As you all know, our Philosophy classes have stopped for a while now. Short story, we don’t have a place to conduct our classes. The roof has been stolen and the place vandalized, and I am not really eager to fix the place. Without security, “it’s a chasing after the wind,” as Qoheleth would say in the Bible. Oh, and another thing, it is not really our building; it belongs to the government, and it was given to the Phumula Residents Committee, who gave it to us to use. So what should we do in the absence of this desire to fix the place?

Firstly, the dark cloud has been over me for a while now, finances, health, and so forth, as you all know. That means I do not have money to get a new place or fix the old one. My plan is that I speak to local public schools and ask them for a classroom we can use on Saturdays. Let me clarify: in my long months of solitude, I had plenty of time to meditate about our current situation. I will be restructuring the way we do things with a map for the future in hand.

I will start to conduct Saturday classes from 6 September 2025; time 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with tea break and lunch in between. I will try to raise funds to make this happen. These funds will be for things like meals, stationery, and stipend for cook(s). Some local politicians have shown interest in joining our classes, so I thought to include Politics and Economics as well and not make it purely Philosophy.

There’s a newsletter I am launching soon in order to bring awareness to our classes. I won’t host it here, please subscribe; check contact page. This weekly newsletter will be aimed at donors and you, my students. Donors should also feel included in our journey and get some of what you are getting, and I feel that a digital newsletter is a way to do that. I’ve also launched a website, hence this blog, so people can easily get hold of us. The number of students per class will be determined by budget and manpower. I am not prepared to mark 100 scripts yet, so I will intentionally keep the number low for now. And should we grow organically, I will invite other teachers to join and maybe split classes. I am now aiming to professionalize this. It’s always been me, and it’s not okay. For example, the dark cloud over my life has stopped lessons; it’s not just the vandalizing of the place only. This is unacceptable. Some people, teachers, must be invited in so even when I’m not around, the lessons continue like always.

This is why I am suggesting that we either start a Non-Profit Organisation or use Letago, as it has been dormant for years, and have a board and raise funds to grow this thing and actually employ full-time or part-time teachers to grow our vision. But, let’s start with baby steps. Let’s raise funds to restart the lessons and also find a new place to conduct classes. Then we will take it from there.

You know I am a dreamer, so allow me to dream. I dream to grow this into an accredited school or college where governance is taught through a multi-disciplinary approach. It’s doable, but it starts with resuming lessons on 6 September.

Solly Makgolane