Author: Rod Amner

A few years ago, a kindly retiree in the KZN Midlands decided to get out of his La-Z-Boy and start an innovative education project. After receiving Rotary funding, he set up TV sets and some instruction videos in nine schools. The impact on matric results has been spectacular. His grand-daughter, Alice Draper, tells his story. Rows and rows of almost identical houses sit parallel to one another in Amber Valley, a retirement village in Howick, a small KZN town. In one such house, a man called Pat Draper, rocks backward in his brown La-Z-Boy chair. The chair is one of…

By Sphume Ndlovu, Rod Amner, and Jessica Evans* There has been no public internet service in any of the Eastern Cape libraries since September last year. According to provincial Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC) spokesperson, Andile Nduna, this is due to a failure to make provision for these services in the 2017-18 DSRAC budget and a breakdown in the relationship with the existing service provider. Free internet services are still available to users in libraries in all the other eight provinces. However, Nduna promised that internet access would be restored to libraries by November this year. Free internet…