By LIKHAPHA THAATHAA and JOY HINYIKIWILE When you enter the Raw Spot Gallery, you are transported to a new location. You are surrounded by a river, thick, long, wet grass. There is a ritual performance. The site is sacred. You hear the musical vibrations of vocal cords. It sounds like a prayer – a summoning of spiritual beings. The air is not clear. Something is burning. The smell says the burning is purposeful. Is it a sacrifice? Is this meant to get rid of something? On the other side of the river are giant rocks. Visual artist Viwe Madinda stands…
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By LIKHAPHA THAATHAA AND JOY HINYIKIWILE Seventeen-year-olds Khelan Desai and Panashe Manyengawana were crowned the 2022 English Olympiad Home Language and First-Additional Language champions, respectively, at the 2022 English Olympiad prize-giving ceremony. English HL Olympiad winner Khelan Desai. Photo: Joy Hinykiwile The ceremony was held as part of the National Arts Festival Schools Fest at Guy Butler Theater on Friday 01 July, with some of the top pupils in attendance. Desai is a matriculant at Johannesburg’s St John’s College, while Manyengawana, who was also the 2021 English Olympiad First Additional Language champion, is a Grade 11 pupil at Blue Hills…
By LIKHAPHA THAATHAA Driving around Makhanda, you may notice the friendly faces of local car guards wearing bright shweshwe vests and sashes. The Abakhuseli Skills for Life Project offers friendly safety assistance to festinos. “The project is working towards empowerment, integration, respect, and dignity for people in Makhanda,” said the project manager, Lilly Quin. People can identify the members of Abakhuseli with their unique uniforms, though some of them have name tags and sashes at present. “The Department of Traffic is aware of us,” she added. Abakhuseli is working in parallel with Food4Futures, a Makhanda-based NPO focused on hunger alleviation. They run…
By CASEY LUDICK and STEVEN LANG Wood chips and white tents cover the sports fields at Victoria Girls High, as the Village Green craft market is set up to cater for festinos shopping for goods they won’t find at home. After a two-year Covid-induced absence, the vendors are back in all their festival glory and are excited to be trading in Makhanda again. The Village Green will be a bit thinner this year, but vendors are optimistic that the journey here will be worth their while. Talent Mapfumo (right) and Moleen Mpofu preparing the merchandise at the Adam and Eve…
By JENNA KRETZMANN “Do you mind if I have a look at your menu?” “I don’t mind where we go as long as I can check out the menu online beforehand.” “Are you sure you can get something there?” These questions are likely all too familiar if you are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, or prescribed any ‘alternate’ eating lifestyle. With the rising emergence of veganism in South Africa, more restaurants have been forced to transition to a “vegan-friendly” status. Even notorious steakhouses such as Spur now include vegan schnitzels and burgers on their menu, and popular pizza chains are introducing vegan…
By SIVE FAITH GINYA Most accommodation in the heart of Makhanda is fully booked, but there are township homestays and guest houses outside town to fall back on. The Makana Tourism website lists option for those wanting to escape the festival rush in town. Kenton-On-Sea and Port Alfred are quiet beach towns where you can mix some of that Fest energy with salty sea air. For example, Sheilan House is a child-friendly bed & breakfast located in Port Alfred, 49 minutes away from Makhanda. Guests there can enjoy free breakfast and Wi-Fi. Just 40 minutes from Makhanda on the way…
By LIKHAPHA THAATHAA and ROD AMNER Visitors attending the National Arts Festival are no longer required to wear masks indoors and venues no longer need to adhere to a 50% maximum capacity rule. The lifting of restrictions applies to all 15 Rhodes University venues, according to an official Rhodes Coronavirus Response Task Team notice on Thursday, 23 June. This follows the news that South Africa has no more regulations governing the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as per a repeal notice gazetted by Health Minister Joe Phaahla on Wednesday evening. NAF board member Dr Siphiwo Mahala and CEO Monica Newton welcomed Phaahla’s…
By LIKHAPHA THAATHAA and LUCAS NOWICKI After failing to comply with the court order of 18 February 2022, the Makana Municipality has formulated a plan to remove all illegal dumping sites over the next two years. Xolo said the LRC would conduct site visits to evaluate what the municipality has done to clean the illegal dumpsites. She said they appreciated Makana’s initiative and were happy that the municipality was working with the community to find solutions. LRC Attorney Ona Xolo said a follow-up meeting with the municipality would monitor the actions they promised to take in terms of the plan.…
By LIKHAPHA THAATHAA The most expensive winning bid of R5 250 at the Food4Futures (F4F) Loads of Lots auction on Saturday, 28 May, was for a ‘Dinner at Home’ to be cooked by none other than F4F founder and manager Mary Birt. ‘Dinner at home,’ the most expensive winning bid. Photo: www.food4futures.co.za F4F’s first-ever auction sold 78 items for over R80 000 in aid of food parcels for local people in need. A quilt titled ‘Stars’ (made between 1990 and 1992) fetched R4 100. And two nights’ accommodation at Manzikhanya Lodge netted R3 800. ‘Stars’ (made between 1990 & 199),…
By LIKHAPHA THAATHAA In the wake of the two horrific accidents that claimed 12 lives on the N2 outside Makhanda last week, Makana traffic chief Coenraad Hanekom said driving standards were plunging, and many motorists failed to take road safety seriously. Hanekom said the number of vehicles on the road had risen steeply while the number of traffic law enforcement officers had declined. Makana traffic chief Coenraad Hanekom. There is a general shortage of traffic officers in the country – and just seven traffic police officers in Makhanda work on two shifts to cover the most significant portion of the…