Professor Zeblon Vilakazi’s editorial in the latest issue of Curiosity, Wits’ new research magazine:
Welcome to the third issue of Curios.ty, which features research and researchers that interrogate capital within the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption, and the rapid disruption of the status quo and the world as we know it today.
Let us consider the capital wielded globally in terms of the economic, social and political power of the big five tech companies - Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. The New York Times columnist, Farhard Manjoo, has provocatively referred to them as the ‘frightful five’, declaring that they control the world’s most important platforms – smartphones, app stores and a map of our global social interactions – in a way that is unprecedented in human history.
Who would have imagined a world where the largest hotel company (AirBnB) doesn’t own a single piece of real estate, and the largest private transport company (Uber) does not own a fleet of taxis? Take the new cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripley) that are traded on alternative exchanges or the latest Wits MOOCs available on the EdX platform. These examples are indicators of how capital has, over the past decade, been disrupted by the ‘frightful five’.
Recent events in North Africa and the Middle East – and the US Presidential election results – also point to the power of these platforms in reshaping regional political events in some of the world’s most powerful nations.
Moisés Naím, the Venezuelan thinker and internationally syndicated columnist, writes in his book, The End of Power, that globalisation, economic growth, a growing global middle class, the spread of democracy, and rapidly expanding telecommunications technologies have changed our world and created a fluid and unpredictable environment which has unsettled the traditional dominions of power.
Some refer to this context as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is a wave of change that uses technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and robots to enhance our cognitive abilities. Most previous technology revolutions enhanced our muscle power; this one is characterised by social and technical interfaces and will impact on the world of work and the economy.
South Africa will not escape this revolution. We will need to grapple with these changes as we simultaneously contend with transformation, social cohesion, poverty, inequality and unemployment. If not sufficiently daunting, we need to manage these changes in the context of sluggish economic growth still reliant, largely, on resources.
These are some of the questions that Wits researchers and students are exploring. By extension, Wits will implement a new research and postgraduate strategic plan (2018-2022), that speaks to the transformation of the future, whilst addressing the challenges of today.
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Postgraduate Affairs at Wits University.
Read more about capital in the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption and ownership in the third issue of Wits' new research magazine, CURIOSITY.
Guardians of the democracy
- Nhlanhla Nene
Public-private sector relationships should serve society broadly and when it starts serving the interest of a individuals it undermines our hard-won democracy.
Few would argue that we, as a country, are going through a very difficult phase, politically and economically. But I believe that times like these compel us to reflect on where we are and where we are going as a nation. Each one of us has a responsibility to work ourselves out of this quagmire.
The big picture
I say this not only as a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and a former government minister, but also as an ordinary South African. It is not only the ANC that is taking strain, but the whole country. I argue that we need to guard against taking a narrow view – by which I mean targeting one organisation, family, or individual.
My view is that a captured state is linked to a weak relationship between the private and public sectors. It is deeply worrying when that relationship reaches a point where the state is being taken hostage and resources are being misappropriated. The public-private sector relationship should serve society. However, when it ends up serving the interests of a narrow group of individuals, I believe that it is a very sad state of affairs, because it is ultimately the poor who suffer.
This situation requires us to broaden our investigation beyond just one family or group, otherwise we, too, are trapped in serving the narrow interests of a particular group instead of serving South Africa and its citizens. I welcome a full investigation to expose state capture; I believe the nation deserves to know what has transpired.
The public private affair
If the public and private sectors cooperated as partners and focused on good leadership and sound operating models, our state-owned enterprises (SOEs) would be in an entirely different situation. My view is that when the government bails out South African Airways, it should only do so in conjunction with putting in place the right leadership, and ensuring that the airline is operationally sustainable in the long term.
I believe that one of the reasons for the challenges facing our SOEs is the lack of requisite high level skills. Universities and business schools have the capabilities to produce high level skills in adequate measure, to produce ethical leaders of the future and to assume the responsibility for addressing the country’s skills deficit.
I have the privilege of serving on the board of Arise, a development finance institution headquartered in the Netherlands, which envisages building a stronger African economy. I believe this company is a working example of a strong public-private sector relationship that benefits society. Working with the Netherlands’ largest co-operative bank and a Norwegian government investment fund for developing countries, this strategic public-private partnership works to grow emerging market economies, whilst simultaneously ensuring a sound return on investment for shareholders. There is much we can learn from such a strategic partnership. In South Africa, mistrust between the private and public sectors is costing us dearly.
Guarding democracy
As we move towards the ANC’s elective conference in December, we need to realise that the ANC of today is very different to the ANC of 1994. The party is attracting a different kind of membership, and stalwarts who served the ANC selflessly have left to establish their own external structures, as a voice of reason. Today’s challenges are very different to the challenges of the past and the instability in our political structures is breeding uncertainty.
South Africans need to be vigilant and I have seen increased vigilance in our country recently and in certain of our institutions. Importantly, we view institutions like the Treasury, the Constitutional Court, and the Public Protector, as strengths of our democracy. They are guardians of our democracy and we need to guard them.
We have seen vigilance in organisations that have taken a stand against state capture and corruption, for example, the banks and others who are drawing a line in the sand, saying: If your company is tainted, we will not do business with you until your name is cleared.
If we are to pass on a country to our children and grandchildren that are in better shape than the one we inherited, we need to guard the legacies of our institutions and establish strong public-private sector relationships that serve the best interests of the country as a whole. A narrow, self-serving focus threatens the next generation.
Nhlanhla Nene is Honorary Adjunct Professor in Wits Business School and the former Minister of Finance.
Read more about capital in the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption and ownership in the third issue of Wits' new research magazine, CURIOSITY.
Lessons from muckrakers
- Anton Harber
Let’s celebrate the work of investigative reporters in exposing state capture but also interrogate where they got it wrong, and how damaging this has been.
We hail the work of those who – with doggedness, skill and bravery – are calling to account our president, his friends, family and allies, and exposing the extent to which they have destroyed individuals and institutions while they loot the public fiscus. Where most other institutions of accountability– such as the new Public Protector, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Hawks and the SA Revenue Services – have fallen short, a coterie of journalists have filled the gap.
Jacques Pauw is, deservedly, the man of the moment, having uncovered some incredible dirt to add to the pile that is already out, and written it with maximum impact and consummate timing. But he is building on the work of others, such as the amaBhungane/Daily Maverick Scorpio team of Stefaans Brummer, Sam Sole, Susan Comrie and others; Sikonathi Mantshansha at the Financial Mail, and Adriaan Basson and Pieter-Louis Myburgh at News24.
But Pauw also highlights in his book instances where journalists allowed themselves to be used by those out to capture institutions like SARS and the Hawks, with devastating results.
Sadly, the name of the country’s biggest newspaper, the Sunday Times, and some of its most senior journalists, pops up frequently in these stories.
The best-known case is that of the Sunday Times’ reporting two years ago on an alleged “rogue unit” in SARS. The story began with a legitimate tale of sex and power: SARS official Johann van Loggerenberg had an affair with a Pretoria lawyer, Belinda Walters, who was acting for someone Van Loggerenberg was investigating. She turned out to be a double-crossing triple agent, and when their relationship went sour, both the Sunday Times and City Press exposed an apparently legitimate story, though each favoured a different side in the dispute, depending on who their main source was.
But the Sunday Times went on to report that Van Loggerenberg’s unit had gone rogue, even bugging the presidency and running a brothel. They ran a total of 35 stories over a two-year period. These stories were used to attack, harass, humiliate, dismiss and prosecute Van Loggerenberg and others who were among the tax authority’s best people, allowing a free hand to those, under SARS head Tom Moyane, who wanted them out of the way so that he could protect the president and his allies.
As Pauw put it: “The Sunday Times journalists have contributed greatly to ending the careers of dedicated civil servants and ultimately enable Tom Moyane to break the tax collector.”
The Press Ombusdman ruled in a series of judgments during December 2015/ January 2016 that these stories were “inaccurate, misleading and unfair” and a “serious breach” of the Code of Conduct. They were ordered to retract and apologise.
It took the Sunday Times a while, and a change of editor, but in April 2016 the paper ran a full-page withdrawal and apology. The damage, though, was done.
Pauw also lambasts the Sunday Times 2011 report that General Johan Booysen was running what was effectively a police hit squad in KwaZulu-Natal. This story is hotly disputed, with the Sunday Times team adamant that their evidence is good, while Pauw and others believe Booysen was a good crime-fighter targeted because he was nailing corruption in his area. This story is potentially embarrassing, as it won the major Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism (in which I was a judge).
When one tries to wade through these conflicting versions, one finds that the people at the centre of them are seldom clean (Loggerenberg did have the compromising affair which kick-started the story, and Booysen may well have a case to answer on some of the killings attributed to his team). It becomes almost impossible to discern the truth between radically conflicting versions with some truth in each side. And, once the Sunday Times' credibility was damaged, everything else after that has to be looked at more closely.
Another was the allegation that drove Anwa Dramat and Shadrack Sibiya out of top positions in the Hawks. They were accused of taking part in the illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals.
Pauw cites these as key moments in the push to drive out from these important institutions good people who were acting against corruption, and freeing the hands of those who wanted to get into the till. Some of the journalists were innocent victims of manipulation (though they still need to answer for how they allowed this), while one or two appear to have been seriously negligent, perhaps even knowing participants in the factionalism.
In some ways, it seems harsh to pick out the Sunday Times, especially since some of these stories are old and their team also did many good and important stories. MNet’s Carte Blanche, on the other hand, aired the “rogue unit” story and have not retracted it.
A few years before this, I was one of a team of outsiders commissioned by the Sunday Times to investigate and report on a series of stories which had gone horribly wrong. Those with a memory for the bizarre might remember one of these, which appeared under the headline, ‘Cape Town sells its sea’.
In general, and ironically for a group of people who do well in holding others to account, we said there was insufficient accountability and much arrogance in the newsroom. The report caused a brief flurry, and the paper moved on. Promises to bring us back to review progress six months later did not materialise.
One of the journalists, Stephan Hofstatter, said a few things on the radio that reminded me of this. He said the allegation that SARS had run a brothel had been found in a SARS memo, but they had not checked it out. This was a good example of a fact being “sexed up” without enough time on deadline to confirm what was a wild claim.
He also said he was not the lead writer in some of these stories and the next day “did not recognise my name on the story”. He was implying that the story had been done by a team of which he was just one part, he had lost control of the details once it was in the hands of editors, and it had been “sexed up”.
We interviewed most of the staff and wrote a long report which revealed the structural problems in the Sunday Times newsroom that led to these mistakes. Some of them still seem pertinent:
Too many people were interceding between the reporters and the end product to rewrite – and “sex up” – stories. Reporters lost control of their stories, and the search for racy intros and headlines sometimes distorted facts.
Fact-checking had become a formality, rather than an embedded culture.
The investigations team operated in secrecy as untouchable elite.
Insufficient planning meant that there was too much pressure on a Saturday afternoon to find a great front page, and caution was sometimes thrown to the wind.
Lots of people have been damaged by these practices, including journalists.
Anton Harber is Caxton Professor of Journalism at Wits University.
Read more about capital in the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption and ownership in the third issue of Wits' new research magazine, CURIOSITY.
His master’s voice
- Tawana Kupe
What are the prospects for a free media in a captured state in 21st Century South Africa?
Media and communications have been key to exercising power in Africa historically, entrenched as they were in colonialism and apartheid in South Africa.
Different forms of media ownership and control have been central to political-economic control and the dominance of forms of cultural representation. Media freedom was threatened because of censorship, bans, arrests and the incarceration of journalists and editors, multiple restrictions and the monopoly of broadcasting.
Media that offered a counter-narrative to oppression and an alternative vision of a free society opposed colonialism and apartheid. The cast characters which owned media supportive of liberation included nationalists, radical activists, churches and emergent media entrepreneurs of all races. Since colonialism and apartheid, during all Africa’s political, economic and cultural upheavals, the media have driven, recorded and stymied or facilitated change. Developments in media have been indicative of African ‘progress.’
Media mark African progress
Of course media outside state control contributed to the struggle for independence and freedom despite repression. It follows also that it was some media outside the control of post-independence African and the post-apartheid states that gave voice and editorial space to forces opposing those stifling democracy, clean governance and economic inclusivity.
Even then, colonial and apartheid played out in the media space. Media freedom is still a long walk to freedom in many African countries. Colonial era restrictive media laws remain embedded in statute books despite the departure of the last colonial governor. South Africa is a beacon of hope only because of its constitutional guarantees, yet it is not immune to other insidious threats to press freedom.
The use of predominantly non-African languages by the print media perpetuates an urban elite orientation. News media struggle to strike the balance between reporting positive developments without practicing ‘sunshine journalism’, and being critical and confirming the stereotype western media have of Africa as the archetypal home of disasters untold.
State monopoly of broadcasting endures in many guises with occasional periods of relative freedom. The South African Broadcasting Corporation – the continent’s great hope since the resurgent democracy in the 1990s and the promise of a model of genuine public broadcasting free from state or commercial interests – has succumbed to his master’s voice.
Advancing African media frontiers
On the other hand, the emergence of FM radio stations and talk radio across has expanded freedom of expression across Africa. The growth of locally-made television programmes and African music videos demonstrate African cultural creativity and the exploration of new identities and self-expression. A tradition of investigative journalism is strengthening in precarious political environments and demonstrates courage to hold the powerful accountable and for transparency to triumph.
New media and mobile telephony have spawned online and digital media spaces – that, despite not reaching a mass audience – enable free expression, particularly among the young and educated. Interactive features of online and digital media and their disruption of the traditional sender and receiver positioning of media and audiences has the potential to transcend control and censorship and to deliver real democracy.
Reborn media monopoly
However, the media market has exercised its own modes of censorship, at times reinforcing the enduring hand of state and political controls. Ownership and control of media remains in the hands of the historically economically privileged and the newly economically empowered. Some media, such as the print sector in South Africa, that supported repression during apartheid, are reborn as supporters of editorial independence in relation to state and government power, but are silent on the insidious corporate and commercial control of the media and the power of private interests.
A careful analysis demonstrates that access to the expanding range of media available on the continent follows lines of economic privilege that marginalises the poor and creates new digital and social divides. Inequitable access to communications and media and information asymmetry contributes to the 21st Century phenomenon of increasing and unprecedented social inequality that threatens the creation of sustainable democracies.
Tawana Kupe is an Associate Professor in Media Studies in Wits Journalism and Vice-Principal of Wits.
Read more about capital in the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption and ownership in the third issue of Wits' new research magazine, CURIOSITY.
Bitter-sweet monopoly
- Deborah Minors
Capitalising on consumers' sweet spot has dangerous implications for public health.
Research conducted by public health experts at Wits University and their associates worldwide has explored how multinational global corporations that sell sugar sweetened beverages and fast foods undermine health, and have proposed how fiscal measures can protect health.
“Fiscal policies for health involve raising the price of a product to deter its use, or decreasing the price of a product to stimulate use, and income transfers to vulnerable populations to increase affordability of health products and/or services,” says Karen Hofman, director of PRICELESS SA, who launched the Fiscal Policies for Population Health in SAreport in January 2017.
Frank Chaloupka, Professor of Economics and director of the Health Policy Center at the University of Illinois Chicago visited the School of Public Health in November 2016, and presented research to the South African Treasury on the effects of prices, policies, and other environmental factors on diet, physical activity, and obesity. Sugar-sweetened beverages in particular are linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental problems.
Chaloupka’s research showed that a 10% increase in the price of SSBs resulted in a 12.1% reduction in consumption of these products. Thus the basic laws of economics apply: price increases reduce consumption and thus ultimately result in healthcare improvements.
“There are just a handful of behaviours that contribute to a lot of these non-communicable diseases (NCDs) if you look at the leading causes of death: Tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol use. It suggests to me if we can do something to change those behaviours, it will have an impact,” said Chaloupka.
But changing behavior is difficult – particularly amidst million-dollar advertising onslaughts.
Monopolising mindspace
Rob Moodie is Professor of Public Health at the College of Medicine, University of Malawi, and Professor of Public Health at the University of Melbourne's School of Population and Global Health. Speaking at the Wits School of Public Health in October 2016, he interrogated strategies that the junk food industries use to drive sales and increase profits.
“Transnational corporations are major drivers of non-communicable disease epidemics. These corporations profit from increased consumption of tobacco, alcohol, processed food, etc.,” says Moodie, adding that junk food industries use their size, power and influence to market their products and position.
“The global beverage industry spends billions on product advertising and then blames individuals for not practicing self-control – much focused on children”, says Moodie.
In South Africa advertising spend by Coca Cola increased 33% from 2014 (R193m), to R259m in 2016. Seventy percent of advertising is on television. Marketing has specially targeted the poor in South Africa as their growth strategy.
Taste the feeling…
On January 19, 2016 US-based magazine Advertising Age published an article about Coke replacing its ‘open happiness’ tagline with ‘taste the feeling’.
“Setting an enormous brand like Coke on a new marketing course is a massive undertaking and comes as the brand battles category headwinds, most notably declining soda consumption amid growing health concerns,” wrote E.J. Schultz, journalist and Chicago Bureau Chief at Advertising Age.
“Coke would adopt a ‘one-brand’ approach that will unite multiple varieties like Diet Coke and Coke Zero”, wrote Schultz, because “‘there are moments when this consumer wants to reduce their sugar intake’,” according to Coke’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, Marcos de Quinto.
Moodie says Coke uses massive sponsorship of sport and music as a critical component of its corporate social responsibility strategy.
“The primary health risk posed by the consumption of these drinks is the high caffeine and sugar content which in excess have dire consequences. The reality is that the move to introduce a tax – also known as a health promotion levy – is necessary, as diets and lifestyles are changing in South Africa and we face a tsunami of obesity related diseases. A sugary beverage tax tries to reduce consumption of harmful products through increasing price but there are other drivers which also need attention – advertising to children in particular,” says Hofman.
Vigorous energy drink sales
Preference for food and beverage products is shaped by brand image through tactical marketing and advertising strategies. A key factor influencing consumption of processed food and drinks is how they are marketed to potential consumers, and this is especially true of newer entrants like energy drinks.
In August 2017, researcher Nicholas Stacey at PRICELESS led a new study that shows that energy drinks have achieved the highest recent sales volume growth in SA. Between 2009 and 2014, the annual volume of sports and energy drinks rose from about 98 million litres to 168 million litres, rising from approximately two to three litres per capita in only five years.
The fact that across beverage categories, energy drinks – which contain the highest sugar content – have achieved the highest recent sales volume growth in SA shows that advertising and sales of sugary targeting adolescents and young South Africans in particular, is on the rise.
Insidious strategies
Aside from an avalanche of advertising, junk food multinationals have seemingly innocuous strategies to persuade, promote, and profit. Moodie cites several methods used to increase consumption despite the threat these products pose to public health:
Investing in partnerships, corporate social responsibility, and physical activity programmes (being ‘part of the solution’)Commissioning research to discredit any moves to regulate
Using PR to sway public opinion and influence reporters
Monitoring key public health researchers
A recruitment advertisement in October 2017 for a Communications Manager (Field Brand Reputation) for McDonald’s in Boston, USA, calls for a person who “will work to ensure a steady drumbeat of local people, food and community stories that support corporate and local business opportunities. In addition the role will focus on enabling operators to effectively engage with key influencers, media and stakeholders."
Hofman says, “All the big food groups are doing this.” Multinationals appoint people who are tasked with positioning the firm as ‘part of the solution’.
The sugar industry has used the threat of exaggerated, widespread jobs losses if government imposes the touted tax on sugary beverages. Hofman claims, however, that there are already fewer jobs, since small-scale cane growers have stopped planting while the sugar giants (Illovo, Tongaat Hulett, and Transvaal Sugar Ltd) are diversifying to remain profitable.
Research indicates that climate change and drought has forced this diversification, which has enabled multinationals to capitalize. Tongaat Hulett’s disposal of land in KZN (and investment in cane-growing land elsewhere in southern Africa) is another strategy to remain profitable, as is Transvaal Sugar’s merger with RCL Foods.
“Allegations of job losses have less to do with the proposed sugary drinks tax and more to do with global multinationals dominating the local market. The question is the extent to which South African workers benefit?” says Hofman.
Just desserts
Hofman cites a study by the American Chamber of Commerce which showed that by 2030 non-communicable diseases will be costing the South African economy 7% of GDP. The impact of NCDs is not only deaths and years of life lost, but also on quality of life morbidity – amputations, blindness, and kidney failure caused by diabetes as a result of consuming too much sugar.
According to the Head of Orthopedic Surgery at the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, the wards are overflowing with diabetes patients who have on average five amputations before they die.
On November 7, 2017 the Standing Committee on Finance decided that a decision for the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment Revenue Laws Bill could proceed to the National Assembly. The amendment bill provides in general terms for a Health Promotion Levy and a schedule to the bill specifies that this will take the form of a tax on sugary beverages. Treasury plans to introduce the tax in April 2018.
Read more about capital in the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption and ownership in the third issue of Wits' new research magazine, CURIOSITY.
The unfinished business of apartheid
- Erna van Wyk
Can we finally see beyond the hashtags, clever memes, and witty commentary that #StateCapture, the #Guptas and #EdwardsFather elicit?
Are South Africans ready to deal honestly with the past?
State capture should come as no surprise to us. Its blueprint has been lurking in plain sight in apartheid state records that survived shredding in the early ‘90s, and which has been gathering dust since in countless public archives all over the country and abroad.
As Hennie van Vuuren’s book, Apartheid Guns and Money – A tale of profit, clearly showed this year, public record-keeping and archives are vital for transparency, accountability, and openness in a democracy. An exposé of how white monopoly capital profiteered from the apartheid state and kept the regime in power, the book is also a tale of how those old and new roots of corruption found fertile ground in our disconnected democracy.
Connecting the dots by systematically working through 40 000 documents, some two million pages, from 25 public archives, Van Vuuren and his researchers connected the dots to show how those networks of state capture and the looting of state coffers were firmly cemented during apartheid and have continued to flourish in our young democracy.
Relationships of capital
Why did it take us so long to connect the dots? Was it because we needed the warm glow of the mid-‘90s new South Africa and the strong get-on-with-life-injunction in the 2000s to suppress our pain, hide our complicities, and ignore our democracy’s fragility?
“This urgency in the first two decades of post-apartheid South Africa to move beyond our past did not take into account the unfinished business of transformation between people and groups, as well as the ongoing effects of all those old relationships of capital that still exist today,” says Garth Stevens, Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Humanities, Professor in the Department of Psychology, and a primary researcher in the Apartheid Archives Research Project.
“While the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) focused on gross human rights violations, the sanctions-busting business practices of the time were left untouched. Crafted in the imagination of large parts of South African society today is this notion that these practices were not necessarily criminal but merely a response to an extremely hostile global climate at the time that slapped South Africa with sanctions.”
He says that parastatals that still exist today, such as Transnet, Eskom and Denel (Armscor), were really forms of capital that were developed during apartheid and crafted in parts of the collective memory as ‘necessary’ in order for South Africa to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining. “But of course this belies the real consequences and knock-on effects (of their origins in criminality) that we still see today,” says Stevens.
“Archives help us address the transgressions of our history in a more open and transparent way, whether it is through the grand documentation of apartheid that continues to gather dust in the National Archives or government departments, that needs to be declassified, or the ‘everydayness of apartheid’ that needs to be narrated,” he says.
To fully understand our past and ensure future accountability in a democracy, academics from Wits University and their civil society partners are leading the call for apartheid state records to be declassified, and to promote open and transparent record-keeping of state records in South Africa today.
The currency of knowledge
Archives are a form of currency, and in particular, the ‘archive of knowledge’ is a central currency for a young democracy still reeling from centuries of oppressive colonial rule.
“Those who control the ‘archive of knowledge’ control what is taught, what people come to believe about the world, and how it is that we come to understand ourselves in the world,” Stevens explains.
Calls for decolonisation, decoloniality, and decolonial theory and thought lie on a continuum of how students and citizens in general are trying to rethink the political, economic and social systems that have intensified in the aftermath of the 2008 global economic meltdown.
“It is very clear that even though capitalism had an elasticity that expanded beyond what the Marxists of the 20th Century could have imagined, many people feel that the system is broken,” says Stevens.
Rethinking and liberating the ‘archive of knowledge’ gives us, as people in the Global South and on the African continent, a different currency that make us less reliant solely on the knowledge of the West, and helps us to consider a different way to be in the world, to think about the world, and to imagine what a different world would look like.
Lack of political will keeps apartheid archive in shackles
Mohale convened the first Archives and Democracy Colloquium held at Wits University in September that brought together academics, civil society, activists, archivists, lawyers and others to create public awareness about the urgent need for open and transparent regulation of the apartheid era records, to declassify these records, and to promote initiatives for sound recordkeeping in a democratic South Africa.
“The idea for the colloquium was this thread between archives and the level of democracy. Wherever one has accountability collapsing, you have democracy collapsing. And the question is: Why is it that, now that we have a new, democratic state, it still does not work for the citizen in the way it should in terms of public recordkeeping and transparency?” says Mohale.
The problem with apartheid era records is that they are spread across many institutions in South Africa; in national and provincial government departments, state security agencies, courts, police stations, businesses and corporations, among private citizens, and many other places.
“As much as there is a lot of secrecy and conspiracies around what these remaining records might unveil, the reasons why declassification has not happened 25 years after apartheid is because of inefficiency in our government departments, a huge backlog in getting these records to the National Archive and processing them, and a lack of money and manpower. Mostly it’s a lack of political will,” says Mohale.
The next step in their work to free the apartheid archive is firstly to conduct an oral history project to get a comprehensive understanding of the problems with the apartheid era records. This would consist of interviews with, among others, people in state archives; those involved in research and investigations for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; civil society activists who have been working with archives; and researchers.
Following this, there would have to be a full audit detailing the issues with access regulations, the governance of these state records, who is responsible for overseeing them, and then to make substantial recommendations in terms of administration.
“Because public recordkeeping is about accountability, the South African National Archive is currently placed in the wrong department. It should be moved from the Department of Arts and Culture, the department of which the budget is always the first to be slashed, to the Department of Public Service and Administration, because administrative justice and accountability is reliant on proper public recordkeeping,” says Mohale.
This project is a massive research undertaking that requires an extremely knowledgeable and dedicated researcher or research group. “We have the funding, but we now need to find the right person or group to take on this project,” she says.
The Archives and Democracy Colloquium was jointly hosted by the History Workshop and Historical Papers Research Archive at Wits University, together with SECTION 27 and the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI).
Read more about capital in the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption and ownership in the third issue of Wits' new research magazine, CURIOSITY.
Tackling global crime networks
- The Conversation Africa
Interview with Lord Peter Hain about his efforts to bring British banks to justice for their alleged involvement in state capture.
Lord Peter Hain tabled a series of allegations in the UK’s House of Lords relating to the possible role of British banks in alleged money laundering and illicit financial transactions centred around South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family.
In the House of Lords you said the illicit transactions were “part of a flagrant robbery of South African taxpayers”. What do you mean by this?
As I explained in my speech, the Guptas, a family from India that relocated to South African have, with the connivance of the South African Presidency been getting government contracts and allegedly thereby robbing taxpayers of billions.
On regular visits to South Africa – most recently last month – I have been stunned by the systemic transnational financial network facilitated by the Guptas and the presidential family, the Zumas. If there had been more proactive and genuine cooperation between the multi-jurisdictional law enforcement agencies – and within and between the banks, which have been moving money for the alleged Gupta/Zuma laundering network – the devastation wrought on South Africa could have been significantly reduced. And perhaps, the financial institutions involved would have been better able to mitigate their exposure.
So does it point to South Africans benefiting from the illicit transactions?
I had delivered by hand to Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, printouts of transactions, and named a British bank concerned. I asked that he again refers these to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, the National Crime Agency and the Financial Conduct Authority for investigation.
This information allegedly shows illegal transfers of funds from South Africa made by the Gupta family over the last few years from their South African accounts to accounts held in Dubai and Hong Kong. Many of the transactions are legitimate. But many certainly are not.
The illicit transactions were flagged internally in the bank concerned as suspicious. But I am reliably informed that the bank was told by the UK headquarters to ignore it. That is an iniquitous breach of legal banking practice in the UK, which I trust ministers would never countenance. It is also an incitement to money laundering. This has self-evidently occurred in this case, sanctioned by a British bank, as part of the flagrant robbery of South African taxpayers. They have lost millions of pounds and many billions of their local currency, the rand.
Was there a specific event that triggered your request to the Chancellor?
I was asked by senior African National Congress figures and stalwarts to do this. My relationships with them go back more than half a century when we stood shoulder to shoulder fighting apartheid.
As before, my latest information has been supplied by South African whistleblowers deep inside the system who are disgusted by the corruption at the heart of the state.
What do you hope to achieve?
There are disturbing questions around the complicity – witting or unwitting – of UK global financial institutions in the Gupta/Zuma transnational network. There are also disturbing questions about these institutions’ willful blindness to the reality that the laundering process often necessitates financial systems with lax regulation and controls. Unless we urgently find ways to leverage our respective capabilities to coordinate and influence action between the law enforcement and banking sectors we cannot win this battle. This coordination needs to happen domestically here in the UK as well as globally.
Unless we use the opportunity to crack down meaningfully, those who want to break the law will always be one step ahead. We must therefore get the international authorities to close down any money laundering networks.
