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.

I Thought it was Writer's Block, Nah, Not Me!

Kgoshi Segagabi Nkgadima 
@segagabirudie

I have been going through journalism school thinking I can write anything that is thrown at me. After all I studied journalism because writing was always second nature, I never struggled with the craft as a kid. That was until recently as many of us have to produce good quality pieces in a short space of time in offices and newsrooms where we work as interns, junior reporters or junior public relations practitioners.

I realised how much of a writing novice I am when I was faced with a quagmire of a situation recently.  There I was facing a deadline and ideas just refused to come. I looked up at the ceiling, the computer, the ceiling, pieces of paper on my desk and then the computer again. The clock on the wall kept on tick-toking and tick-toking, reminding me that time was running out and I had to come up with something very quickly. I would scribble down what I would think is a brilliant idea, soon squash that piece of paper, I would start the process all over again. Soon I found myself drowning in a pool of paper on the floor. Time didn’t stop and hours passed.

40 Scholarships for Journalists to change the world

The next School of Authentic Journalism, April 17 to 27, 2013, in Mexico, will mark ten years since the first one in 2003. More than 300 journalists, independent media makers, community organizers and social movement leaders have passed through the doors since SAJ began. This will be the sixth session of the school but it also (or might not) be the last one for some time to come.

If you have ever thought about attending but never got around to actually applying: don't lose this opportunity. Completed applications are due November 18, 2012. For more info on #SAJ and how to get your hands on an application check out the Jobs, Internships and Fellowships page.

Huge Improvements for Women but Many Live in Poverty

Gift Ngobeni

@nyikogifted

Every year we are in August South Africans celebrate women as the month is dubbed women’s month with the 9^th of August set aside as an extra special public holiday for these celebrations. Women have definitely come far and sitting at the helm of the African Union now is Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who is the first woman to head the body. She has served in South Africa’s government as a minister in the portfolios of health, foreign affairs and home affairs.

Another noticeable name would be that of our public protector Thuli Madonsela. Madonsela is also a Human Rights Lawyer and Equality Expert. She was also one of the eleven technical experts who helped the Constitutional Assembly draft the final constitution in 1994 and 1995. 

While a lot of strides have been made in South Africa and the above mentioned women have been an inspiration to many in our new democracy, there are many others there still continue to live the life of struggle. While I was listening to radio some time in August I hear a story done by senior specialist reporter, Mahlatse Gallens. The story was about 45-year-old Ruby Marais who, after 20 years in an abusive marriage, is now serving 25 year prison term for the murder of her abusive husband. The mother of one from Stillbaai in the Western Cape was convicted for paying hit men ten thousand Rand to kill her husband. She says it was her only way out of an abusive marriage.

TUT Students Not Returning to Lectures Until SRC Demands are Met

Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) students are being blocked from entering Soshanguve campuses despite receiving text messages from university management informing them that classes would resume on Thursday. The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) has been leading a strike since last week.

TUT Students on Strike (Photo: Wilson Tladi)

Striking students at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) blocking entrances with fire at the Soshanguve campuses. Staff at the campuses has been told to resume duties on Wednesday. The students name reforms in the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), a lack of hot water in residences and the unavailability of free university transport as some of their grievances.

Chikane Says the ANC Won't Survive Another 100

Sthembiso Sithole 

@sitholeexpress

The African National Congress (ANC) celebrates 100 years as a political organisation this year but some former insiders are the biggest critics of the party’s current leadership. Expelled ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, has been on a campaign of telling South Africans that President Jacob Zuma isn’t fit to lead South Africa’s ruling party and thus the country. Malema was one of the men that campaigned heavily for President Jacob Zuma when former president Thabo Mbeki was asked to resign and was replaced by his deputy Kgalema Motlanthe. Malema has apologised to South Africans saying he misled them when he supported Jacob Zuma.

Rev. Frank Chikane who was Director General in the Presidency when Mbeki was recalled authored his version of those events in a book called, Eight Days in September. Chikane spoke at the Think! Fest in Grahamstown earlier this week as part of The National Arts Festival at Rhodes University. He says the organisation that fought for the end of apartheid and eventually led South Africa’s first democratically elected government will not survive another hundred years as the party is already divided. “If you put a list of factionalism you institutionalise it. The elected group became a faction rather than leaders of the organisation.”