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My stepdad helped me through it all!


Sa News
MY STEPDAD HELPED ME THROUGH IT ALL!
Ahmed January 8, 2020 No Comments

HIS stepdad was the wind beneath his wings.

Siyamthanda Prusent (17) from Bhukulani Secondary in Zondi, Soweto, said his stepfather stood by him and helped him achieve the seven distinctions out of seven subjects.

“He helped me with my schoolwork. My mum, who is a domestic worker, also helped and encouraged me.”
“I walked to school to study to avoid the noise,” he said.

He said the road to success was not an easy.

The noisy neighbours and load shedding didn’t help either.

Siyamthanda got distinctions in maths, physical science, life science, life orientation, Zulu, English and geography.

He said extra classes also helped a lot.

“I was one of many matric pupils who attended extra classes in the morning, afternoon and even over the weekends, said Siyamthanda.

“I was fortunate because Bhukulani School was not that far from my home which made things easy for me. I was always on time for school and I was never absent.”

He wants to study a degree in Actuarial Science.

He says he chose the degree because he loves the challenge.

“There aren’t many actuarial scientists in the country,” he said.

He said he has applied for admission at the University of Johannesburg, the University of Pretoria, Wits University and the University of Western Cape but he prefer the ones next to his home in Zondi, Soweto.

He said: “My parents can’t afford to pay for my studies so I have applied for financial assistance. That’s one of the reasons why I worked so hard to qualify for university entrance.”

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Festive season of grief for North West family: body of girl, 15, found dumped in veld

Fifteen-year-old Zanele Biyo's body was found dumped in the veld on Sunday.

he man accused of killing her was out on bail after he was arrested and charged with kidnapping Zanele and her friend, and keeping them in his house in Rustenburg, North West, from December 20 to 24, where he allegedly raped them.

He was arrested shortly after the incident, charged with two counts of rape and released on bail.

The man was arrested again on January 2 for Zanele’s murder, after she went missing on December 31.

Her body was found dumped in the veld on Sunday.

The 40-year-old, who cannot be named because he has not yet pleaded, appeared in the Bafokeng magistrate’s court on Tuesday on charges of murder and kidnapping.

His matter was postponed to March 2 for further investigations.

The girl’s mother, Evelyn Biyo, said she regretted allowing her daughter to leave home on New Year’s Eve.

“I told her not to go because she knew that she was kidnapped on December 20 and we found her only on Christmas Eve. So I was not comfortable with her leaving, but I also knew that it would not be fair to deprive her of a little bit of fun because she was going through trauma,” Biyo said.

She said her anxiety was compounded when she could not reach her daughter on her cellphone and when she failed to return home on January 1.

“I went to the police station and told them that Zanele was missing again,” Biyo said.

The suspect was arrested a few days later.

“I was heartbroken because I knew I should not have allowed her to leave the house,” said the mother.

.”

She described her daughter as a fun-loving but easily distracted person.

“I don’t want to lie, my daughter liked having fun. Often she neglected her studies because of that and did not perform well. She was meant to start grade 10 next week, but now she’s gone,” she said.

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Blackouts expected on Wednesday as Eskom burns emergency fuel supplies

Eskom foresees a high likelihood of stage 2 load-shedding on Wednesday night.

There is a “high likelihood” of load-shedding on Wednesday night, Eskom said, after enforced power cuts overnight on Tuesday.

Electricity was restored at 6am after stage 2 load-shedding was imposed from 1am.

Stage 2 load-shedding was anticipated again, as Eskom said it needed to replenish water resources for its pumped storage schemes and minimise the use of diesel at open-cycle gas turbines.

The power utility said it was now using emergency resources, including diesel, to meet demand today.

“The power system remains vulnerable. In the event that we lose other generation units or are unable to bring back those that were out for maintenance, load-shedding may be implemented earlier in the day,” Eskom said.

Plant breakdowns (UCLF) were at 13,471 MW as at 6am Wednesday, said Eskom.

“Our technical teams continue to monitor the situation, carry out planned maintenance and to work at reducing unplanned outages or breakdowns in order to enable us to minimise the possibility of loadshedding.

“We ask customers to reduce demand by using electricity sparingly as a concerted collective effort can help to avoid or reduce the level of loadshedding.”

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More bachelor passes from no-fee schools as government improves access, resources for the poor

The provision of more scholar transport is one of the government interventions that is changing the fortunes of no-fee schools.

The provision of more scholar transport is one of the government interventions that is changing the fortunes of no-fee schools. 
Image: Sowetan/Veli Nhlapo

The improvement in the pass rate of “no-fee” schools in the matric exams is an encouraging development for the country as it seeks to provide educational opportunities to a large proportion of pupils.

Education minister Angie Motshekga made this remark on Tuesday evening as she announced the record matric pass rate of 81.3% for 2019.

