The Herald Isuzu Schools Quiz 2025
'The Herald Isuzu Schools Quiz provides an ideal platform for the youth to exercise critical life skills such as general knowledge and an understanding of current affairs — key to preparing them for the future.'
- Nandi Matomela, Isuzu Motors SA's senior manager: brand strategy and field marketing
Theodor Herzl High School came out of nowhere to claim the 2025 Herald Isuzu Schools Quiz title at the weekend.
By Herald Reporter
Pupils from schools across Nelson Mandela Bay and Kouga stepped up their game at the weekend as they competed for a ...
By Herald Reporter
The fifth annual The Herald Isuzu Schools Quiz got off to an exhilarating start with more than 50 Nelson Mandela Bay ...
By Herald Reporter
'The Herald Isuzu Schools Quiz is our small way to boost knowledge and contribute to the advancement of education in this region.'
- Bongani Siqoko, coastal chief commercial officer of Arena Holdings, publishers of The Herald
There is less than a week left for high school pupils from the Bay and Kouga municipal districts to enter the 2025 The ...
By Herald Reporter
Which high school will take the coveted title of The Herald Isuzu Schools Quiz 2025 winners?
By Herald Reporter
Preparations are ramping up for The Herald Isuzu Schools Quiz, with an impressive haul of prizes all the more reason ...
By Herald Reporter
One of Nelson Mandela Bay's most popular educational events is back for another year to enable pupils to experience the ...
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Mail & Guardian
2 days ago
- Mail & Guardian
Walter Oltmann and the alchemy of wire
What does it mean to truly take your time? Artist shows us through a devotion to detail that transforms everyday materials into meditations on life, loss and transformation Stepping into Walter Oltmann's living room feels less like entering a domestic space than crossing the threshold into a quiet laboratory of time. Not the cold precision of a scientist's lab but something closer to an alchemist's den — where patience is transmuted into art and wire becomes the language of memory. Navigating between clusters of coiled metal strewn across the floor, I pass a man attending to the house's electricity, who gestures towards Oltmann and says, in jest, 'All he does is sit in front of the TV, watching the news, working that wire.' And indeed, there he sits — Oltmann, with fingertips hardened in silver residue — at ease, entangled in a kind of temporal ritual. Around him, wire sprawls like quiet potential yet, along the walls hang the finished testaments to this devotion — intricate works wrought from stillness, and on a small table, a copy of his monograph In Time. In this modest Kensington, Joburg living room, time itself seems to coil, loop and settle — proof that something enduring will emerge from meditative modes of making. Scrutinising an artist's practice has a lot to do with understanding their origins. 'I grew up in Nongoma and studied fine art in Pietermaritzburg. 'We had a very dynamic fine art department in Pietermaritzburg. I had a good general grounding course — learning a range of disciplines and techniques. But, already in my second year, my lecturers saw that I had a particular feeling for sculpture. So that's where it began. 'I had a lecturer, Willem Strydom, who worked mostly in metal and stone. He had trained in Britain, and I was impressed with the way he worked,' he says. Oltmann would later follow Strydom to Wits to pursue his master's degree. It was there that his practice began to shift — he recalls trips to scrapyards alongside Strydom, who sourced materials for his metal robust sculptures. Oltmann, constrained by cost, gravitated instead toward wire, a material that was not only affordable but forgiving. 'A piece of wire goes a long way,' he says with a slight grin. His first explorations with wire as a pliable medium for sculpture began in response to wire gabion structures encountered in the industrial Johannesburg terrain. From adapting such gabion forms in his student works, he has gone on to explore his medium of wire more directly to arrive at forms that often express softness and stillness, perhaps aptly so, as he comments: 'I work silently, alone.' Like many dedicated artists, Oltmann went on to become a lecturer. 'I spent many years, from 1989 to 2016, teaching at Wits.' Held in major collections such as the Iziko South African National Gallery, the Norval Foundation and the Seattle Art Museum in the US, his intricate, time-saturated sculptures remain anchored by wire, speaking to a lifelong engagement with this deceptively modest material. Walter Oltmann's 2020 work Spread is made from aluminium wire. 'Of course, I look a lot online, I look a lot in books and so on, and that becomes influential in what I do. 'I became interested in wire as a material in Africa and did some research during one of my sabbaticals. I discovered it was an incredible medium close to home. 'It was very difficult to make a piece of wire by hand — it takes a long time to draw a piece of wire, especially the thinner it gets. So, it was like an item of prestige and currency. That really sparked my interest and, yeah, it just never stopped.' Oltmann's exoskeletal structures depicting somewhat fanciful creatures — caterpillars, locusts, moths, crustaceans, reptiles — explore themes of metamorphosis and the balance between fragility and hardness. In his Armour and Lace series, the delicate yet tensile wire mimics familiar suits or shells — both shield and surface — inviting reflection on form, corporeality and the porous boundaries between interior and exterior. I ask about the act of making. Oltmann's meticulous, repetitive techniques involve a form of 3D drawing in space by way of coiling, weaving and knotting of wire — processes that are meditative yet generative, allowing form to emerge slowly through time and labour. This durational rhythm, rooted in ancient craft traditions, often dismissed, but rich in structure and meaning, defines his intimately intense practice. Time — its repetition, rupture and sedimentation — threads through Oltmann's work like wire through mesh. His sculptures evoke carapaces and exoskeletons and sometimes even depict bones and excavated relics associated with deep time. Motifs ranging from the silverfish (fish moth) — a small but destructive insect — to the coelacanth — a prehistoric fish discovered off South Africa's coast — symbolise hidden life and explore marginal creatures in suspended existence. These inquiries, central to his PhD research, infuse his practice with a sense of personal archaeology and temporal layering. This focus on the passage of time is reflected even after his objects leave his home studio. To my chagrin, he reveals that the pieces that make up his Silverfish sculpture lie in storage at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. 'I know it's in the dark, in the basement, but that feels oddly fitting,' he says with a dry chuckle. The artist's 2021 work Carapax (Zygen) Oltmann's book In Time was launched on 6 July. It followed his 2022 Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust Extraordinary Award for Sculpture, which supported the creation and exhibition of a major body of work at the Villa-Legodi workshop at the Nirox Sculpture Park. Curated by Sven Christian, In Time weaves together interviews, essays and images that reflect Oltmann's layered practice. Contributors include Brenda Schmahmann and Ashraf Jamal. Though Oltmann has long been embraced in the upper echelons of the art world, what provokes the viewer is not his status but the quiet, unsettling edge to his work — a tension that feels both creepy and compelling. His work places the hand at the centre of thought, using wire to draw in space through steady, tactile processes. He resists the urge for immediate spectacle, instead asking for a slower kind of attention — an insistence that meaning is not found only in the finished form but also in and through the act of making. His work was featured in To Protect These Fragile Things, a group exhibition at the Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, which ran from 24 April to 26 June.
