Media effects.

Introduction

The media have been known to have profound influences on audience psychology and behavior, but precisely how these effects manifest is still being debated. Today mass media influence substantially the modern society and the formation of an individual’s identity due to the development of mass media, which reach the mass audience and we are able to shape the public opinion. At first glance, the emergence  of mass media have a positive impact on society since mass keep people informed and provide larger opportunities for communication.

On the other hand, mass media have rather a negative than positive impact because they do not just shape cultural identity, surveillance, continuity and entertainment, but also promote violence which undermine the normal development of an individual and may have a negative impact on social behavior and psychology of people.

In actuality, the effect of violence is always negative on human psychology because people get used to violence. Consequently, they do not see violence acts as aggressive and unwanted behavior.

They perceive these as a norm. In essence, such violent depiction in television seems to be funny and amusing. Those views on violence formed by media results in the growing violence in real life situations because people lose control over their behavior and they use violence as an effective tool to prove their righteousness of their position, for instance.

Media effects are categorized into a variety of types. Amongst them are Behavioral effects and Planned and unplanned effects.  They affect how people interpret media messages.  Under behavioral effects are Cognitive, Affective and time-scale effects. Under Planned and unplanned, are propaganda and Media campaigns. These effects affects media users in a short or long time scale.

This assignment will seek to research and evaluate whether mass media do have any noteworthy effect on society or an individual. My stand is that mass media have a big noteworthy effect on the lives of individuals or the society as a collective whole.

In order for experimental research to count as scientific data, they must be done in such a way or method that they make clear the entire sequence of research and exploration. They must stipulate what knowledge, procedures and techniques processes were followed when doing research and what were the resultant experiences and conclusions. All these must be described in such a way that others prepared to carry out the research and procedures may re-enact the entire process.

To fully research whether mass media do have any noteworthy effect on society or an individual, I applied Positivism as a sub-branch Positivist approach to the study of society. The emphasis on Positivism is on scientific method, on knowledge derived from scientifically processed and analysed data about a phenomenon, with the purpose to arrive at scientific description of a phenomenon.

The scientific method requires that all phenomena should be treated in the same way. In a research like this one, does the mass media do have any noteworthy effect on society or an individual, the same rules and requirements had to be applied regardless of the nature of the nature of the phenomena under research or investigation(Fourie:118)

The mass media does have a noteworthy effect or influence in character development on audience, recipients and individual without them noticing. An example of these can be seen through how people, especially children adopt violence as they have seen it in movies. Only a few selected media recipients can easily unpack their analogy of their personalities without them using it on the media presentations on hand and remain germane to it.

The effect there in is a behavioral effect. Although unplanned, this will result in a behavioral change of the media user. With a change in the way the audience conducts him/ herself.

The test of a first rate unaffected individual lies in their ability to hold two opposed ideas being that one seen on television or the mass media, and still vent the ability to remain unaffected.

In this instance, the methods that can be used are through exposing children to violence programs or movies on television and see after a couple of days if they do not practice what he/she saw. The resultant stance could be that they will imitate or reproduce those acts since they saw them on television then they think It is good doing them. In that way, we can say that the mass media does have an effect on society or individual.

Many specialists’ points out that children attempt to follow the models of behavior they acquire while watching TV or playing video games (Tolson, 144)

Moreover, nowadays, in addition to traditional media, such as television, children as the part of the audience, impact of violence in media is the most susceptible to the negative impact of violence in media. Children have access to internet; they play video games which may also contain a lot of violence acts. As a result, they acquire wrong or, to put it more precisely, violent models of behavior.

At the early age they cannot distinguish between such concepts as good and bad. This is why they imitate the models of behavior they learn from television, video games, and movies. As a result, the violence in media contributes to violent and aggressive behavior of children and negatively effects the formation of their personality (Barker, 64)

However the impact of violence on adults may also very significantly since it also stimulates violence as abnormal, anti-social act, instead it is perceived as a norm. in such a situation, the number of those who blame media violence for societal violence and want to censor violent content to protect children.

