Friday 10 November 2023

NEWS

Street committees told to be more developmental in orientation

Last updated: 2023/07/11 at 5:32 PM

starconnect Published 11 July 2023

THANDISIZWE MGUDLWA I Tuesday, July 11, 2023

CAPE TOWN; South Africa – THE time has come for the purpose and roles of Street Committees to be reviewed for our collective revival.

In this article, we get to look at a wide variety of perspectives from expert and community leader analysis on what needs to be done to use this layer of leadership for effective governance. Street Committees have the powerful potential to unlock service delivery lock-necks.

According to the IGI Global Publishing House Street Committees were committees created in the 1980s and were democratically elected committees meant to cater for needs and challenges facing community members in their respective streets or areas.

Published in Chapter: Entrenching Community (Participatory) Governance Through Street Committees at Cato Crest, eThekwini Municipality by Ndwakhulu Stephen Tshishonga (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), this document seeks to illustrate the purpose and role of Street Committees, IGI Global Publishing House, shares some interesting thoughts on what and how Street Committees can best serve the people.

In an abstract of the paper: this chapter explores the role of street committees in retrenching and grounding community participatory governance at Cato Crest.

The chapter is purposed to revitalise street committees as street/area democratically elected and managed structures aimed at restoring inclusive local democracy, peace, and order, especially in the prevalence of domestic violence, crime, community disunity and divisions, disobedient youth, and other antisocial behaviours.

The author argues that the current configuration of street committees as partisan structures compromises their fundamental purpose of uniting people regardless of race, culture, gender, and socio-economic class.

The chapter also found that without clear developmental roles, street committees are often highjacked to serve a party political agenda.

In addition, the chapter is qualitative in nature when data were collected through observation and face-to-face interviews with street committees at Cato Crest.

The empirical data was also enriched by secondary sources in the form of journal papers, books, and government reports.

According to the Vukukhanye Community Upliftment Initiatives the primary objective of Street Committees is to involve the community of a particular area in creating a happy, peaceful and productive environment by encouraging community members to take a greater interest in, and responsibility for, their community.

The success of Street Committees hinges on community involvement and effective communication with local government departments, including, police, social welfare, infrastructure services etc.

Ivan Ntsasa Mngqibisa in the role of street committees in the governance of informal settlements: a case study from Waterworks Township, Grabouw, published by the University of Cape Town.

The abstract goes: Community participation has become a key concept in research on the development and governance of underprivileged communities.

It is on these grounds that the post-apartheid South African government has encouraged meaningful participation between local communities and the state, particularly through structures of local government.

However, the role that street committees can play in the realisation of this ideal has received little attention from either government or academic scholars.

For this reason, this study examines the role that the street committee in Waterworks, Grabouw, in the Western Cape plays in community governance. It analyses data from a qualitative study which took place between 2007 and 2008, states Mngqibisa.

“In this thesis I argue that while the street committee has a role to play in the governance of the community, that role is limited by their lack of power. The street committee is not a statutory body and this hinders their ability to participate in local government issues.

Despite these restrictions, the street committee in Waterworks was largely perceived by the local residents as doing their best in addressing pertinent issues. However, there were some who accused members of the street committee of nepotism and seeking political patronage,” noted Mngqibisa.

Former Minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula told Members of the National Assembly (NA) when he delivered the 2017/18 Budget Vote of the Police Department at Parliament: “We need to close the oxygen for criminals. Their breath should be limited. Their conception of life should be reduced to the ordinary. Their contemplation of reality should be reduced into nothing. This is our war cry against criminals and criminality in the Republic of South Africa,” emphasised Mbalula.

He said street committees are very important in the fight against crime. “We are realistic that we cannot win the fight against crime without the involvement of civil society. The Ministry is in the process of reviewing the Community Police Forum Policy. This will ensure that we build strategic partnerships with the communities in our effort to push back the frontiers of criminality,” Mbalula added.

