “Ace” Ntsulengoe.
The Boet Erasmus ‘close call’ when players such as Doctor Khumalo,
Moses Ngcobo, William Shongwe were pinned to the ground by two walls and
the mass of humanity brought dark clouds for the Club. The Orkney
disaster on Sunday, 13 January 1991 and the Ellis Park disaster on the
11th April 2001 will forever be remembered as dark moments since the
Club’s inception 53 years ago.
Kaizer Chiefs though has always been all about winning from day one.
The Club has won more trophies than any other soccer club in South
Africa. It boasts 20 million plus fans around the country which makes it
the biggest sporting establishment in the country and one of the
biggest in the continent. The Club continues to grow with fans beyond
South African borders.
As the Club soldiers on 53 years later, it is hoped that the new
generation will match the achievements of some of the legends that
turned up for the Club: Patrick “Ace” Ntsoelengoe, Ariel “Pro”
Khongoane, Vusi “Computer” Lamola, Johnny “Magwegwe” Mokoena, Teenage
Dladla, Lucky Stylianou, Peter B’alack, Johannes “Fetsi” Molatedi,
Doctor “Pretty Boy” Khumalo, Lucas “Rhoo” Radebe and many others.
Kaizer Chiefs, the most decorated club in South African football, have won more than 93 trophies.
The Gold-and-Black have won the League Championship 13, lifted the
National Cup on 13 occasions, with fifteen top 8 titles (The most by any
team in SA), have won the League Cup thirteen times and several
unofficial cups.
On six occasions Chiefs were Runners-up for League Championships;
African Cup Winners’ Cup – Winners: 2001; CAF Super Cup – Runners-up:
2002; CAF Champions League – Runners-up: 2020–21; Individual Awards –
African Club of the Year 2001.
Including; Vodacom Challenge – Winners (5) – record: 2000, 2001,
2003, 2006, 2009; Telkom Charity Cup – Winners (11) – record: 1986,
1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2010; Carling
Black Label Cup – Winners(4): 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021 & Runners-up
(5): 2011, 2012 , 2014, 2015 , 2019; Sales House Champ of Champs –
Winners: 1984; Ohlsson’s Challenge Cup – Winners: 1987, 1989; Castle
Challenge Cup – Winners: 1990, 1991; Stylo Cup – Winners: 1970; UCT
Super Team Competition – Winners: 1972; Shell Helix Ultra Cup Winners:
2019.
Chiefs also has hundreds of Supporter’s Branches across South Africa.
Kaizer Chiefs has over 7.2 million social media followers. Facebook:
3.6 Million; Twitter: 2.7 Million; Instagram: 0.845 Million; and
YouTube: 54,800 Subscribers.
And on October 29, 2012, Kaizer Chiefs announced that they had
registered a rugby sevens team to participate in the inaugural 7s
Premier League.
The Club also runs the Kaizer Chiefs eSports Tournament.
In 2017, Kaizer Chiefs partnered with sponsors for this inaugural
competitive gaming experience which gave gamers a chance to battle it
out at the Kaizer Chiefs esports stage, where they were to knock each
other out of the FIFA 17 challenge in a bid to be the ultimate winner.
This event will offer aligned partners the opportunity to affiliate
their brands with one of the world’s fastest-growing competitive
spectacles.
The Club also has development teams in Cape Town & Durban as YouthTeams.
Kaizer Chiefs reserve team plays in the DStv Diski Challenge.
