Latest news with #Ndebele
The Citizen
4 days ago
- Health
- The Citizen
Students raise voices against plight of GBV
HER SPACE, an organisation for female students established in 2024 under the banner of the Department of Student Residence Affairs (DSRA), was the driver of a recent march and picnic against GBV, which aimed to embolden efforts against the plight. The organisation was created in 2024 to provide a safe platform for female students to engage, grow, and support one another. During the event, there were informative discussions about types of GBV, myths and facts about it, the cycle of abuse, the root causes such as patriarchy, power, cultural and societal norms, manipulation and control, and coercion. Kwanele Ndebele, the project leader and Residence Life Officer, was impressed with the turnout, especially noting the presence of male students in support of the march. 'The presence of men today shows strengthened solidarity with our female counterparts. Men are often the perpetrators of violence against women, and today their support echoes the desire for some men to change their behavioural patterns. 'The violence against women is witnessed around us, and this initiative aims to educate our vulnerable sisters about GBV and assure them of the available interventions,' Ndebele said. Also read: The dark reality of GBVF and posting the crimes on social media The Council on Higher Education (CHE) recognises that GBV in South African universities is an institutional challenge. 'The increasing prevalence of GBV on university campuses is a concern to all law-abiding citizens. The solution is not to condemn higher education in the country, but rather to transform it so that it is focused on promoting social justice and human rights. Universities should be at the forefront of national efforts to curb social injustices and human rights violations, de-normalise GBV, and redirect stereotypes and social biases. 'Managements of universities need to review their policies and ensure that there are policies that seek to address GBV directly. Security personnel on campuses need to be conscientised about GBV and be trained to support victims in getting the incidents reported and the perpetrators brought to book,' said CHE. The march was a collaborative effort with stakeholders, namely SAPS, the Department of Social Development and Campus HIV/Aids Support Unit and Life Line Durban. Police reiterated the significance of reporting cases of GBV, highlighting that protection of perpetrators endangers other potential victims. Women Abuse Helpline: 0800 055 555 For more from Berea Mail, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok. Click to subscribe to our newsletter – here At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
The Citizen
25-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
KwaMhlanga entrepreneurs walk 300km to provincial government for change
A group of five passionate KwaMhlanga-based entrepreneurs embarked on a seven-day walk from eMalahleni to the Mpumalanga Provincial Government Complex in Mbombela to bring attention to the plight of unemployment and lack of opportunities in their area. Raymond Mthimunye (39), Rogger Maela (33), Karabo Modupi (25), Stanley Khoza (45) and Vincent Zimu (33) walked 300km from May 3 to May 9. These men are skilled in woodwork, business management, and marketing and design, and they aimed to the present practical solutions to the provincial government and plead for support. They also showcased one of their of woodwork products, a small coffin covered in Ndebele art designs. They carried this coffin on their journey. Maela said they sought inclusion in provincial development programmes, equipment grants and mentorship programmes, and access to funds such the Mpumalanga Premier's Youth Development Fund (MPYDF). 'Unemployment has crippled our communities. Many young people are qualified, but sitting at home, frustrated and without opportunities. There is a rise in depression and substance abuse due to youth unemployment. Our biggest concern is that most programmes don't reach us in our townships and villages. The government should decentralise opportunities and create manufacturing incubators in places like KwaMhlanga,' said Maela. Maela said the coffin they carried symbolised the death of the dream of the youth and the burial of their potential, unless the government intervenes. He said it also represents rebirth and a call to action. Maela said the walk had its challenges. 'We faced exhaustion, muscle pain and harsh weather, but we kept going through faith and unity, with support from communities along the route,' said Maela. ALSO READ: More than 5 000 snares removed across the Lowveld On arrival at the government complex, they met with the Mpumalanga premier, Mandla Ndlovu, with whom they raised their concerns. 