Two Wits academics have had the great honour of editing a special issue of Higher Education, the leading international journal on higher education studies.
Emanating from a book published last year, Large-Class Pedagogy: Interdisciplinary perspectives for quality higher education, the special issue is co-edited by Wits academics Dr David J. Hornsby and Professor Ruksana Osman, and continues the debate around the challenges and opportunities of large class learning environments.
“This special issue fits into an ongoing effort at Wits to advance critical thinking around pressing issues facing teaching and learning locally and globally. Clearly the issue of large classes is not just one specific to Wits or South Africa, but is a pressing issue across higher education contexts,” says Hornsby.
“Responses in developed and developing situations are going to be very different due to the availability of resources to help in adapting. The special issue takes this into account and offers perspectives from South African, American, Canadian, and Australian based academics. It furthers the debate on the little considered issue of large class pedagogy that is a result of a global massification push in higher education.”
The Higher Education special edition contains ten original papers on several topics such as: Massification in higher education: large classes and student learning; A critical perspective on large class teaching: the political economy of massification and the sociology of knowledge; Massification and the large lecture theatre: from panic to excitement; Knowing your students in large diverse classes: a phenomenographic case study; Teaching large classes in an increasingly internationalising higher education environment: pedagogical, quality and equity issues; Qualitative variation in approaches to university teaching and learning in large first-year classes; Building capacity: challenges and opportunities in large class pedagogy (LCP) in Sub-Saharan Africa; Political economy of higher education: comparing South Africa to trends in the world; Using interactive content and online activities to accommodate diversity in a large first year class; and Building an evolving method and materials for teaching legal writing in large classes.
The book, the only one of its kind and a world-first, has three parts and covers topics such as The Lecture and Large Classes; Evidence and Case Studies of Large-Class Teaching; and Supporting Large-Class Teaching. Within these headings various aspects of lecturer-student interaction are covered. The book considers these learning contexts and offers conceptual and practical considerations on how to ensure quality higher education is preserved from a range of disciplinary backgrounds.
Wits academics sign letter about e-cigs
- By Wits University
129 public health and medical authorities from 31 countries, including academics from Wits University, have signed an open letter to the World Health Organization’s Director General, Dr Margaret Chan urging an evidence-based approach to e-cigarettes. Please click here to view the letter.
Passing of Professor Russel Botman
- By Wits University
The Chairman of Council, Dr Randall Carolissen, and the Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Adam Habib, and the community of Wits University wish to express their deep condolences at the news of the passing of Professor Russel Botman, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University.
Professor Botman has been an influential and inspiring figure in the higher education landscape, leading one of our top universities through important periods of growth and transition. Professor Botman has of course also played a much wider role on the South African stage, giving far-sighted leadership to our society in transition and playing an important role in addressing social fabric issues. As an esteemed academic and former President of the South African Council of Churches, he has made an immeasurable contribution in the area of theology, both nationally and internationally. We wish to extend our deepest condolences to Professor Botman’s family and the University of Stellenbosch community.
Dr Randall Carolissen Chairman of Council of Wits University
Professor Adam Habib Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University
Human exemplar of the liberation
- By Vivienne Rowland
Apartheid activist Dr Ahmed Kathrada has been hailed as the human exemplar of the liberation struggle by Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Adam Habib.
Habib delivered the opening remarks of the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism 2014 Session taking place across five cities until 11 July 2014.
“Ahmed Kathrada is the individual exemplar of the liberation, a man who has transcended generations and walked in these corridors about 70 years ago with Walter Sisulu, Madiba, Oliver Tambo and many of the other greats. Those are the greats who fought for the liberation and challenged it, not simply because they believed in it. They became the true advocates for the liberation. There is no better individual in this country to tell us what the non-racial meant then and what it means now. He walked with liberation giants, and he is a liberation giant himself,” said Habib.
Kathrada and Professor Achille Mbembe, researcher at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, conducted a public conversation titled A History of Non-Racialism in South Africa, during which Mbembe asked the former best friend of the late former president Nelson Mandela to expand on his experiences with other races, particularly whites, in apartheid-era South Africa.
The foundation for the conversation was Kathrada’s book, Memoirs, published in 2009. The book chronicles Kathrada’s experiences growing up in Schweizer-Reneke in the North West province and his devotion to the freedom struggle in South Africa.
“Schweizer-Reneke was a hot bed of Afrikanerdom when I grew up. The freedom of the town was given to Eugene Terre’Blanche. Yet, the relationship between the Kathrada family, the blacks and Afrikaners in the town was warm,” said Kathrada.
He explained that although the Apartheid laws and rules were quite rigid and strictly enforced, there were people who did not look at colour and became firm friends of his family.
“I grew up speaking Afrikaans. I love Boeremusiek, it makes me nostalgic and I grew up close to Afrikaner families, but we, as Indians, were not allowed to vote. This caused much confusion for our friends from other races,” said Kathrada.
Listen to the compelling conversation between Kathrada and Mbembe.
Hosted collaboratively by the Johannesburg Workshop in Criticism and Theory (JWTC), the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER) and the University of California’s Summer Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory, the 2014 JWTC Session, titled Archives of the Non-Racial: A Mobile Workshop, will be hosted in Johannesburg, Durban, King Williams Town, Swaziland and Cape Town, and will consist of a series of public lectures, panel discussions, book launches and performances. Read more or view the programme
The wicked challenge of water
- By Kanina Foss
“Most people in developing countries are much more worried about service than resources. But all services are underpinned by the resource and we forget that at our peril.”
This is according to Professor Mike Muller, Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Wits School of Governance, who delivered a public lecture titled: “The Wicked Challenge of Sustaining South Africa’s Water Security” at Wits University on 18 June 2014.
According to Muller, South Africa is not the only country with water problems. London has spent R100 billion on diverting sewerage out of the Themes to protect the health of 100 000 people who row there. Meanwhile the city seems blissfully unaware that they have about half a million people living on a flood plain.
Australia, in response to drought, spent billions on desalination plants, only to have them flooded and left unused. Thailand had 70 different government agencies responsible for water when its industrial area was struck by a flood that affected so many factories that there was a measurable effect on global GDP. Even Holland, the country that we thought knew exactly what it was doing when it came to water, is very worried.
According to Muller, it is actually nice to come back to South Africa where, despite continuous warnings, things seem to be on track. But, he warned, the fact that the country has come through the decade fairly well, without a drought for years, means that now is the time when we should be most worried. And if our history of infrastructure maintenance in municipalities is not that good, he asked, how long before the problem repeats itself on a larger scale?
Water is a wicked problem because it is complex, there are many different interest groups, and the extremes – which happen maybe once in a generation – are concealed by averages. “Averages do not teach responses to extremes,” said Muller.
He argued that attitudes to environmental challenges were part of the problem. Europe, for example, mandates a return to nature, but people without basic income are different to those who have sorted out their standard of living. “We have to acknowledge that we live in the Anthropocene and not treat nature as something out there,” said Muller.
Between 1985 and 2000/05, environmental interest groups opposed to dams managed to achieve an almost complete embargo on financing for dams in Africa, said Muller. “The arrival of China has completely changed that. When they arrived and asked governments what they wanted – besides conference centres and stadiums – they said they wanted hydropower, irrigation and water supply for cities. Sub-Saharan Africa uses less than 5% of its available water, as opposed to 30 to 40% in other places, despite the fact that we’ve been told we’re water scarce.”
He contrasted the decision making process in China’s Politburo, which is technically orientated, with the decision making process in a democracy, which he said was more vulnerable to being hijacked by interest groups who’ve “learned to play the democratic game” and to frame debates in ways that suit them.
“Water management isn’t a technocratic decision anymore and water managers need to learn to work in this new world,” he said.
According to Muller, the way to deal with a wicked challenge like sustaining water security is to take a long term perspective – to worry not about what’s going to happen next year, but what’s going to happen over a decade or two.
In addition: “We need a capable and developmental state that acts to resolve historical inequalities through delivering better public services and facilitating investment,” he said. As non-local firms buy our specialist technical consulting skills, we lose our capacity to create a developmental state. “This is a wicked problem in its own right.”
In his conclusion, Muller said that South Africa needed to recognise the localness of water and avoid general solutions; strengthen relationships between water users and water managers; develop a common understanding of possible water futures; ensure that knowledge influences social and political decisions; not assume that technical advice will be accepted and seek to keep society’s debates technically informed; and develop the special people who can rise to the challenges.
Professor Mike Muller, Professional Engineer and Fellow of the SAAE, SAICE and WISA, is Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Wits School of Governance and a Commissioner in the National Planning Commission. He is a former director of the Department of Water Affairs. His lecture was hosted by the South African Academy of Engineering.
Social change as seen by the people
- By Vivienne Rowland
A social media campaign by the Wits Drama for Life project has rapidly been gathering followers since its inception earlier this year.
The Build-a-president Facebook page, which has more than 2000 likes or followers already since it was created at the end of April, has generated overwhelming support and great excitement. The project was started as a Mandela Day project, inspired by the legacy of former President Nelson Mandela.
The social change project, the brainchild of Hamish Neill, Drama for Life Project Manager and Drama for Life alumni, working with photographer Evans Mathibe, was modelled on the ever popular Humans of New York Facebook page, with a Johannesburg/South African relevance.
Build-a-president is a social change project that seeks to ask pertinent questions about democracy, constitutional building, active and responsible citizenship; such as “How we can enhance the role of democratic leadership among all youth?” and “How can we foster generations of youth to live the legacy of Nelson Mandela?”. Build-a-president asks how we, as citizen leaders, can respond to critical questions about human rights and social justice in the fields of health, development, education, arts and culture.
The project’s foundation exists through social media in relation to Drama for Life community engagement and social responsibility projects that live on the streets, in cities and villages, community spaces, schools, colleges and universities.
Followers answer the questions asked about social concerns by responding with slogans, or black-and-white photographs taken of them expressing their views on a poster.
Warren Nebe, Director of the Drama for Life programme at Wits, says the project has been conceptualised with a long-term lifespan in mind, and will tie in directly with activities on Mandela Day, celebrated annually on 18 July and other activities planned by Drama for Life for the year ahead.
“Our eventual goal is to use this space to help generate further dialogue when working on further projects. We will use this space for the training of 220 Grade 11 students in Diversity Studies in June; for the upcoming SA Season that focuses on the theme More equal than others; Wits’ celebration of 20 years of democracy; the annual Sex Actually festival; Women’s Day celebrations; and discussions and events around mental health care and transformation, to name a few,” says Nebe.
As Africa renews its efforts to improve mining’s developmental impact, the spotlight is increasingly falling on the skills needed to manage the sector and the capacity of African educational institutions to deliver them, says Professor Caroline Digby.
The shortage of technical skills (such as mining engineering and geology) has been well publicised for some time now. What is increasingly apparent is that we need to generate a wider range of crucial skills if mining is to forge a more integrated and positive role in economic growth and sustainable development on this continent. Capacity needs to be built in fields like strategic planning, law, contracts, finance, fiscal policy, environment, community affairs and human rights.