The reserve teams accomplishments include: Gauteng Reserve League
2013; Gauteng Reserve League 2017; Gauteng Reserve League 2021; Gauteng
Reserve League 2022; Engen Knockout Cup 2017; Engen Knockout Cup 2021;
Engen Knockout Cup 2022; Nedbank Ke Yona Cup 2010; Nedbank Ke Yona Cup
2016; Nedbank Ke Yona Cup 2021; SAFA Regionals Gauteng 2011; SAFA
Regionals Gauteng 2012; SAFA Regionals Gauteng 2019; SAFA Regional
Western Cape 2014; SAFA Regionals Western Cape 2020; SAFA Regionals
KwaZulu Natal 2020; SAFA Regionals KwaZulu Natal 2021; SAFA Regionals
KwaZulu Natal 2022; Telkom Charity Cup 2013; Telkom Charity Cup 2015;
Telkom Charity Cup 2019; DSTV Youth League 2020; DSTV Youth Super Cup
2022; Multichoice Diski Challenge 2017; DSTV DIski Shield 2022.
Kaiser Chiefs, the British indie/britpop band, was named after the
club because Lucas Radebe, a former player of Kaizer Chiefs, captained
Leeds United, the team they all supported.
CAPE TOWN; South Africa – It is common cause that
children usually start following Kaizer Chiefs Football Club because
they think that South Africa’s biggest football club is called ‘Kaizer
Chips’.
This is before they discover the real name is actually Kaizer Chiefs, named after its founder and owner Kaizer Motaung.
When Motaung founded the Phefeni Glamour Boys in 1970 he
used his first name Kaizer, and joined it with that of the club he first
played for in the United States, Chiefs, from Atlanta Chiefs. Since
then Kaizer Chiefs has gone on to become the most decorated football
club in South Africa and clearly the biggest sporting brand to date.
But on Monday this week, the ‘Kaizer Chips’ name came close
to reality as the SOWETO born outfit known as AMAKHOSI (the Chiefs),
launched a potato chip range.
Marketing Director of Kaizer Chiefs, Jessica Motaung invited ‘fans everywhere to get Khosified and truly fuel your passion’.
Kaizer Chiefs said it has launched the potato chip range to
take “the essence of passion from the football pitch to the palate”.
This move by AMAKHOSI has also led to social media going abuzz with
reactions.
Chiefs is expanding its commercial footprint at a time that
the club is going through its eight year without winning a trophy under
the South African Football Association (SAFA)-Premier Soccer League
(PSL) calendar.
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This week however,,Jessica Motaung was upbeat about a turnaround among fans.
“Our vision was clear — to deliver a snack range that
embodies the boldness and vibrancy of the Kaizer Chiefs brand. With
these explosive flavours, we invite fans everywhere to get Khosified and
truly fuel your passion,” she said.
From social media and elsewhere fans are excited, with some
joking that the launch was “unofficial” recognition of ‘Kaizer Chips’,
which is how some people, mainly children, pronounce the club’s name.
Lawrance Maile commented, “Chiefs marketing department, you
guys are doing a great job in ensuring that the brand grows. So
innovative, thinking out the box … unlike other football clubs. I know
most people won’t stop criticising you for a wonderful job you are
doing. People should know that football today is a business.”
While Themba Tshabalala tweeted on X: “Smiles everywhere as
@KaizerChiefs launches their snack range. You can have Kaizer Chips
while you watch Kaizer Chiefs.”
Cape Town: One of the saddest experiences of growing
up in a South African township is that of the level of violence that
sometimes leads to injury or even loss of lives. That was the experience
we were accustomed to growing up in the 1980s, those of my generation
born in the 1970s and later 70s.
This violence came from political insurrection or gangsterism or down
right thuggery. But of course, there’s the brighter side to the
township life. Sport, recreation and the arts top the chart in my book.
By all accounts, children and the youth have the most fun when
engaging in these three activities.During my township schools days in
the 1980s and early 1990s these disciplines were the norm in the
township, including township schools. Somewhere, somehow along the way
as the 1994 post apartheid democratic order came into effect, steadily
the cracks started showing.
The all popular sport athletics days for primary and high schools in
the townships, and district athletics meetings would become something of
the past, this would see other sporting codes, including drama, arts
and many recreational activities going under the bus. Of course, the
problems didn’t all start after 1994, even before 1994 and mostly during
school holidays, the lack of activities for what seems to be the
majority of the township kids and youths was and still is a living
reality.
