‘The burden of my outstanding debt’
Lebo Mamooe* a Minning Engineering student shares his story on his battle to get funding. (more…)
Cool kid on campus
Photo: Supplied
This week’s Cool Kid is a charming and charismatic Witsie with a sense of humour and an Honours in Psychology. (more…)
A series on hairy, angry vaginas
A vaginalicious performance: Cast member Stella Dlangalala performed ‘My angry vagina’ for the audience and recieved aplauds from the giggling crowd. Photo: Thembisile Dzonzi
It’s time to hear and talk about the vagina, whether you like it or not. The Wits Gender Equality Office, Wits Centre for Diversity Studies and Transformation Office hosted the production, The Vagina Monologues, at the Atrium on Monday afternoon. (more…)
Who’s afraid of vaginas?
I can’t remember a time when my friends and I weren’t in conversation about vaginas, hormones, penises and all that jazz.
We throw the “v” word and the “c” word around at all most all encounters over a glass of wine in the midst of roaring laughter and revelations.
However, through the conversations I’ve encountered with women outside of my immediate circle I’ve noticed that a number of young women are much less likely to find themselves inclined to talk about their sexual organs and sexual health.
Somewhere between misogyny and patriarchy we have created this vagina Narnia that deems lady parts as a mystical part of the body that is covered in flowers of which flows an endless supply of rainbows and fireworks. When in reality, the vagina is the muscular passageway that connects the vulva to the cervix. This “thing” we don’t want to talk about, comes in all different shapes and sizes.
Why is it that we see women’s bodies on our TVs, in movies, and all over the internet yet we seem to have a problem actually talking about them in real life?
For a long time anything that is related to women’s bodies has been responded to negatively. There is an internalised fear of discussing women’s sexuality and a male-dominated society has deliberately constructed the idea of femininity to keep men in control.
It was Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex who argued that women have historically been treated as inferior to men for three reasons. Firstly, society teaches women to fulfil a male’s needs and therefore exist in relation to men. Secondly, to follow external cues to seek validation of their worth.
Lastly, women have historically had far fewer rights and therefore less public influence.
Did you even know that it’s normal to have bacteria in your vagina? Did you know that even healthy bodies have a scent and it is actually a good thing because that scent is your pheromones?
But you wouldn’t know that because you aren’t bothered to discuss these things with your doctor, let alone your friends.
Another concerning aspect of this internalised fear concerns going to the gynaecologist. It seemed to me that the women who are afriad to talk about their vaginas were more afraid to go to a doctor about a sexual health issue than an older woman.
Visiting a gynaecologist is a pro-active approach for preventative care of which pap smears and annual exams are very important. According to some health practitioners advise, a woman’s first pap smear should be done within three years after first having sexual intercourse or by age 21. In all honesty, Pap smears are simple tests that can detect abnormal cells on the cervix. Wouldn’t you want to know if there was an abnormality in the “v” thing you carry around?
Whether you have body image issues, concerns about the way it looks and smells or anxiety about achieving orgasm, conversations about sexuality and sexual organs would be a beneficial social activity for all of us.
Surely if you can’t talk about vaginas, then how in the world are you going to take care of one responsibly? Maybe if we talked about the vagina a little more we wouldn’t be so scared of it. Maybe we would have more respect for it and we wouldn’t think it was so “icky and gross”.
The birth control burden
The South Africa government rolled out a free implant contraceptive that has become a burden for women across the country.
BIRTH CONTROL BLUES: Implanon NXT, a small implant that gives women up to three-years of birth control, has been causing some of its users side effects such as excessive menstrual bleeding and fatigue. Photo: Lebo Mashiloane
Two years ago the government introduced a free contraceptive implant to the public health sector in what it called “the biggest family-planning programme South Africa has ever seen”.
But today, many young women are queuing to get the implants removed after complaining of side effects including excessive menstrual bleeding, dramatic changes in weight and fatigue.
And at Wits, the number of requests to remove the devices now exceeds the number of people getting the implant.
