What It Takes To Develop A Child - In Africa, In South Africa, In A Township In South Africa

One Of South Africa's Beautiful Children

Most educational systems all over the world have come to agree over the years, that to develop a child physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually, the child has to be stimulated, educated and guided constantly and patiently in all the four areas. The guidance has to start as early as possible and no means have to be spared. 

The first five years of a child are the years that leave the strongest impact on the child's development. That is the ideal. And this ideal supposes, that to do this the necessary means are available in each school, preschool and in each creche. Parents and teachers work together for this ideal (in the ideal case). Both parties have at least agreed on the way forward.

In Europe parents will tell you it costs approximately 180.000 Euro counted from the birth of a child until the day the young adult leaves university and is ready to enter the working world and to stand on his own two feet. Given the fact that everything goes well! Sometimes you have to support your kid a little longer.

Europe has its statistics and many people do nowadays base important life decisions on these statistics. Meaning, there is planning and budgeting involved at what point to have children and how many. Most parents want to give the best to their children right from the start. It is a fact that to raise the necessary money for education of your child can be a challenge.

This again accounts for the fact that many women become mothers for the first time after 30 years of age in Europe, at a point when money is available. And then there are mother and child care programs, children's grants etc, etc. So we know it takes a lot to develop a child into a responsible adult in Europe.  

What does it take to develop a child in Africa? In a Township or in a remote rural region? The same?

Job Description Of A Teacher In  Mdantsane: We must know that we are here to develop a child physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually!

Body, mind, spirit and soul make a human being. To help someone develop spiritually and emotionally is probably the most challenging part of the educational process because here values are formed.

We are sharing with you today a look inside a preschool in Mdantsane in NU 1. Like many educational institutions in South Africa this creche has to make do with very little educational material.

If there is less material available to work with the children, teachers have to be more inventive, more creative and they have to improvise a lot more. There are voices in South Africa saying that the South African government is failing the people by not providing the support to the communities in terms of educational material and teachers, that was promised.

School Children in Mdantsane

Is enough invested into the future of South Africa - the youth?

We are asking this question, because although denied by many politicians South Africa is experiencing what is called by the media an educational crisis. 

If school books have not been delivered six months after the school year started and the curriculum could not be followed due to this negligence can it then not be called a crisis? At what level responsibility has to be taken for failure to deliver.

The Music Area

Asking the question again: what is needed in South Africa to develop a child? Is not more effort needed and a more serious attitude from the stakeholders involved in the process?

The most important thing at this point in time is to develop, to invest the maximum into the youth to allow this country to become what it deserves to be. An aggravating factor that we are experiencing is the fact that many young people have lost interest in education and drop out of school.

Handmade drums, material used old tins covered with animal skins!

It is a good thing to recycle!

And still you find so many positive teachers who do an excellent job and come to work every day with passion thinking of ways to teach children if there are no books, no tables, no chairs and no pens.

Future leaders

Some interesting delicious food items!

The classroom

Busy At HI--WAY

Hi-Way scenes during a mid week morning

 

Show Me your Muscles - Ernest Mtandeki - The First Black Mr. South Africa

Today I am taking you back in time. I am taking you back in time 37 years, when a young man with a perfectly sculptured and incredibly beautiful body - the calendar wrote the year 1975 - was posing for a photo at the beautiful and lonely beach of Bonza Bay in East London, South Africa

The young man's name was Ernest. 

Ernest Mtandeki was the first ever black Mr. SOUTH AFRICA in history. The history books were open at Chapter Apartheid in 1975. And here was Ernest.

Not only was he the first black Mr. South Africa, but he was crowned by the god of all bodybuilders in Johannesburg, the then Mr Universe, now governor of California Mr.Arrnold Schwarzenegger. 

Ernest came from the township of Mdantsane.

And he still lives there today in NU 10.

"This was me at my prime", he says, while handing me a black and white photograph in a frame under glass,that he carefully had unwrapped first from several layers of newspaper

 "When I look at it now, I want to cry, he says.  I will never be were I was then. I am here now." 

