By Hannah Green and Serena Hawkey
“His mom sold drugs and abused him. Some nights he slept outside. But after seeing the Zip Zap Circus School performing in Khayelitsha, something told Aviwe Mfundisi to travel the 30km to central Cape Town and apply to join…”
Read more about Aviwe’s story at select.Timeslive.co.za.
By Hannah Green
Continue reading at select.Timeslive.co.za.
Image: The skull of a gorgonopsian, a distant mammal relative and top predator during its pre-dinosaur era about 255 million years ago. This fossil was collected in 2009 in Zambia. Credit
By: Madeline Harvey
Southern Africa was one great big Triassic park.
A 10-year project involving 27 scientists, 2,200 fossils and multiple expeditions to southern Africa has produced a treasure trove of information about the life of dinosaurs in the Triassic period.
Read more about their findings at Select.timeslive.co.za.
By Hannah Green
Researchers at the University of Johannesburg may have come up with a silver bullet for certain cancers.
Laboratory tests suggest a newly discovered family of silver-based anti-cancer drugs could provide smaller dosages‚ lower toxicity and fewer adverse side-effects.
Read more about their discovery at Timeslive.co.za.
MAIN IMAGE: The rolling hills of rural KwaZulu Natal seen from the national road. The debate over ownership of land is heating up in South Africa. Photo by Serena Hawkey.
South African media were today reporting on tension between opposition leader Julius Malema and Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini over Malema’s call for expropriation of land without compensation. Zwelithini has warned that his warriors are ready to defend the three million hectares of rural land controlled by the Ingonyama Trust, which he heads. The trust was established in 1994 and placed control of tribal lands in KwaZulu Natal under the king.
Today the Sunday Times reported that Malema accused Zwelithini of “intimidating” those who were calling for expropriation of land without compensation.
The news outlet said Malema told a press conference on Thursday, “There are no holy cows in this country. We must debate issues openly‚ including disagreeing with the Zulu king. The Zulu king must call for engagement with regards to the land. He must be respected‚ he must not be feared. I don’t fear anyone‚ no one. I only fear God.”
See reports on News24 and Sunday Times below.
Read more at Sunday Times or News24
School of International Training (SIT) students speak with a volunteer at the Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Centre. The Centre provides support and services to the LGBTQ community around Durban and promotes equal rights for all. For more information on the Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Centre, visit their website.
-Jackie Flynn
MAIN IMAGE: Portrait of Ela Gandhi taken by SIT student Serena Hawkey.
“He read the Quran, the Bible, all the scriptures so he could learn. These scriptures made him realize that there is something more to life. It’s about being more responsible, about the fact that everyone deserves to enjoy social justice,” Ela Gandhi reflects.
The man she refers to is her grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most well-known historical figures around the globe. Known for his peaceful approach to conflict resolution, he showed mankind a new and nonviolent approach to political movements.
He was also an inspiration for his family, many of whom who have followed in his footsteps. Ela Gandhi has taken on political activism in her own life, previously serving as an ANC member of Parliament in the first democratic government and currently serving as a chairperson of the Gandhi Development Trust.
Speaking to a group of SIT students this week she said,“Contrary to what a lot of people believe —that he didn’t have a close relationship with his family — he was a very warm family member. He wrote letters to me up until the day he was assassinated — a seven-year-old. He felt it was important.”
Though Gandhi is widely known for his leadership in the fight for Indian independence from the British, he also had an influential impact in South Africa. He lived in the country for 21 years and had some of his first encounters with racism in Durban.
In 1893, Gandhi arrived in Durban to work as legal counsel for an Indian business firm. On a train ride from Durban to Pretoria, he was asked to move to a third-class car as Indian people were not allowed in first-class carriages. Gandhi had purchased a first-class ticket and refused. At the Pietermaritzburg station he was forcibly removed from the train.
Later on, while Gandhi was visiting a courthouse in Durban, he was asked by the local magistrate to remove his turban. Gandhi refused and walked out of the courtroom.
These events, along with growing legislative discrimination against non-white communities in the country, fuelled Gandhi’s involvement in South African social liberation movements. It also motivated the entire Gandhi family to speak for marginalised people.
Ela Gandhi, who is a social worker by training, was banned and subjected to house arrest for nine years by the Apartheid government. She remains passionate about the fight against inequality and non-violence.
Read more about Ela Gandhi and her work here Ela Gandhi Bio
A visit to the Luthili Museum prompts a reflection on the history of the African National Congress (ANC) by preserving
the legacy of its ninth president, Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli. Chief Luthuli served as the ANC President from 1952-1967 and is celebrated for his commitment to opposing white minority rule in South Africa through peaceful means and organised resistance.
The museum was built on the grounds of Chief Luthuli’s original home in Groutville, KwaZulu-Natal. It first opened its doors in 2004 and is funded by the Department of Arts and Culture. The original structure of the house has been preserved and just down the road lies the church where Chief Luthuli’s gravesite lies.
In 1936, Luthuli, who had been working as a teacher, was elected chief of a Zulu tribe in Groutville. In 1945, he joined the ANC, just three years before the National Party came into power and began to implement the disenfranchisement policies for which it would become notorious. Chief Luthuli motivated the party to pursue peaceful means of resistance. When he was elected ANC president in 1952, the National Party government refused to allow him to hold both the presidency and the title of chief. Though the government revoked his chieftainship, the community resisted and continued to view him as their leader.
During most of the time that Chief Luthuli served as ANC president, he was banned by the government from leaving the Groutville district under the Suppression of Communism Act. Even 
Chief Luthuli died in 1967 while he was still serving as ANC president. Though the formal report on his death states that he was hit by a train near his home, both the autopsy of the body and context of his death suggest that story to be unlikely. There continue to be calls to re-examine his cause of death as many believe that it was a planned attack by the Apartheid government.
Today, Chief Luthuli is regarded as one of the key contributors to South African democracy. He advocated for a bill of rights and believed a constitutional court would uphold the ideals of the nation. Though he died before either were realised, his work paved the way for the ANC leaders who succeeded him. Today, the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg bears the name of Luthuli House in his honour.
School for International Training (SIT) students tour the Luthuli Museum. Located in Groutville, in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, the museum captures Chief Albert Luthuli’s life, from his birth in Zimbabwe to South African parents, his role as a chief in Groutville, his ANC activism and presidency, and his death in 1967. Luthuli was the first African to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and his call for nonviolent protest to achieve progress still resonates in South Africa today: “May the day come soon, when the people of the world will rouse themselves, and together effectively stamp out any threat to peace in whatever quarter of the world it may be found. When that day comes, there shall be ‘peace on earth and goodwill amongst men’, as was announced by the Angels when that great messenger of peace, Our Lord came to earth.”
— Hannah Green
Everaldo Matonse at work in his studio at the BAT Centre, an arts collaboration and community space in downtown Durban. Matonse grew up in Maputo, Mozambique and came to Durban in 2003 to chase his dream of being an artist. He has worked from his studio in the BAT Centre since 2006 where he makes intricate wood prints inspired by the culture that he was raised in.