As someone who fought against apartheid, how do you feel about having to take up a campaign against the country’s democratically elected government?
Having been active along with my brave parents in the anti-apartheid struggle it’s painful for me to witness corruption within a monopoly capital elite around Zuma’s family and their close associates the Gupta brothers.
But we should look closer to home, here in the UK. The complicity of our financial institutions in this, as well as the responsibility of law enforcers and regulators in all the concerned jurisdictions, should make government ministers and parliamentarians hang their heads in shame. Just as they were complicit in sustaining apartheid, so today they are complicit in sustaining the corrupt power elite in South Africa which is now betraying the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle.
Winning the war against financial crime will require coordination, influence, action and accountability between multi-jurisdictional law enforcement agencies. The success of criminal networks also relies on the action or inaction – and cooperation or non-cooperation – of the relevant law enforcement authorities.
Lord Peter Hain was a vocal anti-apartheid activist born in South Africa but who grew up in the UK. He is a visiting adjunct professor at the Wits Business School. This article was first published in The Conversation Africa – www.theconversation.com/africa
Read more about capital in the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption and ownership in the third issue of Wits' new research magazine, CURIOSITY.
Thirsty for change
- Buhle Zuma
Profile: As a photographer, swimmer and researcher, Dyani Jeram’s life is all about water.
She is interested in how companies use and account for water and believes that captains of industry should realise water is more than just a resource to ensure profits for their shareholders.
Jeram has always been fascinated by water. Whether she is marvelling at the vastness of the ocean or capturing the coastline with her camera, water seems to have a hold on her. Since the age of 11, Dyani has competed in the Midmar Mile, one of the country’s most famous open water swimming races, held annually in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. The event, which draws thousands of swimmers, has variously been affected by too much or too little water, with participants having to manage varying water levels.
It is little wonder that, whilst working on a project aimed at empowering small urban farmers in Johannesburg, Jeram once again found herself pondering water. Two years ago she had the opportunity to work with farmers belonging to Izindaba Zokudla (Conversations about Food), a multi-stakeholder engagement project that promotes urban agriculture and sustainable food systems in Soweto.
The disparities in water supplies to different parts of the community quickly became evident – whilst some farmers had uninterrupted access to water, other subsistence farmers had no reliable water to grow gardens and keep hunger at bay.
“The importance of water to business came from this exposure. My question became: If water could have such an impact at a local level, how then do major companies manage water risks?” asks the Master’s candidate at the Global Change Institute (GCI) at Wits, whose research investigates Water stewardship and resilience in South African businesses: challenges and opportunities.
Watered-down profits
Water stewardship means that businesses should adopt a beyond the-fence approach when it comes to water, and treat it as more than just a resource. They need to see it as an integral part of the environment, society and the economy.
“I am particularly interested in how they [businesses] make use of water and deal with climate change adaptation, how they frame water risks and assess it, who governs water issues, and also the viability of water stewardship and its feasibility for South African companies,” says Jeram.
Although South Africa is not the only country facing a prolonged drought – Argentina, Brazil, California in the USA, and Kenya are on a knife’s edge and Dublin in Ireland is on high alert – the Cape Town crisis has heightened business awareness in the country.
Analysts predict that the ongoing drought in the Western Cape will slow South Africa’s economic recovery. Agriculture, tourism and many other water intensive businesses have felt the impact on their operations and profits. In the face of climate change and drought, water security has become a serious concern.
Whither the water?
Due to the complexity of water issues, Jeram is using a multipronged approach to measure businesses’ relationship with water.
As a starting point, she is assessing 40 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that are water intensive, using data from 2010 to 2016.
In addition to using primary data, such as company reports, Jeram is interviewing sustainable development practitioners in major organisations. The National Business Initiative, which is a voluntary coalition of companies working towards sustainable growth and development, has been useful in facilitating contact and easing the data collection process.
An equally important component of her research is to critique the usefulness of voluntary disclosure tools. One such tool is a global water survey administered by international non-profit,
CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), since 2010. CDP is a worldwide disclosure system that enables companies, cities and governments to measure and manage their environmental impacts. Regarded as the international benchmark, CDP is credited for driving unprecedented levels of environmental disclosure.
Despite such disclosure tools and advances, Jeram believes there is still room for improvement.
“It is important to move away from the tick-box approach to compliance. Companies need to use disclosure tools to bring about change,” says the water warrior, whose Master’s research will be completed at the end of 2018.
Water stewardship and profits
Although Jeram is encouraged that companies are making a move towards adopting sustainable practices (with water being just one of many) sustainability departments in companies and their captains struggle to speak the same language, she says. It’s a problem of short-term versus long-term gains.
“Most things in nature are long-term. It is sometimes difficult for business leaders to understand the need to change now, when cautioned about their practices. This is why the concept of business stewardship is important,” she says.
Johannesburg could see the same problems that Cape Town is experiencing, sooner rather than later, cautions Jeram. The challenges faced by the hospitality industry, for example, which had to mount campaigns to change customer behaviour and attitudes towards water use, highlight these challenges.
It is common to see businesses and schools closing early in Johannesburg when there are water interruptions as a result of infrastructure maintenance and repairs. This reaction, unfortunately, is a sign that the public and businesses are ill prepared for prolonged water threats.
“We need to change now, so that there is no delayed response when it hits us [Johannesburg],” urges Jeram.
Water warriors wanted
For her part, the Lenasia resident tries to educate people about environmental issues and places importance on small changes.
“You don’t need to make drastic changes to make a difference. Together, making the small adjustments in our own way can and will contribute towards the change we need,” she says.
Jeram considers herself lucky to be working in this field when global attention is focused on climate change and the problem of too much or too little water. Like her name, Dyani – which means “one who gives” – she hopes to make a contribution to water research in Africa.
Her honours research contributed to the City of Johannesburg’s Climate Change Adaptation Framework document, led by Professor Coleen Vogel at the GCI. Now Jeram is part of a team of young researchers at the GCI assisting experts in reviewing South Africa’s long-term adaptation scenarios.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Tech bytes
- Erna van Wyk
From slow sand filters and to towers that measure energy and gases.
Sand sweeps water clean at home
The slow sand filter method has been used for centuries to treat water. It’s so effective that the World Health Organization has given it its stamp of approval: “Under suitable circumstances, slow sand filtration may be not only the cheapest and simplest but also the most efficient method of water treatment.”
However, this method has mostly been used on a large scale and isn’t suitable for the thousands of South African households who battle daily to have clean drinking water in their homes.
Busisiwe Mashiane, a fourth year chemical engineering student in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at Wits, is researching and developing a slow sand filter to meet the needs of South Africans.
“Many South Africans living in disadvantaged communities across the country not only have difficulties accessing water but also face many health risks due to the lack of access to clean drinking water,” explains Mashiane.
“Our aim is to develop a low-cost but highly efficient water treatment system that can treat river water effectively and make it consumable. We want to ensure that, because people in these communities cannot afford elaborate water treatment methods, our system can assist in their basic human right of having access to clean potable water.”
How it works
A continuous water flow from a 25 litre tank feeds into a reactor tank (the sand bed). From here the water flows into a 25 litre transparent sterlisation tank, after which the clean water can be dispensed into a storage container for use.
The sand bed in the reactor tank is made up of layers of fine gravel, then activated carbon, and finally coarse gravel and fine sand.
A layer of biological matter, called the schmutzdecke, forms on top of the sand and the schmutzdecke in the water is prevented from flowing through the sand. This layer of biological matter ensures that the filtered water is free of harmful bacteria and pathogens, while the sand bed strips the physical impurities out of the water.
“Our research project is aimed at figuring out the mechanisms of the slow sand filter, to see how it functions under different conditions, and to find ways to optimise it,” says Mashiane, adding that the plan in future is to take the project out of the lab and into homes where it can make a difference in people’s lives.
“We want to discover what its limitations are and eventually find the best way to replicate the design and easily cut down the set-up time – currently between three to four months due to the need to wait for the biological layer to form.”
Researching the link between ecosystem and climate
“The Eddy Flux Tower is a piece of equipment which measures the exchange of energy and gases between the land surface and the atmosphere, and does so at landscape scale – over a footprint of about a kilometre. The towers were set up to measure carbon dioxide exchange, but also measure water exchange,” says Professor Bob Scholes, world-renowned scientist in systems ecology (regarding African savannahs) in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at Wits.
The Agincourt tower is part of a network of towers in the Skukuza and Malopeni villages in the Lowveld. It was erected by a research consortium that includes Wits University, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and various South African and German universities.
The project investigates the coupled carbon and water cycles of natural and disturbed savannah ecosystems in southern Africa. It aims to deepen the knowledge on how the natural environment functions in rural communities in southern Africa. This knowledge is crucial for understanding the link between ecosystems and climate, and how changes in land use may impact the climate in the future.
“These towers provide powerful insights into one of the key processes in the hydrological cycle, which control the amount of water entering aquifers [an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock] and rivers for human use, and how it might change with a changing climate,” says Scholes.
The flux tower houses a range of sophisticated equipment used to measure how much carbon dioxide, water vapour, and energy move between the land surface and the atmosphere. Other measurements, including climate parameters (temperature, humidity, rainfall, atmospheric pressure), are made to get more information about processes of the savannah ecosystem.
“The research would help us understand changes in greenhouse gas concentrations and how they influence agricultural and ecosystem productivity,” says Scholes.
The Skukuza tower, erected in 2000, was the first in Africa and today there are about eight scattered around the country. Another six towers will be erected through the Department of Science and Technology’s South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR), the first project of its kind in South Africa. SARIR is a strategic intervention to provide research infrastructure across the entire public research system that builds on existing capabilities and considers future needs.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Our pale blue dot
- Reshma Lakha-Singh
Q&A with Professor David Block from the Wits School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics.
Molecular hydrogen is the most abundant molecule in the matter between stars in Space, and water helps to cool collapsing clouds and dust during the formation of stars. But is there any way to use this water to save ourselves? Do we look to the stars to save life as we know it? Will Captain Kirk or the Defenders of the Galaxy beam us up to another planet that is flowing with water?
Have scientists discovered water on other planets?
The short answer is, yes! But the full answer is not that simple. While we have discovered water on Mars, the question is whether we will ever be able to have access to it. Mars as a destination is difficult for humans to reach and even more difficult to live on. Mars has polar ice caps made of frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice), and despite us having a similar climate to Mars, it is a very hostile environment with dust storms sometimes covering the entire planet. The temperatures dive well into the negatives at night and in winter. Earth’s average temperature is 14°C, whilst Mars’ is -63°C.
Is there any water on the moon?
Yes, in March 2010, India’s lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, discovered more than 40 permanently darkened craters near the moon’s north pole that contain about 600 million metric tonnes of water-ice. A metric tonne of water corresponds with water filling a container where each side spans approximately one kilometre. A small bay or lake in South Africa which is 50 metres deep and 3.5 kilometres square would contain that approximate volume of water. It is believed that water-bearing comets, asteroids and meteoroids delivered this to the moon by crashing into it.
Have we searched any other planetary systems for water?
Scientists have discovered exoplanets, which are planets that are outside our planetary system, orbiting other stars. As at February 2018, there are 3 728 confirmed planets in 2 794 systems with 622 systems having more than one planet. This discovery has encouraged the research for extra-terrestrial life with a special interest in planets that orbit a star which is in a habitable zone, where it is possible for liquid water to exist on the surface if the atmospheric pressure is like ours.
The exciting news is that astronomers have discovered seven planets, three of which are Earth-sized, orbiting TRAPPIST-1, a red dwarf star located just under 40 light years away from the Sun. These three exoplanets orbit within a habitable zone from the dwarf star, making it possible for life to thrive.
NASA has indicated that a closer study of the seven planets suggests that some could have far more water than the oceans of Earth, in the form of atmospheric water vapour for the planets closest to their star, liquid water for others, and ice for those farthest away. This makes TRAPPIST-1 the most thoroughly known planetary system apart from our own.
Can we source this water to save Earth?
Wearing my futurist hat, yes we can use these planets as a source of water. However, we won’t see this in our life-time. Earth is the only planet in our planetary system with easily-reachable water. Hence, let us protect what we have and begin our journey to save our planet. Carl Sagan called Earth the “Pale Blue Dot”. We have just the right atmospheric and chemical compositions, water and temperature on the planet for life to be possible. We need to protect what we have.
David Block is a Professor in the Wits School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. At 19, he became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of London. At 20, the Royal Astronomical Society published his paper on relativistic astrophysics. Block has been a visiting researcher at the Australian National University, the European Southern Observatory, the California Institute of Technology, and Harvard University. The NSTF-BHP Billiton Award acknowledged him as a leading science communicator in SA. He is the only scientist in Africa whose work has twice featured on the cover of Nature.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
The 180-million year old quirk
- Professor Terence McCarthy
The story of why rainfall at Wits dispenses to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans respectively is a tale as old as Africa itself.
Wits University is located right on top of the watershed that divides the Limpopo and Vaal-Orange river basins. This means that rainwater that flows off the front roof of the Great Hall discharges into northerly draining rivers, ultimately entering the Indian Ocean via the Limpopo River. Rainwater flowing off the back roof, however, flows southward into the Vaal River and is ultimately discharged into the Atlantic Ocean via the Orange River.
This quirky watershed was created hundreds of millions of years ago when the Supercontinent, Gondwana, broke into the continents of Africa, Antarctica, Australia and South America.
The separation of southern Africa from South America to the west and Antarctica to the east resulted in two very asymmetrical drainage systems: The Karoo-Kalahari River System rises far in the east, almost on the eastern escarpment, and flows westward across Africa to discharge into the Atlantic Ocean. The Zambezi-Limpopo System in the north rises along the western escarpment and discharges into the Indian Ocean.
The Limpopo River of today is a small vestige of what it used to be. In the Cretaceous Period (before 65 million years ago), its tributaries included the upper Zambezi, Kafue and Okavango Rivers, and it was the main drainage of southern Africa. It is for this reason that the Limpopo Delta is the largest on the African continent. At that time, the ancestral Orange River (the Karoo River) discharged into the Atlantic Ocean much further south than it does today (near the mouth of the Olifants River), and what is today the lower Orange River was part of a separate river system named the Kalahari River.
These ancient river systems have undergone substantial adjustments since the Cretaceous Period. Crustal warping, (which is the bending of sedimentary strata), severed the upper Limpopo from its tributaries (upper Zambezi, Kafue and Okavango rivers), resulting in the large Lake Makgadikgadi.
The lower Zambezi cut inland and progressively captured the Luangwa, Kafue and Upper Zambezi rivers. Consequently, the size of Lake Makgadikgadi was greatly reduced. In the south, the Kalahari River captured the Karoo River to form the modern Vaal-Orange System.
Notwithstanding these changes, the original drainage asymmetry and the Wits watershed, implanted in time immemorial when Gondwana broke up, remain evident today.
Terence McCarthy is Professor Emeritus of Mineral Geochemistry in the School of Geosciences. He has wide research interests in the earth sciences, including economic and environmental geology, geochemistry and geomorphology, and is a leading expert on the geology of wetlands, especially the Okavango Delta in Botswana. For more on why water from Wits flows to two oceans, read The Story of Earth and Life: A Southern African Perspective on a 4.6-Billion-Year Journey, which he co-authored with Professor Bruce Rubidge in the Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, as well as How on Earth? by McCarthy and Professor Bruce Cairncross.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
The Good, the Bad and the Dirty
- Schalk Mouton
Column: Lessons unlearnt from a week in dry Cape Town.
He bent down. He grinned. Of the two teeth in his mouth, one was rotten. The other broken in half. “Welcome to my humble little abode,” he breathed in a strong Afrikaans accent. I couldn’t exactly place the smell, but it was definitely not of something recently alive.
It must be a dream … I thought. No, A nightmare!
“Just don’t drink the water … because there isn’t any!”
He threw back his head and cackled at what I hoped was a joke. The laughter reverberated through the dry Cape Town air, crackling into oblivion … the sound mixed in a strange melodramatic way with the beat of a Pink Floyd song that played on a cheap set of speakers somewhere in the distance.
The sound wafted off. The reek lingered. Pink Floyd wailed. I knew this was real.I had landed in Cape Town several hours earlier. I was tired, hot and sticky, and just wanted a shower – especially after emerging from the cubicle in the restroom at the airport and reading a sign on the mirror saying that the taps were switched off due to the drought.
“It is MY water,” the owner of the Bed ’n Breakfast that I was checking into said, at pains to explain that he had just installed a R200 000 borehole on his property. “Especially the hot water. Don’t use it,” he said, a crooked smile on his face failing to disguise the seriousness of the underlying threat.
I was born and grew up in Springs and so, by birth right, I can instinctively distinguish between an empty threat and a promise of extreme violence. I instantly decided not to shower for the rest of the week. Unlike a threat from the 150kg mass of meat that I came to call “The Landlord”, a little bit of grit would not get me down.
Earlier, on the plane to Cape Town, I'd felt uneasy, uncertain, and even a bit scared, even though I didn’t dare to show it. The last time I felt like that was when I was being smuggled into a war zone. We were travelling, at first, on the back of an old, rusty trailer pulled by an antique Turkish farm tractor. Then, dumped into a large cut-open diesel tank that served as a makeshift ferry that smuggled our group of journalists across the river that serves as the border between Turkey and Syria. This all while watching incoming artillery shells hitting the cliffs of the mountain that towered over the village we were headed to.
But I was not heading to a war zone, or even a different country. This was the Republic of Zille. The idyllic resort of the rich and famous. The playground of the fantastic. The destination of choice for all those Gautengers who are dying to emigrate, but can’t afford it. A world of absolute abundance … but without any water …
Amidst all the talk and hype about the now infamous Day Zero, I was now deep in the belly of the beast.
Everything in Cape Town is about the current water shortage. Politicians implore “Team Cape Town” in radio advertisements to work together to avoid “Day Zero”. Radio talk show hosts share water saving tips – and, more importantly, like traffic updates, provide information on which stores in which areas still have water in stock. At the time, News24 reported that searches for “compost toilets” and “Day Zero” dominated Google searches in Cape Town.
It was on my third day in town that I spotted the “No Shower Sunday” poster for the first time. By then, I had not showered since I had arrived and was desperately anticipating the coming Sunday, when I would return to Joburg and be able to shower. As the week progressed, I noticed fresh-looking Capetonians wearing designer sunglasses turning up their noses and suspiciously sniffing the air as I crossed their path.
It was on the same day that I had decided to go for a run on the beach. It was a beautiful, yet slightly windy evening, and after a number of days stuck in a conference room, perfect to get some exercise. This, as I see it, was my first big mistake – I got thirsty. And sweaty. And even smellier, which led directly to my second big mistake: As Capetonians must do, I thought, I went for a “shower” in the sea.
The water was beautifully temperate, the scenery unbeatable. The sun was setting in the distance in a perfectly blue sky and the Mountain squatted comfortably on the horizon. A herd of kids enjoyed the waves and their surfing lessons while their moms lined the beach, chatting.
I expertly ducked the first wave. I gulped a mouthful of salt water as the second one slightly dunked me, but the third – a massive wall of water of over 2 feet high, I kid you not – rolled me out onto the beach and dumped me at the feet of surfing moms who didn’t even bother to hide their little sniggers.
Back at the B&B, I snuck in through the back yard-gate, trying to avoid The Landlord, who was lazily watering his lawn in the setting sun, while quietly whistling the tune from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly past his half-smoked cigarette. (Can’t he at least try to avoid the clichés, I thought).
“They [the City of Cape Town] just announced regulations for borehole usage,” he spat at me, after trapping me in a corner. “It is MY water. I’ll be damned if I let my business go down because of someone else’s incompetence [to manage water]!”
On the plane back to Joburg, I had a pencil stuck deep in my ear, trying to reach a stubborn clump of sea sand that I have had an ongoing wrestling match with for the previous couple of days. At first, I did not hear the woman’s voice, but I caught it in the echo.“The drought is just terrible, don’t you think?” she said, sipping on her bottle of Valpré. I tuned out her monologue after about 15 minutes, more interested in listening to the sound of the ocean stuck inside my ear.
Yes, I thought, the drought in Cape Town is terrible. But it is also ironically beautiful. It gets politicians talking, scientists thinking, the media writing and the consumer at least thinking of saving. Throughout my stay, I saw a number of trucks carrying rainwater containers and delivering them to houses.
There have been serious droughts in provinces like Limpopo and the North West for the past 10 years, but, because they aren’t global tourism destinations, there has never been a “Day Zero” for them.
Also, nobody really owns water. People believe water is their personal property but no-one wants to take responsibility for it. No one takes ownership of taking care of water while we’ve got enough of it, but everyone will guard to the death what they believe is their share, if there is a shortage.
Cape Town demonstrates the new normal that we are going to have to get used to. Water has been a serious issue for South Africa for a long time, and it is going to get worse. We need to think much more carefully about how we treat water and deal with water issues – including sanitation.
Water – and the situation in Cape Town – is not a joke. But it is the start of a hopefully enduring conversation.
As a sustainability researcher once told me: “Everybody likes a good drought!”
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
WASH - a pipeline to saving lives
- Duschanka Hitzeroth
Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of sickness and death in children under five in South Africa.
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions could significantly reduce these deaths.
Globally, one in 10 deaths in children under the age of five years results from diarrhoea. In South Africa, it’s about one in five children. Research shows that diarrhoea is closely linked to socioeconomic status and has the most adverse effects in South Africa’s impoverished communities.
South African children living in poverty are approximately 10 times more likely to die from diarrhoea than their more privileged counterparts. The 2010 General Household Survey (a nationally representative inquiry into the livelihood of South Africans) showed that there were over 60 000 cases of childhood diarrhoea per month, and approximately 9 000 child diarrhoeal deaths in the same year.
Researchers at PRICELESS SA in the Wits School of Public Health investigate how to prioritise South Africa’s resources to improve public health, including addressing the high prevalence of diarrhoea. PRICELESS SA is the Priority Cost Effective Lessons for Systems Strengthening South Africa.
“Although diarrhoeal morbidity and mortality cannot be solely resolved through health systems interventions, approximately five million cases of diarrhoea can be averted by 2030 if both health system and other structural interventions are scaled up to full coverage,” says Professor Karen Hofman, Director of PRICELESS SA.
Research by PRICELESS SA emphasises the essential requisite for viable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions. Dr Lumbwe Chola is lead author of a paper exploring the costs and effects of interventions to treat and prevent diarrhoea in children under five in South Africa.
“The provision of WASH interventions, such as water connection in the home, a better quality water source, improved sanitation, hand washing with soap, and the hygienic disposal of children’s stools will prevent more than 50% of the diarrhoeal deaths,” says Chola, but points out that more than 90% of the total costs are related to infrastructure to provide safe water and adequate sanitation to millions of poor South African households.
Although South Africa has achieved some of the Sustainable Development Goals related to water and sanitation (90% of South Africans now have access to a clean public water source and over 70% use a latrine or toilet), approximately six million households (46%) remain without access to piped water in their homes and 1.4 million households (11%) still lack access to sanitation services.
Challenges to uniformly implement home water connections and improve sanitation across provinces remain. In the Eastern Cape, the number of children with access to sanitation services has tripled to 82% since 2002, but in Limpopo only 50% of children have basic sanitation.
Income and wealth also play a significant role. For example, in 2015 close to 50% of South Africa's poorest children lived in a household with water on site compared to 96% in the richest quintile.
PRICELESS SA used UNICEF’s LiST – the Lives Saved Tool – to show the potential number of lives that could be saved and the marginal cost of doing so. The Lives Saved Tool is software that estimates the survival of mothers and children.
All 13 interventions to prevent diarrhoeal deaths range between an extra R90 and R180 per capita while the WASH interventions would require an additional investment ranging from R80 to R150 per capita, per year.
Chola says, “All these estimated intervention costs can potentially guide policy and budget planning. Considering South Africa’s health budget [R205.4bn for 2018/19], the cost of scaling up all 13 interventions should be within arm’s reach.”
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Using the court to secure water rights
- Zeenat Sujee
Access to sufficient water is a human right but failures of government often compel people to access this through law.
Water is a basic necessity yet thousands of South Africans are living without water. There may be many different reasons for this water scarcity including climate change and droughts, but often it is due to failures of government.
Despite the scarcity of water, Section 27 of the Constitution of South Africa gives everyone the right to access sufficient water. The Water Services Act prescribes 25 litres per person per day as a minimum standard of basic water supply services (or 6 kilolitres per household per month), at a minimum flow rate of not less than 10 litres per minute, within 200 meters of a household and without interruption of supply for more than seven full days per annum.
The Constitutional Court emphasised the state’s obligations to fulfill the right to access water. In its judgment on a case brought by Lindiwe Mazibuko against the City of Johannesburg, the Court stated: “At the time the Constitution was adopted, millions of South Africans did not have access to the basic necessities of life, including water. The purpose of the constitutional entrenchment of social and economic rights was thus to ensure that the state continues to take reasonable legislative and other measures progressively to achieve the realisation of the rights to the basic necessities of life.”
How much is enough?
The case of Mazibuko concerned a community residing in Phiri, Soweto. The community challenged the free basic water policy. In 2009, the Constitutional Court dismissed the application, ruling that the requested 50 litres per person per day was not reasonable. The ruling was widely criticised for the Court failing to consider the needs of the community. This case did not deal directly with access to water, but rather with the quantity of water.
Governance acid test
Access to water was the focus in the case of the Federation for Sustainable Development against the Minister of Water and Sanitation. The community residing in Siobela, Caropark, Carolina in Mpumalanga had no access to potable water due to acid mine drainage. The municipality installed JoJo tanks to supply the community with drinking water, but failed to refill the tanks. The communities were left with no option but to walk long distances to access potable water.
In this case, the Court ruled that the municipality must act urgently to remedy the violation and ordered that, on an interim basis, the municipality provide potable water to the community and, in the longer term, report on their plans to provide water supply.
Trickle-down effect of poor governance
The failure of municipalities to provide water, especially in rural areas, has dire consequences. One such case involved five community villages situated at least 30km outside of Marble Hall, Limpopo. The communities stopped receiving water after the municipality shut down a water treatment plant in 2009. The termination of water was unlawful and the community was forced to collect water from a crocodile-infested river, where a child was attacked. Women were violated while collecting water. School children attended school thirsty and with unwashed clothing. Menstruating girls were absent from school.
In 2015, these communities, represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at Wits, approached the High Court for assistance. Through a settlement negotiation, the Court ordered that water be supplied through JoJo tanks as an interim measure. The municipality failed to comply with the court order. Consequently, CALS initiated contempt proceedings.
The second aspect of the application was to deal with the long-term water supply. In August 2017, Judge Hans Fabricius requested that the parties discuss a workable solution. His view was that the community be treated with respect and that the municipality fulfill its constitutional obligations. Again, the parties negotiated and agreed that the municipality would install more JoJo tanks and deliver water every day. It was further agreed that the municipality would supply water through reticulation twice a week. Judge Fabricius agreed to manage the case.
Again the municipality failed to comply. The community approached the High Court for contempt of court and Judge Fabricius requested that the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, intervene. To date, CALS has not received any response from the Minister.
The municipality failed to meet its obligations to supply water in terms of law and it is disappointing that it reacted only once litigation was instituted. Litigation, although not always favoured, is always the last tool – and the only option – for redress when communities have no access to water supply. It is unfortunate that communities must endure a protracted process to secure this basic constitutional right.
Zeenat Sujee is an Attorney in the Basic Services Programme in the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at Wits. She has litigated in the High Courts and Constitutional Court of South Africa, representing communities in cases concerning access to housing, water, sanitation and electricity. She holds an LLB and postgraduate diploma in Human Rights. She researches the intersection of socioeconomic rights and gender.
Diving deeper in a time of dryness
- Ufrieda Ho
Finding ways to explore water and oceans differently requires a new kind of fluidity, the kind proposed by Oceanic Humanities.
There’s a salty distance between the known and the unknown, as if ocean depths have escaped interrogation despite water, the liquid of life, being impossible to ignore.
The Oceanic Humanities is a new research and postgraduate project based in the School of Literature, Language and Media at Wits – headed by Professor Isabel Hofmeyr and funded by the Mellon Foundation.
Hofmeyr says oceans are shouting out to be researched by humanities, rather than just from conventional entry points of marine science and engineering.
“Humanities research on oceans has primarily focused on what happens on the surface of oceans, like the backwards and forwards move of people and cargo. We need to go deeper. The oceans are literally getting closer as sea levels rise and climate catastrophe becomes our reality,” she says.
It is also imperative that we find solutions to the burdens that our waste has on the oceans, which caused the floating plastic island predicament.
The Oceanic Humanities programme is a platform to tackle wide ranging themes – from finding solutions to our water crisis and reversing our environmental devastation, to exploring hydro-colonisation and the politics of sovereignty claims on mineral-rich sea beds exposed by receding polar ice.
“It’s also about slipping under the surface of the ocean to explore things like marine archaeology, or looking at [the impact] of non-human actors like monsoons and cyclones on people and societies. It’s re-thinking human entanglement with oceans,” she says.
Teaching Oceanic Humanities deserves a shake-up too. Hofmeyr is no stranger to challenging conformity in pedagogy. In 2009 she participated in a project by former Wits students Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho. They set out to probe the limits of public lectures, the barriers to learning, and the inherent exclusivity of universities and academia. Hofmeyr delivered a lecture – no different from what she would typically give in a classroom at Wits – to random commuters on their everyday train ride between Park Station and Phomolong in Soweto.
