South Africans & Race - It's the Norm Here

Siphumelele Zondi

@SZondi

Recently I spoke to a mate who studied in China and then the UK when I was also at university there. We’ve both been back for the same amount of time and it seems as much as we love our home country, we realise that there’s that big struggle of race. The mate I am mentioning here is a white woman. She said to me, “In South Africa politics is in your face, race is in your face, inequalities that are a result of race are in your face.”

I am a black man and I realised in UK middle class societies that I found myself in, my race didn’t matter to a lot of people. I was once in a casual conversation with two women who were convinced I was British, they never mentioned my race but were trying to find ways to prove that I am in fact British and South African. These were white women. Their race is important because I am writing this in South Africa where race seems is the “thing” that people judge you on before they realise that you are South African, a good television producer, Zulu and are a generally nice guy. Yep you are black first in South Africa and as a result you have to predominantly interact with other black people and there will be certain perceptions made about you when people meet you for the first time, before you open your mouth.

Why are SA Women told to Compromise for Marriage?

Lindiwe Maphumulo

@lindymaphumulo

Women are shrinked everyday of their lives. As women, we’re made to think that marriage is the most important goal we should aspire to. Men, on the other hand, are told to have other dreams and ambitions like heading up organisations, becoming presidents and making millions. When will we, as women, live a good life without settling for less and limiting ourselves?

My friend and I were having a discussion about this the other day. She was saying that it would be fascinating if a woman was hit on by a guy and then declined, but not just with a simple no but gave a thorough list of reasons of her decision. One of the reasons she could give is that she would like to get a career going and make her own money. My friend and I were thinking that in the society we live in, this woman would be called a gold digger and other names just because of her goals.

We discussed this to a point where a man who had been eaves-dropping decided to join in and turned it to a huge debate. He mentioned that he would have a problem with a woman who can do things for herself, he would feel that he isn’t needed.

Share a positive Migrant or Refugee Story

Refugees are migrants who have been forces to flee their homes. They are like you and me who want a safe place to live, to be able to support their families, have access to education and to be healthy.   South Africa hosts some 65,000 refugees and 250,000 asylum seekers. Many of them fled their countries with no idea where they are going, leaving their entire life behind. Many lost everything including loved ones and livelihoods and have had to start all over again in a new place.  Each year, on the 20^th of June, the world celebrates the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes under threat of persecution, conflict and violence. 

It's Been 20 Years, But The Racist Mind Still Has Much Work To Do

Siphumelele Zondi
@SZondi

My first memory of apartheid in South Africa was the murder of Chris Hani in 1993, I even barely remember that. At the time my age was in the single digits. I remember my parents watching all news reports about it. I remember his daughters and wife Limpho crying on television. I also remember TV news anchor Noxolo Grootboom crying on television as she was an eye witness who had seen what had happened from her house which was next door to Hani's. I don't remember much else from that day and I didn't really know who Hani was until the day he was brutally murdered. I also remember his massive funeral that made me think that's how big all funerals are supposed to be.As I grew older I obviously learnt who he was and how his murder could have changed South Africa's road to democracy.

A year later I had a conversation with my father. It was the evening of the 26th of April in 1994. My father was preparing to vote for the very first time the following day. I asked him who he would want to win the election. His response was, "Anyone, just not the National Party."  

Ngxokolo's MaXhosa Range Impresses Joburg Fashion Week

By Tshepo Tshabalala

@TshepoToTheT

Heavy knitted, patterned, warm, pure mohair and Merino rich, wooly garments from skirts, cardigans and dresses in traditional Xhosa designs and colours defined what could be the most outstanding collection at this year’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Johannesburg taking place at the Sandton Convention Centre.

South Africa is a country with 11 official languages and a few more others. It's cultures differ from region to region and city to city. That's probably why it is often difficult to really describe what is truly an authentically South African design or collection. Maybe it's also as equally difficult to say what is authentically African. Many are likely to say it is something they can relate to, garments which perhaps remind them of their childhood, or what their elders wore in the 1970s, 80s and maybe the 90s. Another group of South Africans would take some of their styles from Europeans.

Where’s the Youth to Facilitate Change Like 70s Youngsters did?

By Cyril Skosana
@McCyrus_Skosana

Photo:dumirocks.wordpress.com

The youth of South Africa played a colossal role in the course of the struggle, scrapping face to face against the apartheid regime that kept the black race and its youth subdued for an extensive and utmost regrettable period. As documented in historical books, music, documentaries and films; it is unmistakable to say that the youth deserve extended credit for a democratic country we inhabit.

