CANCELLED CIRCUSES: Jabu Mashinini, chief electoral officer, and Thembelihle Dlamini, deputy chief electoral officer, work in the senate house offices coordinating the circuses and SRC elections. The all res circuses were cancelled due to not being enough time to visit all the reses said Mashinini. Photo: Dana Da Silva.
The residence circuses have been cancelled due to a new ruling that prevents students from campaigning in reses.
THE SRC election campaign is due to be severely curtailed after the university has ruled that student politicians can no longer campaign in class rooms or in residences, including res circuses.
This follows a meeting between campus political parties and the dean of students on Wednesday.
Initially, Wits chief electoral officer Jabu Mashinini told Wits Vuvuzela that the residence circuses had been postponed on Wednesday morning.
“They are not cancelled they are on hold pending further investigation and we need to ensure that we can provide safety and security for staff and students,” she said.
At the time, Mashinini said that the reason for their postponement was because of the fight that happened at the Great Hall during the inaugural SRC debate. “We cannot ensure safety for anyone at this stage,” said Mashinini.
However, after meetings with other electoral officers the tune changed on Wednesday afternoon when Mashinini said that campaigning in the residences, including the res circuses, had been cancelled. The reason given for the cancellation was that there was “no time to feature all the reses.”
She said the election office did want to give preference to certain residences and so all res circuses would be cancelled.
Instead of campaigning at the reses, circuses have been broken up into clusters, with evening debates taking place at Braamfontein and Park Town.
First hints that campaigning in the residences would be cancelled came on Tuesday when the All Student Residence Council (ARC) tweeted that the res circuses were postponed until further notice. This came straight after the brawl which broke out at the Great Hall between the Wits Economic Freedom Fighters, Progressive Youth Alliance and Project W at the SRC Elections debate.
This was followed by the cancellation of another circus planned at the West campus FNB Building during lunch on Wednesday.
Project W’s campaign manager Jamie Mighti said that, “the problem is deeper than” a decision to cancel the circuses due to a lack of time to feature all of the residences. He claimed that the real reason for the cancellation was that there was a ruling which had been passed by Vice Chancellor Adam Habib that prevents students from campaigning in the reses.
Mighti slammed the decision to cancel the res circuses. “Obviously it impedes our campaign,” he said, adding that it would create an unfair and unfree political environment for students said Mighti.
Mighti said Project W would be taking Wits University to court to demand the right to campaign.
“We are actually taking the university to court in the next two days,” said Mighti. He said the decision to cancel res circuses is a violation of the constitution.
Previously, when asked about the postponement of the res circuses on Wednesday morning Wits head of communications Shirona Patel said the decision would be taken by electoral officers.
“The electoral officers will be meeting today to decide how to take it forward and they are now reworking their plan to see what event they will have to lead up to the SRC elections,” said Patel.
JUST FRIENDS?: Sisionke Msimang spoke at the Ruth First memorial lecture presenting her research on interracial friendships along side Lebo Mashile. Mashile performed different excerpts taken from the research paper on racialized events. Photo: Samatha Camara.
Interracial relationships was one of the topics spoken about at the Ruth First memorial lecture by Sisonke Msimang, which she said is both possible but impossible.
Race in South Africa, while being a social construct, is a term bursting with meaning that can at times be a barrier to friendship.
Sisonke Msimang, a Ruth fellow, social commentator and writer, presented her research on interracial friendships at the Ruth First Memorial Lecture last night in the Great Hall.
Part of her presentation involved Lebo Mashile performing pieces taken from actual conversations that were recorded and real events as Msimang put it, “Performing real words on a stage forces us to confront their importance and it moves us beyond business as usual.”
To introduce the topic Msimang spoke about Aristotle’s three kinds of friendship.
The first is Friendship of convenience, where people interact “for example in order to do business or BEE deals.”
Friendship of Pleasure, where if the activity you engaged in, “say drinking or smoking crack”, were to go away there would be no friendship.
And friendship of character, where you spend lots of time together participating in activities that are mutually beneficial. In these friendship a level of trust eventually blossoms. A trust that becomes the bedrock of the relationship and ensures that no interventions are required to sustain the friendship. As the trust means that the friendship is already infused with a willingness to always be just to each other.