Last year Hofmeyr hosted the workshop Sound on Water at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER). It bought together the diverse expertise of a musician, a musicologist, an engineer, and a social scientist. It was billed as “a workshop exploring ways to think with and through water in radically interdisciplinary ways”.
The keyword is “interdisciplinary” because Oceanic Humanities seeks to grow connections beyond the limitations of an individual’s field. The programme is also founded with strong global south links and emphasises partnerships with Mozambique, Mauritius, India, Jamaica and Barbados.
“It is about learning from each other and [from the] new connections that can change the conversations we are having about our oceans and seas, also our water,” says Hofmeyr.
Talking and thinking water in a time of dryness demands collaboration, creativity and innovation. Taking a deep breath and plunging into the murky depths is an invitation to find the clues to make ‘human’ more resilient, more adaptive, and more respectful of one of our most precious resources.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
(GRACE) unleashes Earth’s water potential
- Refilwe Mabula
Satellite data helps to track changes in groundwater storage.
A researcher in Wits Geosciences is using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites to explore the potential of groundwater as a supplement to municipal water supplies.
Research by Khuliso Masindi, an Associate Lecturer and PhD candidate in the School of Geosciences, evaluates and monitors water resources in the Vaal River Basin. This region covers approximately 198 000 square kilometres and straddles the Gauteng, North West, Free State, Mpumalanga and Kwazulu-Natal provinces.
Masindi is using data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites to quantify and track changes in groundwater storage in this region between 2004 and 2014. The GRACE satellites measure the gravity in the Earth to estimate the quantity of water in the ground.
“A measurement of stronger gravity in the Earth suggests a large volume of water is available, while a weak gravity signal indicates less water,” says Masindi.
GRACE is innovative due to its ability to detect miniscule gravity field variations, says Masindi, which is about 1% of the Earth’s total gravitational field. This variation enables the provision of information that was previously unobtainable.
“This 1% is attributed to changes in the mass of the water on and below the Earth surface as a result of seasonal changes and climate changes. GRACE satellites provide a unique opportunity to monitor mass movements associated with continental waters in data-scarce regions such as Africa, which improves prediction of hydrological models and better water management,” he says.
The GRACE twin satellites fly at about 220km apart in a polar orbit altitude of approximately 500km. The measurement principle of GRACE satellites is based on accurately measuring the changing separation distance between the two satellites as they encounter strong gravitational pull. The twin satellites are mounted with GPS and microwave ranging systems to precisely measure the position and distance between the satellites.
Aside from its advantage of monitoring water storage changes and estimating groundwater storage, GRACE is also the only technology to estimate mass changes caused by continental waters.
“It is cost effective and covers large areas,” says Masindi, who hopes to use his research to better understand the hydrological system and develop water management strategies for the Vaal River Basin.
Although the agricultural sector and rural population rely on groundwater for water supply, there is a need to develop groundwater to alleviate the pressure on surface waters, particularly in cities.
“Monitoring and calculating changes in groundwater storage is a prerequisite for water management, which is key in sustaining livelihoods and economic growth,” says Masindi.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Whose water is it anyway?
- Refilwe Mabula
South Africa’s hydrocolonisation of Lesotho.
Water security in Gauteng relies on an apartheid-era treaty that forces Lesotho to provide water to South Africa, despite climate change threatening Lesotho’s ability to deliver.
Lesotho is a country blessed with an abundance of water. Consequently, in 1986, the South African apartheid government and the government of Lesotho signed the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) treaty. This agreement stipulates that Lesotho supplies South Africa with water in exchange for royalty payments, which Lesotho must use to build dams that generate electricity.
The LHWP is being implemented in four phases: Phase 1 was the construction of the Katse Dam, the Muela Hydropower Plant and the Mohale Dam. Phases 2, 3 and 4 will entail the construction of the Mashai, Tsoelike and Ntoahae reservoirs respectively. Phase 2 is now underway.
Gauteng currently receives the majority of its water supply from the Mashai reservoir (phase I) via the Vaal River. The province’s future water security is heavily reliant on the completion of the latter phases of the project.
How South Africa colonised Lesotho
Research by Clive Vinti, a PhD candidate in Environmental Law, investigates how this treaty has enabled South Africa to take over Lesotho’s water resources. He describes this phenomenon as ‘hydrocolonisation’.
“The term describes the unlawful appropriation and control of water resources of a certain group or community,” says Vinti.
The terms of agreement in the treaty threaten the smaller partner, Lesotho, because the country cannot guarantee an infinite water supply to South Africa due to the impact of climate change on Lesotho’s riverbanks.
“In the agreement, Lesotho has to supply South Africa with predetermined amounts of water. There can be no deviation in the agreement of the provision of water. You cannot impair the terms of the contract. Even though we have reached an agreement with Lesotho to give us water, there is a possibility that – with climate change – there is going to be less water available in the Orange River,” says Vinti.
Murky legal entanglement
Despite the treaty, Lesotho gives preference to its domestic water needs before delivering water to its neighbour. Section 5 of the 2008 Lesotho Water Act prioritises domestic use of water over any other use. Section 6 states that, in cases of a declaration of a water emergency, the Minister of Water ‘may direct that any persons who have a supply of water in excess of domestic water make available such quantity to other uses as the Minister may specify’.
“What will happen the day Lesotho cannot meet its water commitments towards South Africa? The day is going to come when Lesotho has to decide whether it gives South Africa the water, or it gives its own citizens the water. Ultimately, this treaty will impede access to water for local citizens of Lesotho,” says Vinti, who argues that the LHWP treaty does not comply with international water law.
Worldwide water principles make waves
In his research, Vinti explores international fresh water law principles, which demand that the allocation of water – even if governed by a treaty – must comply with the principles of 'equitable and reasonable utilisation' and sustainable development. These principles are part of South African law and should inform the interpretation of the LHWP treaty, which, as it stands, is devoid of any international water law principles according to Vinti.
“It is imperative that South Africa and Lesotho amend this agreement to comply with these principles. Both the South African and Lesotho Water Acts are premised on equity, access and fairness,” says Vinti, but access and equity is not guaranteed for Lesotho as it is for South Africa in terms of the treaty, given Lesotho’s legal predicament.
According to Vinti, South Africa has colonised Lesotho’s water. “The way the agreement operates is simply colonisation of Lesotho’s water resources. Lesotho has no bargaining power.”
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Bulawayo’s water wars
- Refilwe Mabula
The history of water inequality in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, shows that the colonisation of land cannot be separated from the colonisation of water.
The settlement of white colonisers in the Global South robbed Africans of their most precious resources. The occupation of land gave rise to a huge loss of material resources for most black people, as they were moved to water scarce areas and their livelihoods threatened.
So says Professor Mucha Musemwa, an environmental historian in the School of Social Sciences at Wits. “The colonisation of water began with land occupation. Land colonisation is synonymous with the colonisation of water. The two are inseparable,” he says.
When Cecil John Rhodes and the British South Africa Company (BSAC) established the colonial state of southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1890, the initial intention was to find gold. The colonialists imagined that the rich seams of this mineral extended well beyond the Rand goldfields. They were disappointed, however, as Zimbabwe did not have that much gold.
“They never found as much gold as they wanted and they could not turn back. They decided that the land was so good, the climate was so good, and the area that Africans occupied was the main watershed and had the richest soils, good for agriculture.”
White settlers turned to agriculture and, with the help of the colonial administration, seized most of the fertile lands occupied by Africans. Most of these lands lay on Zimbabwe’s main watershed belt.
With this new discovery – with significant economic and social benefits for the white settlers – Africans were forcibly removed from areas with good rainfall and relocated to areas such as Gwayi and Shangani, which were arid and inhabitable. The Land Apportionment Act of 1930 further systematically banished Africans from fertile land with good water sources and rainfall.
“Land and water were the twin assets at the centre of colonial capitalist development,” says Musemwa.
The colonialists settling in Africa hugely influenced the continent’s water supply and governance. Race, class, and spatial segregation regularly determined water supply and access. Musemwa, whose research focuses on urban water history, explores these inequalities in his book, Water, History and Politics in Zimbabwe: Bulawayo’s Struggles with the Environment, 1894-2008, through a comparative case study of white Bulawayo and the African township of Makokoba.
Drought aggravates inequality
Bulawayo was established in 1894 for white settlement and industrial development. Makokoba, under white colonial rule, followed a different development trajectory, with scant water resources for domestic consumption and productive use compared to white Bulawayo, says Musemwa.
Historically, Bulawayo was a water-scarce city. This was aggravated by a series of extreme droughts that hit the city and the wider Matabeleland province from 1894 onwards. The simultaneous influx of mostly British settlers and the development of secondary industry resulted in the exponential rise of water consumption in the city.
In response to the growing need for water, the colonial state built more dams to accommodate the influx of settlers. However, these dams only benefitted white Bulawayo and not Makokoba.
“When the dams were built, there was almost guaranteed water supply to the white city of Bulawayo. The state now had to decide who got water and how much. Obviously, white rate payers got the bigger allocation of water, and not Africans,” says Musemwa.
While water scarcity for the white population arose because of climate change, for Africans in Makokoba water scarcity was the result of power exercised by colonialists through racial and spatial segregation.
“Political and economic power concentrated in the hands of the white settler state officially shaped the distribution of water supplies to Makokoba,” says Musemwa, adding that water colonisation, its governance, and inequitable distribution during the colonial period is not unique to Bulawayo – it was replicated in other Zimbabwean cities and other colonised southern African countries.
A century later and issues around land redistribution are gaining traction in South Africa. Water resource distribution and management issues should be central to the debate, says Musemwa. Despite decades of independence from colonial and apartheid rule in southern Africa, access to water still needs to be decolonised, as it still reflects traces of the colonial water governance framework.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
A WATERSHED in arts and science
- Deborah Minors
WATERSHED is a programme that enmeshes the arts and science to provoke new thinking about water.
What does a polluted river sound like? How does sand-filtered water taste? Will acid mine drainage scald your skin? Do oceans echo?
If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a noise? This philosophical question about a natural phenomenon reflects how disciplines can merge. Similarly, acoustic ecologists map environmental sounds. Take that forest, for example. What is the impact on a local ecology if you remove not all the trees, but only a few?
“Bernie Krause recorded the sounds of a forest continually for a year. After a year there were massive changes in the biodiversity. We tend to privilege the visual over audio, but sound is often more sensitive than the visual,” says Lenore Manderson, Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology at Wits and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES), Brown University, USA.
“Shifting our perceptual field away from the visual and attending to the aural [listening] environment deepens our understanding of planetary ecology,” writes Manderson in a paper entitled Rumble filter: Sonic environments and points of listening (2017).
“What does a river sound like? What does a polluted river sound like? It’s actually quite noisy,” says Manderson. The point is that the absence of visual evidence doesn’t mean there isn’t any impact.
And so it is with water.
wa’tershĕd
(waw-) n. 1. line of separation between waters flowing to different rivers or basins or seas. 2. (fig.) turning-point e.g. in history.
Since April 2015 Manderson has organised an art-science programme, Earth, Itself, through IBES. The aim is to facilitate conversations and build collaborations across creative arts practice and theory, the humanities, and the social, natural and physical sciences.
At Brown, Manderson drew on the elements earth, air, fire, and water and aligned each element with an art practice and research component. Thinking the Earth featured dancers who performed on a sprung dance floor covered with wet clay to demonstrate impact. Air was coupled with music and sound to produce Atmospheres; fire with ceramics and glass blowing to forge What fire does; and water and ice with text to transcribe Water’s edge.
Now Manderson has brought the programme to Wits where it will manifest as WATERSHED: Art, Science and Elemental Politics. This research-enmeshed celebration of water will run from 10 to 21 September 2018 and will include interactive art installations, engineering and scientific displays, and academic symposia across disciplines and faculties highlighting water on the continental divide.
“The artwork is about getting people working outside the academy to engage with water in a way that they haven’t before. If you’re a dancer, for example, you may never go to a seminar by an earth scientist on palaeogeology, but finding ways to bring together artists and scientists opens up how you understand the world and what you understand to be the issues,” says Manderson.
As at IBES with Water’s edge, collaboration across disciplines defines WATERSHED at Wits. Several artists participating in WATERSHED are visiting fellows in the digital arts, fine arts, and theatre and performance in the School of Arts at Wits.
"The conceiving of the Watershed: Art, Science and Elemental Politics project and its precursors have always understood artists to be central to the ways in which knowledge production and enquiry takes place. This intersects with the University's commitment to artistic research, the Wits School of Arts' leading role in deepening understandings in and around artistic research, and the ways in which newly imagined futures are generated through inter- and cross-disciplinary practices,” says Associate Professor David Andrew, Head of the Division of Visual Arts at Wits.
The Chamber of Mines and the Atrium of Echoes
Any Witsie who has ventured beyond the Unknown Miner into the Chamber of Mines building knows that the Atrium within resonates with eerie acoustics. Atul Bhalla from Shiv Nadar University in India is a visiting fellow in Visual Arts at Wits. His installation You always step into the same river: Looking for lost water (Explorations at the Cradle) will take place in the Atrium.
Bhalla has been involved in projects which highlight the use/misuse of water as well as its religious and mythical significance in his hometown of New Delhi. His work for WATERSHED will examine water as a repository of history, meaning and myth within the context of Johannesburg gold mining, taking references of land and water relations from historical (oral and non-oral) contexts.
“I’ll also attempt to explore how people live and survive in and around the dumps, developing local language/s and words for operations and acts that may not have existed pre-mining days. I intend to use Zulu as the language of communication within the work,” says Bhalla.
“If you see pictures of people up to their necks in water, it kind of makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable. Or if you see people fighting for water, that’s also a very uncomfortable image. So this is where the arts have the influence that engineering doesn’t. But we’re also using the engineering space to influence the societal space,” says Sheridan, adding that art and science exert influence differently because the value systems of artists and engineers differ.
As a process engineer who “sees systems” (which always work in complexity), Sheridan believes enmeshed research – “not just interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary” – is key to water management in future.
“I like the idea of having engineers show their little waste water management rigs to people, and to have artists in the same space saying, ‘look at these photographs’. We’re all responding to the same thing in the ways that we know, using our own internal value systems, and what we start to see is each other’s value systems.”
Walking forests, building water
Sheridan’s future collaboration with Lucia Monge, a Peruvian artist now based at the Rhode Island School of Design in Rhode Island, USA, demonstrates enmeshed research. Monge will be based at CiWaRD for WATERSHED where she will present a photographic and sound installation, Mi niño, your dry spell, their waterfall in the Origins Centre.
“Maps and tools will be my vehicles to explore difference and interconnectedness on water issues,” says Monge, who previously used people as vehicles for plants. Since 2010 she has organised ‘walking forest’ performances in Peru, the UK and USA, where people carry plants across the city in peaceful protest, culminating in a ‘plant in’.
How heavy metal sounds in a river
Brian House from Brown, and a Visiting Fellow in Digital Arts at Wits, works on enmeshing nature in the ditigal realm. His work Heavy Metal: Digital conversations on water and mines will coincide with the annual Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival curated by Wits Digital Arts and will take place in the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct.
House will create a digital artistic rendition of the heavy metals found in waterways, converting real-time recordings of these metals in the water into digital sounds. The metal sheets of copper, lead, aluminum, and iron, vibrate like data-driven musical fountains. House originally created this installation based on heavy metals polluting the Animas River in his hometown of Colorado.
“I am interested in how similar ensembles of geology, industrial history, and current dynamics resulting from ecological instability are present all over the world and interrelated. Having made a piece that's local to me, the chance to work in South Africa in unfamiliar environs will be very productive,” says House.
Manderson says the artists are all in one way or the other engaging with water. “They stimulate new ways of thinking about the issues. By people getting together from very different fields, and interacting across different academic disciplines, we begin to play with how we understand the environment, water security, and governance, identify priorities, and determine where the research might go.”
And that might be in the direction of how forests think, if fire dances, how thunder tastes and if that tree falling solo makes a sound.
Water futures
WATERSHED will include a scholarly programme comprising symposia and student presentations.
Under the surface: justice and politics will include panellists from the Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry who will engage on topics related to water governance and acid mine drainage.
On the watershed: urban histories of water is a seminar that will focus on the watershed of the Vaal and Limpopo rivers. Academics from the Wits City Institute will interrogate the region’s history (post) colonial geographies, swimming pools, baths, and guerilla gardens.
Action on water: Climate justice and people’s charters will explore activism as a way to address social inequities that distort access to water.
Water futures: digital imaginations is a symposium that will focus on modelling future environments in relation to water insecurity and threats. Here panellists will address the use of big data and digitally generated visuals in assisting water policy development.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
A People’s Water Charter for South Africa
- Vishwas Satgar
A social sciences course on Empire and the Crisis of Civilisation contextualises water, food and climate crises as systemic and demanding activist solutions.
Climate science has confirmed a heating planet linked to a global system addicted to fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. There has been a one-degree increase in planetary temperature since before the industrial revolution (1760-1840), now fast approaching a 1.5 degree increase, based on various climate models. Climate shocks have begun registering through extreme weather changes.
South Africa’s drought is happening in the context of this shift. Parts of our food system – such as the production of maize – have collapsed, resulting in an escalation of food prices (particularly of staple foods), and further exacerbating hunger.
Systemic problems require systemic solutions. This prompted my research into systemic alternatives that could advance a deep and just transition to sustain life. These alternatives include a focus on socially owned renewable energy, water sovereignty, food sovereignty pathways, and solidarity economies.
The Climate Crisis: South African and Global Democratic Eco-Socialist Alternatives (2018) profiles some of these ideas, while Climate Food, a book in progress, explores the intersection of climate shocks, food sovereignty systems, and water commoning.
The South African Food Sovereignty Campaign (SAFSC) comprises organisations engaged with the agrarian sector, climate justice, food justice, and solidarity economy. Formed out of a Right to Food conference in 2014, the SAFSC translates and substantiates a South African approach to food sovereignty.
SAFSC has taken the country’s drought very seriously. Through its hunger tribunal, drought speak-outs, bread marches, food sovereignty festivals, water sovereignty dialogues, and activist schools, the campaign advances an alternative perspective on the need for a food sovereign system – one built through democratic systemic reform and driven by citizens.
Within this context, three tools systemically address water and water solutions: A People’s Food Sovereignty Act; the Building People’s Power for Water Sovereignty activist guide; and a process to formulate, through bottom-up dialogue, a People’s Water Charter for South Africa.
These tools were shared recently with Parliament, frontline water crisis organisations, and some water-stressed communities in the Western Cape. The People’s Water Charter will evolve through dialogue and will be launched at a People’s Assembly in 2019.
Vishwas Satgar is an Associate Professor in International Relations at Wits. He edits the Democratic Marxism book series, for which the World Association of Political Economy gave him a Distinguished Contribution Award. Satgar has been an activist for more than three decades. He is currently co-designing a food sovereignty space for food-insecure Wits students in order to advance an eco-centric University.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Hunting aliens from space
- Shaun Smillie
Wits researchers are using high-tech imagery and biological agents to save our water resources and economy from invasive alien plants.
Lerato Molekoa scans satellite images from high-definition cameras and sensors orbiting Earth. She is hunting for aliens. Not little green men with three fingers. Molekoa, an MSc student in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES) at Wits, is hunting for alien vegetation here on Earth. She calibrates the satellite data to detect subtle light changes reflected in the leaves of salt cedar trees. This helps identify alien plants that are using our water.
Molekoa is trying to work out the distribution of three different species of salt cedar trees. One of the trees, Tamarix usneoides, is indigenous while two other close relatives are exotics. The problem is that, up until now, only genetic analysis of the three different species can differentiate them.
Alien invasion
Mining houses use all three species to rehabilitate mines by removing contaminants from the soil and water – a process called phytoremediation. Salt cedar trees planted in paddocks at the base of storage dams leech sulphates and heavy metals from the water, and are important to combat acid mine drainage.
“The mines have been using the alien species, which we are not happy about,” says Professor Marcus Byrne from APES. “Then we got drawn into finding out how to identify an alien species and what is not.”
The two exotic types of salt cedar are invasive alien species, which severely affect South Africa’s water resources by consuming ±4% of the annual mean water runoff.
“This is the water that makes its way off the land into rivers and dams, for our use, and instead it is used up by invasive species,” says Byrne.
Invasive species also influence the economy, with an estimated annual cost of around R6.5 billion in 2007.
A further problem specific to the genus Tamarix is that the exotic species interbred with the local species, resulting in hybrids. This reduces the local biodiversity by diluting the genetic integrity of the native species.
“We knew we had these three species, but we didn't know how to identify them until we did the genetics,” says Byrne. Working out the distribution of the three species would be harder work without satellite imagery.
“DNA is very expensive and time consuming, but with satellites you can basically tell the image to go and find where the species is located within a certain region,” says Molekoa, who downloads satellite images free and then uses software to set search parameters to find the colour signature of the trees within the image.
The jury’s still out whether it is the exotics or the local species of Tamarix that are best at phytoremediation. Sipho Mbonani, an MSc student in APES, believes it is the local species.
“I remember going into the field to look at phytoremediation and we noticed that there were indigenous and alien plants together, and we could tell the aliens by the way their leaves were yellowish in colour. So I don’t think they are doing so well,” says Mbonani.
Put a bug in it
The next step to control alien species is to introduce insects as biocontrol agents. The search is on for an insect that eats only the exotic and not the local species. Satellite data also help scientists fight invasive aquatic species like water hyacinths, which choke waterways across Africa.
“A blanket of water hyacinth across a water body blocks out light and oxygen, and uses water. Consequently, the whole nature of the water system changes, and many native animals and plants disappear from that system,” says Byrne.
Eight biocontrol agents have been introduced to control water hyacinth, but no one knows how effective these agents are and how local conditions influence their lifecycles and efficacy.
Water pollution, for example, affects one of these agents, the water hyacinth weevil, Neochetina eichorniae. Jeanne D’Arc Mukarugwiro, a PhD student in APES, uses satellites to monitor the extent and movement of water hyacinth, and the wellbeing of the water hyacinth weevils in rivers with high turbidity, in Rwanda. Turbidity is the cloudiness of a fluid. High turbidity results from the suspension of tiny soil particles in water, which might affect weevils living on the plants.
Scientists theorise that the high concentration of particles suspended in the water suffocates the weevil in its underwater pupal state. Further research is required to establish if the weevil faces the same problem in South Africa. Byrne points out that, despite the effectiveness of biocontrol agents (because insects don’t make mistakes), only 2% of South Africa’s weed control budget is allocated to research in this field.
The water hyacinth might have the upper hand over its biological control agents currently, but the poster-child of biological control in South Africa is Stenopelmus rufinasus, the frond-feeding weevil that eradicated red water fern.
Death by mail
In the 1940s, the red water fern came from South America, just like the water hyacinth. By the 1980s, red water fern had become a widespread problem. Wits University, the Agricultural Research Council, and Rhodes University collaborated to find a solution. By 1997, they had found the bug that they thought would do the business.
Death came to the red water fern via the post.
Farmers who suspected a red water fern infestation sent a photograph to the researchers. On confirmation of red water fern, the scientists posted a polystyrene box containing the weevil.
“We would tell them to open the box and just throw it in the dam, and in six months it will be gone, and we promised if it was not gone, we would come and clear it from them. It worked every single time,” says Byrne, of what is considered one of the world’s most successful biological control programmes.
Back then, the postal service helped eliminate one invasive species that threatened South Africa’s water systems. Now, with the help of satellites and their software, the fight has become high-tech.
“My dream one day is that we have such fine resolution that we will be able to tell from the satellite photo whether the plant has biocontrol agents or not.”
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Washing away our heritage
- Kerishni Naidoo
The effect of water on rock art is a major concern, particularly due to climate change.
Droughts, floods and the building of new dams are all threats to South Africa’s heritage of rock art – some of which is over 4 000 years old.
Our ancestors might have glazed their rock art with egg white, created brushes from acacia trees and sought pigment from blood, or clay to paint memories, stories and objects of their lives and love.
Much of our rock art is undiscovered, and most of it is unprotected as it is under threat – and water is the most common destructor.
Rock art is threatened by a number of sources says Elijah Dumisani Katsetse (MSc) in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies. But water, dampness and moisture has always been the enemy of preserving art, just ask the curators of the Louvre museum.
Katsetse’s masters’ research papers have investigated the Impact of Water on Rock Art and solutions, in his subsequent writing, A conservation model for rock art in South Africa: A management perspective.
“The evolution of humanity has placed value on artefacts and preserving heritage and developing techniques to do this. Think of your favourite coffee mug. If you are attached to it but it falls and breaks, you would glue it so that you still have the mug with you, in some form. That’s the whole notion of conservation,” says Katsetse.
Unlike a coffee mug however, rock art goes back to ancient times, where San beliefs about sacred animals which inspired rain, stories of life of old Sotho civilisations and Khoi self-portraits were captured, often in secret, hidden spaces.
Katsetse says some of his favourite rock art is in the Game Pass area of KwaZulu-Natal.
“Over time, they will disappear. We don’t even know the size or extent of the art there. They are from 2 000 or 4 000 years ago… different motifs, eland, Anthromorphs.”
The effect of water on rock art is a major concern, particularly due to climate change. “It is a natural element, which means that water varies from place to place. Climate has an effect on the rate of deterioration. With evaporation and condensation over time, water accelerates the rate of decay. We found that guano of birds, when mixed with dust and water, is causing mineral dissolution and deterioration in the Western Cape,” said Katsetse.
Last year, a report by the Wits Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) investigated the removal of rock art affected by the rising of the Clanwilliam dam wall in the Western Cape. While that dam is severely affected by drought, its expansion once threatened Cape heritage. The South African Department of Water and Sanitation built a higher wall at the dam which would have flooded 27 rock art sites. The provincial heritage agency approved the removal of three pieces of rock art in April and May 2016. Removal is one method of conserving the art.
Since then, the drought in that province has not helped with art preservation. Along with wind, wildfires and drier conditions, rock art could be adversely affected by salt deposits from evaporation.
Professor David Pearce at RARI says dams are problematic when at capacity, and can literally wash the art away. “We also have a lot of sandstone that is permeable by water, which can destroy the entire rock. But water can assist in some ways too. Mineral deposits from water can act as a sheen and protect rock art by adding a layer of minerals like calcium oxalate.”
But Katsetse says while water is a major risk to destroying rock art, he has compared conservation practices in South Africa to that in Australia, America, and Egypt and found another issue.
Katsetse found in South Africa, that there is a lack of conservation intervention planning and research is not directed towards developing conservation treatments or measures that are specific to our climate. Then there are traditional beliefs which come into play, including that only those who have undergone initiation practices can visit some sites.
“We have to draw knowledge from past ways of life and rock art offers a window into the past. We need to preserve this art and access our past, in their context, which means preserving them in their original context,” he says.
“One of the ways to conserve art is to engage with the community and to share the significance of rock art with them. At the same time, we must establish good relationships so whatever systems and methods of conservation we use, the community is educated – and they can educate us too – to create strategies to preserve the material of the past.”
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
The heat of acid mine drainage
- Delia du Toit
Mining is a key contributor to South Africa’s economic development but its effect on the environment could spell disaster.
After a rainstorm hit the area around Carolina, Mpumalanga, early in 2012, emergency notices appeared all over town informing its 23 000 residents that the water had suddenly become unsafe for drinking, cooking and even washing clothes.
The pH level of the water was dangerously acidic at 3.7 and the concentrations of iron, aluminium, manganese and sulphate were above acceptable limits. The standard chlorination and sediment removal treatments were proving inadequate to solve the problem. The Boesmanspruit Dam, which supplies the town’s water, had also turned dark green in colour and fish in the spruit and dam were dying.
After much investigation, the probable cause was determined: Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) from coal mining activity in the area. The town was without piped water for seven months.
Terence McCarthy, Emeritus Professor of Mineral Geochemistry in the School of Geosciences, and Dr Marc Humphries, an Environmental Geochemist in the School of Chemistry at Wits were part of the team that investigated the Carolina disaster. McCarthy believes AMD could be the cause of a future catastrophe in South Africa and, while Carolina was a stark and sudden example of the devastating effects of AMD on the environment, it is not the only case. AMD is happening everywhere there is mining activity – albeit slowly.
“The water in the Middelburg Dam is already undrinkable and I believe that the Grootdraai Dam near Standerton, which is in the Vaal River system, could follow suit,” says McCarthy.
The Vaal River supplies not only Gauteng but also many towns downsteam, including Bloemhof, Welkom, Kimberley and Postmasburg. The major culprits are the coal and gold mines, and because of their location in the upper portions of the Vaal River catchment, their footprint on the water supply is huge.
Aside from metal and acid pollution, the major problem is the increase in dissolved salts into the Vaal River. In order to keep the salt load at tolerable levels, the Department of Water and Sanitation is obliged to release water from upstream dams into the Vaal system to dilute the pollution, thereby effectively wasting water.
AMD occurs when water reacts with pyrite (‘fool’s gold’) in mining cavities beneath the Earth’s surface. The water becomes acidic and rich in iron, lead and other heavy metals – a combination that is toxic to living organisms. This water then joins the ground water system, sterilises the soil, and eventually flows into streams and rivers where it could join the drinking water supply system. Currently, plans and methods to tackle the problem are woefully inadequate and those that work cost a fortune.