In this respect, children are particularly vulnerable to the negative impact of violence in mass media. The problem is that children cannot distinguish such concepts as good and evil. Therefore, if they are happy while watching violence on television, they form a positive attitude to violence, to the extent that they can believe that violence is good. Eventually they extrapolate their experiences of viewing media on real life, which leads to the aggressive and violent behavior of children.

Quantifying and evaluating the impacts of the mass media on audiences is not an easy task, with the diversion of personalities and the multitude of conflicting ideologies.  The effects tend to be neutralized when applied to a sceptical viewership or readership, but the powerful effects theory, in many cases, still stands. What is more important to remember is that people approach the media with a pre-conceived set of expectations that have been accumulated through a lifetime of experiences. The success of messages’ reception is contingent upon people’s allegiances (known as opinion leaders) and collective buffers.

It’s a common and shared knowledge that children personally replicate what they see on television. The resultant stance will be that they will believe that because they saw such acts on television or the media they believe it’s good doing it. Mass media permanently influence people. In fact, people are constantly exposed to this impact, which they cannot avoid because mass media are everywhere

The question of mass media effectson society and individuals has remained very much at the center of debate. It should be studied objectively with no side taken. The critical-cultural developments of the mass media mentioned have made some contribution to a reconceptualization of the problem and to the adoption of new researchstrategies that pay more attention to long-term, institutional effects of media.

All these means that the audience or receivers of media content should also focus on the positive part mass media has played in the development.

The effect that mass media have on society is difficult to discern. Many media theorists are proponents of the Hypodermic needle model, which asserts that media messages and values are “injected” into the audience, and that the penetration of these biases has a direct impact on individuals’ behaviour and motivations. Recently however, this theory has been reconsidered and even disproven.

The Role of Media in our daily life Media has a huge role in our lives it influences our daily activities and also shapes our history. One of the most important roles of mass media is the news and announcement broadcasting. It keeps us up to date about the latest news, trends and even the weather reports every day. The media is a very powerful socializing agent almost 90 of all household have TV sets in their houses a larger percent has their own radio.

Media is also used for trade and advertising. Many business groups use the television as their main advertising system. It is also used for traffic updates so that we can avoid that long and stressing line of cars. The media is also our window to other countries and is the chief agent of globalization. Because it is very powerful, it is also the responsibility of those people working in the media to use it carefully and wisely

The mass media influences cultural change. The mass media can be used for and against us, depending on how we use it individually. With this point in mind, how mass media influences our culture should give one an idea on just how powerful a tool it is in our present day and age.

Hence blaming the mass media for societal change and moral degeneration is a misguided strategy. Mass media has played a big positive role in formation of cultural and personal identity, thus mass media is an important part of our daily lives.

The range of social issues associated with the effect of the mass media has widened. Taking into consideration the positive influence or effect of the mass media albeit of the bigger negative part, researcher should also consider the positive part mass media plays in the lives of people.

Mass media plays a much proper role in societal development. Today people are able to fully understand environmental concepts and other things that contribute to the well-being of their communities.

Today people are able to fully participate on matters that concern them, be it political or social issues, thanks to the growing impact of mass media. Mass media has also played a big positive role on how people practice their cultures. People are able to learn from television how their cultures were practised in the past.

Conclusion.

Thus, taking into consideration, all the above-mentioned, it is possible to conclude that mass media does have a negative impact on society, which is manifested through the excessive violence that is present in mass media. In fact, violence in media is a serious problem, but it only uncovers the full extent to which mass media can have a negative Impact on society since they shape the public opinion and identity of the audience that is very dangerous because it opens the way to manipulations with public consciousness.

From a methodological point of view, effects research is difficult to undertake and must usually be done over a long period of time. Research is conducted mainly by means of surveys (questionnaires), interviews and experimental methods, therefore observing and concluding that mass media do have an effect on people is void, it should be done through asking the audience if they are really affected.

However, it must be kept in mind that human beings and their media experiences are not easily quantifiable or measurable by only quantitative and experimental methods. So far these methods have had bad difficulties conclusively establishing a direct casual relation between mass media, societal and people’s behavioural change (Gauntlet:1998)

It is also evident that given the variety of mass medium, programming will come and go presenting different content to the audience or society as a body. This means that such programming will pose different elements to the audience, being it violence, educational elements and also entertainment.