The dearth of these skills has meant that Africa – despite its abundance of mineral resources and long history of mining – has so far not reaped the anticipated developmental benefits. This is one of the main reasons why African governments have endorsed the African Mining Vision (AMV), aimed at managing Africa’s minerals so the sector can help pro-actively in lifting the continent out of poverty and moving towards growth, development and prosperity for all. The AMV recognises that ‘the key element in determining whether or not a resource endowment will be a curse or a blessing, is the level of governance capacity and the existence of robust institutions’.
The implementing arm for the AMV is the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) which has been established to translate the vision into practical solutions for reducing poverty and involving people in development. The AMDC is an initiative of the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. Alongside promoting the enhanced use of geological and geospatial information, the AMDC has set broad-based skills development in the sector as one of its priority work streams. This initiative presents a major opportunity to build partnerships and support across Africa’s educational institutions and borders.
At the CSMI we see great value in establishing a robust programme of continuous professional development for all stakeholders in the sector. While we contribute to the postgraduate degree courses at Wits University’s School of Mining Engineering and other departments, our main focus is to provide short training programmes and workshops for practitioners already in the workplace in the private and public sectors. As we develop our suite of courses, we plan to move more in the direction of on-site training and residential block courses, alongside developing our on-line or distance learning capability.
A useful model to start thinking about more integrated delivery of training across Africa and mining regions globally is our Minerals Industry Risk Management course, originally developed at the request of Anglo American to roll out across their operations worldwide. CSMI is part of a consortium of universities, licensed by the University of Queensland with Wits University, the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town as the South African university partnership, as well as universities in Brazil, Chile, USA and Canada. The aim of the course is to initiate a radical change in safety within operations through improving managers’ practical understanding and practice of safety risk management, leading to better decisions affecting safety. As international standards start to bite and performance requirements converge, it will become more common to bring together internationally accredited providers capable of delivering training to an international standard.
Globally, we have seen a significant tightening of safety, health, environment and community regulations as a response to growing concerns about the poor performance and high profile accidents of the industry. However, these regulatory frameworks in Africa are still somewhat piecemeal and the capacity of the various regulatory agencies to enforce and monitor compliance is generally weak.
The CSMI has been delivering accredited short courses for mining regulators since 2009. The training develops capacity through modules that examine legislation and enforcement of legislation, as well as the tools and approaches available to regulators such as inspections, audits and investigation methods. We benchmark our courses against other internationally recognised regulator qualifications. Our research has shown that there is much work to do to build capacity as most regulators report difficulty in finding and retaining the right candidates, and good staff are often lured away to the private sector by higher salaries or a better resourced work environment. We need to advocate for more formal continuous professional development and mentoring to be linked to career progression in the public sector, if we are to dispel the widely-held perception that the regulator is poorly equipped to deal with a better resourced private sector.
The demand for new skills is not restricted to the public sector and the regulator; the mining companies are also increasingly realising the need for a more holistic set of skills to manage their business through the life-cycle. Right from the earliest days of exploration, company personnel are now being asked to manage a complex terrain of sustainable development issues from occupational safety and health to local community engagement and environmental mitigation measures. Gone are the days when an under-performing mine manager can be shunted into community relations and expected to transform overnight into a successful communicator and relationship-builder in the local community. Launched in 2013, CSMI has partnered with consultants Synergy to deliver a four-module programme on Community Relations Practice for those on the frontline of managing social risks and improving cooperation among diverse stakeholders for better development outcomes.
A 2014 report by Deloitte[1] lists the talent gap as one of the top ten issues facing mining companies in the coming year. As cost-cutting sweeps across the industry, even companies who have had strong talent development are experiencing significant layoffs with the loss of operational experience and institutional memory. This trend is hitting all levels of management right up to the boardroom. Given that we can expect the future to be more uncertain, from commodity price volatility to climate change impacts, we as universities must respond proactively to equip tomorrow’s leaders with the multi-disciplinary skills and resilience that will ensure mining does maximise its contribution to sustainable development.
Professor Digby is Director of the Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry (CSMI) at the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has worked in the field of mining, sustainability, education and regeneration for over twenty years, including high-level roles with the renowned Eden Project in the UK, the Post-Mining Alliance, the International Council on Mining and Metals, and the International Institute for Environment and Development.
Ethical values to extend beyond science
- By Wits University
Ahead of the sentencing of Dr Wouter Basson, the newly formed Wits Students’ Bioethics Society, within the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics and in conjunction with the South African Medical Association, recently hosted its debut event at the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences, titled The Dis-eases of Secrecy: Project Coast Then and Now.
The lecture was presented by esteemed guest speakers Dr Chandré Gould, a senior research fellow in the Crime and Justice Division of the Institute for Security Studies and editor of the journal South African Crime Quarterly, and Brian Rappert, Professor of Science, Technology and Public Affairs in the Department of Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Exeter.
With the Health Professions Council of South Africa reaching a verdict on the charges of unethical and unprofessional conduct of Dr Basson as head of the apartheid chemical and biological warfare (CBW) programme, the lecture focused on the claims emanating from the CBW programme through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the trials of Dr Basson and how these have simultaneously revealed and concealed secrets about the programme and the impact they have had on the professional conduct of scientists in South Africa.
Particular reference was made regarding the amount of complicity and deferral within the medical profession during that period. One of the lessons learnt is that there needs to be a new ethos and the need for accountability, moral, responsible and ethical behaviour.
“Moral and ethical values extends beyond science, and need to be incorporated into our teaching principals. We have to keep this alive and ensure that ethics and human rights values are internalised in every heath profession. It is also critical that awareness of moral and ethical issues feature strongly in the public consciousness,” said Professor Joe Veriava, Chair of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics Advisory Board.
Following the apartheid era’s fundamental erosion of professional conduct within the medical professions, the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences was one of the first tertiary institutions to hold its own internal reconciliation process, resulting in ethics becoming a formal discipline within the Faculty which is now known as the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics.
This debut lecture also served to showcase talent within the Wits Student’s Bioethics Society announcing the winners of its competition for the design of a new logo and social media hashtag for the Centre. The winning designs were awarded to students Laurinda Vorster and Jean le Roux respectively.
Superbugs: Are the bugs winning the war?
- By Wits University
People the world over are admitted to hospital for a particular problem and acquire secondary infections there, which can be fatal. In Africa, outbreaks of deadly viruses, such as Ebola and Marburg, are on the increase, causing a rising number of fatalities over the past ten years.
What is happening to our world? Are we in the grips of a global 21st Century superbug plague?
These are the questions that Professor Guy Richards and Professor Adriano G. Duse will address at the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences’ 10th Prestigious Research Lecture on Monday, 30 June 2014 at the Wits School of Public Health Auditorium in Parktown, Johannesburg. Read more.
“Superbugs are microorganisms, such as viruses and bacteria, which modern medicine is struggling to combat because they are becoming increasingly virulent and resistant to antibiotics or vaccines. At the same time, very few new drugs or vaccines are coming out of the pharmaceutical pipeline,” explains Professor Duse, the Head of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, School of Pathology in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Wits University.
“We are talking about a crisis where people in ever-greater numbers are no longer responding to the available treatments and the problem is growing, with disastrous consequences. This is largely as a result of the abuse of antibiotics – both their incorrect prescription and over prescription,” adds Professor Guy Richards, the Academic Head of the Division of Critical Care in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Wits University, and the Director of the Department of Critical Care at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH).
In short, antibiotic abuse destroys people’s infection-fighting, good bacteria and replaces them with hostile, antibiotic resistant bacteria or superbugs. Which is why, when you accompany Richards on his ward rounds you immediately notice how strict he is about the administering of antibiotics.
“All doctors, veterinarians and hospitals have to become extremely circumspect about when and for what they prescribe an antibiotic and which antibiotic they prescribe, because we are at the end of the antibiotic era. Pharmaceutical companies are not producing new generations of antibiotics because it is not profitable for them, and we therefore have to make sure that we extend the lifespan of existing antibiotics,” he explains.
Richards says that doctors and hospitals that do not pay immediate attention to this are exacerbating the infection crisis in communities and hospitals worldwide. Vets, too, have to play their role, as he explains:
“Antibiotics are used in certain livestock situations as growth simulants and the overuse of them leads to the growth of resistant superbugs, which are easily passed from animal to person and from person to person, or they make their way into the sewer systems and multiply.”
“The health of humans is inextricably linked to the health of animals and the environment. Addressing the connections between health and the environment requires an urgent expansion of interdisciplinary collaborations and strong political and global will,” adds Duse, who will be focusing on the challenges posed by agents that cause viral hemorrhagic fevers such as the Ebola and Marburg viruses.
Duse has firsthand of experience of people infected by these killer viruses. In December 2012 Duse was appointed World Health Organization Expert Consultant for the Infection Control Group for the Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreak response team in Uganda. In April 2014 he was deployed to Liberia to assist with the containment of the Ebola virus outbreak.
“We are seeing an increase in both fatal infections and in infections that used to be curable but are no longer, as well as an increase in hospital-acquired infections or what we call nosocomial infections,” continues Richards, who cites the following studies:
The European Prevalence of Infection (EPIC) study demonstrated 21% of patients in ICUs had nosocomial sepsis, the European Study of GN Infection (ESGNI)-007 found an overall infection rate of 9.9% and the ESGNI-008 study found an overall infection rate of 26.8% post-major heart surgery.
“There are more than two million nosocomial infections per year in the United States, with 90 000 deaths and annual hospital costs of US$ 5.7billion,” says Professor Richards who believes that certain hospital groups and medical aids in South Africa have data on nosocomial infection rates in South Africa which has not been shared with the public.
“Our levels of resistance and infection are possibly higher than the United Kingdom or United States because our infection control practices are not always as specific as they should be,” he suggests.
“Every hospital and every ward has a different microbe profile and it is critical to know what bacteria or viruses patients are likely to encounter in each unit, in order to be precise about the type of antibiotics prescribed. This is especially critical in ICU where patients are seriously ill or at risk and their immune systems are often already compromised.
“In addition, hospital staff needs to take extreme care to follow anti-infection protocol because infections are all too easily contracted, either intravenously or via other procedures.”
Zooming in on quality teaching and learning
- By Buhle Zuma
The Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development (CLTD), hosted a Teaching and Learning Lekgotla for Wits academics to interrogate their teaching practices and share ideas on how to promote quality learning and teaching in the University.
The Lekgotla, which took place from 26 to 28 May 2014, was attended by eight representatives from each of the five Wits Faculties, identified as the exemplars of good teaching practices and key drivers of innovating learning in their respective Faculties.
Chris Callaghan, an academic in the School of Economic and Business Sciences pointed out that the students of today are different from their predecessors and therefore teaching methods have to change accordingly.