Reverse osmosis, which entails pumping water through a membrane punctured with microscopic holes that allows water through but keeps metals behind, is already in use at the eMalahleni Treatment Plant in Mpumalanga. The end-product, however, costs five times the price of natural water, because of the extensive energy used in the process, says McCarthy.
“Currently, the standard treatment for AMD is to aerate the water to oxidise the iron and add lime to bring the pH up. The iron then precipitates out – and most heavy metals along with it – in a deep red colour. After that settles, the waste is dumped on old mine dumps – the reason some will have red tops.” However, the water still has high sulphate content. “Although it’s not particularly poisonous, it’s above the World Health Organization’s recommended limit and so remains undrinkable,” says McCarthy.
Another option is to dilute or flush the water using water from clean systems (the eventual solution at Carolina) but this is a massive waste of a precious commodity in a dry country like South Africa. Similarly, wetlands act as natural purifiers, but flushing large quantities of polluted water through these systems destroys them.
Khuliso Masindi, a PhD student in Hydrogeology at Wits encountered AMD in the Witwatersrand area while monitoring ground water in 2012. “The water would be orange or yellow because of the oxidation of sulphites from the mines, and would have a pH of 2 or 3, and that then flowed into streams. Methods can be used to limit AMD at new mines, but the old tunnels always remain,” says Masindi, who believes the AMD problem is virtually insurmountable.
And despite the substantial rainfall in Gauteng and Mpumalanga in the last few years, which helped flush the problem, McCarthy fears dark days lie ahead: “The problem will intensify when that (rainfall) changes. The next drought will be trouble.”
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Big Bang, water, life
- Simon Gear
Column: We have had some tyrants in our time but not until the last century or so have we ever come up with the idea of taking a dump in our own drinking water.
We are the product of an infinite number of existences. We have evolved in a Universe that happened to have just the right balance of Newtonian and quantum forces to not fly apart or collapse. There have likely been billions of Universes that have blown apart, until one day when a Universe Big Banged and happened to be just right to support life.
We live in a Universe where all the physical laws are set just right for it to be able to last the tens of billions of years necessary for interesting stuff to happen. In addition to all that, there is one other quirk of our Universe that makes life possible. Our Universe contains water.
The water molecule has a range of weird qualities. It is shaped like one of those odd, chopper tricycles we rode as kids – two small electro-positive hydrogen atoms at the back, and a big old electro-negative oxygen atom at the front. This gives it some interesting characteristics.
For a start, it allows water to be the universal solvent. Without that, life is stopped in the starting blocks. It also allows water to have a relatively narrow, three-state space, which is why it is the only substance that we observe as a gas, liquid and solid in our daily lives. Not only that, when it freezes, it should become denser and sink. But because of the crystalline structure it forms, it lightens up, so ice floats. Without this property, fairly early on in Earth’s history, the oceans would have frozen from the bottom up and none of us would have ever happened.
So here we are at the transect of three of the most amazing flukes in all of space-time: Physical laws that allow all of this to happen; a molecule that makes life within our little corner of the Universe unbelievably sublime; and finally, through a multi-billion-year process, the organisation of countless other little molecules into sacks of stardust that can actually think for themselves (that’s us).
We are the Universe’s chance to know itself. Or, if you are from the artier parts of Braamfontein Campus East, we are the eyes through which God surveys his creation. And how do we deal with this magical moment? We take great care to clean the most astonishing life-giving stuff that ever existed, turn it into the most gorgeous of elixirs, and defecate daily in it.
This is not necessarily illogical but may prove that we are not the main drivers in our own evolution, or indeed, the Universe’s greatest achievement. Rather, this may show that the world and everything around us, is controlled by our gut bacteria – or, as my Dad (one of the many Gear family Wits alumni) loves to point out, “The chicken is the egg’s means of reproducing itself”.
Certainly, the bacteria that live within us play a vastly more complex role in our lives than is currently recognised. Despite the obvious things like balancing our digestive regime, they have been proven to influence our mood, our propensity for putting on weight, and even our food cravings. Is that really who we are? Mammalian vessels for a bacterial joyride? Perhaps. But I say let’s fight back! Let’s celebrate our roles as observers of the Universe, as Creation’s mind, eyes and ears. We have a responsibility to our partner in this endeavour – the mighty and magnificent, if not truly magical, dihydrogen monoxide.
Unfortunately, we cannot deal with any of this on the cosmic (or even, humiliatingly) the gastric scale, but we can control what is in front of us. I was lucky to work frequently with the world-famous conservationist and environmental statesmen, Dr Ian Player, in the last few years of his life. There is one point he made that has stuck with me for a decade: “At what point,” he mused, “did we just come to accept that you can’t drink river water?” Here we are, on a beautiful, blue-green jewel, suspended, mind-bogglingly many miles from anywhere else useful to our purpose. Our little planet is awash with the one liquid that can make us happen, yet, in familiarity breeds contempt.
It’s time we started to appreciate water, not as an individual cup but as a flow that passes through us and our lives. It should enter our houses from the sky or be piped in as the best drink there ever was. It should circulate through our kitchens, through our showers, and only then, finally, have a pass through our toilets. After that, let it continue on its journey into our gardens or back into the city’s pipes to be cleaned and returned to us again.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
What makes waves in water crises?
- Mike Muller
Column: Water problems are in large measure problems of people and organisation, not problems of engineering.
Since I am a professional engineer and have spent most of my career working in the water sector, people are sometimes puzzled when they learn that I am based at Wits University’s School of Governance.
But I explain that much of the business of managing water happens in the public sector and that many of the problems we face are more the result of poor governance and management than any water shortage.
Consider Cape Town, where the hapless water engineers have politicians from all three spheres of government trying to tell them what to do.
Water problems are in large measure problems of people and organisations, not problems of engineering. The planning and engineering we can do, if only we were allowed to get on with it.
But have some sympathy with the politicians. They face three challenges.
The first is simply that planning, developing and managing water resources for large cities are complex tasks. Second, it often requires coordination between a range of different organisations, which often have no accountability to each other and may not even want to work together. Finally, the process often requires decisions to be taken 10 years or more before the water is actually needed.
On the first count, water is a difficult resource to come to grips with, literally and figuratively. It is required in very large quantities – to meet government’s minimum standards, 6 000 litres of water (that is 6 metric tonnes of water) have to be delivered to each household in the country every month, reliably.
To store, treat and transport such large volumes, large public infrastructure of reservoirs and pipelines are usually needed. Except in coastal cities using expensive desalination, that water is derived from rain, which fills streams and rivers and seeps into underground aquifers [an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock].
Our rainfall varies dramatically and cannot be predicted from one week to the next, let alone from one year to another; the flow in rivers is even more uncertain; the threat of climate change introduces more unknowns. Yet modern societies need a reliable water supply for households and the economy.
To respond, the engineering professions, supported by scientists, climate scientists and statisticians use historic data on rainfall, river flows and underground resources to predict possible water futures. They estimate how much will be available at a given level of reliability – typically, for urban supplies, it should only fall below requirements once in every 50 years. If the likely demand and how it will grow can be estimated (which depends on population and economies, as well as whether people’s water use habits change, and how effectively suppliers manage water losses), then supply options can be identified.
Usually, the recommendation is made on the basis of cost – it makes no sense to adopt an expensive option while cheaper ones are available. So, for Cape Town, over a decade ago it was recommended that a further river diversion be built on the Berg, followed by development of the groundwater of the Table Mountain aquifer and then the construction of plants to reuse some of the wastewater that, after treatment, was just flowing into the sea. That was expected to get the City to 2030.
That brings us to the second problem. Someone must then decide what to do next and how to pay for it. Except in small communities, this involves a range of different organisations which have to come to an agreement about how to proceed. In Cape Town’s case, water comes from well beyond the City’s boundaries.
National government has historically built and connected some of the larger dams on which the City currently depends. But they will not do this unless the City agrees to take the water – and pay for it. And, as it happens, about a third of the water from what they call the Western Cape Water Supply System is used by farmers. The provincial government is responsible for looking after their interests, so all three spheres of government are involved.
How do you get all three sets of organisations – and their often fractious stakeholders – to agree on a programme of action? They all need to have confidence in the technical recommendations but, inevitably, they also have different agendas and interests.
Farmers want more water at lower prices; in Cape Town, many of the better-off citizens object to big infrastructure which, they say, spoils their environment; for good reasons (efficiency) or bad (potential profits) national government actors might prefer to build a dam, which they control, while the municipal officials would rather reclaim wastewater in its own facility.
So there is plenty of scope for disagreement, which leads to the third problem, the time frame. Most politicians think short term, at best from one five-year electoral cycle to the next. But major projects, from planning and design and construction and commissioning, can easily take twice that. This offers little incentive to political actors to take a decision and the temptation to procrastinate is strong.
A century ago, Cape Town was running out of water as demand exceeded the supplies from springs on Table Mountain. “Will it come to this?” asked a Boonzaier cartoon in 1918, showing a queue of (white) people with buckets in front of the City Hall. At the time, the local village councils were dithering about whether to cooperate to build the Steenbras Dam or one at Wemmershoek.
Around 2000, there was a similar argument (and delay) around the building of the Berg River Dam, which is currently saving the City from itself. In 2018, work began on projects that were recommended, 10 years previously, for completion by 2017. And, because it is being done in a rush, costs are far higher than they need to be. Meanwhile, drought restrictions have cut water revenues, adding to the City’s financial burdens.
The Cape Town story illustrates well the conclusion to which water professionals have since arrived: There will be a water crisis unless we change the way we manage our water. My interest is to understand the theoretical issues implicit in that simple statement. At a large scale, I look at approaches to cooperative federal government; at a small scale, at the institutional economics of Nobel Prize laureate, Elinor Ostrom (known for her work in natural resource management and common pool resources), which verges on anthropology. Interesting approaches to ‘network governance’ may help different institutions to work together.
Meanwhile, the technicians increasingly use their complex system models as a framework for discussion to help politicians and other stakeholders understand the issues. The challenge is to turn that theory into practice.
Mike Muller is a Visiting Adjunct Professor in the Wits School of Governance. He is a civil engineer with extensive experience in strategic public and development management. As Director General of the South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (1997-2005), Muller led the development and implementation of new policies, legislation and programmes in water resources and water services. He now undertakes research on the role of water resource development and management in regional integration in Africa.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Parched Cape Town, Johannesburg drowning
- David Olivier and Paulose Mvulane
Water security is a complex challenge. Rain both alleviates drought but causes floods. David Olivier and Paulose Mvulane seek the silver lining.
The irony of storms in the 'Cape of Drought'
By David Olivier
Two meagre millimetres of rain predicted. But in February, Cape Town’s driest month, we were grateful for anything.
Sophie, eight months pregnant, was waiting as I pulled up. We usually go for a short walk on the way home from work. The clouds were gathering, like the past two evenings – each time only to clear again as night fell. But this time a few fat drops plopped onto the clay hiking trail.
A mysterious crackling began emanating from the surrounding scrub. It rose to a low rumble, and a hailstorm began drumming the dusty ground. Sophie squealed as a stone the size of an ice block stung her neck. One cracked me on the head. With a roar the full force of the storm unleashed.
In seconds, the dry narrow path became a churning chocolate river. Sophie sloshed on ahead of me. She had her arms over her head, but the hail mercilessly thrashed her bare calves. A blazing pillar of light impaled the path ahead. Thunder rocked the atmosphere.
We were victims of an extreme weather event. One moment the earth is parched, then suddenly your world is awash. We can expect to see more of this in future.
Extreme, unpredictable weather is characteristic of climate change. Experts at the Western Cape Winter Rainfall Outlook Summit in May 2017 concluded that weather in Cape Town for that year would probably be, “drier ... or normal ... or wetter than normal”. Talk about hedging your bets.
The City of Cape Town municipality has been lambasted for not preparing for their drought. But how does any city prepare for unpredictable weather events? Cities have a hard enough time procuring funds for vital programmes such as providing decent housing. How would they justify the eye-watering cost of a reverse-osmosis plant for the desalination of sea water that is not needed in the long run, but may be required to get the City through a few dry years sometime in future, maybe?
Water security is not a technological problem but one as multifaceted as a crystal chandelier. The ironic beauty of this problem, however, is that it crushes disciplinary silos and forces academics, governments and civil society to work together – something that is bitterly needed, if we are going to adapt to a changing world.
Sophie and I made it to the car. The seats sucked the rainwater from our clothes and smelt musty for days. Driving home, flotsam smeared the steaming roads and the parting clouds revealed a cobalt evening sky. Within minutes, the storm was over. The parched earth had swallowed the shower thirstily. The drought was not nearly broken, but the rain had pushed Day Zero a little further back.
Dr David Olivier is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Global Change Institute. He is currently researching the narratives around the water crisis in Cape Town and how these shape public perception. He earned a PhD in Sociology in 2015, having researched the physical and social benefits of urban agriculture in Cape Town.
Settling yet (d)raining
By Paulose Mvulane
On November 9, 2016, torrential rains washed over Gauteng and led to flash floods that caused large-scale damage, and even deaths, in parts of the Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan areas. This storm was not only a sign of things to come, but also unveiled a host of underlying vulnerabilities within the City of Johannesburg and its surrounding areas.
Urban floods are a major threat globally. These deluges lead to disrupted economies, personal injury and the loss of life – and it is often the most impoverished who are most vulnerable. The City of Johannesburg Disaster Management reported that 862 people in some 373 households were severely impacted by the storm that flooded the Setswetla informal settlement in Alexandra, north of the CBD last November. News24 reported that some people never managed to return home.
Johannesburg has the highest rate of urbanisation in South Africa. Rapid urbanisation and population growth leads to profound changes in the City’s natural landscape. These alterations affect ground surface permeability and interfere with natural water flow and infiltration. As large numbers of people flood the City of Gold in pursuit of a livelihood, they often end up settling on marginal land (such as flood plains and river banks) so they can be near sources of income and avoid paying high rental rates.
These settlements are characterised by extreme poverty and almost non-existent basic services. There is nowhere to go to escape hazardous onslaughts like floods. Often these people lose everything they have – sometimes even their lives.
Flooding is not just the result of a heavy downpour or the failure to maintain and clean storm water drains. It is much more than a technical problem to be solved through engineering and top-down interventions such as adherence to by-laws. These tend only to provide solutions for formal developments and do not adequately cover informal settlements. Flooding results from failing to plan, design and maintain our settlements – whether they are formal, or informal.
Effective interventions that address prevailing urban realities are urgently needed. It is important to identify and profile Johannesburg’s urban ‘hot spots’ to mitigate urban flood impact. This will help proactively minimise the risk of different communities within their unique contexts. Local researchers, NGOs, government, community leaders and committees all have a role to play in enabling vulnerable urban communities to adapt and mitigate flood impact. We need to acknowledge that urban informal settlements are an integral part of this City and plan accordingly.
Paulose Mvulane is a Master’s candidate in the Global Change Institute. His research interest is in environmental management and issues of urbanisation, urban governance, food security, and ways to create sustainable resilient cities. His Master’s explores the vulnerability of urban informal settlements to flood risk under climate change.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
From 'crisis' to opportunity
- Schalk Mouton
Lessons from Cape Town’s water shortage.
South Africa has always been a country with problems of water scarcity. The ominous Day Zero narrative in Cape Town has brought water security into our daily lives and has made us pay closer attention to issues of water demand and availability. Additional challenges, including pollution, poor management and infrastructure maintenance, wastage and excessive consumption, burden our resources. Schalk Mouton explores how we can learn from the current crisis and turn South Africa into a water-secure country for all its citizens.
We’ve heard it so many times before. Every time a government official speaks about water issues in South Africa, they mention that South Africa is a “water-scarce” country. However, until the current water ‘crisis’ fully developed in Cape Town, and the ominous-sounding phrase ‘Day Zero’ became a daily headline in newspapers, few were actively mobilised around water as a valuable resource.
Water has always been cheap and, for the middle-class South African at least, there has always been a constant, reliable supply of water. But will such a situation continue without careful risk management and planning?
The current water situation in Cape Town can teach us a number of lessons that could assist us in working towards a more water secure Gauteng – and the country as a whole.
“What is going on in Cape Town, scientists argue, is the ‘new normal’ with climate variability and climate change,” says Professor Coleen Vogel, Distinguished Professor in Climate change, Vulnerability and Adaptability at the Global Change Institute. “Although we cannot say with certainty when droughts will occur, projected outlooks are that we could experience more frequent events, such as drought occurring with greater magnitude.”
South Africa is a dry country. It has an annual surface water runoff (from rain) of 49 billion cubic metres. With an annual rainfall average of 490mm, South Africa has just over half the annual rainfall of the global average of 814mm. Of the water that we do have, 98% is already allocated for use, which means we have only 2% left over as a useable resource.
Various provinces, including Limpopo and the North West Province, have struggled with serious droughts in the past 10 years, and the Eastern Cape and parts of KwaZulu-Natal are suffering from water shortages. Gauteng was saved from a serious drought in 2016 (some would argue not necessarily by careful water planning) when good rains fell.
South Africa is also struggling to manage water effectively. According to the Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) National Water and Sanitation Master Plan, “A call to action”, the country “is facing a water crisis driven by a massive backlog in water infrastructure maintenance and investment, recurrent droughts driven by climatic variation, glaring inequalities in access to water and deteriorating water quality”.
“This crisis is already having significant impact on economic growth and on the well-being on everyone in South Africa, which will be exacerbated if it is not addressed,” the DWS says.
The DWS Master Plan estimates that:
by 2030 we will have a water deficit of 5%, yet 35% of our municipal water is lost through leakage.
41% of our municipal water does not generate revenue, which, at a unit cost of R6/m³, amounts to R9.9 billion each year.
5.3 million households do not have access to safe household drinking water, while 14.1 million people do not have access to reliable sanitation.
56% of the country’s 1 150 municipal waste water treatment works and 44% of the 962 water treatment works in the country are in a poor or critical condition and in need of urgent rehabilitation, while 11% of this critical infrastructure is dysfunctional.
The country’s rivers are not faring any better. Between 1999 and 2011, the extent of SA’s rivers classified as having a poor ecological condition increased by 500% with many rivers pushed beyond the point of recovery.
To achieve water security, the DWS says, an estimated “capital funding gap of around R33 billion per year is needed for the next 10 years”.
“We need a ‘democracy of discipline-values’, where policy, economics, engineering, science, social science, law and politics are all treated equally. This can only happen if we can embrace humility as the tool to understanding the other,” he says.
Even with rainfall figures declining since 2015 (in 2014, Cape Town got 511mm of rain. In 2015, this went down to 321mm and in 2016 and 2017, the region got only 221mm and 153mm of rain respectively) the Cape Town drought was hard to predict.
Although the water storage graphs for Cape Town’s two main water sources (Berg River Dam and Theewaterskloof Dam) show that both have dropped below “very low” levels since 2015, Professor Barend Erasmus, Director of the Global Change Institute, says that declining surface water levels do not serve as a clear “early warning”.
“The likelihood of a prolonged drought such as the one in Cape Town is extremely low, so the more years with low rainfall, the less likely it is that a drought will persist,” says Erasmus.
“The magnitude of the crisis was too big for a ‘business as usual’ incremental response. This is a typical example of how a system shift in terms of a different attitude towards water is required.”
Gillian Maree, Senior Researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, says a more proactive approach towards droughts should be implemented throughout the country.
“You cannot solve a major drought quickly. There are no short-term interventions three years into a major drought,” she says.
“The concern is that we’re still reacting to a ‘crisis’,” says Vogel. “We need to change the focus of the country. Cities need drought plans and, as far as I know, Johannesburg does not have a focussed drought plan.”
Maree believes Gauteng can expect to run into water shortages in the near future, with high levels of urbanisation and growth leading to increased demand pressures on the limited water supply.
“In the past 20 years, Gauteng has experienced such rapid growth that we just haven’t been able to keep pace with it,” she says. Johannesburg is expected to become a mega-city by 2030, housing a population of over 10 million people. By that time, over 60% (5.05 billion people) of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas.
A 10-point plan to make Gauteng water-secure:
Build cities water-wise (incorporate green infrastructure with current water infrastructure)
Start to value our water catchment areas
Ensure we look after our rivers and wetlands
Look at innovative ideas around grey water use
Improve and maintain our storm water management systems
Become more water aware and water sensitive about how we build the Gauteng City-Region
Decrease consumption in Gauteng
Advance to the LHWP phase 2 as soon as possible to augment our water sources
While taking the basic water needs of all our citizens into account, we have to make water more expensive and place a higher value on it in society
Urgently deal with the backlog of maintaining water-treatment plants. Compiled from recommendations that Gillian Maree made in a presentation to the Gauteng Department of Economic Development and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Some of the earlier Water Balance models from the DWS showed that there would be a water deficit in Gauteng by 2025, says Maree. The idea was to have the second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) operational by that point. Phase 2 of the LHWP is scheduled to increase the current supply rate of 780 million cubic metres of water per year to 1 260 million cubic metres per year. The construction on the project has been delayed.
“The LHWP2 is way behind schedule. There’s no way we’re going to have large augmentation by 2025. This means that the current and future water demands will have to be accommodated for within the current water availability.”
Data on water consumption are very limited and vary greatly across different types of households, but the studies we do have have shown that Johannesburg households consume around 330 litres of water per person per day. This is double the global average of around 170 litres per day.
“The consumption here is very high. For those households who have reliable access to potable water, we use nearly double the global average – in a water scarce part of the world,” says Maree.
“We live in a region far from our water supply, we live on top of a watershed, and we spend great expense piping water here (from the Katse Dam via the LHWP). We have to deal with the consumption and wastage issue.”
What must also be addressed is the unacceptably high levels of non-revenue water (particularly water losses from poorly maintained and leaking infrastructure) and ensuring that consumers are billed fairly for water, and the revenue collected.
A second aspect of water security is making sure that that the water that we do have is safe enough to use. “We are a heavy polluter,” says Maree.
“Johannesburg lies on top of the watershed, so we pump a lot of fresh water up the catchment to use, and then we release return flows that are often very polluted. We don’t see the cost of our pollution downstream, and how we waste water.”
While industrial wastewater contributes to the problem, Sheridan says the two main sources that pollute our rivers are Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) and broken sewage treatment plants.
“We have to fix AMD and sewage plants,” he says. AMD is a massive problem, but – if you’ve got political will behind it – not difficult to fix. The problem, however, is that AMD is usually just neutralised for pH levels, and many sulphates stay behind in the water. This is not good for rivers.
“Sewage is a disaster,” says Sheridan, pointing out that a lot of research is now going into making water treatment plants on a local level resilient and easy to operate and maintain. However, there is no single solution to fix the problem.
“You need to engage with each locality in a different way. You need to consult with local communities and establish their own needs, before you can start to search for a solution,” says Sheridan. “How do you design a resilient system for a specific community?”
In order to solve our water crisis, we need to change the way we think about and treat water – from a government perspective right down to consumer level.
Water must be managed in such a way that consumers value it more.
“Effective water management has to be carefully considered,” says Vogel. “We need to find socially just ways of ensuring effective water management.”
Maree agrees: “We have to deal with the consumption and water wastage issue, which is a technical issue as well as a political issue and leadership issue, around changing behaviour”.
We have to see water in a different light and start to respect it as the valuable resource it is. If we put our minds to it, all South Africans should be able to have a sustainable, water-secure future.
As a friend of Sheridan’s said: “With political will, everything is possible. We (the human race) put people on the moon because of political will.”
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
The vehicle of nature
- Zeblon Vilakazi
Editorial: Future world wars will be fought over water – a resource that is scarce in many parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa.
The lack of water is a threat to humanity and our existence on this planet. An urgent and comprehensive response is required to secure our immediate future, but also to safeguard the future of life on Earth.
We live in a world characterised by urbanisation, industrialisation, burgeoning populations, globalisation, pollution, and climate change. All of these present myriad, complex, interconnected problems that affect societies already burdened with inequality, poverty and dwindling natural resources. These challenges require transdisciplinary solutions that traverse the natural, technical and societal spheres. Universities and their partners in the private and public sectors are best placed to tackle these.
Wits University is at the forefront of water research and development. Across faculties, disciplines and entities, our academics and students explore water systems and the environment; water recovery in industry; water and society; and water education. These are themes interrogated in this issue of Curiosity, which also demonstrate how Wits is developing the next generation of leaders entrusted with securing our collective future.
Leonardo da Vinci described water as vetturale di natura – the vehicle of nature. It is now up to all of us – those at the helm providing direction, those on the inside steaming ahead, and those on the outside making the waves – to ensure that we do not run aground.
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs at Wits University.
Read more about the research conducted across faculties, disciplines and entities to help secure humanity’s most important resource for survival: water, in the fourth issue of Wits' new research magazine, Curiosity.
Evolution of an anthem
- Reshma Lakha-Singh
South Africa has the best anthem in the world, a product of a negotiated settlement intended as a measure of reconciliation for a new South Africa.
In a poll published by The Economist in December 2017, South Africa’s national anthem Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika (God Bless Africa) was voted the best anthem in the world. According to The Economist, “The best anthems, like South Africa’s Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, create their own world entirely”.
Creating our own world to suit our eclectic population was the job of a committee convened by the Multiparty Negotiating Forum’s Sub-committee on National Symbols. The committee received over 200 new anthem proposals but none was suitable. It was decided to combine two existing anthems – Die Stem van Suid-Africa [The Call of South Africa] and Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika – into a shorter version.
In 1995, a team of experts including Wits Emeritus Professor in Music, Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph, and the former head of the Department of African Languages at Wits, Professor Mzilikazi Khumalo began the arduous process of reworking the anthem. Over eight weeks, Zaidel-Rudolph combined the two anthems musically, adding in the English lyrics as well as producing the new composite version for voice, piano, and full orchestra. In October 1997, former President Nelson Mandela officially adopted this rendition as the national anthem of South Africa.
The integration of anthems has not been without controversy. Since 2014, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for the removal of Die Stem from the anthem, a clarion call that gained traction during the #FeesMustFall movement. At EFF student gatherings, Die Stem is omitted.
Wits PhD graduate and EFF spokesperson, Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said in an interview, “[Enoch] Sontonga wrote Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika as a prayer against the violence Blacks experienced. The inclusion of Die Stem is not only an adulteration of Sontonga's prayer, but it is as though Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika is only made complete by adding what were considered European languages to it.”
However, the National Anthem today – like many other things in South Africa – is a product of a negotiated settlement intended as a measure of reconciliation for a new South Africa.
Reshma Lakha-Singh is Public Relations and Events Manager at Wits University, and Managing Editor of Curiosity.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Facets of a legacy
- Adam Habib
Mandela recognised we live in a world that is, and not in a world we wish existed. To truly honour him we must be responsive to his entire political legacy.
After Nelson Mandela’s passing five years ago, an intellectual battle emerged to define Madiba’s legacy.
The media trumpeted Madiba’s message of reconciliation, which was essential to his political character but not all that he stood for. Some newspapers valorised Madiba for his pragmatism, but he also stood for non-racialism, democracy and political participation. He fought for economic inclusion and abhorred poverty and inequality. He believed that before asking disadvantaged people to make sacrifices, wealthy people should do the same – he himself took a salary cut when he became South African President.
Truly honouring Madiba means being responsive to his entire political legacy and not just to the facets that one finds convenient.
World leaders who want to honour Madiba can only do so if they respect the rule of law and do not engage in extra judicial actions. Madiba was opposed to xenophobia in any form and honouring him means respecting his views in this regard. This means opposing pressures to turn away migrants, to incite violence and xenophobia, and to separate children from their families, even when it promises to ‘make America great again’.
The ANC and betrayal of the legacy
Many leaders in South Africa who claim to honour Madiba should remember that he opposed corruption and advocated service delivery and economic inclusion. These must become priorities in South Africa – but require that action be taken against the corrupt, even when they are close to political power. In all of these areas South Africa’s leaders (and Madiba’s comrades) have been found lacking. It took years for Jacob Zuma to be recalled and be held accountable for his role in ‘state capture’. He must still account for allegations of corruption in the arms deal, and for splurging on Nkandla, his lavish personal home renovated with just over R248 million of taxpayers’ money.
South Africa’s National Development Plan, the country’s signature policy initiative, focuses on poverty but ignores inequality. The plan assumes that reducing poverty and increasing employment will address inequality. These are necessary but insufficient. The last 20 years in China, India, South Africa and others is a story of an enormous reduction in poverty, yet inequality flourished in all of these societies. This is because those at the apex of society have assets (bonds, stocks, property), which those at the base do not have. When growth resumes in the economy, employment expands and livelihoods increase at the base of society. The assets of those at the apex grow faster, feeding inequality even as poverty is being reduced. The National Development Plan is silent about this, even though its commissioners were aware of it, but the political cost was too onerous to tackle. Finally, although the real cost of service delivery failure is borne by the poor (whom the ANC professes to represent), the ANC protects its cadres deployed to service delivery positions in a futile attempt to avoid being implicated in service delivery failure. In all of these acts, the ANC and its leaders betray Madiba’s legacy.
Corporates caricature the message
Corporate leaders often remark about the pragmatism of Madiba but they remain silent about his commitment to economic inclusion. They often highlight the fact that he abandoned nationalisation, and was president when a conservative macroeconomic programme, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) was implemented. Yet they conveniently ignore that Madiba saw this programme as a compromise born of political necessity. Madiba also bemoaned the implementation of GEAR and he was appalled at the increase in economic inequality and at the socio-political polarisation that ensued.
