Recag/C4_15 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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At the second meeting we had eight. Subsequently we had six or something like that. And it was from there that we grew.
Hackney’s biggest market, Ridley Road, was closed on Sundays, so whoever got there earliest in the morning could rally the crowds for the rest of the day.
Sometimes Oswald Mosley and his fascists captured the rostrum, other times the left did.
One Sunday thousands of protesters came to oppose Mosley—a large number of Jews and all the left wing parties. The fascists tried to enter the market.
We pelted them with rotting fruit and vegetables. The attack was so heavy that all their ducking couldn’t save them from being drenched. The lorry turned round and left.
That was the last time the fascists tried to capture the market rostrum.
We had to get married so Cliff could be connected to my good passport. We were married in Palestine.
The wedding took place on the pavement because we didn’t have the money to buy a room. Poor people married on the pavement.
We bought some wine. The rabbi put it to our lips but then he kept the bottle!
When the couple arrived in Britain, Cliff had problems with his immigration status and was not allowed to work.
They were desperate for teachers. I’d done a Hebrew degree in South Africa. And if you had a degree I could become a teacher. I knew nothing about the education system in England.
So I became a teacher. Still, it was two years before I considered myself an infant teacher. I had attended lectures on all aspects of infant education.
When I started teaching I was pregnant and I was getting bigger and bigger. I hadn’t told them I was married because married women were not allowed to teach.
I became an activist in the National Union of Teachers (NUT). And we decided, as left wing NUT members, to form a rank and file teacher group which had a journal of its own.
This was very active. Subsequently there were rank and file groups elsewhere.
Teachers changed from being “ragged trousered professionals”, where many had two jobs, to today where women teachers are among the best off women workers.
I ran the family, I was a full time teacher and I was a full time secretary of the NUT group.
Cliff helped with the kids. But he was over-busy studying and writing and meeting workers.
He was terribly busy and I was three full time people in one. That was how we lived.
We used to do a stall in Brick Lane in east London on Sundays. The fascists sold their paper nearby at the same time. One Sunday people came up to tell me, “They’re calling for Chanie Rosenberg”, which meant they wanted to find and attack me.
When we started going home I recognised one of the fascists across the street. I don’t know whether he recognised me or not but he started crossing the road.
The United States’ system of mandatory public schooling operates under an unspoken social contract with students: Work hard, get good grades, and you can succeed in college, work, and life.
Students are by and large holding up their end of the bargain, but too many schools break the contract by giving them classwork below grade level—leaving them underprepared for what’s next, a new study concludes.
What’s more, the report finds that when given the opportunity, students of color and disadvantaged students do almost as well as their peers on challenging, grade-level assignments, so the notion that such students can’t or won’t do rigorous work “is a pernicious assumption, and it is wrong,” said Daniel Weisberg, the CEO of the research, teacher-training, and advocacy organization TNTP, which conducted the study.
“This is about systemic inequity, systemic bias, and racism,” he said.
The findings, released Tuesday, are based on a huge amount of data collected during the 2016-17 school year from four unnamed school districts and one charter network working with TNTP. Though not a nationally representative sample, the districts are geographically diverse, differ in size, and one of them is rural.
The study features two notable sources of data rarely used in education research: real-time surveys of more than 3,100 students as they sat through their classes, and analyses of nearly 22,000 pieces of student work. To determine whether assignments were on grade level, analysts used a framework developed in-house to vet whether the content aligned with state grade-level standards, gave students independent practice to master the skills, and connected the lesson to real-world contexts.
TNTP collected thousands of examples of student work and real-time survey data for students to capture what kinds of assignments students were asked to do and how engaged they were in the lessons.
4,674 assignments representing 21,993 samples of student work in grades K-12 Teachers identified whether the assignments were state-developed, district-adopted or -developed, or self-made. Each assignment was rated on its content, whether it gave students the opportunity to practice skills, and for its relevance, for a total number of points of 0 to 6, with a 4 representing grade-appropriate.
942 lessons across 422 classrooms, rated on five domains by subject experts on a 0-to-3 scale. Only lessons with an average domain rating of 2 were considered.
28,575 responses representing day-to-day experiences of 3,133 students’ perceptions and attitudes towards their class work. Older students gave survey feedback up to six times during a class; younger students were surveyed at the end of class.
252 surveys of teachers on their experience, beliefs, and knowledge about their state content standards and expectations for student success.
Course grades, trajectories, and standardized test scores for all students in the four districts and one charter network (not just surveyed students).
• Across all districts, 71 percent of students succeeded on the assignments they were given, but only 17 percent of those assignments were actually on grade level.
• Students qualifying for government-subsidized meals and students of color were consistently given lower-level assignments and experienced weaker teaching. Some classrooms serving predominantly students of color offered not a single assignment that was on grade level.