“I feel that the major challenge is the need to ‘deepen the skills range’ that we impart to our students. We need to prepare them for competitive practitioner fields, where they need to have a far wider set of skills than before. As educational standards heighten worldwide our students face increasingly competitive environments.”
Pre-Lekgotla Faculty groups were tasked with identifying two initiatives and projects of quality learning and teaching in their Faculties to be shared with colleagues. These offered solutions to some of the common problems that emerged during the discussions.
Not just a talk shop
Pam Nichols from the Wits Writing Centre says the Lekgotla was useful in developing a more coherent and co-operative programme to address teaching and learning needs across the University.
This cooperation has translated into a growing interest in formalising student-tutor support.
“We need more postgraduate tutors to support large skills-intensive classes, and we need to professionalise their work. We are looking towards developing more credit-bearing tutor training courses, integrating those courses with their home disciplines and supporting the tutors in a more professional discipline-specific way.”
“Promoting a postgraduate culture through developing the tutors is our best way to ensure that more Wits students get their degrees, as well as improving the university experience for the postgraduate students,” says Nichols on some of the solutions which could promote quality teaching and learning at Wits.
Dr David Hornsby, co-author of the book Large-Class Pedagogy: Interdisciplinary perspectives for quality higher education, added that the Lekgotla fulfilled several institutional goals. For Hornsby, the collection of like-minded individuals from across the University was helpful, not only from a perspective of sharing experiences, but also engaging in collective problem solving.
“It was a really supportive environment that was focused on finding ways to improve the position and practice of teaching and learning in the institution. It is clear from the meeting that the impact of the Lekgotla on day-to-day teaching at Wits is the creation of support mechanisms for grass roots initiatives that enhance quality teaching and learning environments despite challenges,” says Hornsby.
Workshop objectives achieved?
James Stiles, workshop facilitator was adamant from the beginning that the workshop should not be about ‘horror stories’ but offer solutions and ideas on promoting quality teaching and learning.
The quality of teaching is at the heart of Wits’ strategy in retaining its competitive edge in producing quality graduates, improving research and growing its postgraduate numbers.
Workshop activities sought to drive the message that “our jobs (as lecturers) is not just to convey content but it is really to offer insight into life-long learning for the students. If we prize that first and the content second we create more self-activated learners,” says Stiles.
Developing a passion for learning through a certain teaching technique is particularly important, says Stiles who points out that most of the Wits students are in professional programmes which require that they engage in continuous professional development.
“If they are not engaged in life-long learning, which germinates from undergraduate studies, they are not going to stay committed in their professions,” continues Stiles.
The 2014 Teaching and Learning Lekgotla is the second such event hosted by CLTD, which is tasked with developing opportunities to support the professional development and personal journeys of Wits academic staff. CLTD's vision is to enhance Wits' national and global reputation by providing innovative support for learning and teaching. CLTD works with both staff and students to ensure that Wits continues to improve the quality of education it offers and the research it produces.
To view the programme, .
Today’s prize-winners, tomorrow’s builders
- By Vivienne Rowland
Six of the one and half a dozen of the other.
Whichever way you see it, it makes no difference to the record number of prizes won by Mpilo Ntuli at the annual prize-giving ceremony of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment on Thursday, 29 May 2014.
Students, parents, special guests and donors were invited to an evening of acknowledgement, honouring and admiration for the top performers from 2013 in the Faculty, which saw prizes being handed to deserving candidates in all the Schools within the Faculty.
Ntuli, currently completing her masters degree in Property Development and Management at Wits, walked away with the Colin and Nora Sinclair Memorial Prize; two Gauteng Master Builders Association Prizes; the Group Five Building Prize; the Harry Stirling Prize; and the CIOB-Africa Construction Management Achievement Award. She won the prizes for her achievements as an undergraduate student in construction management in the School of Construction Economics and Management.
“I dedicate a lot of hours to my studies, I work very hard and I have a very supportive family. The company I keep are people who are also very focused and ambitious,” said the multiple award-winner of her success.
The audience was addressed by Parthy Chetty, Executive Director at the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, urging the outstanding performers never to settle for mediocrity.
“Get the best education you can. For you to be the best in your field you have to strive for postgraduate studies and for that PhD. Being average is not good enough. You are above average. The fact that you are receiving awards, prove that you are above average. Don’t let the opportunities that you have and your potential lose sight of where you should be,” said Chetty.
Listen to Chetty’s .
Another multiple award-winner, Tarryn Michael, said that she knew from when she was little what she wanted to study. Michael, who completed her masters degree in architecture last year, won four prizes: the AS Furner Prize, the Gauteng Institute for Architecture Award, the South African Institute of Steel Construction Book Prize; and the Corobrik Award.
“My recipe for success includes hard work, sleepless nights and a passion for my work. If you don’t love what you do, there is no point. Since I was a child I enjoyed architecture and created houses for my Barbie dolls!” said Michael.
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The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment houses the Schools of Architecture and Planning; Civil and Environmental Engineering; Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering; Construction Economics and Management; Electrical and Information Engineering; Mechanical Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering; and Mining Engineering.
Food for the radio mind
- By Wits University
Reserve the date: the fifth edition of Joburg Radio Days is planned for 2 to 4 July 2014 at Wits.
The event, hosted by the Wits Radio Academy, brings together practitioners from all sectors of radio: commercial, public and community radio, from South Africa and the rest of the continent. It will be held at the Wits Club on the Wits Braamfontein Campus West. Read more.
Aimed at everybody with an interest in radio, from station manager to junior producer, the event brings leading radio thinkers from around the world to Joburg, who take participants to the cutting edge of ideas, concepts and new trends. The conference will feature over 50 speakers, including an international community broadcaster from Timbuktu, the head of Swedish public radio and a US researcher on how radio works in new internet-enabled cars.
The academy began running the conference because it believes that radio matters on this continent, and that radio people need an opportunity to hear the best and latest ideas, and to talk about the issues they share.
The world of radio is in the middle of great change, with technological change, markets around the continent opening up, shifts in audience behaviour, debates around public broadcasting and much else. To survive, radio people need to stay abreast of the latest debates and ideas. That’s the opportunity offered by Joburg Radio Days.
Professor Franz Krüger, Director of the Wits Radio Academy, says: “We are very excited to host the conference again, and look forward to welcoming radio leaders to the event. Radio remains a vibrant and exciting medium that has much to offer, notwithstanding technological change.”
Topics for 2014 include Radio’s new music listening frontiers; Programmers’ guide to the brave new world of DAB ; Youth listening trends; Covering the big story: from Mandela to Pistorius; Speed dating the radio stars; 20 years of public broadcasting; Radio comedy; The podcasters; and many more.
Professor Hoosen (Jerry) Coovadia has been nominated for his outstanding contribution to science, engineering and technology (SET) over a lifetime.
He is the Director of the Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health (MatCH) Health Systems at Wits and Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health; and Emeritus Victor Daitz Professor of HIV/AIDS Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is also the Chairperson of the Board of the KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital Trust and a Commissioner for the National Planning Commission for the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.
Previously he was the Scientific Director at the Doris Duke Medical Research Centre at the University of Natal and the Director of BioMed HIV/AIDS Research at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine.
He also held the International Vice-Chair of the Paediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (IMPAACT), the Deputy Chair of Transitional National Development Trust, Co-Chair of the Advisory Board to the Artists for a New South Africa’s Amandla AIDS Fund and Member of the South African Academy of Science.
He holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Durban Westville, Witwatersrand and Kwa-Zulu Natal; a Master of Science from the University of Birmingham in the UK; a FCP from the College of Medicine of South Africa and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Bombay, India.
Coovadia has published more than 338 papers on factors causing morbidity, disability and mortality among Africa’s children. He has received a number of awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the HIV Congress in India, the Silver Medal for Excellence in Research from the Medical Research Council of South Africa, the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights (co-recipient with Judge Edwin Cameron), the Order of the Star of S.A. for Contributions to Democracy and Health presented by former President Nelson Mandela and most recently the 2013 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
“The award is intrinsically its own reward, but it is also comes at the end of a long eventful journey; the early years of research arose from my need for a deeper understanding of child health and disease in an impoverished environment made worse by an oppressive racial regime,” says Coovadia.
“The terrifying and unprecedented epidemic of HIV gave greater urgency and impetus to more focussed and better designed explorations of childhood disorders. Violence in all its expressions is fundamental to our society and has been for generations – it is therefore unsurprising that the themes for my research and their outcomes by their very choice also created the violence of discomfort, disagreements and outright hostility from many quarters. Whether it was apartheid or denial of HIV, unadorned science was always the most effective rebuttal.”
Professor Shabir Madhi has been nominated for the TW Kambule NRF-NSTF Award, given to an individual for an outstanding contribution to science, engineering and technology through research and its outputs over the last five to 10 years.
He is Executive Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Professor of Vaccinology at Wits. He also holds the position of South African Research of the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation in Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Director: South African Medical Research Council Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit. Madhi completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training at Wits, qualified as a paediatrician in 1996 and obtained his PhD in 2003.
Madhi has been involved in research on vaccine-preventable diseases and on infections in HIV-infected children for 17 years. He has undertaken some of the pivotal studies that have led to policies and guidelines in South Africa and those issued by agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO).
His research demonstrating a reduction in childhood morbidity with the use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) and rotavirus vaccines prompted South Africa to be the first in Africa to introduce these vaccines in national immunisation programs. These studies also contributed to the WHO recommending the introduction of these life-saving vaccines into public immunisation programs globally.
He is currently involved in epidemiological, immunological and clinical studies on the immunisation of pregnant women with the influenza vaccine, pertussis vaccine and GBS vaccine; which are aimed at protecting young infants from diseases due to these potentially life-threatening illnesses. Madhi has contributed to nine book chapters and over 185 peer reviewed articles, including five in the highest ranked medical journal globally (The New England Journal of Medicine).
Madhi has received a number of national awards for his research, including the NRF President’s Award for Transformation of the Science Cohort (2009), the T W Kambule NRF-NSTF Award: Senior Black Researcher over the past five to 10 years (2010), Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research at Wits (2010) and the Medical Research Council: Life Time Achievement Award (Platinum Medal) (2013).
He was awarded an A-rating (internationally recognised) by the NRF in 2011 and was also listed as being among “100 World Class South Africans” by City Press in 2013. He is also the immediate past-president of the World Society of Infectious Diseases and has served as a consultant to the World Health Organisation (in the fields of vaccinology and pneumonia) and to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (on pneumonia and is member of its Scientific Advisory Committee).
“It is a privilege to have been nominated amongst so many other leading Scientist in South Africa for this award, which largely bears testimony to the remarkable work undertaken by members in my Research Team,” says Madhi.
Professor Lyn Wadley, Honorary Professor of Archaeology in the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environment was nominated in the same category, the TW Kambule NRF-NSTF Award, given to an individual for an outstanding contribution to science, engineering and technology through research and its outputs over the last five to 10 years.
