Poet and theatre practitioner, Koleka Putuma was recently named the winner of the Distell National Playwright Competition. Putuma wins R25 000 in prize money as well as the opportunity to take her winning play No Easter For Queers into full production to be staged as part of the Main programme at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, from 27 June to 7 July. By joining forces, the National Arts Festival and Distell, and their various stakeholders made it their mission to celebrate rising storytellers. The Distell National Playwright Competition is an opportunity for debut playwrights to showcase their work at the main…
Author: Staff Reporter
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On Friday 5 April, the High Court in Makhanda (Grahamstown) sentenced two men to life imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a woman, and robbing her and her partner. The incident took place outside Queenstown in October 2017. SAPS spokesperson Sibongile Soci said the Judge handed down life imprisonment plus 50 years to Sinetemba Ntombayiteti (24). Asiphe Tshali was sentenced to undergo a life sentence plus 45 years. Both accused were convicted following their involvement in the October 2017 incident. The couple were sitting in a vehicle on the N6 outside Queenstown. The two men accosted them, tied them up and…
The National Consumer Tribunal has instructed Volkswagen Financial Services South Africa to refund consumers for on-the-road, admin and handling fees on credit agreements. The Tribunal handed down judgment confirming a compliance notice issued by the National Credit Regulator (NCR) to Volkswagen Financial Services South Africa (Pty) Ltd. In its judgment, the Tribunal found that the “on the road”, admin and handling fees charged by Volkswagen Financial Services to consumers on credit agreements are not permitted by the National Credit Act (NCA). The Tribunal, which is an independent adjudicative entity deriving its mandate from the National Credit Act, adjudicates on applications…
The Department of Home Affairs on Monday announced that all its front offices in all the provinces are back online and are providing full services to citizens. This is after service interruptions in some offices arising from a system upgrade of the live capture system which was conducted on 29-31 March 2019. The live capture system of the 193 modernised offices was upgraded as part of the department’s modernisation programme. Due to the magnitude of work to be done and new software that had to be transmitted to the offices, several technical errors were encountered which affected operations at modernised…
The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO) Amendment Bill has been passed by Parliament and is now ready to be signed into law by the President. “Through the AARTO Amendment Bill, we will be introducing the Points Demerit System. This system will allow us to identify, rehabilitate and ultimately eliminate habitual offenders found on our road transport network,” Transport Minister Blade Nzimande said. Addressing the official launch of the 2019 Easter Road Safety Campaign on Monday, the Minister said the rollout of the AARTO service outlets at selected driving licence testing centres in Gauteng has started. “These service outlets will contribute…
Members of the public have been warned of people pretending to be Home Affairs officials so they can gain access to their homes to rob them. The warning was issued today by the Department of Home Affairs. “The scammers are in possession of letterheads purportedly from the Department of Home Affairs and claim the purpose of their visit is to confirm the validity of IDs ahead of the 2019 general elections,” said the Department of Home Affairs. “They then rob the unsuspecting members of the public of their valuables, said the Department of Home Affairs. “There is no initiative of…
Kicking off 2019 with concerts throughout the US and Brazil, multi-award winning artist Guy Buttery returns home for his first nationwide solo tour of South Africa in over four years. The Intramural Encounters Tour includes stops in every major city in SA, including Makhanda (Grahamstown), covering a distance of over 5000km with a run of 15 concerts lined up around the country. Following last year’s successful performance in Makhanda, Guy will play in the Fountain Foyer at the Monument on the evening of Tuesday 23 April. Tickets are R100 for adults with concession tickets for student, pensioners and children at…
By Linda Dyani Finally, after a long period of closure due to renovations, the Observatory Museum is set to re-open again. The restoration project focused on a complete restoration of the building in its entirety including the roof, fencing, floors and walls. The exterior paint has been changed to the original colours (buttercream and green), the ablution facilities have been renovated and a wheel chair ramp fitted in the paraplegic ablution facility.This has been a successful project and has been completed. The Museum will be reopened to the public again before the Arts Festival this year. …
The South African Library for the Blind, the only Library servicing blind persons in Southern Africa, celebrated 100 years in operation on Thursday, 28 March 2019. The day kicked off with a book launch of the book titled South African Library for the Blind – A Diary of the Library. The book is the library’s first internal publication and it seeks to commemorate and celebrate the history of the library since inception. The day culminated in a gala dinner hosted in Makhanda to commemorate this milestone. The library was founded during the height of the 1918 global Influenza pandemic by…
The annual Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture recently took place at Kingswood College. The lecture takes place each year to celebrate the life of Neil Aggett and to honour his legacy. This year, Kingswood College welcomed Dr Gavin Andersson, friend of the late Neil Aggett, former trade unionist and Apartheid activist, prominent scholar in the field of race relations, business man and entrepreneur as the guest speaker at the 13th instalment of the series. Using the theme “standing up against injustice” as a departure point for his talk, Andersson delivered a powerful address to the pupils, staff and guests in attendance.…