Petrol heads head to Spin City

Soshanguve Spin Kings member Oupa Maisela leads a cloud of smoke at the Soshanguve Spinning Palace during a spin city event on the 25th of August.

Robert Mabusela

Ultimate spinning machines BMW E30`s from around South Africa headed to the Soshanguve township in Pretoria on the 25th of August, in attendance of a Spin City event. A chance for spinners to go head to head and an occasion for petrol heads who would rather spend their time in an atmosphere filled with smoke. This leaves their clothes with the scent of a cologne that comes from a concoction of tyre brands, which isn't gender based but rather on a common interest of spinning and drifting.

The Soshanguve Spin Kings hosted the Spinning vs Dj`s event at their spinning palace in Block F which is one of the events that attracts petrol heads from neighbouring provinces to Soshanguve. Apart from local spinners support came from as far as the Limpopo province, team Y & SONS pulled one of the best stunts at the event. The Limpopo crew executed a four men stunt which comprised of the driver and passengers jumping out of their vehicle, leaving it to do a couple of rotations before entering their blue and red branded Y&SONS BMW E30 to finish off their performance. Speed and Sound (sns) Spinning Army added fitness to their stunt, showing the crowd that one doesn't need a gym membership to keep fit as SNS Spinner Sunesh Pursad finished his set of push ups while their Army green BMW rotated driverless.

To single out an interesting moment from the event would be one of the last performances at the event by Hamoo Khuber. The rule at spin city events is to spin until a tyre burst or a double pop. Spinners usually bend the rule if only one tyre burst, by spinning in the opposite direction a technique that allows the other tyre to burst. Damage was weighed against limitless spinning, when Limpopo spinner Hamoo Khuber went beyond the limit and metal was put the tarred surface at the Palace. Khuber continued to spin even though his rims damaged the tarred surface.

Petrol head and spinning fanatic Masego Pitse mentioned that he enjoyed the event and spending the day with his favourite spinners, “the event was super good and fun but towards the end of the event. I enjoyed performances by Hamoo, Jeff, Sunesh, RBM, Isla Bonita, Ziko and Alphy” Said Pitse. Spin City events are usually enjoyable but the return of spinners like Jeff James to the spinning palace made the event more competitive ensuring that the crowed spent their money`s worth.

Student represents SA at the Olympics

Banyana Banyana and TUT womens football player Mary Ntsweng represented South africa at the London Olympics .

Robert Mabusela

"My most memorable moment was playing against the team that is ranked first in the world at the London Olympics". Those were the words of Tshwane University of Technology`s play maker, Mary Ntsweng who you might have spotted wearing the jersey number 10 during the Olympic games broadcasts.

TUT Women's football team player Mary Ntsweng represented South Africa at the 2012 London Olympics. Ntsweng who is a second year Human Resources student took a break from her studies as she reported for national duty. Ntsweng played in Banyana Banyana's opening 4-1 loss against Sweden and their final Olympic fixture, where they produced their best performance to hold up World cup champions Japan to a goalless draw on the 31st of July. Although Ntsweng didn't play in all of the matches played at the Olympics, she feels that having played at the Olympics will help her share some of her experience with her team at the University who are currently first on the University Sports of South Africa league (USSA).

TUT women`s football coach Tebogo Mokae was pleased with Ntswengs performance, “she played very well considering the fact that it was the first time a South African women’s football participate at the biggest stage, but her participation at an internationally level wasn`t the first. Besides everything I am happy she went and represented the University and the Country at large, hopefully she will come and share the experience with the team” said Mokae. Watching Ntsweng play at the Olympics was also exciting for her team mates " I’m proud of her performance at the Olympics as it showed that she put in a lot of hard work at the Olympics and it is motivating for us as players because it gives us the sense that if she can do it then we can also do it" said team mate Koketso Tlailane.

Playing at the fore front of the world in a team that is ranked first in Africa has its responsibilities, Ntsweng will now have to catch up on the work that she missed from the time the Banyana squad started preparing for the Olympics until she arrived back from London. A catch up program has been organised by TUT`s Department of Human Resources to make sure that she catches up on the work she missed.

Cannon Ball Charity Run

Lamborghini LP 700-4 Aventador one of the supercars  that participated in the Cannon Ball Run at the Zwartkops Festival

@ROBERT_MABUSELA

The Cannon Ball Charity Run, or should I say the Cannon Multimillion Rand Charity run was amongst some of the race events that took place during the Zwartkops Festival held at the Zwarkops Raceway on the 11^th of August. To name a few of the cars featured in the run, I spotted a Mercedes Benz SLS convertible, a Lamborghini  Aventador and Murceloago, Nissan Skyline GTR,  2 Porsches (Boxster and 911 GT3),  2 Audi R8`s, a Jaguar XKR RS and a BMW E90 M3.

