Daine Klate and Reneilwe Letsholonyane join forces in unlikely drive

Why did the chicken cross? To get to KFC maybe. 

Okay fine, nobody knows why chickens cross the roads but when two footballers join hands, something big brews. 

Two of South Africa's former stars Daine Klate and Reneilwe Letsholonyane have joined hands with Betway in an initiative that is aimed at fostering change in communities. 

Klate and Letsholonyane both made names for themselves with their sublime skills which earned them global recognition. 

And they hope to use this initiative to make a meaningful difference in the communities that have supported them over the years. 

This is an initiative that no one saw coming but the collaboration was jointly made by the duo during an interview where the they engaged fans on various football topics drawn from their highly successful careers.

The duo share eight league titles and 15 cup competition victories respectively.

Betway's partnership with Klate and Letsholonyane comes a few days on the back of a recent donation made by the brand in partnership with former Kaizer Chiefs star, Jabu Mahlangu, towards the East Rand Excellence Soccer Academy in Daveyton.

Sharing the news, Klate stated that the donation would help his childhood club continue to nurture the Gelvandale community talent.

"Knowing the great amount of talent in Gelvandale, this partnership with Betway will most certainly encourage the club and community to continue nurturing the upcoming talent. "A number of clubs in Gelvandale are operated by generous community members who struggle at times to fund basic needs such as equipment. Thanks to Betway, this is one aspect that they will not have to worry about," said Klate.

ALetsholonyane, who identified Ndofaya Lions Football Club as the club to receive the generous donation, divulged that he was grateful for the opportunity.

There is always a time for everything. One to play, celebrate and to give back. 

No data, no internet connection, no SIM card! Streaming without data is finally in SA

No data, no problem! That was the assurance of Shermar Stuart, CEO and co-founder of Prime Tech.

A small, hand-held device called The Prime allows for dataless streaming. No internet connection, no data and no SIM card is needed to connect to the internet with this device.

All you need is a computer, laptop, tablet or cellphone that offers wi-fi capabilities, and the little device.

"We started the project last year, in June. We were sitting and discussing whether it is possible to actually do things on your device without data. Streaming is taking over in this day and age, and data is extremely expensive," said Stuart.

The Prime connects your device to wi-fi and enables streaming and researching at no extra cost.

The device is currently being installed at Bechet High School in Sydenham to allow Grade 12 pupils free access to educational content for revision in the build-up to their final examinations.

"I approached Bechet with the idea, and they were excited. The principal understands how technology is moving and jumped on this idea. There was no cost to the school at all," said Stuart.

He said they had plans to get The Prime direct to the consumer, but were currently focusing on students due to the global pandemic.

"The device currently costs between R1500 and R2000, but we're looking to get everything locally sourced and manufactured to cut down the cost. By the time that is done, it should be around R1000 or less," he said.

According to Stuart, they have already won several awards for the device. This year, The Prime featured among the top 10 innovations in Africa. It came first at the annual Innovation Festival in Durban and second in the Moses Kotane Institute Innovation of the Year awards.

"Going forward, we have in mind the local community centre so that we can provide access to multiple people from different locations. We have not identified a particular school, but next up, we know that we want to target a rural/off-grid and completely unconnected school," he said.

When asked what wi-fi connection the device would tap into, Stuart said it was "too difficult" to explain.

#PhoneReview: #Samsung Galaxy A31 is as massive as winning the #Lotto. #MondayMotivation

The Samsung Galaxy A31 offers a multipurpose quad camera, large Infinity-U display, Samsung Knox defence-grade security and a whopping 5 000 milliampere hour (mAh) battery.

The 6.4-inch edge-to-edge display has a wide aspect ratio that is suited for streaming, gaming, working or watching videos on its full HD Amoled screen.

Despite a large screen, it is 8.6mm thin and comes in a geometric design with a glossy finish.

It has a specific game booster feature to optimise gaming by adjusting the temperature and memory after monitoring how the game runs on the device. 

Notifications, Bixby and the edge panel can be disabled during gaming.

