No birth certificate, no education
A seven-year-old Philippi girl has internalized the shame of not having a birth certificate to such an extent that she hides inside the house so that people don’t ask why she is not at school.
Cape Town
Local brothers get learners excited about literacy
Upon entering the classroom at Lantana Primary in Lentegeur, Read to Rise programme manager Roscoe Williams is greeted with hugs and high fives from excited Grade Two learners.
The learners had been waiting in anticipation for their interactive reading session to begin as word spread that Williams was in the building. After three years of visiting the school, his Read to Rise programme has become a favourite activity.
Cyclists crank the Ks for literacy campaign
Four men are to embark on a four-day cycle tour from Ladysmith to Cape Town in a bid to raise money to develop literacy among girls attending the Chumisa Primary school in Khayelitsha.
The 320km ride starting on 1 November, is in support of the Cape Town-based Thope Foundation, an NPO focused on supporting the holistic development of African girls, and the men, all of whom are from the Western Cape, are hoping to raise R100,000 for the Foundation’s work.
Kraaifontein tshisanyama entrepreneur thrives
Mzoli’s in Gugulethu is Cape Town’s most renowned tshisanyama, with locals and tourists gathering in their hundreds to enjoy the braaied meat and party atmosphere over weekends.
Now it seems Mzoli’s has some competition in the form of the Adwa and Wallacedene Cafes near Kraaifontein.
Frontline Community Health Workers kept in the dark
In a country that has the biggest divide between public and private healthcare, community careworkers are not recognized as employees and do not enjoy labour rights and the protection of SA’s labour laws.
In a gloomy room in a cinder block RDP house so cramped there is barely enough space to move his wheelchair, Masixole Sosikela, 29, looks as if he is part of the furniture.
Sosikela lost the use of his legs in a car accident three years ago and has since been confined to the small house he shares with his mother and young brother. With his mother at work and his brother at school, he spends his days alone in the house in BM Section, Greenpoint, Khayelitsha. His only daytime visitor is home community health worker, Nikezwa Bara, who comes to see him three times a week. She spends about an hour with him, washing and dressing his bedsores, emptying his catheter and changing his linen. Bara also prepares him something to eat in the kitchen and wheels him outside to enjoy a bit of sunshine.
Bara is one of 106 community health workers (CHWs) in Khayelitsha who offer essential health and social services to over 1,000 patients who are bed-ridden or chronically or terminally ill. For these patients, the CHWs are a lifeline of care and company.
Mobile Satellite Police Station in Site C
Despite a mobile police station in the area, residents believe that crime continues unabated.
While a new mobile police station in Site C has been helpful for people wanting to verify documents and obtain affidavits, residents say it does nothing to prevent crime.
The mobile station was placed at the Site C shopping plaza on 27 May this year and opened by national deputy minister of police, Maggie Sotyu, who claimed that it would be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, in order to strengthen the fight against crime.
Gugs grooves to live jazz
For the month of September, Gugs grooved to the sounds of great international and local jazz musicians every Sunday as part of the Jazz Heritage Festival hosted by the increasingly popular Jazz in the Native Yards initiative.
The BM section fire victims will finally see the light
Victims of the devastating New Year’s Day fire in Khayelitsha BM Section in 2013, who have been living without electricity for three years, are to finally receive power this month, the City has announced.
The fire which tore through the informal settlement, resulted in three deaths and the destruction of 800 homes, with 331 homes allowed to be temporarily rebuilt on land next to the OR Tambo Hall on Mew Way, a short distance from BM Section.
Walking Bus protects pupils from gangs
Running the gauntlet to school is no longer a danger for some children in gang-infested Mitchells Plain thanks to an innovative ‘walking bus’ initiative implemented by the Western Cape Community Safety MEC Dan Plato earlier this year.
The initiative, which sees parents and grandparents volunteering to accompany groups of children to and from school, was introduced in Delft in May, and expanded to include the Mitchells Plain areas of Lentegeur and Beacon Valley in June.
Masibambisane High on the IT map with Korean help
A Maths and Science school in Delft has received a major donation from Samsung.
A high school in gang-ridden Delft hosted 30 Korean volunteers for a week, who, as part of a team from electronics giant Samsung, taught learners smartphone repair skills and how to establish an online shopping portal.
Robertson Winery workers on strike
Workers at Robertson Winery are on strike calling on the winery to pay them R8,500 a month.
The workers, who protested outside the winery say they are currently earning between R2,900 and R3,500 a month before deductions, according to Karel Swartz, deputy general secretary of the Commercial, Stevedoring and Allied Workers’ Union (CSAAWU).
Water bill arrears shock for pre-paid electricity buyers
Masiphumelele residents are shocked that Cape Town City is charging extra for electricity because of water meter debt.
As a means of clawing back some of the R2.1-bn in water account arrears, the City is charging extra for electricity supplied through pre-paid meters and supposedly putting the difference against account-holders’ water debt.
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