• Importantly, those students did only slightly less well on the harder, grade-level assignments than their peers when actually given them.
• Students of color were more engaged in their classwork when taught by a teacher of the same race, and those teachers had higher expectations for them than white teachers did.
• Students’ test-score results were consistently linked to teachers’ expectations that their students could master high standards.
• Students of color received letter grades that were inflated relative to their performance on standardized tests.
• In all but one district, students of color, low-income students, English-learners, and students with IEPs, or individualized education programs, were less likely to take a rigorous sequence of classes. The study has not yet been peer reviewed.
The report accompanying the study makes the provocative claim that if students were consistently given stronger, more engaging assignments and instruction, their academic achievement would noticeably improve, but the underlying research is less clear about this link.
Using statistical methods on a small subset of the classrooms, TNTP researchers found some preliminary evidence of a relationship between assignment quality and student learning, but not a conclusive one.
The study also raises fresh questions about “differentiating” instruction to different students’ academic levels, Kane said. Teachers are often told to “scaffold” for students who enter class with weaker skills.
Indeed, the report surmises that few teachers have been taught to master differentiation effectively, and in reality this means giving students work below what they’re capable of.
In all, the findings bolster those from a variety of other studies. Analyses of high school transcripts, for example, suggest that students of color get watered-down content even when they take rigorous course sequences.
And smaller-scale analysis of classroom assignments document a wide range in the complexity and difficulty of what students are asked to master in supposedly “college and career ready” classes.
Still other research links teacher expectations to student achievement, with black students in particular bearing the brunt of lower teacher expectations for their performance, compared to white students.
The report concludes by urging districts to audit what their students learn on a day-in-day-out basis, including by asking students regularly about their experiences in classrooms, and to make having high expectations a priority for educators.
"How Good Principals Improve Student Learning (Video)," (On Air: A Video Blog) May 10, 2018.
"Most Students Aren't on Grade Level, Here's What to Do About It," (Top Performers) May 30, 2018.
The first thing I notice when I pull up alongside Freedom Square in Kliptown, Soweto, is the vibrant cacophony of the market-place that almost swallows up the hotel.
The architecture, in fact, is so naturally adapted to the local setting that it is almost impossible to imagine that a four-star hotel, with two majestic presidential suites, is hidden somewhere within the hustle and bustle of informal stalls selling all sorts of goodies, from impepho, a herb used in rituals, to second-hand clothing.
But then an out-of-place-looking, grey-suited man, standing regally near a narrow entrance with the South African flag as his backdrop, is a dead giveaway.
I am immediately directed to a parking area across the road, where I park before taking a short walk to the reception to check in. So begins my mission to see if I can have a meaningful tourist experience in my own backyard.
I am soon ushered up to my first-floor double-deluxe room, one of the hotel’s 48 rooms, and that’s where sentimental childhood memories are, unexpectedly, conjured. On the edge of my bed I notice a little shawl resembling the one my mother used to carry me on her back, the same pattern of the cloth my great-grandmother occasionally threw over her shoulders.
There are elements that recreate a 1950s township: pillows resembling mealie-meal bags and a famous picture of Nelson Mandela that keeps watch over a modern headboard.
A step to my right is a desk with all the usual coffee, tea and sugar. Near the desk is a sliding door that opens on to a balcony overlooking the eternal flame on the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication.
I freshen up and head back downstairs. I ask reception to confirm my booking for the next morning to go on a bike tour of this historic site, where the Freedom Charter was signed in 1955.
While I wait for confirmation I quickly check my emails at a small business centre.
Next door there’s a crowd enjoying pre-dinner drinks at the Rusty Bar, which—in keeping with the hotel’s theme—is named after struggle stalwart Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein.
A while later I’m in the Jazz Maniacs Restaurant, eyeing a collection of black-and-white pictures of musicians from the golden era of the 1950s and 1960s.
I note the familiar greats: Miriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya, but some are unknown to me. I wish the hotel had provided captions for the pictures.
I grab the menu and opt for a basic Greek salad for a starter. For my main meal (as the waitress tells me later), I have Mandela’s favourite curry. I discover that the late minister Dullah Omar’s wife, Farida, used to prepare this dish for Madiba. It is aptly named Farida Omar’s chicken curry.
The food proves to be good and, satisfied, I hit the sack early in anticipation of the next day’s adventure.
I have a traditional breakfast before heading out. Near the entrance to the hotel there is a line of bicycles and a young and fit-looking tour guide is eagerly awaiting my arrival.
I sign an indemnity form and put on my helmet. But there is one final issue—what, I ask, are the fitness levels needed to undertake the tour? “It’s mostly flat,” says my tour guide, Ntokozo Dube.
