July 16, 2023
South Africa: Public Protector Has a Vital Watchdog Role. Researcher Offers Tips On How Selection Process Can Be Improved
The end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 made it necessary to establish several institutions to underpin the country's new constitutional democracy. Read more »
July 10, 2023
South Africa: The True Origins of the World's Smallest and Weirdest Whale
The pygmy right whale, Caperea marginata, is the weirdest whale you've probably never heard of. Read more »
July 13, 2023
South Africa: Looking for Work? 3 Tips On How Social Media Can Help Young South Africans
South Africa has a growing unemployment rate. Statistics show the unemployment rate to be above 60% for those aged 15-24 and over 40% for those aged 25-34 years. Rankings from the… Read more »
South Africa: SAN and Khoe Skeletons - How a South African University Sought to Restore Dignity and Redress the Past
It has been nearly 100 years since the skeletonised remains of nine people were removed from their graves on a farm near the town of Sutherland in South Africa's Northern Cape… Read more »
South Africa: Street Gangs in South Africa and Canada Are Worlds Apart - but They Have a Great Deal in Common
At first glance, it would appear that there's little in common between the vast plains of the Canadian Prairies and the mountainous swells of South Africa's southernmost coastline.… Read more »
July 12, 2023
South Africa: South Africa's Land Bank Can Be Fixed - Change the Funding Model and Narrow the Focus
It is disheartening to see how many South Africans, including parliamentarians, have forgotten the simple and influential role the Land and Agricultural Development Bank (Land… Read more »
South Africa: Sindiwe Magona's New Book of Essays Tackles Issues South Africans Aren't Talking About
Sindiwe Magona - who turns 80 this year - is a celebrated South African writer, storyteller, speaker and activist. In 2022 Magona, once a domestic worker, received her PhD in… Read more »
July 07, 2023
South Africa: Tennis and Apartheid - How a South African Teenager Was Denied His Dream of Playing At Wimbledon
Today the All England Lawn Tennis Club, hosts of the famous Wimbledon Championships, pledges to be diverse and inclusive. But in 1971 an 18-year-old university student, Hoosen… Read more »
July 05, 2023
South Africa: Businesses That Address Social or Environmental Problems Often Struggle to Survive - 3 Things That Can Help Them
Social enterprises are organisations that promote social or environmental issues as their core business. They are useful to societies in lots of ways. They can help solve social… Read more »
July 04, 2023
South Africa: South African Universities Must Do More to Tackle Staffs' Race and Gender Imbalances
At the advent of South Africa's democracy in 1994, an overwhelming majority of academics in the country's public higher education institutions were white men. Black South Africans… Read more »
July 02, 2023
South Africa: Zondo At Your Fingertips - New Book Offers an Accessible and Condensed Version of South Africa's Ambitious Corruption Inquiry
Anti-corruption activist Paul Holden has done South Africa a great favour by summarising the work of the judicial commission that probed massive corruption under former president… Read more »
June 29, 2023
South Africa: Intermittent Fasting Could Help Protect the Brain From Age-Related Diseases Like Alzheimer's
As the world population has grown older, Alzheimer's disease has become increasingly common. Alzheimer's disease is the most prevalent form of dementia. Dementia is a term used to… Read more »
South Africa: Lions Are Still Being Farmed in South Africa for Hunters and Tourism - They Shouldn't Be
A man was arrested at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 23 June 2023 with five lion carcasses in his luggage. He was about to board a flight to… Read more »
South Africa: National Health Insurance Bill Has Noble Aims but Leaves Too Much Uncertain - It Needs More Work
South Africa's National Health Insurance (NHI) bill has passed the first hurdle towards becoming law, getting the country closer to its vision of achieving universal access to… Read more »
June 27, 2023
South Africa: Cholera - Vaccines Can Stop the Spread, but the Biggest Deterrent Is Clean Water
South Africa has experienced outbreaks of cholera since January. The worst was in May in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, where nearly 30 people died. Cholera is a bacterial… Read more »
June 21, 2023
South Africa: Bathrooms Are Political - How Gender-Inclusive Toilets Can Combat Indignity and Violence
A new hate crimes bill is inching closer to the possibility of becoming law in South Africa. The bill entrenches human dignity as a foundational value of the country by providing… Read more »
South Africa: Sign Language Is Now Official in South Africa - How This Will Help Education in Schools for the Deaf
South African Sign Language is set to become the country's 12th official language. Parliament approved a constitutional amendment in a bid to "promote the rights of persons who are… Read more »
June 20, 2023
South Africa: Milisuthando - a Powerful Documentary That Will Get South Africans Talking About Identity
Milisuthando is a debut feature length documentary film by Milisuthando Bongela. Taking the form of a personal essay, it's an intimate story about family and ancestors, about… Read more »
June 19, 2023
South Africa: Climate Change Journalism in South Africa Misses the Mark By Ignoring People's Daily Experiences
South Africa's media houses rely too heavily on events like conferences, climate disasters and the release of scientific papers in their reporting on climate change. That's a… Read more »
June 18, 2023
South Africa: South Africa's Ruling Party Is Performing Dismally, but a Flawed Opposition Keeps It in Power
As power cuts continue, the economy falters, unemployment rises and the currency tumbles, South Africa's political commentators tend to agree that support for the governing African… Read more »
June 15, 2023
South Africa: South Africa Is Famous for Its Biodiversity - a New Network Will Store and Manage Its Plant and Animal Samples
South Africa has created a network of facilities to store hundreds of thousands of samples of biological material from plants, animals, bacteria and fungi. The samples are… Read more »
South Africa: Measles and Whooping Cough Outbreaks in South Africa - a Sign of Low Vaccination Coverage, Experts Warn
The concentrated global effort to use vaccination as a public health intervention began in 1974. Since then, vaccination has changed our lives. Worldwide, in the decades 2000-2020,… Read more »
June 14, 2023
South Africa: Water Quality in South Africa - Reports Show What Needs to Be Fixed, and At What Cost
The citizens of Hammanskraal, a small town north of South Africa's capital, Tshwane, have been dealing with the deaths of 23 residents from cholera since 23 May 2023. Tests to find… Read more »
June 13, 2023
South Africa: South African Activist Frank Anthony Wrote a Novel That Has Been Forgotten - Why It Shouldn't Have Been
How does it come about that a man who dedicated the greater part of his life to a vision of a just South Africa, and sacrificed his family and personal relationships to do so,… Read more »
South Africa: Shaka Zulu Is Back in Pop Culture - How the Famous King Has Been Portrayed Over the Decades
Shaka Zulu is one of the most famous figures in South African history, even though not much is actually known about him. The subject of a hit 1980s TV show and of many books, Shaka… Read more »