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By Simphiwe Xaka and Rod Amner The numbers tell Makhanda’s contradictory story.  On the one hand, the Auditor General rates Makana Municipality’s performance in the bottom 2.8% of municipalities in the country.  On the other hand, while most children here face poverty rates typical of the Eastern Cape, in its public schools, 41% of Grade 4 learners can read for meaning. Nationally, only 19% can do the same.  The 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) su

By Cathy Gush, Kabelo Mafiri and Kearabetswe Nkadimeng In the Masete household in Makhanda (THIS IS SUN CITY, RIGHT?), a young granddaughter (CAN WE GET HER NAME AND AGE?) holds both a baby (WHOSE BABY IS SHE HOLDING?) and a book, confidently reading aloud to her siblings and cousins. It wasn't always like this. Reading once felt like a chore, something uncomfortable and unfamiliar. "It was a miracle," Mrs Masete (CAN WE GET MRS MASETE’S FIRST NAME) recalls, summoning a video

By Mohale Manyama and Rod Amner In the dim glow of a fireside in Ga-Kgapane, Limpopo, a small boy recites Khelobedu proverbs to his grandmother, his voice weaving tales of rain queens and resilient harvests. "Khelobedu akhe rowane kheya reta," he says (“Our language praises, not curses.”)  Yet, the next morning, as he steps into his primary school, all his Foundation Phase textbooks and readers are in Sepedi, a close but foreign cousin, leaving him lost in translation.  Requi