According to the Wits Campus Health, the clinic is currently at a stable rate of about three implant insertions a day and have about four requests for removal.
Matapelo Chauke*, a third-year Architecture student, is one of the students who has requested her device be removed. She has been on the free contraceptive for less than a year and is now living with the regret.
“It’s a nightmare,” Chauke said.
For Chauke, her troubles began shortly after having the implant inserted. “I got it last year around June and basically from the moment I got it I started experiencing the side effects,” Chauke said.
“The implant makes me really tired, I’ve lost so much weight and I’ve been bleeding excessively.”
“Look, it’s been a great contraceptive, you really can’t have much sex with it anyway,” jokes Chauke.
Sister Yvonne Matimba, head of Campus Health, said that when administered appropriately, the implant is safe. However, in many cases the “right patients” are not selected and patients are not informed fully about how it is going to work.
“We have had some of our own patients returning for the removal procedure, and others who had the implant inserted elsewhere,” said Matimba.
However, while some people do need to have the implants removed for medical reasons, others do not.
“One patient requested the removal of her implant due to fatigue while another sited her mother’s disapproval as her reason for the removal procedure,” Matimba said. “But most of the cases the clinic received are of students experiencing excessive bleeding over a lengthy period of time.”
However, Matimba said the clinic finds that some of the requests for removal are sometimes not as a result of the real side effects but because of perceived side effects.
“We don’t encourage them to stay on it, we are too quick to remove,” said Matimba.
Removing the devices can be a problem as well. The Treatment Action Campaign told Wits Vuvuzela that doctors and nurses had not been properly trained to remove the implant during the roll-out. In Mpumalanga, they claimed doctors were refusing to remove the device.
Sister Matimba said it was a challenge to remove implants that were inserted by other nurses or doctors. “We have had cases where we have struggled to take [the device] out. There was a girl who said she could feel it but I suspect she could have put on weight and could no longer feel it.”
“What happens once you gain weight, under the surface becomes fat and fat is very soft so anything can sit in the fat tissue which means you need to go really deep to get it,” said Matimba.
The devices were rolled out in 2014, when Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told of plans to introduce the female contraceptive Implanon NXT, a plastic matchstick-sized rod that is inserted under the skin of a woman’s upper arm. Each device is valued at R1 700 each and was made available to women across the country.
Motsoaledi called the campaign “the biggest family-planning programme South Africa has ever seen”.
The implant has been available at Wits since 2014, however the university was not part of the government’s initial strategy plan.
“Later on they may have realised that they left the entire education institutions behind and most young females are in university so they started targeting universities, particularly those who have family planning,” said Matimba.
*not her real name
Movie Review: Ride Along 2
Starring: Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, Tika Sumpter, Benjamin Bratt, Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong.
Directed by: Tim Story
Vuvu Rating: 5/10
Ice Cube and Kevin Hart are back for the second instalment of the cop comedy Ride Along. The odd couple are causing mayhem for the justice system with their explosive cars, gang wars and ass-kicking.
After Atlanta security guard Ben Barber (Hart) proposes to his girlfriend, Angela (Tika Sumpter), at the end of the first Ride Along, the sequel picks up with Ben and Angela’s wedding just around the corner. Now a rookie police officer, Ben spends most of the movie trying to earn his blue stripes.
After some convincing, James (Ice Cube) convinces the Atlanta PD to send him and subsequently his brother-in-law-to-be (as a wedding gift to his sister) to Miami, where they’re pursuing a big case involving a hacker, his crime-kingpin boss and Miami department officials.
The movie is at its most basic, enjoyable. Hart gives a comedic performance as usual and if you’re a fan of the first movie you will surely enjoy the second one. Trust me, not much has changed.
Besides a few new cast members, a lot more bikinis and guns, the only thing new about the second film is that instead of Atlanta (as per the first one) this one is set in Miami.
Ice Cube is as cold and stern as he was in the first film but by the end a heartfelt moment warms his frozen heart before Hart comes back with the comedy.
