GO 7 November 2019

4 GOT A NEWS STORY? Call our news desk on (043) 702-2125. Find us on Facebook 7 November 2019 GO & EXPRESS
GO! IN KING e-mail:
goexpress@tisoblackstar.co.za
graphic © seamartini / 123RF.com
‘Never give
up’, pupils
encouraged
Breidbach awards its achievers
DESMOND COETZEE
Last Thursday marked a
significant milestone for
Breidbach Primary pupils, as the
school hosted another
successful celebration of its
academic and sports achievers.
The event saw top achievers
being rewarded with certificates
of merit and trophies for their
hard work and dedication, with
former pupil advocate Fabian
Pretorius as the guest speaker.
Breidbach headmaster
Gareth Fourie presented an
overview of the year on the
developments, challenges and
progress made at the school.
“We started this year with a
lot of challenges such as
a shortage of teachers due to
educators moving to other
schools, as well as our former
head Ivan Harry retiring.
“We were in and out of
meetings with the department to
ensure that we have a teacher in
each class, but to no avail,”
Fourie said.
“During February, the
parents, under the umbrella of
South African National Civic
Organisation (Sanco), closed
the gates of the school in an
attempt to force the department
to listen to our pleas and
through the resilience and
determination of the parents,
five new teachers were
a p p o i n t e d .”
Fourie called on parents to
TOP ACHIEVER: Breidbach Primary Grade 7 pupil Nathaniel Adams receives the top
achiever accolade during the school’s annual awards ceremony in Breidbach last week.
Looking on is guest speaker advocate Fabian Pretorius Picture: DESMOND COETZEE
avail themselves for positions
left vacant on the governing
body and to assist with the
discipline of their children.
Pretorius took the audience
through some patches of his
personal life and spoke about
how “adversity must equate a
resilient attitude”.
“A character trait of a
resilient person is the ability to
recover quickly from
misfortune, illness or
d e p r e s s i o n ,” Pretorius said.
“You don’t allow the
situation to dictate, you dictate
the situation.”
Addressin the parents and
teachers, Pretorius said the
young pupils could be moulded
but it was important that their
souls were not broken “because
a broken soul will break another
soul”.
Pretorius said after moving
from Upington, he started
school in Sub A (Grade 1) at
Breidbach Primary, and stayed
with three other families in a
two-room dwelling.
“My father did well in
business and bought two houses
but soon we lost everything,”
Pretorius said.
“It was my father’s inability
to recover from the setback of
losing everything that stirred
and started my attitude of never
giving up.”
Officials check on parolees
DESMOND COETZEE
Parolees and probationers living
in Zwelitsha and Phakamisa
townships received visits from
King William’s Town
department of correctional
services officials during a
special monitoring operation
last week.
They were visited at their
homes without any notification
by probation officer Thanduxolo
Njikelana, head of KWT
Community Corrections
Landezwa Ngwabane and
members attached to the
Emergency Support Team.
Ngwabane said special
monitoring operations were
conducted quarterly with the
aim of checking wh e t h e r
probationers and parolees
complied with their conditions
of house detention, as set out by
the courts and those of the
PLEASE SIGN: King
William’s Town Community
Corrections head Landezwa
Ngwabane, second from
left, and a team of DCS
officials visiting parolees and
probationers P i c t u re :
DESMOND COETZEE
Correctional Supervision Parole
Board.
“The purpose of these
actions, among others, is
basically to enhance
compliance with set conditions,
trace and arrest absconders,
enhance crime prevention,
promote visibility in the
community, to deal with
violators and to enhance the
handling of complaints and
r e q u e s t s ,” Ngwabane said.
“During these operations,
probationers and parolees who
fail to comply with their
conditions are traced and given
a hearing so that an appropriate
decision can be made.”
The operation saw 42
probationers and parolees
visited, with five found to be in
violation.
“I call on the communities to
accept those released on parole
back into their communities
“And I would also like to
extend a word of gratitude to
this team of 18 members who
formed part of the operation,”
Ngwabane said.
KING
WILLIAM'S
TOWN
W E AT H E R
King residents should prepare
for a cold front this weekend as
well as light rain.
The temperature on
Thursday is a cool 20°C and
comes along with mostly cloudy
skies and a fresh 29km/h wind.
Friday gets a bit colder as the
temperature drops to 19°C and
the cloud cover increases.
Saturday is even colder with
a maximum temperature of
18°C.
The heavy cloud cover is
going nowhere while the wind,
unchanged in speed, switches
further to the East.
Temperatures climb back up
to 21°C on Sunday but are
accompanied by strong winds
blowing through at 40km/h.
These winds are expected to
bring some rain in the evening.
Chess club needs help
with training, equipment
DESMOND COETZEE
The King Chess Club is in
desperate need of assistance to
equip their growing number
of members with training in the
game of chess and has called for
donations and contributions
from local businesses.
Founding member Lawrence
Gosling said the club was
initially established in 2014 but
had been stagnant for the last
few years.
“The challenges we face are
mostly the availability of chess
sets in order to accommodate a
larger number of players.
“There is also the issue of
chess clocks, which can be
quite expensive,” he said.
Gosling said the club was
started because there was a
complete chess vaccuum in the
community. “Support from
various people and institutions,
the inherent social problems
endemic to our youth, and the
opportunity to contribute to the
cultural enrichment in the
Eastern Cape are all contributing
f a c t o r s ,” Gosling said.
He said the club offered
basic chess training,
instructional sessions and a very
extensive digital library of chess
books and computer software.
Gosling, with a delegation
from the club, gave a
presentation on the game of
chess at Breidbach Primary
School last week.
Breidbach deputy head
Eleanor Harmse lauded the
i n i t i a t ive .
The club will be providing
chess classes for pupils e ve r y
Wednesday in 2020.