To truly honour Madiba requires corporate leaders to recognise all facets of his message. It requires them to make collective sacrifices to address economic inequality. This need not mean abandoning a market economy but, as in Europe and Asia, it does mean that such a market needs to be regulated. Furthermore, individual investment decisions should consider social costs. It also requires that corporate leaders be open to the prospect of regulating their remuneration. As Thomas Piketty remarks in his study, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the excessive remuneration of corporate leaders is part of what drives inequality. If inequality were to be addressed, it would be mandatory for this remuneration to be subject to constraints.
"Caught between things that are no longer and things that are not yet"
A similar obligation is required of union leaders and activists in civil society. Too often, they speak of Madiba’s values – democracy, non-racialism, economic inclusion – yet they ignore his message of how to realise these goals. Madiba was an astute political entrepreneur who understood the importance of pragmatism in a struggle for equality. He recognised that we live in a world that is, and not in a world that we wish existed. Madiba recognised the importance of the realities of power, and the need to engage and sometimes compromise. However, he believed that such compromises must ultimately unleash initiatives that enable a breakthrough to realising a better world.
This is why union leaders and progressive civil society activists should not conduct debate in political extremes – Capitalism versus Socialism, nationalisation versus unregulated markets – these often serve as parameters of debate, as if these are the only options available. Rarely do progressive activists and leaders think through the structural reforms required to bridge the political divide that Achille Mbembe (Professor in the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research – WiSER) described in 2012 as a South Africa “caught between an intractable present and an irrecoverable past; between things that are no longer and things that are not yet”.
Madiba’s legacy is a complex one. It behoves all of us not to cheapen it. If we truly want to honour him beyond the platitudes, then we must become responsive to his entire political message. This will give us our first shot at building the society envisioned in the Freedom Charter, which Madiba himself had a hand in creating 63 years ago.
Adam Habib is a Professor of Political Science and the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Walk a mile in his shoes
- Peter Hain
Nelson Mandela and his colleagues walked a minefield strewn with political, economic and social traps to prevent civil war and set our democratic path.
Mandela’s extraordinary leadership and insistence on reconciliation was crucial in transforming South Africa from a police state into a constitutional democracy. This tends to be taken for granted by his contemporary critics who overlook how fearsome was the power of the apartheid state – and how incredibly difficult it was to win, when the battle was viewed by Western powers through a Cold War prism and the apartheid government professing to be on their side.
The odds were massively stacked against Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC). But since the radiance of his ‘rainbow nation’ shone down upon the world, consigning apartheid to history, South Africa has gone from hero to zero.
With former President Jacob Zuma and his business crony elite looting the country, international investors turned their backs on a nation they once favoured, and – generations ago – colonially plundered. The South African economy plunged to near junk status. Students erupted and service delivery protesters took to the streets as the gap between rich and poor kept widening.
By the time Mandela died (aged 95) in December 2013, the party’s leadership at all levels was betraying the values and integrity he had epitomised. ANC ‘stalwarts’, like Pravin Gordhan (perhaps the most courageously prominent), struggled to keep his legacy alive. Perhaps longstanding ANC supporters like me expected too much of the ‘rainbow nation’. Perhaps it was naïve to think that – for all its noble history and tradition of moral integrity and constitutionalism – Mandela’s ANC could be immune to human frailty.
Could any political party anywhere (including in rich, old democracies like Britain) have done any better? I served for 12 years in Labour’s social democratic British government, and we found it tough to advance social justice whilst delivering economic success in a world gripped by the inequality-increasing, growth-stifling economics of neoliberalism.
The notion of the ‘Mandela miracle’ engendered myth. The transition from brutal apartheid to rainbow democracy encouraged a tendency to frame the South African story too simplistically. Many never could view post-apartheid South Africa in a nuanced way. It was always going to be a bumpy road because of the terrible apartheid heritage of poverty, inequality and institutionalised racism.
In policy terms, the ANC remained largely true to Mandela’s original values, as exemplified by the National Development Plan 2030 developed under the leadership of Cyril Ramaphosa and former finance minister, Trevor Manuel. Indeed, that programme presents a credible alternative to the global grip of neoliberalism for those seeking a social democratic agenda in a market economy – and none of Mandela’s critics has suggested an alternative capable of delivering under contemporary globalisation.
However, Mandela’s government – anxious to achieve a smooth transition and encourage international investment after efforts to prop up apartheid in its dying years had virtually bankrupted the country – rather too readily embraced elements of the neoliberal global economic order. This is one of the sources of criticism from a younger generation questioning his legacy.
Under apartheid, government and big business were run exclusively by the white minority. When white rule finally ended, the very real fear was that white businesses and investors would flee. Instead, under Mandela’s guidance, a deal was struck and compromises made for the sake of a peaceful and economically stable transition. Thus, a black majority now ran the government but the white minority still ran the economy.
In retrospect, it is hard to see how Mandela could have adopted any other course. Radical change at that time would undoubtedly have triggered a flight of capital, financial calamity, political turmoil and the exodus of key white skills. In 1975, the Portuguese had left Angola and Mozambique overnight, setting an ominous precedent. There would also have been a serious risk of national (rather than partial) civil war, as those two former Portuguese colonies – their societies torn apart and plagued by landmines, infrastructure destruction and economic chaos – illustrate. They are salutary examples of the consequences of non-negotiated transformations, their societies still struggling and their liberation parties having achieved far less social and economic progress than the ANC, whatever its palpable failures.
Some, like former ANC liberation hero and ANC Minister Ronnie Kasrils, subsequently saw the Mandela-led transformation as ‘the devil’s pact’: a terrible betrayal of the poorest of the poor. But what has never been clear to me is how exactly a more revolutionary alternative could have been successful in the circumstances Mandela faced?
A generation of South Africans sacrificed their lives to overcome apartheid and to generate the Mandela legacy. Tens of thousands suffered imprisonment, torture and exile in the process – my brave parents, I’m proud to say, amongst them. South Africa will not succeed unless the spirit and principles of the Mandela years are reclaimed. Fortunately, Cyril Ramaphosa understands that well, but he has huge mountains to climb and tough battles to fight.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Dare not linger
- Mandla Langa
The following excerpt from the book, “Dare Not Linger”, shows Mandela’s belief in education as the liberator of the human spirit.
In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first president of democratic South Africa. Five years later, he stood down. During his tenure, he wrought a fully functioning democracy. Acclaimed author and Master’s student in Creative Writing at Wits, Mandla Langa, has completed the memoir that Mandela began before he completed his term of office. Here follows an excerpt from Langa’s book, Dare Not Linger:
Mandela took a special and personal interest in the areas where the poorest of the poor are usually the most vulnerable – education and health. He worried in particular about the efficacy of the school-nutrition scheme, access to primary healthcare for pregnant women and children under six, and the building and upgrading of clinics and schools both by government and through partnerships he personally forged with private sector corporations.
Sensitive to the inequalities ravaging South African society, Mandela pursued his own personal mission. From the time he walked out of the gates of Victor Verster Prison in Paarl, on the afternoon of 11 February 1990, Mandela had sought to get the business community to have more empathy with the majority – and to encourage it to undertake targeted social-investment initiatives. While making these overtures, he was also aware of a counter-narrative operating in the media, which portrayed the new political players, especially MPs, as money-grubbing, and he did as much as he could to dispel that image.
Occasionally, however, such comments came from those he respected, and these were much harder to bear. For example, John Carlin, who had interviewed Mandela on numerous occasions, wrote a piece for the UK newspaper the Independent headlined ‘ANC Boards the Gravy Train: John Carlin in Johannesburg on the Underdogs Who Have Become Fat Cats in a Few Months’. In it he said that "Mandela promised in his election victory speech that the era of the fat cats was over, that the 'government of the people' would tolerate no more gravy trains. What he failed to anticipate was that the gap between government and people would widen after the dawn of democracy”. In the same report, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was quoted as saying that the new government had “stopped the gravy train only long enough to get on”.
Yet even before the ANC received such stinging criticisms from trusted friends and allies, Mandela had decided to donate one-third of his salary to promoting the cause of children’s rights. In a speech given in June 1994 to mark the anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, he said: “I am consulting with relevant individuals and bodies, for me to set up a Presidential Trust Fund, representative of people beyond the ANC and the mass democratic movement, to specifically deal with the problems of street children and detainees. I intend to make a contribution of R150 000 a year to this Fund, irrespective of the decision that Parliament will make about the salaries of elected representatives. Further details will be announced in due course.
“The Fund I have referred to will assist in alleviating these problems. But I do recognise, as all of you do, that a lasting solution lies in comprehensive socio-economic uplifting programmes. At the same time, the youth, especially from disadvantaged communities, need to realise that we cannot rely only on governmental programmes and charity. We also have to take initiatives in our communities to pool our meagre resources for projects such as bursaries and skills upgrading”.
The Presidential Trust Fund was to form the basis of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, which became a vehicle not only for helping build partnerships with business leaders but also ensured that these partnerships were not dependent on state machinery and could thus produce swift results in areas of great need. Although the results were visible and impressive, Mandela acknowledged that they were no substitute for the mass provision of services by the state.
But he knew that South Africa’s destiny was irreversibly intertwined with its capacity to educate its people. Progress was reliant on it, and education had always been close to his heart. “The emancipation of people from poverty and deprivation is most centrally linked to the provision of education of quality,” Mandela said.
“While the poor and suffering masses of our people bore the weight of the liberation struggle, we acknowledge that we would not have advanced in the manner we did if it was not for the education that many of our leaders and cadres obtained. We recognised that emancipation from illiteracy and ignorance was an important part of our liberation struggle, and that education was key to that.
“It was for that same reason, for example, that one of the first things we set out to do when we were incarcerated on Robben Island prison, was to prepare for the education and further education of ourselves as inmates. Many political prisoners learnt to read and write for the first time on Robben Island. Many obtained degrees and further degrees on the Island. And the informal education through reading and discussion was probably the most significant part of our stay in that prison.
“One of the cruellest ways in which the apartheid system hit at our people was through the deliberate undermining of the quality of public education and the destruction of non-state education through, for example, the churches that sought to provide quality education”.
Mandla Langa is a Master’s student in Creative Writing at Wits University.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Brand Mandela: What’s in a name?
- Michael Bratt
From his name and image, to quotes, pictures, voice and artefacts, the Brand Mandela and the legacy of the ‘father of the nation’ is complicated to manage.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF), which promotes Mandela’s vision of freedom and equality for all, is tasked with overseeing this brand.
Steve Burgess, Professor of Marketing at the Wits Business School, explains that the NMF has published guidelines intended to protect the Nelson Mandela image and brand name from reputational harm and to align it with core values.
“Generally, the guidelines prohibit the use of his name or image to endorse a product, brand or commercial entity. The Mandela brand may not be associated with products associated with risk of public harm, such as cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, firearms and weapons, and conflict, war or violence,” says Burgess.
Managing Mandela masks
The most important rule is that the Nelson Mandela brand cannot be used for commercial purposes. This includes the use of Mandela’s face for commercial ventures and/or the association of people and their projects with the Foundation when they have not engaged with it.
The NMF closely guards Madiba's Legacy, and states: “The Foundation has institutionally built an in-house Intellectual Property [IP] division that helps navigate the legal aspects and communications of the brand’s management. Between the IP Department and Communications, messaging and language is closely aligned with the various projects. We have a team that continuously looks at contentious issues that surround the brand. The team advises the public on how best to use things like images of Mandela or his quotes”.
While legal action is an option for misuse of the brand, the NMF prefers consultation first (as it is less costly) but concedes that the scope of the brand is so vast that it is difficult to control every aspect of IP usage.
Interestingly, the African National Congress (ANC) is not obligated to consult with the NMF to use Mandela’s image, quotations, or name for election purposes.
Madiba mirrors in higher education
Offshoots of the Nelson Mandela brand (of which the NMF has trademarked around a dozen) include Madiba, Rolihlahla, Mandela Day, Nelson Mandela 100, 46664 (Mandela’s prison number), and the attachment of his name to various things. An example of such a naming attachment is the Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, formerly the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
“The Nelson Mandela brand means different things to different people. To the youth, the young activist Mandela is who appeals to them. To others, the equality and social justice values he stood for meant something to them. The concept of ubuntu and embracing diversity in others are other factors that have made this brand very successful,” says Vuyo Bongela, Deputy Director of Advertising and Branding at the Nelson Mandela University.
The challenge now is to identify what the Nelson Mandela University brand identity stands for and what it will become to ensure that it lives up to Nelson Mandela brand’s legacy.
“Consultations were done with the NMF and the Elders who are tasked with the Nelson Mandela legacy. There are no rules, but rather constant communication with the Foundation on how we are planning to advance and contribute to the memory of Nelson Mandela,” says Bongela.
Randelas?
Indubitably, Brand Mandela is colossal and successful, although the brand and name offshoots make it near impossible to quantify in Rands.
“We have not had the value of the brand assessed,” confirms the NMF – and several leading brand experts over the years have declined the challenge.
Burgess concludes, “The Nelson Mandela brand is the sum of what we have learned to associate with Madiba’s name and image” – especially his values and the relatively peaceful transition from apartheid by his application of African culture, dignity and wisdom.
“Internationally, the brand is associated most with the values that underpinned his leadership during the unprecedented transition from apartheid rule”.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
No new Mandela – yet
- Shaun Smillie
Sello Hatang, Head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, shared some intimate moments with Madiba, and nostalgically shares what he beliefs is Mandela's legacy.
In May 2009, Hatang saw in Nelson Mandela something that the statesman hid from the public.
For a moment, as the former president walked through the Alexandra township back room that he had lived in when he first came to Johannesburg, Hatang could see Mandela was filled with sadness.
“Madiba had said while he was in prison that one of his greatest fears was that he would come out of prison and that everybody that he knows would have died,” explains Hatang. “I saw that when we went to that house, and he was asking about where is so-and-so, where is so-and-so. And all of them had died.”
Hatang realised Mandela had spoken of this fear in a letter he had written to a friend. But the former president’s mood quickly brightened when he saw a child walk past. He asked one of his aids to invite the child and his friends into the house.
“You could see his mood lift as he asked them how old they were and where they were from. In my mind, this was to him the connection to ancestry, passing on and the future,” said Hatang.
The Madiba that Hatang got to know on those trips was different to the world leader that the likes of his long time aid, Zelda Le Grange, and Achmat Dangor and Shaun Johnson had to manage. Their Mandela could at times be controversial and was known to go against the wishes of his advisors. He famously would be told not to mention a particular awkward incident or an issue related to a person he was about to meet. The first thing he would do is bring up the topic. Some said it was his way of breaking the ice.
“I was exposed to a mellow Madiba, who had entered retirement,” recalls Hatang, who worked with Mandela for three years.
But there were still hints of the old man, with his famously dry sense of humour, like the time Hatang accompanied Mandela to the Freedom Park Memorial in Pretoria, on what was to become one of the last official visits Madiba was to make before his health failed him.
During the walkabout, Mandela kept asking if Samora Machel, Mozambique’s first president, was listed on the monument alongside the names of those who had died during the liberation struggle.
“He asked, ‘Did you include Samora Machel, and Dr Mongane Serote [the Freedom Park Trust Chief Executive] said, ‘Yes, we did'.
Then he asked again, ‘Did you include Samora Machel?’ Then, after the third time, Madiba said, ’I am just double-checking, because when I get back home, I have to tell my wife that that part is covered’.”
Eight years later, Mandela passed away. It is now Hatang’s job to promote the icon’s ideals and defend his legacy.
This comes at a time when the world is celebrating the centenary of his birth.
Former US president, Barack Obama delivered the Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg in July 2018. It was the first time that the lecture took place at such a large venue.
“Ahmed Kathrada always said we must try not make these lectures just for the elite few who can afford to be in those spaces, and this is something that we are very conscious about – that we don’t lose sight of the fact that these lectures should be for as great a number of people as possible,” says Hatang.
The success of these lectures, believes Hatang, is that they have always been timeous in responding to the issues of the day.
President Thabo Mbeki delivered the 2006 lecture, where he stressed the importance of building a common humanity.
Two years later, South Africa was dealing with widespread xenophobic riots.
In 2004, Archbishop Desmond Tutu delivered the second Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, and warned against corruption and that South Africa must avoid anything that will make it endemic.
“The lectures are being used to create a platform for work that can be imagined in the future, and this year’s lecture was no different because [former] President Obama spoke about the issue of how we make democracy work for the majority; how we should be building an active citizenry while re-awakening Madiba’s legacy,” says Hatang.
South Africa has now entered an age where there is no longer a Madiba to look to for guidance and leadership.
It is a void many believe cannot be filled by South Africa’s current calibre of leaders. We are not yet ready for a new Mandela, believes Hatang.
“Another Mandela can only come out when we don't just focus on the past and keep blaming the past for what it didn’t do for the present,” Hatang says.
“We can’t argue for a better past. We can only argue for a better future.”
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Creating collective memory
- Erna van Wyk
Creating a collective memory in a country with a fragmented past and persistent inequality needs money, skills and political will to preserve its history.
Since the early ’90s, varying materials related to former President Nelson Mandela, held in galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) in institutions such as the Nelson Mandela Foundation or the Historical Papers Research Archive at Wits, have been collected and digitally preserved in individualised efforts to “digitise Mandela” and to make these collections available to the public to enhance a collective memory.
The next step is to bring these archives together. This goal has been set as one of the first three outcomes of the new WITS-NRF Digitisation Capacity Development Initiative: To establish a National Digital Library Aggregator Pilot Project – a central online portal from where viewers can access South Africa’s precious collections, including the possibility of a digital “Mandela Archive”.
“It is very costly and European countries have more money. Most institutions in Africa are inhibited by their lack of funding and as such have only taken baby steps towards purposeful digitisation for access and preservation of South Africa’s rich historical heritage,” she adds.
Now, with the WITS-NRF Digitisation Capacity Development Initiative, participating institutions could combine their efforts in implementing such a pilot project between five institutions: the Historical Papers Research Archive at Wits, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the University of Cape Town, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, and the National Archives of South Africa.
“These institutions are already applying main archival and international standards of description and it will allow us to link our institutions’ archival collections and create a multi-institutional repository, endorsed by the International Council on Archives, in a portal or aggregator where the user can put in one search term and get the output from these five participating institutions,” Mohale says.
“Given South Africa’s fragmented past, archives, preservation and the digitisation of material such as the Nelson Mandela Papers here at Wits, are some of the ways to create a collective memory and enduring legacy for Madiba,” says Mohale.
Established in 1966, the Historical Papers Research Archive at Wits is one of the largest and most comprehensive independent archives in southern Africa – housing over 3 400 collections of historical, political and cultural importance, encompassing the mid-17th Century to the present.
“Digitising archives is important to not only preserve material for future generations or to create easy and open access to history, but also bring those forgotten materials back out into the current agenda. In South Africa we are historically fragmented in terms of understanding and knowledge of our histories, and digital archives play a role in accessing and enhancing memory,” Mohale says.
Erna van Wyk is Senior Multimedia Communications Officerin Wits Communications and Digital Director of Curiosity.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Mandela and military force
- Christopher Williams
20 years since South Africa's military intervention into Lesotho - an opportune moment to consider the Mandela's position on the use of military force.
In the winter of 1998, Lesotho was roiled by protests after a controversial election. Frustrated opposition parties, which won only a single parliamentary seat, accused the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy of fraud and rigging the vote. South Africa initially intervened diplomatically, by helping to set up a commission composed of legal experts from the region to evaluate the opposition’s claim of foul play.
This commission failed to resolve Lesotho’s difficulties. The release of the commission’s report was delayed, prompting charges that it had been tampered with, and the report’s central finding (when it was finally released) was diffident: “We are unable to state that the invalidity of the elections has been conclusively established.”
This weak double negative only exacerbated disagreements between the competing parties. At the same time, Lesotho’s perennially restless military staged a mutiny and forced many of the army’s senior commanders to resign at gunpoint. The situation became anarchic—protestors prevented civil service employees from going to work and impounded government vehicles, while the military rank-and-file looked on and did nothing to protect a government it opposed.
Mandela later described the situation as a “virtual coup”. Lesotho’s government was paralysed and the country’s Prime Minister, Pakalithi Mosisili, feared that any day his administration would be toppled. Over the course of the crisis, he sent two desperate letters to Mandela and several other Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state, requesting a military intervention to stabilise Lesotho.
President Mandela was travelling in the United States while Lesotho degenerated into chaos. Deputy-President Mbeki was also away during this period, leaving Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the minister of Home Affairs, to deal with the crisis as Acting President.
Buthelezi gained approval to dispatch a SADC military force from regional allies in Gaborone, Harare and Maputo, as there was a growing norm throughout Africa that military coups would not be tolerated.
Mandela and Mbeki were also consulted, and, according to Buthelezi “supported military intervention, but acknowledged that the final decision lay on my shoulders”. On September 22, 1998, 600 members of the South African National Defense Force (that were later joined by 200 soldiers from Botswana as part of a SADC force) entered Lesotho to “stabilise the situation for the purposes of achieving a lasting political solution”.
The result was a bloody confrontation during which nine South African soldiers, 29 members of Lesotho’s military, and approximately 47 Basotho civilians were killed. Much of downtown Maseru was destroyed.
Despite this death and destruction, the military intervention prompted renewed discussions between the belligerent Basotho parties. This eventually resulted in the creation of the inclusive Independent Political Authority, which went on to propose revisions to Lesotho’s electoral system intended to avert future conflicts.
In Mandela’s final State of the Nation Address early in 1999 he claimed: “There is no doubt that SADC’s collective initiative succeeded in creating the space for this country’s political leaders to find a peaceful resolution of their differences”.
Criticisms of South Africa’s decision to intervene in Lesotho are legion, but very little of this literature focuses on Mandela. This is a mistake. As Mandela told reporters a few days after the intervention, he had had regularly consulted with Buthelezi during the crisis and therefore “It is wrong to suggest that Chief Buthelezi made a mistake. If there is an accusation that a mistake was made, then all of us are involved”. He quickly added, “But I am not in the slightest doubt that we have done the correct thing”.
Surprise at South Africa’s military intervention stemmed in part from an incorrect image of Mandela as a principled pacifist in the vein of Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. Mandela, however, held very different views on the use of military force from these international icons. He was a pragmatist, not a peacenik.
In the days after the intervention Mandela, was bombarded with questions about his country’s military mission. At one point he was asked to “reconcile the commitment to peace he kept in his battle to end apartheid with the military action in Lesotho”. Mandela replied: “It does not depend on ideology, it depends on an analysis of the situation”.
He stressed South Africa’s “belief is in peaceful solutions,” but then added, “Whether we’re going to continue with that policy indefinitely must depend on the reality on the ground”. Mandela said that South Africa had “tried peaceful means” to resolve the conflict in Lesotho. After those means were unsuccessful, “Only then did we use force”.
This was a direct continuation of Mandela’s previous view on military force, not a deviation from it. When reflecting on the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe he stated, “We have always believed in non-violence as a tactic. Where the conditions demanded that we should use non-violence we would do so; where the conditions demanded that we should depart from non-violence we would so.”
Despite his approval of military force in the case of Lesotho, Mandela believed such an approach had limited utility. He told reporters, “It is our belief that issues of this nature can’t be settled through military intervention … They need [a] political process, a political solution”. Military intervention, he said, was required “to ensure that there is peace and stability, so that the Basotho themselves can sit down and explore a political solution”.
Many commentators have failed to heed Cornell West’s warning: “Let us not make Nelson Mandela some kind of icon on a pedestal, belonging to a museum.” Fetishising Mandela exclusively as a man of peace marginalises him as a military strategist. Carl von Clausewitz, one of Mandela’s intellectual inspirations, emphasized thinking clearly about the relationship between end goals and the means needed to pursue them. This type of strategic thinking served Mandela well throughout the struggle for a democratic South Africa, and, at times, led him to advocate the use of force.
In October 1998, a month after the Lesotho intervention, Mandela began to draft a sequel to Long Walk to Freedom. Though he never completed the volume, his draft of the introductory chapter resides in the Mandela Centre for Memory. The introduction to this work provides insight into how Mandela understood the Lesotho crisis and conceived of the appropriate use of military force.
“The actual situation on the ground may justify the use of violence, which even good men and women may find it difficult to avoid. But even in such cases the use of force would be an exceptional measure, whose primary aim is to create the necessary environment for peaceful solutions.”
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
The 46-year-long Wits LLB that never was
- Bruce Murray
Nelson Mandela is among Wits University’s most famous alumni, but he is not a graduate of the University.
Mandela was a law student at Wits University from 1943 to 1949 but failed the final examination on three occasions between 1947 and 1949. On the third occasion, he applied to the Dean of Law, Professor HR Hahlo, for permission to write supplementary examinations in the three papers he failed. The Board of the Faculty of Law denied permission, as the regulations allowed for a maximum of two supplementary examinations.
“Women and Africans not disciplined enough to master law”
Evidently, the advice Hahlo subsequently gave Mandela was to abandon the LLB, which was required to become an advocate – a career Hahlo deemed unsuited to Africans (as it necessitated being part and parcel of the mores of the people – meaning whites – if the advocate were to get any business) and instead to qualify directly as an attorney. Mandela took the advice and passed the Attorney’s Admission examination at the end of 1951.
There is a strong tradition that places the blame firmly on Hahlo for Mandela’s failure to qualify for a Wits LLB. Hahlo was a racist who gave Mandela, the first African law student at Wits, the gratuitous advice that Africans and women were unsuited to the study of law. “His view,” Mandela recounted in his autobiography, “was that law was a social science and that women and Africans were not disciplined enough to master its intricacies.”
Certainly, Hahlo was unhelpful – Mandela reckoned “he could have been more friendly and helpful to me” – but he was not unfair. Mandela ultimately passed all the courses for the LLB he took from Hahlo, six out of 14, except Jurisprudence in 1947. The examiners who consistently failed Mandela were the noted liberal advocate Rex Welsh, in Jurisprudence 1948-9, and the Scot, advocate RG McKerron, in the Law of Delicts 1947-9.
Frequent failure, rising revolutionary
Mandela had always struggled with examinations at Wits, but his performance in his final-year LLB examinations is puzzling. By 1947, he had completed his articles with the law firm Sidelsky and Eidelman, and with the aid of a substantial loan from the Bantu Welfare Trust (which he never repaid), he was able to move from part-time to full-time study. Yet, in 1947, he failed all six papers badly, followed by four failures the next year, and three in 1949.
A likely explanation is that Mandela’s activities in the newly formed ANC Youth League consumed him. In 1947, he became secretary, responsible for political organisation. By 1948, according to his wife, Evelyn, Mandela was often away from home days at a time, engaged in Youth League activities.
After qualifying as an attorney, Mandela decided on another attempt at the LLB. He enrolled again at Wits for the 1952 academic year. He never really made a go of it though, becoming deeply involved as volunteer-in-chief in helping organise the Defiance Campaign. Wits cancelled his registration on 18 July for the non-payment of fees. In August, Mandela opened his own law practice, soon to be joined by Oliver Tambo.
Prisoner of conscientiousness
Mandela still hankered after an LLB and at the end of the 1950s enrolled as an external student with London University. That was in the midst of the Treason Trial (1956-61), with Mandela one of the accused. In 1964, he wrote and passed his first London LLB examinations while awaiting sentence in the Rivonia Trial, which many expected would be the death penalty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island, he was permitted to continue with his LLB studies – the only prisoner allowed to study law. In 1967, he successfully completed Part 1 of the London University LLB examination, but at that point, he again stalled, and his task became impossible when, in 1970, the apartheid government put an end to his overseas supply of books through the British ambassador.
Out of a sense that he was getting nowhere with his London University LLB, Mandela wrote in October 1974 to the Dean of the Faculty of Law at Wits inquiring whether it would be possible for him to write Wits’ final LLB examination in November 1975. The response he received from the Registrar’s office was cautious and legalistic rather than sympathetic, and the status of his credits questioned. Nonetheless, an application form was sent to him – but he never received it. The Department of Prisons blocked his correspondence with Wits and refused him permission to continue his LLB studies, whether through London, Wits, or UNISA.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, LLB (UNISA, 1989)
Ultimately, in 1981, it was the Dean of Law at UNISA, Professor Willem Joubert, who persuaded the government that it was ridiculous to continue blocking Mandela’s LLB. He enrolled for the UNISA LLB, and finally qualified in 1989, 46 years after his first registration for the degree at Wits. It was a remarkable feat of persistence, particularly as, since his imprisonment, there was no prospect Mandela would ever practice law again.
Mandela’s experiences at Wits were certainly not without their influence on his personal and political development. In the first instance, Wits provided him with the legal education he required to launch his career as an attorney – his ambition since arriving in Johannesburg from the Transkei.
Second, Wits represented Mandela’s first exposure to whites, and white prejudices, on any considerable scale. Wits had only recently begun opening its doors to black students, and Mandela was treated as something of an alien, rather than embraced, giving something of a personal edge to his participation in the emerging struggle against “the oppression of our black people”.
Apart from white prejudice, Wits also exposed Mandela to a “new world”, a “world of ideas and political debates, a world where people were passionate about politics”. Wits opened up Mandela to political dialogue, and also friendships with persons of other races, many of them communists, which ultimately tempered his assertive anti-communist African nationalism, and his opposition to political alliances with other race groups.
In the later view of certain “Africanists”, it was Mandela’s time at Wits that contributed to “a watering down of his affiliation to radical African nationalism [Africanism] and of becoming more amenable to the influence of communists”. As he conceded in his autobiography, his friendships with people like Ismail Meer and Ruth First, and his observation of their own sacrifices, made it “more and more difficult to justify my prejudice against the party”.