The Round Table run takes place in different settings including track experiences, skid pans, high speed challenges although most of the cars which are featured in the various runs already come installed with a factory fitted Navigator drivers are paired with a navigator

According to Cannon Ball Run Africa all funds generated by the Run are donated to the QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) and to date the Cannonball Run Africa which has raised hundreds of thousands of Rand in charity money. CBR Africa raises money for charity through various payment, participating teams pay between R13 500 –R 18 500 to participate in the event depending on the different payment policies.

These following are the races that took place during the Zwartkops Festival

Historic Bikes Race

Zwartkops Brunch Run Challenge Race

111 Sports & saloons Race

Zwartkops Thunder Bikes

Extreme Super Car Grid Walk

Extreme Super cars

Supadrift Action

Soshanguve Spin Kings Road Show

SSK Member Bongani Makhubo going spinning during the Soshanguve Spin Kings Road Show

@ROBERT_MABUSELA

The Soshanguve spin kings took to the streets of soshanguve on Saturday 11 August on a road show that was organised to advertise their upcoming event, residents of Soshanguve witnessed spinning and drifting at street corners  and traffic circles while others waved and admired a convoy of BMW E30`s also known as Gusheshe`s.

Action that would normally be seen at the Soshanguve Spinning Palace  was taken to different sections of the township which are venues that don`t require spinners to practice but put their experience behind the three spoke steering wheel of the German vehicle that has been tweaked and modified into the ultimate spinning vehicle around South African townships.

The road show covered most of the Northern Township, starting at the local total garage at Transfer which is situated in Block L heading up south to Block xx, then on to the Mabopane Highway destined for Block RR covering the Northern part of the Township. After causing Havoc outside the Indaba Butchery Site, where even a elderly woman spotted in the front row of the crowd was seen jumping up and down as she witnessed  SSK members doing what they does best. The road show then headed to one of SSK`s favourite spinning area just outside the Tshwane University of technology`s Soshanguve North Campus in Block H, which was the final destination for the raod show.

Overall the road show was a success for the Soshanguve Spin Kings and an experience for Soshanguve residents who got the opportunity to see a convoy of BMW E30`s going sideways at locations where vehicles often  have to stop, go back into first gear before having to set off again.   

Citizen Journalism, Raw and Uncensored

According to Journalists Network the concept of citizen journalism, also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic", "guerrilla" or "street" journalism is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information.

My definition of Citizen is when a journalist focuses their practice of journalism to helping the community at large, through various methods of communication. Citizen Journalism best occurs when a journalist takes it upon themselves to make an effort to change people's lives, this type oj Journalism is Raw and Uncensored. There are three types of citizen journalism the first is part time the second is participatory. In part time citizen Journalism a journalist will seldom focus on the core aspect of citizen journalism but rather participate on when they cover stories that touch on citizen journalism. Participatory citizen journalism occurs when a journalist will take it upon him or herself to maintain their focus and stick to citizen journalism.

Citizen journalism will benefit my career as a Journalist in several ways, the improvement of Writing skills is one of the benefits one will gain from this genre of journalism. Promoting good will within communities and the nation at large will also help ones credibility. It is usually in most Journalists to promote good will by writing articles that will educate and help bring changes to their communities and the country. Citizen Journalism is not glamorous but it is will help groom a Journalists ability to write good stories. Within citizen Journalism a Journalist also has to take note of the possibilities of benign subjective in favour of the community or subject involved. This would not be the best practice of Journalism as Journalists are meant to be objective at all times, representing both sides is key in the field.

When studying to become a Journalist we are not exposed to citizen journalism or taught about it, Citizen Journalism is something that is taken upon by an individual, who makes the decision that they want to write in order to promote good will. Journalism as a field is associated with a lot of bad assumptions for instance "Journalist write lies” which people take from gossip columns and various celebrity scandals. Citizen journalism can be used as a tool that counters some of the bad assumptions that are often associated with journalism. Although this will not take away all the assumptions but it will also show people out there that beyond the assumptions and stigmas Journalism does have a positive impact on peoples, by helping to create change and awareness.

Articles on citizen Journalism can mostly be found on personal blogs belonging Journalists, as one has the freedom to publish what they want on their own platform without the many restrictions that may be inforced by certain media houses. Keep an eye a colse eye on the internet for Citizen Journalism on blogs belonging to Journalists, as this medium best shows how one thinks and also displays their style of writing.  

For more info on Citizen Journalism go to:

About.com http://journalism.about.com/od/citizenjournalism/a/whatiscitizen.htm

Journalists Network http://journalists.net/article.php?article_id=4