And according to the Bonteheuwel Development Forum (BDF); A street/block committee MUST unite around issues affecting it’s street, block or neighbourhood and can therefore not be aligned to any political party, neither should it be open for use or abuse by any party or political figure.

The BDF Mission is to combat poverty, inequality and social ills through community centered social, educational and economic development interventions.

In 2018, 7 March, as reported by the Grocott’s Mail, citizens from Grahamstown East took part in an exciting event at BB Zondani Hall in Fingo Village. The South African Police Service (SAPS) in conjunction with Makana Municipality launched the community street committees initiative as a way to improve safety and reduce crime.

The initiative serves as a way to empower citizens and encourage visible policing within communities that suffer from high crime rates.

Reverend Gxaleka opened the event by emphasising the importance of building relationships in the community. “We must build relationships so we can speak with one voice,” he said. Speaking to the issue of halting crime, he said, “We need people to do umsebenzi [the work].”

Street Committees have the powerful potential to unlock service delivery lock-necks. In all likely-hood, Street Committees should serve more as empowerment agencies if they are to be relevant and effective going into the future.

Street Committees should be running Feeding Scheme programmes in partnership with other stakeholders.

And Street Committees need to also look for other problems facing residents they can solve finding help from community structures, business community, government and other sectors to improve the lot of the people. They should be communicators of their constituencies on everything developmental within and outside the street/community.

Moreover, Street Committees should make use of social media tools like Facebook pages, WhatsApp Groups for all residents, to further inform the residents on Job and Business opportunities, workshops, seminars and any training that takes place in the street and community and elsewhere.

Regular meetings at community halls or other easily accessible venues like churches or schools to engage with all residents on matters concerning their street.

Activities for different groups in the streets must form part of the developmental imperative of Street Committees including sport, recreation and arts for the young and old. In this way, Street Committees will be bringing government and service delivery closer to the people.

NB: Mgudlwa is a freelance journalist

LINK: https://starconnectmedia.com/2023/07/street-committees-in-south-africa/

Starconnect Media

JOBS/YOUTH

ECA to Improve Jobs for Youth in Africa through Quality Basic Education

ByTHANDISIZWE MGUDLWA

November 7, 2023

NEWS GHANA

Africa should improve the quality of basic education to ensure a skilled workforce that will create more and better jobs to drive economic transformation on the continent, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said last week.

ECA acting Director of the Gender, Poverty and Social Policy division (GPSPD), Sweta Saxena, said creating suitable jobs for its youth is one of the biggest challenges facing policymakers in Africa, highlighting that growing young and working-age population requires jobs if Africa is to benefit from a demographic dividend and meet its development aspirations.

Furthermore, says ECA, ECA supports Member States through the convening function, which supports the identification of key collective challenges facing the continent along with appropriate responses.

“The Commission also functions as a think tank which includes conducting interdisciplinary research and analysis of key challenges facing Member States and Africa as a whole, as well as the promotion of peer learning and development.

Furthermore, the ECA provides direct policy advice and support to Member States and this usually comes about from meetings and interactions such as the Experts Group Meeting.”

Research shows that in a globalized world with ease of movement of capital, goods and services, the mobility of skilled workers across international borders was a natural consequence of global integration and orderly migration.

It brought many benefits, including remittances, investment, and trade linkages with countries of destination but the situation was different in Africa.

Speaking at the Opening Session of the Expert Group Meeting of the Social Policy Section, organized by GPSPD, Saxena said Africa is challenged in terms of providing jobs for the youth. She cited the lack of adequate skills by the young population in Africa.

Moreover, data shows that nearly a quarter of the children enrolled at the primary level do not complete primary education while less than 50% of young boys and girls complete lower secondary education, compared to around 80% in South Asia and Latin American countries. Worse still the tertiary level enrollment rate is less than 10%.

“The quality of education is also very low, and so as a result, young people in Africa enter the formal labour market with few employable skills,” Saxena said, commenting that it was no wonder that nearly 90% of the youth start their working life in informal employment and almost a quarter of businesses name lack of skilled workers as among the main constraints.