We are joined by the newspaper’s photographer and Dube explains the route and gives us a brief history of Kliptown, emphasising its significance in the country.
We cycle up a small path with the hustle and bustle of the township market to our right. To our left is the Kliptown Community Centre, recently used as the venue to interview proposed judges for the Constitutional Court.
Our first stop is at the far end of the square and Dube points out a row of 10 sculptures made out of stone, which he says were created by local artists.
Dube tells us each statue is a symbol of the 10 declarations that make up the Freedom Charter.
We cycle to the first tower in the square. Inside there is a sculpture, resembling a pie cut into 10 slices. A closer look shows that each slice contains one of the 10 declarations of the Freedom Charter.
At the centre of the installation is the eternal flame of freedom, which, Dube explains, is lit only once a year.
Dube says the tower was designed to be inviting, open and transparent, with multiple entrances, signifying the various parts of South Africa from which delegates had to travel to get to the square to sign the Freedom Charter.
Dube points out that one of the entrances marks a direct pathway to Vilakazi Road, where Nelson Mandela’s former house still stands.
The other end points towards the famous Union Road and leads to the house of another great South African—artist Gerard Sekoto, who died in exile in France in 1993.
The second tower, I later find out, is made of corrugated iron and symbolises the plight of ordinary South Africans who still live in poverty.
At Sekoto’s former house I see a resident, a coloured woman is sweeping outside, a reminder that Kliptown has been and still is a cultural melting pot.
The bike tour takes us across railway lines into an informal settlement across the road. Here I meet and chat to young people belonging to a developmental organisation that is sponsored by members of the National Basketball Association.
The bike tour takes three hours. Along the way I meet a friendly local “leader” who worked on the set of Hollywood blockbuster District 9 and a sweet granny who offers me a warm vetkoek.
I can’t help thinking that such a tour of Kliptown is an authentic South African experience—even for this boy from the streets of Orlando East.
The Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square’s physical address: corner Union Avenue and Main Road, Kliptown, Soweto. A 45-minute drive from OR Tambo and 30 minutes from Sandton City.
Midweek rate: R1082 single and R1195 double (including breakfast).
Weekend rate: R978 single and R1093 double (including breakfast).
power swinging from the Orlando water towers.
Monthly events: jazz sessions on the last Sunday of every month (from January to August); jazz and braai on the stoep (last Sunday of every month, from September to December); Phuza Thursday—the New Friday (on the last Thursday of every month).
A BRIDGETOWN resident photographed what he described as a UFO in Bridgetown's sky recently, proving the Blackwood once again to be a UFO hotspot. Robert Meldrum, 77, lives on one of the highest vantages of Bridgetown, near the well-known Bridgetown Lookout. Mr Meldrum is an avid photographer who on the afternoon of Sunday, April 22, was shooting photographs of cloud formations from his front verandah. "It was about 5pm on the Sunday and light and dark were in play," Mr Meldrum said. "I was trying to photograph a rainbow after having been intrigued by the cloud formations. "I didn't see the UFO while I was on the verandah, however later when looking at the photos I noticed something in the top right hand corner of one of the photos and then did a close-up. "It looked rocket-like, however it was not a plane, not any design I've seen, it was nothing that made sense, so it qualifies for an unidentified flying object, a UFO," he said. "I was chasing rainbows and instead I found a UFO." Mr Meldrum worked in mineral exploration and as a seasoned fly-in fly-out worker he has had "many peculiar geophysical experiences of the unexplained". "After a life of flying all over the north there have been many things seen high in the atmosphere that we can't explain, so I keep an open mind," he said. "I'm not saying I've seen flying saucers, however many of us have seen what we can't yet explain. "A copy of the photograph was forwarded to the Australian Space Academy, to NASA and to the Weather Bureau.
Unidentified: Robert Meldrum’s photo of an unexplained, rocket-like object.
A BRIDGETOWN resident photographed what he described as a UFO in Bridgetown's sky recently, proving the Blackwood once again to be a UFO hotspot.
Robert Meldrum, 77, lives on one of the highest vantages of Bridgetown, near the well-known Bridgetown Lookout.
Mr Meldrum is an avid photographer who on the afternoon of Sunday, April 22, was shooting photographs of cloud formations from his front verandah.
"It was about 5pm on the Sunday and light and dark were in play," Mr Meldrum said.
"I was trying to photograph a rainbow after having been intrigued by the cloud formations.
"I didn't see the UFO while I was on the verandah, however later when looking at the photos I noticed something in the top right hand corner of one of the photos and then did a close-up.
"It looked rocket-like, however it was not a plane, not any design I've seen, it was nothing that made sense, so it qualifies for an unidentified flying object, a UFO," he said.
"I was chasing rainbows and instead I found a UFO."
Mr Meldrum worked in mineral exploration and as a seasoned fly-in fly-out worker he has had "many peculiar geophysical experiences of the unexplained".
"After a life of flying all over the north there have been many things seen high in the atmosphere that we can't explain, so I keep an open mind," he said.
"I'm not saying I've seen flying saucers, however many of us have seen what we can't yet explain.
"A copy of the photograph was forwarded to the Australian Space Academy, to NASA and to the Weather Bureau.
Sportsmail's panel of experts featuring Phil Vickery, Serge Betsen, Phil Matthews, Paul Griffin, Andy Nichol and Adrian Hadley deliver their verdicts on the tournament so far.

