Umlazi School lacks basic services.

By: Sthembile Ngcobo

Driveway leading up into Inkonikoni Senior Primary School.
by: Sthembile Ngcobo.

The sound of children laughing, singing and learning can be heard from quite a distance before reaching Inkonkoni Senior Primary School.

It’s an early spring morning just before 7:30am, but the school yard is already packed with hundreds of children. Like every other primary school you can feel the excitement of a new day in the air. “I love coming to school,” says 12 years old Amahle Msani. “It is a place where I learn and play with my friends,” she explains.

Inkonikoni Senior Primary School is located in Umlazi V section. The school starts from grade 5 and ends at grade seven. This school was made into a senior primary so that it could accommodate a smaller number of grades with a large number of pupils. The school falls under the category of poor and not well maintained schools that can be identified in most township communities.

The atmosphere surrounding the school and the actual school building are two very different things. The cold red brick that the school is built with and the endless grey corridors have a dull discouraging effect that only students who attends this school can overcome. There is little or no grass for the children to play. The school ground is a completely eroded and is a hazardous place for the children to do any sporting activities on. The classrooms are over populated, small, pale yellow coloured rooms, with about 55 pupils to one teacher. There is also no security at the school gate to enforce the safety of the pupils.

The reason being for the school to be in this category could be the lack of funding, crime and of pure negligence of the schools management and also the community.

Funding

The school is dependent on government funding as a means to make ends meet at the end of each month. The lights, water and electricity are paid with this money. The school cannot expect much from the payment of school fees as it only charges R80 a month.

Students who come to this school are mostly from the poverty stricken community surrounding it said school Principal Mr. Mkhize. Since we all know that they come from a poor background we can’t expect them to pay a higher amount in school fees. “A high number of the kids here are either orphaned or their parents are unemployed,” he said.

The schools property is also rented out to the different church groups that use it as a place where they offer their Sunday services. The school hosts about 6 of these church groups and that only accumulates to R600 a month as they all pay R100 a month.

Church leader of the Twelve Apostolic Church Mrs Zondi said that the church uses the school for their smaller church meeting but for the big one they have a main church building. She also talked about the poor facilities of the school and also highlighted the fact that they as the church people and other students clean the school building as the school has no cleaners. “If we are lucky we will come Sunday morning to find the classes cleaned by the students who were here Friday,” she said. “A school is a place for children to learn and set their minds free, it should not be a place where they are burdened with the responsibility of having to do labour around it,” she added.

Donations

The school also receives donations from some members of the community and as well as Nurturing Orphans of Aids for Humanity (Noah).

Children from the different Schools supported by
Noah, wasingtheir plates after their daily meal
 at Inkonikoni Primary Scool.
sourced from iol.com

Noah is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2000 by Dr. Gregory Ash in KwaZulu-Natal. Dr Ash and his team identified the rise in number of children who were left without any one due to HIV and AIDS. It is established with the spirit of Ubuntu in mind.

This organisation runs a feeding scheme at the school; it caters for pupils of Inkonikoni primary school and as well as other orphaned pupils from the nearby school.

Vuyiswa Mtshali one of the volunteers who cook and dish for the pupils said that there is a lot of students who come here to eat. “For some pupils this one meal that they get here is the only meal that they will have for the day,” she said. She also talked about the change that the organisation has brought to the lives of the children and to the community as a whole.

Crime

Any development plans that the school has tried to implement has been ripped down by the high crime rate in the community.

Theft ranging from windows, door handles, and the fence around the school, school furniture and computers has raped the school from its potential ofoffering its pupil’s quality education. That fact that there is no security watching the school makes it easy for the thugs to come in and rade the school.

There is no solid explanation why children should study under such harsh conditions.

It is now 2pm and the schools main entrance is decorated with the sky blue colour of the pupils’ uniform. The school building is now back to its dull form as the day dies out and the pupils head home.

“My sister used to attend at this school and today she is a nurse, so I will keep coming here and working hard maybe one day I will be like her, said grade 7 pupil, Yanga Dlamini. Before she runs along to join her friends waiting for her across the road she turns and says “Our school is not that bad, its way better than the one we come from.” She says this referring to the harsher conditions experienced before coming to this school.

“Pupils need to adjust their mind sets and rise above the poverty that’s within our school and this community, said Mr Mkhize whiles waving goodbye.

The Green Climate Movement

Durban University of Technology (DUT), Journalism staff and students along with members of the greater Durban community gathered at the Arthur Smith hall at City Campus for a Community Engagement day: Green climate theme.

This community engagement day programme was filled with presentations on how to get and maintain a healthy environment. These presentations were given by different people and organisations like Wildlife Environmental Society of South Africa (WESSSA), Imagine Durban, The Durban Green Corridor, South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), KZN Subsistence Fishers Forum, One home one, Democratic Left Front and Green network. Amongst the guests were DUT vice Chancellor Professor Ahemed Bawa, department of Journalism head of department Advocate Robin Sewlal and the Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela.

