A Peaceful Perspective... August 2, 2010

In this edition...

• Opinion: Serving our Life Sentence in the Shacks—Letter from Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA
• Column: True Church Growth
• Kennedy 5 Granted Bail
• Unite as One campaign rallies South Africans against xenophobia
• Towards an Inclusive Society
• Opinion: Practice makes perfect pupils:Education doesn't need a quick fix, it needs dedication
• A new chapter begins: Teenage novelist Fezikile Cokile tells Lomin Saayman how a library visit changed his life
• Touch Africa lends a helping hand by upgrading schools
• Students link up in fight against Aids
• AIDS: "Do we have the courage to step out and take the lead?"

Opinion: Serving our Life Sentence in the Shacks—Letter from Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA

People all over South Africa have been asking the leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo as to why the government continues to ignore the demands of the shack dwellers. They have been asking why after all the marches, statements, reports and meetings the Kennedy Road settlement continues to get burnt down through the endless shack fires. They have been referring in particular to the recent Kennedy Road shack fire on Sunday, 4 July 2010 that took four lives, leaving more than three thousand people displaced and homeless. Without much more words to explain this continuous tragedy we have replied that in fact the shack dwellers of South Africa are serving a life sentence. Everybody knows that we are the people who do not count in this society. But the truth that must be faced up to is that we have been sentenced to permanent exclusion from this society. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Column: True Church Growth

There was a city and there was a mountain. The Jews worshipped at the city. The Samaritans worshipped on the mountain. Jesus met a certain lady by the well of Jacob, between the mountain and the city. She was a Samaritan. She recognised Jesus as a prophet and asked which was the right place to worship—at the place of her ancestors or of his. Jesus told her that the time was coming when true worshippers would worship neither in Jerusalem nor on the mountain but would worship the Father “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). That time is now. I don't like it when people ask at which church you worship. To me it shows that they don't know what it is to be a true worshipper. On the judgment day after the resurrection when the books shall be opened, people will still claim to Jesus that they did go to church. But he will say, “I don't know you.” Jesus is not just concerned about ordinary Christians or the church-goers—he wants disciples. That is what I want here, not Christians but thoroughly taught disciples. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Unite as One campaign rallies South Africans against xenophobia

Civil society groups across the country are fighting xenophobia and violence - one signature at a time. The groups have launched a campaign to collect one million signed pledges against xenophobia, intolerance, intimidation and violence in South Africa. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Opinion: Practice makes perfect pupils:Education doesn't need a quick fix, it needs dedication

You do not want to find yourself in Springfontein in the winter. I suspect the founders of this rural town in the southern Free State called the place by this name because you literally "spring" (jump around) simply to keep warm. Nor do you want to find yourself in a Springfontein primary school where, to my shock, I find small children inside thin-walled prefab buildings with asbestos roofs to kill you. Shivering, I slip into one of the classrooms. The children are all thin as sticks, a sure sign of the pounding poverty of the area. One adult after another whispers the words "foetal alcohol syndrome" in reference to a malady that apparently afflicts many of these precious souls. In all my years of visiting schools in Southern Africa, this is the worst I have ever seen. Worst, that is, until you enter the classroom of Mrs Le Roux…. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Touch Africa lends a helping hand by upgrading schools

Eastern Cape non-profit organisation Touch Africa, which has already helped four desperately needy schools across the province this year, is now giving others the opportunity to make a difference by offering corporate team building days in schools that need help. The non-profit organisation, which organises the annual Enduro Africa bike ride between Port Elizabeth and Durban and which hosted princes William and Harry when they participated two years ago, has been hard at work this year replacing mud hut classrooms with brick ones, rehabilitating an out-of-order school bus and giving children in a tin shack creche a brand- new building and equipment. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

AIDS: "Do we have the courage to step out and take the lead?"

The experience of African women theologians has been a crucial element in helping faith communities respond to the challenge of HIV and AIDS in Africa, says the coordinator of an ecumenical network on the pandemic on the continent. "Many of the issues we are addressing today, the key drivers of HIV such as violence, the cultural aspects, the misinterpretation of scriptures have all been part of the discussions of African women theologians," said the Rev. Dr Nyambura Njoroge, coordinator of the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA). more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Kennedy 5 Granted Bail

There was joy and jubilation at the Durban Magistrates' court on 12 July as the Kennedy 5 who had been in custody since their arrest in September 2009 were finally granted bail. After a two-hour closed door meeting between the state and the defence team, it was agreed that the five be granted R1 000 bail each. The five appeared visibly relieved after more than ten months of incarceration. Samkelisa Mkhokhelwa could not hide his joy on his walk to freedom as he said, "There is every reason to be jubilant as this is our moment of victory. However, the battle is not yet over. We are waiting for the end of the trial for our names to be cleared. We have always maintained that we are innocent of all these charges." more >>
Source: ANiSA News

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Towards an Inclusive Society

Lebohang Pheko, Policy and Advocacy Director at the Trade Collective, has said the majority of South Africans feel as if they are exiles in their own country, and as such the talk of the nation as an inclusive society is a myth. She was addressing participants at a lunch time briefing on Towards an Inclusive Society, at Diakonia Centre on 22 July. Pheko said South Africa is the most unequal society in the world with glaring riches living side by side with utter poverty. Because of this, she said, the majority of citizens are living at the periphery of decision making. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

A new chapter begins: Teenage novelist Fezikile Cokile tells Lomin Saayman how a library visit changed his life

When Fezikile Cokile was 13, he visited a library for the first time. The squat, face-brick building was quite some distance from his home in East London's sprawling Mdantsane township, but for this young boy - who grew up in a house in which books were an unimagined luxury - the taxi ride he took that day became a trip that changed his life. In the library's children's section he discovered a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Despite the first nine pages being missing, he took it home and, in short order, utterly fell in love with writing, with English and with JK Rowling. "I love that woman. I read her book and I loved it, and I think that is what sparked my interest in writing," Cokile said. It is a passion that has paid off. Earlier this month, the 19-year-old's most fervent wish - to be a published writer - came true when his book Wish Upon A Star became the fifth novel published by Sapphire Press, the recently launched romance imprint of Kwela Books. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Students link up in fight against Aids

Local and foreign students are joining forces in Nelson Mandela Bay to educate high school pupils about HIV/Aids. Through Aiesec, the largest student-driven body in the world and which runs exchange and internship programmes for profit and non-profit organisations, five Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University students will be working with three Chinese student volunteers to promote Aids awareness at school assemblies. The Answers, Solution and Knowledge (Ask) programme, which is entering its fourth year, will have students teaching pupils from the beginning of next month until October. more >>
Source: ANiSA News