You can tell a lot more was put into the movie, the production value is higher than the previous but just because it looks prettier and is more expensive, it doesn’t mean it’s a better movie than the first one.
If you have two odd hours to spend watching Hart type foolery then this movie is for you.
Price says UCT ‘arson’ attack premeditated
The recent petrol bombing of the Vice Chancellors office at the University of Cape Town is under investigation however Dr Max Price believe the incident was premeditated.
Surrounded by yellow police ticker tape, the office of University of Cape Town (UCT) Vice Chancellor Max Price has become the scene of a crime after an arson attack on Tuesday night.
The second day of protesting at the university escalated with student’s petrol bombing the VC’s office after the removal of a shack erected for a demonstration.
“I wasn’t on campus when the petrol bombing happened,” said Price. “Fire alarms went off and a team was called in to put it out,” he added.
This comes after the Rhodes Must Fall #Shackville demonstrations which began on Monday in protest of the lack of accommodation for black students at the university. Rhodes Must Fall activists erected a shack on Upper Campus which was subsequently forcibly removed.
A student, who did not want to be named, said “a small group of us decided to burn Bremner, Max Price’s office.”
“The building itself works against the students … We made the decision that we have to target UCT, the space, the actual building because the building, the administration particularly, it works to push black people out,” the student activist added.
It was the frustration of violence and the symbolism of the act that lead to the burning of Price’s office “[Max Price] himself is the reason why police come on campus, why they fire rubber bullets, why they imprison our comrades, basically why black people are kicked out, he is the gatekeeper of the system,” said the UCT student.
But despite these sentiments the VC seems unfazed by the demonstration, “The office represents the head of the university. Therefore, I do not take it personally,” said Price.
Price also said the attacks were “acts of vandalism which were planned and prepared.” He said evidence in the form of bottles and petrol were found in the same shack used in the protest.
At this stage there is no evidence of who is responsible for the arson attack but an investigation is underway. “It is a crime scene and will be treated as such,” said Price.
#FMF protestor tries for (wo)man of the match
It was an interesting day on the soccer pitch on Tuesday night when a game between the Clever Boys and Kaizer Chiefs boasted an appearance by a #FEESMUSTFALL protester.
It was more than soccer obstacles in the way for Bidvest Wits on Tuesday night when during their clash with Kaizer Chiefs, a Wits student protester holding #FEESMUSTFALL banner ran across the pitch.
The student, Busisiwe Catherine Seabe, ran in the 78th minute of the game across the pitch waving the #FEESMUSTFALL banner. She was stopped by a player and stadium security and taken to the Hillbrow Police station.
“I was charged apparently with contravening an act from 2010, I’m not sure what this act is and neither are my legal representatives,” said Seabe.
Seabe was released this morning and has been back on campus, “I’m waiting to appear at the Hillbrow court at 8:30am on Friday, I am waiting to be briefed by my legal team about this,” said Seabe.
According to Seabe, she and other FMF members went to match without the intention of protesting.
“We were just watching the game funny enough and everyone brought tickets to support the team,” Seabe told Wits Vuvuzela.
Seabe said that while watching the match, she was inspired to stage an unplanned protest on the pitch.
“Bidvest is a large part of the Wits community. If Bidvest can come on campus and ask students for support then surely the students can ask them for support when we are facing issues of accommodation, fees … The soccer industry generates millions in revenue,” Seabe said.
After dodging Campus Control on the pitch, Seabe was eventually stopped by new Clever Boy S’fiso Hlanti who didn’t seem too impressed with her actions. “He actually just asked me what am I doing? What was on the banner?’,” said Seabe.
In the footage of the incident, a member of the Bidvest management team is seen approaching the apprehended Seabe and pulling the banner from her, “I was hurt in the scuff of the pulling, my pants got torn but it’s fine,” Seabe said.
She adds that even despite having exited the pitch and some fans applauding, Bidvest staff members were still unimpressed, “It was a bit violent to a certain extent even when I was off the pitch, PSL management was very upset.”