Wadley worked in the Wits Archaeology Department from 1982 to 2004. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer at Wits in 1988 and became Associate Professor in 1996. During this time, she initiated and completed major excavation projects in the eastern Free State at Rose Cottage and other sites and, latterly, at Sibudu Cave in KwaZulu-Natal.
In 2005 she was appointed as Honorary Professor, Archaeology, enabling her to conduct research at the University, where she continues to supervise graduate students and do active research into the African Middle Stone Age.
She is an NRF A-rated researcher. Her main research interest is ancient cognition and her experimental archaeology is geared towards understanding the mental architecture required for various behaviours. Experiments include the production and use of compound adhesives and heat treatment of rocks, and she has examined the implications of these technologies for cognition. Wadley joined the Institute for Human Evolution at Wits (now the Evolutionary Sciences Institute) in 2008, where she continues her research as Honorary Professor.
“The NSTF regards a finalist as an institutional representative and it is an honour for me to be representing Wits and South African archaeology this year. I appreciate the confidence that Wits has in me and my research and I also thank the NRF for the ongoing support for the work that I love so much,” says Wadley.
The Awards are the flagship project of the largest and most prominent multi-stakeholder representative forum for Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) in South Africa. The Awards encourage and reward excellence in scientific research, technological innovation, education, capacity building and communication. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on 3 July 2014.
Witsies ready themselves for USSA
- By Wits Sport Administration
As the June exams draw to a close, Wits athletes are readying themselves to test their mettle against some of the country’s top student sportsmen and women. Yes, it’s that time of the year again when inter-varsity sports fever takes over...never mind that it’s also Brasil2014 football, test rugby, Wimbledon and so on! The tournaments are organised under the banner of University Sport SA (USSA).
In 2014 Wits is despatching teams to the rugby, football, hockey, basketball, volleyball, mountain, gymnastics, netball and squash annual tournaments being held at institutions around the country. Here at Wits we are hosting the mountain (aka climbing, or bouldering) and volleyball events.
For Witsies within earshot of their favourite radio station, VoW, there’ll be daily updates on the progress of our teams at all the tournaments. The WitsSport website will reflect our teams’ progress game-by-game, day-by-day between 30 June and 11 July, and you’ll also be able to follow events on our Twitter (WitsSport) feed and our Facebook (WitsSportCouncil) page.
Volleyball sports officer Dennis Tshabalala, who serves on the USSA volleyball tournament LOC, says organisers are ready to receive all 22 institutions sending teams to the event at Wits. “Our facilities and residences are in tip-top shape for our guests.” Games are scheduled for both OMSH and H29. Of concern though, was that tournament fixtures had not yet been made available by the USSA volleyball structure as of today.
Rugby head coach Andy Royle is looking to field a competitive side against UJ in Wits’ opening game at this year’s USSA’s at Rhodes in Grahamstown. “We’re debuting eight new players at this year’s event, so we’re really hoping for improved performances.” Coach Royle is phlegmatic though about the possibility of the National Arts Festival, taking place at the same time, proving a distraction for his charges.
For WitsSport’s Lorraine Masibi, recently assigned to look after netball, it will be her first time managing a Wits team at an USSA tournament. She’s headed to NMMU in Port Elizabeth, accompanying a squad of 10 players and coach Martha Mosoahle. “We have a big task ahead of us,” Lorraine says, “we promised ourselves we’d be satisfied with nothing less than regaining our place in the Premier league of the A section.” Wits were relegated to the B section at the 2013 USSA’s.
A new interim report released by the Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP) at Wits, finds that the country’s three largest platinum producers have not been sketching a true reflection of their financial circumstances to substantiate their reluctance to grant their workers a wage increase.
Workers at South Africa’s three biggest platinum producers, Amplats, Lonmin and Implats, have been striking for more than four months because their wage demand of R12 500 per month has not been met and wage negotiations continue amidst rising poverty amongst the workers.
, titled Demanding the Impossible? Platinum Mining Profits and Wage Demands in Context was presented by the authors, Andrew Bowman, visiting researcher from the University of Manchester’s Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC), and Gilad Isaacs, part-time researcher at Wits University’s Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development (CSID) research unit.
The Anglican Bishop of Pretoria and President of the Benchmarks Foundation, Reverend Jo Seoka, discussed its broader implications, while the discussion was chaired by SWOP Senior Researcher, Dr Gavin Capps, who specialises in the political economy of platinum.
The report, concentrating on the affordability of the wage demand, discusses the terms of the debate with an historical view of labour costs and profits in the last 13 years preceding the strike, between 2000 and 2013.
This is in contrast to the current public debate which has been hampered by the foregrounding of certain sets of financial data at the expense of others, and by the platinum producers successfully limiting the analysis to the last couple of years’ costs and returns. The longer-term view analyses the returns made by the platinum producers over the last 13 years and calculates the cost implications of the demands made by the workers, through their union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).
The report finds that platinum producers made enormous profits between 2000 and 2008. During this period labour received a very thin slice of the pie garnering, on average, just over half the South African norm for labour’s share of value added. Meanwhile shareholders and executives took home huge sums in dividends. When considering the 13 years – 2000 to 2013 – as a whole the trends are less extreme but still significantly skewed towards above average returns, low wage shares and shareholder gains.
“This report matters because these issues about distributional justice and pay differentials are the key catalyst of strike action. Wage rises could have been accommodated quite easily, and the question arises: could South Africa have gotten more from this during the last flourishing period, and then could it get more in future during periods of high profitability, should it return and what measures are in place should this happen?” said Bowman. .
The report goes on to show that the producers’ offer is far less generous than they profess and that the demands of the workers are far less costly than the producers claim. It then offers a counterfactual example of the cost of AMCU’s wage demands put alongside the dividends paid to shareholders over the 13 year period. The report concludes by raising wider questions of how workers and South Africa at large can best benefit from our mineral wealth.
“We need to think of this in a broader way. The sector needs a plan for the longer term over the next 15 to 20 years to ensure the workers benefit more,” said Isaacs. .
Reverend Seoka made a plea on behalf of the workers for the mining bosses to meet their demands: “Truth is this is an issue about human dignity. The workers are not asking what is not affordable. The workers have determined what would serve them as workers who are producing the wealth in this country. There is human suffering and it has a history behind it. In 2012, 34 people died for nothing less or more than R12 500 per month,” said Seoka, referring to the Marikana mine massacre two years ago. .
Kenneth Freeman is an honorary Professor in the Wits School of Applied and Computational Mathematics and this year’s recipient of the coveted Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize – a Nobel Prize-equivalent for astronomers.
On 10 June this year he was awarded the Gruber Prize. According to the Gruber Foundation, Freeman is “one of the first astronomers to recognise the role and importance of Dark Matter in spiral galaxies.”
“Kenneth Freeman, who has worked at the Mount Stromlo Observatory of the Australian National University in Canberra nearly continuously since 1967, played a key role in understanding the effects of galactic halos in galaxies. In recent years Freeman, with his colleague Bland-Hawthorn, founded a field that has come to be known as ‘galactic archaeology’,” the Foundation said in a media release.
It continued: “They argue that stars in our galaxy with identical chemical compositions over many chemical elements were born together in clusters and then, over the course of hundreds of millions or even billions of years, widely dispersed through the rotation of the galaxy. Astronomers can use these dispersed clusters to measure the star formation history of the galaxy. By observing where the stars are now, they can rewind the galaxy, so to speak, until the stars reach their common origin—movements that in turn trace the evolution of the galaxy itself.”
Block and Freeman are currently working on a new book that will look at the life of Galileo Galilei.
Click here to read his abstract for the Arthur Bleksley Memorial Lecture on 1 July 2014.
Festival to “shine the digital light”
- By Wits University
In recognition of the role digital technology is destined to play in “Africa’s Century”, Wits University has announced that it will host its inaugural Fak’ugesi: Digital Africa Festival 2014. Running from 11 August to mid-September 2014, the festival will showcase all things digital, promoting an important fusion between technology, art and critical thinking within the digital technology domain.
Professor Barry Dwolatzky, Director of Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University and co-founder of the festival, said that digital technology and the “rise of Africa” are two major forces shaping the 21st Century: “If Africa is to achieve its expected economic prominence, Africans will need to become major innovators and developers of digital technology. It lies at the heart of the ways in which we manage our lives and run our companies, cities and countries.”
Dwolatzky said that digital technology will need to be used to educate and empower the continent’s more than a billion citizens and is at the heart of the Fak’ugesi: Digital Africa Festival. The phrase “Fak’ugesi” is Zulu street slang for ‘switch on the electricity’ or ‘shine more light’. Dwolatzky elaborated: “As a name for the festival, the phrase emphasises the energy and excitement of the forces of Africa and digital technology, which the festival will draw upon and magnify.”
Situated at the heart of Africa’s most dynamic and important metropolitan area, Dwolatzky said that Wits University has a critical role to play in shaping the continent’s future: “The Fak’ugesi: Digital Africa Festival is an umbrella event, aimed at coordinating and curating a number of stand-alone conferences, exhibitions, workshops, short-courses and other activities that will promote the fusion of creative and technical development of digital culture in Africa.”
Strongly positioning Wits as the digital gateway between Africa and the rest of the world, the festival will act as a focus for the wide range of research and innovation, which is already taking place at the University. “The festival will attract students, researchers and entrepreneurs with an interest in digital technology throughout Africa,” Dwolatzky said. “Each event will turn the spotlight on some aspect of digital technology including software, hardware, networks, digital content, games and more.”
The festival will be centered on the JCSE’s new Tshimologong Precinct as well as making use of some of the venues on the University’s East and West Campuses in Braamfontein as well as in the inner city areas of Braamfontein, the Maboneng Precinct and 44 Stanley Avenue.
Headline events confirmed:
Agile Africa 2014: A major conference on software development methods, following up on the very successful inaugural event held in Braamfontein in August 2013.
A MAZE/Johannesburg 2014: An Indie-Games and Digital Arts Festival, attracting games developers and digital artists from Europe and Africa. This festival has been run annually since 2012 in Braamfontein in partnership with the organisers of Berlin’s A MAZEFestival.
CASCADE: CASCADE is a collaborative multi-disciplinary project that champions digital content development through a series of workshops and activities. The event is led by “Onedotzero” - an experiential arts organisation with over 16 years’ experience in curating and producing cultural events and content for brands and agencies. CASCADE will be supported by the British Council.
Process Improvement Africa: This is a one-day conference focusing on the role that process and process improvement plays in helping ICT organisations deliver high quality products and services in a predictable and repeatable manner. The conference will showcase models and methods such as CMMI, ITIL, TSP and AGILE.
Maker Event: 3-D Printing, laser cutters and other rapid prototyping tools are revolutionizing hardware innovation. “Maker Spaces” give innovators the freedom to explore solutions in the hardware world as easily as software developers do in the world of bits and bytes. The Maker Event will provide an opportunity for “Makers” to collaborate, learn and teach.
