Makhanda festival city
The city is renowned for its educational institutions, for being the national seat of the judiciary and for its cultural events
INVASION OF THE FIRST-YEAR KIND
Between 1,500 and 2,000 first-year students were expected to register in the heat on the Rhodes University campus at the weekend for the 2024 academic year, but the exact number was not known at the time of writing.
With various registration and fees stations scattered across Barratt and Eden Grove lecture complexes, the entire registration process, including the printing of individual student cards, operated akin to a well-oiled machine.
In welcoming groups of first-year students on the sprawling campus as they registered and reported to their respective residences, vice-chancellor, Professor Sizwe Mabizela, said the university was “delighted” they were on campus, trusting they would have a wonderful experience, growing and developing in the process.
This columnist has noticed, from several ‘registration visits’ over the years, a marked change in the first-year registration process, what with the advent of online registration easing many a ‘bottleneck’.
Nowadays, students need only collect their student cards which are printed by seemingly fancy machines on the spot, this after the registration and fee arrangements have been completed online.
As was evident by the branding and signage observed during visits to the campus at the weekend, there is an emphasis on Rhodes University’s 120th anniversary, dubbed “RU120”.
Student volunteers were out in force with “RU120” branding and ‘selfie frames’ for photos, and the RU 120 merchandise shop was up and running at the weekend, selling clothing and memorabilia.
Other signs advertised the O-Fest Orientation Festival carrying the words “RU 120 Years of Purple People” and “Rhodents for Life”.
The orientation festival took place on the great field on Sunday night, with musicians and performers having the ‘luxury’ of a professionally-erected big stage.
The past four days have seen first-year students engaged in academic orientation week activities.
The next three days on campus mark the return of the bulk of the student body to the university, and undergraduate lectures commence on Monday next week.
A NEED FOR BLOOD
With blood donation figures for Makhanda dwindling to a worrying extent in recent months, the Gqeberha-based SA National Blood Service (SANBS) made the difficult decision to visit the city twice a month instead of the weekly visits, as has been the case for several years.
The visit by the service’s mobile unit to the NG Kerk hall in Hill Street on January 9 yielded 25 units of blood and the visit two weeks later, 33 units.
With local schools and the university back in full swing, the SANBS is confident donor numbers will increase markedly each fortnight.
“We need your blood,” donor relations practitioner for the SANBS in Gqeberha, Tando Maseti said, urging Makhanda blood donors to come forward in their droves on February 27, the next visit to the NG Kerk hall, from 12 noon to 6pm.
In the meantime, the SANBS will be visiting six local schools for blood drives during February.
TEACHING AWARD
Rhodes University department of music & musicology head Dr Boudina McConnachie has been awarded the vice-chancellor’s distinguished teaching award. The annual award is made to individuals who have displayed selflessness in supporting students to become “co-creators of knowledge in their disciplines”.
REMEMBER THE DAYS?
When municipal parks department teams were assigned to spray grass and weeds encroaching onto local streets and gutters with effective weed killer?
Clearly that is not being done now — just look at Makhanda’s streets and gutters which are grossly overgrown.
Even busy George Street, one of four entrances into town, is looking shabby indeed in that regard.
A STARRY MINGLE
A social event with a difference, and taking place in unique surroundings, is the Valentines Mingle in the Observatory Museum in Bathurst Street, an event being organised to raise funds for the rehabilitation and refurbishment of the observatory exhibitions.
The mingle will be held from 6pm to 9pm on Saturday, February 17 with tickets priced at R200 per person including live entertainment, refreshments and raffle draw. Tickets are obtainable from the Observatory Museum or from Albany Museum in Somerset Street.
MUSICAL MEETING
The Music Society of Makhanda holds its AGM at 5pm on Friday February 16 in the mathematics centre adjacent to the Drill Hall on the St Andrew’s College campus.
KNOCK SHOP TRADING AGAIN
The Knock Shop, stockists of new and preowned furniture and antiques at the business end of Cawood Street, suffered severe fire damage two months ago, but the building is already in the process of being repaired and restored.
In the meantime, Knock Shop owner Craig Fourie will be conducting business from just down the road at the Boy Scout hall in African Street, adjacent to the bowling greens.
MORE HEAT IN THE BOTS
It was already pretty warm last Saturday morning when the 126-strong field of runners, joggers and walkers took to Makana botanical gardens (‘The Bots’) for their weekly parkrun ‘workout’.