From the above overview of mass media effects it is clear that the media may have some effects and influence on our thinking and in most instances on our behaviour.

SECTION 02

2.1

The media is an enormous entity that presides over our daily decisions, our sense of the world, and exposes us to things we have experienced. People have, since the existence of mass media been influenced by media content. These relates to the fact that we adopt what we see on the media as reality. Today mass media influence substantially the modern society and the formation of an individual’s identity.

We humans are bunch of manipulatable species where the media feeds off this ever-growing trait that lies within us all. It affects us in so many ways both consciously and otherwise, where half the time we are not aware of what it is doing to us.  The mass media plays a paramount role in our lives. It stands as a model to which as people we base our lives in. It plays a big role on how we get knowledge. Mass media provides us with knowledge of our surroundings.

We see reality as portrayed by the mass media. We believe whatever we see on television. We hold ideas that the mass media shows to us how things are done in the real life. We don’t understand that we are the ones who should paint reality as it is and gives to the mass media to present.

The mass media has its own way of showing us constructive information when it comes to news channels, travel and other educational shows. Kids benefit from watching these, since it can boost self-esteem, heighten interest levels in particular subject or encourage them to ask relevant questions.

We have a sense of what is happening around us, with far insights about how things work elsewhere on the globe. We can view the world through the television, even if we are rooted in one spot the whole time. It is a gateway to places unknown foreign and magical with knowledge of what goes on around us without being physically present in that place.

The media in all forms can introduce us to creative outlets that can help better ourselves in different ways, be it in our personal or work lives. It can change our perspectives and push us to do more than what we limit ourselves to. It can also help us to engage with other people around the world, and be more open and understanding towards other cultures.

2.2

It is true that political celebrities like Barack Obama and cultural celebrities like David Beckham became what they are today through the media. The emergence of Barack Obama to the political landscape was so massive that even who knew less or none about him were exposed to him. Although he was known in his place of birth, Kenya, people from Africa and across the world did not know him. This was a perfect example of the power of the mass media to build an individual.

The media as a model have power to build and destroy an individual. This is evident through how celebrities or other media personalities have been modeled to be big and powerful people throughout the world.The media does this through continuous report on a certain individual, sometimes with a motive to build that person.

This notion lies on the study of Spiral of Silence Theory. Spiral of Silence is about how the media create a specific image of what the public opinion is and how media users accept that to be the public opinion. (Fourie 2007:46)

This means that the media creates a certain ideology or belief about certain individuals and that people o adhere to that opinion and not go against it. Any individual who will see the certain individuals as wrong will be seen as being deviated from the norms of the society.

Spiral of Silence argues that although the media pretends and claims to represent the view of the collective society or majority, these may not always be the case. Should one person who holds or in charge of the media speak well about a bad person then the other media platforms will corroborate and report on that, as a result a certain ideology or image of how that person is will be created to the people.

There an element of Modelling Theory on the fact that those celebrities are made by the mass media to be what they are on the eyes of people. The mass media models these people as good people who media users should look to as their role models and examples of achievers. If the mass media can decide to report on such people repeatedly then the audience will regard them as good role models or celebrities. It also helps to builds the people as a brand.

2.3

I agree with the above-mentioned statement. The media have power to decide on us what the reality is. This is done through Agenda Setting as a theory. The assumption of agenda setting theory is that consciously or unconsciously, the media create a particular image of reality to media recipients. The media confront people on a daily basis with events according to them, are important. (Fourie 2007:244)

What the media does is that they will concentrate on certain issues to which they believe consumers should take as important. A perfect example of this is how they covered issues involving Minister of Communications, Dina Pule. The issue was given much attention until the Guptagate saga came to the light.

Then the media turned its focus to the Guptagate saga. This is a clear indication that the media undermines the audience’s power and consciousness to choose what should be covered. The Dina Pule issue was now silenced, much attention was given to the Guptasaga.

Although the Guptasaga in essence was more important to cover than the first covered issue, the media does not have power to choose for the audience what news events are more important than others. Hence I am saying the media decides for us what we should consume.

