Schools shine at marimba festival

SARAH KINGON

EAST LONDON schools returned home clutching trophies after competing at the International Marimba and Steelpan Festival in Johannesburg recently. Aqua Vista Primary, Selborne Primary and Merrifield performed well at the competition, each coming home with at least one first place divisional trophy.

The acclaimed Aqua Vista marimba band participated in the competition for the ninth consecutive year, coming home clutching three first place trophies and one third place.  Proud music teacher Andelene Ross gave all the credit to her team of 18 children who had worked hard to strike their mallets for top results.

“Our team is so dedicated and excited to perform. They practiced very hard, coming in at break times, after school and on the Saturdays leading up to the festival. They blend together very well as a group and they use their skill and enthusiasm to produce something wonderful,” said Ross.

Dancers win gold in Los Angeles

SARAH KINGON

SEVEN East London dancers returned from the World Championships of Performing Arts in Los Angeles last week in high spirits bearing bags filled with medals and trophies.

The 19^th annual international championship, which is commonly equated with the Olympics for dance, music, acting, modeling and singing, featured artists from 64 countries. The South African team entered the most contestants in the competition and came back with much to be proud of.

Dance extraordinaire Chase Collett, 17, of Merrifield made history by being the only person to win Champion of the World titles in both junior and senior categories.

King schools march

By SARAH KINGON

2000 PUPILS, teachers, Equal Education (EE) members, parents and supporting organizations marched to the Department of Education in Zwelitsha last Friday, demanding that plans for the implementation of the Norms and Standards for school infrastructure be released.

Friday was the halfway mark in the department’s three year time frame for implementation of infrastructure to schools. By 29 November 2016, all schools made of mud, asbestos, metal and wood must be replaced by new schools. And all schools must have access to water, electricity and sanitation.

The marching group left the Department of Social Development in King William’s Town at 11.30 on Friday, delivering a memorandum at 14.00 to the Department of Education in Zwelitsha.

Forbes Grant Senior Secondary School Grade 11 Learner Bonginkosi Manase said: “The reason we are part of Equal Education is that we want to fight for equality and quality in education…We are here today to demand that Minister Mama Angie Motshekga releases the implementation plans…We want to know minister, how you will fix our schools… We want you to give attention to our schools, because they are not safe. We want you to give attention to our conditions, because they are not suited to learning.”

Head of EE in the Eastern Cape, Lumkile Zani said: “We are marching because it is outrageous and negligent that it has been 18 months since the Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure became law and there are still no plans publicly available. We demand the immediate release of the plans to implement the norms and standards, the legally-binding vehicle we struggled for to reverse the apartheid legacy of inferior educational facilities in black communities.”

MEC Mandla Makupula and the acting HOD were not present to accept the memorandum. Learners chanted “Uphi [where]?” when they saw these officials were absent, marking a powerful moment in the day’s proceedings.

EE were pleased that expelled COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was able to join the march, supporting their demands that plans be released. The march was also supported by the Right2Know Campaign, the Unemployed People’s Movement and Students for Law and Social Justice.

In the past few months, EE visited over 40 schools in the Eastern Cape around King, Butterworth, Dutywa, East London, Mthatha, Grahamstown and Maluthi districts, finding schools in appalling conditions.

“When the department is asking us to wait longer for the plans they are saying that learners in such schools must wait longer to know how and when their schools will be fixed. This is not fair,” said Zani.

After EE held a sleep-in protest outside the Department of Education in Zwelitsha in March, the department attacked them saying EE “want the plans to be rushed”, but responded that plans would be released “in a few weeks”.

Education Department spokesman Loyiso Pulumani responded saying that the memorandum has been received. “We acknowledge the haste of Equal Education and we have released preliminary findings and are working towards the release of a comprehensive set of norms and standards,” said Pulumani.

EE Deputy Head Daniel Linde said the Department requested an extension on the time limit until 12 June for the plans to be released.

Published in Go! & Express community newspaper on 4 June 2015.

Vuyo – Power to go far

By SARAH KINGON

VUYOLWETHU Nduzulwana began doing pushups at age seven.  By age 12, he was bench-pressing 50kg. In April 2015, at age 30, he won gold at the Eastern Cape Weightlifting Championships in Port Elizabeth.

These are impressive results, but even more remarkable when one considers that Vuyo was born with Spinal Bifida, a congenital defect of the spine, and has been wheelchair-bound all his life.