Unyazi Festival of Electronic Music: The only African festival dedicated to the latest developments in electronic and electro-acoustic music. Launched at Wits in 2005, the 2014 Festival, in partnership with NewMusicSA, will feature innovative and exploratory music from African and the rest of the world.
Social Media Week is a bi-annual event that takes place in over 14 cities around the world, celebrating the best in innovation, creativity and technology. The goal of each event is to provide the best information, ideas and inspiration to help people understand how to achieve more in a hyper-connected world. Social Media Week started in New York in 2009 and has since grown to become a leading media platform and worldwide event with local presence and global reach across all five continents. This September, DigiSense will produce the first-ever Social Media Week Johannesburg. During the week, participants will be treated to a line-up of panels, Q&A’s, keynote addresses, master classes and more – each focusing on a different facet of the growing influence and endless possibilities made available through digital technology and social media.
For more information contact Professor Barry Dwolatzky at barry@jcse.org.za.
Kathrada and Mbembe in conversation
- By Vivienne Rowland
A two-week programme stretching over five different cities is set to start on Sunday, 29 June 2014, when the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism 2014 Session takes off.
Hosted collaboratively by the Johannesburg Workshop in Criticism and Theory (JWTC), the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER) and the University of California’s Summer Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory, the 2014 JWTC Session, titled Archives of the Non-Racial: A Mobile Workshop, will be hosted in Johannesburg, Durban, King Williams Town, Swaziland and Cape Town, and will consist of a series of public lectures, panel discussions, book launches and performances.
Scheduled to end on 11 July 2014, the JWTC 2014 Session, promises plenty to ponder about regarding one of the most important ideas in the political life of South Africa - 'non-racialism' - and places it in conversation with traditions from other parts of the world.
The opening event will be a public conversation between one of South Africa’s apartheid struggle fighters and best friend of the late former president Nelson Mandela, Dr Ahmed Kathrada, and WiSER researcher Professor Achille Mbembe on A History of Non-Racialism in South Africa.
The conversation takes place on Sunday, 29 June 2014 at 09:30 in the WiSER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, Braamfontein Campus East Campus. Please RSVP to Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za.
For more information on the JWTC 2014 Session, click here.
To view the full programme, click here or visit www.jwtc.org.za.
More Gauteng learners join Wits programme
- By Wits University
Wits University will host a family workshop to welcome more than 260 high school learners from schools around Gauteng who have been selected to take part in the prestigious Targeting Talent Programme (TTP) hosted by Wits.
The family workshop takes place on Saturday, 7 June 2014.
TTP is a pre-university enrichment programme aiming to increase the academic, social and psychological preparation of academically talented learners from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds for admission to and success at South African universities. Launched in 2007, the programme has a high success rate in producing successful matriculants. Initially open only to learners from Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, the programme has expanded to include learners from across South Africa.
The 2014 cohort consists of Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners. Learners will have an opportunity to find out first-hand what the programme entails during the family workshop. Representatives from the Gauteng Department of Education, as well as the educators and parents of the learners will be present on Saturday.
Workshop details:
Date: Saturday, 7 June 2014
Time: 09:00-13:00
Venue: Flower Hall, Braamfontein Campus East, Wits University
The programme is run by the Student Equity and Talent Management Unit (SETMU) at Wits University, in partnership with BP SA (Ltd), the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) and the Department of Science and Technology.
Once committed to the programme, the learners will form part of a group recruited from all provinces, across South Africa, who will travel to Wits University periodically over two/three years to receive academic, social and psychological preparation for tertiary education. The first Residential Academic Enrichment Camp at Wits for 2014 is from 28 June to 13 July and will be attended by more than 1000 learners. The learners will be accompanied by their school teachers who will take part in the educator development programme run by Wits academics.
The programme has a high success rate in producing successful matriculants. In 2013, 97% of the matriculants, who participated in the programme, passed matric with admission to a Bachelor’s Degree, two learners passed with admission to a Higher Certificate course and three learners passed with an Admission to a Diploma course. Collectively, they achieved 600 distinctions.
Distinguished mathematician worthy recipient
- By Wits University
Wits University has conferred an honorary doctorate on Professor Peter Sarnak, Wits alumni and the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, for his distinguished contribution to the field of mathematics and his contribution to the development of mathematics in South Africa. Sarnak also address graduates during the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Science on Wednesday, 2 July 2014.
PUBLIC LECTURE:
Sarnak will also deliver a public lecture at Wits University on Thursday, 3 July, titled: Aspects of Number Theory. In this talk Sarnak will show how the classic Problem of Apollonius has made a major impact on the field of number theory. He is the 2014 recipient of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics.
Astro fraudsters to be exposed
- By Erna van Wyk
In his 30th year at Wits University, renowned astronomer David Block is deeply involved in introspection and retrospection of not only his own career but also those of others.
“I’m looking at the scientific method and the scientific process very carefully to see if there are people whose names are buried in the sands of time by other goliaths. And the answer is: Yes!” he says excitingly.
“I have been on the detective trail for many years regarding some of the great discoveries – whether it has been in astronomy or photography because a lot of astronomy has been photographically-based – and I have been very intrigued to find that some of the greatest discoveries in astronomy have been credited to the wrong individual.”
Block plans to expose some of these individuals during a public lecture, titled: Detectives in Astronomy and Photography, to be held on 1 July 2014 in the Senate Room, Second Floor, Senate House, Braamfontein Campus East, Wits University. Click here for the event details.
“History to me is exceedingly interesting and the issue of scientific misconduct and scientific fraud has been of great interest to me over the years. There is a very famous law called: Stigler’s Law of Eponymy, which states that ‘no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer’. I did not expect to really find it in the realms of astronomy as I thought it might mostly belong to the realms of medicine. With this lecture I want to now expose some of the greatest astronomy discoveries and show how credit has gone to the wrong individual – to people who did not do the groundwork,” Block explains.
He does emphasise that he has no personal vendetta against anyone involved but that as a scientist “who always seeks and searches for truth, what I will expose is riveting and people will be blown of their seats. One has to put one’s neck out there when you have totally watertight cases, as these are”.
He is careful not to let the cat out of the bag, but says scientific misconduct appeals to a broad audience as it might happen in chemistry, geology and many other disciplines. “The point is, it is certainly happening in my domain (astronomy) and the results are very shocking,” Block says.
Freeman is an Australian astronomer and astrophysicist who is currently Duffield Professor of Astronomy in the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University in Canberra. On 10 June this year he was awarded the coveted 2014 Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize – a Nobel Prize-equivalent for astronomers. He is also an Honorary Professor in CAM. His lecture is titled: Dark Matter in the Universe. Read the of his lecture.
“Professor Freeman recently organised a special international conference in my honour in the Seychelles, attended by 50 astronomers from around the world. My collaboration with him goes back many years. We are also currently working on a book about the life of Galileo Galilei. It will be very special to share these milestones in my life with Professor Freeman and the public during this special lecture evening at Wits University,” Block says.
Prof. John Myburgh receives high Order
- By Wits University
Professor John Myburgh, who completed an MBBCh degree at Wits in 1981, was recently made an Officer in the Order of Australia. This was announced in the Queen’s Birthday List 2014.
Myburgh is the Director, Critical Care and Trauma Division at the George Institute for International Health, Professor of Critical Care at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales and senior intensive care physician at the St George Hospital, Sydney.
Professor Myburgh holds honorary professorial appointments at the University of Sydney and Monash University’s School of Public Health. The award is for Myburgh’s distinguished service to medicine as an intensive and critical care practitioner, educator and researcher, and as an international innovator in patient management.
Myburgh has an extensive research track record over 25 years and is regarded as a national and international expert in catecholamine neurophysiology and pharmacology, trials of clinical management of traumatic brain injury, fluid resuscitation; and in the development and coordination of multi-centred clinical studies in Intensive Care Medicine.
“I was somewhat overwhelmed, but truly proud to receive this award. There is a lot of my South African heritage in this award. Australian honours are not awarded lightly and are held in great regard by the community. I have dedicated my working life to improve the quality of survival of patients of critical illness through clinical work, education and research. All of these activities are collaborative and I have been privileged to work closely with some extraordinary people. In many ways, this award is a reflection of the teams of people with whom I have worked,” says Myburgh.
His list of publications and success in recurrent grant funding is in the top 1% of Intensive Care physicians in Australia and within the top 5% internationally. These include over 160 refereed research publications and 45 book chapters and monographs.
He is a Foundation Member and Immediate Past-Chairman of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group. In addition to his research profile, he has a long-established national profile in education in Intensive Care Medicine and was instrumental in establishing the College of Intensive Care Medicine, serving as the first elected President from 2010-2012.
His research interests have included pharmacodynamic studies of catecholamines on systemic and cerebrovascular function, aspects of neurotrauma and large-scale multi-centred clinical trials in Intensive Care in conjunction with the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Clinical Trials Group (ANZICS CTG).
His current research activities are conducted through the George Institute for Global Health in Critical Care Medicine and Trauma in collaboration with the ANZICS CTG and other international collaborators in Canada, Scandinavia and the UK. The research program includes clinical trials in fluid resuscitation, including the landmark CHEST and SAFE studies, glycaemic control, renal replacement therapy and septic shock and outcomes research and health economics of trauma systems in Australia, China and India.
“I will continue to do clinical work in intensive care at the St George Hospital in Sydney. This is integrated into my research program that is focussed on conducting high quality clinical trials directed at improving patient-centred outcomes in critically ill patients, both in Australia and across the world. A further priority is to provide opportunities for clinician-researchers and to build research capacity and opportunities so that the translation of research into clinical practice results in improved patient care,” says Myburgh.
Myburgh represented Wits and South Africa internationally in rowing in 1978, 1980 and 1984.
*This brings to at least three the number of Wits Medical School alumni who have garnered this prestigious award. The others are Dame Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith (BSc. Hons) 1946, MBBCh 1950, DSc 1979), who is known as ‘the mother of nephrology’; and the late Dr Karin Ann Margolius (1949 – 2010) was a recipient of the Order of Australia in 2010 ‘for services to clinical forensic medicine, to education, and through support for people with cancer’.
Reptile Atlas a first for southern Africa
- By Erna van Wyk
It took seven editors and 26 authors nine years to compile the first ever Reptile Atlas for all reptiles found in the southern tip of Africa. This huge collaborative effort resulted in the 485-page Atlas and Red List of the Reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland – a hardcover book launched recently that also contains the conservation status of the 421 recognised species and subspecies of reptiles found in these three countries.
For one of the editors and authors, Associate Professor Graham Alexander from the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at Wits University, the full colour atlas is more than just a book. It is his brainchild as well as a giant step forward in the conservation of these cold-bloodied creatures he has loved since he first started collecting snakes at the age of eight.
“People truly thought I was nuts then, but as I grew older I could see a change in the public’s attitude towards reptiles in general, and snakes in particular. There is no doubt people are becoming more aware of reptiles and the atlas is very important contribution to their conservation and protection,” Alexander said.
