Childline KZN turned 40. To commemorate the event, a gala dinner was recently held at Coastlands, uMhlanga. At the event were:

South African designer Craig Jacobs transforms discarded clothing into contemporary fashion with Fundudzi’s The New Earth collection, challenging waste and encouraging more thoughtful wardrobe choices.

It was a classic case of rather late than never when Peugeot finally introduced a 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine to its Landtrek bakkie range this month. The lethargic 1.9-litre oil-burner that was the only powertrain option since the bakkie’s local launch five years ago, along with a too lofty price tag, were the two biggest talking points around the Changan Hunter-based Landtrek since 2021. Now Peugeot’s umbrella company Stellantis has addressed both issues at once by offering a more powerful engine … at the same price nogal! The two top double cab variants in the Landtrek stable, the Allure 4×2 and 4Action 4×4, cost R666 900 and R759 900 respectably regardless of 1.9-litre and 2.2-litre configuration. Workhorse single and double cab Professional derivatives or the Active double cab model don’t get the new mill. Peugeot bakkie gets more oomph The newly-introduced 2.2-litre diesel mill makes a very respectable 147kw of power and 450Nm of torque. Eight-speed automatic transmission sends the twist goes to either the rear wheels in the Allure or to all four corners in the 4Action, which features permanent all-wheel drive for the first time. The Peugeot Landtrek 2.2D 4Action 4×4 comes standard with 18-inch alloy wheels. Picture: Jaco van der Merwe As the 1.9-litre in 4Action trim was one of the slowest bakkies The Citizen Motoring has tested, we were quite excited to put the 2.2-litre to the test during an extended launch drive. The 110kW/350Nm 1.9-litre, which was severely hampered by low-down turbo lag, could only get to 100km/h from a standstill in 16.39 seconds during our test in 2021. The 2.2-litre 4Action is still not one of the fastest four-cylinder diesel machines out there, but it did clock a very respectable time of 11.98 seconds in going from 0 to 100km/h during our high-performance test. This time is incidentally identical to that of the Toyota Hilux 2.8 GD-6 Legend 55 4×4. More importantly, the 28.56 seconds it took the 1.9-litre to go from 60 to 140km/h has been slashed to 19.0 seconds. This is the typical acceleration needed for overtaking and spending more than nine seconds less on the wrong side of the road can save lives. Subtle styling tweaks The engine isn’t the Landtrek’s only enhancement, although the other upgrades are much less dramatic. The front of the bakkie sports a new grille with integrated Peugeot logo. Glossy black lamp bezels and a new front skid plate complement the new look. New prominent branding without a Peugeot logo features on the tailgate, while the bakkie sports new side painted plastic rear bumper. The biggest upgrades inside are the addition of an electronic gear shifter and electric parking brake. The latter is due to the 2.2-litre derivative upgrading from the 1.9-litre rear drum brakes to disc brakes. The new Peugeot logo now also features on the steering wheel, on the 7-inch digital cluster and 10-inch infotainment system which also gains wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The flagship 4Action also comes standard with leather seats, six-speaker sound system, 360-degree camera, tyre-pressure monitor, side steps and 18-inch alloy wheels. In addition to six airbags, the 4 Action comes with advanced safety systems like adaptive cruise control and blind-spot detection. Big turning circle While the Landtrek’s interior is still on the stylish side for a bakkie, it does feel a bit dated, especially in the screens department which just gets bigger and bigger in every new bakkie nowadays. The Landtrek feels a bit dated inside. Picture: Jaco van der Merwe The Landtrek did prove its low-range capabilities over a moderate off-road course at the Lion & Safari Park outside Johannesburg, despite the side steps and rather low mudflaps not being the most practical when tackling sharp rocks. What also doesn’t help through the obstacles is its 14-metre turning circle that restricts its movement through tight corners. The standard turning circle for mainstream double cabs is often under 13 metres. The Landtrek has made massive strides, albeit long overdue, in terms of its new engine and in keeping the 2.2’s price the same as the 1.9’s. Yet we can’t help to think that the Peugeot bakkie is still a step behind as the bakkie world has made significant strides in general over the last five years. The same price can still buy decent offerings in the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger stables, while tech-laden Chinese rivals come in much more affordable. Peugeot Landtrek bakkie test results

When planning where to put a refugee reception office, what are the things you consider? Probably not climate and architecture. It should likely be something along the lines of where refugees enter the country. So, you decide to place it in Tshwane which is 200km from any national border, in a province so landlocked that the provinces neighbouring it are landlocked too and obviously over an hour away from the airport. That’s where you should put the refugee reception office. After all, these crafty refugees have invested in teleportation. Refugee reception office Maybe somebody was thinking that a capital city should have a refugee reception office and even though Bloemfontein is closer to an international border given its proximity to Lesotho, we just want to show Bloemfontein how much disdain we have for it so we’ll pick the worst possible location. Ha! Take that Bloemfontein! You don’t get to welcome the refugees! It may be understandable from the days when asylum seekers had to physically present themselves to renew their permits every six months but that system ended half a decade ago. Now it’s online and has been since 2021. And in the delayed fashion we have come to love about South African decision making, we now have movement on terminating the Tshwane Refugee Reception Office. If ever there was an opportunity to say, duh, this is it. The actual question is why asylum seekers would need six-month extensions in the first place. Isn’t six months enough to process an application? We need to either improve our capacity to handle applications or stop taking so many of them. It’s not fair to anybody to set somebody up for potential deportation five years down the line after they’ve started a life here. Granting somebody asylum isn’t a can you can kick down the road. It doesn’t look like improving capacity is on the cards so the new gazetted moves seem to be ones to bottleneck applications. Closing the Tshwane Refugee Reception Office… oh no… where will all these asylum seekers teleport to now? On reading the government gazette, it appears that the intention is to have all asylum seekers coming through the northern borders, report to Beitbridge. That seems like it will be severely more inconvenient to those asylum seekers coming from southern Botswana but I’m not convinced that’s ever been the target market. It would be interesting to read the submissions as the gazette has only painted an intention which is open for comment for a month. It’s great to see that the Department of Home Affairs is addressing some shortcoming in the refugee system, or at least trying to. Home Affairs inefficiency It doesn’t necessarily address the really big one: why does it take years to deal with an application? Where you put the reception office won’t matter that much if the reception office is the start of a process that would take as much time as it would take to birth a child and raise them to their teens. A grocery store doesn’t discover it has accidentally left apples on the shelf for 10 years and fix the problem by closing the store and opening another one where they take those 10-year-old apples and put them back on the shelves not to check them again for a couple more years. Since process works hand in hand with the physicality of the infrastructure, changing the physicality isn’t the full solution. It may be part of a solution but we’d need more insight into what the whole solution will look like. There’s something exciting about seeing some action taken to address issues, especially issues that are serious and impact lives. It’s quite another thing to see those actions have the desired effect. Will moving the reception office to a more suitable location work? On its own, probably not. Is it part of a bigger solution? Only the Department of Home Affairs knows. Is it a step towards what may be a workable solution? Time will tell!