After bench-pressing 110kgs to win him a gold medal in the 60-66kg weight division at the Eastern Cape Weightlifting Championships recently, Vuyo is aiming even higher.

Amputee riding high

SARAH KINGON

WELL-KNOWN local photographer and surfer Jean Paul Veaudry has been invited to surf in the inaugural ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championships in San Deigo, California in September. Completing the championships means Veaudry will earn himself National Colours for surfing, but he requires R45 000 to compete.

Veaudry says he’s been in the water his whole life, but his surfing achievements only began to stream in after his leg was amputated. He was knocked off his motorbike in a hit-and-run accident in May 2009 on his way back from a photo shoot.

“I asked the surgeon before he operated if I would ever be able to surf again. He said yes without knowing the answer,” said Veaudry. But five months after the lower part of his right leg was amputated, Veaudry was already heading for the swells.

Soon after his accident, Veaudry looked up the Amp Surf Society, an American NPO established to promote, inspire, educate and rehabilitate adaptive surfers, many of whom are war veterans. In May 2010, the Amp team invited him to join them in California to help other physically challenged people learn to surf. In was there that he met a group of university students who wanted to create a specialized surfing prosthesis for him. “They designed the first surfing prosthesis, donating me a R100 000 leg,” said Veaudry, who went on to win the West Coast Championships for physically challenged athletes with his new prosthesis.

“The accident pushed me to a whole new level and helped me to set goals. I became motivated to achieve more than I ever wanted,” said Veaudry.

Since then, Veaudry has competed in a number of local contests, but financial and medical strains have held him back from going further. The ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championship is the first event of its kind, providing a great opportunity for growth in the world of adaptive surfing.

“When I first heard about the championships, I immediately said I didn’t want to go because my wife is pregnant and expecting our daughter around the same time. But my wife pushed me to still go, knowing it was my lifetime dream,” said Veaudry.

He embarks on the championships expecting nothing less than returning home with a gold medal. “I am proud to be a springbok, as this is every sportsman’s dream. The next step is to get surfing into the Olympics and go for that,” said Veaudry.

He will not accept donations for his cause, but rather urges the public to involve themselves in his fundraising initiatives. Veaudry will be selling raffle tickets and landscape photographs for the cause, a great Father’s Day gift option. The public can buy these or sponsor prizes for the raffle. He will be giving 10% of the funds raised to the Challenged Athletes Foundation to help others compete in such events. If you would like to get involved, contact JP by visiting his studio “Jean Paul Photography” at 112B Devereux Avenue or at jp@jeanpaulphoto.com or via his Facebook page.

Published in Go! & Express on 4 June 2015.

Sprightly Ron defies the odds

By SARAH KINGON

A MAN who appears to be in his 70s, steps up to the leg press machine at Active Attitude gym. The 100kgs of weights piled onto the machine is inadequate for him so he proceeds to pile on more until the leg press is weighing over 300kgs. He calmly climbs onto the machine and confidently performs the exercise he has been doing for many years

Turns out, he’s not 70. Ron Broedelet is 91 and more active than most 50 year olds.

“I made him come to gym, you know?” says Ron Broedelet’s 88-year-old wife Cynthia. “He was grumbling about aches in his back and legs in bed one night and I said ‘Tomorrow you’re going to the gym’. And he hasn’t stopped since.”

Good Samaritans needed

SARAH KINGON

A THREE bedroomed, crumbling shack housing the Silatsha Day Care Centre brings comfort to 68 young children living in the Mooiplaas location.  Go! & Express was approached by a teacher and board member of the centre, pleading for sponsorship to improve the day care’s decaying structure.

Xolisile Sam, a board member at the day care, said the shaky structure is vulnerable to wet and cold weather, with leaks in the roof and holes in the walls.

Shining light on school’s needs

By SARAH KINGON

OUR first glance at Overton Primary School was of children under the age of 10 shovelling mud and sand from a developing puddle next to the main school building. GO! & Express journeyed to this farm school, just 10kms from the East London airport, with Equal Education’s (EE) Eastern Cape Deputy Head Daniel Linde.

This was EE’s first visit to one of the schools in the East London area after establishing their office in King William’s Town in October 2014. The non-profit organisation, which was established in Cape Town in 2008, is a movement of learners, parents, teachers and community members working for quality and equality in education through analysis and activism. Their Eastern Cape branch is currently in the process of visiting a number of schools who the Department of Education has listed as having inappropriate infrastructure. EE records the school’s infrastructure needs and compares them with the list sent by the department.