'Meeting the premier was an honour. He listened to us, welcomed our memorandum and acknowledged our efforts. It felt like the beginning of something real. We left with hope and a sense of validation,' said Maela. Ndlovu reiterated the government's commitment to assisting the youth with numerous opportunities, citing the MPYDF. ALSO READ: TS Matsulu determined to go top of Safa Ehlanzeni U20 League log 'I am incredibly impressed with their business idea, but regrettably they did not have to endure the agony of walking for days to engage with their government. We have all these programmes throughout the province, aimed at helping our people. I have linked them with the Disability, Employment and Transition Division and Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency to formalise and navigate other regulatory requirements for their businesses,' said Ndlovu. While commending them for their resilience, he expressed that the information they received at the provincial government is available at their local municipality. 'I must commend these guys for their outstanding display of good behaviour. They have showed remarkable respect by not destroying any public infrastructure to draw attention to their cause. Their action serves as a positive example to a harmonious and respectful environment for everyone,' Ndlovu said. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘We are a passionately multiracial team': Zimbabwe return to England transformed
Twenty-two years is a long time, even in a sport that measures its games in days and its history in centuries. The last time England played a Test match against Zimbabwe, in 2003, Rob Key was in the middle order instead of the managing director's job, Jimmy Anderson was a 20-year-old tearaway playing in his very first series, and the England and Wales Cricket Board was just about to launch the world's very first professional Twenty20 tournament. Zimbabwean cricket has changed, too. Back then the team was in the earliest stages of a transformation that was meant to turn cricket from a minority game, played by the small white population, into a sport that better represented the whole country. They have been hard years, riven by player strikes, political interference, maladministration, and a miserable drop-off in results. The team temporarily withdrew from Test cricket, suspended their domestic competition, and were repeatedly censured by the International Cricket Council. They lost so many players through emigration to England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, that even now you could build a hell of a good Zimbabwean squad out of people who are making a living overseas. And yet, at the end of it all, the process was, by one important measure, a success. The squad that came on tour in 2003 was majority white, the team that has come this year is majority black. Advertisement Related: Blast from the past: Zimbabwe are finally coming in from the cold 'Despite all the politics, despite all the chaos that we've been through, cricket is now a national game,' says David Coltart, 'supported by an overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans, black and white and other races.' Coltart is the elected mayor of Bulawayo, a white man elected in a mostly black city. He has spent his life navigating the bitter, heated, complicated politics of his country. He has been fighting for the Zimbabwe he believes in ever since the 1990s, first as a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change and a key figure in the opposition to Robert Mugabe, then as minister for education and sport in Morgan Tsvangirai's coalition government. More than five million people have emigrated from the country in that time. Coltart is one of the ones who stayed. 'I believe in Zimbabwe with a passion,' he says, 'I believe in its people and its future, and I believe it is a country worth fighting for.' When Andy Flower and Henry Olonga made their public protest against 'the death of democracy' in their country in 2003, it was Coltart they asked to help draft their statement. 'My sadness is that Henry and Andy didn't stay in the country,' he says, 'because they remain hugely influential figures. It's not a criticism. I understand why they felt compelled to leave. But we need figures like them.' He mourns Heath Streak, who did stay, but who died in 2023. 'Heath provided inspiration to people on both sides of the argument. He was a white man who was fluent in Ndebele, and who attracted a lot of sympathy and affection from a lot of black people, and yet he remained an inspirational people for white farmers who'd been dispossessed of their land.' Advertisement For Coltart, the Zimbabwean team is emblematic of the society it represents. 'We punch above our weight.' Which is why he believes transformation had to happen. 'It was very necessary,' Coltart says. 