The Water Hole

Investigative report by Amaal Salie and Katja Schreiber

This is an investigative documentary which tries to examine the heart of Grahamstown’s on-going water crisis.
You open the tap. A guttural, gurgling sound escapes. You wait for the splutter of water in vain; the tap stays dry. No water.
In Grahamstown, this is an all too a familiar story. Frequent water outages have become the norm, yet with no less scorn or frustration than Eskom’s power cuts. With access to water being not only a right but a lifeline, the myriad problems and unsatisfactory service is both unconstitutional and inhumane.
This investigative piece explores the many questions surrounding the town’s unsatisfactory water service. Water experts and local residents give a holistic overview and explanation of the far-reaching water problems

Book Apartheid

Investigative report by Debbie Potgieter, Palesa Mashigo and Robyn Perros

This 10minute documentary investigates why only 0.5% of all books are accessible to the 800,000 visually impaired persons in South Africa due to copyright laws. The absence of these resources means that visually impaired persons face fewer educational and employment opportunities and higher illiteracy rates — making them one of the countries’ most economically and socially disadvantaged groups. The World Information Property Organization (WIPO) hosts a discussion to remove the strict copyright barriers that help create what is being called the “book famine” or “book apartheid.” We exammine how a bureaucratically burdensome treaty would do nothing to help end the book famine; but if a workable treaty were agreed upon, a new chapter would be opened for the inclusion of blind and print disabled people in our society.

Mud School Crisis – a decade of broken promises

Investigative report by Tassyn Munro, Jack Kaminski & Kirsten Allnutt

In 2004, former president Thabo Mbeki made a promise to eradicate all mud schools in the Eastern Cape, saying that “by the end of [2004], we shall ensure that there is no learner learning under a tree, [or in a] mud school.” But almost a decade later, such a promise is yet to be fulfilled. A team of Rhodes Journalism School TV students set out to investigate the reasons behind the delay in the eradication process, and whether Motshekga’s latest promise of 2015 will not merely be another broken commitment.
The investigation takes place primarily in two districts of the Transkei, namely Dutywa and Libode. These two districts have been effected differently by the eradication process, with Libode being more prioritised than Dutywa. As the investigation uncovers various reasons for the delay in progress, such as road works, contractors, material shortages and mismanagement of funds, the department of education is attempting to fast-track the eradication process through a programme known as the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Development Initiative (ASIDI).
Report by Tassyn Munro, Jack Kaminski & Kirsten Allnutt

The Capacity to Endure

Investigative report by Minette van der Walt and Raphaela Linders

Zwelendinga and New Rest are informal settlements nestled in a milkwood Forest on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Residents of these settlements have been living in poor conditions for more than 40 years. Everyday they face tough issues with sanitation, water access and lack of proper housing. After service protests by the community, the local municipality has started to provide standard RDP houses to the communities. However it was soon discovered that these are not a viable option due to the informal settlements location within the milkwood forest. Minette van der Walt and Raphaela Linders went to investigate a proposed solution; sustainable development. The proposed plan is to build a prototype sandbag house as an alternative to the standard RDP houses.

The community’s reaction to the film and an update on the unfolding story are posted at http://youtu.be/ahBXcpTyZkY and http://youtu.be/RdkrHEWXQcM

Caydon van Eck – Quit You

Production by Robyn Perros, Raphaela Linders and Tassyn Munro

Grahamstown music producer, Caydon van Eck (b00n) works in collaboration with Rhodes University Television students to create an experimental music video for his song, “Quit You.”