The emphasis of the A31 falls on the quad cameras, which include a 48MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera with 123° field of view, a 5MP macro lens for 40mm close-ups, and a 5MP depth camera for portrait and bokeh shots.

The A31 has an octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and an all-day battery with 15W fast charging. It features an on-screen fingerprint sensor and supports Samsung Pay.

The Samsung Galaxy A31 currently retails for R6 999. A worthy bargain for those whose use their phones as a productive office space. 

Sho Madjozi isn't done yet

Sho Madjozi has become the only SA act in North America to join US label Epic Records' esteemed roster, which includes superstar rappers Future and Travis Scott.

It didn't take Sho too long to gracefully recover from having lost out on a 2020 BET award to Burna Boy, because sis announced her big news on Tuesday and it left her Twitter page wobbly.

Sho thanked her tons of supporters for the unwavering support.

"Eisan! My Twitter keeps crashing. Thank you guys for all the love. Did so much stuff all by myself it feels good to finally have a music family," she said.

Label chair and CEO Sylvia Rhone sang Sho's praises in a statement, saying the label was "honoured" to have her as one of their own.

"African artists are enjoying an unprecedented level of visibility in music and Sho Madjozi is beautifully waving the flag for South Africa.

"She's bold, brilliant and remarkably talented and her music embodies all that is special about her homeland," Rhone said.

"We're honoured to have her as the newest member of the Epic family."

Ain't no doubt that sis is super-ecstatic.
Fans flooded her Twitter timeline with congratulatory messages and well wishes for the future.

All our women and children’s lives matter

The high number of rape cases in our region we read about on an almost weekly basis, is alarming.

The statistics of especially underaged girls being raped - and even killed - by fathers, stepfathers, uncles, nephews or family friends are even more distressing.
It is almost as if some kind of madness has been let loose among a disproportionate number of men.

I think we will be shocked if we could see the rape and murder figures over the past year alone.

But what really concerns me is that, apart from the customary condemnation of some politician or community leader with every atrocity reported, it appears as if there is little in terms of mobilisation by society to address this very serious scourge in our midst.

Is the perception that we have become almost accepting of the flood of evil that sweeps through our communities wrong?

I don’t think so.

We need much more than sporadic little noises when a woman or girl has been viciously abused and killed. We need a collective response such as we currently have with the Covid-19 crisis.

Religious, community and educational leaders, police structures and even the influencer role of captains of industry and the business sector - and of course the often complacent public must join hands to begin changing mindsets.

Instead of whispering, let all our voices be heard loud and clear every day, and not only during special campaign months. Women and children’s lives matter.

Are you an aspiring performer? Here is an opportunity to rock like #ShaSha or act your way to #Uzalo

If you are a performer, here is your chance to take a step up.

Project Performer is presenting a national online lockdown competition with tons of prizes valued at R100 000 to be won.

The competition is open to all aspiring performers across all genres - dancing, singing and acting.

Entries are open until Friday, 17 July.

 'This is about rallying together a number of industry professionals and amateurs.
'We are proud to be associated with 45 national and international industry professional judges, who will judge the final round, including giving feedback and choosing the winners,' said director, Shylo Pereira.

Judges include Maps Maponyane, Steven Stead, Samantha Peo, Jono Johanssen, Lelo Ramasimong and Bernard Kruger.

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Theatre Benevolent Fund.
Semi-finalists will be announced on 24 July and the winners on 14 August.

* Singing - musical theatre/Broadway, pop or contemporary
* Acting - monologues or duologues of any style
* Dance - any style
* Choreography
* TV commercial (maximum of two minutes)
* Instrumental - classical

Visit www.projectperformer.co.za for entry details.

Afro #Poetry Times returns with sizzling July issue. #MondayMotivation

Yesterday was all but a day that led to today. Tomorrow is another day that that will lead humanity into the unknown. 

While we embrace the future, it is equally important to embrace each day as it comes. 

Seasons come and go but the work of art sticks on forever like expensive chewing gum. 