But it seems no one is as upset as her mother who believes fee protesters have already made their point, “My mom is livid! She keeps telling me I must stop, the country gets it now.”
Accommodation woes at NMMU
It is day 3 of the accommodation protest action at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University as students have staged a sit-in at the university’s main building to have their demands heard.
An accommodation crisis at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth has caused students and Student Representative Council (SRC) to stage a sit in at the university’s main building.
The sit-in, which had been going on since Sunday night, is aimed at accommodation. Hundreds of NMMU students who have found themselves without a bed despite having been accepted by the schools accommodation office.
“[Things were] hostile last night because students had blocked the building, however we are waiting to meet with the vice chancellor today,” Baxolile Nodada, SRC secretary general at NMMU, told Wits Vuvuzela.
According to the NMMU SRC, the university has 3 237 beds on-campus divided between George and Port Elizabeth campuses which only extends to 11.9% of the total student population. Of these beds, 33% currently accommodate first year students.
Nodada said no outcome was established at last night’s protest action but the university’s vice-chancellor, Prof Derrick Swartz, had committed to meet with students and the SRC where the group intends to hand him their memorandum of demands.
“Students are still occupying the main building (Embizweni main building). At the moment things are still peaceful, we are waiting for the VC,” said Nodada.
Nodada said the SRC has been accommodating students who are in need.
“We have found that some students were sleeping at police stations, outside buildings, in the SRC offices while some of them are sleeping in the toilet and the labs,” said Nodada
“70% of these students are from the poorest province in the country and cannot afford the off campus accommodation,” Nodada said.
Nodada added that the SRC through donations and partnerships is trying to accommodate and feed the displaced students at the Ekhaya residence “but there is not enough space for all of them”.
2nd day of lectures,still haven’t gone to any classes because of the #NMMUResCrisis
— Sakhi’ngomso ❤ (@kamncedisi) February 9, 2016
NMMU tudents, on sit-in, sharing their stories #NMMUResCrisis #NoStudentLeftBehind pic.twitter.com/LpXeLONf6T — Sisonke Mlamla (@SISONKE_MD) February 7, 2016
Students singing outside Embizweni, the sit-in has started. #NMMUResCrisis ##NoStudentLeftBehind pic.twitter.com/0PQ9iCruxB
— NMMU SRC (@NMMUSRC) February 7, 2016
Wits Business School offers scholarships
The Wits Business School has set aside R 2 million in scholarships for MBA students from across Africa who are in financial need.
With the conversation surrounding #Access still hot on the lips of students and staff, the Wits Business School (WBS) announced that the institution will be giving nine exceptional candidates scholarships for the 2016 academic year.
“The selection process is straight forward, we look at the candidate’s financial need, academic merit and career progression to see how they have done in the working environment. Candidates are required to submit a motivational video stating why they want to study and what they propose to do with the qualification,” said Conrad Viedge, MBA programme director at WBS.
The proposed MBA scholarships valued at over R2-million will be available to both full and part time MBA programme applicants from across Africa.
“The bursary is sponsored through the university with money sourced from our third stream income,” said Viedge.
There are different types of scholarships available: Full scholarships which cover the full tuition, textbooks, living allowance and an international study tour. The partial scholarship insures a sizable contribution towards tuition fees while merit scholarships provide for a smaller portion of the MBA tuition fees.
Before applying for the bursary, applicants must first be accepted into the MBA programme. Candidates will then be notified on the progress of their funding request.
In a statement Prof. Steve Bluen, head of the Wits Business School, said “One of our four pillars of excellence here at WBS is character excellence. Through this, WBS aims to graduate leaders that strive for inclusivity and sustainability and are driven by a desire to make a difference. But as a school we lead by example and the scholarship programme is just one instance of this in action.”
Applications for the first term of 2016 are currently closed but you can still check the WBS website for announcements regarding scholarships for the June 2016 MBA intake.
The sounds of Islam
In a community where listening to music is prohibited, the melodic sounds of the nasheed genre are a popular alternative in Islamic households. However, even in this religious genre of Islamic praise music there are contending views as to what is halaal and what is haram.