The first half of our visit involved a meeting with Overton’s Principal, Mzwandile Mbane, and various governing body and staff members, explaining EE’s purpose and establishing the school’s infrastructural needs. Linde explained the Department of Education’s promise to implement the Minimum Norms and Standards for school infrastructure and the various time periods attached to this law. For example, the department has said that all schools made of mud, asbestos, metal and wood must be replaced by new schools. Schools which do not have access to water, electricity, or sanitation must be provided with this by 29 November 2016 – a fast approaching deadline.

“We want to watch that the department is doing their work and go to court if deadlines are missed,” said Linde.

The department listed Overton Primary as a school lacking only electricity, which was partially true since only the lights in the office, which also serves as a staffroom and library, are functioning. The wiring in classrooms was broken through theft of copper cables leaving them in the dark. The school has no running water and is reliant on a rain tank to serve 451 pupils and staff.

Principal Mbane explained that Overton was established as a farm school, which moved from one farm to another, losing a lot during the course of removals. In 1996, the school was moved to its current, more permanent, location. The school, which began with 80 learners, enrolled 451 this year. The main premises includes four classrooms made of mud, two classrooms in shacks, a kitchen in a shack and an office made out of bricks. A second premises with two prefab classrooms is located in Bongweni area, 90kms from Overton Primary.

The school has no fencing, meaning that theft is an increasing problem. “We can’t even grow a vegetable garden to supplement our nutrition programme because the chickens and dogs will come and steal the food,” said Mbane.

Pit toilets are the only options for learners and staff, although boys were seen urinating in the bush near the toilets instead.

The school has no running water. Mbane said: “We rely on rain water and water delivered to the community. To get the community’s water, we must beg because we are told that we don’t deserve it.” Governing Body Treasurer Nomakholwa Mona said: “Sometimes the principal tells learners to go home at 11am because there is not enough water to cook and all the learners are hungry and thirsty. They can’t concentrate on work when they are hungry.”

Classrooms in the mud buildings are not divided by walls, but long wooden boards which fail to prevent noise travelling. Classrooms in shacks are the worst off, plagued with leaks and sandy floors.

Grade R Teacher Nombongo Mguba, who teaches in a shack classroom said: “When it’s cold outside, it’s extremely cold in here and when it’s hot outside, it’s extremely hot here. When the children shiver in class, I have to make a small fire for them…I have to cover up my own clothing with overalls because otherwise it will be so sandy when I get home.”

Mona said: “Learners and people cooking often come down with eye and throat infections because of the sand and wind in their classrooms.”

Principal Mbane said the department is aware of the school’s problems and has sent officials to assess their infrastructure needs, although no plans have been sent to them.

“The department uses too much money on transport, which could be used somewhere else.” Mbane said learners are transported from as far as Kidds Beach to attend Overton Primary. “The school should be where the learners are. This area is not earmarked for development. People living here don’t have toilets and site numbers. There is no plan for developing this area. There is more happening in Bongeweni.” Mbane suggests the department build them a new school in Bongweni, where 65% of their learners live.

Published in Go! & Express on 26 February 2015.

Clean up the city

BY SARAH KINGON

ILLEGAL dumping has been on the rise in East London and active community member Rudi Kriek says he doesn’t blame the Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) for the problem. He says it is the residents who do not take pride in their city who are at fault.

Quigney Public Relations Councillor Wiekie Barnard says residents and people driving through the Quigney area are the ones dumping illegally. “People need to learn to keep their city clean. The BCM are trying to do their job. The metro is just too big. The residents aren’t proud of their area,” said Barnard.

Rudy Du Toit, Chairperson of the Quigney Ratepayers Association, said there has been regular illegal dumping on Seaview Crescent, Tutton Terrace, Signal Street and Quigney Street in the Quigney area.

“At the moment there is a lot of litter in our area because most of the students are leaving and foreigners are coming in who don’t seem to care about keeping the place clean,” said Du Toit. “It’s difficult to do anything about it since these people are only here for a short time and the owners of the properties are not in town to tell them which days to take out the rubbish.”

Du Toit says there needs to be a partnership between residents and the BCM to keep areas clean.