Betway Premiership champions Orlando Pirates stole the spotlight in the Soweto Derby against Kaizer Chiefs. Struggling Marumo Gallants and new coach Ronnie Kananelo marked a milestone. Here is a look at this past weekend’s results… ORLANDO PIRATES WIN THE SOWETO DERBY BUT MAMELODI SUNDOWNS RESPOND Much of the attention was focused on the FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Orlando Pirates edged Soweto enemies Kaizer Chiefs 2-1. It was coach Abdeslam Ouaddou’s seventh consecutive league victory. Yanela Mbuthuma opened the scoring for Bucs before Pule Mmodi equalised for Chiefs but Tshepang Moremi found a well-taken winner for the Betway Premiership champions. League title rivals Mamelodi Sundowns responded in style with a 4-1 hammering of Durban City at Loftus Versfeld. Thabang Matuludi scored twice, while Iqraam Rayners and Antonio van Wyk also got on the scoresheet. Sundowns have now retained top spot with a one point lead but a game in hand. AMAZULU AND MILFORD CONTINUE TO SHINE Coach Arthur Zwane’s AmaZulu FC continued their fantastic run with a narrow 1-0 victory over provincial rivals Golden Arrows. Betway Premiership rookies, Milford FC maintained their impressive start to life in the top flight with a 1-0 victory over Sekhukhune United. Marumo Gallants finally grabbed their first league win under Ronnie Kananelo. Bahlabane Ba Ntwa overcame Siwelele FC 3-2 in an entertaining encounter, with Samkele Sihlali scoring twice and Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo adding another. Newcomers Kruger United enjoyed a convincing 3-1 victory over Richards Bay. Coach Brandon Truter’s Chippa United stunned Stellenbosch FC with a 2-0 away win. The only goalless draw was between Polokwane City and TS Galaxy at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium. ALL BETWAY PREMIERSHIP RESULTS Marumo Gallants 3-2 Siwelele FC Orlando Pirates 2-1 Kaizer Chiefs Mamelodi Sundowns 4-1 Durban City AmaZulu FC 1-0 Golden Arrows Milford FC 1-0 Sekhukhune United Kruger United 3-1 Richards Bay Stellenbosch FC 0-2 Chippa United Polokwane City 0-0 TS Galaxy.

This is the inspiring story of Mbali Mahlale. She’s a young schoolgirl who doesn’t let the congenital absence of her upper limbs from birth hold her back. Last year she wrote and passed matric with a distinction. Now she is retaking her exams and dreams of furthering her career in medicine. Hailing from Giyani, Limpopo, she attended Myngenoegen English Private School (MEPS) in Polokwane. In spite of her obvious disability, she taught herself to do what all her classmates could do, only using her feet. MEET MBALI MAHLALE As such, Mbali Mahlale writes with her right foot, using a desk and chair that’s slightly adapted. She eats, dresses and bathes herself with her left foot and she can even play skip-rope and ball games at break. Better still, she absolutely loves to learn. Her favourite subjects are math and physics. “There is nothing difficult about school because I love reading and practicing math,” she said. Her classmates concur there is nothing she cannot do. And MEPS principal, Sandy Pitsi, praised her hard work and confidence as out of this world. “Sometimes people think I can’t do much because of the way I look. But being born without arms won’t stop me from succeeding. I want to be treated just like anyone else,” says Mbali Mahlale. TOP 10 PUPILS IN HER GRADE We can all take a leaf out of Mbali Mahlale’s book and strive to be the best we can be, in spite of our setbacks. Image: File Her mother, Vutlhari, moved her to Polokwane for better medical support, and MEPS offered her a hostel room. Vutlhari thanked the school for giving her daughter a platform to grow, learn and improve. She called it the meaningful difference in her daughter’s life. However, despite being in the top ten of her class, with a distinction, Mbali Mahlale decided to rewrite her matric exams back in June. “I hope to upgrade my mathematics and physical sciences grades. Because I believe growth is a lifelong process and that dreams are worth working for. My goal is to pursue a career in the medical field,” she said. MBALI MAHLALE IS AN INSPIRATION Ultimately, her story doesn’t ask readers to feel sorry for a disabled child. Instead, it shows the innate fight that millions of disabled and able-bodied South Africans see in themselves. South Africans will not take a backward step, and the brave Mbali Mahlale truly embodies that spirit. But what do you think? Are you inspired by the courage and determination of Mbali Mahlale? Do stories like this help refocus the challenges in your own life? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below …

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