So then are your interracial relationships just? Msimange suggests that if whites want to be friends with blacks, they have to replace their distorted idea of the rainbow nation with a less ambitious vision of honesty and respect.
This ideological barrier means that white people may live in the same space as blacks, but they live in different worlds.
In Mashile’s performance she gave an example of how white youthful bonding has at times resulted in black degradation. One was of the admission of Riaan Malan to having sex with a domestic worker.
Another was of “white rage”, where Mashile performed a Facebook post of a white women who said that Apartheid was the best thing to happen to black people as it meant that they were now in a better position than white males. An example of the belittling of black people’s pain.
Msimange contended that if white people were serious about healing racial damage born of our painful past they can send their children to the same school as their domestic worker, celebrate the heroes of black people the same way they do their own and take black feelings and pain seriously. But they must do it all “without expectation of praise and hero worship”.
“If your friends with white people who don’t get it, then you’re not friends,” said Msimang.
If white people want to fit into this non-rainbow nation they have to find a way to squeeze up next to their fellow South Africans and those fellows need to move up to make room for them.
“Can we be friends across these ‘racial’ boundaries? Yes we can. And no we cannot. It’s that simple and that complex,” said Msimang.
BEING INNOVATIVE: Kamogelo Mphake is an audio and visual creative interning at the DIZ. She joins the group of non-Witsies who use the space to engage and promote technological innovation. A few kick-starters and start-up companies form part of this group as well.
A disused warehouse, with deteriorating signs, open brick walls and grey windows is where digital innovation is thriving in Braamfontein.
The DIZ or the Digital Innovation Zone is a new technological hub and co-working space that has opened on the corner of Smit and Eendracht streets.
Technology hubs are spaces where people, normally young people, connect, engage, design games, write apps, build new digital devices and invent new things.
The zone was brought to life by the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), a partner of Wits, so that students can share their ideas and become not just users of technology but creators.
“So we building this technology hub in Braamfontein which is a place of new beginnings. It’s really about youth, it’s about creating jobs of the future, it’s about really creating a space for digital innovation,” says the CEO and Director of JCSE Prof. Barry Dwolatzky.
Dwolatzky thinks that in the future of digital innovation should come from Africa. “So we have to become digital innovators, everyone who is going to be part of the future has to be playing a role in looking at how digital innovation works.”
Students and budding entrepreneurs can use the space at a monthly fee.
Xolile Vundla runs a company called the Digital Pad that looks at web and mobile apps as well as games. His prime reasons for setting up shop at the DIZ is that it provides space, infrastructure (ADSL) and expertise.
Vundla also said that Wit’s goals of promoting new ideas, innovation and skills development are closely aligned with his own.
“So I guess it’s a marriage of convenience in the sense that we’re promoting the thing that JCSE at Wits is also wanting to promote at the same time.”
There are also two firms that have taken up permanent residence in the space. One is Bushveld Labs, who create things such as robot orchestras and wireless networking solutions. The other is Trobok Toys who use their 3D printer to create digital toys.
The DIZ is also hosting a number of events to get students involved. One is a mobile app challenge where students are taught how to create an app. This will occur on Saturday 15, August.
There is also a innovation festival – Fak’ugesi, which is taking place from Saturday 22nd of August until Sunday the 13th of September.
GIRLS CODE TOO: The winning team was a group of Wits electrical engineering students, Chelsey Chewins, Bronwyn Scott (who won the best hacker award), Pelonomi Moiloa, Linda Khumalo, Sarah Ward and Dineo Tshaai. Photo: Provided
The all-women 24-hour hackathon took place last weekend at the University of Pretoria’s MakerSpace, with a Wits team winning the competition.
By Dana Da Silva
A group of Wits electrical engineers have won the first of its kind, all-women software programming 24-hour competition.
The event, which is called a hackathon, gathers computer programmers, hardware developers, software programmers and people from other fields to collaborate on software projects.
Thehackathon was put together by GirlCode, a starting non-profit organisation which will focus on coding initiatives like workshops for girls, and Boxfusion, a black managed and owned software development company which focuses on teaming up with the South African Public Sector.
“The concept of hackathons is nothing new, hackathons are a natural place to start generating interest for [information and communication technology] amongst the women community,” said one of the event organisers Zandile Keebine.
