RUTV 3

A 4 minute doccie on Akhtar Abbas, a Pakistani spaza shop owner in Extension 6, Grahamstown.

The Doccie with Xhosa subtitles:

The doccie without Xhosa subtitles

Fingo Revolutionary Movemement and the Save our Schools Campaign

The Fingo Revolutionary Movement and the Save our Schools and Community Campaign are two youth dedicated non-governmental organisations that operate in many schools around Grahamstown location.  They are aimed at encouraging the youth to be positive about education. As the TV team of group 7, we decided that it was most appropriate for us to profile these programmes because our group had chosen the theme; Youth Crime and Violence, focusing specifically on school. We wanted to focus on the solution to crime, rather than focusing on the problem we decided that we should rather find programmes that the youth can get involved in to avoid crime.

We have completed a mini documentary on the “Fingo Revolutionary Movement” and “Save our Schools and Community Campaign”. The documentary explains what the two programmes do in Grahamstown; to link it to our area and theme of focusing. The same group also had a problem with the duo’s use of “tsotsi taal” which they felt promoted gangstarism. In defence of their role models participants of the programmes explained that being a role model does not mean that you are perfect and as a person.

As a follow up to this we have decided to do a follow up mini doccie, profiling a person involved in the programmes. We would also like to address stereotypes people have about Rastafarianism. We decided to do this part because we feel that after the response we received from the first doccie we feel that as part community journalism it is our responsibility to try and break these stereotype that people may have about Rastafarianism.

We feel that through this documentary we have been able to meet the requirements of community journalism because the subjects we have been working with our subjects since we began filming. We have also been able to take the product back to the community and through the second documentary are hoping to respond to their responses.

 A four minute documentary on Mother Zelma and the Sistersof St. Peter’s Rectory in Grahamstown and how their lives and desire to help the needy has been adversely affected by crime

By Tamzyn Degoumois, Roza Carvalho and Vuyo Tshekela

Our community meeting was held on Sunday 18 October at the NG Kerk Hall, in Hillsview, Grahamstown. Through the various media we had created about crime in the Hillsview, Sunnyside and Fort England area we aimed to generate discussion around possible community solutions.

Some of the main points of debate were impersonal and isolated nature of the community and how community engagement and building on a daily basis might be desirable, but unrealistic. For example, while some community members mentioned that they would like to help the people who come to their doors, they feel unsafe doing so. However, perhaps the most interesting moment in the meeting was when a resident spoke about the issue of men, their frustration at unemployment and lack of skills training, and how this is a social cause of crime in the community. This spoke to a general feeling that men have been emasculated, often feeding into issues like domestic violence and other crimes. The possible solution proposed was a skills training programme and a possible community fund to pay people within the area for odd jobs.

The following clip is an excerpt from the resident’s response.

By Andisa Ndlovu and Shanel Pillay

The idea of doing community based journalism was really exciting. As part of our civic mapping task, we were asked to go into the areas we were allocated and get a general feel as to what each area was like. The areas we were allocated to was Cradock Heights, West Hill and Hill 60.

After looking around these areas and meeting some of the residents we invited a few to a focus group meeting to discuss the issue of crime and what it means to them. We thought it would be good to draw on these responses for our television news stories.

Many residents feel as thought this area is safe, some, such as Nicole went through some effort to check.

Sup. Du Plooy, a resident in the Cradock Heights area felt that the level in crime in these areas is nothing to be worried about.

Even though this may be the case, and even though some residents haven’t experienced crime they still take the necessary precautions to protect themselves from crime.

From this and other conversations surrounding crime we decided that our focus should be on the psychological effects crime has on its residents. We wanted to use what they gave us and perhaps enlighten them as the effects crime has on individuals.

By Andisa Ndlovu and Shanel Pillay

West Hill, a peaceful suburb in Grahamstown… although many say the crime in this area is minimal the residents here still feel the need to protect themselves from crime.  Jessica Weaver, an exchange student from America, shares her views on the differences in security.