At the second meeting we had eight. Subsequently we had six or something like that. And it was from there that we grew.

Hackney’s biggest market, Ridley Road, was closed on Sundays, so whoever got there earliest in the morning could rally the crowds for the rest of the day.

Sometimes Oswald Mosley and his fascists captured the rostrum, other times the left did.

One Sunday thousands of protesters came to oppose Mosley—a large number of Jews and all the left wing parties. The fascists tried to enter the market.

We pelted them with rotting fruit and vegetables. The attack was so heavy that all their ducking couldn’t save them from being drenched. The lorry turned round and left.

That was the last time the fascists tried to capture the market rostrum.

We had to get married so Cliff could be connected to my good passport. We were married in Palestine.

The wedding took place on the pavement because we didn’t have the money to buy a room. Poor people married on the pavement.

We bought some wine. The rabbi put it to our lips but then he kept the bottle!

When the couple arrived in Britain, Cliff had problems with his immigration status and was not allowed to work.

They were desperate for teachers. I’d done a Hebrew degree in South Africa. And if you had a degree I could become a teacher. I knew nothing about the education system in England.

So I became a teacher. Still, it was two years before I considered myself an infant teacher. I had attended lectures on all aspects of infant education.

When I started teaching I was pregnant and I was getting bigger and bigger. I hadn’t told them I was married because married women were not allowed to teach.

I became an activist in the National Union of Teachers (NUT). And we decided, as left wing NUT members, to form a rank and file teacher group which had a journal of its own.

This was very active. Subsequently there were rank and file groups elsewhere.

Teachers changed from being “ragged trousered professionals”, where many had two jobs, to today where women teachers are among the best off women workers.

I ran the family, I was a full time teacher and I was a full time secretary of the NUT group.

Cliff helped with the kids. But he was over-busy studying and writing and meeting workers.

He was terribly busy and I was three full time people in one. That was how we lived.

We used to do a stall in Brick Lane in east London on Sundays. The fascists sold their paper nearby at the same time. One Sunday people came up to tell me, “They’re calling for Chanie Rosenberg”, which meant they wanted to find and attack me.