Saxena lamented that the “loss of skills is worrisome for countries in Africa that already suffer from low human capital.

As tertiary and professional education are financed from severely limited public education budgets, in effect poor African countries implicitly subsidize rich countries through migration of highly skilled labour.”

Research also reveals that another big challenge for Africa was having significant numbers of their trained people ending up unemployed and working in areas unrelated to their training or emigrating to other countries, which is a misallocation and waste of resources that these countries can ill afford.

According to organizers, the two-day Expert Group Meeting has drawn technical experts from 16 countries including experts from government, academia, think tanks, and the United Nations system to review the key findings of the draft report, Jobs in Africa or Jobs for Africans. The report aims to inform and stimulate debate, contribute to better policies, facilitate further research, and identify prominent knowledge and data gaps.

In addition, the meeting provides an opportunity to discuss questions related to the issues of demography, education and skills migration in an integrated way so as to accelerate national and regional-level actions for increasing employment opportunities for young Africans.

Saxena said expert group meetings were important for the ECA as they contributed to the Commission fulfilling its core mandate of promoting economic and social development among our member States.

Properly managed migration presents an immense opportunity for alleviating the challenge of job shortages for skilled workers in Africa with development benefits for all parties.

“Creating a skilled workforce requires improvements in both access to, and quality of, basic education,” Saxena said, urging for rethinking education under a New Social contract.

LINK: https://newsghana.com.gh/eca-to-improve-jobs-for-youth-in-africa-through-quality-basic-education/

SPORTS

Why Kaizer Chiefs Continues to Win Millions of Supporters

By THANDISIZWE MGUDLWA

October 26, 2023

NEWS GHANA

A quick engine search on how many supporters Kaizer Chiefs have will lead you to various estimates from 15 million plus to 16 million plus to 20 million plus supporters.

With one research library revealing that Chiefs have more supporters inside South Africa and in neighbouring countries.

The site reads: “It is also the most supported club in South Africa and the neighbouring countries of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia etc. It has been estimated that the club has over 100 million supporters.”

It may not be easy yet to provide an accurate figure of how many supporters Chiefs have, but there’s overwhelming material on the Internet and eslwehere that Kaizer chiefs continue to gain millions of supporters inside and outside South Africa.

A study of this ever growing brand and clearly the biggested sporting brand in South Africa and in the Southern African region, has led the Club to be declared as “The Biggest Club” in Southern Africa.

With a revenue of $25 mil. – $50 million, Kaizer Chiefs employs 100 – 250. The Club falls under the Industry of Sports Teams & Leagues, Hospitality.
As a special part of the Kaizer Chiefs family, being a card carrying member of the Amakhosi Supporters Club means you get to enjoy a whole host of incredible benefits from insurance and retail among others.

They are the most supported club in the country, drawing an average home attendance of 16,144 in the 2019–20 season, the highest in the league, hence the Club is dubbed “The Biggest Club” in Southern Africa.

The Kaizer Chiefs Youth Development Academy is a programme that is FREE of charge for all players across the different age-groups. We currently have five age-groups namely our under-13, under-15, under-17, under-19 and the reserve team.

“Our responsibility as a football club is to set and maintain a standard of excellence at the training rounds. We expect extremely high standards of our players, and we expect them to understand that their development starts every day that they walk through the gates of the KC Village.

The KC development houses some of its players at the state of the art KC Village in Naturena where players are under the tutelage of house fathers and mothers. The academy team does not hold open trials as most of our players are scouted around the country, and then invited for further assessment,” the Club notes.

“Kaizer XI Run Riot”, this is how the headlines screamed in The World newspaper the following Monday after Kaizer’s boys had routed the Transvaal Coloured Professional Invitation XI 4-0 (on Saturday) and the District Invitation XI 9-1 (on Sunday). Not an elegant headline, an attention grabber that captured the essence of it all, as Chiefs remembers.

After these two games, there was no turning back for the Club.