Motshekga said of the pupils who attained the National Senior Certificate (NSC), pupils from quintile 1 to 3 schools (where no fees are paid by pupils) attained 248,960 NSC passes in 2019, compared to 141,475 pupils from “fee-paying” schools.

She also said 96,976 of pupils from “no-fee” schools obtained a bachelors pass, compared with 78,037 passes obtained by pupils from “fee-paying” schools. She said the 96,976 bachelor passes for pupils from no-fee schools was a 14.4% improvement on 2018.

Motshekga said the policy to abolish fees at the poorest schools across the country had attracted poor, orphaned and disabled children to schools.

She said the increase in the percentage of pupils who attained bachelor degree passes from quintile 1 to 3 schools was a marked improvement from 2005, when 60% of the bachelor passes came from the best-performing 20% of the country’s schools.

The provision of more scholar transport is one of the government interventions that is changing the fortunes of no-fee schools. 
Image: Sowetan/Veli Nhlapo

The improvement in the pass rate of “no-fee” schools in the matric exams is an encouraging development for the country as it seeks to provide educational opportunities to a large proportion of pupils.

Education minister Angie Motshekga made this remark on Tuesday evening as she announced the record matric pass rate of 81.3% for 2019.

Motshekga said of the pupils who attained the National Senior Certificate (NSC), pupils from quintile 1 to 3 schools (where no fees are paid by pupils) attained 248,960 NSC passes in 2019, compared to 141,475 pupils from “fee-paying” schools.

She also said 96,976 of pupils from “no-fee” schools obtained a bachelors pass, compared with 78,037 passes obtained by pupils from “fee-paying” schools. She said the 96,976 bachelor passes for pupils from no-fee schools was a 14.4% improvement on 2018.

Motshekga said the policy to abolish fees at the poorest schools across the country had attracted poor, orphaned and disabled children to schools.

She said the increase in the percentage of pupils who attained bachelor degree passes from quintile 1 to 3 schools was a marked improvement from 2005, when 60% of the bachelor passes came from the best-performing 20% of the country’s schools.

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Anti-African sentiment persists in ‘proudly South African’ society

Only about half of those surveyed in the 2019 Barometer report say they have experienced reconciliation or believe that SA has made progress with reconciliation. Despite that, there is a strong sentiment of patriotism.

Only about half of those surveyed in the 2019 Barometer report say they have experienced reconciliation or believe that SA has made progress with reconciliation. Despite that, there is a strong sentiment of patriotism.
Image: Sandile Ndlovu
South Africans are patriotic but afraid – showing distrust towards each other as violent crime endures, and towards other Africans.

This is according to the SA Reconciliation Barometer 2019, released by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR).

“Xenophobic sentiments are pervasive, with roughly four in 10 South Africans agreeing that they are likely to prevent people from other African countries from accessing certain services and from participating in certain activities,” the report stated.

“Debunking myths that xenophobic attitudes are present primarily among poor people and those with limited formal education, further investigation of the barometer’s data shows a greater extent of xenophobic sentiment among educated groups in comparison with groups with limited formal education, and a greater extent of xenophobic attitudes among higher socio-economic measures (SEM) groups in comparison with lower SEM groups.

“In addition, younger age groups also show a greater extent of xenophobic beliefs in comparison with older age groups.”

Perceptions of safety and violence also affect the way South Africans interact with each other.

“Crime, coupled with limited capacity to prosecute perpetrators, has implications for citizens and their lived and perceived levels of safety – affecting the fibre of South African society,” the report said.

The degree of access to tangible and intangible social goods is also affecting social cohesion and reconciliation processes. The barometer shows that 48% of South Africans are dissatisfied with their self-perceived economic power and 44% feel the same way about their self-perceived political power, “indicating a sense of disempowerment for almost half of the South African population”.

Despite this, most South Africans want unity and think it is possible, with this year showing the greatest optimism in this area since the inception of the barometer in 2013. And a vast majority of those surveyed are proudly South African, with 81.6% agreeing that they want their children to think of themselves as South African.

“These findings bode well for building cohesion among South Africans. However, challenges to these hopes persist in the form of historical confrontation – such as with regard to whether the old South African flag should be banned – and pervasive sources of division such as inequality and differences between people from different race groups and political parties,” the report said.

The barometer shows that most South Africans agree that reconciliation is a problem as long as:

  • corruption continues;
  • political parties sow division;
  • those who were affected by apartheid continue to be poor;
  • gender-based violence continues;
  • racial categories are used to measure transformation; and
  • racism remains unaddressed in society.

Said the IJR: “There are many aspects of society that can be improved on in the eyes of ordinary South Africans in order to support the reconciliation process, with the involvement of various stakeholders being harnessed.” These, it said, could “present different entry points in contributing to reconciliation processes”.