Unscrupulous food suppliers are systematically stealing from starving children by plundering Mpumalanga’s R34 -million school feeding scheme. A forensic audit completed in January indicates widespread corruption by suppliers, teachers and, in some cases, even parents. Just one company supplying 80 schools in the Kabokweni district near White River, for example, stands accused of charging for […]
Five learners were allegedly shot by the police in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, according to media reports. This occured during a march this month by parents and learners demanding that the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) register their school. The learners suffered minor injuries. People’s Power Secondary School was set up earlier this year by Khayelitsha […]
History was made in South Africa in January with the launch of a locally developed, first-of-its-kind solution to treat acid mine water drainage. Called the Rhodes BioSURE Process®, it was hailed as the most cost-effective biological treatment option currently known in the world aimed at reducing sulphates in acid-rich mine water without the external addition of chemicals.
If anyone ever doubted that South Africa’s many different religions and cultures can coexist happily together, they should visit Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg. The Marist Brothers probably didn’t even think about accommodating diverse beliefs when they started the school in 1889 with five Catholic learners in Koch Street, Johannesburg, under the name of Marist […]
In the past, many South African-born Jews did not regard this land of braaivleis and baasskap as their land of milk and honey. In fact, it would not have been unusual for a local Jew to know more about the Warsaw Ghetto than Soweto. Yet eight years into a non-racial society, South Africa’s Jewish youth […]
Judaism, one of the world’s oldest living religions, refers to the religious culture of the Jewish people. It includes both a world view (beliefs) and a way of life (halacha) of which the Torah is the primary source. The Torah (which means teaching) is God’s revealed instructions to the Jewish people. It teaches Jews how […]
The bronze dome of the mosque can just be seen from the grounds of Islamia College in Lansdowne, Cape Town. At first sight the college looks like an exotic fortress meant to keep the faith-filled in and the faithless out. But on entering the college all preconceptions of what to expect from an Islamic school […]
Islam is one of the most important religions in the world. Indeed, more than one-billion people identify themselves with Islam. That means that about one out of every five people in the world is a Muslim (follower of Islam). After Asia, Africa is home to the next largest group of Muslims. More recently, Islam has […]
Located in one of Durban’s plushest suburbs, the Westville Hindu Primary School is one of a kind in KwaZulu-Natal. From the greeting of ‘namaste” (a traditional Hindu greeting) on the school telephone to the syllabus, the emphasis on Hindu and Indian disciplines is clear. In addition to its core curriculum, subjects pertaining to Indian culture […]
Katriena Sym considers herself lucky. She has a roof over her head, a husband who has found work on a farm nearby, and a lodger who contributes to the household expenses. "<i>Ceres is baie hard, en ek praat nou van hard</i> [Ceres is very hard and I mean hard]," she says, "<i>maar ek dink ons sal darem regkom</i> [but I think we will survive]." Sym is one of the seasonal fruit pickers who battles to eke out a livelihood.