November 23, 2023
South Africa: 12-Year-Old Programme Offers Insights for Countries Moving to Cleaner Power Sources
There are many unknowns about how societies will manage the climate transition. And the associated energy transition from fossil fuel-based energy to renewable energy. Read more »
November 22, 2023
South Africa: South African Politicians Vs Judges - New Book Defends the Constitution
In 1994, South Africa became a democracy founded on a supreme constitution. The constitution's preamble affirms the nation's quest to Read more »
November 21, 2023
South Africa: A Free Messaging App Seemed Useful for Disadvantaged South African Students
South African higher education is plagued by inequalities due to the social and economic legacies of apartheid. Read more »
November 19, 2023
South Africa: South African University Students Use AI to Help Them Understand - Not to Avoid Work
When ChatGPT was released in November 2022, it sparked many conversations and moral panics. These centre on the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on the information… Read more »
November 17, 2023
South Africa: How South Africa's Police Can Turn Around Their War On Crime
South Africa's crime statistics for the third quarter of 2023 show that people continue to face a serious problem of violent crime, especially murder and attempted murder. The… Read more »
November 16, 2023
South Africa: Nkoli - the Vogue Opera - the Making of a Musical About a Queer Liberation Activist in South Africa
The history of South Africa's struggle against apartheid (separatist white minority rule) is taught only through the broadest of brushstrokes in the country's schools. So might… Read more »
November 15, 2023
South Africa: Henry Bredekamp and the Khoisan - the Living Legacy of a Renowned South African Historian
When Professor Henry Charles "Jatti" Bredekamp began his career as a historian of early Cape Town in South Africa, there was still a commonly held myth that the region's native… Read more »
November 13, 2023
South Africa: Diseases On Farms in South Africa - Recent Outbreaks Point to Weaknesses in the System
South Africa has had a number of outbreaks of animal diseases in recent months that suggest there are weaknesses in the country's biosecurity system - the measures in place to… Read more »
South Africa: Bad Food Choices - Clearer Labels Aim to Help South Africans Pick Healthier Options
South Africans have a hard time figuring out which foods are unhealthy when they go shopping. But this is about to change. Read more »
November 09, 2023
South Africa: Ubuntu Offers Lessons in How to Treat People With Disabilities - a Study of Bomvana Rituals
Research shows that people with disabilities have always been largely excluded and marginalised in societies across the world. Read more »
South Africa: Tourists Are Returning to South Africa - but the Sector Will Need to Go Green to Deal With the Country's Electricity Crisis
For the past 16 years South Africans have dreaded rolling power cuts euphemistically dubbed "loadshedding". These are caused by the ailing state power entity Eskom's crumbling… Read more »
November 08, 2023
South Africa: Do You Like Snakes, Lizards and Frogs? Why Herpetology Might Be the Career for You
We are so fortunate to share the world with a huge diversity of creatures. For me, some of the most fascinating are reptiles and amphibians. Collectively called herpetofauna,… Read more »
November 07, 2023
South Africa: South Africa's Universities Aren't Training Future Civil Servants for What the Country Needs
Many analysts blame state capture - the corruption of the management of public affairs - for the weakening of state capacity in South Africa. A judicial commission of inquiry into… Read more »
November 05, 2023
South Africa: Wage Gap Is Huge - Why Companies Should Report What CEOs and Workers Earn
Inequality in South Africa is high, whether measured by income or wealth. One of the results is that there's acute public scrutiny of executive compensation. Read more »
November 02, 2023
South Africa: Bird Flu Could Be Eradicated By Editing the Genes of Chickens - Our Study Shows How
Recent advances in gene editing technology could potentially be used to create disease-resistant animals. This could curtail the spread of avian influenza, commonly known as bird… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's Literacy Crisis - Our App Could Help Young Readers By Using Home Language and English
Literacy changes lives: in Unesco's words, it "empowers and liberates people, ... reduces poverty, increases participation in the labour market and has positive effects on health… Read more »
November 01, 2023
South Africa: South Africa's Medium-Term Budget Reflects Difficult and Contested Decisions
The medium-term budget policy statement presented by South Africa's finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, to parliament on 1 November 2023 is intended to provide a preview of… Read more »
South Africa: Multimedia Is Key to Distance Education - I Built a Model South African Universities Can Use
Distance education first appeared in the United States in the 1800s. At the time, students received the relevant material through the post and then returned it to the institution. Read more »
October 31, 2023
South Africa: South Africa Power Outages - Some Improvement but a Long Way to Go Before the Grid Is Stable
Over the past few months, South Africa's power generation sector has performed better than expected. Four factors explain this: an acceleration of solar power installations, less… Read more »
October 29, 2023
Zimbabwe: Shepherd Ndudzo's Celebrated Sculptures Tell an Untold History of Southern African Art
The work of award-winning Zimbabwe-born sculptor Shepherd Ndudzo is instantly recognisable. Fluid, elongated black bodies and body parts flow from white rock in a typical work. The… Read more »
Africa: AGOA Trade Deal Talks - South Africa Will Need to Carefully Manage Relations With U.S., China
South Africa must tread carefully in its economic relationships to avoid being caught in the escalating tension between east and west, and more specifically China and the US. The… Read more »
October 26, 2023
South Africa: DNA Tech Solves 40-Year-Old Mystery of Pine Tree Disease in South Africa
In the 1970s and 1980s, pine trees growing in various forestry plantations in South Africa's Western Cape province began to die in patches. These trees succumbed to a mysterious… Read more »
October 25, 2023
South Africa: Izikhothane - A South African Youth Subculture That Trashes Luxury Items
In South Africa, a skhothane is a young, fashionably dressed black urban resident who engages in destructive conspicuous consumption. This involves regular get-togethers on… Read more »
October 24, 2023
Zimbabwe: HIV-Positive Parents in Zimbabwe Struggle to Manage Their Children's Educatio
Over the past three decades researchers have explored various aspects of the impact of the HIV pandemic. One focus area has been children who have lost their parents to AIDS. Less… Read more »
South Africa: The Thorny Issue of 'Race' in South African Politics
"Race" continues to have much political salience in South Africa, a country where, in the past, perceived differences of skin colour were used to construct a hierarchy of "races",… Read more »