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#KovsiesCare: Former gangster touches lives of Heidedal learners

18 July 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Evert Kleynhans

Heidedal Drug Awareness Campaign — Pastor shares with Heidedal learners how drugs landed him in prison.

His father died when he was just three years old. A mourning single mother had to raise three boys. As the middle child, feeling abandoned and unloved, he joined a gang. Home was a cold and empty place and so were the streets of Grabouw, a small town in the Western Cape where he grew up. This is how Ivor Swartz’s story began.

A 15-year-old Swartz told himself: “Because I am not loved at home, maybe I will feel loved on the streets.” It did not take long for the ugly truth to emerge. When it did, he turned to drugs for comfort.

Behind bars

One evening when Swartz and a friend were at a local tavern, they were involved in an altercation. They pulled out guns and fired shots at two males. “My judgement was clouded by the drugs so my friend and I shot my blood brother,” he remorsefully reminisces.

From prisoner to pastor

Swartz was imprisoned for six-and-a-half years, during which time he matriculated. He has been a free man for 14 years. For the past five years Swartz has been a youth pastor at St. Paul’s United Church in Johannesburg. He has also trained as a life coach and holds an Honours degree in Theology from the University of Pretoria.

Swartz shared the story of how drugs almost ruined his future with 1100 Olympia Primary School learners in Heidedal recently. He was the guest speaker at a two-day Community Outreach Drug Awareness campaign led by the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Division for Organisational Development and Employee Wellness.

Compassionate beyond campus

Burneline Kaars, Head of the Division, said the campaign is one of the ways in which the university shows that it cares for the community. “We strive to improve the wellbeing of staff and the community at large.”

Swartz and the UFS team visited seven schools in Heidedal from 10-11 July 2019. where they cautioned future leaders and parents against how drugs shape the choices that individuals make.

Pursuing a better story

Swartz was sitting in solitary confinement when he heard a song by UK singer Robbie Williams. The lyrics were: “Cause I got too much life running through my veins going to waste.” These words changed his life.

“I decided I wanted a better life,” said Swartz. He now lives to make a positive contribution to society and has written a new conclusion to his life’s story.

News Archive

Pres Steyn turns pink in anticipation of Vryfees

2014-06-06

Video clip
Live streaming

Australian artist Cigdem Aydemir vacuum packed the Pres Steyn monument on the Bloemfontein Campus’s Red Plain – in pink. Aydemir’s project, ‘Plastic Histories’, forms part of a public art project that encourages us to evaluate public monuments in their historical context.

By vacuum packing monuments, Aydemir alludes to their significance and preservation. At the same time, though, it reveals the nature of their contentious and gendered historical function. This is because most monuments in post-colonial countries typically celebrate men’s achievements in serving their nations.

In response, this project acknowledges the contribution of women from all races, communities and sexual orientations to the grand narrative of a post-apartheid South Africa.

Aydemir is also developing an app in collaboration with Australian artist Warren Armstrong. This will be used for augmented reality viewing of three city monuments – those of President Brand, General De Wet and General Hertzog. This means that visitors will be able to hold a smart phone or iPad in front of the monuments and view the monuments as if vacuum packed in pink plastic.

In conjunction with the public art project there will be an exhibition of digitally manipulated photographs of nineteen-century and contemporary male monuments in Bloemfontein. These photos will be exhibited at the Johannes Stegmann Gallery at the UFS Sasol Library from 15 July – 1 August 2014.

Public tours on the Bloemfontein Campus and into the city will take place on:

• Tuesday 15 July at 11:00,
• Wednesday 16 July at 14:00, and
• Saturday 19 July at 11:00.

Aydemir’s ‘Plastic Histories’ public art project is part of the UFS Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD) and the Vryfees arts festival’s partnership with the Australian-based SituateArt in Festivals initiative. This partnership is managed by the Salamanca Arts Centre in Tasmania.