Back in those days, we ended up creating our own activities like
street soccer, cricket, tennis and other popular games in the townships.
Another sector that showed promise especially from the 1980s to the
early 1990s was that of township youth structures, such as youth clubs,
boy cups, scouts, brownies (for girls) and girl guides formed part of
popular township kids and youth culture.
When Kwaito music emerged in the early 1990s, it looked as if all
that was for the youth in the township would just blossom and blossom,
regrettably that has not been the case. Although Kwaito music has
continued to enjoy an amount of success, even breaking into the
international fold. The reality is that youth and children in South
Africa are experiencing a serious neglect as most are not just
unemployed, but have been failed by a system that doesn’t pass the test
when it comes to nurturing them in activities that they are entitled to
in terms of national and international laws.
In the post 1994 dispensation, some programmes for children and
youths have been available to mostly a few, while some others have been
grossly neglected. In this chronicle, I’m not even planning to mention
the government sector’s role or lack thereof, possibly, part of the
problem has been too much dependence on the government for almost every
development that is needed. Closer attention to this possibility has to
materialize to fix what needs to be fixed.
The challenges facing townships are multifaceted, as some have
suggested, this is probably the case that also needs closer scrutiny.
That’s why the process of fixing these township challenges has to be
owned by all sectors and become a daily priority for all to find what
has gone wrong and how we can go about fixing what is wrong.
Committed and dedicated people in leadership roles like school
Principals, sport forums and other sectors should be entrusted to get
things going in reviving activities in schools and in township
communities. In partnership with the Department of Education, SABC drama
series in the late 1990s, Yizo-Yizo did a sterling job in exposing and
highlighting what is wrong within township schools and township life in
general. From corrupt teachers with a negative influence on the learners
to unscrupulous members of the community corrupting the schools and
learners, for self interest; to good members of society, including
school governing bodies (SGB) who would go the extra mile in ensuring
that things run accordingly in the townships and learners and youth get
the best education and support they need, the SABC drama series
kick-started a process that allowed the nation to zoom in on what is
happening in the townships.
These stories cannot be lost in the nation’s consciousness if we hope
to turn our situation around and create a winning nation.Most probably,
a possible winning formula to turn things around lies somewhere else in
the world.
If countries like the USA, Germany, UK, France, Russia, Italy, China
to name a few, have had a remarkable record when it comes to global
sporting events like the Olympics, winning the most medals to date, then
it would make perfect sense to study how they run their development
programmes for their children and youths in their communities and
schools.
Under Apartheid, things were not perfect, but the township situation
for children and youth participation in sport, arts and recreation has
dilapidated since the dawn of the democratic dispensation in 1994. By
the looks of things, things are likely to get worse if no urgent
intervention is made to reverse the situation. Even the new programmes
like cluster leagues, where teams comprising players from schools mixed
up with players from the community, have in many cases collapsed or
never started at all.
Even other programmes like the Siyadlala Community Mass Participation
Programme; Spur Masidlale Soccer Programme, CAF African Schools
Football Championship and other mass sports programmes need serious
acceleration to broaden their base and reach all of the township kids
and youths.
Yesteryear sports people, men and women, and other people in the arts
and recreation sectors can rescue another generation from a tragedy of
wasted talents. Let’s do it for the past, current and future
generations. Let’s all play our part.
Can you imagine if all our private and public organizations,
institutions, industries, sectors and businesses ran children and youth
programmes of all kinds as part of their Corporate Social investment
(CSI), how much difference could that make?
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa and Russian President Vladimir Putin
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa is the unluckiest president since the
dawn of South Africa’s democracy in 1994, confided one ANC activist
recently during a brief chat the other day.
Just less than two years into the highest job on land, in March 2020
South Africa, like most nations across the globe, was affected by
Covid-19 lockdowns, added the activist.
For sure, this global pandemic by far was unprecedented, in the last millennia or so.
