Amazing Recycled Shacks Of Mdantsane! A Photographic Journey Through The Township

 

School Education Going Industrial In South Africa?

Today's article was written by a 2^nd year journalism student of the Walter Sisulu University. Nobesuthu Beya investigates a new clocking system for teachers which has been proposed by the Department of Education. 

Despite government’s good intention, there has been mixed emotions when it comes to the proposed finger clocking system for teachers.
R480 million is to be invested in a proposed biometric clocking system for schools, aimed at curbing teacher absenteeism and bettering the education system in our country. This was announced earlier this year by Education Minister Angie Motshekga at a media briefing.
A recent survey showed that South Africa has the highest teacher absenteeism rate in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), according to the South African Government News Agency.  

       
SADTU Deputy General Secretary Nkosana Dolophi said he did not reject the proposed system
but questioned whether it is a priority given the current state of the education system.

Nozihle Mbokomba, a teacher at Dumisa LP School in Mdanstane, said: “My only wish is that if this system comes to pass it will be implemented at both provincial and national level and that senior officials will also clock in using the same method.”

Learners are often found outside their classrooms during school hours. The proposed new clocking system for teachers might result in less teachers being absent and more learners attending classes.  

According to the World Economic Forum South Africa is among the lowest ranked countries when it comes to the standard of education, due to staff shortages, poor teacher training, lack of educational resources and lack of support for pupils both at home and at school.

Sinovuyo Makhenkane, a former pupil at Msobomvu High School in Chalumna, said: “Surely an investment of R480 million towards skills development would benefit the country better. In grade 11 we did not have an accounting teacher for three months and when he finally arrived most of us failed the subject.”
“The money could be channelled towards scholar transport too, as it is a major problem,” said Nozihle Mbokomba.

Currently teachers clock in by signing a book to record their attendance. But the system has proved to be a failure as it can easily be bypassed, as teachers simply ask their colleagues to sign in for them when they are absent. The biometric clocking system will enable the Department of

Education to collect real-time data.Nkosazana Jamelani (72), a grandmother of six said: “I send my children to school so they can be educated and become leaders one day but if there’s no one teaching them at schools, they won’t get anywhere in life. This system might help in assuring that my kids are guaranteed to get education when they go to school.”Even though this system is still in the pipeline it has been under a lot of scrutiny in the media as many people feel it is a waste of money and it would be attempting to treat only the symptoms and not the core issues that face the education system in our country.
Article and Image by Nobesuthu Beya/Walter Sisulu Univesity

The NOT OUT Driving School - Location Mdantsane

The Not Out Driving School in Mdantsane makes a serious promise

If you try them out you will NOT be out and you wont have to see the Traffic Department a second time!

Merry Christmas And Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays To All Our Readers

The team of The Mdantsane Way Magazine wishes all our readers, young and old, South African and International a wonderful Christmas and Happy Holidays!  Thank you for your support during 2012.

Another Mdantsane Spaza Shop

True, there is the mall now, but spaza shops are and will be an institution!

Mdantsane City Mall - Last Day Of The Month Impressions

Why are we showing pictures of a shopping mall some of our overseas readers might ask?

The Mdantsane City Mall was opened in April 2008.The opening was attended by the then Premier of the Eastern CapeNosimo Balindlela, Executive Mayor Zintle Peter; the chairman of developers Billion Group, Sisa Ngebulana as well as retail managers and local business people.

With 91 shops Mdantsane City is the second biggest mall in the province behind Greenarchers in Port Elizabeth. 

Balindlela said at the opening:

"Mdantsane people will not have to go to East London now, they will have their own mall, and this is thanks to the Billion Group. I urge the people to seize this opportunity and use this mall and be part of its success."

She also thanked the private sector for coming up with an initiative that would help create employment for the township's people.

 "The government cannot succeed without assistance from the private sector and this mall is proof of that. Every citizen of Mdantsane has a place in this mall, and we should all take ownership."

The chairman of the developers Billion group Sisa Ngebulana expressed at the time his happiness that the mall was completed on time so that the people of Mdantsane could use it.

"Before this mall was constructed local people had to go to town to do their shopping; they also went to Vincent Mall, spending around R50 on transport. Now with this mall here, people will be able to shop closer to home," he said. The mall, which is in NU6, was easily accessible as it was on the main road and had a taxi rank inside it. Ngebulana said that before the group decided to build the mall, it had undertaken a lot of research, which had found that Mdantsane residents had considerable buying power.

"The Mdantsane people spend about R650-million annually and we feel that this mall's turnover could be around that figure. I want to urge people to use this mall so that retailers continue investing here."

The mall was expected to create about 1 200 jobs.

And this is how the mall looks like in 2012 at pay day.

Plan for a long wait at the cash machines 

The images are not that great because we had to take them in our secret manner. In South Africa you are not allowed to take pictures in a shopping mall.

This Is Also Mdantsane

Property prices in Mdantsane have sky rocketed over the last five years. Mdantsane is given itself a definite face lift. Property agents like Xoliswa Tini and ASAP have become complete success stories in Town.
" I absolutely love it here", somebody said, " I would always prefer to buy here than in town or in the other suburbs.'

