Praises for women veterans
PUPILS from seven high schools paid tribute to women veterans yesterday in honour of Heritage Month.
Department of Home Affairs Deputy Minister Fatima Chohan hosted the event at the Dulcie September Civic Centre in Athlone yesterday, attended by pupils from Alexander Sinton, Mount View, Rylands, Bridgetown, ID Mkhize, Islamia and Bonteheuwel high schools.
Pupils learnt about the lives of Sarah Carneson, Georgina Goosen, Amy Thornton, Louise Asmal, Raghmatunisa Jaffer, Bulelwa Tinto, Nompulelo Sidina and Lynn Carneson.
In a moving tribute to Sidina, Yanga Yedwa, of ID Mkhize, said: “There is an ordinary-looking old lady (we youngsters call her Mams) Mrs Sidina, or you may call her Mam’uSidina, this woman was also married, before 1994, to the Struggle against apartheid, and is even now married to the struggle against poverty, and for development in our communities.”
Zenande Vanda, speaking on behalf of Alexander Sinton, paid tribute to the eight women, saying: “Had it not been for the many veterans here today, I would not be here to honour your sacrifice.
“My traditions mean nothing if I cannot acknowledge how I got the freedom to express them in the first place.”
Thornton said after seeing the presentations by the pupils, she was heartened for the future of the country, as she had been anxious.
“I think our future is not as dark as I thought it was,” she said.
Tinto said her word of advice to all was tolerance, “and then you will be happy to live together in a future that is crime-free.”
She encouraged the teens to tolerate each other’s values and religions.
Chohan said unity was a foundation on which South Africans will build advances for a strong and successfully united country.
She said South Africa was going to be a torch bearer for the rest of the world for progress and harmony.
“We are different, but the colour of our blood is the same.”
She said countries which exclude people spiral into war, and do not do well.
“That is why unity is the foundation on which we will build a strong, successful and united country,” Chohan said. The murder trial of Christopher Panayiotou, the Port Elizabeth businessman accused of paying hitmen to kill his wife Jayde, was postponed yesterday to December 2.
Panayiotou, 28, appeared briefly in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court. At his next appearance in December, the court is expected to set the date for his trial to proceed in the Grahamstown High Court.
The body of his wife, a 29-year-old schoolteacher, was found on the outskirts of KwaNobuhle township in Uitenhage in April, a day after she disappeared. She was assaulted, thrown in the boot of a car and shot in the back twice and once in the head.