Fourie (2007: 244) argues that the omission of certain events and issues, and the overemphasis of others, establishes a particular way for media users to think about reality. This means that passive media users will treat the issues differently resulting in them having a certain pictures of reality in their heads. This is an agenda that the media plays consciously or unconsciously to news events and programming.As people we do not have a platform through which we can present what we think and believe is real, that is why the mass media decides for us.

The attention given in news coverage influences the public awareness of the significance of an issue. (McQual 2000:426)

People have no option but to cease to media proposed issues as if they are really important to them. That is the power of the mass media in choosing for people what to treat as more important than the others.

2.4.

Since mass media messages are seen as a model to which life should be based, media users have ever since adopted whatever they see on media as how life should be or how they are supposed to look. Young ladies aspire to attain the perfect bodies of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Beyoncé as shown in magazines.

This concept of media presentations relates to the Modelling Theory. Modelling Theory argues that in some cases some people can adopt media-portrayed behavior as a model for their own behavior. This is the same thing that happens to women in comparing themselves to television personalities. We see on television adverts how companies use slim ladies as their models. As a result ladies believe that for them to be beautiful then they should be slim like them.

Women with petite bodies and girls with Barbie figure are always shown to be more popular or attractive while the overweight are portrayed as less popular, having less friends and being bulled. This leads to a notion that thin is sexy and fat is not. When .this thought grips the mind of youngsters, they take to fad diets or turn to cosmetic surgeries to get that so-called perfect body. The craze for models or actors and actresses, make teenagers want bodies and facial features like theirs. To get rid of a big nose or to get those big pouty lips, teenagers are ready to even go under the knife.

Another mistake the mass media does is that they make women believe that for one to be beautiful you have to be slim, whereas there are people who are fat or thick but beautiful.The media mislead ladies and they end up losing confidence on themselves because of what the media show them. The media should move its focus on beauty and concentrate more on building society and acting as a watchdog for them. Instead of them showing ladies that if they are not slim they are beautiful, they should at least show them that irrespective of them not being slim they are beautiful.

Defining beauty by being slim is a misguided strategy to media consumers. The media should reinforce self-acceptance to the recipients for them to accept that being not slim does not make them less human. The mass media in a case like should be criticized to the illusion they created in the minds of its audience. Another thing is that mass media divided a certain people to certain level such as nice and ugly. It focuses on human itself other than lots of unnecessary things

Unemployment for Graduates

Unemployment of graduates

Going to neither university nor college in today’s world seems to mean nothing. As holding a Degree or Diploma no longer hold the promise of jobs for young South African as hundreds of thousands of them battle to find jobs.

We believed that a university graduate is generally more employable than those without degrees, but that does no longer the case the case. Lack of work experience, however, is another significant drawback, as most graduates in search of jobs either lack work experience practical. One of them is successfully matching those with skills to the jobs which require them.

Another apparent problem is that prospective students do not make thorough research before choosing their careers. What normally happens is that they flock in given career choices in a hope to get jobs only to find that their chosen careers are not in demand.

According to one of our sources university students struggle to get placements because they cannot make good relationship with the employers during their time of studying. What he argued is that students should in a continuous basis visit the employers to get experience, as a result they build trust in them and ultimately when there are openings the employers will appoint them.

Bambani Community organisation for the orphans.

Bambanani Community Organisation gives hope to the orphans.

                                                                                                Trevor Hlungwani

Soon after I dropped a letter with my numbers at Bambanani Community Organisation for the orphans asking the owner, Ma- Angie Mahlangu to call me, I received a call from her asking me to pay a visit. I was terrified that she was going to cut the letter to pieces in front of me because I had failed in a couple of past arrangements to honour my promise. So with a mix of ecstasy and curiosity, I immediately honoured her wish.

I walked over to her small, partly dilapidated office at the orphanage centre, where I found her poised on her chair with spectacles lowered and resting on the tip of her nose as my mother used to before she sorted her knitting needle and wool. I noticed that she had the letter on her table which I had wrote in Sesotho with an intention to try impress her into letting me do an interview with her, a red pen rested between the pages.

