By Mzukona Mantshontsho
This is Central Africa Drive on the way to Sgodiphola Secondary School in extension 6 Cosmo City. The school was given the name S’godiphola Secondary School by the informal settlers who moved to Cosmo City.
S’godiphola Secondary School was established in 2008. It is the second high in Cosmo City –north of Johannesburg (the first public private partnership worth R3.5Billion in South Africa). Cosmo City emerged out of an urgent need to provide accommodation for the informal settlers of Zevenfontein and Riverbend who had been illegally occupying privately owned land 25km North West of Johannesburg CBD. The school was given the name S’godiphola Secondary School by the informal settlers who moved to Cosmo City.
This drive is badly damaged, you wonder how damaged the scholar transport that uses the road everyday will be by end of the year, there is a bus that transports learners who live in Zandspruit Informal Settlement to school everyday. There are teachers who use their cars every morning to school, there’s private scholar transport cars that use the same road daily. We demand the immediate fixing of this road.
Local government sphere is critical for providing essential services to communities, promoting sustainable economic development, and ensuring a safe and healthy environment.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) on Sunday 18 May 2025, declared its commitment to solving South Africa’s pressing issues unemployment, crime, and service delivery failures during a packed national PA President Gayton McKenzie delivered a passionate address, stating:
“Our children are dying. We can’t just watch; we can’t outsource safety anymore. The PA is taking every municipality.
“I saw the potholes it’s a mess. Our country is in crisis: no jobs, no business funding, crime ruling our streets, and illegal foreigners acting with impunity. The solutions to SA’s problems are in the PA’s manifesto.” With the Local Government Elections approaching, the PA is positioning itself as the party of action.
31 years into our Democracy!
Observing the politics, emotions and theatrics at play every time there is a change in leadership; people react either with enthusiasm or strong resistance.
Our reaction to new leadership is based on the reputation of the existing leadership, combined with expectations and hopes of improvement from the new one.
Either way, the introduction of new leadership brings with it a weird mixture of uncertainty, combined with hope and excitement.
If we do not like our leaders, we must banish them,
if we do not like our government, we must fight to change it,
If we do not like the way things are going, we must speak out and stop it,
Building a great South Africa is the job of each one of us.
We can never entrust that to just a few people seated in the comfortable seats of OUR BURNT parliament – but we can direct them.
