By POELO IRENE KETA They sang “Wathintabafazi wathintimbokotho” (“You strike a woman, you strike a rock”). They proudly commemorated the heroics of the 1956 Women’s March on the Union Buildings against apartheid laws. They donned beautiful traditional clothing and activist T-shirts. They celebrated womanhood. But, the women of eThembeni mostly honoured National Women’s Day on Monday by tackling, head-on, the myriad challenges confronting South African women in 2021. Limise Gagayi, who planned the event (with the help of her husband!), is a dynamo in this community. In the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020, she started a soup…
Author: Rod Amner
Rhodes University lost its most senior student on 30 July with the passing of Martin Allison at the age of 83. His PhD supervisor, Prof ROBIN PALMER, pays tribute. Martin Allison was an English gentleman with an adventurous spirit. Trained by articles in accountancy, as everyone was in his day, he spent most of his career in Zambia and then Swaziland (now Eswatini), eventually retiring to Port Alfred. Feeling bored at the age of 73, he decided he wanted a degree, so he registered at Rhodes University, majoring in Anthropology and History. Not content with a BA, he stayed on…
By ROD AMNER Yesiree, Bob. There’s another one. Makanda is a village (population: 561) in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. It is named after Makanda, a local Native American chieftain. Apparently, it has a smiley-face water tower. According to onlyinyourstate.com, Makanda is the most hippie town in Illinois: “It is a place for free spirits and progressive thinkers.” Like Makhanda, Makanda holds several annual festivals, including the Vulture Fest, an annual two-day event held during the third weekend in October that celebrates the migration of the black vulture and turkey vulture to the region. On 21 August 2017, the centre…
Social media reports of high-pressure systems bumping into each other this weekend “like the 1968 event” are fake news and should be ignored, says Garth Sampson, client liaison office for the South African Weather Service (SAWS) in Gqebera. “We expect some nice rain (in the Eastern Cape), but NOTHING that will contribute to ending the water crisis,” Sampson said. “The so-called high-pressure system ‘bumping event’ did not happen like that anyway,” he added. However, two significant winter systems will affect the country this week, with their impact extending into the weekend, SAWS reports. “Firstly, an intense cold front will make…
I am Nyx McLean, a Makhandan by birth, a former Victoria Girls’ High School pupil, and a Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies graduate. I have lived in Johannesburg and Cape Town for the last decade, working as an editor, digital strategist, and recently as a lecturer, supervisor, and researcher in multimedia and digital culture. I am joining the Grocott’s staff to assist with social media engagement and innovation, mentoring student journalists in creating social media content, and all the challenges and opportunities that may go along with this. My work is intersectional and driven by a need to…
By Steven Lang, former editor of Grocott’s Mail I believe that Rhodes University is suffering an immense loss with the departure of Sue Maclennan, one of Grocott’s Mail’s longest-serving and most competent editors of the last century or so. She has three talents that are highly prized in the business of media. Firstly, Sue is a meticulously accurate sub-editor, who understands what the reporter meant to write, and how they should have written it. She is the only person with who I would feel comfortable about publishing my work without having to recheck it. She is a consummate professional as…
By Azlan Makalima, former Grocott’s Mail social media editor and designer I knew Sue before we even met. I remember I was with Anele Mjekula (a Grocott’s journalist at the time) at the old Grocott’s building. No, the other old building… I was showing Anele the pictures I had taken at Dakawa’s Heritage Festival. Anele liked the photos and told me that I should wait; he will call Sue. Okay great! I don’t know what they talked about, but when I got a phone call, Sue told me to drop the photos and leave my banking details. Honestly, all I wanted was…
By Anthea Garman, Head of the School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University Sue brought to Grocott’s Mail her powerful sense that a community newspaper like this would only be worthwhile if it were strongly rooted in the Makhanda community. And she made strong efforts to know and understand this community in all its facets as both the editor and reporter. I have always been deeply impressed that she felt she could only do this city justice by knowing it extremely well (hence the work on the ground she undertook herself) and by approaching the making of news about…
By Stephen Kisbey-Green, a former Grocott’s Mail Sports Editor It is sad to see such a stalwart journalist like Sue Maclennan leave Grocott’s Mail after almost a decade of service. She made a massive contribution not only to the paper and the community but also to my career. Few people showed that they cared for the people of Makhanda as much as Sue did in the brief time that I was fortunate enough to work under her. Sue is an incredible leader who truly helped me get a start in my journalism career, taking a young student journalist from his…
Dear Sue, Few people have had the privilege and pleasure of working as closely with you as I had during my time in Makhanda. From the beginning, you entrusted me, a keen student journalist at the time, with increasingly important stories about our community and the wider Eastern Cape. I’ll never forget the first story I did for Grocott’s; it was about cattle polluting the runway at the local airstrip. Like any about Makhandan livestock, donkeys, goats, or dogs, this story was fitting for a small town. Your editorial and leadership style was gentle, which was what I needed at…