She proceeded to point out to me a few grammatical errors in the letter and handed it to me for in case I needed to write another one to her in the near future. And said she doesn't mind me doing an interview with her, however as you know with these things, there is always a 'But' at the end. The condition was that I will have to let her read the final draft before it went for publishing, we agreed on that. And then she walked out of the office into her kitchen and brought with herself two cups of coffee.

Situated in Soshanguve Block H, Bambanani Orphanage centre caters for about 25 children. Most of them are HIV/ AIDS orphans and children from severely disadvantaged settlements of Soshanguve and Winterveldt. The organisation struggle to fulfil its obligations as the operators relies entirely on donations and hand-outs from potential donors or individuals.

She pointed out the problem she faces as she doesn't have a stable sponsorship. She said that she at least receives bread on Sundays from a Pick n pay in Sinoville. Also churches sometimes give her money to buy electricity and pay rent. Another problem is that the roof of one of the rooms where the children sleeps are leaking and people gives her empty promises of saying they will donate materials and ending up not donating.

The organisation has a typical monthly income of R2 000 but it cannot sustain the organisation. The organisation also has a close partnership with Soshanguve clinic, Khensani Primary school and DC Marivate Secondary school.

It started 2 years ago after her mother's death but let me take you back a little further. Her late mother, Gogo Poppy Skhosana started the orphanage in 2003. In a proposal she wrote herself to the Department Of Social Development and various organizations requesting sponsorship, she wrote that she saw the need to start the orphanage as she was touched by the number of orphans, who were mostly under ages in her surroundings. Also she lost her son who was a police officer from HIV/AIDS. So she started the orphanage herself and funded it from her own pocket. After a couple of months good Samaritans recognized her good deeds and started donating food parcels. When she died in 2011, Ma-Angie took over.

Ma-Angie is cheerful and soft-spoken and every now and then when she mentioned the children's names her sentences were punctuated with gentle laughs, I could tell that she loves them. Driven by love, Ma-Angie who is an orphan herself said she will make sure that all the children in the orphanage go to school to have the best education. “I will be disappointed to see them as criminals because that's not what I'm teaching them," she said.

A photo frame captured on Christmas day comprising of the children was mounted on the wall and facing her chair. "When I'm discouraged by not having enough food to feed my children I look to that photo frame and it gives me the courage to try my best," she said. Her face lightened as she told me the names of her children in the frame. In any event, what I found most interesting is that she knows the names of all the children in her orphanage, which cannot be said for most of my lecturers.

In between our interview, the children would come to me, "Ngi shoote" as they asked me to take a picture of them but she reprimanded them. "Mololo o jang o roga o mongwe," directly translated into 'A mouth that is eating insults the other,’ Gogo Maria Nhlope who helps with cooking said there are lot of rich people who are living a luxury life but they fail to make a difference in the lives of the poor and the orphans by extension.

My opinion piece about the use of alcohol in African Traditional Rituals

Ancestral rituals or a binge-drinking festival?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Trevor Hlungwani

I want to know from the preservers of African culture why “the strong stuff” is central to practicing one’s culture or appeasing the ancestors. I am sure I am not the first person to ask this critical but overlooked question.

Before I am labelled as a tribalist, as I was once called, my question relates specifically to the institutions of my culture. As a native of the Limpopo Province I have been exposed to these ways of living since childhood.

I will not generalize and say all South Africans indigenous cultures use the traditional home-brewed beer, “Umqomboti”, in their rituals but I can categorically state that Umqomboti has been adopted as the “Messiah” which connects the custodians of most cultures to the ancestors. I am not saying it’s a wrong thing but I basically seek to know how the concept of using alcohol started.

I mean what significance can alcohol play in advancing the plight of a poverty-stricken people: even if the beer is an offering to the ancestors, nothing positive can ever come from something as destructive as alcohol! I know people can agree with me on that.

What happens in these rituals is that the old man says a few words, calling the ancestors by their names and pleading with them to help the family with their needs, pours a little alcohol in the ground to respect them. Then he circulates the clay container among all men in the ritual. This continues all day until the crowd staggers home to return tomorrow to cure the “Babalaza”.

