Help Table View Primary School choir sing their way to national competition in Pretoria
More than 110 young voices, aged 9 to 13 from the Table View Primary School senior choir have a rare opportunity to compete in the prestigious ATKV Applous Choir Competition National Finals in Pretoria in July, and need your help.
THE Table View Primary School has launched a fundraising campaign for more than 100 members of its senior choir to compete in the prestigious ATKV Applous Choir Competition National Finals in Pretoria.
Hailing from Cape Town, the choir is made up of more than 110 young voices, aged 9 to 13, representing different cultures and communities.
'We are proud to be one of the most multicultural school choirs in the region, singing in English, Afrikaans, Sesotho and isiXhosa—a true reflection of South Africa's rich diversity. Last year, we competed in the Merit Category and placed first at the National Finals in Cape Town. This year, we took a bold step forward by entering the Prestige Section, and against all odds, we have once again been invited to the National Finals in Pretoria,' said the school.
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The Citizen
3 hours ago
- The Citizen
Through war and worship: A church's 135-year story
In the seventh edition of Echoes of Krugersdorp, the Krugersdorp News explores the history of the town's oldest surviving church. Recently, the News, together with the Krugersdorp Heritage Association (KHA), revisited some of the past events and remarkable buildings that hold deep historical significance in our town. • Also read: A burning passion: The story of Krugersdorp's fire station KHA co-founder Jaco Mattheyse explained that before 1890, members of the Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk) in the Krugersdorp area were served by the Pretoria congregation. However, with the establishment of Krugersdorp during the early days of the Witwatersrand gold rush, a local congregation became a necessity. 'The first congregation gathering took place on 18 November 1889 in the home of M.P.W. Pretorius, owner of the farm Paardekraal, on which Krugersdorp was established. At the time, Pretorius lived on the corner of President and Kruger Streets. The Krugersdorp congregation was officially founded on 7 June 1890. Shortly afterwards, proponent H.C.J. Becker was confirmed as its first minister on 6 September 1890, marking the beginning of a new era of spiritual life and community building in the young mining town,' he said. Mattheyse noted that the church initially ran a school in the same space where services were held, and a manse (pastorie) was built in Ockerse Street in 1891. Eventually, funds were raised for a dedicated church building, and the cornerstone was laid by Rev. Becker on 7 April 1894. The building stood on a block bounded by Rissik, Ockerse, Church, and Joubert Streets, on stands granted by the Transvaal Government under President Paul Kruger. The church was consecrated in January 1895. Among the deacons was T.J. Bedford, who later served as Market Master. The church's opening was a major event, attended by 158 wagons, along with horsemen and cart proprietors. 'The open land between Kobie Krige Street and Bob van Reenen Stadium served as a church square for Boer congregation members arriving by wagon for Nagmaal Naweek. These four weekends per year were used for ceremonies such as confirmations, baptisms and communion,' Jaco explained. 'Built in the Norman-Gothic style, the church cost £6,000. While English-speaking miners may have admired the structure, it also highlighted a cultural and linguistic divide. The sight of hundreds of Dutch-speaking white families gathering at the imposing Dutch Reformed Church echoed what historian Roy Rappaport called 'redundancy' – the repetition of built messages to reinforce shared values and identity. The planned clock was never installed, and the bells were temporarily housed in a wooden structure nearby. The church also hosted the funeral of the burgers (citizens and soldiers) of the South African Republic who died during the Jameson Raid. They are buried in the old Burgershoop Cemetery,' he continued. Becker was succeeded by Rev. F.G.T. Radloff from Hoopstad, installed on 17 December 1898. His ministry coincided with the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), a difficult period marked by civilian suffering, British-run concentration camps, and Boer prisoners of war. Rev. Radloff and his wife distinguished themselves through their compassion and service, ministering to the spiritual and physical needs of women and children in concentration camps and prisoners of war. Under his leadership, a relief committee was formed, a lasting testament to the church's mission during times of crisis. Radloff retired on 11 October 1914 and was succeeded by Rev. P.J. van Vuuren (1915–1921), whose tenure was noted for strong financial management that eliminated the congregation's significant debt. 