Active Dorchester Heights community member, Rudi Kriek, said he has received nothing but positive responses from the BCM regarding the clearing of litter, fixing of potholes and reporting of suspicious activity.  Kriek started a Facebook page called Dorchester Community for residents of Dorchester Heights to create awareness of problems in their area including crime and suspicious activity. The page has since developed to have more of a service delivery focus, with over 240 members who post hourly.

Kriek has highlighted three areas that have recently experienced an increase in illegal dumping. These include Two Rivers Drive (at the back entrance to the Goods Sheds), Smythelands Road (alongside the open field) and along the river banks of the Nahoon River.

Kriek says residents often dump on a Saturday morning because they forget to put the rubbish out on the allocated day. He has reported people to the BCM in the past, who have been fined for their behaviour.

“I work at a civil consulting firm during the day and every afternoon when I come home from work I drive through the streets that I haven’t already been through, taking photographs of any potholes or dumping . Then I send emails to the BCM with the details. A few days later, I go back to the sites and they are repairing the problem,” said Kriek.

Kriek says that many East Londoners have become part of a culture of complaining when they drive through a pothole or see rubbish in the streets instead of doing something about it. “We need to create a culture where people make the effort,” said Kriek.

Another member of the Dorchester Community Facebook page, Anton de Coning, sent shocking photographs of residents dumping bags filled with garden refuse at Two Rivers Drive in September this year. He said that he notified the BCM about the problem at the time, but nothing has been done to solve it.

Despite claims of a quick response by the BCM, residents and businesses have limited options for where they can dump garden refuse and rubble. The dump site in Berlin is the only option for the disposal of items which are not garden refuse, which explains why illegal dumping is on the rise.

Published in GO! & Express community newspaper on December 4, 2014.

Cop saves woman’s best friend

By SARAH KINGON

THERE are many sad stories of dogs that are stolen and used for dog fighting syndicates across Africa, never to be recovered by grieving owners. But Leo’s story puts a positive spin on the sad tale, thanks to commitment from a caring stranger.

Dog owner Elizabeth Louw and her mother Anleen Louw are uncertain how their dog went missing. He could have escaped from their yard or been stolen. As soon as the family discovered their dog had gone missing, they made every effort to make the public aware of their dog’s disappearance. Anleen put notices up all over town while Elizabeth posted photos on Facebook pages like Crime Spotter, Pet Pals, Lost and Found Pets East London.

After a few days, a message was sent to Elizabeth’s cell phone with a photo of a man in Southernwood and her dog Leo. The person who sent her the photo requested she meet him alone in Southernwood, which she refused to do. She posted the photo onto Facebook and this is when Police Officer Zane Johnson stepped in to help.

On his own time, Johnson made every effort to find the dog. “I love animals and would hate my dogs to get into the wrong hands and get tied up or sent to fight,” said Johnson. He made contact with the man who sent the photo to Elizabeth and followed the trail from there. Leo was sold three times and journeyed with taxi drivers from Southernwood to Duncan Village to Scenery Park and eventually to Qumbu, a town 60kms further than Mthatha.

Through the weeks of searching, Johnson kept in contact with the family and called every two or three days to update them on his progress. Anleen said he called her saying, “I will not give up until I have exhausted every possibility.”

When he discovered Leo had been taken to Qumbu, he got into his car at 7pm at night to search for him. “He called me at 12am at night and said he had found the dog tied next to a shack. When he started driving back, he teased us and asked if we would like to see Leo then or the next day,” said Anleen.

After going missing on 9 October 2014, he was returned to them almost 2 months later on 28 November at 2am in the morning, overjoyed to be reunited with Elizabeth.

“He just couldn’t get enough of Elizabeth, he crawled into her and kissed her all over. We were so excited to see him that no eye was dry in the room when he came back,” said Anleen.

After taking their tick and flea infested dog to the vet, they were happy to see that he only had an eye infection and small problem with his tail, which were easy to resolve. The vet said it appeared he had not been involved in a fight, although had been beaten.

“I didn’t know people would go to so much trouble for someone else’s dog. It’s like Zane was an angel masquerading as a police officer,” said Anleen. They are thankful to those who helped at What’s On East London, Transporter, Pet Pals, SPCA and Lost and Found Pets. Neighbours and acquaintances commented on his return soon after, making Leo the new celebrity dog in the neighbourhood. A happy tail after all.

Published in Go! & Express community newspaper on 5 February 2015