When we started going home I recognised one of the fascists across the street. I don’t know whether he recognised me or not but he started crossing the road.

The United States’ system of mandatory public schooling operates under an unspoken social contract with students: Work hard, get good grades, and you can succeed in college, work, and life.

Students are by and large holding up their end of the bargain, but too many schools break the contract by giving them classwork below grade level—leaving them underprepared for what’s next, a new study concludes.

What’s more, the report finds that when given the opportunity, students of color and disadvantaged students do almost as well as their peers on challenging, grade-level assignments, so the notion that such students can’t or won’t do rigorous work “is a pernicious assumption, and it is wrong,” said Daniel Weisberg, the CEO of the research, teacher-training, and advocacy organization TNTP, which conducted the study.

“This is about systemic inequity, systemic bias, and racism,” he said.

The findings, released Tuesday, are based on a huge amount of data collected during the 2016-17 school year from four unnamed school districts and one charter network working with TNTP. Though not a nationally representative sample, the districts are geographically diverse, differ in size, and one of them is rural.

The study features two notable sources of data rarely used in education research: real-time surveys of more than 3,100 students as they sat through their classes, and analyses of nearly 22,000 pieces of student work. To determine whether assignments were on grade level, analysts used a framework developed in-house to vet whether the content aligned with state grade-level standards, gave students independent practice to master the skills, and connected the lesson to real-world contexts.

TNTP collected thousands of examples of student work and real-time survey data for students to capture what kinds of assignments students were asked to do and how engaged they were in the lessons.

4,674 assignments representing 21,993 samples of student work in grades K-12 Teachers identified whether the assignments were state-developed, district-adopted or -developed, or self-made. Each assignment was rated on its content, whether it gave students the opportunity to practice skills, and for its relevance, for a total number of points of 0 to 6, with a 4 representing grade-appropriate.

942 lessons across 422 classrooms, rated on five domains by subject experts on a 0-to-3 scale. Only lessons with an average domain rating of 2 were considered.

28,575 responses representing day-to-day experiences of 3,133 students’ perceptions and attitudes towards their class work. Older students gave survey feedback up to six times during a class; younger students were surveyed at the end of class.

252 surveys of teachers on their experience, beliefs, and knowledge about their state content standards and expectations for student success.

Course grades, trajectories, and standardized test scores for all students in the four districts and one charter network (not just surveyed students).

• Across all districts, 71 percent of students succeeded on the assignments they were given, but only 17 percent of those assignments were actually on grade level.

• Students qualifying for government-subsidized meals and students of color were consistently given lower-level assignments and experienced weaker teaching. Some classrooms serving predominantly students of color offered not a single assignment that was on grade level.

• Importantly, those students did only slightly less well on the harder, grade-level assignments than their peers when actually given them.

• Students of color were more engaged in their classwork when taught by a teacher of the same race, and those teachers had higher expectations for them than white teachers did.

• Students’ test-score results were consistently linked to teachers’ expectations that their students could master high standards.

• Students of color received letter grades that were inflated relative to their performance on standardized tests.

• In all but one district, students of color, low-income students, English-learners, and students with IEPs, or individualized education programs, were less likely to take a rigorous sequence of classes. The study has not yet been peer reviewed.

The report accompanying the study makes the provocative claim that if students were consistently given stronger, more engaging assignments and instruction, their academic achievement would noticeably improve, but the underlying research is less clear about this link.

Using statistical methods on a small subset of the classrooms, TNTP researchers found some preliminary evidence of a relationship between assignment quality and student learning, but not a conclusive one.

The study also raises fresh questions about “differentiating” instruction to different students’ academic levels, Kane said. Teachers are often told to “scaffold” for students who enter class with weaker skills.

Indeed, the report surmises that few teachers have been taught to master differentiation effectively, and in reality this means giving students work below what they’re capable of.

In all, the findings bolster those from a variety of other studies. Analyses of high school transcripts, for example, suggest that students of color get watered-down content even when they take rigorous course sequences.

And smaller-scale analysis of classroom assignments document a wide range in the complexity and difficulty of what students are asked to master in supposedly “college and career ready” classes.

Still other research links teacher expectations to student achievement, with black students in particular bearing the brunt of lower teacher expectations for their performance, compared to white students.

