As the class of 2024 embark on a post-Matric future, a new generation of Grade Rs sets off into the maw of South Africa’s education system. On the 15th of January, some tens of thousand of them – some kicking, screaming or just nervous – will leave the guardian’s bossom and enter the classroom for …
The kasi economy, nowadays a glib selling point in government dispatch, has been bleeping on eParkeni’s radar for a while. Two years in fact, when the octogenarian farmer Maeder Osler e-mailed a small-fry wannabe writer in the throes of a mild depression and too many bad habits to shake off. ‘If you still want to …
Look, it’s not exactly French Riviera idyllic. Still no better setting could come close for the backdrop of a low-grade horror flick. Special effects or elaborate Hollywood-style peppering for who? Coming as it does with all the apparel that works: a shadow-draping koppie that leers over a sporadically-lit street. There’s a dilapidating church shrouded in …
When asking after one Siyabulela Phololo in Colesberg you are likely to be met with blank stares. That’s because here the podgy, diminutive ANC Sub-Regional Chairperson is universally known as Shuta – the short one – and whatever his deficiencies in centimetres, he is relied upon to compensate for in an accessible, humorous personality. His …
In a turnabout that has got his former underlings – who once respectfully referred to him as uBaba – incensed, former president Jacob Zuma’s latest move is akin to that middle finger he’s known to show when adjusting his spectacles. Except this time it’s less out of mere habit than a pointed “stuff you!” at …
Though Julius Malema may have struck panic into the hearts of segments of the population when he stopped short of calling for the slaughter of white people, the soundbite that should have been cause for disquiet was the one of the EFF leader allegedly rallying the faithful to take up unoccupied land back in 2014. …
Illegally taking up land amid a housing shortage Read More »
In what is suspected to be a politically motivated incident, the ANC sub-regional chairperson Siya Phololo’s bakkie went up in flames in the wee hours of Thursday morning. This follows a fortnight of intermittent protests on the back of employment to the SANRAL road reconstruction projects due to get underway along the N1 highway near …
Trundling off to a midday appointment eParkeni was running late for, we fell upon a sight that elicited palpable sighs, stopping us screeching in our tracks. Zama-Mbishe Store, for around two decades an enduring institution to township entrepreneurship, was closed shut, seemingly for good. Endearingly known as kwaMbishe – The Uglyish One’s – in reference …
A little over two decades ago, in 1991, Paul Bell, a suave city slicker with a square jaw and a restless flutter in his eyes, came riding into Colesberg on assignment for the reputable Leadership Magazine. His outstanding career in strategic communications with the Independent Electoral Commission and later, Bell Pottinger, still lay in the …
Ask a random learner from a marginalised community what they wish to be when they grow up and the answers will almost always be one-dimensional. Teacher, nurse, restaurant worker, and yes, the ubiquitous doctor, of course. Can’t blame the children; their responses merely mirror a world in which dignified work readily presumes the stereotypical suit …