For the next 53 years such headlines became synonymous with Kaizer Chiefs. Chiefs entered the game not only with the bang but elegance as well.

There is no contradiction in Kaizer Motaung’ statement, “We changed the face of the game,” He is not presumptuous either!

Amakhosi scored an amazing 106 goals in 30 games in that record-breaking NPSL season, finishing nine points ahead of league runners-up Moroka Swallows.

Chiefs have made several ‘Firsts’ in local football more than any other club. The First team to have more full time professional players; the First team to have several players campaigning abroad at the same time (Shaka Ngcobo, Ace Ntsoelengoe, Pele Blaschke were all campaigning in the US at the same time in the 70s), the First team to be registered as a company, the first team to have white registered supporters.

It was Kaizer Chiefs who made a history of sorts in 1975 when they brought out former Brazilian international Jairzinho to this country.

The Club continued in the 90s to ‘revolutionarise’ South African football becoming the first local club to have a clubhouse, Kaizer Chiefs Village in Naturena, the Club adds.

The Kaizer Chiefs Supporters Club, according to the fans, “Gives us an authentic feeling of belonging as it proves our affiliation to Amakhosi.

As a true supporter we need to attend home games, wear only authentic gear, and have a Kaizer Chiefs Mobile SIM card and a Kaizer Chiefs insurance funeral policy.

We also need to buy our monthly copy of the Amakhosi magazine and follow the Club on all social platforms, including regular visits to the website.

Our support makes a difference to the team – we are the 12th player on the field and a vital member of this Family.”

This all started on the 7th January 1970.

Kaizer, who was playing his trade in America, found his friends and teammates at Orlando Pirates in 1969 sidelined. He played a vital role in the formation of what is currently the biggest sporting brand in the country, Kaizer Chiefs.

Together with the likes of Thomas “Zero My Hero” Johnson, the late Ewert “The Lip” Nene, Edward “Msomi” Khoza, Ratha Mokgoatlheng and others having toured the country successfully with Kaizer Chiefs XI in 1969, they decided to form what is known today as Kaizer Chiefs.

Kaizer Motaung remembered vividly, “It was at this meeting before I returned to the United States of America that I was pressured not to abandon the Kaizer XI. My father also played a huge role in convincing me, saying, “This will help you to have something to fall back on when you come back from the USA”.

We needed strong administration as I was going to be away. I then recruited the late Clarence Mlokoti who was a good administrator. We also had people like China Ngema (currently a Director at the Club). This is how Kaizer Chiefs was conceived,” revealed Motaung.

When Chiefs started, they had their slogan, ‘Love & Peace’ and the brand attracted a ‘Hippie culture’ while they were winning fans on the pitch with their brand of football.

Most Chiefs players spotted trousers with flares while among the clevers in the township and a majority of ordinary people-trousers had turn ups. Chiefs female supporters also showed traits of more liberalism in their dress sense.

Chiefs founder member, Zero Johnson recalled, “We wanted to be a team with style, not only on the field of play but off the field as well. I suddenly became a ‘dance teacher’ for the players. It was important for Kaizer Chiefs players to be able to dance when there was a call to do so. Fans loved mingling with players and dance so this was a strategy to wow more crowds,” he said laughing.

Life was not as easy though, as Club’s legend Michael Bizzah Dlamini revealed in a television show recently, “There were tough times at the beginning especially financially but we soldiered on. We were determined to take on the best in the country,”

Side by side with success, death has been a constant visitor to Chiefs. The deaths of Ewert Nene, former captain, Ariel “Pro” Khongoane in the early 70s were shattering so was the death of the likes of Gilbert Sekhabi, Elkiem “Pro” Khumalo, Clarence Mlokoti and the legendary, Patrick “Ace” Ntsulengoe.

The Boet Erasmus ‘close call’ when players such as Doctor Khumalo, Moses Ngcobo, William Shongwe were pinned to the ground by two walls and the mass of humanity brought dark clouds for the Club. The Orkney disaster on Sunday, 13 January 1991 and the Ellis Park disaster on the 11th April 2001 will forever be remembered as dark moments since the Club’s inception 53 years ago.