The problem is that women often feel “overpowered” by men when they attend these events. Which is why Girl Code decided to make it just for women, a first.
Teams were given 24 hours and a box of components to tackle one of the topics given by the organisers.
They had to pick from topics such as smart homes, women’s health, education and crime prevention.
Participants had to enter in teams of five to six people and had to develop solutions for their topic within 24 hours.
Thirty women attended with six mentors and three judges, Dichaba Rammopo (Senior Developer), Ian Houvet (Managing Director of Boxfusion) and Jaco Bezuidenhout (Manager of MakerSpace).
The competitors were largely made up of university students from a variety of institutions, such as the University of South Africa, Wits and the University of Pretoria.
“We decide to do a smart home system, which was basically like a home that runs itself,” said Bronwyn Scott who was on the winning team and won the best hacker award.
“We had temperature sensors, light sensors, motion sensors, humidity and water levels so you can water the garden and change the temperature within the house automatically.”
Judges had to choose the winning team based on whether they solved a real problem, were innovative, made it scalable and whether it was well executed.
“This solution has numerous applications and it will be no surprise to see it being the norm in a few years,” said Keebine about the winning team.
It wasn’t only university students and electrical engineers that entered the hackathon.
“What was quite nice as well was although it was an IT [internet technology] competition technically, they encourage that even if you had never done IT you come,” said Sarah Ward who was on the winning team.
There were also women who were interface designers, graphic designers, software developers, computer programmers and even a nuclear engineer.
“Having been there was really, really fun. So I think they should get out there and tell more people because it was actually a great experience,” said Ward.
TRANSFORMATION AT WITS: Sithembiso Khalishwayo, winner of this year’s photographic competition stands with his two submitted pieces. One was on interracial love and the other touched on one of the issues that Wits students face.
Students share their views and experiences about transformation in a photographic exhibition.
It took the judges of this year’s Wits photographic competition many days of deliberation and debate to choose which contestant truly reflected transformation.
For the past six years the competition has tried to provide students with a safe platform to discuss their views on transformation.
The Employment Equity office has run the exhibition and more recently it has been organised in partnership with Black like me – a brand that sells hair-care products to black women.
“I think what it does it just gets artists to kind of focus their art and focus some of their views on social issues of transformation that affect us,” said one of the judges, Thambi Pooe a SRC Transformation officer. This year’s theme was Journeys: Reflections of Transformation.
Previous themes were transformation at Wits, transformation through leadership and identity through hair.
The criterion that was used to evaluate the photographs was a combination of whether the photos touched on social justice issues and whether they had an artistic appeal. The judges had to choose from 160 photographs submitted by 40 people, which included students and staff.
They finally announced Sithembiso Khalishwayo as the winner, with Lucky Mqoboli in second, Samantha Camara in third and Cindy Dlala in fourth.
Khalishwayo was awarded first place at the opening of the transformation photographic exhibition at John Moffat by the head of Transformation and Employment Equity office Lindiwe Manyika.
“We chose this one winner because first of all this individual explored themes that not only the broader transformation theme but themes that resonate very closely to Wits students in one of the images that he took,” said Pooe.
Sithembiso Khalishwayo, MA Applied Theatre candidate, said that winning for him was just a bonus. “…right from the start, when I took those photos it was not about winning it was about, let me just tell the story and hopefully people can see that story. That has always been enough for me.”
Khalishwayo thinks that the theme of transformation relates to what is happening in Wits, on campus and with the students.
“For me it really explores how we view Wits, how we view society and how do we change things that we don’t like.”
Samantha Camara, Wits Vuvuzela journalism student, entered a three-part photo series which focused on gender identities.
“I just thought of ways that I could put the ideas I had regarding gender and different gender identities and how I could put that down visually.”
She said the competition provided students with a platform to discuss different issues and their experiences with transformation.
“So I think that’s really good and that it shows the transformation that is happening within the individuals in Wits and with that the transformation that will happen in the future as well,” said Camara.
Other contestants also enjoyed engaging with the theme in their own way.
“I think I liked the theme for this year because it speaks to what people are going through and what’s going on with culture,” said BA student and second-place winner Lucky Mqoboli.
His photographic series focused on how to “push the struggle of African Languages” as he believes they are being discriminated against by institutions such as Wits.
