By Benny Mojela Food4Futures is raffling off some precious equipment to help deal with Makhanda’s ongoing water crisis – two water tanks. The non-profit Food4Futures’ main focus is hunger alleviation – they supply food parcels from their offices at 2 Dundas Street to families who are unable to adequately feed themselves, and distribute donated clothing, shoes, and bedding. Their latest project is the water tank raffle, which will help the winner better deal with the regular water cuts that online readers of Grocott’s Mail and residents of Makhanda have become familiar with. The raffle ticket for the 5000l Water tank.…
Author: Benny Mojela
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By Benny Mojela The Makana Residents Association (MRA) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Amazwi Museum on 17 May. Secretary Tim Bull presented the chairperson’s report, in the absence of the outgoing chair Sally Price-Smith, which focused on the service delivery failures of the municipality. “I don’t think any of us expected to see the new low of two days off, one day on, water supply ‘normalised’ in Makhanda, although the people of Alicedale have experienced this, and worse for quite some time. Both situations are outrageous and completely unnecessary,” said the report. The report said broken refuse…
By Benny Mojela Kristen Burgess, Rhodes University Chemistry PhD Candidate, has been selected for the illustrious Gates Cambridge scholarship comprised of 77 outstanding scholars worldwide. Born in Johannesburg, Burgess spent some of her early school years there before moving to Makhanda, attending Kingswood College before she matriculated from Victoria Girls High School. She was accepted into various programs at Wits University and Rhodes University but chose to stay in the Eastern Cape for a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree. Burgess faced many challenges during her academic journey, including the difficult decision to give up ballet dancing to focus on her…
By Benny Mojela and Anga Anganda Bushwana Cecile van Schalkwyk has worked as an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) Makhanda office for eight years. The LRC is a non-profit, public-interest law clinic that provides legal assistance to people who are unable to afford it specifically within the context of land and education. It focuses on high-impact rights litigation advocacy within those spheres of the law. The LRC, together with the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Children’s Institute has designed a booklet, which has been endorsed by SASSA, on the rights of undocumented children to gain access to the…
By Benny Mojela My name is Benny Mojela. I am a Maths and Science educator. I was trained as an Applied Behavior Analysis therapist and I worked with children who have ADHD, and Asperger’s and are on the autism spectrum. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry degree and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, both from Wits University. I was involved in student Christian leadership and political activism at Wits before, during, and after the #FeesMustFall (#FMF) movement. My message to reluctant Christian students during #FMF was “It is your right as a citizen to protest but it is…
By Benny Mojela We live in the digital generation where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to be an active member of society without having digital skills. The Sarah Baartman Department of Education, in partnership with Rhodes University, hosted an ICT Day for 13 local primary schools in Makhanda in March. These schools demonstrated how to use different ICT applications to assist them with their school work and meet the technology demands of this modern society. Sarah Baartman, District Curriculum Education Specialist (CES) Nosiphi Hanisi, said the day was created to help sharpen the learners’ skills and celebrate ICTs in Makana.…
The Mayor addressing the residents of extension 10 at an IDP meeting