Mandela never bore an enduring grudge against Wits, which he came to perceive as an important instrument of transformation. In 1982, while in Pollsmoor Prison, he ran for the post of Chancellor of Wits, and in 1991, after his release, he accepted an honorary doctorate in laws from the University. In the spirit of reconciliation, he requested a reunion of the law class of 1946, including those who had snubbed him as a student. The reunion took place in November 1996.
“Wits made me what I am today,” Mandela said at the reunion. “I am what I am both as a result of people who respected me and helped me, and those who did not respect me and treated me badly.”
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
'Where does daddy live?'
- Noor Nieftagodien
To win the hearts of millions, Nelson Mandela paid dearly – with the hearts of those he loved most.
At the beginning of the 1940s Mandela was at a crossroads. Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, who became Mandela’s guardian after his father’s death, arranged wives for his son, Justice, and Mandela – whose studies at Fort Hare University had been derailed for supporting a boycott. Mandela and Justice fled to Johannesburg to escape customary restrictions.
Johannesburg also offered Mandela new opportunities to pursue his dream of becoming a lawyer. He found employment as a clerk at a law firm, which allowed him to pay for his Unisa studies. In 1943, he enrolled at Wits for a law degree.
Mandela’s academic career was then a primary objective. Although he moved around in political circles, he initially refused to join any political party. His free time was spent courting women.
Serious romance came his way when he met Evelyn Mase. He proposed within months, they were married in 1944 and qualified for a house in Soweto after the birth of their first son, Thembekile. Fatherhood excited Mandela: “I enjoyed domesticity, even though I had little time for it. I delighted in playing with Thembi, bathing him and feeding him and putting him to bed with a little story,” he wrote in his autobiography.
Although he had previously stayed in Alexandra only briefly, he wrote: “I always regarded Alexandra Township as a home where I had no specific house, and Orlando as a place where I had a house but no home.”
Mandela also had his first taste of an urban protest in Alexandra when he joined thousands in their defiant march to and from work in the 1943 bus boycott. Mandela felt he had moved from being an observer to becoming a participant and “to march with one’s people was exhilarating and inspiring”.
Johannesburg in the 1940s was at the heart of protest politics. This milieu of struggle and Mandela’s association with key activists such as Walter Sisulu pushed him towards activism.
He was elected onto the first executive of the Youth League and to the Transvaal African Congress executive, co-opted onto the ANC executive, and in 1951 was elected Youth League president.
Makgatho, his second son, was born during the 1950 campaign. Although he was at the hospital for the birth, Mandela admits: “It was only a brief respite from my activities”. Politics began to shape every aspect of the family. As a sign of his dedication, Mandela named his second son after the organisation’s second president.
As his responsibilities in the ANC increased, he inevitably spent less time with his family. Thembi, who was old enough to notice his father’s absence from home even asked his mother: “Where does Daddy live?”. Mandela recalls the anguish he felt: “I did not relish being deprived of the company of my children. I missed them a great deal during those days”, but also said: “A man involved in the struggle was a man without a home life”.
Volunteer-in-Chief
At the ANC’s national conference in December 1951, Secretary-General Walter Sisulu announced the Defiance Campaign against unjust laws such as the Group Areas Act. Mandela emerged as a lynchpin in the Campaign which catapulted him from being an emerging leader to being a leader of a 100 000-strong mass movement. He said: “I had come of age as a freedom fighter”.
But the Campaign also introduced state persecution. Mandela was arrested and charged under the Suppression of Communism Act and sentenced to nine months prisonment, suspended for two years, and banned from attending gatherings for six months.
On 3 September 1953 under the same Act, his restrictions included being forced to resign from the ANC and being prohibited from attending meetings for two years. He lamented about being “isolated from people who think like me … I found myself treated as a criminal, an unconvicted criminal”.
In 1952 he qualified as an attorney and, with Oliver Tambo, opened Johannesburg’s first black law firm.
Separation at No. 8115 Orlando West, Soweto
Evelyn was a committed nurse who had become involved in the Nursing Union but her enthusiasm did not extend to formal politics. By the early 1950s she had become a dedicated Jehovah’s Witness who spent much of her time distributing the church’s magazine, The Watchtower. Evelyn and Mandela both disapproved of the other’s life choices and when Mandela was arrested in 1956 on treason charges and then released on bail, he returned home to find she had left.
The children were upset. Mandela recalls visiting Makaziwe’s crèche: “She did not know whether to run to me or retreat, to smile or frown. She had some conflict in her small heart… It was very painful.”
Soon after his restrictions were lifted in 1955 Mandela visited his mother in the Transkei, and reflected later on the guilt he felt at seeing how she lived. “I wondered, not for the first time – whether one was ever justified in neglecting the welfare of one’s own family in order to fight for the welfare of others.”
Love in the time of treason
In 1957 he met Winnie Madikizela. A whirlwind romance commenced and on 14 June 1958 the couple married. “Though I was on trial for treason, Winnie gave me cause for hope,” he wrote.
His dramatic, wide-smiled appearances with Winnie seemed to belong to showbiz rather than to politics, and his image acquired a new dimension: not just the lawyer and revolutionary, but the lover with the adoring partner.
Mandela converted part of the lounge into an office and the distinction between Mandela’s private and public lives virtually disappeared.
Underground family
Mandela’s arrest on 30 March 1960 under the State of Emergency marked the beginning of a three-year period during which the state’s repression determined his political and personal life. Released in August, he was nominated to take charge of the ANC’s underground operation. Winnie remembered the moment his life in the underground commenced. He had come home with ANC leaders and said: “Oh, darling, just pack a few things for me in a suitcase”.
“That was the last I saw of my husband as a family man, legally at home. There had been no chance to sit down and discuss his decision to commit himself totally.”
Over the next 17 months Mandela became “a creature of the night”, mobilising support. “I welcomed the opportunity to be by myself, to plan, to think, to plot. But one can have too much solitude. I was terribly lonesome for my wife and family.”
From October 1961 he moved to Lilliesleaf farm in Rivonia, where his family could visit. Winnie said: “So Zendzi [their youngest daughter] imagined that to be her home because it was the only place where her father had played with her”. Here, Mandela said, they had more privacy than at home.
When he was arrested in August 1962, Mandela handled his own defence and spoke of his enforced underground life: “It has not been easy for me … living separated from those who are closest to me”.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
A Long Walk to Freedom vs the Mthatha Archives
- Phil Bonner
Taking a closer look at the documentary record of his father’s life and Mandela’s recollection in A Long Walk to Freedom.
A discrepancy regarding the historical facts and dates of Nelson Mandela’s father’s title as a headman in Madiba's autobiography, A Long Wak to Freedom, came to light during the research for a cookbook, Hunger for Freedom: The Story of Food in the Lives of Nelson Mandela.
The following research is an edited version of the result of an investigation into the differences between the documentary record in the Mthatha Archives and Mandela’s autobiography, on request of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The decisive figures in Nelson Mandela’s early life were his father Gadla Henry Mandela and Thembu chief regent Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Mandela considered himself to have inherited his father’s “straight and stately posture” as well as his “proud rebellious” cast of mind and “stubborn sense of fairness”.
A critical moment of his father’s life in Mandela’s autobiography and which reflected these character traits was his father’s dismissal from his position of chief at Mvezo in Thembuland. According to A Long Walk to Freedom, his father was summoned to the local magistrate’s court when a subject complained about an ox which had strayed from its owner. His father felt that, as a Thembu royal, the magistrate had no legitimate power to discipline him, and he is reported as retorting “Andizi, ndisaqula” (“I will not come, I am still girding for battle”).
For this, according to Mandela, he was dismissed without enquiry, then deprived of most of his herd and his land, forcing the family’s move to Qunu where his father visited for a week every month. These events took place, according to Long Walk, “when he was not much more than a new born child”. At age nine, on one of his father’s monthly visits, his father died, and Jongintaba became his guardian.
In Mandela’s account, these events occurred “in the 1920s” and were constructed from others’ recollections.
However, beyond this oral record, according to documents in the Mthatha Archives, Gadla Henry Mandela was installed as headman (in colonial parlance, not chief) of Mvezo in January 1915. He replaced the former headman Hlakayana, who had previously been a colonial policeman for 25 years. Commoners were frequently appointed to headmen positions. The local magistrate held a public meeting attended by Chief Dalindyebo of the Thembu and residents were asked to nominate a new headman. None of the 12 residents present recommended anyone. The magistrate asked if Dalindyebo had a candidate and he nominated Gadla Henry Mandela, who was seemingly not a resident of Mvezo. The magistrate approved partly because “there is no man in the location suitable for appointment”, partly because “he is a strong man” and partly because “his traditional stature should command respect”.
The documentary account of Gadla’s dismissal also differs from the family history. He appeared before a magistrate’s enquiry, was cross-examined, found guilty and dismissed. He lost his position, as the autobiography asserts, but it’s unclear why this automatically entailed loss of his fortune, land and herd.
Perhaps the biggest discrepancy is the date it took place, September 1926. Long Walk places this much earlier. If Mandela and his mother moved to Qunu in 1920-21, as seem likely, this was five to six years before Gadla’s dismissal.
A key question is then why and when they moved. Mandela recalls first attending school at Qunu at the age of seven, some years after arriving there, which would have been 1925. His father apparently died in 1927. Something has evidently been left out of the family accounts.
A common thread weaves its way through both Gadla and Hlakayana’s stories of dismissal: alleged irregularities over the allocation of land. This authority of the headman and the ability to deploy it for material benefit was both complicated and constrained by a programme of surveying plots, and the magistrate’s office compiling a register of authorised occupants.
Gadla was arraigned in the magistrate’s office on five charges of allotting unsurveyed land to five residents without the magistrate’s knowledge. Gadla’s defence was feeble. He brought no witnesses and for the most part simply denied the charges as fabricated. The complainants, by contrast, brought witnesses and presented detailed circumstantial evidence such as a description of the cash (four pound notes and a silver coin) or the animal (a black bull calf, white between the legs) with which he was paid for his services.
Documentation shows there was nothing particularly unusual or excessive in Gadla’s behaviour, in terms of the unwritten headman protocols of the time. This is confirmed by the fact that he was not only preceded in the office of headmanship by a magisterial appointee but was followed by another, Ntabazulu Mtirara.
Land allocation was the hidden underside of Transkei politics. One of the problems was encroachment on commonage. Magistrates said they did not have the time and resources to police it systematically. Headmen took advantage of this to allow encroachment on commons but began demanding payment for the allocation of plots.
Only a year before Gadla’s dismissal, a trader, AT Wood, had written to Transkei’s chief magistrate about Gadla’s methods of allocating land: “Selling of sites is quite a common thing, or so I am told by natives – and a good cow to the headman will often get a kraal”. Gadla was doing nothing out of the ordinary.
It seems probable he was plunged into a spiral of economic decline because he had been displaced from centres of political power and had lost the support of the Thembu royal house. This, more plausibly than anything else, precipitated his family’s departure to Qunu (the chronological fit makes Nelson 28 months old) and which may conceivably have induced Gadla to exploit his position of headman for personal gain, and stripped him of political defences in court.
Jongintaba’s guardianship of Mandela
After Gadla’s death, Jongintaba at the Thembu ‘Great Place’ at Mqkekezweni became his guardian. However, Jongintaba remains a somewhat remote, inaccessible, even wooden figure in Mandela’s account. Other reports are different.
Chief Magistrate WT Welsh in a letter to the Secretary for Native Affairs in 1920 asserted that Jongintaba “is addicted to drink, is heavily in debt, and quite recently there was a writ for civil imprisonment out against him”.
Probably £14 a year was expended on fees for Mandela alone, a financial burden which Nelson gives no sign of having registered, but makes Jongintaba’s fury at Mandela’s refusal to bow to authority at Fort Hare easier to understand.
The constant threat of civil action which hung over Jongintaba seems to have passed Mandela by. Whether this played any part in prompting Jongintaba to try and force arranged marriages on Nelson and his own son Justice cannot be known, although Nelson’s sending down from Fort Hare apparently did. All we know for sure is that the two young men’s escape to Johannesburg to evade the threatening marriages, the first key decision Nelson made in his life, signalled the opening of Mandela’s new professional and political career. The Long Walk had begun.
Nelson Mandela in Long Walk eschews any claim to the Thembu chieftainship. His grandson Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, however, portrays himself as the automatic heir to the headmanship of Mvezo on the grounds of a continuity stretching back to the 11th Century, and takes for granted that Gadla lived in Mvezo. The documentary record suggested otherwise.
Historical note
The Nelson Mandela Foundation acknowledges a discrepancy in A Long Walk to Freedom regarding Mandela’s father. In the Frequently Asked Questions on their website, the Foundation states:
“His father died in 1930 when Mr Mandela was 12 and his mother died in 1968 when he was in prison. While the autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom places Madiba’s father’s death in 1927, historical evidence shows it must have been later, most likely 1930. In fact, the original Long Walk to Freedom manuscript (written on Robben Island) states the year as 1930.”
Emeritus Professor Phil Bonner was a historian in the Wits History Department, as well as a founding member in 1977 of the History Workshop and was its head from the late 1980s until his retirement in 2012. He passed away in 2017.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
The making of Mandela in the media
- Refilwe Mabula
From “dangerous” black anti-apartheid fighter to iconic leader hailed the world over, to bitter ex-husband and “sell out”.
How was Nelson Mandela first portrayed in the media when he became president of democratic South Africa?
Mandela was portrayed heroically, reaching near-messianic heights when he became president in 1994. This was essentially the continuation of the framing of Mandela as a once-in-lifetime personality who endured 27 years in prison under the brutal apartheid regime but yet managed to navigate the country through difficult times. Media narratives framed the image of a personality who forged consensus by moderating extremist inclinations on the left in the black organisations, and extremist sentiments on the right representing white political organisations.
How did this portrayal change over the years?
When Mandela became president, managing the high expectations of citizens became a challenge. Many of the black citizens were looking forward to benefitting from the new South African economy where they had been previously excluded. While a number of media commentators retained the optimism that Mandela represented, some started talking of Mandela’s failure to put the material advancement of blacks at the heart of his policy transformation. His messy and very public divorce with his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, tainted his messianic image. Soon, voices began to emerge critiquing Mandela for being overly focused on reconciliation to the detriment of social justice that blacks demanded. This tenor of criticism would go on to imply that Mandela had become a captive of the so-called “white monopoly capital”. It must, however, be pointed out that these voices remained in the minority with large demographics of the South African populace remaining grateful for the role that Mandela played.
Why did this portrayal change?
Essentially, the shift from expressly positive to a more mixed portrayal was a function of the economic hardships that endured for a significant portion of the South African population. This was further tarnished by the fact that South Africa remained one of the most unequal societies in the word with a tiny minority enjoying high levels of prosperity while the majority struggled to make ends meet. As hope for the transformation of livelihoods for the better were dashed, the blame was laid at Mandela’s feet by some of the opinion shapers. In some respects therefore, the media narratives were a function of the reporting on what we can refer to as “dreams deferred”.
Some negative sentiments arose regarding Mandela after his death. What do these reveal about his legacy?
The key issues that have led to negative sentiment which in turn lead to some form of a pessimistic portrayal of Mandela’s legacy are feelings of economic exclusion. This dented the positive portrayal of his legacy in the media specifically and the public. Of particular concern for those interested in maintaining a positive image of Mandela is the issue of land. It is thought that Mandela did not prosecute the historical dispossession of land from the blacks by the whites. This view goes that Mandela should have pursued the return of land in the hands of whites to blacks. However, Mandela’s legacy is based on his personal sacrifice and the delivery of a progressive constitution. As such, the resultant legacy is a mixed one: positive on the human rights front, negative on the economic rights front.
Which aspects of Mandela’s presidential legacy were not covered enough in the media?
I think Mandela’s leadership style during his presidency has not been afforded sufficient consideration. In contrast to his successors, Mandela delegated much more and strove for consensus. Secondly, the media could have given the compromises he made much more attention. Looking at past and present coverage of Mandela, one does not get an indepth understanding of the decisions he and his cabinet reached and why. In other words, media coverage was rather superficial, focusing on the outcomes of Mandela’s presidency but with little in the way of the behind the scenes dynamics.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
The Mandela-Obama effect
- Bob Wekesa
Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama are widely seen as two of the greatest leaders in the world in modern history. What are their legacies?
For many people in Africa, the US and around the world, the apex of the Mandela centennial celebrations was the delivery of the 16th annual Nelson Mandela Lecture on 17 July 2018 by former US president, Barack Obama. In a sense, the curtain-raiser event took on the semblance of the main event – Mandela’s 100th birthday on 18 July 2018.
It should not come as a surprise that most news on the Mandela centennial captures Obama and conversely, news on Obama in recent weeks encompassed discussion on Mandela. A phenomenon that can be referred to as the Mandela-Obama effect has emerged, which fuses the personas of the two great men.
Beyond the starry-eyed comment and reportage before, during and after Obama’s Mandela speech, there are deeper points of significance worth subjecting to incisive analysis.
Questions abound: What is the place of the two leaders in world politics? Are their legacies – separately and jointly – assured for posterity or are their contributions threatened by new realities? Beyond the often orchestrated adulation and occasionally blistering critique, what are their shortcomings? What are the points of intersection, convergence and divergence?
Similarities
Perhaps the most salient points of convergence is that both served as the first black president of their racially divided countries, earned global recognition, were awarded the Nobel Prize and emerged as the leading black figures of the 21st Century.
Both showed rebellious character traits in their youth. They were activists in their university days: Occidental, Columbia and Harvard for Obama; Fort Hare and Wits for Mandela. Coincidentally, one of Obama’s early speeches was in support of the anti-apartheid movement, which he has attributed to Mandela’s imprisonment. Trained as lawyers, their legal practices were focused on civil and human rights work.
Similarities can factor in their physical attributes. Both are lean and tall. Their athletic physiques perhaps inspired their involvement in sports: Obama as a basketballer-turned-golfer; Mandela a boxer-turned-rugby enthusiast.
Both had a down-to-earth touch in their public lives. Firm handshakes and the joy of being amongst crowds; these qualities of empathy served to endear them at a personal level to the people they encountered. Comfortable in their skins, they did not mind being self-deprecating, a trait that further enhanced their “soft power”.
Obama endeared himself to both blacks and whites, thus inspiring the potential for a post-racial America. Mandela is credited for a reconciliatory approach that helped South Africa transition from apartheid to democracy. On the basis of their moderate dispositions, some have criticised them for being over-cautious, focusing more on racial harmony than justice for their black constituencies.
Differences
The obvious difference is that Mandela passed into history after his death in 2013 at the age of 95 while, at 56 in 2018 an assessment of Obama is a work in progress. Obama became president in 2009 at the age of 47 while Mandela became president in 1994 at the age of 77.
Mandela was already a global hero by the time he became president; Obama was virtually nondescript by the time he ran for the Illinois senate seat and eventually the US presidency in 2008. Mandela’s popularity grew gradually during his 27 years of incarceration while Obama burst onto the global stage.
Although both are Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Mandela deserved his while Obama’s was in some respects inspired by the euphoria of his election and announced only months into his presidency.
They lived in different epochs. One of the peaks in Mandela’s political career was reached at the height of the Cold War when he and his comrades served life imprisonment in 1964; Obama’s major peak was achieved in the post-Cold War era with election as US president in 2008.
From the social-cultural and identity perspective, Mandela was designated for a royal role in the AbaThembu royal court while Obama was a “commoner” raised by his mother, a stepfather and grandparents. Thus, Mandela’s leadership style is much more “African” in orientation, while Obama’s is much more “worldly”.
Legacies
Mandela’s and Obama’s place is assured on the basis of the mere fact that they were not just presidents, but the first black presidents of their respective countries. The apex of their contributions lies in pursuing racial reconciliation.
Criticism has been levelled at both for putative “betrayal” in not challenging poverty and inequality in South Africa and the US robustly enough.
The interesting point to note is that criticism directed towards Mandela’s successors (Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa) invites nostalgia towards Mandela, thus propping up his legacy. Similarly, the blistering opposition to Obama’s successor, Donald Trump’s style of leadership, helps to bolster Obama’s legacy.
Their legacies are being ramped-up by the work of their foundations: The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Obama Foundation.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
A hospital just as Madiba envisioned it
- Ufrieda Ho
Based at Wits University, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital is a true icon of the legacy that South Africa’s favourite son has left behind.
You have to look pretty hard to find an image of Madiba in the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital (NMCH). That’s the point about real legacy – it doesn’t need a plaque, a statue or even a hashtag to manifest. In fact, the majority of the young patients at the NMCH don’t remember when Madiba was president. They don’t know his story of sacrifice, revolution and looking on tempests and not being shaken.
History lessons will be for another time for these patients. Their and their carers’ priority is for them to heal – perhaps exactly as Madiba would have wanted.
Bearing Mandela’s name, though, does mean the hospital must deliver. On a wintery June morning, the one-year-old hospital in Parktown seems way too quiet. There is no buzz of people waiting, staff making rounds, and no children playing on the gleaming playground equipment. Public relations officer, Lulu Herkt, takes on board all these first impressions that she knows emanate from bad press when the hospital seemed behind schedule, and in a funding crunch. South African healthcare, after all, has a shocking track-record and there’s a glut of white elephants masquerading as service delivery.
Her response comes in the form of a hospital tour. At radiology, one of the first sections to open at the hospital, there are murals of giraffes with peeping antlers reaching for the stars. The beds are thoughtfully child-sized and even the MRI scan chamber is custom-designed for a small human. Beyond the pristine and prettiness the radiology department has successfully relieved the patient load on the Charlotte Maxeke and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals and given access to high-tech digital imaging for more children.
“We are a referral and academic hospital, which is why it may seem quiet at times. We don’t want to open departments with fanfare then fail because we haven’t planned properly. That’s why we’re opening in phases,” says Herkt.
South Africa’s icon was always present in the minds of those involved in planning the hospital.
“He was the elephant in the room,” says Professor Keith Bolton, former Chief Executive of the NMCH, of how Mandela – although absent – came to be part of virtually every decision around planning a hospital like the NMCH.
“Just thinking about his vision made you want to do things better, to think bigger,” says the paediatrican, who never met Madiba but was hooked from the moment that the Chief Executive of the NMCH Trust, Sibongile Mkhabela, approached Wits University’s team of paediatricians over a decade ago, saying: “The old man wants a hospital”.
“We couldn’t get the 3 000-bed hospital we hoped for, but we did get a hospital that has the intention to be run as a private hospital but is accessible to every child, whether or not they can pay,” says Bolton.
Wits donated the land for the hospital. Being just metres from the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences and its teaching hospital, the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, the former hockey field that was part of the Wits Education Campus was a perfect fit. Wits would also be the affiliate university to the NMCH. The board of trustees in turn had to raise the R1 billion needed to ensure the hospital could fill the gaps required of a specialised tertiary and quaternary institution. Tertiary and quaternary refers to specialised care available in referral centres.
Bolton retired two years ago from the NMCH board, but at 72-years-old still works mornings at the Rahima Moosa Hospital. He admits that the NMCH retains a special place in his heart.
“Once a week we have an X-Ray and MRI assessment day. When I’m told the X-rays were done at the NMCH, I do get a tear in my eye,” he says.
The NMCH is run by a trust, with Nelson Mandela’s wife, Graça Machel, as its Chairperson. It survives on fundraising, but clinical staff are paid by the state. “We don’t want to drain the public healthcare system of health professionals who might flock here for better pay, or for the NMCH to be another hospital under pressure with casualty in-patients,” says Herkt. “We’re trying a different model.”
One of the things that are different to other hospitals is the family-oriented healthcare. There are no set visiting hours; there is accommodation available for parents; siblings’ play areas; lounges with Wi-Fi; and social workers to explain operations and give support.
Dr Despina Demopoulos is a paediatric intensivist. In her ICU unit there are children desperately ill, but she’s smiling. A baby on a sophisticated blood cleaning and pumping machine has the best chance of recovery, and a toddler with severe pneumonia is going to be just fine, she says.
“It’s been a dream to be part of the NMCH team. One of our patients’ dads said to us recently ‘Madiba would have been proud of you’ – that’s thanks enough,” she says.
The NMCH is at its fledging stage, but Bolton says it cannot be allowed to fail. “It has to be a hospital of true integration of services, accessibly and collaboration on all levels, just as Madiba envisioned,” he says.
Staff get emotional when speaking about working in a hospital that bears Madiba’s name. As Herkt continues her informal tour, she’s interrupted by a surgeon who has good news: the NMCH surgery team say they will be ready to hit the target of completing 100 general surgeries in July. It will coincide with the Mandela centenary celebrations, just as they had hoped.
Herkt beams at the news: “This is Madiba’s living legacy.”
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
mARTdiba
- Lem Chetty
In Nelson Mandela’s personal office in Houghton, there is a stately wooden desk covered in brightly coloured cattle figurines.
The artworks form part of a vast collection of gifts to Madiba, the beloved icon whose image artists preserved in wood, copper, bronze, clay, ink and on canvas. The Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Verne Harris chuckles when he recalls the cattle.
“Madiba avoided saying what his favourite things were, because it excluded people, but if he liked something, it would go to his office or to the house. The porcelain herd he loved because it reminded him of his actual cattle in the Eastern Cape,” says Harris.
In a basement of the Foundation’s offices, Harris opens a vault that houses “Madiba Art” that has been catalogued and curated over the years. “Value is subjective. Some of it is fantastic, some quite grotesque,” Harris says, recalling a bust of Madiba in papier-mâché, painted gold, that was created by a prisoner in Johannesburg. The Foundation went to visit the prisoner to thank him for the effort, says Harris.
The vault is filled with macabre masks, statuettes, and endless rows of paintings, including one from actor Robert De Niro, whose father was a renowned artist. A gift from Michelle Obama, former first lady of the USA, is a bizarre three-armed bronze of Dr Martin Luther King, but most of the art depicts Mandela himself – in every medium, form and size imaginable.
Another art haul is expected for Mandela’s centenary – this is apart from street art around the world that depicts Mandela in mosaic, graffiti and abstract pieces as far as Venice Beach, Los Angeles; Paris, France; and Bristol, England.
“I think artists depicting Madiba make the mistake of not interpreting him. Just trying to depict him was not easy at all. But it also loses his soul,” says Harris. “Zapiro [cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro] does a great job of depicting his personality. The cartoons are my personal favourite,” he says, revealing an ink drawing by a US cartoonist of former first lady, Graça Machel and Madiba, beaming from their disproportionate caricatured faces.
Whether as street art for a hair salon, murals, or towering statues around the world, Mandela was humble about art dedicated to him, says Harris. The nine metre bronze statue at the Union Buildings in Pretoria – as famous for its grandeur as for the fact that the sculptor hid a tiny rabbit in Mandela’s ear – had people up in arms because they felt it disrespected the icon. Harris says the Foundation did not take a position on it, because Mandela was shy about grand gestures in general.
“When he got back from London from unveiling a statue in Parliament Square he said, ‘Please, don’t make any more statues of me.’ I think he was awkward about the iconographic nature of it,” says Harris.
There is a cache of valuable Mandela art, some priceless, such as the famed South African artist, Marlene Dumas’ painting held at the Apartheid Museum. For curator and Wits alumna, Natalie Knight, who produced one of the biggest exhibitions of professional art dedicated to Mandela at the Origins Centre at Wits in 2012, it is in the eclectic and unusual that you see the adoration of Mandela. Her favourites include the works by Joachim Schonfeldt, circular paintings depicting Mandela’s life in the townships, Jane Makhubele’s Madiba shirts made from gold-plated safety pins, and Collen Maswanganyi’s sculpture, Fruits of the Long Walk to Freedom.
“These works I have kept in my personal collection – except for the sculpture by Collen which was sold after the show. A work that I find particularly poignant and that I am exhibiting in the 2018 show is a work by Velaphi Mzimba. He created his work on an old door that he found in his garage. He chose the moment that Mandela was released after 27 years in prison, and he based it on an extract from the book, The Long Walk to Freedom: ‘As I walked out of the door towards the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew that if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison’,” said Knight. One of the highlights of the exhibition was a lithograph, titled Tennis Court, by Mandela himself.
Knight recalls another show, which she curated in London at the South African Embassy in 2013, a few months before Mandela’s death. “The theme was, We love Mandela. All the artists, including Zapiro, known for his vitriolic depictions, showed their love and reverence for Mandela – except for artist Alfred Thoba, who was critical of Mandela and the ZCC [Zion Christian Church],” she said.
There are several exhibitions scheduled for the centenary. Music, art and theatre will converge to remember and honour Mandela. Whether priceless kitsch or invaluable artefact, it's all testament to the ideals that Mandela stood for, and for which South Africa and the world yearn.
As Knight says: “Art is a permanent record of the time. History and words can interpret and alter facts but a painting captures the moment and it is frozen in time. Mandela’s invaluable contribution should never be underestimated. His name and legacy should be acknowledged and revered.”
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Notes on South Africa through a jazz lens
- Refilwe Mabula
A patriot at heart, Dr Lindelwa Dalamba is enchanted by South Africa’s cultural history.
She is a musicologist and jazz historian in the Wits School of Arts with a particular interest in South African jazz history in exile. This, she says, is a lens for her to study the country’s past.
“Looking at South African jazz history is one way to look at South African history. South African jazz history is a means to get into parts of our past. You can’t get enough from the music itself in terms of South African jazz without looking at the history of this country and how it shapes the music and how other people imagined it,” says Dalamba.