The role played by those who took the forefront in fighting against a system that sought to oppress the black race is of much significance. We could use it today, don’t you think? Here’s the pickle, there’s always a consequential pressure that naturally emanates from winning a battle. If you win, you need to keep your guards up to hold on to your throne. As you would expect, a loser will not by any chance rest after suffering loss. A good way to celebrate victory –according to my insignificant opinion, is protecting your position in any undertakings you may face. That being said, I have no doubt whatsoever for believing that our heroes stand weeping as they gaze at us from the heavens –if they do exist.

Insta-ville: the home of the fabulous

Photo:blog.instagram.com

Mpho Raborife
@MsRaborife

So I recently visited the photo-sharing site known as Instagram to check out a few pics posted by a friend. For those who do not keep up with changing trends, Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that allows its users to take photos, images and videos, then apply digital filters to them and share them on this application and other social networking sites.

While I was visiting Instagram, I saw handles of some other people I knew, so I decided to see what they were sharing too.

At the end of my Insta-browsing (because Insta is now a prefix right?) I was left depressed and felt like I had shrunk to a the size of a cube of sugar. These people live such glamorous lives! Well that's what their profiles tells me. The lighting and photo-shopping extras help too.

Joburg Doesn't Accomodate Pedestrians as it Should

Siphumelele Zondi
@SZondi

I never thought I worried about livable spaces until I returned to Johannesburg from my studies in the United Kingdom. On return to Johannesburg, I decided to leave my car at home on several occasions, I would walk in the suburbs to catch minibus taxis and from time to time walk around the city centre as well.

I realised that in 2013, Johannesburg still doesn’t have pavements in many areas. This is clear mostly when I jog as I would have to figure out how to avoid cars in certain places in the suburbs. What I am happy about is that there are more and more people who decide to leave their homes and walk around the burbs. I hadn’t quite realised this about this city as I, like many Joburgers, would hop into my car to drive to malls and friends’ houses.

Two lands, two histories. One story of strategic organizing (Video)

Image: narconews.com

Tshepo Tshabalala
@TshepototheT

Mkhuseli Khusta Jack organized a consumer boycott in 1985 in the city of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, which helped end racial apartheid.

In 2000, Oscar Olivera was the spokesperson for a popular resistance that stopped the privatization of water in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The resistance was known as the Cochabamba Water Wars, a struggle against the privatisation of Bolivia's water, including its rain water.

“A cold war of As and Twangs”

Rudolph Nkgadima
@RudolphSegagabi

As young a boy growing up in Thokoza, a township in the East Rand, South Africa, I always envied my peers who went to Model C schools in town or the suburbs. This was not because of the beautiful school buildings they had or the wonderful stories they would often narrate to us about sons and daughters of "so and so" they schooled with. What made me envy them was the way they spoke English with that distinctive manner of pronunciation.

Their "English" was the pride of their families. They would often be paraded when visitors came over and would be asked to show off the best possible twangs to guests who would exclaim in all kinds of excitement.

Every parent in the neighbourhood wanted to have kids like that; I also wanted to be that kid. It didn't matter that I was a straight A learner at school - I didn't have the accent and thus wasn't quite like them. According to everyone in the township the British Queen's language was a symbol of status.

Soap Operas Lie, Journalists Aren’t Rich & Glamorous, But do an Important Job

Kgothatso Madisa
@kgmadisa

Ink that runs through one’s veins is a cliché often used when referring to journalists, but some don’t get into the profession because of the love for writing or because of the passion for chasing a story and the adrenaline that comes with being in conflict zones like Somalia, Mali and places like Marikana when it got heated in 2012. You would get those who get in it because they think there are massive salaries that come with seeing their names as newspaper by-lines, with hearing their voices on radio or seeing themselves on television.

University students often don’t do their research before enrolling into journalism programmes. Some think there is a glamour that comes with the job and that is often perpetuated by television dramas and soap operas that glamourise journalism. Some of the prominent programmes that have done this include Generations, Hard Copy, Isidingo and Scandal. There we see journalists that dress in fancy clothes and live in beautiful homes. They would go to high profile events from time to time and are, especially in the case of Generations, their story often ends up in newspapers too as they are socialites. Well none of that is true and the life of most journalists is a broke life. I started working as one recently and my eyes are slowly opening up.

I Push a Wheelbarrow for 5km to Fetch Water as South Africa Celebrates Freedom Day

Zanele Ngwenyama

@zanelengwenyama

Image: www.colormagazine.com

I am from the rural areas of Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga and as South Africans in the cities I started living in when I left home for my studies celebrate the various freedoms that came with our democracy nearly two decades ago, I feel areas such as the one I come from have very little to celebrate. People from villages in the area get tricked every four to five years during national and municipal elections as representatives of various political parties would promise the poor a better life, a life where they also don’t have to live in fear because there would be better policing. They often believe these promises that are seldom or never met.

