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Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko assured South Africans that security would be beefed up during the festive season.

“We will increase the number of police officers throughout the country to ensure the safety of all South Africans during the festive season,” he said.

Speaking at the launch of the festive season safety campaign Operation Duty Calls, in Escourt, KwaZulu-Natal, Minister Nhleko called on communities to report or expose any criminal activities in their communities. “As government, we need your assistance in fighting crime,” he said.

Visually impaired elderly citizens in Ga-Rankuwa, north of Pretoria, are planting vegetables to alleviate poverty and create jobs.

Joyce Sibeko, 68, is the founder and chairperson of Ikemiseng Association for the Blind in the area. Her farming association specialises in planting and growing vegetables such as spinach, carrots, beetroot and onions.

The village of Lubala in the Eastern Cape, has experienced positive changes over the past few years.

In 2008, when the War on Poverty campaign was launched, the village was chosen as one of the pilot sites to help improve the lives of residents.

At the time, the village was among the country’s most poverty-stricken areas and faced challenges such as a lack of basic services, high illiteracy rate, no access to primary health care services and lack of access to proper roads.

For many years, 56-year-old Cabangile Mdletshe worked on other people’s fields as a weeder. Mdletshe says life was difficult and she had to find ways to support her eight dependants.

Students now have the opportunity to learn maths in their home language.

This is all thanks to three South African graduates - Adrian Cox, Pratik Pokharel and Monique Baars - who founded ClickMaths, a non-profit organisation in 2012.

Cox, Pokharel and Baars were students at the University of Cape Town when they had the idea to start ClickMaths. They then formed a partnership with the Khan Academy, a global organisation that offers maths lessons on the Internet, to translate maths lessons into isiXhosa.

Slovoville Clinic, situated in Johannesburg, has become the first health facility to introduce an electronic health information system that will make the lives of patients and staff at the clinic easier.

While government is doing its best to ensure that all children receive quality education, parents also need to make a contribution to their child’s education.

One of the best ways to do this is for parents to take an interest in the affairs of the school their child attends.

More than 65 000 students at 11 universities and colleges have received their loans and bursaries through the new National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) direct pilot model.

The new model has provided financial aid totalling R1,4 billion to pay for tuition, books, accommodation, food and travel.

Since the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) some six months ago, countries across the world are scrambling to fight and control the disease.

In recent months more than 5 500 people have contracted the disease and over 2 500 have died.

While African countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are still battling to control the virus, South Africa is out of the woods with no suspected or confirmed cases of Ebola in the country and its neighbouring states.

Hard work, dedication and discipline were the ingredients of success for these top performing learners.

Rashmika Deeplal, a top learner in quintile four (fee paying) schools, was one of the 23 students invited to attend the 2014 matric results announcement by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga in Johannesburg, Gauteng last month. The class of 2014 achieved a 75.8 per cent pass rate.