More businesses collapsed, job loss went up, the death rate; and a
variety of other factors negatively befell the human species during this
period.
True to form, South Africa turns to get a lot of media attention, quite a dramatic country others would say.
For instance, South Africa recorded the highest number of Covid infections in Africa during the pandemic.
As reportedly the most unequal country on earth, South Africa, finds itself constantly on the news for mostly the wrong reasons.
The country also gets a lot of media attention for many positive activities from sports, the arts, and in other fields.
This time around, the rolling blackouts are doing just the same
damage to the nation’s fabric just as witnessed during the Covid
lockdowns.
Could Ramaphosa be asking himself why he took the job in the first
place judging by the myriad of hurdles his presidency has encountered up
until now.
The 2021 July unrest saw more than 350 lives lost. R50 billion worth of damages to property to mention a few.
The torching of parliament and other private, public, and government
institutions that have come under attack right across the land, could
signal a president overwhelmed by the wills of power.
Ascending to the ANC presidency propels the leader of the governing
ANC to become the president of the country, as the governing party has
enjoyed landslide victories in every national election since 1994.
The Ramaphosa presidency has already been termed in certain quarters
and including by some media groups as the worst administration to date.
Maybe, or maybe not, the issue at hand now should be whether South
Africans can continue to place their trust in the hands of Ramaphosa and
his party.
And that the anti-Ramaphosa sentiments within the ANC, are also
drumming up the noise for the president’s exit from office, which could
very much lead to a situation where the ANC goes into next year’s
national election further weakened from the factional battles that have
become the everyday reality of Africa’s oldest liberation movement.
As if Ramaphosa and the ANC problems were not a lot. Then there’s the
headache that faces South Africa as it prepares to host this year’s
BRICS Summit
The bone of contention is whether or not Pretoria will arrest Russian
President Vladimir Putin should he attend the summit, scheduled for
August 2023.
The charge for Putin’s arrest is led mostly by Russia’s erstwhile
enemies the Western Powers including Britain and the US, this of course
follows Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier in 2022.
Notably, the Russian-Ukraine Conflict has already had devastating effects on the whole economically and otherwise.
These two energy giants fighting has contributed greatly to the rise
if costs globally and the escalation of the high prices of petrol for
example.
For South Africa this and ramifications of great proportions when you
consider that both Britain and the US are one of SA’s biggest trading
partners, worth hundreds of billions of investments annually and
millions of jobs could be lost.
On the other hand, should Pretoria succumb to its Western Allies,
then the ANC-led South Africa will be breaking a century-old
relationship with Russia, much of it existed during the liberation
struggle.
Not forgetting that many African countries usually side with Russia
during such crises, as they also were beneficiaries of support from the
USSR during the anti-colonial era. And many if not all have kept close
ties with Russia.
A tough one indeed for Ramaphosa, whichever way you look at it.
The Putin matter has the serious potential to divide the ANC even
more. In the worst-case scenario, it could divide the country along
ideological lines.
On the international stage, it could lead to further cracks in global
unity and strengthening tensions between countries across ideological
and economic lines, historical alliances, and relations.
Although it may sound extreme and even far-fetched to suggest that
this global disunity and unstable environment, can create conditions of a
world war, it won’t help the world not to seek to prevent such a
possibility.
Few to none saw the coming of World War 1 and World War 2. Few to
none saw the coming of many other conflicts and market crashes and
economic disasters.
And as for South Africa, it is hard to hear some of the citizens hurt
at the rolling blackouts and their pessimism on overcoming this ‘power
curse’.
But again, every challenge is accompanied by an opportunity.
What could be the solution?
The solution could come from all sectors of society, locally and
internationally finding one another on pressing matters affecting all of
us.
Be it rolling blackout, foreign policy, service delivery and effective leadership of our nations and the world.
When those bestowed to lead are not giving the masses any reason to
trust that they can turn things around and create an equal and winning
society for all its people.