This community engagement day was a build up function to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as the 17^th Conference of Parties (COP 17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties (CMP 7).Cop 17 will be held at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) and the Durban Exhibition Centre (DEC) on the 28 November to 9 December 2011.

So what does this mean to the average Durban citizen? This means that 194 countries that are members of the UNFCCC will hold talks on the current world climate situation. The talks will arose from those of Cop 16 that took place last year in Cancun, Mexico. The main issues discussed at the conference are climate change and finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenhouse gases (GHG’s) are gases that trap heat it to the atmosphere; they are the main cause of climate change. The primary greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s). There are many causes to GHG’s emissions in the atmosphere but the main cause is the burning of fossil fuels. Some examples of fossil fuels can be coal and petroleum. The burning of coal release carbon dioxide that gets trapped in the atmosphere, this is called the greenhouse effect.

The presentations contained a lot of information on how to conserve the environment and a number of initiatives dedicated to finding solutions to the climate change crisis. Journalism 2^nd year student Siphelele Bhuthelezi said that she really enjoyed the presentation. “I did not know that my mother’s little garden was playing a role in saving the earth,” she said.

 This was after the mini presentation given by Pastor Mkhize about the one home one garden project. This project was about how Pastor Mkhize and his colleagues use the planted vegetable s to help with the environment crisis and then aided those in poverty with the same vegetables. “Our main focus is in schools,” said Mkhize. “The children are the future, they will be the ones who will continue the seeds of nature conservation that we are sewing in them,” he added.

Imagine Durban, wowed the audience with images of there currently ongoing projects. Imagine Durban is a council led project which aims to create a safer, environmental sustainable, accessible and empowering city that has sustainable livehoods and celebrates our arts, culture and heritage. Amanda Boetus spokes person for Imagine Durban talked about how we all can play a role in helping save our environment. “Every little thing you do is a big thing in saving the environment,” she said

The aim of this function was to inspire students to be part of the solution in saving the earth from GHG’s. It gave ways in which we can play little roles in our everyday lives, like not leaving the tap running when brushing your teeth or throwing down toxic waste down your drains. Everyone can do something you don’t need to come up with big scientific ideas instead try recycling, planting a tree of walking around town then using a car that will emit carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. So do your bit and be part of the green climate movement.

Youth aproves of new party.

The National Freedom Party (NFP) logo.
Sourced from www.sabc.co.za 

The new kid on the block The National Freedom Party (NFP), is rising with more and more followers as we are getting closer to the local government elections.

The NFP is a break away party from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and is also the brain child of former IFP national chairman, Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi. kaMagwaza-Msibi served as the mayor of the Zululand District Municipality for over eight years. The party aims to be free from persecution and IFP dictatorship.When kaMagwaza-Msibi left the IFP, she left with a large number of IFP supporters who were in favour of her leadership style.

NFP was launched in February this year at the Curries Fountain Sports Grounds. At the launch kaMagwaza-Msibi talked about the parties 10 step plan to tackle local government problems. The party has only been around for three months but it has managed to get into the heart of the people.

The NFP seems to be more popular amongst the youth as more and more young people have fled from their parties to the warmth of this rising sun. Journalism student Vusimuzi Mkhize said that he will be voting for the NFP in tomorrow's local government elections, because he was not happy with the African National Congress (ANC). "I want to give someone else a chance to try and improve the living standard of my community," said Mkhize.

In KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) the NFP serves as on of the stronger opposition parties for the ANC. This is also where the party has its stronger numbers as the people in this province are more familiar with kaMagwaza here.

As we are only a few hours to elections Vusimuzi Mkhize and other students in his cours are holding their thumbs up for the new party. "I am sure that NFP will win somewhere as the people are tied of empty promises made by their current leadership," said Mkhize.

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Packaged memories

My team member was Nokuthula Wathi.
Our first article was on the money spent by the R.A.F (Road Accident Fund) paying people compensation for accidents that could have been avoided if people where following the rules of the road. We also included some interviews with people who have tried claiming money from the R.A.F.

The second was on life after the accident. We looked what the R.A.F has done to help people who were victims of negligence driving. We also looked at how their lives have changed and how they are coping with all the sudden new changes.

The challenges of writing these stories was when we needed comments from N.G.Os and the R.A.F. Some of the victims also did not want to open up about what happened to them.

I enjoyed doing the second story because I was proud to see some of the things the accident survivors are doing with their lives. They have now accepted their situation and managed to turn a new leaf.

Its good to say that we passed both articles......yea were on the right track.

The start of somethig big.

Today is the first day that i am use this blog. I hope that it will be appealing to people and creates a platform for people to talk about whatever problem they have and find help.
Feel free to voice your opinoun.
From: MaNgcobo