'The next minister, Rev. Jacobus Joubert Krige – brother of Mrs 'Ouma' Issie Smuts, wife of Jan Smuts – was installed on 21 April 1922. He served faithfully for 14 years until his sudden passing from a stroke on 29 October 1936 at Paardekraal Hospital. Dingaan Street, leading to the current President Hyper, was renamed Kobie Krige Street in his honour, and a memorial was erected on the church grounds,' Jaco said. In November 1937, Rev. Archibald Thomas Martinson took over. Under his leadership, the church grew alongside the town's expanding population and the development of the West Rand. Several daughter congregations were established: • Roodepoort – 1905 • Magaliesburg – 1910 • Randpoort (later Randgate) – 1918 • Burgershoop (later Krugersdorp-West, and eventually Suiderlig) – 1920 • Krugersdorp-Noord – 1943 'The appointment of Rev. C.C. van Dyk as the first co-minister on 29 November 1941 was another milestone. He later became the first minister of the newly formed Krugersdorp-Noord congregation in 1944. During this time, the Krugersdorp congregation remained at the forefront of Christian outreach, education, and social services. Thanks to ministers like Rev. Martinson, the congregation contributed significantly to mission work, poverty relief, Sunday schools, church associations and Christian education,' he said. By 1952, the mother congregation had around 1,350 members, led by a church council of 56 elders and deacons. In October 1951, Prop. T.J. Hanekom was appointed co-minister, followed by others such as P.W. Marais (1954–1955) and Pieter Willem Marais (1962–1964). Mattheyse added that the church underwent extensive renovations between 1960 and 1961. The corrugated iron roof was replaced with slate, the tower was modified for structural stability, resulting in the removal of the original Victorian cast-iron weather vane, and the interior was updated with new ceilings beneath the hammer beam trusses and a full repaint. The original organ loft above the pulpit remains visible today. 'In the 1950s and 1960s, the church used a house near the corner of Kruger and Luipaard Streets as a manse. Like many inner-city congregations, Krugersdorp saw a decline in membership during the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st, due to urban migration, demographic shifts and changing community dynamics. In 2010, the congregation merged with the neighbouring Luipaardsvlei congregation, marking the end of a significant chapter in local church history. Today, the church hall serves the Krugersdorp community as the Tower of Life, a shelter for the homeless,' Jaco concluded. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading! Stay in the know. Download the Caxton Local News Network App Stay in the know. Download the Caxton Local News Network App here
Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Daily Maverick
We should forgive but never forget: Afrikaans was the language of the oppressor — and the language of resistance
In the latest broadcast of Die Stories van Afrikaans on KykNet (Sundays at 20:00), I mentioned that Afrikaans was made ' een vir Azazel' (One for Azazel). I received a number of enquiries about this. The metaphor is borrowed from Etienne Leroux 's book Een vir Azazel (1964), a complex and symbolic novel. The title refers to the Jewish scapegoat, which appears in the Bible, Leviticus 16. Moses asks his brother Aaron to bring him two goat rams. The one is 'for the Lord', and 'one for Azazel'. The ram for the Lord was a sin offering. On the one for Azazel, Aaron had to perform the atonement ritual with the laying on of hands. Thus, the sins of the Israelites were transferred to the scapegoat, which would be set free into the wilderness to Azazel. In Le Roux's book, the character Adam Kadmon Silberstein then questions the truth, and in his search for enlightenment and answers, he experiences an emotional breakdown. This was one of many works that I studied at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) under Prof Jakes Gerwel in the late 1970s. Other books such as Die Swerfjare van Poppie Nongena (Elsa Joubert), the novels of André P Brink and Karel Schoeman, the dramas of Chris Barnard and Adam Small as well as the poetry of Small, DJ Opperman, Lina Spies, NP van Wyk Louw and Breyten Breytenbach were the reason that many students changed their courses in order to listen to Gerwel. At that stage, UWC's Department of Afrikaans and Dutch was the biggest in South Africa, though some students and politicians demanded that Afrikaans be banned. Many students, including myself, were in matric when Soweto exploded in 1976. Across the country, black students revolted because Afrikaans had been forced upon them. UWC students were torn in two: they struggled with their love of Afrikaans, while the wounds of 1976 were still fresh in their memories. How do you reconcile Poppie Nongena's love for the language she learnt at her mother's knee with the pain she experienced when she begged unsympathetic (Afrikaans) officials for an extension of her pass? How could she make sense of her passion for Afrikaans while her son was rebelling against the 'language of the oppressor'? Language of resistance It was Jakes Gerwel who brought perspective. He encouraged us to continue to speak Afrikaans, to write it, to make poetry, to sing and to resist in it against policies which wanted to make of you a lesser person. The language of the oppressor became the language of resistance. The time to talk had passed. The students proceeded to take action. It was in this time that the slogan ' Hek toe! Hek toe!' was coined ('to the gate'). At the campus gate the students shouted out their rejection of apartheid laws on placards at passersby: the laws which drove people from their homes; the Mixed Marriages Act; the laws of Bantu and Coloured Education which prescribed where you could work and study; the law preventing you from wearing the Springbok blazer; the law which expelled us from the beaches. Afrikaans was the language in which Poppie rebelled against the pass laws. It was the language in which Adam