“I think it’s a great theme because it allows for a span of thought to come to mind. Like, I mean, it’s transformation, it’s reflections,” said Mineenhle Maphumulo, a BSc urban and regional planning student, who received an honourable mention.
She engaged with the topic in a different way: “Well I tried showing it in reflections, in different skin colour because that’s one of the key issues and key concept ideas considering South Africa’s context.”
ROBOT WARS: Leading up to the fights contestants had to put their robots through a number of challenges. Here robots El Diablo (right) and Deathray (left) raced each other with Deathray losing the round by driving off the stage. Photo: Samantha Camara
“It’s robot wars fuck yeah! Oop’s there’s kids around,” shouts Ryan Young as he announces the beginning of this year’s Robot Wars which took place at Geekfest on Saturday.
Robot wars is an annual tournament that has taken place at Geekfest for the past three years where people build up their own robots and battle it out. A geeky event where participants, such as myself, “have some fun, test their metal and that’s it,” says organiser Richard Harman.
On the day, the wars started out with the robots having to do a couple of challenges to earn points such as tug of war, a speed race and knocking over colourful bottles.
El Diablo, a rectangular silver plated robot with barracuda MX8 tracks, and my team’s robot Deathray, a blue metal plated kite with a flail, are the first to take part in the challenges. The Krugernator, a sleek black robot with a claw that has a crushing force of 800kg, arrives late but just in time to take part.
Once all of the challenges have been completed El Diablo comes out on top of the rankings, but others didn’t do so as well.
“So far it hasn’t treated us all that well, we haven’t done that well in the challenges, which have been on things like speed and so on,” says software programmer Mike Krug whose team built the Krugernator.
“But I think the true test is in the final challenge,” he says before the final fight.
To get a robot to a point where it can speed around a platform isn’t easy, there is a lot of time, money and energy that goes into building these mean machines.
“The usual challenges were prototyping, things like parts that don’t work because they’re not intended for what you’re doing or they are too light,” says David Menasce who built El Diablo.
Other difficulties included time restrictions, space constraints and making sure that you follow the rules. “We tried to remain within the regulated rules of the competition as well,” says Romeo Botes, the driver of the robot Monty, when he spoke about trying to fit in a weapon.
Monty, the fourth robot, finally arrives before the last fights. Here the four robots have to fight one on one until a champion is declared and then they face off in the four-robot annihilation round.
Monty, a wedge robot with black metal plates and yellow wheels, puts up a fight but he’s no match against El Diablo. Then it’s my team’s Deathray against the defending champion, The Krugernator. The fight is fierce but in the end Deathray was victorious.
The next fight ends with a tie as Monty is unable to push The Krugernator off of the platform and then its El Diablo and Deathray in the final battle. The two spin around each other for a while but El Diablo is victorious as he finally pushes Deathray out of the arena before driving off himself.
Last but not least is the four on four fight. Deathray is the first to be excluded as he drives himself off the stage. Then it’s the Krugernator and El Diablo, the two face off for a bit, but it’s El Diablo who wins in pushing force. Now it’s just El Diablo and Monty, who was unable to move from his corner and, after a few misses, El Diablo finally takes victory.
“It feels awesome! It’s a huge adrenaline rush. It’s very rewarding after putting all that effort into it,” says Menasce as he happily holds his robot after the fight.
HOT SPOT: Deanndra Pillay and Nikita Daya, studying actuarial sciences, use their technological devices to study for a test at the coffee shop in Senate House. Photo: Dana Da Silva
Many students are keen to learn new skills but aren’t being given the chance to do so. This was one of the findings of a recent survey which assessed what kinds of technologies students have access to and what they use it for.
Conducted by the Wits elearning unit and the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development (CLTD) during this year’s Orientation Week in February, the survey yielded some interesting insights.
“79% of first years have cellphones”
Liana Meadon, an education developer at the elearning unit, says the survey revealed that students want to improve their critical digital literacy by knowing how to communicate through emails, being able to assess if a source is reliable and how to use technology to further their academic studies.
One of the issues raised is that academics don’t equip with certain skills. Students rate themselves low on the skills ladder because they are not required to use skills during the learning process.
