Local is lively

The Puku Story Festival is a home-grown event and as far as we know, the only such celebration of isiXhosa literature in the country. In next Friday’s print edition of Grocott’s Mail, the Makana Sharp! Team, which brought you this week’s O-Week Guide, will preview Puku, within the theme of Stories and Storytelling. Included will be the full programme for the event.

Performances and workshops by uhadi traditional bow player Madosini ( http://bit.ly/GrocMadosini) will be one of the highlights at Puku and Grocott’s Mail is proud to be one of the partners in the project, which kicks off on 21 February in Joza’s Noluthando Hall, celebrating International Mother Tongue Day.

Authors Sindiwe Magona and Elinor Sisulu, Grocott’s Mail’s own ‘Licence to Write’ poet Hleze Kunju, and Tsepiso Nzayo are among the others on the programme over the next four days, during which the feature film Iintonga will also be screened.

On Friday 24 February, look out for an open mic session at the National English Literary Museum, where schoolchildren will recite excerpts from SK Mqhayi’s poem about the sinking of the Mendi in 1917, killing 616 South Africans – 607 of them black soldiers.

In the 17 February edition of Grocott’s Mail, we commemorate the sinking of the Mendi with a special feature with Grocott’s Mail writers Hleze Kunju, Nomonde Ngesi, Nomathamsanqa Tisani and Harry Owen as contributors.

Last night’s State of the Nation address was our most extraordinary yet, with talk of tsotsis, cable ties, biological injected weapons, along with actual head-butting and profanities in the mix.

With the EFF, the DA and Cope all declaring President Jacob Zuma’s unfitness to address Parliament and the nation, it was Cope’s Willie Madisha who was first was booted out of Parliament (and he’s no stranger to Parliamentary Protection Services), followed by all the EFF members (who did not go quietly) and finally the DA, who staged a walkout after leader Mmusi Maimane’s attempt to speak was met with shouted profanities and insults.

So it’s probably safe to say it was only the converted and the quiet who remained in the venue to hear President Zuma express distress at the death of 94 psychiatric patients in Gauteng who were moved from state care to NGOs, making many do a double take as he described them as among “the most vulnerable, who need protection from the State”. But it did not mean what it at first sounded like – rather that the State must protect them.

Radical economic transformation, the resolution of the land question and higher education featured strongly.

Our writers will look in detail at those aspects of Sona during the week and in next Friday’s edition.

Meanwhile, as news broke of the Department of Water Affairs’ R22 million claim against Makana Municipality (and Makana disputes it), the announcement came that the local municipality has improved its collection rate from 65% in 2014/15 to 65% in 2016/17 and this year aims for an 85%%95% collection rate in its urgent bid to build its reserves.