The Afro Poetry Times digital magazine's July issue is here. It is better than ever before as it continues it's endeavor of promoting poetry and the literary arts. 

So much has been happening around the world and the the power of poetry has inspired many to people to believe again. 

That is because poetry has the power to influence change and motivate lifestyles. 

Poetry speaks to the soul. 

The sizzling July edition is your poetry royale! This issue features:

* A poet explains how her praise poem went viral

* Poetry joins Black Lives Matter 

* Alicia Keys talks about her new book and writing during Covid-19. 

* How South Africa once brought Africa together

* Short Story - Femicide Justice 

* Poetry Book Review

* A poets joy at being recognized 

* Poetry competitions, POEMS Galore and lots more. 

Get your copy now from the PressReader website or download the PressReader App and search for the Afro Poetry Times. 

The Afro Poetry Times is here to serve poetry and the literary arts. 

Holly Rey continues thriving #MondayMotivation

Holly Rey has made the most of the lockdown.

She launched a cooking series on Instagram with her sister, Mimi; announced being a signee at Black Coffee's Soulistic Agency; had a virtual lockdown performance, released a single and now has dropped the music video of said single – Wanna Be.

"It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. I have been trying to learn new things to inspire some form of creativity. I have learnt how to edit videos, learnt the tech behind the music and different sound systems.

"I want to come out of this a better musician, especially on the technical side of things."

On how the pandemic will change things for the industry, Holly said it has been a chance to find new ways of doing things.

"I am big on meeting my supporters and interacting with them and this has allowed me to do that. I think we didn't take online performances and streaming serious before. But now we are forced to learn how to do those and to do them properly. It's shown us that we can do it even when the lockdown is over." 

On releasing new music during a pandemic, Holly said she was a bit conflicted.

Holly is famous for being one of the few independent artists to be successful enough to go on and win a major award. Last year she made history when she became the first woman since Brenda Fassie in 1999, to win record of the year at the SA Music Awards with Deeper. 

On whether we can expect a collaboration with Black Coffee, Holly said not yet.

"As I have previously mentioned I have been a huge Black Coffee fan for years and I am so excited that we are stable mates at Soulistic, so we will just have to wait and see if anything happens."
Wanna Be is on streaming sites and the video is on YouTube.

Why not develop a Covid-19 international visa? #FridayFeeling

The aviation industry is battling to stay in business as so many countries have closed cross-border travel to help control the pandemic.

International travellers are well used to obtaining visas – often at considerable cost and inconvenience.

So why not develop an international Covid-19 visa.

The purpose would be to test all passengers before every flight to see if they are infected. It would require testing stations and a dedicated laboratory to do these checks, but much of the cost could be recovered from those who apply for the visa. 

Spare capacity could be made available at a charge to governments so that the time taken for results is fast enough to allow boarding onto the plane.

It doesn't mean dropping the need for precautions such as hand cleansing, and masks where applicable, and strictly controlled social distancing at airports. But it would open up the possibilities of international flights.

The vocalist behind all the #Amapiano chart toppers

Amapiano has grown into a popular genre across South Africa.

Essentially, amapiano is a mix of deep house and gqom, all mixed in with the jazzy, soulful sound of a piano.

Although people like Tall Ass
Tee and The Soul Dictators are cited as the creators of this sound, many other artists have jumped aboard the amapiano ship to create hits of their own, from Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa to Samthing Soweto, Scorpion Brothers and even Mlindo The Vocalist.

They all teamed up with Zimbabwean vocalist Sha Sha to create their hits.

The young beauty from Mutare has become an in-demand vocalist in amapiano and it's no surprise.

After pursuing music professionally and having her singles hit the airwaves in Zimbabwe, she decided to move to South Africa and pursue music here. 

She started doing gigs and soon started growing a fan base but things really changed when a cab driver she befriended introduced her to DJ Maphorisa.

Following her introduction to the DJ, Sha Sha was featured on songs like Nge Thanda Wena and Akulaleki, which has helped cement her name in the music industry.