The survey results are still being finalised but the first year data has so far showed that 79% of first years have cell phones, while iPads don’t feature very high. Surpring to some, it also revealed that Witsies aren’t gamers, they don’t own their own gaming devices and don’t spend time playing games offline and online.
“We can’t run away from tech, it is here and as Wits we need to embrace tech with teaching and learning more fully,” says Meadon.
The elearning unit incentivised participation in the survey through a competition where students could win iPods, iPads and coffee vouchers. The winners of the survey were announced yesterday afternoon in front of the Wits Great Hall.
The dismissal of Mcebo Dlamini as SRC president was in line with the SRC constitution. However the provision allowing the vice-chancellor to do so is vague and could create an “opportunity for arbitrary used of power” according to a legal expert.
The decision to remove the Mcebo Dlamini as SRC president was in line with the SRC constitution, however there are “abnormalities” in the provision that was used, said the deputy head of the Wits School of Law.
Dlamini was removed from his position on May 4 by Vice Chancellor Adam Habib who said the former SRC president had been found guilty of misconduct before a disciplinary hearing.
Mtendeweka Mhango the Deputy Head at the School of Law at Wits said Dlamini had been removed in accordance with the SRC Constitution.
“However, it is important to mention that there are a few abnormalities in the above provision, which have been brought to the fore in the current case involving the SRC president and which need to be examined,” he said.
In this case, clause 11(4)(e) of the SRC Constitution was used by the Habib to remove Dlamini. It states that a member of the SRC ceases to be a member if they are found guilty of misconduct by a student disciplinary committee. The member may appeal to the vice-principal or the vice chancellor.
Mhango said, however, the provision is not clear because while it gives power to the vice chancellor it does not describe the legal processes for a SRC member who wishes to appeal. It does not explicitly say what process should be followed when appealing to the vice chancellor or what power the vice chancellor has in granting the appeal.
“This is a problem as it creates opportunity for arbitrary used of power,” said Mhango.
It is also unclear whether the word “appeal” means a request for sympathy to the vice chancellor to not be removed or if it means an application to another person of higher authority for a decision.
The case with Dlamini
Dlamini appeared before a disciplinary panel in February this year where he was found guilty of insulting and assaulting senior members of the university.
In March, Wits Vuvuzela reported that as a result of this verdict, Dlamini was suspended as president. He was allowed to continue studying although he was given a one year suspended sentence of expulsion.
Following the sentence, Dlamini appealed to Habib by asking that his suspension as SRC president be deferred pending the outcome of a review of the disciplinary panel’s decision. Habib agreed, provided the review would be completed in 14 days which did not happen.
Dlamini opposed the delay of the review saying it was the fault of the Wits Legal Office, according to a statement by Habib. Habib said he believes that this delay was partly a result of Dlamini’s inability to provide required documentation to the Legal Office on time.
On the Monday, May 4, two months after Dlamini’s initial suspension, Habib announced that he asked Dlamini to step down as president. He said it appeared as if Dlamini was “deliberately delaying a final decision until the end of his presidential tenure.” This, Habib argued, “would be a violation of the SRC constitution and the principle of justice”.
Habib has denied the former SRC president’s removal was related to his comments in media where he expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and Dlamini’s claims that every white person had a bit of Hitler in them.
CONGA LINE: As part of a flash mob medical students form two separate conga lines dancing and holding balloons from the East campus library lawns to the Great Hall. Photo: Dana Da Silva
Wits friends of MSF held a MP3 directed flash mob Wednesday afternoon dancing from East all the way to West campus.
Two conga lines, separated into men and women, danced their way towards the Great Hall Wednesday afternoon to the rhythms of Gloria Estefan holding red and black balloons.
It was like a scene from a music video … except there wasn’t any music.
Medical students held an MP3-directed flash mob at lunch time this afternoon named The Calling.
For this type of flash mob the MP3 with the music and directions was released to the flash mobbers the day before. Students then had to download it onto a music playing device and find some earphones through which to listen. On the mp3 were directions as to where the students needed to go, do and dance to.
The students then danced around campus to music only they could hear therough their earphones.
“We decided to do a flash mob because we heard about this event called the MP3 experiment that they did in San-Francisco. They have thousands of people doing a silent flash mob, like this one. So we were inspired by that and decided to do our own version,” said organiser Katherine Burgess.
