Book Review: Blood Trail by Tony Park By STEVEN LANG Blood Trail, the latest novel from Tony Park, is frantically exciting and just about as authentic as can be. It is packed tight with heaps of action unfolding in two adrenaline-charged days on a fictitious game lodge located in a real game reserve on the border of the Kruger National Park. The time frame plays a pivotal role in the story. It takes place soon after lockdown is declared as a result of COVID19. The almost immediate shutdown of the tourism sector has devastating consequences for the game lodge and…
Author: Rod Amner
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As shared in my brief introduction last week, I am the new Grocott’s engagement editor. Over the coming months, I will be working closely with the editor, our student journalists, freelance journalists, and community contributors to build a digital community around Grocott’s and Makhanda, primarily through our social media platforms. When people think about social media, they may think of cute cat videos, rants, their information being harvested by advertisers, and collecting likes. They are not wrong, but that is not all social media is. It is also a space to establish a connection, a sense of belonging, and community.…
By ROD AMNER, learning editor, Grocott’s Mail Over the next few weeks, several Rhodes Journalism students will begin actively contributing to GMDirect and Grocott’s Mail’s online platforms. Under the guidance of their learning editors, they will attempt to produce truthful, fair and independent journalism. But, they will aspire to do so in innovative ways that get far more of our citizens directly involved in communication. They will cultivate relationships and networks and seek sources and ideas that do not automatically appear on journalists’ radars. They will accord those voices the appropriate respect in ways that helped bridge the faultlines that, historically, have…
By POELO IRENE KETA They sang “Wathintabafazi wathintimbokotho” (“You strike a woman, you strike a rock”). They proudly commemorated the heroics of the 1956 Women’s March on the Union Buildings against apartheid laws. They donned beautiful traditional clothing and activist T-shirts. They celebrated womanhood. But, the women of eThembeni mostly honoured National Women’s Day on Monday by tackling, head-on, the myriad challenges confronting South African women in 2021. Limise Gagayi, who planned the event (with the help of her husband!), is a dynamo in this community. In the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020, she started a soup…
Rhodes University lost its most senior student on 30 July with the passing of Martin Allison at the age of 83. His PhD supervisor, Prof ROBIN PALMER, pays tribute. Martin Allison was an English gentleman with an adventurous spirit. Trained by articles in accountancy, as everyone was in his day, he spent most of his career in Zambia and then Swaziland (now Eswatini), eventually retiring to Port Alfred. Feeling bored at the age of 73, he decided he wanted a degree, so he registered at Rhodes University, majoring in Anthropology and History. Not content with a BA, he stayed on…
By ROD AMNER Yesiree, Bob. There’s another one. Makanda is a village (population: 561) in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. It is named after Makanda, a local Native American chieftain. Apparently, it has a smiley-face water tower. According to onlyinyourstate.com, Makanda is the most hippie town in Illinois: “It is a place for free spirits and progressive thinkers.” Like Makhanda, Makanda holds several annual festivals, including the Vulture Fest, an annual two-day event held during the third weekend in October that celebrates the migration of the black vulture and turkey vulture to the region. On 21 August 2017, the centre…
Social media reports of high-pressure systems bumping into each other this weekend “like the 1968 event” are fake news and should be ignored, says Garth Sampson, client liaison office for the South African Weather Service (SAWS) in Gqebera. “We expect some nice rain (in the Eastern Cape), but NOTHING that will contribute to ending the water crisis,” Sampson said. “The so-called high-pressure system ‘bumping event’ did not happen like that anyway,” he added. However, two significant winter systems will affect the country this week, with their impact extending into the weekend, SAWS reports. “Firstly, an intense cold front will make…
I am Nyx McLean, a Makhandan by birth, a former Victoria Girls’ High School pupil, and a Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies graduate. I have lived in Johannesburg and Cape Town for the last decade, working as an editor, digital strategist, and recently as a lecturer, supervisor, and researcher in multimedia and digital culture. I am joining the Grocott’s staff to assist with social media engagement and innovation, mentoring student journalists in creating social media content, and all the challenges and opportunities that may go along with this. My work is intersectional and driven by a need to…
By Steven Lang, former editor of Grocott’s Mail I believe that Rhodes University is suffering an immense loss with the departure of Sue Maclennan, one of Grocott’s Mail’s longest-serving and most competent editors of the last century or so. She has three talents that are highly prized in the business of media. Firstly, Sue is a meticulously accurate sub-editor, who understands what the reporter meant to write, and how they should have written it. She is the only person with who I would feel comfortable about publishing my work without having to recheck it. She is a consummate professional as…
By Azlan Makalima, former Grocott’s Mail social media editor and designer I knew Sue before we even met. I remember I was with Anele Mjekula (a Grocott’s journalist at the time) at the old Grocott’s building. No, the other old building… I was showing Anele the pictures I had taken at Dakawa’s Heritage Festival. Anele liked the photos and told me that I should wait; he will call Sue. Okay great! I don’t know what they talked about, but when I got a phone call, Sue told me to drop the photos and leave my banking details. Honestly, all I wanted was…