Good News

BULLETIN 18 September

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# The sixth NAMPO Cape Expo drew a record-breaking 49-thousand-326 visitors to Bredasdorp Park in the Western Cape. The expo brought together South Africa’s agricultural community, from forward-thinking farmers and innovative agribusinesses to cutting-edge technology providers and passionate entrepreneurs. Deputy president Paul Mashatile visited the expo, where he championed collaboration in agriculture, food security and support for emerging farmers. NAMPO’s managing director, Dirk Strydom, says the growth of the expo highlights just how relevant and necessary this platform is for producers in the winter grain regions.

# A queen of the Zulu nation, an eThekwini councillor, and an economist who once experienced homelessness, are among the one-thousand-521 graduands being capped at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Spring Graduation ceremony today. The fourth wife of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, Queen Thandekile MaNdlovu Zulu, will be awarded a Doctor of Business Administration degree for her study on a natural sugar substitute in Kenya. eThekwini municipality speaker, Thabani Nyawose, will graduate with a Master’s degree in Public Administration.

# Two Rhodes University Fine Art Department students, Snelihle Maphumulo and Sarah Volker, are winners of the Sasol New Signatures Visual Arts Competition. The competition provides an entry point for emerging visual artists to gain national exposure, professional validation, and a foothold in the competitive art world. Maphumulo received the Merit Award for her work, which is a powerful dialogue with her ancestry. Volker’s award-winning sculptural installation, Taut, Tethered, and Torn, explores the tension between a dancer’s body and mind.

# A collaboration between Read with Wimpy and Ladles of Love literacy has seen the gifting of over one-thousand-200 brand-new books to just over 600 children across 17 early childhood development centres in Johannesburg. This collaboration tackles two urgent issues: hunger and illiteracy. Each child receives two carefully selected books, one in their mother tongue to build foundational reading skills and cultural identity, and another in English. This handover continues the provincial rollout of a six-thousand-book donation spanning three provinces, Gauteng, the Western Cape and the Northern Cape.

# And finally: Filmmaker Spike Lee, Warner Bros. CEO Pamela Abdy, film composer Nicholas Britell, and screenwriter Will Tracy are some of this year’s Montclair Film Festival Honours. Lee will be honoured with the Filmmaker Tribute, while Adby will receive the Visionary Award, focusing on her career by highlighting films such as Sinners and Weapons. Britell will be honoured with the Composer Award, whose score is the festival’s opening night film, Jay Kelly. Tracy will receive the Screenwriter Award, and Shih-Ching will be honoured with the Breakthrough Director Award.

Stay tuned for more news………….