Seductive, explicit, harmful, shameless, vulgar, promotes vice, is not to be listened to or haram (prohibited in the Qur’an). These are some of the terms used by the observant Muslim community to describe Western styles of music.
Within the religious constraints of the Muslim community that prohibits music, nasheed is an alternative option. The genre has been popular in the Arab world for centuries but has also drawn a lot of debate in the Muslim community.
To unfamiliar ears, nasheed sounds like a combination of humming sounds sung in a variety of tones and melodies. It comprises various pitch formations and harmonies that sometimes mimic the sound of instruments. Nasheed can also be accompanied by a percussion instrument such as the daf, a traditional Islamic drum. It is traditionally sung in Arabic or Urdu.
In South Africa’s observant Muslim community, nasheed is sung in English and the use of instruments such as the piano have been embraced, particularly by the Muslim youth.
‘All music is haram and should not be listened to’
For Mayfair resident Junaid Bata, music played an integral part in his adolescent life. “Many years ago I was very involved with music. We used to play around on guitars and enjoy ourselves with music,” Bata says.
In Surah Luqman, Verse 6 of the Qur’an, it states “And of mankind is he who purchases idle talks (i.e.music, singing, etc.) to mislead (men) from the Path of Allah without knowledge, and takes it (the Path of Allah, the Verses of the Qur’an) by way of mockery. For such there will be a humiliating torment (in the Hell-fire).”
This reading in the holy book is one of the reasons Bata changed his opinion on music. He says, “In our religion we are not allowed to use musical instruments, and being young we were naughty.”
As Bata matured, listening to the rock and roll of the 1960s and ’70s became a distant memory of boyhood. “When I got married I quickly moved away from the wrong things and music was one of those wrong things,” Bata says.
Bata, like many Muslims, now leads a life without Western-styled music. Sharing in the orthodox belief that all music is haram and should not be listened to. For Bata walking away from music was an easy choice based on faith.
For many observant Muslims like Bata, the sounds of nasheed have to be on par with their religious values. Keeping the sound and its content clean is a priority.
The nasheed genre is popularly associated with international artists such as Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) and South Africa’s Qari Ziyaad Petal and Zain Bhikha.
Depending on their preferred school of thought, nasheed artists share varying perspectives on the religious boundaries of the nasheed musical process. Some artists prefer to take a traditional approach and only perform nasheed using nothing but vocals and Arabic, while others are experimenting with English lyrics and various instruments such as the daf and piano.
For Qari Ziyaad Patel, following orthodox dogma in relation to song is an important part of Islamic teachings. “My first and foremost priority is reciting the Qur’an. This is what differentiates me from other nasheed artists,” says Patel.
For Patel, nasheed can be described as a form of Islamic poetry made with soothing sounds that are accompanied by meaningful Islamic text. These are often sung in traditional tunes that have been passed down many generations.
“We all do know and we always follow the teachings of the noble Prophet Muhammad where he has mentioned in many of his narrations telling us of the harms of music,” says Patel.
“Wherever you go today you will find that wherever there is music, sadly a lot of vices take place at raves and clubs and so forth.”
Patel began singing nasheed some 15 years ago on a visit to Bata’s house where the two began a father-son like relationship composing nasheed together.
“My son made him read the Qur’an,” Bata recalls.
“I was inspired by his voice and I said to [Patel] why don’t you sing something and he said ‘what should I sing?’ and that time there was the war in Afghanistan and the Taliban,” says Bata. Patel interjects to elaborate that the pair were so impressed by the way children were taken care of during the time of war that they decided to write about it.
Over the years they composed a few more songs together, The Grief I Feel being one of their most popular songs. “I wrote one or two songs for [Patel]. The songs were a bit heavy,” says Bata.
“All of our songs are completely kosher. All our songs are in the spirit of peace,” Patel says, as he elaborates the non-fundamentalist aspect of his nasheed. For him nasheed is not music, it’s a form of Islamic praise poetry.