Kaizer Chiefs though has always been all about winning from day one. The Club has won more trophies than any other soccer club in South Africa. It boasts 20 million plus fans around the country which makes it the biggest sporting establishment in the country and one of the biggest in the continent. The Club continues to grow with fans beyond South African borders.

As the Club soldiers on 53 years later, it is hoped that the new generation will match the achievements of some of the legends that turned up for the Club: Patrick “Ace” Ntsoelengoe, Ariel “Pro” Khongoane, Vusi “Computer” Lamola, Johnny “Magwegwe” Mokoena, Teenage Dladla, Lucky Stylianou, Peter B’alack, Johannes “Fetsi” Molatedi, Doctor “Pretty Boy” Khumalo, Lucas “Rhoo” Radebe and many others.

Kaizer Chiefs, the most decorated club in South African football, have won more than 93 trophies.

The Gold-and-Black have won the League Championship 13, lifted the National Cup on 13 occasions, with fifteen top 8 titles (The most by any team in SA), have won the League Cup thirteen times and several unofficial cups.

On six occasions Chiefs were Runners-up for League Championships; African Cup Winners’ Cup – Winners: 2001; CAF Super Cup – Runners-up: 2002; CAF Champions League – Runners-up: 2020–21; Individual Awards – African Club of the Year 2001.

Including; Vodacom Challenge – Winners (5) – record: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2009; Telkom Charity Cup – Winners (11) – record: 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2010; Carling Black Label Cup – Winners(4): 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021 & Runners-up (5): 2011, 2012 , 2014, 2015 , 2019; Sales House Champ of Champs – Winners: 1984; Ohlsson’s Challenge Cup – Winners: 1987, 1989; Castle Challenge Cup – Winners: 1990, 1991; Stylo Cup – Winners: 1970; UCT Super Team Competition – Winners: 1972; Shell Helix Ultra Cup Winners: 2019.

Chiefs also has hundreds of Supporter’s Branches across South Africa.

Kaizer Chiefs has over 7.2 million social media followers. Facebook: 3.6 Million; Twitter: 2.7 Million; Instagram: 0.845 Million; and YouTube: 54,800 Subscribers.

And on October 29, 2012, Kaizer Chiefs announced that they had registered a rugby sevens team to participate in the inaugural 7s Premier League.

The Club also runs the Kaizer Chiefs eSports Tournament.

In 2017, Kaizer Chiefs partnered with sponsors for this inaugural competitive gaming experience which gave gamers a chance to battle it out at the Kaizer Chiefs esports stage, where they were to knock each other out of the FIFA 17 challenge in a bid to be the ultimate winner.

This event will offer aligned partners the opportunity to affiliate their brands with one of the world’s fastest-growing competitive spectacles.

The Club also has development teams in Cape Town & Durban as YouthTeams.

Kaizer Chiefs reserve team plays in the DStv Diski Challenge.

The reserve teams accomplishments include: Gauteng Reserve League 2013; Gauteng Reserve League 2017; Gauteng Reserve League 2021; Gauteng Reserve League 2022; Engen Knockout Cup 2017; Engen Knockout Cup 2021; Engen Knockout Cup 2022; Nedbank Ke Yona Cup 2010; Nedbank Ke Yona Cup 2016; Nedbank Ke Yona Cup 2021; SAFA Regionals Gauteng 2011; SAFA Regionals Gauteng 2012; SAFA Regionals Gauteng 2019; SAFA Regional Western Cape 2014; SAFA Regionals Western Cape 2020; SAFA Regionals KwaZulu Natal 2020; SAFA Regionals KwaZulu Natal 2021; SAFA Regionals KwaZulu Natal 2022; Telkom Charity Cup 2013; Telkom Charity Cup 2015; Telkom Charity Cup 2019; DSTV Youth League 2020; DSTV Youth Super Cup 2022; Multichoice Diski Challenge 2017; DSTV DIski Shield 2022.