Small expressed the pain of the Cape Flats, where people struggled to survive in the midst of gang violence. Thus, Cape Afrikaans became a language of literature. One for Azazel That the slogan 'hek toe!' was in Afrikaans proved that the students did not have a problem with Afrikaans per se. They actually had a problem with the apartheid laws – in the words of Small, it was ' de lô, de lô , de lô'. Afrikaans could never be the reason for riots; perhaps only as the last straw that broke the camel's back. Yes, to force Afrikaans on black learners was foolish. It was the spark in the powder keg which made Afrikaans the scapegoat, the One for Azazel, on which the blame for apartheid's sins was laid. In the book Ons kom van vêr (Le Cordeur & Carstens), the former UWC lecturer and MK soldier Basil Kivedo spoke of his involvement in the Struggle: 'When the Soweto youth revolted against Afrikaans on 16 June 1976, I protested with them in solidarity in the same Afrikaans that they called the 'language of the oppressor'. Did it make me an oppressor? NO! I carried out my student politics in Afrikaans. I was arrested by the Security Police in Afrikaans. My defence was in Afrikaans. I was tortured in Afrikaans, but I fought back in Afrikaans.' In the same book, the late Danny Titus writes: 'Although Afrikaans was the language of the 'oppressor' who was linked to Afrikaner nationalism, we had to find a way to reflect the other side of Afrikaans; a more comprehensive history of the rich diversity of Afrikaans, but also the neglected history of the black and brown speakers of Afrikaans who still did not obtain their rightful place in the general discourse and media.' And as we began opening up the space for a variety of Afrikaans identities (as Small had taught us), more and more coloured and black people came forward as it dawned on them that you can achieve your dreams in Afrikaans. June 16 By the time I reached UWC, the riots of 1976 had abated, but every year June 16 was commemorated. Hein Willemse, the late Cecil Esau, myself and others involved in the literary association Litsoc published a journal titled Grondstof. The Grondstof poets wrote mostly about the themes of social and political realism, which were recited in the cafeteria (the kêf) on June 16. My first poem, Pik en Graaf, was published in it. It is a poem about poverty-stricken parents trying to earn a future for their children with pick and shovel. Other students launched the drama association Dramasoc under the leadership of Adam Small. On June 16, the group performed the works of Small (eg Kanna) in the kêf, which by then had become the heart of the UWC struggle. The commemoration of June 16 with Afrikaans literature continued. The government had no choice but to declare this day a public holiday. Language of reconciliation It is now four decades later (three of them as a democracy). In spite of Article 9 institutions such as Pansat that could develop Youth Day into a unifying nation-building project, Youth Day today is just another day to braai; just another reason for a long weekend. The youth today know little of the history of the youth who, 49 years ago on this day, propelled South Africa on a new route to democracy, of which we all pick the fruit today. These days, Youth Day is seldom celebrated properly. What can we do to get relief and answers? We can all help to create peace in our violent country. We can begin by forgiving one another, as I did long ago. But do not, however, expect me to forget. Actually, we should never forget. But we may hope. How I hoped that Youth Day was not watered down to a political gathering. How I hoped that the youth would take the lead, like we did 49 years ago. And how I hoped that the President in his speech would have condemned the singing of the song, Kill the boer, Kill the farmer, as a crime against South Africa and its people. And how I hoped that the President would recite Ingrid Jonker's poem, Die Kind (The Child), to the nation, as Nelson Mandela did on 24 May 1994, because on that day Madiba changed the stigma of Afrikaans as language of the oppressor irrevocably to the language of reconciliation. We cannot wish the past away, but we can leave a better South Africa to our children by singing together, working together, building together and celebrating June 16 together. It is time to stop laying our guilt on a scapegoat.
IOL News
3 days ago
- IOL News
Help Table View Primary School choir sing their way to national competition in Pretoria
More than 110 young voices, aged 9 to 13 from the Table View Primary School senior choir have a rare opportunity to compete in the prestigious ATKV Applous Choir Competition National Finals in Pretoria in July, and need your help. THE Table View Primary School has launched a fundraising campaign for more than 100 members of its senior choir to compete in the prestigious ATKV Applous Choir Competition National Finals in Pretoria. Hailing from Cape Town, the choir is made up of more than 110 young voices, aged 9 to 13, representing different cultures and communities. 'We are proud to be one of the most multicultural school choirs in the region, singing in English, Afrikaans, Sesotho and isiXhosa—a true reflection of South Africa's rich diversity. Last year, we competed in the Merit Category and placed first at the National Finals in Cape Town. This year, we took a bold step forward by entering the Prestige Section, and against all odds, we have once again been invited to the National Finals in Pretoria,' said the school.