“We were taught when we were kids that anything associated with music will only bring harm and wrong with it. It’s forbidden. We were taught to be careful of the vices associated with music,” Patel recalls.
Despite the traditional approaches practised by Patel and other nasheed artists in the area, and worldwide, the more modern, instrumentally based nasheed industry is a thriving one.
Artists like Zain Bhikha have made the move to English nasheed and have found local and international popularity. Bhikha is among the handful of South African nasheed singers who sing in English and use instruments like the daf.
However, Bhikha still remains cautious about the restrictions of halaal and haram music. Most of his albums come with bonus tracks that consist of non-instrumentals or offer the drum versions of the original nasheed. “Inadvertently, by being cautious and my love for a cappella, I’ve created a niche for myself,” Bhikha says.
Zain Bhikha
In the past 20 years, the name Zain Bhikha has become one of the most prolific in the South African nasheed landscape. Bhikha’s career began with simplistic a cappellas, reciting the Qur’an on cassette tapes. It was in a fateful moment that one of his cassettes landed in the hands of Yusuf Islam, who was so impressed by it that he flew Bhikha out to London to record A is for Allah with him.
It seems the influence of working with former rock star Islam shifted Bhikha’s creativity from reciting a capella tunes to more elaborate tunes that consist of vocal layering, harmonies and drumming.
Bhikha has made a number of appearances on the Top 500 Influential Muslims in the World list, which is compiled by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, Jordan. He is also an international superstar in the Islamic music world and is often referred to as one of the founding fathers of the modern day nasheed. Though if you ask him, in his gentle demeanour, Bhikha would tell you “music is like a hobby for me”.
“I’ve seen this whole genre of English/Islamic music come from nothing over the last 21 years and every day I see new artists and every one of them comes with his or her own style. I think [the industry] is going to grow,” says Bhikha.
Bhikha adds that bringing an African influence to his nasheeds has helped distinguish him from other artists. “My songs are very African, you can hear the African backing vocals coming through, you can hear the influences, even the melodies, whilst contemporary, they have a very strong African background.”
But Patel feels the shift to English nasheeds is a sad sign of the Islamic community. “There’s a great shift to English nasheeds, sadly many a time the old folk and the young folk as well they won’t understand much of the Arabic sung on some of the nasheeds. The Arabic is of a very high level and even the Urdu at times is of a very high level,” says Patel.
According to Patel, Arabic nasheeds are easier to sing because of the way in which the Qur’an is written, it allows the artist to put a tune to the words with more ease. “That gives us the edge over English artists. Arabic is very versatile,” says Patel.
He adds: “You will find that some of our parents and our grandparents would understand. But the current generation, we have lost our connection with the home language so many tend to go and listen to English nasheed.”
Patel recalls how many of the nasheed artists started off reciting nasheeds without any music but once they are in the industry they feel the need to want to try and make their material more accessible through the use of instruments and English.
“They will start to try make their music better and start inserting a bit of musical instruments. So they will initially start by inserting instruments where there is consensus from the scholars, for example the daf, and as time progresses, they want to make their music and nasheed more accessible and eventually we find some youngsters having a full-blown musical nasheed,” says Patel.
For Bhikha, music is simply black or white. “Either it’s a good song or a bad song, either it’s inspiring you to do something that is in accordance to what you wish to emulate as a human being or not. A lot of the songs out there are teaching our children harmful messages, whether it be about the materialism of this world, whether it’s about disrespecting women, whether it’s about drugs, whatever the case may be,” says Bhikha.
“For me personally, I don’t subscribe to any particular dogma. However, I do believe that I’ve erred on the side of caution to make my music accessible. So all my albums are only with drums and voices and even on the same album you will find both,” Bhikha adds to his contemporary thoughts on the longstanding debate.
“The important thing is for people to focus on the music rather than everything else. We should focus on the music, focus on the message and make a difference,” says Bhikha.