"The pose is in the picture is for the upper arms only, he explains, but I had wanted my whole body shown, so I can memorize this moment."

I have met Ernest today on his 64th.birthday. He works in a store in Buffalo Street and takes care of the security of the shop. He has brought cake for all the employees and his boss.

It was my intention originally to take the picture out of the frame and to scan it. But when holding the photo I felt it should not be removed. So I just took some pictures of it. 

I suddenly realize that all the ladies from the shop, with olive colored, white colored, caramel colored, and black colored skin (the colors are not cited in any particular order), ranging from age 15 to 69 years and older are bending over the counter, where Ernest has placed the picture.

Most of us are studying intensely the part of his body above his waistline.

There is also the occasional sigh!

" Oh my" says then the mother of the Ernest's boss," if I had seen you that day on the beach, my dear Ernest.....

The story of Ernest Mtandeki will be our first short movie on The Mdantsane Tales on YouTube. If you interested what he has to tell us, stay tuned. 

Looking Back, The Transkei Elections 1963

It is estimated that more than 50 % of  the inhabitants of the Mdantsane township today are under the age of 18 years.

The images shown here were taken 48 years ago in 1963 during the Transkei elections. The Transkei was the first of the ' Bantustans States " set aside for Africans by the South African Apartheid Government. The Bantustan were supposedly self-governing but they were in reality controlled by Whites.

Waiting To Vote

Transkei women dressed in the traditional Xhosa costume are waiting outside a polling station during the Transkei Elections in 1963. More than two thirds of the Transkei electorate voted, despite Apartheid Government restrictions at the time on political rallies and meetings.  

Showing The Passbooks

African votes register for the Transkei elections in 1963.

(Pictures are from Time Life Library, South Africa, 1963)

Eyona Nto Siyifunayo Luthando - All We Need Is Love

You might have found out already that this is not Mdantsane but one of our breath-taking beaches surrounding Buffalo City.

The opening words of the Freedom Charter became widely known in South Africa’s political discourse: 

“We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.” 

The Charter was adopted by 3000 delegates at the Congress of the People in Kliptown near Johannesburg on June 26, 1955. It was the result of a year long political discussion throughout the country. 

The Freedom Charta formulated not only basic demands for human and political rights but it also described the kind of society that was envisioned to replace the old apartheid system, including ideals such as sharing the wealth of the country and adequate housing, education, and healthcare for all. 
Only in 1994 South-Africa became a free country. 

What it really meant is shown in these wonderful pictures. 56 years later in today's South Africa anyone can go to any place at any time with whomever he or she desires.  

You might wish to be in their place right now but there are moments when it is your time and there are moments when you should just watch and admire.

Dear readers, you have been so extremely supportive of our magazine and our Facebook page that we just wish to thank you and let you go into your weekend with some beautiful, warm, soft and gentle pictures.

THE BIRTH OF A TOWNSHIP

"They tell us 400.000 people live here. But we don't believe it. Because if you drive through this place it feels like as if there is a million. And the place is getting bigger.

We know that we are the second largest township in South-Africa, Soweto is first, but still not much has been said about us. But with the arrival of the big shopping mall we are up-grading now. "

Mdantsane was established in 1962 under the framework of the Apartheid Regime and it's purpose was to provide living space for cheap African labor coming from East London but also from rural areas. 

The first inhabitants that were living in Mdantsane were residents that had been removed by force from an area in East London called the East Bank.

According to old documents several hundred low cost houses were built on the outskirts of the Eastern Suburbs of East London at that time to accommodate them.

In the years from 1964 to 1970 further forced resettlements took place and thousands of families became inhabitants of Mdantsane that was growing rapidly into a big township developing it's own character and life style.

The Department of Bantu Education and Development under the Apartheid Regime saw Mdantsane as a sort of labor reserve for the labor needs of East London.  

It remained an isolated artificial construction during the Apartheid time that never integrated into the white urban areas.

In 2008 the Mdantsane City Mall one of the biggest malls in the Eastern Cape has opened it's door and has changes the face of the town. A great step was made assissting Mdantsane to become a self -contained suburb with its own entertainment facilities and amenities.