Author: Grocott's Mail Contributors

Articles on the battle at Egazini by *Pat Irwin provide an in-depth look at what is believed to have happened on the day of 22 April 1819. Here, the context of the larger war, which lasted about ten months, is examined by Professor Julie Wells. Knowing exactly what happened on the day of the battle is a daunting task. A radio journalist who tried in 1941, gave up in despair, concluding that ‘history is bunk; I am producing headaches for historians’. He had no doubt wrestled with the vague and muddled writing of Colonel Willshire’s report as the commanding officer. Such…

The Municipal Systems Act, Act No 32 of 2000 states that a fundamental aspect of the new local government system is the “active engagement of communities in the affairs of municipalities of which they are integral part”. The active involvement of the community of Makana is fundamental to the success of Makana Local Municipality. To this end, I intend to establish a Mayoral Advisory Council that will assist me and the Council to enhance service delivery and promote economic development. It should be borne in mind that the Mayoral Advisory Council is a non-statutory structure with no legislative or legal…

By JONGIKAYA MENE With the dawn of democracy, Grahamstown became the new home of a special cultural centre. It had started in Tanzania in 1986 as part of the African National Congress’s (ANC) initiative to create opportunities for vocational skills in various crafts. It was called Dakawa project and it was at the base camp which was 60 kilometres north of Mazimbu, home of the famous Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College for South African youth who went into exile. With the help of the Swedish International Development Agency, the centre relocated to Grahamstown in 1992 at Froude Street where it still…

As you drive east up Raglan Road towards Miki Yili Stadium for Saturday’s Freedom Day celebrations, take a detour and turn left at Nompondo Street. 200 metres along and to the right, on the corner of Ncame Street, you’ll see the Siphiwo Mazwayi Post Office. We republish a piece written by Elron Kleinhans and Sinethemba Yame in 2012 about one of Makhanda’s (Grahamstown’s) Freedom Struggle heroes. The research on the town’s social and cultural history was a partnership between the Albany Museum and Rhodes University’s Isikhumbuzo Applied History Unit. Born and raised in Grahamstown, Siphiwo Mazwayi secretly left the country to join…

Four Rhodes University PhD Chemistry students were awarded the top position in the 2019 Hult Prize Challenge for their electronic and electronic waste management system. Team E-Smart, Nobuhle Ndebele (24), Lindokuhle Nene (25), Reitumetse Nkhahle (26) and Gauta Matlou (29) participated in the 2019 Hult Prize Regional Summit held at the Brookhouse International School in Nairobi, Kenya, from 19 to 20 April 2019. In its 10th year, the Hult Prize challenged innovative University and College students from across the world to a social-entrepreneurship start-up that will create more than 10 000 meaningful jobs in the next decade. The Team E-Smart…

Compiled by Philip Machanick An increasing number of homes use solar hot water – even some RDP houses do – so I will not go into that but rather focus on solar-powered electricity and your options for surviving load shedding. Solar electricity Generating electricity directly from the sun relies on the photoelectric effect. Einstein described how this works in 1905 and was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. The essential idea is that incoming light converts to electricity. Since sunlight varies a lot, you need some way to smooth out the resulting electricity. There are two ways to do this: use batteries…

Four swimmers from Makhanda (Grahamstown) attended the South African Senior National Aquatic Championships over the week of 8-14 April. Of the four swimmers, two were from DSG, namely Toni Rafferty and Emma Podesta, while Martin Wolmarans and Oliva Lange represented St Andrew’s College. Toni Rafferty swam in four A Finals in the 50m (26,54) and 100m (58.15) freestyle and the 50m (28.39) and 100m (1.02.35) butterfly events, breaking her Eastern Provincial record set two weeks prior at the SA Junior Championships only to better it in the final of that same day. Rafferty was astounding and for the first time…

The Diocesan School for Girls (DSG) returned to Makhanda (Grahamstown) with the Rustenburg Champions Cup title, after a successful tour. The U16 school girl hockey tournament was held in Cape Town over the weekend of 12-14 April, with 18 schools divided into two pools of 9. Most of the attending schools were the top hockey playing schools in the Western Cape, with only DSG and Woodridge coming from elsewhere. DSG, who have had an unbeaten start to the season which included the recently held Woodridge Festival, and a win over Collegiate the weekend prior to the tour, travelled to Cape…

In my school days the stretch of the Kowie ditch between Graeme College and Fitzroy Street was affectionately known by kids in the area as “the driffie”. When it rained hard, Gowie Dam (near Graeme) would overflow, and black bass would get washed downstream and end up living in a number of decent sized pools in the driffy. One of my poignant memories as a youngster was catching my first fish with a piece of string, a bent pin and a grasshopper in a pool alongside the lower Albany Sports Club field. The driffie was an aesthetic stretch of watercourse,…

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. John 14v1-2 It was the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, and the disciples gathered in the upper room with Him were troubled. He had just washed their feet – a visible enactment of the ultimate act of service that He was about to undertake, namely the laying down of His very life for their cleansing and forgiveness. He’d then proceeded…