The Herald
3 days ago
- The Herald
Arcadia Primary bright sparks crowned Phendulani Literary Quiz winners
Arcadia Primary School has proved it has what it takes — its pupils have won the 14th Phendulani Literary Quiz held at Grey Junior School. The other primary schools that took part in the quiz on Tuesday were Heatherbank, John Masiza, Sanctor, Triomf, Boet Jeggels and Thornhill. The 48 participants taking part in 2025 were divided into eight teams, made up of six pupils each. Defending champions Boet Jeggels came third, and Heatherbank were second. The aim of Phendulani is to promote reading and comprehension in a fun way, while also making sure that books which have been donated are read. The entertaining quiz is thoroughly enjoyed by all, as attested to in the feedback forms which the children complete each year. Many SA schools with well-stocked libraries have taken part in the international Kids' Lit Quiz for more than a decade, with Nelson Mandela Bay schools having participated since 2006. It was felt that an outreach quiz along similar lines should be extended to schools which did not have libraries of their own, and so Phendulani was born. In March, a set of 12 books was provided to each of the participating schools. The books are sourced by Marj Brown, the mastermind of the quiz, and a school librarian. Each school enters up to two teams of six grade 6 or 7 pupils, who are required to read as many of these books as possible. The quiz has four rounds of questions, with each round consisting of 10 questions. Each team works on the questions together, writing down the answers, which are then marked. The Eastern Cape region's quiz is a collaborative effort, co-ordinated by Grey Junior School librarian Michéle Kerley. The school librarians from St George's, Grey, Collegiate, Clarendon, Kabega and Woodridge, as well as the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipal Library Services, support the schools taking part by providing transport to the quiz, lunch packs for the children, and prizes for the winners, as well as making sure every participant goes home with a book of their own. Grey Junior headmaster Grant Butler was the quiz master. The top three winning schools walked away with prizes from Woolworths Beauty, Varsity College, Shackleton Risk Insurance and Amobia Communications. The Herald
IOL News
4 days ago
- IOL News
Empowering communities: the Planet Youth initiative in Mitchells Plain
Learners participating in engaging and teambuilding activities at the Planet Youth event Image: Supplied The Western Cape Government has officially launched the Planet Youth initiative in Mitchells Plain, aiming to shift how communities support young people growing up in high-risk environments. The launch brought together families, caregivers, teachers, and local stakeholders for an open dialogue on what it will take to build safer, more supportive spaces for youth. Originally developed in Iceland, Planet Youth is now used in over 19 countries. It's an evidence-based prevention model that helps communities identify the underlying drivers of risk among young people and design targeted interventions in response. The approach is rooted in data — and in working directly with the people affected. The initiative is being rolled out across the Western Cape, supported by multiple government departments including Health and Wellness, Education, Social Development, and Cultural Affairs and Sport. It also involves municipalities, law enforcement, the UCT, and local organisations — with Mitchells Plain now added to a growing list of participating areas. In April and May 2025, more than 50,000 learners from 123 schools across the province took part in Planet Youth's core survey. This includes learners from Mitchells Plain, Atlantis, Athlone, Langa, Philippi, Gugulethu, Hanover Park, Kraaifontein, and Nyanga, as well as schools in the West Coast and Garden Route districts. The data collected will inform area-specific action plans to address youth risks and strengthen community-based Dereymaeker, Director of the Western Cape Government's Violence Prevention Unit, said the aim is not to focus on individual behaviour, but rather on the broader environments in which young people are growing up. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading 'The aim is not to single out individual children, but to empower entire communities with meaningful data. This allows for co-designed solutions that build resilience, reduce risk, and strengthen support networks for young people. It's about listening to their realities and acting together.' Planet Youth was first piloted in George in 2023 and is now being scaled province-wide as part of the Western Cape's broader area-based safety strategy, which launched in August 2023. The initiative focuses on prevention and aims to strengthen the protective factors that help young people avoid long-term harm. Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said the initiative is part of a longer-term strategy to reduce intergenerational poverty and violence by investing early in youth well-being. 'By investing in the well-being of our youth through a coordinated, data-led approach, we can create safer, healthier and more prosperous communities for generations to come. This is more than a programme, it is a call to action for parents, educators, leaders, and community members to work with our youth in preparing them for their future. If we offer them the skills and knowledge they need to get jobs, we can future-proof our province and economy.' With results from the 2025 surveys expected in August, participating communities are preparing to use the findings to drive real, local change informed not by assumptions, but by evidence and lived experience. Weekend Argus