By extension they will slaughter an innocent goat, I don’t know if the SPCA know about this but I guess they would have a lot of animals to rescue.

My question is simple: are we supposed to get drunk in these ceremonies and, how will it improve our already miserable life?

It’s no surprise that we African people are most passionate about the bottle because alcohol was entrenched psychologically to us through our beloved ancestors.

Our already colonised mind is defenceless when culture is used to disarm us even more: we spend so much of our minimum wages on ancestral rituals when, in actual fact, they are nothing big but binge-drinking festivals.

Hence the plight of the black men remains the same, if not worse because we are not sober-minded enough to discuss “Programmes of Action”

My Opinion piece on the Gauteng's proposed liquor bill.

Gauteng’s proposed liquor bill a big blow for the residents and businesses.

                                                                                                Trevor           Hlungwani.

I will keep it short and to the point: if the government ban liquor sales on Sundays I swear the sales will double, if not triple on Saturdays. At least it will give the consumers enough time to freeze their drinks for the long Sunday afternoon.

The proposed draft liquor legislation aims to prevent the sale of liquor in taverns, shebeens, restaurants and any other liquor outlets in the Gauteng province on Sundays.

When I count my calendar well, freedom day next year will be celebrated on a Sunday, should the bill be passed, it will mean that the poor Gauteng civilians will not enjoy the day. Do we still call that a freedom day? I mean any South African can agree with me that the best way to celebrate a holiday is through drinking and having a braai. 

What’s so special about Sunday? The bill, if passed, is not going to solve anything, as Sunday is not even one of the biggest drinking days.

My question is will churches be prohibited from conducting the Holy Communion considering the fact that not all glasses have grape fruit in them?

I can already see police taking advantage by roaming around townships like lost tourists, checking if they are really selling at Bra Biza’s or Sis Joyce and intimidating them into paying bribes if they are not abiding, I don’t blame them, after all their silly pays allows that.

How is it going to help curb alcohol abuse? I believe a possible solution would be to educate people about responsible drinking or alcohol consumption. Rather than introducing stupid laws, the government should put more money into policing to combat drunk driving and charge these drunk drivers with attempts to cause accidents and deaths by extension, and suspend their driver’s licences for 3 years.

This is not the kind of legislation needed if we are to play a meaningful part in job creation. With ICASA granting licence to TOP TV to air pornographic channels, I guess the next thing the government is going to do is to ban of television,

Township people will be forced to get high on home-brewed which do not go through inspection and can easily turn out to be pure poison and can claim man lives. According to a friend experience should the police test a person who is drunk of this beer they will not get any sign of alcohol in his/her system. These speak volume of its fatal nature.

I guess Soshanguve residents are safe! Catching a taxi to Ga-Rankuwa to have some serious drinking on Sundays is not a time-consuming task, after all Ga-Rankuwa is in North-West province.

Freedom Day celebration.

Are we really free?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Trevor Hlungwani

April 27 is national celebrated as Freedom Day. This year marks 19 years of freedom from the apartheid-led government. I have always wanted to scratch the surface a bit regarding this day.

To me this most noted date recognizes the fact that the dignity and equality of individuals is both an objective which society must pursue.

But freedom to me is divided into two parts. The first “free” part is the liberation part. This means that we are free from the bondages of the past, be it psychological, physical or economical. It provides the opportunity to enable each one and all to state their views, promote their implementation in the process of governance without fear that a contrary view will be met will repression

The other “free” means that we are free to better ourselves. This includes creating a corrupt-free environment, creates employment and also advances strategies which seek to boast our communities. It also includes getting away from the habit of dependence from the government.

To measure the benefits of our freedom we should always look at the changes our freedom has brought unto our lives.

People argue that the new dispensation has not brought much to the lives of the civilians. I believe it will take two to three decades of majority elected government to redress the imbalances inherited from the apartheid-led government

Perhaps we should ask ourselves a couple of questions before we criticize the government. We should ask ourselves that how do we offer hope of civilization to the citizenry? This means that we all have the responsibility to make our communities a better place to live in.

