By CHRIS TOTOBELA Last Saturday, newly-promoted Jacaranda Aces faced off with Friendly City from Alicedale in a closely contested game. The home side started the game nervously and kept giving away possession in crucial areas of the field. The visitors looked calmer and composed on the ball while the home side once again seemed to rush things. Aces veteran midfielder Mandla Nikani tried his best to make things work in the middle of the park but was always isolated, and his strikers kept on running away from him, looking for balls into spaces. An early first-half substitution made a difference…
Author: Rod Amner
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By CHRIS TOTOBELA The local supporters of the reigning PSL champions Sundowns are hard at work preparing for the official launch of the Makana branch. This event will take place on the 27 November at the City Hall and is open to the public. According to interim structure chairperson Mzwandile Ntlanjeni, the group is expecting branches from all over the province. He also confirmed that the national executive committee of Sundowns supporters would grace the event. The provincial executive committee will oversee the election of the local permanent structure. The current structure of the local branch is made up of…
By ROD AMNER A new school pregnancy policy recently approved by Cabinet will allow learners who fall pregnant to stay in school longer and return sooner. The policy, which will be implemented in 2022, affirms the right of a pregnant learner to remain in school during her pregnancy and return as soon after giving birth “as is appropriate for both the learner and her child”. The SABC reported that the National Council of Provinces recently heard that about 120 000 learners fall pregnant every year, with only a third returning to school after birth. According to the policy document, “the…
By STAFF REPORTER Eastern Cape police are investigating a case of aggravated robbery after the Makhanda Post Office was robbed on Wednesday morning. Spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said the Postmaster was forced to open the back door by four armed men when she arrived at the premises. He said they also forced her to open the safe before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of money. The Daily Dispatch reported that an unnamed witness saw the robbers observing staff movements before striking at about 7.15 am. Kinana says no arrests have yet been made, but the bakkie they were travelling in…
By ROD AMNER Refuse removal has been suspended for today and tomorrow because the municipality’s trucks have broken down. A late 18 November communique from the Makana Municipality Communications Office appealed to residents to keep their refuse inside because the municipal trucks have suffered “serious mechanical breakdowns”. But, it appears the message was too late to reach residents in Westhill, Oatlands, Somerset Heights and Extension 9. Rubbish remained uncollected in many of the western suburbs on Thursday morning. Residents who put their rubbish out today are advised to collect it from the streets and hold onto it until further notice. Below…
By Prof CATRIONA MACLEOD and Dr TRACEY FELTHAM-KING, Rhodes University Department of Psychology Much has been made recently in South Africa about the increase in teenage pregnancies in the past year, fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Sensationalisation of such pregnancies isn’t new. Every couple of years, newspaper headlines shout moral outrage at the rates of early reproduction. The focus of discussions then usually turns to prevention. Solutions posed are primarily premised on the assumption that young women are responsible for their situation – through ignorance, fecklessness, rebellion, or lack of assertiveness. We argue that a different approach is needed. Instead of asking, “How can…
State health facilities and the school curriculum have failed the youth, forcing young mothers into unsupported single parenthood. New Frame’s TEBADI MMOTLA reports. The national shortage of injectable contraceptives in 2019 left Duduzile Xaba with no alternative but to take oral contraceptives as a family planning strategy. A few months later, while on the pill, 17-year-old Xaba was pregnant. Now 18, Xaba is a teenage mother to two-month-old daughter Siphokazi. “Being a teen parent is hard. It has so many challenges. The baby is growing and has her own needs. You are still a kid; you still have your own needs,”…
By STAFF REPORTER Police are seeking the public’s assistance to identify the body of a man found in an open field almost two weeks ago in Joza. On Thursday, 4 November 2021, at about 4.40 pm, a ranger alerted the police after seeing an unknown older man lying in an open field near the crossing in Joza. At the scene, police found an elderly man who had no visible injuries, who later died while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. The deceased man was wearing a pair of black jeans, a blue overall top, a powder blue jersey, a red…
By ROD AMNER Jim Cambray reported a healthy 32mm overnight on Wednesday 17 November in Park Road, bringing the week’s total to 34.8mm with temperatures ranging from 13.5 to 33C. The 32mm is the highest 24-hour rainfall Makhanda has had this year. Our last good rainfall day was in October 2020, with 47mm. Robin Stobbs received 27.9mm in Grant Street. His garden concrete has turned to mud, his tanks are overflowing, and he has disinterred his weeding forks. Paul Maylam recorded 30.2mm in Cathcart Street for the past week, including 28mm Wednesday night up till 8 am Thursday morning. Paul…
By DAVID FINKELHOR, Professor of Sociology, University of New Hampshire Sexual abuse in schools, as in other settings, is diverse in its dynamics. It can range from violent assaults, unwanted groping, inappropriate propositions and seduction, to the solicitation and exchange of sexual images and video clips. Besides being crimes, they violate the professional responsibilities of teachers and other educators and undermine the trust that the community places in the institution. An estimated two-thirds of all cases of educator sexual abuse target high school students. The average age of victims is 15. Educators who sexually abuse kids are not always the stereotypical career predators who take…