His more conservative counterpart shares a stronger and more traditional view on the prohibition of musical instruments. “As a reciter of the Qur’an and a Qari of the Qur’an, I would say that this is totally and completely incorrect. For us and the teachings that we have been taught, music and instruments are not allowed,” says Patel.
Music on Islamic radio
For traditionalists like Patel, nasheeds should be recited using vocals and harmonies but no musical instruments whatsoever. “There are others who would beg to differ but majority of us here in South Africa are of the school of thought that all musical instruments are haram and should not be used,” says Patel.
Islamic radio seems to agree with Patel’s view and contributes to the conservative nature of the Islamic community of Fordsburg and Mayfair. “From a faith perspective if something is not clear, allowed or not allowed, people would rather abstain from that grey area,” says Ismheal, public relations officer at Radio Islam.
For Radio Islam in Johannesburg, the station only reserves 5% of its content for music. The other 95% is talk. “Our licence conditions don’t allow us to play music because we are a more traditional or if you would like to use the word ‘orthodox’. I suppose, yes, our listeners share this sentiment,” says Ismheal.
He adds that the station has conditioning measures that filter through all music before it gets put on air. While most stations are concerned with making sure their aired content is audible and complies with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission’s mandate, Radio Islam checks for lyrical content and the use of instruments. Their checklist is simple, “first people will listen to it see what the lyrics are, what does it say. The other is ‘is it accompanied by musical instruments’ yes or no and if it’s not, fine,” says Ismheal.
From a contemporary point of view, Bhikha’s sentiments are more concerned with the instrumentally populated Bollywood style of music. “It’s interesting in the debate about music because many people would say music might not be permissible but Bollywood music has its own genre and exceptions a lot of the times. I think it’s because the tradition of Indian culture in Bollywood is so strong there’s a lot of nostalgia there … but that’s also changing, it’s becoming a lot more modern.”
Within the large range of music on sale in the Fordsburg and Mayfair there is a split between traditional nasheed CDs and copies of Bollywood tunes that fill the album shelves in music stores.
“Like in many communities, music is a central part of the heartbeat of Fordsburg and Mayfair,” says Bhikha.
In the western part of Johannesburg, there is a plethora of small and big stores that cater to the musical needs of the Fordsburg and Mayfair Muslim community and its visitors, traditional and contemporary.
“Ultimately, I think all human beings want to listen to beautiful sounds and beautiful poetry, this is what makes up human beings,” says Patel.
FEATURED IMAGE: 1 MUSIC, 2 ARTISTS: Patel holding his album ‘Children of Africa’ and Zain Bhikha’s ‘Mountains of Makkah’. Photo: Thembisile Dzonzi
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App minuses minibus stress
A new web based app is taking the stress out of front seat taxi travel by doing all the calculations for you.
FRONT SEAT FOR DUMMIES: New app Phambili is making taxi travel less stressful for commuters. Photo: Thembisile Dzonzi
If you’ve ever been in a Johannesburg taxi, you would know how daunting the task is of sitting in front and counting the fare. Even with advanced arithmetic skills, calculating change for 15 people can be daunting.
The rule is commuters who sit in front are tasked with calculating the fare for the rest of the passengers. Now, thanks to a new app called Phambili, the front seat pressure is off.
Phambili is giving the taxi industry a much needed digital face lift and making the travel experience less stressful for commuters.
Phambili allows the user to enter the taxi fare for the trip. The app then adds the number of people that have paid and the amount they have paid. Using the details provided, Phambili calculates the change and tells the user how much the driver’s money will be in total.
The app has also recently been improved with a multiple calculation platform that allows it to calculate for trips with two fares.
According to logistics company Afta Robot, the South African minibus taxi industry is serviced by more than 300,000 vehicles transporting more than 14-million daily passengers.
Phambili is also a building a database of routes and their costs.
Access the app on their website www. phambili.co.za.
You can also take their “return change challenge” to see how the app works.
About WCJ
We Should Be Writing podcast
- Bonus Episode: There's a Zille on my stoepSince 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, […]