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High school learners in Athlone and Khayelitsha are providing support to victims and spreading awareness of gender-based violence (GBV) through a peer education programme called The Birds and the Bees.

Non-profit organisation Rape Crisis started the programme in communities where young people are often exposed to GBV in their homes and even at school.

Anna Annamalai is a life orientation teacher and school counsellor at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto. She believes that the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) new scripted lessons in sexual educaton are yielding positive results. 

The start of the new academic year has again seen bogus, fly-by-night higher education colleges and institutions trying to lure unsuspecting students.

The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande, has warned students and their parents to be careful of illegal or fly-by-night colleges as they are not registered as institutions of learning with the correct Sector Education and Training Authorities, the Department of Higher Education and Training and other relevant bodies.

Once a farm worker, Rosina Nevhutalu today owns her own successful vegetable and crop farm and is helping combat unemployment in Musina’s Tshikhudini village in Limpopo.

Her enterprise, Nevhutalu Farming and Services, employs six permanent staff members and between 20 and 30 seasonal workers.

The medical complications of ectopic pregnancies bring much heartache to expecting mothers. 

This is according to Dr Bushy Mhlari, the Senior Registrar Ectopic Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital.

The fight against corruption is not a battle that can be won by the public sector alone.

The head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), Advocate Andy Mothibi, encourages members of the public to contact the SIU if they are aware of fraud, corruption or maladministration.

The SIU, one of the key law enforcement agencies under the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, investigates allegations and collects evidence relating to these acts to build a case against the perpetrators, Mothibi explained.

Chrysalis Academy (CA), a youth development initiative, has transformed the lives of a number of Western Cape youngsters over the past two decades.

The academy is an initiative of the provincial government and was established in 2000. It runs a three-month residential programme for youth aged between 18 and 25. 

It targets youth at risk who may be unemployed, come from troubled backgrounds or have had problems with drug and alcohol abuse.

Parents are children’s first teachers and they play a key role in shaping their children’s character.

This is according to Bophelong Psychiatric Hospital’s Clinical Psychologist Boitumelo Moses.

Moses spoke about the important role that parents should play in holistically supporting children of school-going age.

“Parental encouragement plays a crucial role in producing successful students. It is also important to realise that their role is not limited to the home but should include involvement in school activities too,” she explained.

People who are in possession of illegal guns can hand them over at their nearest police station without being arrested.

Minister of Police Bheki Cele declared a firearms amnesty from 1 December 2019 to 31 May 2020. The amnesty means anyone who voluntarily hands over an unlicensed or illegal firearm to the police will not be charged.

Minister Cele has urged gun owners to take advantage of the amnesty programme.