Another question should be: how do we keep the ANC-led government relevant in these challenging times? I believe the government needs a vigorous participation of people from the grass roots level in order to avoid the misdirection of efforts in the quest to improve service delivery. As citizens we should get actively involved in governmental processes to make our country a good one.

Another question should be: how do we occupy the vacuum left by the apartheid-led government? Blaming the government for the racial imbalances and the economic setup shows that South Africans are failing to better the current political climate.

But truth be told, no political party in South Africa can compete with ANC on struggle credentials. Competing with pre and post-1994 ANC is a misguided strategy.

To all the people who never made newspaper headlines, all those who marched facing bullets, those whose graves were never found and couldn’t be relocated by Khumbule’ekhaya, whose lives were cut short. To all those who died terrible deaths alone. To all the kids who grew up without parents, all the domestic workers who endured swearing words from the sons and daughters of the ‘madam’.

To all who shunned privileges due to them for their colour, all who knew that freedom knows no colour, and all who died in exile and in prison. To all who never became government ministers and DGs, all those who never benefited through BEE.

To all who still don't know what happened to their parents, kids, brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends. To all who put the safety of their families on risk. To all the mothers who kept the families going while the fathers were in the struggle.

To all who were disowned by churches because they could not reconcile a just God with an unjust system, all who hid the freedom fighters at the risk of losing their own lives, those not in the history books. And to a just God who gave all the strength in a very difficult time. THANK YOU FOR FREEDOM.

My story about hostel allocation in Attredgeville

Residents cry foul at hostel allocation.

Trevor Hlungwani.

Newly-built hostels in Saulsville, west of Pretoria, are getting dilapidated while residents do not have better housing. The residents of Block R Hostels accuses their ward councillor, Conference Ntuli and her predecessor Mrs Boya of allegedly trying to place their relatives and people who were said to be not the rightful beneficiaries of the hostels.

Charles Chokwe, a resident, said that the former ward councillor identified as Mrs Boya, held a public meeting with the residents of the hostels in 2007 and told them that their hostels had to be renovated. “She promised us that we would occupy the hostels upon the completion of the renovations,”Chokwe said. The renovations kick started in 2007. As part of the renovations process, the residents were removed from their houses that were said to be not safe for them.

By early 2011, the construction company had completed the renovations, but up to date the residents are still living in the old hostels nearby the old ones.

“Sometimes we are surprised to see strangers coming to view the houses, we could see that they might have bought them,” said a concerned resident.

However, Ward 63 Councillor, Conference Ntuli, said that what the residents are saying is not true. “It has always been important to me to contribute to the growth of a society in which the government fulfils its promises of service delivery”, said the councillor. She also said that government processes takes long to materialize as there were lot of stages to go through.

“It’s unfortunate that the residents were not willing to wait for the government to do things in a proper way,” Ntuli said. Meanwhile, the windows of the new hostels are broken and thieves are stealing electricity cables, geysers and bath tubs.

An angry resident said that the councillor is delaying the process of placing them in the houses in an attempt to place her people. She further said that they will make sure that the councillor gets their message across. “No lesson really seems to have been sent clearly to her of what will happen if she transgresses our wishes,” said the agitated councillor.

One of the residents, Nicodemous Masango said that they were an example of an excluded and poor community which cannot be recognized because of poor political affiliation. “The current political setup requires one to be related to a government official in order to benefit from government process,” Masango said. They do not have electricity and they rely on a water pump which is 300 meters from their houses. The residents also faced a problem of poor sanitation. The unhygienic conditions of their toilets are very bad and had created a breeding space for worms.

“In another level we cannot measure the pain and sense of dignity we have lost in ourselves, you will never respect yourself while you are living in an environment like this,” said Masango.

Maxwell Mhlanga from Tshwane Metro said that they will investigate the matter and make sure that the allocation of the houses is carried out fairly and adequately.

“Corruption, I suppose, continues because of lack of consequences, if government officials continues to think they have done it before and nothing had been done to them, I guess the temptation is to continue to do it because nothing is done about it anyway,” he said.

My story about Winnie Mandela vising Polonia Primary School in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria

Madikizela Mandela visits local school.

