Khuliso
Nemarimela
Recently
I started working as an intern in small town of Kuruman in the Northern Cape. I
am from Venda. Growing up I would eat all the fruit that people know that part
of Limpopo for. On completion of my schooling I then moved to Pretoria, where I
am currently in the final year of my National Diploma in Journalism at the
Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). I never thought my journalism studies
would bring me to this part of the world, where I have experienced the biggest
under-development area I have ever imagined in South Africa.
Growing
up in rural Venda one would expect that we don’t have modern day technologies,
but we do. One can still be connected to the internet, there is a university in
the area and big cities such as Polokwane and Pretoria are not too far to reach
if there is something we cannot find nearby. We even have a football team in
the Premier Soccer League. The Northern Cape, where I am working, has no
university, Kuruman seems to be a deserted town and in my new home, the village
of Maruping, I asked around for an internet café once and one young lady responded
by asking me what an internet café is. I realised then that if I didn't have my
mobile phone, I would be disconnected from the rest of the world. I also wasn't sure whether there was a lack of education in the area about such things or
whether the young lady in question was just ignorant.