'Cricket in Zimbabwe 30 years ago was a minority sport. If you just looked at the crowds they were, relatively speaking, very few black people in them. Even aside from the principle of the matter, that situation was completely unsustainable.' He just wishes it had been done differently. He makes a comparison with the redistribution of land, and the violent farm takeovers which were the cause of so much pain, grief and injustice in the 2000s. 'The land holdings were unjust,' he says, 'But we could have done it without violence. Now, there wasn't violence in cricket, but I think that when you look at the dreadful collapse of cricket in 2004, that could have been avoided.' When Zimbabwe stopped playing Test cricket, Coltart helped lead the campaign to restore it. In government he spent a lot of time lobbying the English to start playing fixtures against his country again. The ECB turned its back on the country, even after the end of the Mugabe regime. It was only when Richard Gould took over as the chief executive of the ECB that things finally changed. 'They disregarded us, and while I understand the reasons, I've never felt that England should not be playing Zimbabwe,' Coltart says. 'Although I'm a strident critic of the Zimbabwean regime, I've always believed in the power of sport to bridge divides.' Even now, he would be against a boycott of Afghan cricket on similar grounds. 'Because if the players and the board members themselves are trying to do the right thing but are being constrained by the government, then you've got to support them and encourage them, not boycott them. Use the game, the opportunities it provides, to build relations, and to hold them to higher standards.' Advertisement He is still trying to do that in his own country now, as mayor. Bulawayo has just won the right to host the Street Child Cricket World Cup. But Coltart is deeply concerned about the way the sport is being run. 'There's still far too much politics involved in Zimbabwe Cricket, in the running of the organisation, and even in the selection policies. I still fear that we're not spending the money that we get as best we should. I'm a politician, but I don't think politicians should be anywhere near cricket administration. I would rather see people whose primary attribute is a great passion for cricket being involved in the running of the sport. I'd like to see our best players from the past dominating the selection panel, black and white.' Still, he beams when he thinks that Zimbabwe are going to play a Test at Trent Bridge this week. 'Despite the politics, despite the abuse of the rule of law and corruption in the country, all the concerns that I have regarding the government, the vast majority of Zimbabweans are united. It's a wonderful country and you will see that in our cricket, we are a passionately multiracial team, and that's a wonderful projection of our country.'
Kiwiblog
07-05-2025
- General
- Kiwiblog
General Debate 08 May 2025
I have posted quite often on changing language usage and why I think this will continue to make Maori less and less useful. This has been based, mainly, on my experiences with Zulu and Xhosa. Last night I watched an interesting interview of an Ndebele officer in the Zimbabwean Army about some operations in DRC. Ndebele is close enough to Zulu that I can understand almost all of what he is saying. What I found interesting: * Zulu and Ndebele are very similar with the same nouns and verbs for common day to day speech that is unchanged for centuries. For example, house, tree, water, run, hit, … These are concepts that have been with humans a long time so you can expect the same words to be used as the languages evolve. The word for goat is the same in Tanzania and Xhosa even though the languages split well over 1000 years ago and they exist thousands of km apart. * The languages diverge in their borrow words. For example the Ndebele for boat is 'boata' (obviously from 'boat') while for Zulu it is isikebhe (which derives from 'schip' – the Dutch word for ship). This makes sense since the borrow words get into the language via different routes, so you can expect differences like this. * The Ndebele words for numbers are the same as Zulu. This is a cumbersome system. The Ndebele have done what the Zulu do and flip over to using English numbers for anything beyond very small numbers (1, 2, 3, 10). Thus numbers are generally transplanted. * As soon as he started speaking about any military concepts he flipped over to speaking in English, even if he just dropped in a word or a phrase into a sentence. Makes sense since these are concepts that don't exist in the Ndebele cultural vocabulary and training on military doctrine is all in English. Thus we can basically split the language components into three parts: * The historic, original, host language. These are the words, grammar and concepts that go back centuries. * The borrow words. By my definition (I am not a formal linguist), borrow words are foreign words which have been adapted to fit in with the host language when the host (ie. borrowing) culture