 

Trevor Hlungwani

Winnie Madikizela Mandela paid a surprise visit to Polonia Primary School in Ga-Rankuwa on Thursday. The purpose of her visit was about the sanitary situation in the school. The unhygienic conditions of the blocked toilets which have been blocked for two years have left a breeding space for worms.

Madikizela-Mandela is currently the Chairperson of a task team chosen by Minister of Human Settlement, Tokyo Sexwale, to oversee sanitation in various local schools around the country.

Nomonde Botwana from The National Association of school governing bodies called Madikizela-Mandela’s office and alerted them about the unhygienic state of the school which does not have proper flushing toilets. Learners are still using the pit system toilet which is not safe for them. “I was very disappointed to see our children sitting on top of worms, which pose health hazards to them,” said Botwana.

Madikizela Mandela said she is disappointed on how the government, which people have voted for, has neglected their responsibilities.She further said that the government should prioritise the foundation phase because that is where we get to discover our future leaders. “It is a shame that 19 years after democracy, people are still suffering in a way like this” she said.

Madikizela further said that it’s surprising that Ga-Rankuwa is close to Pretoria where the Department of Human Settlement is located but still they are not given much attention. The Chairperson was joined by former Public Works Minister, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkambinde who is Madikizela-Mandela’s deputy in the portfolio. Mahlangu-Nkambinde expressed her disappointment in the government. “It’s a fact that the government budgeted money for infrastructural development but none is being used for its rightful purpose.” Said Mahlangu-Nkambinde.

Victor Molewa, the principal of Polonia said that they have struggled with the Department of Education for their help with the toilet problem but they have since dragged their legs.  The principal further said that flushing toilet were built in 1997 but couldn’t function properly  because fans that were supposed to be used for drying up faeces were stolen. He said the current toilets pose a health risk to learners.

“We just hope her visit will produce a good outcome because every time we asked the DOE for help they only brought mobile toilets which are not good enough for our learners,” said Molewa.The chairperson of the school governing body, Benjamin Kgatse, also singled out how the toilets are dilapidated which is not safe for human use.” We thought that the new dispensation and the transition to democracy will bring good lives for all but surely nothing has changed,” said the disappointed Kgatse.

Opinion piece about the rise of police brutality in South Africa Post-apartheid era.

South African Police Service: A history of violence.

Trevor Hlungwani

Daily, police and traffic officers can be seen forcing their way through traffic to smooth the way for privileged politicians travelling in blue light cars. I am sure our grandparents still remember the fear inspired by the yellow police vans and hippos that used to patrol South African townships. The duties of those officers were clear: to brutalize and oppress the black majority in order to enforce and maintain a white minority government.

Since the fall of apartheid, South African police officers have heard the word “brutality and force” replaced by “service”, but the grand question is: how many South Africans today can say they are confident our police are there to protect and serve us the public?

Recent acts of police brutality have put the South African Police Service in the international media spotlight and highlighted the need to reform the police service.

Who can forget the brutal killing of Andries Tatane in Fiksburg? The story went viral and also got international coverage. What could be the defense in killing a defenseless man protesting for service delivery? But the state is still dragging their legs in meeting out justice.

Citizens like Mido Macia are left to die in police cells and the 34 bodies lying in the dust of Marikana on August 16 last year is engraved in the minds of South Africans post-democracy. As if that was not enough, a Community Policing Forum chairperson in the North West was assaulted and dragged by police officers in their vans.

Thousands of trainees, desperate for jobs and with no ambition to serve and protect citizens, are entrusted with guns, badges and power over the public every year. Their poor pay makes them susceptible to bribery and corruption.

A police commissioner appointed from the ranks of a political organization will always have a particular idea of who he or she is meant to ‘protect and serve’. This creates an atmosphere for a police service that exists to protect the ruling elite, while abusing the general citizenry; I guess that’s what happened in the events that led to the Marikana massacre.

According to a Human Rights Commission official I once spoke to, SA’s constitution is one of the world’s shining lights of jurisprudence. It helped to create a just and equitable democracy but it remained an ideal that still have to be realized. He argued that creating just laws does not create a just society; the law must be put into practice.