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Stories from our readers 1987 No 2


WHO IS BETTER THAN WHO?

Hey, comrades, I once read about a reverend who said, “Whites are better than blacks.” But God is the creator. And I want to know where the bible says, “Let us make one race to rule over the whole of creation?” And where does it say, “Let us make one race the servants of a better race?” You can take any bible and read from Genesis Chapter 1 to Revelations.Chapter 22 and you will never find that God said, “Let there be two races, one better than the other one.” This is rubbish! Without doubt, it is ignorance and rubbish. And anyone who believes this will suffer as a result. We all know that you reap what you sow. Jeffrey Shandu PIET RETIEF


LIGHT FOR THE FUTURE Greetings to all readers of Learn and Teach. I want to thank you for writing the story ‘The Right to Choose’. It was very interesting. Now I know which contraception to use if I don’t want a baby. I’m still at school. I have a girlfriend and we don’t want a baby before we finish our studies. Really, you gave us light for our future. Keep up the good work. Young man KAGISO


LET THERE BE PEACE Greetifications to all readers and writers of Learn and Teach. Firstly, ! want to thank you for writing about contraception. Some youths are too shy to ask their parents about contraception. I believe they learnt a lot about it from Learn and Teach No. 7, 1986. In my area, everything is fine. The youth keep themselves busy by singing in choirs. Most young people here love singing. There are about thirteen choirs. Let there be peace, friendship and oneness among all choirs. A member of Mmuso o Motsha choir DUDUZA


SOME JOKES A man was walking in the park and found a penguin. He took the penguin to a policeman and said, “I found this penguin. What must I do?” The policeman said, “Take it to the zoo.” The next day, the policeman saw the same man with the penguin. He walked up to him and said, “Didn’t I tell you to take that penguin to the zoo?” “Yes,” said the man, “I took him to the zoo yesterday, and today I am taking him to the movies.” First student: How were your exam questions? Second student: They were easy, but I had trouble with the answers.

Sally: Teacher, would you punish a pupil for something she didn’t do? Teacher: Of course not. Sally: Good, because I didn’t do my homework.

The teacher is talking on the telephone. Teacher: You say Joe can’t come to school because he has a cold. Who is speaking? Voice on the telephone: This is my father speaking. Thamsanqa Matinise TEMBISA


TEMBISA IS PEACEFUL NOW

I live in Tembisa. I am happy because Tembisa is very clean now. And the schools are clean. Since the comrades came here to Tembisa, nobody is fighting and nobody is killing his friend. Now I want to see more houses in Tembisa. And I want the roads to be tarred. I want Tembisa to be big like Soweto. Pleased

TEMBISA EDUCATION AND FREEDOM


I am very happy with your magazine. It is good and puts us in the light. I am writing this letter to answer Derrick Khumalo of Ntokozweni. He asked about the school boycott. He wants to know who will rule if we are not educated when we get our country back. Firstly, I want to write about the stayaway from school. We started by fighting for Student Representative Councils (SRC’s) at schools. Students had no voice at school.


Some prefects worked with the police. We fought against that and some students died, for example, Emma Sathekge. We talked to our principals about SRC’s, but they did not listen to us. That is why we decided to do something. First we had class boycotts. We came to school, but we did not have lessons. Then the soldiers came. That’s why we stayed away from school. Then our demands were accepted and we could have SRC’s.


Now I will answer the part in Derrick’s letter about uneducated leaders in the future. Everyone wants educated leaders. But where are our educated leaders like Tambo, Mandela, Sisulu? They are in prison or in exile.


Okay, let’s look at Bishop Tutu or Dr Motlana. They are both educated. But can they change the government? Maybe yes, maybe no. But Mr Tambo has shaken the government. (We cannot print the next part of this letter because of the emergency laws.) Educated people don’t care about the struggle. They just have a good time. Bantu education is a big problem. It tries to teach us to see white people as better than ourselves. It tries to teach us to be slaves. And people who think of freedom are put in jail. But those who worry about education are left alone, to study at school. Educated people are not in the struggle. They say as long as I earn my salary, I have no worries. Student SEBOKENG


A POEM

My dear friend Have you heard about him? I don’t think so. That was my beloved friend who died for my rights. It was a great day For the hater of my friend When he was hanged For security reasons. But it was a sad day for me Because he was my closest friend. He died, being hanged, Or shot to death. That I won’t tell, because it was done in secret. We went to the government And asked for his body, but in vain. His body had died But his soul is living and dwells on this earth He shed his blood For me and you to live, and win the struggle Unlike Jesus who shed his blood For our sins to be forgiven. Moses Manganye


STOLEN THINGS FOUND

I want to return some things which were stolen from a holiday-maker near East London on Christmas morning. I hope this lady will read Learn and Teach and claim her things. We don’t know her name or what she looks like. But we do know she can speak a little Xhosa or Sotho. She was driving a white Ford Fairlane with a black vinyl top. The car broke down on the N2 between East London and King Williams Town. A man offered to help her fix her car. But when she wasn’t looking, he stole her suitcase and ran away. The woman tried to catch him, but he pulled out a knife and tried to stab her. A few days later, this man tried to sell the stolen goods to me. There was a radio, a Swiss watch, a press button telephone, 2 pairs of earrings, a wedding ring, false teeth, an adding machine and a calculator. We forced the man to give us these things. We are keeping them because we hope that we will find this woman. We want to give her things to her. I know that her heart is broken. The Samaritan MDANTSDANE. Anyone who knows this woman can contact Learn and Teach.


THE NELS DAIRY STRIKE

I am a worker at Nels Dairy in Victory Park. I am on strike. Our strike at Nels started because Petros Ramasuku was fired. Petros works for Nels Dairy in Bez Valley. The bosses fired Petros because he did not take his lunch at the normal time. Petros had too much work to do. So he finished his work before he took lunch. When I heard about Petros, I called a meeting. After the meeting the workers at Victory Park went to the Bez Valley plant. We wanted to see what was happening. At Bez Valley we found the workers outside the dairy gates, together with an organiser from our union, CCAWUSA. The police were also there. The union tried to talk to the Nels bosses, but they refused to meet with them. So, on the 18th June, we all decided to go on strike. We wanted the bosses to talk to us. And we wanted the fired workers to get their jobs back. But still the Nels bosses would not listen. Instead they fired us strikers – 750 workers! CCAWUSA had a meeting with the Nels bosses in January. But the meeting did not help. We have been on strike for eight months now. And we do not know what to do. Our families are starving. We want everyone to know that Nels is cruel to their workers. Rosemary Thobejane JOHANNESBURG.

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