Kaiser Chiefs, the British indie/britpop band, was named after the club because Lucas Radebe, a former player of Kaizer Chiefs, captained Leeds United, the team they all supported.

LINK: https://newsghana.com.gh/why-kaizer-chiefs-continues-to-win-millions-of-supporters/

BUSINESS

Kaizer Chiefs introduces Kaizer Chips to spice up football passion

Last updated: 2023/10/04 at 4:31 PM

starconnect Published 4 October 2023

THANDISIZWE MGUDLWA I Wednesday, Oct.03, 2023

CAPE TOWN; South Africa – It is common cause that children usually start following Kaizer Chiefs Football Club because they think that South Africa’s biggest football club is called ‘Kaizer Chips’.

This is before they discover the real name is actually Kaizer Chiefs, named after its founder and owner Kaizer Motaung.

When Motaung founded the Phefeni Glamour Boys in 1970 he used his first name Kaizer, and joined it with that of the club he first played for in the United States, Chiefs, from Atlanta Chiefs. Since then Kaizer Chiefs has gone on to become the most decorated football club in South Africa and clearly the biggest sporting brand to date.

But on Monday this week, the ‘Kaizer Chips’ name came close to reality as the SOWETO born outfit known as AMAKHOSI (the Chiefs), launched a potato chip range.

Marketing Director of Kaizer Chiefs, Jessica Motaung invited ‘fans everywhere to get Khosified and truly fuel your passion’.

Kaizer Chiefs said it has launched the potato chip range to take “the essence of passion from the football pitch to the palate”. This move by AMAKHOSI has also led to social media going abuzz with reactions.

Chiefs is expanding its commercial footprint at a time that the club is going through its eight year without winning a trophy under the South African Football Association (SAFA)-Premier Soccer League (PSL) calendar.

This week however,,Jessica Motaung was upbeat about a turnaround among fans.

“Our vision was clear — to deliver a snack range that embodies the boldness and vibrancy of the Kaizer Chiefs brand. With these explosive flavours, we invite fans everywhere to get Khosified and truly fuel your passion,” she said.

From social media and elsewhere fans are excited, with some joking that the launch was “unofficial” recognition of ‘Kaizer Chips’, which is how some people, mainly children, pronounce the club’s name.

Lawrance Maile commented, “Chiefs marketing department, you guys are doing a great job in ensuring that the brand grows. So innovative, thinking out the box … unlike other football clubs. I know most people won’t stop criticising you for a wonderful job you are doing. People should know that football today is a business.”

While Themba Tshabalala tweeted on X: “Smiles everywhere as @KaizerChiefs launches their snack range. You can have Kaizer Chips while you watch Kaizer Chiefs.”

LINK: https://starconnectmedia.com/2023/10/kaizer-chiefs-introduces-kaizer-chips-to-spice-up-football-passion/

ARTICLES/OPINIONS

Township Life and Schools Need Reinventing to Empower Kids, Youths —

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

By TheSightNews .July 8, 2023Updated:July 8, 2023 5 Mins Read

Cape Town: One of the saddest experiences of growing up in a South African township is that of the level of violence that sometimes leads to injury or even loss of lives. That was the experience we were accustomed to growing up in the 1980s, those of my generation born in the 1970s and later 70s.

This violence came from political insurrection or gangsterism or down right thuggery. But of course, there’s the brighter side to the township life. Sport, recreation and the arts top the chart in my book.

By all accounts, children and the youth have the most fun when engaging in these three activities.During my township schools days in the 1980s and early 1990s these disciplines were the norm in the township, including township schools. Somewhere, somehow along the way as the 1994 post apartheid democratic order came into effect, steadily the cracks started showing.

The all popular sport athletics days for primary and high schools in the townships, and district athletics meetings would become something of the past, this would see other sporting codes, including drama, arts and many recreational activities going under the bus. Of course, the problems didn’t all start after 1994, even before 1994 and mostly during school holidays, the lack of activities for what seems to be the majority of the township kids and youths was and still is a living reality.

