Michaelhouse Nearby but Majority of Kids Walk Distances in Cold Weather for an Education

Siphumelele Zondi

@SZondi

Last week I was in the area of Nottingham Road in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and I met an old man who inherited a massive farm in 1990, he has built a hotel in a certain part of his farm, donated a huge chunk of land to the Crane Foundation and has built decent four-bedroomed homes for families he says his ancestors found on the land over a hundred years ago. He also does a great job in ensuring that indigenous ways of the Zulu people are promoted and even has a Zulu traditional healer in his hotel spa. But it’s the land that made me think, it mainly made me think long and hard because I spoke to the man’s son who said he went to the extremely expensive Michaelhouse College which is nearby, he also told me that his sons also go to Michaelhouse. After he had told me this I then observed that a lot of black kids in the area walk for long distances to school. Winter mornings in Nottingham Road are extremely cold. 

Township School Received Important Gifts

Sthembiso Sithole

@sitholesthe

Pupils with their new and needed pots.

Many township schools often struggle to compete with former Model C schools and private schools as they are under resourced. Feladelfia High School which caters for pupils with disabilities in Soshanguve is one of these schools. Despite its struggles, it managed to receive a pass rate of over 70 percent in 2011. Even so that doesn’t mean its pupils, many of whom are from poor families, don’t need cooking equipment and other basic needs for children to eat.

To make things easier for the pupils of the school, recently a donation of several important needs were given to Feladelfia by Denel Land System at an event attended by government representatives. “We decided to finance the school. We told them to tell us what they need from us; from then we developed the partnership,” explains Denel’s Human Resources Manager, Thulani Mahlinza.

DASO Clearly Doesn't Understand Majority of Students

Gift Ngobeni

@nyikogifted

The campaign that caused much trouble.

The Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) recently launched its recruiting campaign in a rather controversial, if not provoking, manner. A poster of a black woman and a white man, seemingly naked while embracing each other, has sparked some serious debate, ridicule and outcry in the media and the political sphere.  

As a student who is currently in his fourth year at university I find the poster rather confusing and unnecessary. DASO has argued that the picture aims to increase racial tolerance in the future of the country. But what confuses me is DASO’s reason to make the models naked. It would be rather vague to say DASO is promoting sex in schools like one Facebooker articulated. I think we have moved beyond the stage of thinking such campaigns are promoting sex, but what wasn’t clear to me is what this student organisation, which is barely seen campaigning at many universities, stands for exactly. The poster released earlier this week sure doesn’t explain it and DASO says it comes as the first in a series of them. I wonder what the rest will look like if the mother body hasn’t told the youngsters to chuck the rest in the dustbin. 

Greater Unity Needed to Provide Pupils with Varsity Info

Sthembiso Sithole

@sitholesthe

Higher Education Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, considers centralising applications.

On Tuesday 10 January 2011 we heard and read about the death of a mother of one of the people who were queuing-up at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The woman died in a stampede as many late applicants were standing there with the hope that they would receive university entry despite applications at most universities having closed in 2011. Some students have raised concerns over this with one even posting a statement on Facebook that asks the university to enrol that 48-year-old woman’s child with no charge.

Late university applications seem to be a continuing trend in South Africa despite constant requests that students should do things early to avoid such scenarios. Some students view technical institutions like FET colleges as last options despite them providing skills that are crucial to the country.   

TUT Needs To Regain Trust From Its Students

Kgothatso Madisa

@ItsProllyGubzee

Prof. Lourens van Staden

Just under two weeks ago newspapers reported on former Tshwane University of Technology Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Lourens van Staden, being appointed by Higher Education Minister Dr Blade Nzimande as Administrator of the financially ailing Walter Sisulu University. He subsequently had to resign from TUT as a result.

Earlier this year van Staden showed that he wanted to stay at TUT as he was one of the top contenders of the Vice Chancellor post and seemed to have been most qualified for it before it was given to Prof. Johnny Molefe who had been found to have obtained an invalid doctorate from St George University International, in the Bahamas, in the Caribbean. The university doesn’t exist anymore and Molefe and others at TUT had received these degrees online without meeting a single individual from the now non-existent university and it appears he had been informed of this by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) which refused to recognise his qualification in 2007.

Despite the knowledge that he didn’t have a doctorate Molefe went ahead and accepted the post of Vice Chancellor of the university and TUT appointed him after warnings from Nzimande who, after not receiving a proper explanation on the reasons for the appointment, decided to appoint Prof. Themba Mosia as the university’s administrator who after a thorough investigation eventually fired Molefe two weeks ago.

University Management and Student Organisations Locked in Meetings over Looming Strike

Pearl Nicodemus

It seems normal that students in many South African universities strike for the same reasons at the beginning of each academic year. Some student political parties would demand free education, housing for all those who apply for it and for many other changes in the current education system.

The Tshwane University of Technology banned all political organisations after a long strike interrupted learning at the university in 2010. When they were allowed back on campus students thought they would avoid strikes by all means, but learning hasn’t even started yet and there is already much uncertainty about whether most classes will resume next week as scheduled.

Many students are currently registering on campus and some are finalizing fees left over from 2010, but with all this running around the Pan Africans Student Movement of Azania (PASMA) and the South African Students Congress (SASCO) have been locked in meetings with management to discuss certain grievances in the Soshanguve campus. The meetings were called to avert a strike that was supposed to break out on Thursday.

SASCO President Absalom Nkosi says they are still negotiating with other political structures and the SRC. “Nothing has been confirmed yet” he says.

However a certain PASMA member says the strike has to go ahead. He says the strike is about the “grievances of the students”. There is no official word on what the strike is about this time however some students have listed issues such as academic exclusion, the discontinuation of busses from the Pretoria campus to Soshanguve and residences.

Stick To Your Goals This Year

Ntokozo Mahlangu

Television talk show host, Penny Lebyane, urged
students to stick to their goals during
the prize giving ceremony organised by
TUT's Department of Journalism.

2010 was undoubtedly one of the best years for South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. The country had a chance to host the biggest sporting showpiece in the world and all eyes were on South Africa during the month long football world cup. The country delivered during Africa’s first football world cup.


As a result a lot of tourists started flocking in resulting in many businesses doing well. But not everyone was as lucky as South Africa was.

Some completed the year in a slump and are probably hugely in debt, but this can change in 2011.

During the journalism department’s prize giving ceremony talk show host, Penny Lebyane, urged students to learn difficult tasks that are going to allow them to succeed in their chosen professions rather than going for the obvious like presenting.

As I start my final year at the Tshwane University of Technology I have decided to create three methods that will help me achieve my goals.