encounters them for the first time. They are then used as new words in the host language. Examples are pirihimana (policeman) borrowed in to Maori or kumara, Taupo etc borrowed in to English. * Transplanted words and phrases (again, my unofficial definition) . The distinction between borrow words and transplanted words and phrases is that borrow words are modified to fit into the host language grammar etc while transplanted words and phrases are not. Transplanted words and phrases are bits of English (or whatever) spliced in. To now extrapolate this into Maori in NZ: * There is really no solid Maori cultural/social life – as distinct from modern western life, so we can expect common historic/host language usage to continue to shrink and be replaced with transplanted phrases. * Borrow words are only useful where the predominant language being used is still the host language. No doubt Maori would very seldom even use the word pirihimana and would likely use 'cops' or such. ie. even borrow words are being replaced by transplanted words. * Once you use more than 50% transplanted phrases, you have, effectively, switched over to the new language. It would appear that what we have passing for common Maori now is actually a flip of that – it is English with the odd Maori word or phrase transplanted into English. This is no longer really Maori at all, but rather a local English dialect. Ndebele has 4 million people using it as a primary language every day. That will likely keep it going for the foreseeable future. Maori has probably less than 10,000 who could comfortably use Maori as a home language and probably less than half that who would actually choose to do so. To resurrect a language like Maori is surely close to impossible. If it not in common use then it really has no chance at all beyond a historical curiosity.
The South African
05-05-2025
- Politics
- The South African
Is Bulelani Khumalo's crown dividing Zimbabwe or uniting a forgotten nation?
South African-born Bulelani Lobengula Khumalo's recent visit to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe was seen by many as a cultural homecoming. However, not everyone shared the sentiment. Some Zimbabwean government officials lashed out after the city's mayor, David Coltart, recognised him as king of the Ndebele people. The 41-year-old Bulelani Khumalo was born in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) in South Africa. In September 2018, traditional leaders in Matabeleland and the Khumalo family crowned him as the new King of the Northern Ndebele nation. The Zimbabwe local government minister, Daniel Garwe, expressed his disapproval of the Ndebele Kingdom. He wrote a letter to Coltart stating that the country's constitution does not recognise a Ndebele Kingdom. Garwe clarified that the constitution recognises only chiefs, headmen, and village heads. 'As you may be aware, the government of Zimbabwe has over the years incessantly denounced and dissociated itself from a self-proclaimed 'King' Bulelani who illegally claims to be the legitimate heir to the now defunct throne of King Lobengula,' reads the letter. 'The ministry would like to advise you, as the mayor of the City of Bulawayo and any other functionary of the City of Bulawayo, to desist from entertaining this charlatan self-styled 'King' Bulelani, as such behaviour is not only criminal but has the negative effect of misleading the general public.' The controversy also saw Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa critising the Bulawayo mayor for meeting Khumalo. He stated that Coltart is part of 'a plot to create a separate Matabeleland state.' 'His Excellency President Dr ED Mnangagwa is committed to providing working capital for the people of Zimbabwe,' Mutsvangwa stated. 'But the mayor is too busy playing politics to notice the industrial revival already underway.' Civil society group Ibhetshu LikaZulu has clarified that Khumalo's presence has nothing to do with politics. The Ibhetshu likaZulu secretary general, Mbuso Fuzwayo, said Khumalo's presence is rather a cultural and historical matter. 'Mr Mutsvangwa's statement that this meeting is part of a plot to create a separate Matabeleland state is not only malicious, but also a dangerous distortion of both historical truth and present reality,' he said. The Office of King Bulelani Lobengula Mzilikazi, which is based in South Africa, has issued a public statement in response to Khumalo's visit. 'We respectfully urge public officials to exercise caution, decorum, and cultural sensitivity when speaking on matters of heritage and traditional leadership,' reads part of the press release. 'Dismissive language or threats of arrest directed at a traditional and cultural figure, whose mission is reconciliation, unity, and empowerment, does not reflect the spirit of Ubuntu or the values enshrined in Pan-Africanism.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