As South Africans from the rest of the country celebrate the milestone of 19 years since our parents voted for the first time, my province of Mpumalanga has announced that two municipalities have been placed under administration. This is the same province that has failed to produce favourable Matric results despite all the tweaking and changes that happen which are done so it is much easier for high school pupils to pass. 

Tomorrow’s Leaders will either be conquerors or be conquered

LIVEOUTLOUD CE, Mike Eilertson.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity of attending Tomorrow’s Leaders Convention where founder of LIVEOUTLOUD, Mike Eilertsen spoke about how tomorrow’s leaders utilised strategies from yesterday to affect today’s results. Eilertsen used an example of Genghis Khan.

He talks more about how to be a successful leader through applying lessons he learned from Khan. But these lessons remain important, especially for a modern world that is changing at a fast pace. There is a few lessons you can apply in your life outside the journalism career.

I Stay in a South African Town Where I've Been Asked What an Internet Cafe is

Khuliso Nemarimela

@willeinstein

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.

14 Things Oscar Pistorius coverage can teach you about Working in TV news

This video was produced by Andre-Pierre du Plessis. It was first published on Buzz feed

Young White People Discuss Trust Funds - Young Black People Repay Student Loans

Siphumelele Zondi

@SZondi

Recently I was in a pub in Johannesburg’s leafy suburbs of Parkhurst. My friend and I were the only two black people there and everyone else inside this popular pub was white. I overheard a conversation taking place across from us where young white people were discussing how trust funds their parents had set up were helping them get started in life. Another also spoke of the property his parents had bought for him.

I later had a conversation with a white friend of mine who acknowledged that a lot of benefits white people have come as a result of apartheid and other policies that existed before apartheid was formalised which ensured that black people would be near-slaves for white people. My white friend mentioned that he has a grandfather who owns a fruit farm in the Eastern Cape and knows that those that work on the farm are uneducated black people, who are uneducated because policies of the past made sure of that. He mentioned that his grandfather would never find labour that cheap if he was in Europe as that kind of exploitation would never happen there.

Foreign Nationals Mistreated By South African Health & Law Enforcement Authorities

Gift Ngobeni

@nyikogifted

In 2010, more asylum applications were lodged in South Africa than in any other country in the world. The trend continued in 2011, and the heavy demands on the asylum system have resulted in a backlog of more than 300,000 applications awaiting a decision. Even if they are granted legal stay in South Africa, many still get harassed by the police and are not granted adequate health care by South African nurses. Gift Ngobeni spoke to some foreign nationals about the hardships they face in South Africa and compiled this audio story. (VIDEO - AUDIO STORY)

16 June 2010 – The Day Joy Turned Into Unimaginable Pain

Clyde Tlou

@clydegoal

It’s been two years since the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and Clyde Tlou remembers a match that took place on youth day. This is his journey as he made his way through Pretoria to watch South Africa take on Uruguay on 16 June 2010.

The streets of Pretoria were all green and yellow as the World Cup euphoria grasped the South African capital city ahead of the Bafana Bafana game against Uruguay. All roads were leading to Loftus Stadium or fan parks around Tshwane and the country as a whole.

A Bit of Celebration in South Africa's Gay & Lesbian Community

Sibusiso Banda

@sbudalicious

Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe but Taurai Zhanje takes part in Mr Gay World.

The gay and lesbian community in South Africa has gone through a lot lately, but they can finally take a breather and celebrate a bit despite the many challenges facing the community in the country. Mr Gay World is coming to Johannesburg in April and there are four African countries participating, the largest number from the continent in the competition’s history. This is despite homosexuality being illegal in over 30 African countries. Another reason for celebration, although bitter-sweet, would be the recent sentencing of the murderers of Cape Town lesbian, Zoliswa Nkonyane.

Mr Gay Ethiopia, Robel Gizaw Hailu.

In the Mr Gay World competition, organisers say there will be participants from Ethiopia, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Homosexuality is illegal in all those African countries even though the law is hardly enforced. Zimbabwean contestant, Taurai Zhanje, will struggle to convince authorities to accept his decision back home as the country is going through constitutional reforms with gay rights left out. The newzimbabwe.com quotes President Robert Mugabe saying about gay people: “All of us at some point in our lives have raised dogs, and we know that in raising them you need a female and male to mate in order to have puppies. Now, if even dogs know that to procreate you need a male and a female, what of us humans? They want men to wed men! That’s what we reject.”

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.