Author: Grocott's Mail Contributors

With two weeks to go before the GBS Mutual Bank Mountain Drive Half Marathon, here is the eleventh week of Grocott’s Mail’s 12-week training programme, created by Terri-Lynn Penney: Week 11 Monday easy 60min over a hilly course Tuesday 15min warm up 6 x 1km at race pace 2min rest in between Wednesday easy 60min Thursday easy 45min with last 10min of run at race pace Friday rest Saturday 19km (longest run before MT drive half) Sunday 20min recovery run Terri-Lynn Penney is a local triathlete, having great success around the province, nationally and internationally. Having recently completed her 14th Two…

I think some clarity is needed to help the staff at the SPCA, we are not responsible for stray or street dogs, not because we don’t care but because we do not have the manpower or the finances to deal with it. The people responsible for the collection and management of Stray and Street Animals are in accordance with the by-laws, the Makana Municipality. If a member of the public finds a stray animal they need to first check if the dog has a collar and an ID tag. If the dog has an ID tag and is approachable, check…

This is the first of three edited excerpts from Rape: A South African Nightmare by Professor Pumla Gqola, published with the author’s permission in the lead-up to the Rhodes University hosted Silent Protest  in Grahamstown (Makhanda) on 3 August 2018. Many years ago, I watched a television programme where a journalist talked to a group of young men who readily admitted on camera to having raped. It was a strange and unsettling encounter. It was also illuminating. The journalist’s questions probed motivations, the styles and the patterns of the young men she interviewed. I (also) remember (a) similar conversation aired…

Sadly, we have to keep thinking about water. We may have had the odd day or two (usually weekends, it seems) of good rain, but nowhere near enough to turn things around. We have three critical problems. The first is failing infrastructure leading to much leakage and failure of the purification equipment – at one point with an unsafe level of bacteria delivered to homes. The second is the extremely low level of Settlers, the main dam that feeds the west side of town, which has been at around 20% for months. The final problem is that the interconnect between east…

Since 2007, Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown (KGG) has actively for the retention of the name Grahamstown.  Since then we have always said that we would accept a name change if the current name was truly offensive to the majority of Grahamstonians as it was claimed to be by the then Mayor, Mr Nompumelelo Kate.  We went through three processes on the matter and the outcomes were not in favour of changing the name. If they had been, as Prof Julia Wells now claims (GM), the name would have changed long ago and it would not have been necessary for the Sarah…

By GCOBANI QAMBELA Daily media reports show that schools, universities and colleges in South Africa are saturated with cultures that promote and permit assault, rape and violence among young people, their teachers and the adults in their lives. There is a tension in that although our daily news is filled with reports of various gendered and sexualised violence, such reports are accompanied by social and cultural mores that require we not speak about them. Yet, researchers have consistently shown that what happens in learning institutions mirrors the larger South African social context. In this time when schools, colleges and universities…

Liz Campbell Our bodies don’t lie. We can invent stories, assert beliefs and construct mental ideologies, but our bodies faithfully reflect our inner state, as they are impeccably designed to do. It’s not for no reason that we refer to ‘strong backbone’, or, ‘walks with her nose in the air’, or ‘carries the world on his shoulders’. We notice someone who ‘has two left feet’, or someone who has slumped shoulders, because it’s telling us something about them. In the same way, if we pay attention, our bodies are the first port of call for truly knowing ourSELVES. After all,…

As part of Nelson Mandela Day, the SPCA’s and Ikhala’s joint objective in collaboration with the State Vet, prepared a sterilisation campaign which took place on 18 of July. The aim for this first campaign was to sterilise a minimum of 50 dogs (and/or cats) over the course of the day. The campaign was based at the Ikhala clinic and if we can, we will be repeating the process on a monthly basis in an effort to curb the numbers of stray dogs and cats in the region. We in fact managed to sterilise 64 animals! The campaign relied on countless volunteers,…

By Makana Municipality Three weeks into his new job, the new Director of Public Safety and Community Services, Kelello Makgoka had a Q&A with the Communications team . On origins  Kelello Makgoka, I was born in Kimberley, Northern Cape. On education profile  I hold B-Tech Degree in Environmental Health and Specialised in Waste management, Water Quality management and Management Practice as major subjects; On his previous job profile   I started my career in 2002 in the Eastern Cape Province, Cacadu District currently known as Sarah Baartman District. I worked as Environmental Health Practitioner for Kouga Municipality and later [was] appointed as…