It turned out to be a rather special day for Thoku Sipungu — not only was he the first parkrunner to finish the 5km course, he also, more significantly perhaps, recorded his 100th parkrun on the day.
A good number of parkrunners are within sight of their next personal milestones, whether it is 50 parkruns, 100 or even 400.
These parkrunners who have completed multiple parkruns braved the heat on Saturday and each have just a handful to go to their next goal — Odwa Mhlopi on 41, Caleb Manyika with 43, Melikhaya Jacobs on 44, Nkgodi Obed has 90, Cathy Meiklejohn is on 91,
Markus Mostert has 95, Natash Musarurwa has completed 96, as has Orrin Snelgar, Kenny Nolan is on 140, Helen McCallum has 147, Karen Davies has 149, Peter Stockwell is on 390 and Stavie van Aardt has 392.
Parkruns are held each Saturday at 8am from the entrance to the botanical gardens in Lucas Avenue.
FLOODLIT ON THE GREEN
Grahamstown Bowling Club is well into the second week of its annual Pepper Grove Pick n Pay inter-company night bowls league on floodlit greens, and the organising committee encourages family members, work colleagues and friends to pop along and support the competing teams-of-three.
Food and liquid refreshments are on sale in the clubhouse.
Local businesses and university departments that are participating include Settler City Toyota, Makana Brick, Operational Rats, East Cape Electrical, HiTec Security, OMNE, GBS Mutual Bank and IT Hard Drivers.
Social teams include Mavericks, The Damsels, Kenny’s Darlings, Bowling Stones and Karpkoppe.
Matches are played on weekday nights, with play commencing at 6.15pm.
ATHLETICS STARS
Award winners at PJ Olivier High School ’ s annual athletics day were: Marcelle Schoonbee (senior victrix ludorum), Jean Ferreira (senior victor ludorum), Mieke Gouws (junior victrix ludorum) and AJ Sias (junior victor ludorum).
A QUARRY DOWN BELOW
Motorists driving up or down Fort Selwyn Drive to and from the Monument might notice the Rhodes University student residences on the hillside above Hamilton dam, across the valley.
They may also notice the rock face close to these residences.
The rock face is what remains of the former stone quarry, owned and operated or call (046) 624-4356 by Grahamstown Municipality and where blasting took place and the huge rocks crushed into stone and gravel of various sizes for building purposes.
Concrete building blocks and paving slabs were also manufactured in the casting yard on the same premises.
There was a time, many years ago, when students would walk past the dam and the municipal quarry on their way to Settlers Inn Motel, owned by the Leach family, for a cold pint and a burger.
WHAT WAS THERE?
In last week’s’column, mention was made of Makhanda s four charity shops run by Hospice/PalCare, SPCA, Child Welfare and the Feral Cat Project.
A reader has remarked that it would be interesting to learn who or what occupied those premises years and decades ago.
Hospice/Palcare ’ s Sunflower charity shop is situated at 67 Bathurst Street which was occupied by Webber’s Grocery Store back in the 1960s and 1970s.
The SPCA charity shop occupies the corner property at 31 High Street, across the road from the former Grand Hotel (remember Leon Reich?), and former tenants were Miller’s Chemist in the mid1960s, then Café Mont Marte (Pardoe family) and later Victor Banks Refrigeration & Electrical Services.
The Child Welfare charity shop at 1 Coles Lane forms part of the Child Welfare offices which have been at the rear of former Dold & Stone Attorneys’ building since the 1960s, according to the Grahamstown Directory of that period.
Newcomer to the charity shop scene is the Grahamstown Feral Cat Project’s bookshop at 67 African Street.
Back in the 1960s to 1980s all the properties in African Street from Speke Street to Somerset Street comprised private dwellings, with the exception of Ellmore’s Motor Services.
These days there are all types of business activity — medical practices, restaurants, liquor outlet, legal practice, clothing outlet and others.
Incidentally, 67 African Street was owned by Mrs DM Priestley back in the 1960s.
ALONG MOONLIT STREETS
It started off about 30 years ago as a 10km night race organised by members of the Rhodes University Athletics Club and, after a number of organisational and sponsorship changes, the running event has become the Makhanda 8km Nite Race organised by Graeme College as a fund-raiser for its first hockey team.
Makana Brick is back on board as sponsor, and this year’s race takes place from Graeme’s Somerset field on Wednesday, March 6 — registration is from 4.30pm and the start is at 5.30pm.
One thing, though, that has not changed since the early days of the event when it was organised by Albany Road Runners and sponsored by National Lamps is that finishers will continue to receive a pineapple each.