Back in those days, we ended up creating our own activities like street soccer, cricket, tennis and other popular games in the townships. Another sector that showed promise especially from the 1980s to the early 1990s was that of township youth structures, such as youth clubs, boy cups, scouts, brownies (for girls) and girl guides formed part of popular township kids and youth culture.

When Kwaito music emerged in the early 1990s, it looked as if all that was for the youth in the township would just blossom and blossom, regrettably that has not been the case. Although Kwaito music has continued to enjoy an amount of success, even breaking into the international fold. The reality is that youth and children in South Africa are experiencing a serious neglect as most are not just unemployed, but have been failed by a system that doesn’t pass the test when it comes to nurturing them in activities that they are entitled to in terms of national and international laws.

In the post 1994 dispensation, some programmes for children and youths have been available to mostly a few, while some others have been grossly neglected. In this chronicle, I’m not even planning to mention the government sector’s role or lack thereof, possibly, part of the problem has been too much dependence on the government for almost every development that is needed. Closer attention to this possibility has to materialize to fix what needs to be fixed.

The challenges facing townships are multifaceted, as some have suggested, this is probably the case that also needs closer scrutiny. That’s why the process of fixing these township challenges has to be owned by all sectors and become a daily priority for all to find what has gone wrong and how we can go about fixing what is wrong.

Committed and dedicated people in leadership roles like school Principals, sport forums and other sectors should be entrusted to get things going in reviving activities in schools and in township communities. In partnership with the Department of Education, SABC drama series in the late 1990s, Yizo-Yizo did a sterling job in exposing and highlighting what is wrong within township schools and township life in general. From corrupt teachers with a negative influence on the learners to unscrupulous members of the community corrupting the schools and learners, for self interest; to good members of society, including school governing bodies (SGB) who would go the extra mile in ensuring that things run accordingly in the townships and learners and youth get the best education and support they need, the SABC drama series kick-started a process that allowed the nation to zoom in on what is happening in the townships.

These stories cannot be lost in the nation’s consciousness if we hope to turn our situation around and create a winning nation.Most probably, a possible winning formula to turn things around lies somewhere else in the world.

If countries like the USA, Germany, UK, France, Russia, Italy, China to name a few, have had a remarkable record when it comes to global sporting events like the Olympics, winning the most medals to date, then it would make perfect sense to study how they run their development programmes for their children and youths in their communities and schools.

Under Apartheid, things were not perfect, but the township situation for children and youth participation in sport, arts and recreation has dilapidated since the dawn of the democratic dispensation in 1994. By the looks of things, things are likely to get worse if no urgent intervention is made to reverse the situation. Even the new programmes like cluster leagues, where teams comprising players from schools mixed up with players from the community, have in many cases collapsed or never started at all.

Even other programmes like the Siyadlala Community Mass Participation Programme; Spur Masidlale Soccer Programme, CAF African Schools Football Championship and other mass sports programmes need serious acceleration to broaden their base and reach all of the township kids and youths.

Yesteryear sports people, men and women, and other people in the arts and recreation sectors can rescue another generation from a tragedy of wasted talents. Let’s do it for the past, current and future generations. Let’s all play our part.

Can you imagine if all our private and public organizations, institutions, industries, sectors and businesses ran children and youth programmes of all kinds as part of their Corporate Social investment (CSI), how much difference could that make?

Mgudlwa is a freelance journalist

LINK: https://thesightnews.com/2023/07/08/township-life-and-schools-need-reinventing-to-empower-kids-youths-by-thandisizwe-mgudlwa/

OPINION

Is South Africa On The Margins Of Collapsing?

(OPINION) By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa is the unluckiest president since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy in 1994, confided one ANC activist recently during a brief chat the other day.

Just less than two years into the highest job on land, in March 2020 South Africa, like most nations across the globe, was affected by Covid-19 lockdowns, added the activist.

For sure, this global pandemic by far was unprecedented, in the last millennia or so.

