By Sally Price-Smith, Makana Residents’ Association Chair, Sue has the most amazing stamina: from very early mornings taking pictures of the perfect sunrise with willing participants creating a story to advertise a local running or cycling event to many hours sitting through council meetings. She reports a story about a primary school first day with the same enthusiasm and attention to detail as a story about the technical intricacies of the Makhanda water system. She is always well informed, producing clear and accurate copy. Sue is a consummate professional who really cares about her craft and knows how important community…
Author: Rod Amner
By Archbishop Nkosinathi Ngesi, Ethiopian Episcopal Church, Makhanda I am honoured and humbled to write a few words about Sue Maclennan and her love for investigative journalism. I met Sue at the time that we were in the struggle to fight corruption in Makana Municipality. She had a passion for her work and was unbiased in her reporting. I also had a sense that she loved to assist the underprivileged, the poor and the oppressed. I also noticed the hatred she had for corruption in the Municipality; she knew that corruption is the source of massive unemployment in Makhanda. She…
In Gal 5:19-22, we read: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” I…
By Prof Lynette Steenveld and Prof Harry Dugmore, former chair and deputy chair of the Grocott’s Mail Board Grocott’s Mail turned 150 in 2020. While it had many great editors since Rhodes University bought it in 2003, it is with enormous sadness that we bid farewell to Sue Maclennan, who started in 2010 as a part-time sub-editor and succeeded Steven Lang as the editor at the end of 2013. Sue displayed her ingenuity, steadfastness, and considerable skills as a newspaperwoman by taking over the reins of a grand old newspaper in severe financial distress. In the 21st century, local news…
By Rod Amner, learning editor, Grocott’s Mail Sue Maclennan’s eight-year editorship of Grocott’s sadly ended on 31 July. Sue is self-effacing, mistrusts hyperbole, and is not fond of the limelight. Regardless, we invited several former colleagues and civic leaders to write about her leadership of this local news organisation. They were unabashed in their praise of her phenomenal contribution to the city’s civic life – you can read their tributes elsewhere on our website. As a lecturer in the School of JMS, I was privileged to work with Sue on occasion over the years. I was struck by her professionalism, equanimity, work…
Earlier this year, hundreds of generous Makhandans donated 520 memory cards packed with rich learning resources to matrics in local no-fee paying schools. In this opinion piece, TRISTAN COOKE asks why the state is leaving it up to citizens to unlock the huge potential of the digital revolution for public education. COVID-19 severely disrupted last year’s Grade 11’s. And as they entered matric at the start of this year, they were desperate for any support to help them catch up. Digital learning resources are abundant, hanging in the ‘cloud’ in the form of study guides, video lessons and past…
Hundreds of Makhanda parents are discovering that they don’t need to decode the written word to share books with their children, reports JESSICA FELDTMAN Emodeen Heathcote sets two blankets down on the living room floor of her small house in Ghost Town, Makhanda. Brandon, her three-year-old son, toddles into the room carefully, trying not to drop the numerous books locked in his arms. He grins at his mother as he plonks himself down on the blanket next to her and lays the books at her feet. His eyes gleam with excitement as his mother picks up a colourful book without…
Gadra’s pioneering matric school considers expanding to other EC cities writes MOEKETSI MOGALE The Gadra Matric School’s (GMS) lockdown teaching experiences may have opened the way for its expansion into other parts of the Eastern Cape. Gadra Education manager Dr Ashley Westaway said GMS’s online teaching experiments in April and May were “sufficiently positive and interesting for us to think that it might be possible to expand in the future”. Many potential GMS learners from other parts of the province cannot afford a year of rent and other living expenses in Makhanda away from home. “The pandemic has made us,…
By JESS FELDTMAN and LAURA DU TOIT The heat bears down on Sun City as a white car emblazoned with the Lebone Centre’s logo crawls along the rutted, filth-strewn street. Alongside the vehicle traipse three people wearing matching red shirts, hefting cardboard boxes. A rubbish dump forms the precarious foundations of Sun City; tin shacks and crumbling walls provide shade for dust-streaked children and their scrawny dogs. As the car makes its way through the community, faces appear at the windows and curious children gather in their yards. Every couple of metres, the Lebone convoy is called to a halt,…
By CAYLA MANDEAN The 2020 matric class that started exams on 5 November is the largest ever. In a statement this week, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) urged South Africans to rally behind all 1 058 699 candidates. Despite the extraordinary circumstances, the DBE said the Class of 2020 would be examined at the same high standards as in previous years. The exam papers were set by the Department in 2019, and have not been adjusted in any way. The last exam is scheduled for 15 December. The DBE said the education sector had employed resourceful measures, to ensure…