Beautiul Detail in N.U.7

House have become more individual, they have become an expression of their owners taste.

When foreign visitors from other countries are taken to the township for the first time they are often stunned by the uniformity of the houses and the streets. And this is true! Unfortunately in 1994 the government continued to use a very similar cluster lay out for their housing programmes as the Apartheid system did when they built the townships in the first place in the 1960's. For the new government the goal was to construct as many houses as possible in the shortest time for millions of people with no adequate housing.

To implement more elaborate, sustainable and modern housing schemes with integrated parks, play grounds for kids and green areas asks for more thinking and for more reflection, a more thorough thought through planning and demands skilled architects and developers. 

 

Four or five years ago you could buy a standard two or three bedroom house for 30.000 to 50.000 Rand. And apparently ten years ago you could get property in Mdantsane for 10.000 to 20.000 Rand. Today you have to dig deeper in your pocket to buy a house like the one in the picture. It will cost you not less than 180.000 Rand but prices can go up ad high as 300.000 Rand, depending on the area.

But things are changing. There is turn to individualism that can be seen everywhere.

Natural Mosaic Stone Wall in N.U 7

The Daily Necessities Are Hard To Secure

The daily necessities in Mdantsane are still not guaranteed and are hard to get whilst we reach the end of the second decade of South Africa's independance.

The water and sanitation situation is a very challenging one to deal with. The number of households in Mdantsane has grown tremendously over the years and there has been a great influx of people from the rural areas as well.

And with so many additional households, many of them informal, the pressure on the water pumps and water points reaches critical levels. We are talking about public water pumps and water pumps outside the compunds. With low pressure the water becomes difficult to get and sometimes only sparse amounts are already available to each household. Maintenance is another problem.

The water is used for everything from cleaning clothes, cooking, drinking, bathing, and cleaning the house. Having very little water accessible to each section makes it very hard to get enough water for a day per household. There are attempts to improve this situation through modernizing the main water supply system and to add more pumps in each section of the township.

But still many hoseholds do not have water taps in side their house which means " keep a bucket close by" because the water has to be fetched.

As you drive through the streets, not only the streets of  Mdantsane but of every township in South Africa, it is hard not to see the overload of electrical wires strung from the trees leading to the only power box in a section. Hundreds of wires come from one power box because the residents of the area were not given access to the electricity. So illegal and sometimes dangerous connections were set up because people do need electricity. 

Every house in the area has a wire coming out of it and every wire is known by the owner in order to fix problems as soon as they arise. The municipality is tearing down these wire frequently but they are back up the next day.

All this shows us that service delivery has not been the Government's strength

Transport? Let's leave this for another time. If you have to go somewhere you have to walk in many cases and the walk can be a long one.
But still in the face of all those atrocities and poverty, there is so much heartfelt friendliness in Mdantsane.
They are simply THE HEROES OF DAILY LIFE!

My Home Is In N.U 6

"My home is in N.U 6. I want a better house but apart from that I don't wanna go anywhere else. I just want a better house!" 

Sometimes one sentence says enough. It says all there is to say.

When we started publishing the Mdantsane Way as a blog we thought initially of something like a " visual feast". It was not our intention to create a magazine that talks about who stole how much money and which organisations have corrupted government money the most.

Instead we wanted to leave a very strong visual impact for the readers inside and outside of South Africa by publishing images through which they can recognize their township. The Mdantsane Way was created as a site for seeing all the beautiful and interesting places and spots of Mdantsane live online. And our focus is on good and empowering stories.

Our archive has grown so much, that we will not run out of pictures for the next 5 years! And if we continue working as we do, we will achieve our goal of becoming the most extensive online photography documenatary and publication of Mdantsane ever.

What one can take home from these images and the sentence that was so well said by one of the owners in N.U 6 is: there is so much love in Mdantsane! The residents have a whole lot of love for their kazi!

Graffiti is Art - And Art Is Ever Changing in Mdantsane

Graffiti is Art!

The Everchanging Art of Mdantsane!

Art is perishable in Mdantsane

In Mdantsane we find a phenomena, a natural phenomena, that artists in Europe try to achieve intentionally. Perishable art, art that vanishes and art that dissolves or is destroyed again. In the west installations are set up with great effort in public spaces or in nature, only to be taken over by natural forces or to be destroyed deliberately. The process of destruction is watched by many. It is a process, that shows that art is perishable, a creation of the mind and as such it represents the state of the mind at a given point. 

Art is ever changing in Mdantsane

We have come to this place several times, a deserted trading complex in N.U 5 that is merely a ruin now. Each time the graffiti and art on the walls have changed. I can not deny that sometimes this has left me in an emotional state - because I came back to see a certain painting but instead I found another one.

Art is loud.....to be heard

Not a second do we think that these walls have been vandalised. They have been beautified.

Art is Ever Changing in Mdantsane and it is public.

Art is verbal and loud in Mdantsane

Do It Yourself

Women are doing it for themselves! Well not everything, but more things lately!

Seen in N.U 6

Pink Blossom In Mdantsane

 

Spring in Mdantsane comes with a lot of pink.

Here are some pink moments from N.U.6