He also worked on the Frog Atlas that was hosted in the Animal Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town. Shortly after its release in 2004, Alexander started thinking of a reptile atlas and together with one of his MSc students, herpetologist Johan Marais, he ran a snake course at Wits University to raise funds for a start-up workshop. Most of the country’s leading herpetologists attended the workshop and this massive research project was conceived.
Then the hard work started. Collecting and sourcing all the data to make the Atlas entries as up to date and relevant as possible, was a mammoth task, Alexander explained. Data about reptiles were sourced from about 400 people and 14 organisations – 135 512 records in total. The bulk came from museums and nature conservation agencies, as well as from private collections, academic institutions and published literature.
“The Atlas has the most up to date distribution maps (for reptiles) ever produced for the region. The data in these distribution maps represents all of the available data that we have collected since people started studying reptiles in South Africa,” Alexander said.
Citizen science
These, however, were not the only sources. With a 25% increase in the number of recognised species since 1988, Alexander and his collaborators knew they would need to crowdsource the public for some major citizen science involvement. This resulted in 61 volunteer field workers assisting in 24 field surveys over three summers from 2005 to 2008 – approximately 270 days of sampling effort.
It also led to the establishment of the SARCA Virtual Museum (VM) where the public could submit photographic records of reptiles and where a panel of 20 experts could log on, identify the reptiles and organise it in a manner analogous to a museum collection of voucher specimens.
“This citizen science participation has resulted in people focussing on areas where not much collecting has been done in the past. It filled the gaps in distribution maps and identified areas that need more attention. The virtual museum will also carry on, and is managed and run by the Animal Demography Unit at UCT. The virtual museum concept is now also being used for other atlases,” Alexander said.
Conservation Assessment
A conservation assessment has been done for almost every single species contained in this book – a global assessment where the entire distribution is in South Africa and a regional one if southern Africa makes up only a small part of the range. It has been evaluated using International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines, based on detailed distribution maps, published literature and the collective expertise of leading herpetologists.
“Two previous ‘Red Data’ books only dealt with the species that are thought to be Threatened and these books were not very inclusive and neither were big collaborative efforts. Everything in the Reptile Atlas was peer-reviewed by the IUCN and internally recognized herpetologists. It is very inclusive, containing by and large all the species in this part of the world, with the exception of a couple of species South Africa forms only marginal parts of the range. “In some instances, we do not know what is happening with those species in our neighbouring countries and therefore could not do conservation assessments for them,” Alexander explained.
Each entry also shows the taxonomy, habitat and conservation measures that need to be taken to protect a species. The maps show the distribution area of each entry and for the first time colour photographs of all the lizards, tortoises, terrapins, turtles, crocodiles and snakes found in this region are contained in one book – except for one entry.
The Günter’s Dwarf Burrowing Skink (Scelotes guentheri) has only been seen in South Africa once – in the late 1800s when a single specimen was found by the Reverend Henry Callaway while travelling by ox-wagon from Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal. It was described in 1887 by the Belgian-British zoologist, George Albert Boulenger (1858-1937). No specimen of this species has ever again been seen or found anywhere in the world and its status is therefore Extinct.
The Reptile Atlas is thus a “vital resource for researchers, conservationists and amateur naturalists alike”, Valli Moosa, past president of the IUCN, said in the forward.
Not staying on your chosen academic path may be interpreted as a sign of failure, however, this is not true for these students who found their true passion after quitting their first academic choice.
Christopher Langsford spent two years studying engineering. Although he passed his courses, he discovered that it just was not for him. In 2012 he registered for a BCom in Information Systems, a move which has placed him on the list of top students in the School of Economic and Business Sciences (SEBS). Langsford collected two prizes at the SEBS prize-giving ceremony held on Thursday, 26 June 2014, to recognise the top achievers from 2013.
He was awarded the KPMG I.T. Advisory Prize for his academic achievement in Information Systems II and another from Business Systems Group (Africa), which was awarded to his group for developing the best solution design project in Information Systems II. His team member, Nomfundo Makhoba also began her studies in another discipline but has found her passion in information systems. Their winning project aims to mitigate the challenges faced by graduate recruitment officers (GRO) and students alike. The system has functionalities that would allow GROs to track the best applicants and make offers timely to the graduates easing the student anxiety.
Makhoba explains that sometimes companies lose the best applicants because of inefficient recruitment systems. By the time they make the offer the chosen candidate has accepted an offer from another company. Students on the one hand also lose out as a result of delays, she says.
“A student may be interested in working for company A but accepts an offer from company C because C was the first to respond. By the time company A sends an offer the graduate has already entered a contractual agreement with C.”
The result is a perfect match that never was and a missed opportunity. Their project is an example of how information systems provide business solutions and help businesses to perform better.
The words of the guest speaker, Stephen Endersby owner of TiOLi, or Take it or Leave it, seemed to affirm Makhoba and Langsford’s decisions. He too took longer to finish his undergraduate degree but found his niche after making some life changes. To listen to his speech titled Live the clichés - the clichés have earned their title, . Nothing can surpass passion and hard work, and don’t be afraid to ask for what you want, he told the Witsies.
Head of the School Professor Jannie Rossouw took the moment to hand out advice to the diverse group of award recipients comprising undergraduate and postgraduate students, some already in the workplace while others are only just mid-way through their studies.
“Be suspicious of people who cannot explain the logic of their action to a high school kid,” he said. “If a question cannot be answered in simple language, stay away – especially in the field of financial investment.”
Sharing another nugget of wisdom he said: “Gold is where you find it. You are responsible for your own happiness”, supporting the tone of the event which called for self-belief and bold steps. To listen to Rossouw, .
Obituary: Professor Jules Kieser
- By Wits University
Professor Jules Kieser, Wits Health Sciences alumnus, colleague and friend of the Faculty died suddenly on 10 June 2014, two weeks before his planned visit to the Faculty as a Wits Distinguished Scholar and Wits-Carnegie Alumni Diaspora Fellow.
Kieser obtained a BSc from Wits in 1971 before going on to qualify as a dentist in 1975. He went into practice first in the outback of South Africa and subsequently in London and Johannesburg. While in practice, he received his PhD in 1989 and was appointed as Reader in Craniofacial Biology and also Honorary Professor of Anatomy at Wits. In addition he obtained his DSc in 2001 at Wits.
In 1996 he was appointed to the Chair and Head of the Department of Oral Sciences, University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Kieser was the Associate Dean for Research at the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Otago, New Zealand and five years ago was appointed inaugural Director of the Sir John Walsh Research Institute.
His research interests included biomechanics and anatomy of the oro-facial region and forensic biology. He supervised numerous postgraduate students and published numerous books and more than 150 scientific articles. As a practicing forensic odontologist and international expert, Professor Kieser was involved in numerous cases and excavations around the world, including South Africa, Greece and the USA, and played a leading role in the identification of victims of a number of disasters, including those of the Thailand tsunami and the Christchurch earthquake.
He had an exuberant personality which endeared him to his teachers and colleagues at Wits, as well as to his staff and students at Otago. The loss of Kieser’s extensive knowledge in the field of forensic sciences in particular, will be keenly felt, not only by his colleagues and collaborators at Wits, but by many international scientists around the globe.
Wits professors cited by Thomson Reuters
- By Vivienne Rowland
Three researchers from Wits recently earned the distinction of being named among the “Highly Cited Researchers” by renowned Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.
The three Witsies, Professor Lyn Wadley, Professor Rachel Jewkes and Professor Christopher Henshilwood, are part of a list of more than 3000 researchers from all over the world, hailed for their groundbreaking research in their different disciplines. View the list.
“Highly Cited Researchers 2014 represents some of world’s leading scientific minds. Over three thousand researchers earned the distinction by writing the greatest numbers of reports officially designated by Essential Science Indicatorsâ as Highly Cited Papers – ranking among the top 1% most cited for their subject field and year of publication, earning them the mark of exceptional impact,” says Thomson Reuters on its website.
Wadley, Honorary Professor of Archaeology in the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environment, is an NRF A-rated researcher. Her main research interest is ancient cognition and her experimental archaeology is geared towards understanding the mental architecture required for various behaviours.
Experiments include the production and use of compound adhesives and heat treatment of rocks, and she has examined the implications of these technologies for cognition. Wadley joined the Institute for Human Evolution at Wits (now the Evolutionary Sciences Institute) in 2008, where she continues her research as Honorary Professor.
“Although I am named in my personal capacity, the recognition is beneficial for the wider archaeological discipline in South Africa. Our incredible heritage is taken far more seriously outside of Africa than on the continent, and perhaps tributes like that from Thomson Reuters help to alert South Africans to the value of their national treasures,” says Wadley.
Jewkes is the Director of the Medical Research Council’s Gender and Health Research Unit and an Honorary Professor in the Wits School of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences. An NRF A-rated researcher, Jewkes is a public health specialist, epidemiologist and social researcher. For two decades she has undertaken research into the interface of gender inequity and gender-based violence and health, particularly HIV/AIDS, at the Medical Research Council.
Her work has followed a public health approach, with an emphasis on describing the scale and nature of the problem of gender-based violence in South Africa through epidemiology, understanding its context and the dimensions and dynamics of gender inequity in relationships using qualitative methods, and developing and evaluating interventions for responses in the health, education and NGO sectors.
She has spent many years developing the health sector response to rape in South Africa, through research and policy development. Her current focus is on ‘What works to prevent violence?’ and she is the Director of a DFID-funded Global Programme that is seeking to greatly advance knowledge in this area.
“I am delighted to be named by Thomson Reuters. For the last 20 years my goal has been to use research to prevent gender-based violence and understand how to provide the best help for survivors. Communicating findings is a critical part of this. The wonderful thing about being highly cited is that it shows affirmation from my peers. We will only have an impact through working together, and knowing my work and ideas are valued by others and used in global efforts to end violence is terrific,” says Jewkes.
Henshilwood holds a National Research Foundation funded Chair and Professorship at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits. He is the Professor of African Prehistory in the Archaeology, History, Culture and Religion Institute at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Since 1991 Henshilwood has directed excavations at Stone Age sites in South Africa for which he has received more than 20 major grants. A focus of the research is on the 100 000 – 70 000 year old levels at Blombos Cave that are providing evidence of the earliest known complex behaviours including pigment processing toolkits, marine shell beads, engraved ochres and bone tools, among other finds. Henshilwood is leading new excavations at two Middle Stone Age sites, Klipdrift Shelter and Klipdrift Cave, situated in the De Hoop Nature Reserve, southern Cape. In 2011 deposits from the Howiesons Poort period (c. 66 000 – 59 000 years) were discovered at the shelter.
With his research team he increasingly provides evidence for an African origin for behavioural and technological modernity associated with Homo sapiens from about 100 000 years ago and has decisively shown that Africa is the birthplace for the early development of modern human cognition.
He has published more than 40 papers in leading peer reviewed journals, volumes and books on aspects of African archaeology, especially the Middle and Later Stone Age; on the origins of language and symbolism; the effects of climatic variation on human demographics; the epistemology of early behavioural evolution.
