Author: Grocott's Mail Contributors

The First Round of the 2019 Sunshine Coast Karate Open (SCKO) Championships was held at the Boardwalk Hotel’s International Convention Centre on Saturday, 4 May. The Championship was organised by East Cape Shotokan-Ryu under the auspices of United Shotoakn-Ryu. Competitors from Gauteng, Western Cape and Eastern Cape representing twenty clubs, contested the various categories which ranged from novice to elite level. East Cape Shotokan-Ryu (Port Alfred, Kenton on Sea and Makhanda) emerged as overall First Round winners of the Championship, with Joza Karate Club (Makhanda) in second place and PE Noord Karate Club in third place. The top five positions were…

The inaugural Sunnyside Street Festival took place in Artificer’s Square, at the intersection of Cross and St Bartholomew Streets, on 1 May. The area was closed to traffic for the afternoon and residents wandered around freely as performers, local craftspeople and food vendors shared their talents. Photos by Tom Jeffery

There’s a sneak in my area. The sneak comes sneaking along (not on Mondays, the collection day), dumping refuse bags outside my property, which is on the corner of Market and Nelson and Market and West Streets, the latest being six bags filled with garden refuse dumped on the West Street side of my house. Sneak, please stop it. Anyone with decency wouldn’t do what you’re doing. Sylvia Demetropulo

There has been lots of comment on social media about stray dogs roaming and allegedly attacking local residents’ dogs. The causes of aggression in dogs vary. A dog may have become overly aggressive because of its past experiences, including abuse and neglect. For example, it may not have socialised with other dogs as a puppy, or it may have had a traumatic encounter with another dog. Dogs are very territorial: once they get out of their own property, their instinct is to protect and defend themselves by attacking anything that crosses their path, be it other dogs or people. On the evening of 28 April 2019, two dogs, accused…

In the lead-up to the 2019 General Elections for the 6th administration, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) developed an analysis of the education budget over the 5th administration (2014 to 2018) with recommendations for the new leadership. The history of school infrastructure provisioning in post-apartheid South Africa is inextricably linked to the struggle for the equitable distribution of public resources. In addition, while there has been noteworthy progress in ensuring universal access to primary education – the delivery of quality education and adequate infrastructure has been characterised by a range of delays and severe setbacks. In its analysis, the PSAM notes with…

United Shotokan-Ryu and its affiliate, East Cape Shotokan-Ryu will convene the first Round of the 2019 Sunshine Coast Karate Open Championships (SCKO) at the Boardwalk Hotel’s Tsitsikamma Room on Saturday, 4 May. According to organiser and USR Chairperson, Gary Grapentin, approximately three hundred athletes of all ages and belt levels will compete in individual kata (forms) and kumite (fighting) categories catering for novice, intermediate and elite levels. Eastern Cape Karate Dojos will be well-represented, with athletes also expected from the Western Cape, Garden Route and Gauteng. The Men’s Open Kata and Kumite promises to be an exciting and action-packed category. Athletes…

Kingswood College recently hosted what has become its annual Co-Ed First team hockey festival – this year celebrating Kingswood’s 125th year anniversary. The festival was comprised of 25 teams – 12 girls’ teams and 13 boys’ teams. Over the course of the last ten years, this prestigious event has grown to include teams from as far afield as Zimbabwe, Western Cape, Durban and Johannesburg – not to mention a host of teams from the Eastern Cape and surrounds. This year saw the very impressive Windhoek High School from Namibia join the rest of the teams in Makhanda (Grahamstown) for the first…

Makana Municipality is committed to addressing the various service delivery challenges it faces. One way of doing this is empowering young people by capacitating them with essential skills. By encouraging them to get up and do things for themselves, we hope to instil in our young people the idea that poverty can be defeated. Young people have vast experiences, knowledge, competencies and expertise in development. As a municipality, we must utilise them to achieve our service delivery mandates. The municipality is happy to announce that, working with the provincial government, it has been able to employ skilled young people to…

Makana Enviro-News 266 – for Grocott’s Mail, Fri 5 May 2017 Compiled by Jenny Gon Working with nature This is the theme of Edward “Daddy Redbeard” Gaybba and his family’s enterprise ‘Redbeard Permaculture’, located 8km from Grahamstown on the Highlands road. Having relocated from Johannesburg last year, their aim is to develop their own permaculture demonstration site from scratch, and then to use it as a base from which to teach practical, community-centered, self-sufficiency. Participants in a recent outing organised by the Grahamstown branch of WESSA (the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) to the 10ha Redbeard Permaculture site were…

By Ross Marriner Tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) have in existence for four years and while most people have heard of them, many have still not taken advantage of this attractive tax-saving opportunity. Every individual is entitled to invest a maximum of R 33,000 per annum (R 2,750 per month) into a tax-free investment plan.  The main advantage of a TFSA is that all growth in this investment is completely free of interest, dividends and capital gains tax.  The drain that these taxes can potentially have on the ultimate value of an investment is substantial.  At the moment there is a…