Some of the music that they listened along the way was Psy’s Gangnam style, Tightrope by Walk the Moon and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
This mp3 coordinated mob was put together by the Wits friends of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and was intended to raise awareness of the MSF branch on medical campus.
Students were also given a variety of props that they used throughout the event. Bubbles, plastic flowers and water guns were some of items given to them along the way.
That spectators could not hear the music made the event more interesting. “I felt like we were in our own portal, like no else knew what the hell you were listening to,” said Yoshin Barnabas, 3rd year Medicine.
Ferini Dayal, MBBCH student, said that this made it seem like a silent rave movie.
The medical students believed that this flash mob helped main campus students to see them in a different light. “It’s a good opportunity to show everyone else that medical students are capable of being a little bit more eccentric than people think we are,” said Barnabas.
“Everybody thought we were a bunch of weirdos,” said Saira Carim, MBBCH student. This flash mob may have seemed strange to those who were not participating, but overall students agreed that it had been an incredible experience.
LETTER TO ZUMA: Mia Couto, a revered Mozambican writer, wrote an open letter to Zuma concerning the xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
What motivated you to write an open letter to Jacob Zuma?
It was the news that arrived from our Mozambican compatriots who were subjected to the persecutions in Durban and in other cities. I, my brothers and my family had, in that week, created a cultural foundation. And we thought that we couldn’t stay indifferent to what was happening.
As a Mozambican and a writer, what do you think should/can be done in order to remedy the situation?
I think that it does not only depend on the actions of government. That action is decisive and above all, governments can’t find scapegoats as an excuse for not taking on their responsibilities towards those who are the poorest, from one side or the other side of the border. But other things also need to be done.
South Africans have a stereotypical image of Mozambicans. They are simply “work force”. They aren’t people who produce thought, sentiments and art. That would be the responsibility of Mozambique: to make known the richness of culture and diversity of Mozambicans. So that the South Africans can know them better. We can only like what we know. And even while we are neighbours, we still don’t know a lot about each other.
In your letter you mention that feelings of solidarity and the remembrance of a shared history should be recreated. Why and how do you think this should be done?
After my letter had been published I found out that among the youth that commented with me about this issue, many were completely unaware of how much Mozambique supported, with much sacrifice, the fight against apartheid. It’s sad how history is lost so quickly. The past to stay alive needs to be recreated.
What do you think of Zuma’s response to your open letter?
It was a surprise. I never imagined that a president would respond to a simple writer be him foreigner or national. I am sure that he wasn’t exactly talking to me. But he wanted to speak to others and explain the internal reasons that create xenophobic feelings. Over this part of the letter I would prefer not to comment.
Do you think enough has been done by the South African government to prevent the persecutions of Mozambicans?
Like I said in the letter, our view in Mozambique is that what was done was little and late. Also, I think that those who encourage these phenomenons of violence can’t be left unpunished.
Do you think that the long term and short term measures that Zuma mentioned on implementing in his letter will help to resolve the issues that triggered the attacks?
There is no country in the world where the large social crisis don’t search for a culprit that is always the “other”, being that other from another religion, race or nationality.
What governments should do is to work so as to protect all citizens that live legally in their country, so that they live without fear and with the right to have hope and belief in their future.
LIVE ACTION: Kara Úlfhéõnar, played by the author, and Drogar Thromek Úlfhéõnar, played by Ryan Young, take over a village with their adventuring group at a LARPING event.
“Prepare to die!” I shout at the wife of the freshly slain barbarian chief of village that I and my fellow adventurers have taken over.
I’m waving my polearm—a long staff with a sharp blade at the top, at the wife. The “wife” is actually a man in drag who is wearing a black wig, a fur belt and trying to speak in a womanly voice as he attacks me.
I’m dressed to match with a skirt of riveted leather, long black boots and a fake-metal corset made of foam. I’m splattered in fake blood.
Sounds strange? Welcome to the world of ‘LARPING’, Live Action Roleplaying. In this fantasy world you create your own character, costumes and weapons. It may seem a bit childish, but they are attended by adults who travel hours to get to each event.
I have been LARPING for a few years and as a result have accumulated a wardrobe filled with weapons and costumes for different characters. A top hat with peacock feathers when I was a voodoo priestess, fake wolf skin hat from my time as a barbarian and pointy ears for my archer elf character…I have so much stuff.