“It is a proud moment to be named as a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher but the credit must be shared with my outstanding team of multi-disciplinary researchers and students that I have been privileged to work with over the past 25 years.”
“Together with these talented scientists we have been increasingly providing evidence for a southern African origin for behavioural and technological modernity associated with Homo sapiens from about 100 000 years ago. Perhaps a highlight is our contribution to decisively showing that Africa is the birthplace for the early development of modern human cognition,” says Henshilwood.
Wits University has revised its admissions policy for all programmes offered by the Faculty of Health Sciences. This follows the recommendations of a task team commissioned by the Vice-Chancellor.
Applicants who are currently applying for entrance in 2015 will not be required to complete a Biographical Questionnaire (BQ). Their matric results will carry a 50% weighting and the results of their National Benchmark Tests (NBTs) will make up the other 50%.
This weighting may change for 2016 entry with the introduction of an online BQ.
Selection Process
Selection will be made according to the following broad categories: 40% of the places will be offered to the top performing candidates based on academic merit. The remaining 60% will be offered as follows: approximately 20% of the places will be offered to top performing rural learners; approximately 20% of the places will be offered to top performing learners from quintile 1 and 2 schools; and approximately 20% of the places will be allocated to top performing African and Coloured learners.
Background
The new admissions policy is based on recommendations by a Wits University task team, consisting of members of the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Student Representative Council, other Faculties and the Senior Executive Team, that was commissioned to review the admissions policy for the MBBCh, or medicine, degree. The activities of the task team included a public meeting that was held in April 2014 to discuss the current and future admissions criteria and policies for entry into the degree.
Wits University is committed to being a demographically diverse and cosmopolitan world class institution furthering the Constitutional vision of a democratic and non-racial South Africa.
We will continue to research and review admissions policies in line with the realisation of this goal.
The second annual Agile Africa conference will take place on 11th and 12th August 2014 as part of Wits University’s Fak’ugesi: Digital Africa Festival. The event will be held at the Protea Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Hosted by Wits University’s Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), this year’s agile conference will review the impact of agile methodologies on software development.
Prof Barry Dwolatzky, Director of the JCSE, says Agile Africa 2014 will revisit the Agile Manifesto and debate the impact that it has had over the past 14 years: “This is our second Agile Africa. In hosting the conference the JCSE is keen to review actual examples of the successes and failures of Agile development in Africa since the release of the Agile Manifesto in 2000. We are inviting African developers and managers to tell their stories and share their agile experiences.”
He says that Agile Africa 2014 will review issues such as whether agile development has impacted the way people work? Has it impacted the way an organisation is run? Has it impacted customers and stakeholders? How has its impact been felt? Has it been positive or negative?
Agile Africa 2014 will focus on participation, collaboration and information sharing. It will include keynote addresses and panel discussions. Authorities will present keynote addresses on a range of relevant topics: David Hussman, agility coach/instructor and practitioner; Daniel Vacanti, Kanban CEO and founder; Bennet Vallet, Director of product development, Siemens Healthcare, Philadelphia, USA; and Enyonam Kumahor, the Regional Managing Director of Pan-Africa for ThoughtWorks.
In addition, there will be a number of parallel streams featuring talks from invited speakers. One stream will cover topics of interest to executives responsible for managing agile development. Another stream will be of specific interest to developers, while other streams may be presented covering other relevant themes. Several other great speakers, both local and international, will be announced soon.
The JCSE is also pleased to announce that BBD have come on board as a Diamond Sponsor. Other sponsors will soon be announced.
For more information on Wits University’s Fak’ugesi Digital Arts Festival please contact Samantha Watt on 084 458 4857 or Samantha@wattcommunications.co.za.
Wadley scoops NSTF-BHP Billiton Award
- By Kanina Foss
Professor Lyn Wadley, Honorary Professor of Archaeology in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at Wits University, has won a TW Kambule NRF-NSTF Award, given to an individual for an outstanding contribution to science, engineering and technology through research and its outputs over the last five to 10 years. This forms part of the prestigious NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards. The 2013/14 winners were announced at a gala dinner last night.
Wadley is an NRF A-rated researcher. Her main research interest is ancient cognition and her experimental archaeology is geared towards understanding the mental architecture required for various behaviours. Experiments include the production and use of compound adhesives and heat treatment of rocks, and she has examined the implications of these technologies for cognition.
Wadley said that the award would help to highlight archaeology in a way that had not been done before in South Africa. “We have such an incredible heritage and I think that the average South African is not aware of that. Most people realise that Africa is the cradle of humans but not too many people realise that it’s also the centre of modern behaviour and technology. It was the first place in which technology developed in terms of Stone Age tools. Modern cognition, the modern brain, developed in Africa and through archaeology we’re able to see that things like analogy and multi-tasking were used here.”
Wadley worked in the Wits Archaeology Department from 1982 to 2004. In 2005 she was appointed Honorary Professor, Archaeology, and in 2008 she joined the Institute for Human Evolution at Wits (now the Evolutionary Sciences Institute).
Professor Helder Marques, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Wits, said the University was extremely proud of Wadley. “Her research has been at the cutting edge of her discipline for many years.”
The NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards are the flagship project of the largest and most prominent multi-stakeholder representative forum for Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) in South Africa. They encourage and reward excellence in scientific research, technological innovation, education, capacity building and communication.
Dying, mortality, forensic science, transplant, organ donor and tissue work are some of the subjects under discussion at the Medical Humanities in Africa symposium hosted by the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER) on 27 and 28 June 2014.
Themed Age and the body – cultures and conversations, this two-day interdisciplinary research workshop will explore a range of issues pertaining to the social, cultural, and legal contexts around organ transplantation and ageing, particularly in South Africa. Panels have been arranged around themes including “Law and the Lab”, “Ageing and Dying”, and “Organs: Sacrifice, Giving and Receiving”.
The symposium will feature 19 papers and presentations, bringing together eminent scholars and emerging experts in the fields of public health; anthropology; performance and dramatic art; fine art; literature; philosophy; history; psychology; surgery; law and human rights; autopsy and anatomical science; transfusion science; nursing; occupational health; sociology; family medicine and health communication.
On the first evening, Professor Kavita Sivaramakrishna from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University will present the keynote address titled New Pathologies and Old Susceptibilities: Ageing and Chronic Disease in India and South Africa (1940-50s). Sivaramakrishna has the rare distinction that she has qualifications in both the humanities and medical fields.
An abridged version of a new report that sheds light on the question: “Can the platinum producers (Amplats, Implats and Lonmin) afford the wage demands of striking workers?” has been released and is available on the website of research group, Research on Money and Finance (RMF): www.researchonmoneyandfinance.org
The full report, titled Demanding the Impossible? Platinum Mining Profits and Wage Demands in Context, will be launched by Wits University’s Society, Work and Development Institute(SWOP) on Friday, 6 June 2014. The findings of the report will be presented by authors Andrew Bowman, visiting researcher from the University of Manchester’s Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC), and Gilad Isaacs, part-time researcher at Wits University’s Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development (CSID) research unit. The Anglican Bishop of Pretoria and President of the Benchmarks Foundation, Jo Seoka, will discuss its broader implications. The launch will be chaired by SWOP Senior Researcher, Dr Gavin Capps, who specialises in the political economy of platinum.
Date: Friday, 6 June 2014
Time: 13:00
Venue: Graduate Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building, Braamfontein Campus East, Wits University
The report does not provide a conclusive answer to the question of affordability but rather broadens the terms of the debate with an historical view of labour costs and profits in the 13 years preceding the strike. This is in contrast to the current public debate which has been hampered by the foregrounding of certain sets of financial data at the expense of others, and by the platinum producers successfully limiting the analysis to the last couple of years’ costs and returns. The longer-term view analyses the returns made by the platinum producers over the last 13 years and calculates the cost implications of the demands made by the workers, through their union, AMCU.
The report finds that platinum producers made enormous profits between 2000 and 2008. During this period labour received a very thin slice of the pie garnering, on average, just over half the South African norm for labour’s share of value added. Meanwhile shareholders and executives took home huge sums in dividends. When considering the 13 years – 2000 to 2013 – as a whole the trends are less extreme but still significantly skewed towards above average returns, low wage shares and shareholder gains.
The report goes on to show that the producers’ offer is far less generous than they profess and that the demands of the workers are far less costly than the producers claim. It then offers a counterfactual example of the cost of AMCU’s wage demands put alongside the dividends paid to shareholders over the 13 year period. The report concludes by raising wider questions of how workers and South Africa at large can best benefit from our mineral wealth.
Caroline Wostmann, the first South African woman to finish at the 2014 Comrades marathon is a lecturer in the Wits School of Accountancy.
Wostmann broke the domination of international candidates coming in at sixth place with a time of 6 hours, 51 minutes and 43 seconds, giving South Africa a spot in the limelight.
Wostmann is one of several members of staff who took part in the world’s largest ultra-marathon over a distance of approximately 90 kilometres starting in Pietermaritzburg and finishing in Durban on Sunday, 1 June 2014.
A number of Wits staff members who run for Varsity Kudus, a Wits alumni running club, also tackled this ultimate test of fitness and dedication this weekend. These are:
Iain Burns, Head of the Wits Research Office, who ran his 11th Comrades marathon in 11 hours, 37 minutes and 46 seconds;
Stuart Murray-Smith, a systems engineer in the ICT Communications and Information Security unit ran his sixth Comrades race in 8 hours, 38 minutes and 9 seconds;
Mark Dowdeswell, an academic in the School of Statistics and Actuarial Science ran his eight Comrades race in 8 hours, 38 minutes and 39 seconds;
Dr Kris Carlson, a senior researcher in the Evolutionary Studies Institute completed his fourth Comrades in 9 hours, 7 minutes and 22 seconds;
Dr Hugo Canham, Senior Manager in the Wits Transformation Office completed his second Comrades marathon in 8 hours, 52 minutes and 30 seconds and;
Malose Langa, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology completed his first Comrades marathon in 10 hours and 26 minutes.
For the Head of the School of Human and Community Development, Maria Marchetti-Mercer, the 2014 Comrades marathon was a special one.
“I am particularly proud of the fact that I ran 10 consecutive Comrades marathons but this also has meant 10 years of really hard work,” she says.
Of her race she says it was a fairly comfortable race which only grew uncomfortable in the last 15 kilometres after developing blisters on her feet.
“It wasn’t my best time (11 hours and 24 minutes) but my goal was to get my green number, which is a permanent race number that you receive after completing 10 Comrades marathons.”
The Head of Wits Sports Administration, Adrian Carter, has congratulated all Wits staff members who completed the 2014 Comrades marathon, and made particular mention of Wostmann’s achievement.
“Her incredible achievement is simply phenomenal and everyone at Wits Sports Administration and at the University is very proud of her.”
Carter lined up for his ninth consecutive Comrades marathon on Sunday and successfully completed it in 9 hours and 50 minutes.