Her interest in South African history was sparked during her undergraduate studies at Rhodes University where she majored in music, history and English. At the time, the music stream of her degree did not teach South African jazz or South African music of any kind. She subsequently saw this as a gap, which she tapped into for her Master’s degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, studying jazz legends, Miriam Makeba, Joe Mogotsi, and Hugh Masekela.
Her PhD from Cambridge University went beyond the borders of South Africa and focused on the social and musical dynamics of South African jazz in Britain.
Teenage jazz love
Dalamba’s path in jazz was carved from an early age. Having grown up listening to jazz, it was almost obvious that she would play it as well when she learnt to play music. Her father, who was an avid jazz enthusiast, introduced her to the genre when he first brought home LPs of classic South African jazz.
The East London born music historian, started playing her first musical instrument – a recorder – in Grade 2, at the age of eight. By the time she got to Grade 7, Dalamba was playing so well that she decided to try playing the saxophone and the flute. But it was the saxophone that eventually won her heart and she would spend hours over weekends with her new-found love with a saxophone that she borrowed from school. Her father later gave her a saxophone – a gift she says was one of her best ever from her father.
“I will never forget that day. It was on my birthday and I was busy practicing when I saw my dad come out of the car, brandishing this thing and I could see it was a saxophone case – I immediately ran to him and hugged him. That saxophone was my passport to everything,” she beams.
As a young trained instrumentalist who grew up in a female-centric family, Dalamba dispels the myth that jazz is only for males and older people.
“Patriarchy was never naturalised in my family. It is important to show that music does not 'naturally' belong to or is more comprehensible to a specific demographic.”
SA jazz and history
The jazz fundi joined Wits in 2012, soon after her PhD and a year before the passing of former statesman, Nelson Mandela. The month of July saw the world celebrate the centennial birthday celebrations Mandela – an iconic global leader who was hailed in many songs such as Free Nelson Mandela, Asimbonanga, Black President and others.
Dalamba says Mandela inspired music across the globe.
“Mandela was a musical symbol. Many artists paid homage and tribute to him in their songs. He was one of the many struggle heroes that had an interesting relationship with musicians and also inspired their music. Songs about Madiba remind us about the history of South Africa,” she says.
Born in the mid '80s during political upheavals in the country, Dalamba is fascinated by musical history and how jazz music tells the story of South Africa.
“Jazz music was a form of expression and communication about the challenges of the country during the apartheid era. Through jazz, we are reminded of the scars of the country’s past.” She uses the late jazz veteran, Hugh Masekela’s music as an example to explain this hypothesis.
“Hugh’s music reminded us of the townships, it reminded us of stories that actually gave birth to this jazz, the people who gave birth to this music and the spaces that gave birth to this music that we have now forgotten, because the music has moved to the urban spaces.”
Most importantly, with his song, Thuma Mina, which President Cyril Ramaphosa quoted in his inaugural State of the Nation Address, “Hugh Masekela reminded all politicians what it means to be a committed politician,” she says.
Bringing jazz to Wits
As a young jazz history lecturer who has been in academia only for a few years, Dalamba is proud of the growth of the study of South African jazz history in her School. Her blossoming career as a Wits academic is one of her greatest achievements, contributing to the University’s research output.
“When I arrived at Wits, there were hardly any jazz history students. I would supervise people doing popular music only. Today I don’t even have space, because every single student of mine is doing South African jazz history.”
When it comes to her work, she is inspired by Wits alumnus, Professor Christopher Ballentine, who was her Master's supervisor. She tries to be similarly inspiring to her students and always lends a hand.
Her students, who are from the post-apartheid era, intrigue her as they have different perspectives than she who comes from the transitional generation.
She is always pleased to see her students progress.
“I love seeing an undergraduate student decide to pursue postgraduate studies in South African jazz.”
Like her favourite jazz musician, Charles Mingus Jr. who was an American jazz double bassist, pianist, composer and bandleader, Dalamba wants her students to not only enjoy and play jazz music, but to become historically cognisant of it.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Sustaining a legend through song
- Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi
The oeuvre symbolising the life of Nelson Mandela is expansive. These are a selection of the most evocative.
Arguably, no other leader in history and human rights has had so many songs of freedom, protest, struggle, liberation, love and admiration composed in their name.
Two illustrations demonstrate this
Firstly, the Free Nelson Mandela Music Festival Concert held at Wembley, England, on 11 June 1988 for Mandela’s 70th birthday. In the foreword of this concert book, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, writes, “June 11, 1988 is a date which will be written indelibly into the history of our freedom struggle. The great gathering in Wembley Stadium of artists from all over the world to pay tribute to our cause was a source of great inspiration to all our people.” Mandela was still in prison at the time.
Secondly, the 46664: The Event at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa in 2003. This time, Mandela was there in person to host this triumphant African musical extravaganza. These songs, despite being in Mandela’s name, are the songs of the people of South Africa, Africa, and for the global community of international solidarity. Mandela’s struggle, from his birth in 1918 – eight years after the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, and six years after the formation of the ANC – through his inauguration as the first African president of South Africa on 10 May 1994, symbolises not only the Africans’ struggle for freedom and liberation, but also for humanity.
The Mandela name was kept alive in South Africa’s townships and rural areas and in Africa through song, particularly after the apartheid government banned his image and name in any media after he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island in June 1964 after the Rivonia Trial.
“Mandela’s cause was the people’s cause”, commented eminent South African jazz musician Jonas Gwangwa in the 2013 documentary, Music for Mandela by Canadian filmmaker, Jason Bourque.
In this regard, the book, Blues People: Negro Music in White America (1963) by Amiri Baraka resonates with the South African context: “As I began to get into the history of the music, I found that this was impossible without at the same time getting deeper into the history of the people. That it was the history of the people ... That the music was explaining the history, as the history was explaining the music, and that both were expressions of and reflections of the people!”
Similarly, Hugh Masekela, “the father of South African jazz”, said, “Song is the literature of South Africa”. Without these songs, the majority of which focused on Mandela, we cannot narrate our history.
Amongst many others, Miriam Makeba, Lucky Dube, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Chicco Twala, Vusi Mahlasela, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Tracy Chapman, Salif Keita, Youssou N’Dour, Burning Spear, Shabba Ranks, and Carlos Santana wrote songs and sang about Mandela.
Most famous SA recordings
Arguably two of the most famous South African recorded songs about Mandela are by South Africans. These are Brenda Fassie’s Black President(1990) and Johnny Clegg’sAsimbonanga(1987):
The apartheid government banned Asimbonanga. Twenty-five years later, Clegg, the “white Zulu” of South African music, received the Order of Ikhamanga from former president Jacob Zuma on 27 April 2012 for his musical contributions during the struggle.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
More than Mandela’s wife
- Shireen Hassim
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela married Nelson Mandela on 14 June 1958, just six years before he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Before Mandela’s incarceration and throughout it, Madikizela-Mandela waged her own war against apartheid and patriarchy. The couple divorced on 19 March 1996 after 38 years but the Mother of the Nation was much, much more than the former president’s wife.
No other woman – in life and after – occupies the place that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela does in South African politics. A stalwart of the African National Congress (ANC), she nevertheless stands above, and at times outside, the party. Her iconic status transcends political parties and geographical boundaries, generations and genders.
In her particular life, we may see more clearly the violence wrought by colonialism and apartheid, the profound consequences of fraternal political movements to whom women were primarily ornamental.
Her political power stemmed from the visceral connection that she was able to make between the everyday lives of black people in a racist state, and her own individual life.
Fearless in the face of torture, imprisonment, banishment and betrayal, she stood firm in her conviction that apartheid could be brought down. She said what she liked, and bore the consequences. Her very life was a form of bearing witness to the brutality of the system.
Before Mrs Mandela
Many obituaries will outline the broad sweep of her life; few will mark the extent to which her revolutionary ideas were shaped before she even met Nelson Mandela. To most of her social circle in the 1950s, for a long time into the 1980s, and certainly for Nelson Mandela’s biographers, Madikizela-Mandela was a young rural naïf who charmed the most eligible (married) man in town.
This way of seeing her as primarily beautiful, and not as an emerging political figure, has coloured both contemporaneous accounts of Madikizela-Mandela (for she was surely too young and beautiful to have a serious political idea) as well as scholarly accounts of the period (which focused on the thoughts and actions of men).
This misrecognition resonated in the ANC, which had no way of accommodating Madikizela-Mandela’s political qualities other than by casting her in the familiar tropes of wife and mother.
Astutely, she embraced the role of mother and wife of a political leader and fashioned it into a platform for her own variant of radicalism, drawing on recent memories of the forcible dispossession of land and its impact on the Eastern Cape peasantry, and black consciousness.
She kept those traditions alive in the ANC, especially in the everyday politics of the townships, when the leadership of the party was crafting new forms of non-racialism and at times vilifying black consciousness. Even though she was not part of the inner circle of the black consciousness movement, being older than the students leading it at its height, she was an ally in words and spirit.
In the tumult after the 1976 uprising, she built a bridge between different political factions. In the early 1990s, when Nelson Mandela was urging armed youths to give up violent strategies, it was Madikizela-Mandela they called on (along with the then leader of the South African Communist Party Chris Hani) to defend their change in tactics.
She played a similar role in brokering between moderates and radicals in the ANC and its breakaways up until her death. This was a form of gendered politics made possible by her status as mother of the nation, uniting warring sons and holding together her political family, even if peace was maintained only in her presence.
No (wo)man’s land
Winnie Madikizela was born in a rural Eastern Cape village called Bizana in September 1936. Her parents, Columbus and Gertrude, were teachers and her childhood was marked by the stern Methodism of her mother and the radical Africanist orientation of her father. Rural life, with its entrenched gender roles, shaped her childhood. Not only was she aware of her mother’s desire to bear another son, but she and her sisters were expected to care for their male siblings.
She was barely eight when her mother died months after giving birth to Winnie’s brother. Her childhood was cut short, and she had to leave school for six months to work in the fields and to carry out, with her sisters, all the daily chores of the household, from preparing food to cleaning. In her large and rambunctious family in which her parents upheld discipline with physical punishment, she learned to defend herself with her fists, when necessary.
Her rural background made her aware of land dispossession as a central question of freedom. By her own account, she learnt about the racialised system of power early in her life. She was to retain the theme of land dispossession by colonialism throughout her political career. Associated with this was the idea that race was central to colonialism. Taught by her grandmother that the source of black suffering was white power, her framing of politics was defined completely by the ways in which her family understood the relations of colonialism, and by their personal experiences of humiliation.
Political patriarchy
After six short years together, Madikizela-Mandela’s husband, Nelson, was sentenced to life imprisonment. By this stage, she too was inextricably involved in the national liberation movement, politics with single parenting. She was attuned to the mood of the people, and was more of an empathic leader than a theorist or tactician.
Madikizela-Mandelas joined the ANC Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women, and participated in several campaigns. She was militant to the core. On one occasion, when a policeman arrived at her house with a summons and dared to pull her arm, she assaulted him and had to defend herself in court for the action.
She was far from being a bystander, or a passive wife patiently waiting for her husband’s release from prison. In her autobiography, Madikizela-Mandela credits several other women for influencing her politically. Among these were Lilian Ngoyi, Florence Matomela, Frances Baard and Kate Molale, all leaders of the Federation. For her, they were the “top of the ANC hierarchy” although at the time no women were in fact in any formal leadership positions in the ANC. The ANC only allowed women to become full members in 1943, and during the 1950s, women were locked in an intense battle for recognition within the movement.
Gender was her political resource, enabling her to draw on effective qualities to form political communities and providing a mode in which she could enter into the lives of people in the townships. She embraced the role of mother and wife of a political leader and fashioned it into a platform from which she challenged the apartheid state.
The ANC could barely contain the nature of leadership that Winnie represented. Like many women in the movement, she was marginalised from its powerful decision making structures. Unlike male leaders, her personal life was constantly under the spotlight (no doubt aided by a zealous security machinery that kept her under constant surveillance), and she was judged harshly and unfairly for her private choices. Although she was a masterful player of the familial categories of wife and mother, she felt reduced by them too.
Commentators like to use words such as "maverick" and "wayward" to describe her, but these tendencies developed because the regular structures of the ANC could not easily accommodate a powerful woman with a radical voice. Stepping outside the agreed parameters of the official party line, as she frequently did, was a form of asserting her independence, a form of refusal of the terms of political cadreship that were available to women in the ANC and in society more generally.
The endless stream of photographs that picture her in romantic embrace with Nelson Mandela, even now in her death, and despite their divorce, miss this fundamental point: the marriage was only a small part of her life, not its definitive point. To present her simply as wife, mostly as mother, is to erase the many struggles she waged to be defined in her own terms.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
The Brothers Manhattan captured Mandela
- Shaun Smillie
Three brothers captured Nelson Mandela shortly before he became South Africa’s first democratically elected President in 1994.
These brothers are the three rating agencies – Standard & Poor’s, Fitch, and Moody’s. Patrick Bond, Professor of Political Economy in the Wits School of Governance, coined the nickname to describe state capture of a different kind that happened at South Africa’s democratisation.
These brothers were far mightier and meddling than those famous siblings from Saxonwold. These three brothers from Manhattan have done much to mould the fiscal and monetary policies of South Africa’s Treasury and Reserve Bank. Bond says that Mandela’s relationship with these brothers has left South Africa, 24 years on, with the highest Gini income coefficient in the world.
Mandela’s failure to spread more of the country’s wealth to the majority of the ’have nots’ has returned to tarnish his legacy. To some, Mandela is a sell-out who allowed an inherited economy to continue to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. However, the question according to Bond is, “Did Mandela choose the economy South Africa has today?
“Was he pushed, or did he jump? My sense is that people end up in conditions not of their choosing,” says Bond, the first policy drafter in Mandela’s administration in mid-1994.
What Mandela faced in 1994 was an unpromising macroeconomic environment. The country had just come out of its longest-ever depression, from 1989-1993. The African National Congress (ANC) inherited a public sector deficit that had reached 9% of the GDP in 1993. However, the party that came to power had dampened the influence of those on the left of the ANC. The voices of the working class and the poor were weakened when many of their leaders and organisers were drawn into government and parliament.
Bond also points to what he calls “masterful political management” by Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Alec Erwin, Trevor Manuel, Tito Mboweni and Maria Ramos, who were able to outwit the left and centre-left critics.
There were other challenges during those early days that stifled economic growth. Just as South Africa was re-entering international markets, the economy was saddled with the repayment of a $25 billion foreign debt and rapid deindustrialisation – the result of joining the World Trade Organization on adverse terms. The newly democratic South Africa, through pressure from the Clinton Administration, had been classified as a transitional country not as a developing country. A result of this, according to Bond, was that labour intensive firms – including clothing manufacturing, textiles and appliance industries – failed.
All the while, the rich got richer. The wealthy one percent of South Africans found their share of the national income rise from 11% in 1991 to 20% by 2002. Helping the rich was a corporate tax rate that declined from 56% in 1994 to 28% today. Meanwhile, by 2008, soaring interest rates had left 20 million South African borrowers with what the National Credit Regulator called ‘impaired credit profiles’ – these being people who had missed at least three payments. Also, in that time, the South African state spent less as a share of the GDP on social programmes than did any of the world’s top 40 economies besides China, India and South Korea.
South Africa today has an official unemployment rate of 26%. Counting those who have given up looking for jobs adds another 10%. Employment prospects have been ravaged by corruption and the divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ has never been wider.“Mandela decided not to fight certain fights,” says Bond.
The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries don’t offer much hope either. “They too have rising inequality rates”, explains Bond. Only Brazil has stemmed this through fiscal support to welfare and a large increase in their minimum wage.
Civilian counter-revolutionaries
But not all is lost, according to Bond. He refers to the “fourth industrial counter-revolution” – this is ordinary citizens working for a better society, outside of government. An example of these counter-revolutionaries, says Bond, are those South Africans who refuse to pay their e-toll bills.
“The spirit here is not bottom-down, it is bottom-up,” says Bond.
The shining example of ordinary folk bringing about change was when the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) pushed government to roll out AIDS medicines, and the de-globalised production of generics. The TAC was able to win this at the World Trade Organization in 2001 and the rollout of generic anti-retroviral drugs to four million HIV-infected South Africans began in 2004. South Africa’s life expectancy rose from 52 to 64 years as a result.
“The TAC was proof that we could do it. Ordinary people raised the life expectancy,” says Bond – and Mandela had his hand in this. By then Mandela had left the Presidency and the influences of the three brothers from Manhattan. Mandela famously donned that T-shirt that read “HIV positive” and in doing so threw his support behind the campaign to save the lives of millions of South Africans.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
It's in your hands
- William Gumede
Blaming Nelson Mandela for our current faults conveniently shifts introspection from the mistakes that the ANC and leaders subsequently made in power.
Mandela’s historic contribution to the infant democracy was to help cobble together a broad-based consent for the new constitutional democratic order. The Mandela-era will indelibly be associated with the early formative years of the new democracy: the new policy-making process, building the new democratic institutions, the legislative overhauls, and the early trust building – so essential – between the different groups who once stared at each other over the barrel of a gun.
Throughout the transition, his leadership helped to maintain the majority black poor’s trust and loyalty towards the ANC and for the new democratic order, as well as ease the fears of the predominantly white middle class, business and society frightened of black majority rule.
Mandela was South Africa’s first national leader with cross-racial appeal, trusted by large majorities of all ethnic groups. This was crucial in the transition to bring blacks and whites – who viewed each other with suspicion – together across the divides. Mandela’s catch-all embrace is the reason why he contemporarily can be so many things to so many people.
South Africa’s former president is no longer an ANC symbol. He is a South African symbol. He left behind a crucial historical endowment for the future: a leader who groups together the values that people who fought each other over centuries can jointly own. When forging divided peoples, as in South Africa, it is crucial that there are uniting founding fathers and mothers, which all conflicting groups readily embrace.
Mandela also left South Africa a gold standard of leadership we can refer to when current and future leadership fails. He espoused leadership in his personal behaviour that was both ethical and honest, with a sense of duty and governance, according to the values of the democratic constitution and in the interests of the widest number of people, rather than for personal enrichment or the interests of a small elite, ethnic group or political faction.
After spending almost three decades imprisoned by the apartheid regime for his political activism against their brutal system, his ability to overcome his personal anger, bitterness and resentment to his former oppressors, and to partner with them to build a new more inclusive, just and equitable society, gives us an example of an almost super-human individual compromise for the greater good of society.
Mandela is also the father of our constitutional dispensation. Unlike most post-independence African leaders and his ANC peers, Mandela firmly believed in democratic constitutional governance, even while he was a liberation fighter.
More recently there has been criticism, wrongly, of provisions of our constitution that allegedly undermine redress policies. Yet, the constitution provides rules within which we govern, exercise power and resolve societal conflicts – and with ample space to pursue redress of historical wrongs.
Mandela’s African nationalism was far more embracing and inclusive and non-racial in outlook than the narrow Africanism, populism and tribalism espoused by many leaders in the ANC today. While a fierce opponent of apartheid, Madiba was also a fierce opponent of the abuses, corruption and autocratic behaviour exhibited by fellow black leaders. For him, black solidarity stopped when his fellow black leaders behaved undemocratically or were corrupt or uncaring.
Nelson Mandela was also proof that individuals can make a difference. To follow his example, individuals must become more involved in public activities, whether it is sitting on school boards, attending meetings of local municipalities or supporting community organisations and charities with money and time.
Government's failure at multiple levels has prompted many citizens to withdraw where possible from using public services. Those who can afford access to private institutions do so, and avoid crumbling state hospitals or schools. They employ private security, rather than relying on the undependable police for their safety.
But many citizens who care deeply about South Africa are also now increasingly withdrawing from democratic activities and public life, while, understandably, focusing inwards on their personal and immediate family groups.
They often argue that, as individuals, there is little they can do to change the rising corruption, indifference and lack of accountability by government and elected officials.
Some white South Africans also perceive, because of their ‘whiteness’, they are not wanted in, neither can they influence public life, dominated by a predominantly black ANC government and elected representatives. On the other hand, some black South Africans argue that as individuals they are powerless, because they are not politically, socially or through family connected to the small ruling elite dominating the governing ANC.
As paradoxical as it may sound, with government and elected representatives increasingly failing to perform their public duties – individuals, non-government actors and civil society organisations will have to not only double efforts to hold government and elected representatives accountable, they will also have to fill the public service delivery gap left by government and elected representatives’ failure.
In fact, as government and public representatives disappoint, we urgently need a more social role for individual citizens, to counter such failure. Social solidarity with disadvantaged individuals from whatever colour must underpin the new social role for individual South Africans. Social solidarity across race will not only help break racial barriers and distrust, but it will lead to social stability, and help foster a common South Africanness.
Not only would such a new social activism slowly but surely help build the South Africa of our dreams but it will also bring individuals new positive meaning and purpose to their own lives.
With the hand he was dealt by history, Mandela has made his contribution within his capabilities, within his context and within his own sphere of influence – which was albeit wide. The rest is our responsibility.
A "how to" guide to social activism by William Gumede
For you:
Form inclusive lobby groups of all race groups to protest against potholes and corrupt policemen at local level
Shame, shun and protest against corrupt government
Elect and support honest officials
Volunteer your time, skills or funding to help in a needy community, for instance, teach maths, life skills or sports at a poor school
Mentor a child in a poor household and ‘adopt’ his or her education by funding it
Go one step further, and ‘adopt’ his or her whole household by regularly helping and getting involved
Give your domestic worker or gardener practical skills like driving, reading, writing or first aid (PAY for the education of their children!)
Better-sourced schools can adopt or twin with less advantaged schools
Above all, make sure you become more socially active – irrespective of your political affiliation. Elect better leaders, and hold them accountable.
For your company:
Give shares of your company to ordinary employees, instead of signing deals with politically-connected individuals
Invest in a new kind of BEE – train artisans, plumbers, boilermakers and electricians en masse
Follow the example of South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese companies after WWII – provide employees with skills, housing and bursaries for their children
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
At the end of the Rainbow
- Ufrieda Ho
Nelson Mandela embodied kaleidoscopic reconciliation in 1994, but what is the prism fracturing his legacy in 2018?
A stone’s throw away from Wits University in Braamfontein is a small art gallery that this winter exhibited an artwork featuring Nelson Mandela with arm raised in Nazi salute, superimposed on the flag of the Third Reich.
This was fiery artist Ayanda Mabulu’s statement on what he considers Mandela’s capitulation to white capital the moment that South Africa was being re-born as a democracy. It’s one person’s middle finger and artistic shock tactic, but it’s also a glimpse of the not-so-fringe factions that are angry, disappointed with the South Africa of 2018, and determined to slay dead-hero narratives.
Open season on the halo
Shortly after Mandela slipped into “belonging to the ages”, as former US president Barack Obama put it at Mandela’s memorial in December 2013, it signalled open season on Mandela’s halo.
Mabulu’s “black Nazi” rendition of Mandela is just the most recent recasting of Mandela. Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema called Mandela a “sell-out”, before backpedalling and saying the “old man” made too many compromises. Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe reportedly called Mandela “too much of a saint to white people” and when Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died earlier this year, some columnists and commentators didn’t fete her life for its extraordinariness in its own right, but did so by taking down her ex-husband Nelson Mandela by a few pegs first.
Populists have leveraged the power of rhetoric and muddied the “woke” agenda to call for necessary chaos and nihilism. The distraction of Twitter echo chambers and the noise of shallow ahistorical analysis has also become a deafening distraction.
At the same time, South Africa has arrived at the moment of Mandela Centenary celebrations with a resurgent invocation of the man for virtually every do-good cause. The contradictions and tension points of these divergent streams of thoughts raise the question of whether Mandela is a relevant guiding spirit for a South Africa of 2018, or if he’s a phantom, haunting the present with old missteps and compromises.
“They are not sending him to hell, but are putting him in purgatory and there are terrible years ahead still for Mandela’s legacy. This is the typical cycle of what happens in post-colonial societies,” he says.
Mbembe adds, “Those who are comfortable with the current situation hold onto a sanitised image of him. The younger generations still in search for radical transformation are keen to burn his memory because they need something that’s more threatening to the status quo, something insurrectionary, more directed to the present and the future than to the past.”Both narratives rely on a hyperbolic qualification of Mandela, Mbembe says, pointing out how exaggerations on both sides are simply not in tune with the historic figure that Mandela was.
“There is a facile critique of Mandela that is ridiculous. Its function is to cover our own cowardice.
“There should be nothing more we can ask of him, he’s given all that he had to give. We should take responsibility for ourselves, for our present and for our future, in memory of what he did for South Africa, Africa and the human race at large,” says Mbembe.
For him, to define Mandela’s legacy requires balance and historical context, in a country where deep inequalities grow deeper, fear and anxiety grips people, and technologies that are enabling in one way are, in another way, responsible for “democratising ignorance and stupidity”.
“The drama of our time is the drama of wilful ignorance, of nihilism masquerading as radicalism, of parochialism pretending to be wisdom or common sense. This is the cultural background against which the struggle over Mandela’s image and legacy is unfolding. Viscerality is threatening to replace reason in the public sphere.
We know that democracy cannot survive the loss of reason as a key means of exchange, communication and debate. If this trend is not properly arrested then we will end up seeing the very end of a reasoning public in favour of fake sentiments, passions and irrationality,” says Mbembe.
For Professor Noor Nieftagodien in the Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP) at Wits and the History Workshop Research Group, the challenge to debating Mandela’s legacy for 2018 relevance requires the framing of Mandela within an historical lens, to better understand the many facets of the man. The debates about his legacy also have to do with our contemporary political struggles and anxieties.
Four Mandelas
Writing in the Daily Maverick in 2014, author and former Ruth First fellow at Wits, Sisonke Msimang identified four Mandelas: the unapologetic radical; the principled pragmatist; the teddy bear grandfather; and the strident social justice activist. She posed the question of whether Mandela’s decision to “prioritise forgiveness and reconciliation over justice and redistribution in 1994 was a wise one”, especially as racist incidents continue unabated and capital, opportunity and access remain out of reach for the majority of black people. She answered her own question in the piece with the historical framing of which Nieftagodien speaks.
“It was clear that he [Mandela] was a man who responded sensitively and astutely to the contexts with which he was confronted. So the trait that bound those four personas was Mandela’s ability to make the right decision at the right moment,” writes Msimang.
Nieftagodien says, “In the early 1990s the task ahead seemed simpler and more straight-forward because most parties agreed the main task was to end apartheid and inaugurate a democratic order.”
Nieftagodien adds that the ANC and Mandela were aware of the deficiencies in the negotiated settlement. Mandela, it could be argued, took a pragmatic approach, focusing on the key objective of slaying the dragon of apartheid. It was hoped (perhaps naïvely) that, having political power, the new ruling party would be able to overcome the multiple problems bequeathed by apartheid. The likes of the Constitution, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission processes and even Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s declaration of South Africa as “The Rainbow Nation” would fill in the gaps in that honeymoon period of a “New” South Africa.
Now, nearly a quarter of a century later, many promises have remained pie-in-the-sky for too many people. The realities are that there is deepening poverty that still affects the majority of black people, high unemployment, gender inequality, the unresolved land issue, racism and even the continued destruction of the environment.
“It’s easy for Mandela to become the embodiment now of people’s frustration, but people need to remember that Mandela did not create these problems by himself, nor did he make these decisions by himself,” says Nieftagodien.
He thinks, though, that it is healthy for South Africans to debate Mandela’s legacy, to have vociferous disagreements and deeper interrogation. For Nieftagodien, it’s at the heart of understanding what kind of a South Africa we want to build and the kind of South Africans we want to be.
Like Mbembe, Nieftagodien says new rules of engagement need to apply. Sensationalism and political point scoring that polarise the debate into “saint” or “sell-out” camps he considers cheap shots and narrow agenda-setting. It’s a dangerous distraction to the bigger issue of fixing South Africa’s problems.
“Moving forward we should be looking at the heart of the deep structural problems of society and about the policies and the collective decisions that will guide South Africa now,” he says.
Ultimately, he says, no leader should be placed on a pedestal. Mandela himself never wanted to be placed on a pedestal, he points out.
Gumede says Mandela’s ability to inspire and the fact that he exited office untainted represents a gold standard for leadership that endures. It’s a worthy reminder in an era where leadership, vision and innovation are seemingly in short supply.
South Africans won’t easily forget the images of Mandela being sworn in as the first democratic president; the Madiba jive, or the time he donned the number 6 Springbok jersey and walked into the Ellis Park rugby stadium. They won’t easily forget how it made them feel.
Gumede says being able to invoke the mythology of Madiba Magic gets people to do better in their own spheres and to reflect on duty, sacrifice and action – especially in a fast world of clicktivism, hashtag glut and selfie overload.
“Maybe the next phase for South Africa is not about the big, glamorous plans for growth and development but about just getting government to work and getting better leaders.
We haven’t taken education seriously in this country post-1994; our education system has got weaker. Prior to 1994 we had a lot more education outside the school system, within our communities, but after 1994 many Black people who had an education or opportunity moved out of the townships. As a result, today there’s much more segregation between whites and blacks and blacks and other blacks. And it’s along these lines that Mandela’s legacy has been polarised,” he says.
Madiba Magic has the power to unify and reconcile. It’s why people put his beaming image on a T-shirt, knit a blanket, or give 67 minutes of their time each year in his memory to a good cause.