I’m playing a barbarian called ‘Kara Úlfhéõnar’. Kara’s family decided that it was time to find a new home, for us this meant conquering and attacking someone else’s village.
Before we get to kill anyone on the day we get an introduction to our adventure. We’re told that along the way to finding a village we have to dissuade our barbarian ‘family’s’ head Hammerin from attacking Minotaur villages. This is not too difficult as Hammerin, when in character, has a normal intelligence of a barbarian. On weekdays, when Hammerin is not trying to burn down villages, he’s a 27-year-old software tester.
We convince him the place he wants to attack is “a village of cows” with no people to fight. Hammerin, who has a shave head and is bare-chested wearing only a kilt, agrees reluctantly. He likes bashing things.
Along the way we encounter a small barbarian child (not really a ‘child’ but just a really short woman who can pull off a very squeaky voice) who complains and asks for our weapons.
“You want weapon?!” I shout “We fight then!” At which point she looks at me strangely and starts talking to someone else.
But while the ‘child’ is being annoyingly squeaky (making all of us want to kill her both in character and in real life) she indirectly tells us that there is a barbarian village nearby, which sounds like the place for us.
Our approach to attacking the village is very much hit and miss, we hit them and they hit us back harder. We attack with our weapons—made of foam—to no avail leading to the ‘death’ of our entire party.
After a few minutes of pretending to die under some shade we ‘resurrect’, and prepare to attack again.
This time we try a different tactic where we each fight the chief individually. Hammerin was up first, shouting “four normal!” (the type and amount of damage) and attacking with his sword while blocking with shield. Our healer, dressed in a white fur robe with a wolf-head hat and is holding a skull he calls ‘Mother’, soon enters the fray. He kills the chief but is called a cheater by the villagers because he used a healing potion on Hammerin.
So instead the village elder decides that the chief’s wife is now the chief. The wife grabs a dual wielding sword and is ready for battle. “Ragnar”, a 26-year-old blast door technician, attacks with his polearm but it is not enough.
Since the men aren’t getting anywhere, I am approached by the chief’s wife, the man dressed in drag, who asks that we decide this between the women. I respond with a grunt of approval and we fight, dealing a 100 points.
The villagers all bow down to me as I let out a victory cry.
The Orbit Jazz Bar in Braamfontein celebrated international jazz day with a focus on the people affected by xenophobia in South Africa.
JAZZ NIGHT: Thandi Ntuli and her bandmates came together to celebrate international jazz day at The Orbit. Photo: Michelle Gumede.
International jazz day came to Braamfontein on Thursday, March 30, with a performance by pianist Thandi Ntuli and her band. The global event created by UNESCO is aimed at celebrating the qualities and the virtues of jazz, but the local celebration also made use of the performance to collect donations for affected by the recent wave of xenophobia.
The Orbit, hosts of the event, partnered with local charity, Gift of the Givers, who have been working with displacement camps that are currently housing people left homeless through xenophobia.
For Ntuli it wasn’t just about performing on stage and asking people to donate to the charity, it was about using the event to make a difference.
“Am I going to say ‘Oh no’ those bad people or I am going to do something positive in light of what’s happening”, said Ntuli.
Audience members were asked to donate towels, non-perishable food items, disposable diapers, hygiene packs, winter clothes, and other items.
These would then be collected later by the organization who will distribute them to camps in Johannesburg and Durban.
Celebrating the beauty of jazz
The Orbit was filled to capacity for the evening’s celebration of jazz. Amaeshi Ikechi, the band’s bassist, said that for him jazz had started off as just as musical improvisation.
Sphelelo Mazibuko, the drummer, believes that jazz is an expressive language that transcends all other genres.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re young or if you’re old. It’s expressionate (sic), it’s fresh and it keeps growing,”said Mazibuko.
Since her announcement as the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Helen Zille has dominated national headlines. In this bonus episode of We Should Be Writing podcast, hosts Lulah Mapiye and Bonolo Mokonoto dissect a media meet-and-greet with the mayoral hopeful. From her extensive political résumé to her controversial public utterance, we examine why the Democratic Alliance has chosen Hellen Zille as their candidate for the 2027 local mayoral elections. Additionally, […]