More businesses collapsed, job loss went up, the death rate; and a variety of other factors negatively befell the human species during this period.

Also Read:

True to form, South Africa turns to get a lot of media attention, quite a dramatic country others would say.

For instance, South Africa recorded the highest number of Covid infections in Africa during the pandemic.

As reportedly the most unequal country on earth, South Africa, finds itself constantly on the news for mostly the wrong reasons.

The country also gets a lot of media attention for many positive activities from sports, the arts, and in other fields.

This time around, the rolling blackouts are doing just the same damage to the nation’s fabric just as witnessed during the Covid lockdowns.

Could Ramaphosa be asking himself why he took the job in the first place judging by the myriad of hurdles his presidency has encountered up until now.

The 2021 July unrest saw more than 350 lives lost. R50 billion worth of damages to property to mention a few.

The torching of parliament and other private, public, and government institutions that have come under attack right across the land, could signal a president overwhelmed by the wills of power.

Ascending to the ANC presidency propels the leader of the governing ANC to become the president of the country, as the governing party has enjoyed landslide victories in every national election since 1994.

The Ramaphosa presidency has already been termed in certain quarters and including by some media groups as the worst administration to date.

Maybe, or maybe not, the issue at hand now should be whether South Africans can continue to place their trust in the hands of Ramaphosa and his party.

And that the anti-Ramaphosa sentiments within the ANC, are also drumming up the noise for the president’s exit from office, which could very much lead to a situation where the ANC goes into next year’s national election further weakened from the factional battles that have become the everyday reality of Africa’s oldest liberation movement.

As if Ramaphosa and the ANC problems were not a lot. Then there’s the headache that faces South Africa as it prepares to host this year’s BRICS Summit

The bone of contention is whether or not Pretoria will arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin should he attend the summit, scheduled for August 2023.

The charge for Putin’s arrest is led mostly by Russia’s erstwhile enemies the Western Powers including Britain and the US, this of course follows Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier in 2022.

Notably, the Russian-Ukraine Conflict has already had devastating effects on the whole economically and otherwise.

These two energy giants fighting has contributed greatly to the rise if costs globally and the escalation of the high prices of petrol for example.

For South Africa this and ramifications of great proportions when you consider that both Britain and the US are one of SA’s biggest trading partners, worth hundreds of billions of investments annually and millions of jobs could be lost.

On the other hand, should Pretoria succumb to its Western Allies, then the ANC-led South Africa will be breaking a century-old relationship with Russia, much of it existed during the liberation struggle.

Not forgetting that many African countries usually side with Russia during such crises, as they also were beneficiaries of support from the USSR during the anti-colonial era. And many if not all have kept close ties with Russia.

A tough one indeed for Ramaphosa, whichever way you look at it.

The Putin matter has the serious potential to divide the ANC even more. In the worst-case scenario, it could divide the country along ideological lines.

On the international stage, it could lead to further cracks in global unity and strengthening tensions between countries across ideological and economic lines, historical alliances, and relations.

Although it may sound extreme and even far-fetched to suggest that this global disunity and unstable environment, can create conditions of a world war, it won’t help the world not to seek to prevent such a possibility.

Few to none saw the coming of World War 1 and World War 2. Few to none saw the coming of many other conflicts and market crashes and economic disasters.

And as for South Africa, it is hard to hear some of the citizens hurt at the rolling blackouts and their pessimism on overcoming this ‘power curse’.

But again, every challenge is accompanied by an opportunity.

What could be the solution?

The solution could come from all sectors of society, locally and internationally finding one another on pressing matters affecting all of us.

Be it rolling blackout, foreign policy, service delivery and effective leadership of our nations and the world.

When those bestowed to lead are not giving the masses any reason to trust that they can turn things around and create an equal and winning society for all its people.

Mgudlwa is an award-winning journalist

LINK: https://www.ndokwareporters.com/is-south-africa-on-the-margins-of-collapsing-opinion-by-thandisizwe-mgudlwa/

The African Recorder