The report concludes by urging districts to audit what their students learn on a day-in-day-out basis, including by asking students regularly about their experiences in classrooms, and to make having high expectations a priority for educators.

"How Good Principals Improve Student Learning (Video)," (On Air: A Video Blog) May 10, 2018.

"Most Students Aren't on Grade Level, Here's What to Do About It," (Top Performers) May 30, 2018.

The first thing I notice when I pull up alongside Freedom Square in Kliptown, Soweto, is the vibrant cacophony of the market-place that almost swallows up the hotel.

The architecture, in fact, is so naturally adapted to the local setting that it is almost impossible to imagine that a four-star hotel, with two majestic presidential suites, is hidden somewhere within the hustle and bustle of informal stalls selling all sorts of goodies, from impepho, a herb used in rituals, to second-hand clothing.

But then an out-of-place-looking, grey-suited man, standing regally near a narrow entrance with the South African flag as his backdrop, is a dead giveaway.

I am immediately directed to a parking area across the road, where I park before taking a short walk to the reception to check in. So begins my mission to see if I can have a meaningful tourist experience in my own backyard.

I am soon ushered up to my first-floor double-deluxe room, one of the hotel’s 48 rooms, and that’s where sentimental childhood memories are, unexpectedly, conjured. On the edge of my bed I notice a little shawl resembling the one my mother used to carry me on her back, the same pattern of the cloth my great-grandmother occasionally threw over her shoulders.

There are elements that recreate a 1950s township: pillows resembling mealie-meal bags and a famous picture of Nelson Mandela that keeps watch over a modern headboard.

A step to my right is a desk with all the usual coffee, tea and sugar. Near the desk is a sliding door that opens on to a balcony overlooking the eternal flame on the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication.

I freshen up and head back downstairs. I ask reception to confirm my booking for the next morning to go on a bike tour of this historic site, where the Freedom Charter was signed in 1955.

While I wait for confirmation I quickly check my emails at a small business centre.

Next door there’s a crowd enjoying pre-dinner drinks at the Rusty Bar, which—in keeping with the hotel’s theme—is named after struggle stalwart Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein.

A while later I’m in the Jazz Maniacs Restaurant, eyeing a collection of black-and-white pictures of musicians from the golden era of the 1950s and 1960s.

I note the familiar greats: Miriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya, but some are unknown to me. I wish the hotel had provided captions for the pictures.

I grab the menu and opt for a basic Greek salad for a starter. For my main meal (as the waitress tells me later), I have Mandela’s favourite curry. I discover that the late minister Dullah Omar’s wife, Farida, used to prepare this dish for Madiba. It is aptly named Farida Omar’s chicken curry.

The food proves to be good and, satisfied, I hit the sack early in anticipation of the next day’s adventure.

I have a traditional breakfast before heading out. Near the entrance to the hotel there is a line of bicycles and a young and fit-looking tour guide is eagerly awaiting my arrival.

I sign an indemnity form and put on my helmet. But there is one final issue—what, I ask, are the fitness levels needed to undertake the tour? “It’s mostly flat,” says my tour guide, Ntokozo Dube.

We are joined by the newspaper’s photographer and Dube explains the route and gives us a brief history of Kliptown, emphasising its significance in the country.

We cycle up a small path with the hustle and bustle of the township market to our right. To our left is the Kliptown Community Centre, recently used as the venue to interview proposed judges for the Constitutional Court.

Our first stop is at the far end of the square and Dube points out a row of 10 sculptures made out of stone, which he says were created by local artists.

Dube tells us each statue is a symbol of the 10 declarations that make up the Freedom Charter.

We cycle to the first tower in the square. Inside there is a sculpture, resembling a pie cut into 10 slices. A closer look shows that each slice contains one of the 10 declarations of the Freedom Charter.

At the centre of the installation is the eternal flame of freedom, which, Dube explains, is lit only once a year.

Dube says the tower was designed to be inviting, open and transparent, with multiple entrances, signifying the various parts of South Africa from which delegates had to travel to get to the square to sign the Freedom Charter.

Dube points out that one of the entrances marks a direct pathway to Vilakazi Road, where Nelson Mandela’s former house still stands.

The other end points towards the famous Union Road and leads to the house of another great South African—artist Gerard Sekoto, who died in exile in France in 1993.