“I look forward to running my 10th Comrades in 2015,” says Carter.
Speaking of the Comrades spirit and what makes it special, Carter says: “In all my years of participating and managing sport, standing at the starting line for a Comrades marathon and singing the national anthem followed by the traditional Shosholoza, is something that gives me goose bumps every time. It is incredibly special and one realises at the moment that just being able to participate and attempt this, the most famous race in the world, is a huge privilege. Running the Comrades and experiencing the supporters on the route is something that really cannot be explained, but those same supporters know fully well that without them many of us would struggle to reach the end.”
Wits Sports Administration is introducing a Staff Award category in their annual Sports Awards to recognise the staff members who demonstrate exceptional dedication to developing a positive physical lifestyle.
The annual Wits Sports Awards Dinner will take place on 30 September 2014.
About Varsity Kudus Club
The Varsity Kudus Club is a Wits alumni running club and offers runners of all levels the opportunity to run with the club and take part in social events. Weekly club runs are on Wednesday afternoons from 17:45 from the bottom parking lot of West Campus. Monthly social dinners are held for members and guests. The club welcomes runners who are non-Witsies to join. Enquiries: Grant Haywood, Chairman of the Varsity Kudus at haywardg03@yahoo.com
New results to prove Higgs boson
- By Wits University
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) yesterday said the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had found new results on an important property of the Higgs particle. The discovery of the elusive particle was announced almost two years ago.
Bruce Mellado, an associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Physics, says the finding is "certainly an important milestone in determining that what we discovered is a Higgs boson". He notes the ATLAS experiment, in which SA is involved, has reported a similar result. Read the full article by Nicola Mawson on ITWeb: SA contributes to science breakthrough.
DIY tips from early San
- By Wits University
Recent archaeological discoveries have demonstrated that many artefacts and symbolic items, which were until recently an inherent part of San hunter-gatherer lifestyle in southern Africa, were already used in this region of the world at least 44,000 years ago.
Many objects made of perishable material, but nonetheless instrumental in the survival of our ancestors, have left little or no traces of their invention and use in the archaeological record, and archaeologists can only wonder about the extent of the different types that existed, their origin, and spread.
Snares and traps are among these objects. The ingenuity necessary to conceive of, and successfully use traditional snares indicates that they are reliable indicators of the complex cognition shared by all members of our species. The simplicity of the material used to make snares indicates that we may have indeed inherited these techniques from a remote ancestor in the deep past.
Ostrich plays and has certainly also played in the past a crucial role in San subsistence and symbolic world. Ostrich meat is shared by the group and the bones used to make arrow points, linkshafts, ornaments and other items. The eggs are traditionally cooked like an omelette over smoothed coals, and the drilled eggshells used as water containers. Broken eggshells are crafted into beads; strung most often as necklaces, often used as a gift item, or sewn on headbands, clothes and bags for decorative purposes. Feathers are worn by men in their hats at healing dances, and they may use aerodynamic feathers as components of their arrow shafts, and shuttle cock type toys flicked with sticks.
The hunter would first find an ostrich nest with eggs and set the trap there. The ostrich returning to its nest will immediately recognise that the eggs have been interfered with, and will set about rearranging them with its beak. When it does, it releases the noose trap and is throttled.
Ostrich eggs were unavailable at the time of filming, so in lieu of an ostrich egg, the hunter demonstrates the use of the snare using a stone to tighten the small trigger stick.
In this video, filmed in 2012 by Tracsymbol project co-PI Francesco d'Errico and Lucinda Backwell, Xwamkwa Xeekwe, a member of the Kacgae Village community, Ghanzi District, in the Kalahari, Botswana, shows how to make a trap to capture an ostrich.
Targeting Talent unearths more gems
- By Nomatter Ndebele
76-year-old Elizabeth Malekela was one of the first people to arrive at Wits University on the morning of 7 June 2014. Wrapped in a blanket, she braved the cold to travel from Moletsane in Soweto with her three grandchildren to attend the Gauteng family workshop organised by Wits’ Targeting Talent Programme (TTP).
The TTP is a project by the Wits Student Equity and Talent Management Unit (SETMU) which targets academically talented high school learners and enrols them in an academic and social enrichment programme lasting for the duration of their high school studies. Its broad ambitions are to increase the success rate of high school learners and facilitate their entry into higher education, and ultimately boosting South Africa’s skills base. The purpose of the family workshop was to orientate learners, parents, guardians and teachers to the programme.
“I am so proud, this is an amazing thing, I never went to school but look at what my granddaughters have now,” said Malekela.
Her granddaughter, Refiloe Malekela, a Grade 12 learner at St Matthews School in Soweto gave a heartfelt reflection of her experience at the workshop. “People often ask me what TTP is, so I have come up with my own definition of TTP: the blueprint of a true rainbow nation,” said Refiloe.
Whilst enrolled in the programme, learners take part in three contact sessions annually. During these contact sessions they will join their peers recruited from across South Africa, and will resideat Wits for the Residential Academic Enrichment Camp (RAEC). The first RAEC for 2014 is being held from 28 June to 13 July and will be attended by more than 1000 learners. The learners will be accompanied by their school teachers who will take part in the educator development programme run by Wits academics.
“It is a deep simulation of what to expect at university” said project manager Zena Richards.
Teachers that have seen their learners go through the programme said that TTP had changed their students. Nogolide Ntsheyiya, a mathematics teacher from Phahama Secondary School in Pretoria spoke of how her students returned from the programme with a new attitude towards mathematics and science. “I wish that every maths and science teacher could do what TTP is doing for the learners,” she said.
16-year-old Oratile Konopi, a Grade 10 learner from Allen Glen High school in the West Rand, Johannesburg is one of the new recruits selected for the 2014 programme that attended the family workshop. Oratile, unable to contain his excitement, said he was looking forward to meeting new people as well as personal growth. “The programme is going to help me strengthen the values I’ve chosen for myself: humility, respect and discipline,” he said. His only concern was the “No touching rule,” during the programmes two week contact period. The rule made the parents and teachers laugh, and saw the students looking at each other in disbelief. Above the murmurs sweeping through the hall, Refiloe shook her head and said “They’ll get used to that it really isn’t that bad, and everything else is worth it.”
The Targeting Talent Programme is able to effect change in society with support from BP SA (Ltd), the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) and the Department of Science and Technology.
Two Wits academics talk superbugs
- By Wits University
Two distinguished Wits academics will present a lecture titled Superbugs: Are the bugs winning the war? Professor Guy Richards and Professor Adriano G. Duse will address this issue at the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences’ 10th Prestigious Research Lecture on Monday, 30 June 2014 at the Wits School of Public Health Auditorium in Parktown, Johannesburg. Read more.
Professor Guy Richards
Professor Guy Richards is currently Academic Head of the Division of Critical Care in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits. He is Director of the Department of Critical Care at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and Pulmonology at Wits.
He obtained his medical degree in 1978, specialised in internal Medicine in 1985 and subsequently qualified as a pulmonologist and intensivist. He received his PhD in Medicine in 1992 from Wits.
Richards has twice been the Co-Chairman of the South African national Critical Care and Thoracic Society Congress and he has given well over 100 invited presentations at national and international congresses. He has been awarded best research paper, best presentation and best publication on a number of occasions at congresses of the SA Thoracic Society and the SA Critical Care Society of Southern Africa (CCSSA). To date, he has authored 11 book chapters and over 100 scientific papers. In 2013 he was awarded the PV Tobias convocation award for excellence in teaching at Wits.
Since 1992, Richards has taken an active role in the Guideline Working Groups of the South African Thoracic Society, covering asthma, community-acquired pneumonia, COPD, and smoking cessation and similarly with the Nesibhopo group, which devises critical care guidelines on behalf of the CCSSA.
He is Chairman of the Pharmacy and therapeutic Committee at CMJAH and is chairman of the Gauteng Provincial formulary committee for the Provincial Pharmacy and Therapeutic committee.
Professor Adriano G. Duse
Professor Adriano G. Duse is the Head of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in the School of Pathology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits. He started his career at the NHLS (the then SAIMR) as a medical technologist and went on to complete his MBBCh at Wits, specialising as a Microbiologist. He then went on to become a consultant before being appointed as the Head of the division in 2002.
He is passionate about education and teaches both under- and postgraduate students in the Faculty and has received numerous teaching awards at the University. In 2005 he introduced the training of infection prevention and control nurses in the form of an Advanced Diploma in Infection Control consisting of a two year training course in conjunction with the Department of Nursing, at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Duse has held positions of Chairman of the Infection Control Society of South Africa (ICASA, now ICSA), Sub-Saharan Ambassador for the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), and Council Member of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID).
He currently holds the post of Southern African Chair for the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP). GARP is a project of the Centre for Diseases Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP), United States, which works to create greater awareness among policymakers in low-middle income countries about the growing threat of antibiotic resistance and to develop country-relevant issues.
He also serves on the Advisory Committee of the International Federation of Home Hygiene and as External Infection Prevention and Control Expert Consultant for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers to the WHO and organisations such as International SOS.
Duse’s expertise in viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHF) resulted in his appointment by the World Health Organisation, Geneva, to act as expert consultant and provide education to health care staff and case management during the 2005 Angolan Marburg VHF outbreak and the 2006/7 Kenyan Rift Valley fever outbreak. In 2008 Duse provided infection prevention and control support to the South African National Department of Health for a VHF outbreak caused by a novel arenavirus (Lujo virus) outbreak that occurred in Johannesburg.
In December 2012 he was appointed WHO expert consultant for the Infection Control Group for the Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreak response team in Uganda. In April 2014 he was deployed to Liberia to assist with the containment of the Ebola virus outbreak in his capacity as a VHF infection prevention and control expert.
Sex, politics and gender
- By Wits University
Professor in Political Studies, Shireen Hassim, discusses her new book, The ANC Women’s League, in a two part interview with Creamer Media’s Polity.org.za.
The Women’s League has played a large but little understood role in the history of the ANC. Over the years it has been headed by some powerful women including Albertina Sisulu and Winnie Mandela and has often gained public and media attention. But what role has it actually played in black political life and what influence has it had on national and gender politics in the country? This book provides a revealing insight into the connections between gender, sex and politics in the history of South Africa.
To watch the interviews, click on the below links on www.polity.org.za:
Shireen Hassim is a Professor of Politics and her research interests are in the area of feminist theory and politics, social movements and collective action, the politics of representation and affirmative action, and social policy. She is co-editor of No Shortcuts to Power: Women and Policymaking in Africa (2003); Gender and Social Policy in a Global Context (2006) and Go Home or Die Here: Xenophobia, Violence and the Reinvention of Difference in South Africa. She is the author of Women’s Organisations and Democracy in South Africa: Contesting Authority (2006), which won the 2007 American Political Science Association’s Victoria Shuck Award for best book on women and politics.
The ANC Women’s League is published by Jacana Media.
