Rape Campaign Event

On the 8th of June 2013, The Sexual and Gender-based Violence Campaign held its first rape campaign event in Mamelodi.

The Sexual and Gender-based Violence Campaign partnered with: Life Line, Itsoseng Clinic, Community Police Forum, Sonke Gender Justice Network, Izwelithini Community Development Project and the community. 

The drives aims to inform rape victims about the steps that they need to take after a rape case. They also inform them about which conselling and treatment facilities they can go to. 

In the video below, are some of the events that took place during the launch.

Mamelodi Book Drive

The Humanities Faculty at the University of Pretoria held a book drive in Mamelodi on the 1st of June 2013. The  book drive was inspired by the Nelson Mandela Day Project which encourages people to give 67 minutes of their time to charity. This in commemoration of the 67 years that Mandela devoted to serving his community and country.

The purpose of the book drive is to collect and distribute books to three primary schools in Mamelodi: Mogale Primary School, Nwa Vangani Primary School and Dr IM Monare Primary School.

This year Ms Leti Kleyn, a Academic Literacy lecturer at UP, hoped to establish three reading rooms at the primary schools which are to benefit from the book drive.

In the video below we have a few people associated with the book drive initiative share their views on the importance of reading.

Behind the scenes: 4 days to go

We only have 4 days left to work on The Mamelodi Voice and as you can see, we are working hard to produce a paper worth reading

"The Mamelodi Voice is not a job, or an assignment, it is a privilege and a lot like a roller-coaster ride."

Mart-Marie van den Berg was the editor of the Mamelodi Voice in 2010. She wrote a note on her experience

“The Mamelodi Experience,” as I like to call it, is a fulfilling, exciting and daunting task. We barely knew each other before we boarded the first bus that would take us to the opening of the Gauteng Legislature at the Mamelodi Campus of the University of Pretoria. We were a shivering, wet and miserable-looking group of journalism students who waited a couple of hours for the Premier of Gauteng to arrive. The assignment was easy: report on the opening of the Legislature, but it was like first year orientation – the initial suffering will bond a group. That was our first Mamelodi outing, and it was full steam ahead from there.

Two months later we suddenly had titles – sub-editors, layout artists, copy editors, you name it. As editor, I kept the fact to myself that I had no idea where we should start, or how we should go about “this reporting thing” as one of the Mamelodi Voice journalists called it.

So we started by visiting Mamelodi (sometimes more than four times a week) and asked the locals what they want to read about. Then we started having fun, fights and sleepless nights. I wanted to scream when I had to read an article for the 35^th time, but someone had to do it, and I was not the only one. We had a great team, with the exception of some members who literally were great at just not being there. Those who were there everyday pulled more than their own weight and made my job easier.

It is not all hard and certainly not all easy, but reading the first printed copy makes it all worth it. Suddenly you forget the tears, arguments and blurry eyes from staring at the computer and just revel in the success of the past couple of months.

My favourite moments:

Experiencing the hospitality of the Mams locals first-hand – every time we visited.

Early morning cupcake-and-coffee sessions with our Editorial Manager, Musi Kahimbaara, Deputy Editor, Reinart Toerien and News Editor Marthé Kotze.

Hearing the “Mamelodi at Night”-stories after Maryke van Staden and Musi Kahimbaara partied with the locals.

Seeing the first printed edition and thinking, “We actually did it!”

The Mamelodi Voice is not a job, or an assignment, it is a privilege and a lot like a roller-coaster ride: A hell of a lot of fun with whoops of joy coming out of your mouth on the climb while the downhill sees you trying not to pee in your pants.

What to expect, stories captured in pictures

A glimpse into the stories that each reporter is working on


Story by: Abigail Javier and Bonita Du Plessis
Pictured: Koketso Dlongolo and Bonita Du Plessis enjoying a meal from a street cafe.

Story by: Buntu Mawu and Aimee Delagay
Pictured: Softball team from the Mamelodi Softball Foundation 

Story by: Simisola Jolaoso
Pictured: Simisola  with Bongani Nkosi, who does fossil casting

Story by: Sungani Phiri
Pictured: Tebogo Mmotlana at the Red Square social in Mamelodi

Story by: Dikgang Kekana
Pictured: Ms Earth South Africa at the Walter Sisulu Environmental Centre in Mamelodi

Story by: Natalie Ryder
Pictured: Abigail Javier with bikers Urban Fellas at a rape campaign in Mamelodi

Story by: Neil  Pretorius
Pictured: Edwin Smith and Neil outside the Mae Jamison US Science Reading Room on Mamelodi Campus

Behind the scenes: 7 days to go

With 7 days to go till the final copy has to be completed the layout and copy team is working tirelessly to place and edit the articles for the newspaper.

 

Raising The Mamelodi Voice

Marenet Jordaan, one of the Journalism lecturers at the University of Pretoria, shares some insight on The Mamelodi Voice.

Three years ago the Journalism students of the University of Pretoria began a reporting project in Mamelodi. Most were new to the area, and many said they felt lost. This changed quickly when they met the people of Mamelodi, who opened up their hearts and poured out their stories of goodwill, hope and, yes, sometimes heartache.

Since 2010 we have made many friends here. We love coming back to visit the projects, schools and clinics that do so much to uplift and encourage this community. The Mamelodi Voice is our attempt at giving a voice to the friends we have made along the way. We want to be a place where the efforts-and struggles-of these community heroes can be visible to everyone around them.

However, we are not in the business of providing only free publicity. We do real reporting and photojournalism. Where there is good news, we will tell it. Where there are problems,we will report on them as well.

Doing reporting in Mamelodi is also a wonderful learning opportunity for our Journalism students. They get the opportunity to get out of the comfort zone of the classroom and into real life reporting situations. While this might be uncomfortable, it is the quickest way to learn. We applaud the second year Journalism class of 2012 for their determination and innovation during this reporting project.

To the staff of the Summer 2012 edition of The Mamelodi Voice: you have put together and exceptional publication. You can be proud of the way you worked together as a team. But you should be especially proud of the way you managed to make this a community newspaper.

For in the end, The Mamelodi Voice belongs to Mamelodi