The second tower, I later find out, is made of corrugated iron and symbolises the plight of ordinary South Africans who still live in poverty.

At Sekoto’s former house I see a resident, a coloured woman is sweeping outside, a reminder that Kliptown has been and still is a cultural melting pot.

The bike tour takes us across railway lines into an informal settlement across the road. Here I meet and chat to young people belonging to a developmental organisation that is sponsored by members of the National Basketball Association.

The bike tour takes three hours. Along the way I meet a friendly local “leader” who worked on the set of Hollywood blockbuster District 9 and a sweet granny who offers me a warm vetkoek.

I can’t help thinking that such a tour of Kliptown is an authentic South African experience—even for this boy from the streets of Orlando East.

The Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square’s physical address: corner Union Avenue and Main Road, Kliptown, Soweto. A 45-minute drive from OR Tambo and 30 minutes from Sandton City.

Midweek rate: R1082 single and R1195 double (including breakfast).

Weekend rate: R978 single and R1093 double (including breakfast).

power swinging from the Orlando water towers.

Monthly events: jazz sessions on the last Sunday of every month (from January to August); jazz and braai on the stoep (last Sunday of every month, from September to December); Phuza Thursday—the New Friday (on the last Thursday of every month).

A BRIDGETOWN resident photographed what he described as a UFO in Bridgetown's sky recently, proving the Blackwood once again to be a UFO hotspot. Robert Meldrum, 77, lives on one of the highest vantages of Bridgetown, near the well-known Bridgetown Lookout. Mr Meldrum is an avid photographer who on the afternoon of Sunday, April 22, was shooting photographs of cloud formations from his front verandah. "It was about 5pm on the Sunday and light and dark were in play," Mr Meldrum said. "I was trying to photograph a rainbow after having been intrigued by the cloud formations. "I didn't see the UFO while I was on the verandah, however later when looking at the photos I noticed something in the top right hand corner of one of the photos and then did a close-up. "It looked rocket-like, however it was not a plane, not any design I've seen, it was nothing that made sense, so it qualifies for an unidentified flying object, a UFO," he said. "I was chasing rainbows and instead I found a UFO." Mr Meldrum worked in mineral exploration and as a seasoned fly-in fly-out worker he has had "many peculiar geophysical experiences of the unexplained". "After a life of flying all over the north there have been many things seen high in the atmosphere that we can't explain, so I keep an open mind," he said. "I'm not saying I've seen flying saucers, however many of us have seen what we can't yet explain. "A copy of the photograph was forwarded to the Australian Space Academy, to NASA and to the Weather Bureau.

Unidentified: Robert Meldrum’s photo of an unexplained, rocket-like object.

A BRIDGETOWN resident photographed what he described as a UFO in Bridgetown's sky recently, proving the Blackwood once again to be a UFO hotspot.

Robert Meldrum, 77, lives on one of the highest vantages of Bridgetown, near the well-known Bridgetown Lookout.

Mr Meldrum is an avid photographer who on the afternoon of Sunday, April 22, was shooting photographs of cloud formations from his front verandah.

"It was about 5pm on the Sunday and light and dark were in play," Mr Meldrum said.

"I was trying to photograph a rainbow after having been intrigued by the cloud formations.

"I didn't see the UFO while I was on the verandah, however later when looking at the photos I noticed something in the top right hand corner of one of the photos and then did a close-up.

"It looked rocket-like, however it was not a plane, not any design I've seen, it was nothing that made sense, so it qualifies for an unidentified flying object, a UFO," he said.

"I was chasing rainbows and instead I found a UFO."

Mr Meldrum worked in mineral exploration and as a seasoned fly-in fly-out worker he has had "many peculiar geophysical experiences of the unexplained".

"After a life of flying all over the north there have been many things seen high in the atmosphere that we can't explain, so I keep an open mind," he said.

"I'm not saying I've seen flying saucers, however many of us have seen what we can't yet explain.

"A copy of the photograph was forwarded to the Australian Space Academy, to NASA and to the Weather Bureau.

Sportsmail's panel of experts featuring Phil Vickery, Serge Betsen, Phil Matthews, Paul Griffin, Andy Nichol and Adrian Hadley deliver their verdicts on the tournament so far.