“That was part of Mandela’s legacy – he could be many things to many people,” says Gumede.
Constituting the Rainbow
And from the small magic Gumede points to what he considers Mandela’s ultimate living legacy: South Africa’s constitutional dispensation.
In reviewing Mandela’s writings and speeches from the 1940s onwards it was clear, Gumede says, that Mandela was talking about democracy, not just freedom, even as the shackles of colonialism were firmly in place. That’s exceptional, he notes.
Former Constitutional Court judge Albie Sachs said in a lecture on The Constitution as a framework for Struggle: “If we want further change, the way to get there is not to trample on the Constitution, but to stand on it. Not to abuse the Constitution, but to use it.”
The gift of a constitutional dispensation is what defends the artist Mabulu’s right to paint exactly what he likes, and it’s what defends his detractors’ rights, too, to declare that they hate it.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
A country for all its citizens
- George Bizos
Opinion: Advocate George Bizos SC is proud to call Nelson Mandela his life-long friend.
After 65 years of friendship, Bizos knew Mandela intimately and worked with him closely. His friend, says Bizos, was committed to creating a better country for ALL its citizens.
I met Nelson Mandela when I was in my first year at Wits University. The students were all called to a meeting, where we were informed that someone had complained to the government that there were black students sharing benches, and even walking around with white girls at Wits. But it was okay, the chairman of the meeting told us. It was all sorted out. The government had been told that it was just a “small group of leftists” that behaved so badly.
At the time, I was four years older than all the other first year students, as I had missed a couple of years of school when I first came into South Africa as a refugee. I don’t know what had gotten in to me, but I put up my hand and said: “If it means fighting for equality for all of our fellow students, then I am a leftist, and proud of it.”
The next day, the Afrikaans newspaper, the Transvaler, ran the headline: Linksgesind, en trots daarop! (Leftist, and proud of it!), for their front page lead story. My name was mentioned in the article.
Days later, I got a message that another Wits student wanted to meet me. His name was Nelson Mandela. I met him. We became friends.
In the 65 years that I’ve been friends with Nelson Mandela, I represented him twice – in the Treason trial, and in the Rivonia Trial. It was I that convinced him not to end his six-hour speech in the latter stages of the trial with the words “I am willing to die”. At least, I pleaded, add the words “… if needs be”, which he did.
We had grown close, Nelson and I. While in prison, we kept in constant contact. Nelson had asked me to look after his children while he was locked up, and I ran some errands for him. There were no secrets between Nelson and I, and, when he was released in 1992, the bond between us became even stronger. Never did we think we might fail. Never did we think we will not get to live in the South Africa that we were fighting for. A South Africa that belongs to ALL South Africans.
At a rally in Soweto, two days after Nelson’s release, I was sitting with Arthur Chaskalson, who later became Chief Justice. We heard Cyril Ramaphosa’s voice over the sound system, calling for Arthur and me. Nelson wanted to see us.
When we walked up to him, Nelson said that he wanted us to join him.
“You want us to carry an ANC card?” we asked him.
“I don’t want your R12,” he replied, referring to the cost of an ANC membership. “I want you to write the Constitution”.
It took us four years to write the Constitution. We went all over the world to do research to write the foundation on which this democracy is founded. It didn’t just come willy-nilly. It was a strenuous process that involved a lot of considerations, careful wording and consultation with the best legal minds South Africa – and the world – had to offer.
It is because of my commitment to this supreme law of the country that I refuse to resign. I am an old man of more than 90 years old. But my work is not done.
During apartheid, a large number of people were killed by the Security Police. When the cases got to court, a lot of them were thrown out with a judgement that there was “no one to blame”. My colleagues and I at the Legal Resources Centre have just recently successfully overturned a judgement on Ahmed Timol, who was tortured and thrown from the 10th floor of the then John Vorster Square building in Johannesburg. There are 60 other cases like this. Until their judgements are reversed, I will not rest.
It hurts deeply when people come up to me and say that Nelson Mandela was a sell-out. I reply by pointing them to the Freedom Charter. It starts with these words:
“We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.”
The Freedom Charter was written, literally, by the people of South Africa. Ordinary people, like you and me. It was adopted by over 3 000 delegates in Kliptown in 1955. While Nelson was present at the Congress of the People, he was not actively involved in the writing of this great document, nor in its adoption, as he was banned, and had to hide on the outskirts to witness the event.
Yes, Nelson Mandela was a great man – one of the greatest that the world has ever seen. He made unprecedented sacrifices to this country that he loved dearly. But Nelson never acted on his own. With every careful decision that he made – even when offered a deal to be released from prison – he first consulted with his colleagues, and the leadership of the ANC. The liberation of this country was never a one-man operation, and every decision made – whether right or wrong – was made for the benefit of all and especially for the future of this country.
So, to those who say Nelson was a sell-out, I say you are in a minority and you don’t know what you are talking about.
I am George Bizos. I am a refugee, and I am a friend of Nelson Mandela.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Living the Legacy
- Zeblon Vilakazi
Editorial: This year marked the centenary of a remarkable leader who transformed our world and left a legacy difficult to emulate.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela would have turned 100 this year, but he didn’t – despite being a global icon, a strategist, a peacemaker, a pioneer, an elder and a leader. He said that we have limited time to spend on Earth and that time ought to be spent effectively. By the time we depart from this Earth, we should have left the world in better shape. This is one of the key aspects explored in this issue of Curiosity, which celebrates 100 years of Madiba and his impact over a lifetime.
Another unique feature of this issue is that almost every story demonstrates an intersection between Madiba, his life, and his alma mater, the University of the Witwatersrand, at different times, through different voices and lenses. He first registered as a student at Wits in 1943 and spent six years on the campus, a period of great difficulty for him as the only black student in the law school at the time. However, it was during his time at Wits that Madiba formed life-changing, long-term relationships with many people who fought alongside him against apartheid, defended him in court, and paid with their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today. These luminaries included Ruth First, Joe Slovo, Bram Fischer, JN Singh, Ismail Meer and Ahmed Kathrada. Advocate George Bizos reflects on their days at Wits in the following pages.
Despite his early difficulties with Wits, Madiba accepted an honorary doctorate from the University in 1990. He bequeathed funds to Wits in his will when he passed away in 2013, an indicator of his generosity. Madiba’s handwritten notes at the Rivonia Trial are held in Historical Papers at Wits, alongside important historical materials that are being digitised. The Mandela Institute, a research centre named in honour of Madiba, was established in the Wits School of Law in 2000. In 2004, Madiba attended the sod-turning of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, located on the University’s grounds in Parktown. This high-tech specialised facility opened its doors in December 2016 and serves as an important site for postgraduate specialist training and world-class clinical research involving Wits academics and researchers.
There are the hundreds of students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders who studied every aspect of Madiba – his life, his policies, his roles – and many who interacted with him and walked alongside him over the decades. Their stories are reflected on the following pages and I hope that they will inspire you to live Madiba’s legacy today and in the future.
Read more in the fifth issue, themed: #Mandela100 where Wits students, academics, researchers, activists and leaders reflect on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and explore his impact over a lifetime.
Blue-ribbon bulls and agriculture
- Deborah Minors
HISTORY: The annual Rand Easter Show has it muddy and beefy origins on Wits’ Braamfontein campus.
Established in 1894, the objective of the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society was to encourage better farming in the Transvaal and, most particularly after the Anglo Boer war, encourage reinvestment in agricultural and more scientific farming, led by mining and agricultural figures.
The Society held its first (mainly agricultural) show in 1894, which President Paul Kruger opened. In 1903, Lord Alfred Milner persuaded the Transvaal government to allocate land for development to Johannesburg. This space, named Milner Park, became the new site for the Society to host its annual show.
The Sun & Agricultural Journal of SA hailed the “1923 Easter Show – a great cattle show – all breeds represented – unique array of trophies”. The article points out that “cattle from other Provinces of the Union and from Rhodesia can compete at the Rand Show” and hints at “a tempting display” expected on March 28. “They are well distributed over both the beef breeds and the dairy breeds, and, as will be noted from page 31 of the catalogue, the first of the beef breeds mentioned in alphabetical order is the Africander.”
In 1947, the Royal Family, King George VI, his wife Queen Elizabeth, and their daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, visited South Africa. The family attended the show and inspected the cattle.
The Society survived many financial and political vicissitudes and never had enough money to cover its expansionary plans. The weather sometimes wreaked havoc with attendance numbers and there were no shows during World War II, as the Union Defence Force occupied Milner Park from 1941 to 1945.
The Witwatersrand Agricultural Society finally folded in 2001 when the West Trust liquidated its assets. The third exhibition area, the Nasrec Expo Centre, passed into the ownership of Kagiso Exhibitions, which todays hosts an entirely different type of exhibition, the Rand Easter Show.
Although there are no longer cattle on West Campus, ducks, geese, and koi abound down by the Cape Dutch cottages (est. 1936 and modelled on a wine farm in Paarl to showcase Cape agriculture), Witsies today enjoy fine dining (and sirloin steak) at the elegant Wits Club.
Sources:
WITS Review October 2008, pgs. 30-35, The West Campus at Wits, Honorary Associate Professor Katherine Munro
The Sun & Agricultural Journal of S.A, Witwatersrand Agricultural Society, Feb. 1923, pg. 87
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
For sauerkraut’s sake, teach our children right!
- Schalk Mouton
COLUMN: Sauerkraut. That is how I start my day. Fermented cabbage leaves served with two boiled eggs and a slice of juicy cucumber on the side.
When it comes to food, I am my own man. I eat what I like … and I like to eat what my wife tells me to eat.
My new philosophy on food started eight years ago, when I moved in with my wife. Within the first six months, I lost 20kg. I was proud of myself. I paddled and ran regularly, and had supernatural self-control when it came to food. Naturally, then, it came as a surprise when, three years later, my wife casually dropped into conversation that, unknown to me, she had put me on a Weigh-Less diet.
A diet! What the Fungi! Never in my life would I ever have considered going on a diet! What a load of nonsense. I would rather eat bugs and die.
Slowly, but surely the wheel turned. It crept in, like a stray kitten found outside your front door on a cold rainy night that ultimately makes its way into your bedroom and then pushes you off the bed.
The food I ate became unrecognisable. No longer the McDonald’s double-thick chocolate milkshake on a Friday night. Visions of a greasy corner café Russian and chips for lunch faded slowly. Then, one day, I had forgotten how warm, freshly baked bread with strawberry jam smells. Does Woolies still sell Sticky Toffee pudding?
A constant tension surrounds eating habits in our household. In short, my wife would say we are “Banters”. I am still under the impression that I eat what I like. Every now and then, my wife declares a “100-day challenge” to “eat only from the Green List” and, on the nights when I order a chocolate brownie for dessert at a restaurant, the cat has no competition for my side of the bed.
Big Food
Food has become complicated. Gone are the days when a good meal consisted of a simple slice (or eight) of freshly baked Spar bread with margarine (butter was a poison) and a thick layer of peanut butter and Lyle’s Golden Syrup.
What should you eat? What do you avoid? Is this on the Green List? Can we use coconut oil to cook with or is it poisonous? High carbs, low fat? Vegan or “clean” foods? Should you eat food that grows above the ground or below? Is it butter or margarine – or both – that was concocted in the cauldrons of hell?
Eating has become big business. Everybody has either an agenda or a book to sell. Nothing is what it seems anymore. In the past, you trusted either a doctor or the You magazine for your nutritional information. These days, everyone with a Facebook account is an expert. You don’t know who or what to believe. All I know for sure is that – at least for now – my peanut butter and syrup sandwich is something that will stay locked up in the sweet distant memories of a fat and happy teenager.
Gastronomy on a knife’s edge
Growing up in a single-parent household, my brothers and I were left to fend for ourselves when it came to food. Except for dinner, what and when we ate was left up to us. So we didn’t eat breakfast or pack school lunches, but then wolfed down a loaf of the now dearly departed peanut butter and syrup sandwiches at lunchtime after school.
We quickly became the fatties in primary school, and while I managed to control my weight through taking up sports in high school, my brother became morbidly obese. Throughout his life, he was the target of constant ridicule and incredulous stares. He was always uncomfortable. At the age of 12, he outgrew his school uniform (later, I did too).
After numerous diet attempts, my brother decided on bariatric surgery two years ago. He lost 150kg and now weighs a normal 90ish kilograms. Not believing in quick fixes, I was deeply sceptical when I heard he was going for a surgical intervention. But seeing him now, in his mid-40s, enjoying a new life as if he were 25 years younger, makes it all worthwhile. Regaining his ideal weight, and his life, cost him close to R1,5 million. The pain he went through was hell, and he now has to stick to literally bite-sized portions, as overeating could be fatal. (Read his story below).
Had we been taught to eat better, our lives might have turned out differently. Not for a second am I blaming my mother. She cooked wonderfully sweet and greasy meals and did a great job raising her sons, but she had no idea about the importance of good nutrition. There was never anything close to nutritional education. Only now, with the help of a spoonful of sauerkraut each day, do I realise how critical it is to eat right and, more importantly, to teach our children to eat right.
The handful of multinational corporations that monopolise the global food system love the fact that there is so much confusion. They gorge on our perplexity, sucking up the profits while whittling the quality of our food and force-feeding us carefully constructed half-truths.
For over 40 years, we have been sold the “low-fat” fad. But to supplement the natural fats stripped from food, it was loaded with all kinds of hidden sugars. Since the ‘80s, when the American Government’s Dietary Guidelines began recommending low-fat diets, obesity has skyrocketed globally. It has cost children like my brother and I dearly.
Nutritional baloney
The basis for the low-fat diet was the Seven Countries Study in the ‘70s by American scientist Ancel Keys, who went out to prove that saturated fat caused heart disease. At the same time, British nutritionist John Yudkin opposed this, saying in his book Pure, White and Deadly, that sugar was the poison, not fat. But while Yudkin was a traditional scholar, quietly going about his science and research in a reserved and gentlemanly manner, Keys promoted his ideas aggressively and shouted down anyone who opposed him. Yudkin was buried. Sugar won the fight.
This confusion over nutrition makes a strong case for responsible scientists to raise their voices over the noise of Big Food. Scientists, communicators, journalists, politicians and teachers all have a responsibility – to kids like my brother and I and millions more – to stand up, communicate effectively, teach our children – and their parents – to eat right.
“Studla”, “Oros”, “Fridge”, “Michelin Man”, “Vetgat” – just some of the names I’ve been called my entire life. Imagine walking down the aisle of a mall and being the centre of attention – toddlers stare, they stop, point and say, “Mom, look at that fat man!” Worse is walking past people and you feel them staring – confirmed when you turn around.
I have been obese for 43 years of my life. For the most part, the term “morbidly” was attached to it. Weighing in at 250kg and being 1,83m tall, I had a body mass index (BMI) of 76. Normal males should maintain a BMI of approximately 25! Coupled with obesity, I had other complexities: hypertension, gout, and sleep apnea.
Clothing was an issue. Since third grade, I could not fit into any standard school uniform. I had to make do with a regular shirt and grey pants, when all the other children wore “safari pakkies” [safari suits]. I was the centre point on the class photograph. As an adult, I had to purchase clothes at Big & Tall (10XL shirts) tailored to fit me.
How did I get to that point?
A multitude of reasons: Slow metabolism; over-eating; lack of exercise; incorrect eating habits; and psychological reasons. You get to a point where you feel that you are so far over the edge in terms of your weight, you might as well continue to enjoy the next doughnut (Come on, feed your face!).
This lifestyle was hell. I tried everything to lose weight, every diet – Banting, blood type, etc. I took hormone injections at 16 and lost some weight but gained more back the moment it stopped. At 35, I went on a stringent calorie intake diet with strenuous exercise. I lost 70kg, but without changing the diet, I regained the weight. Five years later, I tried it again, cutting back more on calories and this time losing 50kg. Again, two years later, the weight was back.
Turning point
The last straw was a December holiday going down to the coast. Again, I suffered the annual oedema – swelling of the legs due to water retention from travelling. This time, it was so bad I could not stand up. I realised that continuing down this road, I would surely end up dead. My worst fear: How will I fit in a coffin? And how will they carry my coffin? I had seen it happen at my aunt’s funeral. I didn’t want to do that to my children!
At the age of 43, I opted for bariatric surgery. Only when I enrolled in the programme did I become aware of the importance of nutrition. This changed my outlook on food and exercise. Food provides energy and vitamins to the body to function, as opposed to my original view that it was there to enjoy! I learned this from a dietitian and psychiatrist in my middle-age.
Reflecting on my life (and without blaming my parents), I think they could have done a better job managing the situation when they noticed their boy ballooning in grade 3!
Weight as a set point
The other fact I learned while preparing for the bariatric surgery was the function and working of the thyroid gland, which manages metabolism. If a person has maintained a particular weight, the thyroid registers this weight as a set point. Once the diet begins and the person starts losing weight, when 10% of weight is shed, the thyroid gland thinks the person is ill and starts slowing the metabolism to maintain the set point. Thus, the weight increases again. To lower the thyroid’s set point, excess weight must first be lost and maintained for three years. But if there is more weight to be lost than the 10% trigger necessary for the thyroid to act, then you have a problem! Thus, if one exceeds a certain point of obesity, one will never be able to shed the weight with a normal dietary intervention.
A new life
Since my bariatric surgery, I have lost 160kg in two years, experiencing a new life! I can enjoy all the things “normal” people do. I have extended my life and all those abnormalities coupled with being morbidly obese have magically disappeared. I walk past people who look like I used to and my heart goes out to them – they don’t deserve the hell they experience.
Note that bariatric surgery is not a magic wand that makes the weight disappear. It is a long and difficult process that requires serious lifestyle changes, and the commitment and dedication to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Schalk Moutonis a Senior Communications Officerin Wits Communicationsand Editor of Curiosity. (*) Hannes Mouton is his brother.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
The chemistry of chaos and the magic moringa
- Beth Amato
PROFILE: Professor Luke Chimuka developed a method to produce an extract from the moringa plant that is used as a dietary supplement.
Chimuka, a Zambian native and Professor in the School of Chemistry at Wits, learnt to play the jazz piano while completing his PhD in analytical chemistry at Lund University in Sweden. He fell in love with the way famous jazz pianist Chick Corea explored the keys, and the beauty and coherence of the pianist’s improvisation. Jazz isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but Chimuka finds order in the apparent chaos.
Similarly, the Universe is chaos and science is its order – its anchor. “As a child, I wondered how the Universe was made … how things connected, and why they did,” says Chimuka.
Disparate parts of a whole
It was the smaller things that caught his attention too: “I wanted to know how seeds germinated and how cells divided. I was interested in the ‘building blocks’ of my world,” he says.
As a first-year university student, his friends called him Avogadro, named after scientist Amedeo Avogadro whose ‘constant’ is the number of atoms and molecules contained in a substance. “They knew I was a scientist from a young age. I was always quiet and very focused, and interested in the world around me,” he says.
Chimuka’s background is in liquid chromatography – a technique used to separate mixtures of different compounds into its individual parts. Initially discovered by a Russian botanist to separate plant compounds, Chimuka’s early academic work involved analysing drugs and environmental chemicals with this method.
Later, he used it to analyse the moringa tree’s leaves, mainly to see how much vitamin C and antioxidants were present. It wasn’t merely to analyse the moringa that was Chimuka’s aim, but to see how it could change the world and improve people’s lives.
The magic moringa
The moringa tree originates in the Himalayas and grows in many parts of Africa and the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, moringa shrubs and trees have multiple uses. Its leaves, roots and immature pods are consumed as a vegetable, and its bark, pods, leaves, nuts, seeds, tubers, roots and flowers are edible.
Chimuka sees the moringa as magical, especially in South Africa, where nutritious food is expensive and food security is tenuous. The moringa tree is fast growing, ubiquitous, drought tolerant and is an excellent source of vitamins A, B and C. The leaves are rich in protein and have antibiotic effects. Its products are recommended for pregnant and nursing mothers as well as young children. “The moringa has all the essential compounds and is an excellent antidote to malnutrition in poor communities,” he says.
Chimuka pioneered a method to extract a moringa liquid concentrate, which can be added to food and drinks and used as a dietary supplement, but doesn’t have the bitter taste usually found in moringa powder. The liquid concentrate is drawn from a pressurised hot water extraction technology. This technology, unlike other extraction techniques, doesn’t require high solvent concentrations and is environmentally friendly. The method is commonly used to extract chemicals from soil, but Chimuka adapted and perfected it.
Food supplements from science
In partnership with the Phedisanang community outside Pretoria, the Department of Science and Technology and Wits Enterprise, a business – Green Ex – was born. The business, says Chimuka, was a nice surprise and has the potential to grow. Green Ex products that have the moringa liquid concentrate include an energy drink, yoghurts, mageu, ice tea and mineral water.
“We’ve compared our energy drinks to a few others, and the Moringa Energy Drink has high nutritional value but without caffeine and significant amounts of sugar,” he says.
“I think it’s an exciting time being an African scientist. We’ve shown how science solves local issues and that technology advances humanity. I think African scientists must focus on simple solutions that have immediate and far-reaching impacts, just like the flushing toilet did,” says Chimuka.
At 52 years old, Chimuka says he has so much more to achieve. “I don’t want to think I have all this time left and that I can slow down. I may only live until I am 72 years old.” His time, therefore, will be spent continuing his own research, rallying behind the Phedisanang community, and growing an excellent crop of top-rated African scientists.
Currently, Chimuka’s research is in the plant biosciences, looking at how to extract the chemicals and the bitter taste out of stevia – a natural sweetener. The concentrate from the stevia plant offers an intense flavour, which puts consumers off this healthy sugar alternative. Stevia has no effect on blood sugar levels, which fares well for those living with diabetes.
In South Africa, where nutrition-related non-communicable diseases like obesity, diabetes and hypertension are on the rise, Chimuka’s research could be life-saving.
Chimuka’s research interests, he says, are guided by his being an activist to the core. “When I work with communities, the people really touch my heart and I become very attached to them.”
When Chimuka is not tinkering with chemicals or in the field improving people’s lives, he’s practicing the piano, hoping to compose a simple, yet strong solo.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Misleading labels and insidious ingredients
- Beth Amato
Only limited legislation protects us against incomprehensible, misleading and detrimental food labels.
On the back of a cereal box, sugar as an ingredient is hidden in plain sight. Indeed, the cereals many South Africans eat for breakfast and consider “healthy”, on closer inspection, have a significant amount of sugar masquerading as sucrose, barley malt, and high fructose corn syrup.
Another of the ingredients – Penta sodium triphosphate – seems to be a thinning agent, but a Google search yields a variety of definitions. The daily allowances for fat, sugar, proteins and carbohydrates appear on the label as do recommended serving sizes, but with grams and percentages involved, it’s hard for even the most literate, health conscious calorie-counter to determine the ‘right’ amount to eat.
What lurks in the label?
Being unable to decipher what we’re eating is one of the reasons why PRICELESS SA, a research-to-policy unit in the Wits School of Public Health conducted research into food labelling. PRICELESS SA, the Priority Cost Effective Lessons for System Strengthening South Africa, investigates smart decisions about health investments in the country.
First, consumers in the global South prioritise other information on the food label before nutrition information, such as expiration date, manufacturer information and storage information.
Second, while shoppers want to see nutrition labelling, the comprehensibility of the information is quite poor.
Third, back of package (BOP) is where all the vague information is found and consumers would prefer government-endorsed information that is clear, visible, standardised and includes symbols or pictures. These labelling standards are in line with the front of package (FOP) labelling system.
“The increase of obesity, for example, is not only because we don’t exercise enough, but because ‘Big Food’ [multinational food companies] obscure nutritional information on processed food and sugary drinks, keeping consumers in the dark about what they’re really eating,” she says.
Processed foods and sugary drinks are relatively cheap and easy to access, hence their ubiquity across South Africa and increasingly the continent.
Nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), like cancer, diabetes and hypertension, are on the rise in South Africa. Research shows that NCDs are now the top causes of death, with 700 people dying each day. The World Health Organization projects that by 2030, NCDs will be the biggest cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.
A Food Code with teeth?
Hofman notes that, despite the horrifying statistics, 87% of countries in Africa do not have mandatory food labelling. The Food Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization established the Codex Alimentarius [“Food Code”] Commission to develop standards for nutrition guidelines on food products.
Some developing countries have revised their nutrition regulations in response to this and as a means to “not only meet food safety requirements but also as a government best practice for tackling nutrition-related NCDs,” according to the Nutrition labelling paper.
The tax on sugary drinks is one strategy that the South African government adopted to address the NCD epidemic. Most importantly, it is expected that the country will adopt some form of FOP labelling regulations. Chile has done so and Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand have followed suit.
Truth-telling and transparent Front of Package labels
Front of package label information helps the consumer to assess a product’s overall nutrition information. Label formats include the ‘traffic light system’ (red, yellow and green), guideline daily amounts, or nationally endorsed health symbols, such as the Choices logo system and the ‘seal of approval’.
For example, if an average size fizzy drink or fruit juice had transparent FOP label information, it would receive a ‘red light’ label, owing to the fact that these products each contain between eight and 12 teaspoons of sugar per serving.
“Shoppers spend only a few seconds looking at a product. Indeed, the research shows that consumers don’t use the nutrition information on the back of the pack because they don’t have the time. This is in addition to having difficulty locating and understanding the complex information on the back. This is why clearer FOP labelling is needed,” says Hofman.
But some FOP labelling techniques are better than others. Hofman notes that the traffic light system and the guideline daily amounts have not worked as well as anticipated. She says the Chilean labelling system has yielded better results. Food in Chile has clear warnings. On the front of the item, shoppers are told whether something is high in sugar, saturated fat and salt. The wording is in black and white in a ‘stop sign’ shape.
“There are three ways to curb nutrition-related NCDs in South Africa: tax on unhealthy foods, halting of marketing of unhealthy foods and transparency about what people are eating,” says Hofman.
Regrettably, FOP labelling is only voluntary in the global North and is a long way from implementation in South Africa. Big Food is sure to push back. But the PRICELESS SA team is putting its weight behind revealing what’s in our food.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Beware the monster in your energy drink
- Refilwe Mabula
Q&A: Dr Aviva Tugendhaft, Deputy Director of PRICELESS SA sheds light on what energy drinks really do to the body.
There’s a buzz around energy drinks. Advertisers sell heightened mental alertness, zest and invigoration to those desperate for a boost in their energy levels. But what are energy-hungry individuals really consuming, and could the energy drink “kick” compromise health? Refilwe Mabula asked Dr Aviva Tugendhaft, Deputy Director of PRICELESS SA in the School of Public Health at Wits.
People seem to be drinking energy drinks for refreshment and not just for energy. Can you explain this?
Energy drinks are available at all beverage retailers across the city. Over the years, there has also been a steady increase in the advertising and marketing of energy drinks as competitors fight for their stake in the marketplace. Marketers have created a misconception that energy drinks are healthier than other beverages and allege that they provide improvement in mental or physical performance.
Teetotallers tend to drink energy drinks as an alternative to alcohol. Is this advisable? And could this be because the colour of some energy drinks is similar to some alcoholic beverages?
Energy drinks are widely available and due to intensive, robust marketing campaigns, they have been popularised. I therefore do not suspect that the colour of the energy drink has anything to do with it being an alternative non-alcoholic drink for teetotallers, but rather that energy drinks are available in places where alcohol is consumed. There is also a “buzz” created by consuming energy drinks, which teetotallers seek as an alternative to alcohol. However, energy drinks come with their own negative health implications, which last longer than the extra kick they promise.
What ingredients in energy drinks are harmful to the body?
The two ingredients that are the most harmful in energy drinks are sugar and caffeine. Excess caffeine intake can result in a number of health issues including hypertension, nausea, vomiting, convulsions and kidney damage, amongst others. A high intake of caffeine also poses a risk to particular groups, specifically pregnant women and children. The high sugar content in energy drinks can lead to obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and cancer. To put it in context, in one single 250ml serving of an energy drink, there are seven teaspoons of sugar. This is far more than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) daily limit on sugar. People who are almost dependent on energy drinks for a boost often consume more than one serving a day.
How much caffeine and sugar should one consume daily?
For added sugar, there is no recommended daily allowance but there is a recommended daily limit. In other words, we do not need to consume added sugar, but the WHO recommends limiting this consumption to no more than 6 teaspoons a day. There is also no recommended daily allowance for caffeine.
Are there any natural and less harmful alternatives to energy drinks?
Yes, water! Or a handful of nuts with a banana for energy. These come without the caffeine and sugar crash that energy drinks cause. Most importantly, they have no negative health implications and are recommended for a healthy diet.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Breastfeeding advances society
- Delia du Toit
Breastfed babies are healthier and smarter than formula-fed babies yet these benefits still do not translate into policy and practice.
Breastmilk makes the world healthier, smarter, and more equal. These were the findings of The Lancet Series on Breastfeeding (2016), the most in-depth analysis to date into the health and economic benefits of breastfeeding, which Professor Linda Richter in the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Human Development at Wits co-authored.
“The deaths of 823 000 children and 20 000 mothers each year could be averted through universal breastfeeding, along with economic savings of US$300 billion. [Breastfeeding results in] fewer infections, increased intelligence, probable protection against overweight and diabetes, and cancer prevention for mothers,” reads the Lancet report.
Keeping abreast of policy
However, exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) remains the exception rather than the norm in South Africa, says Wits Lecturer Sara Nieuwoudt, who coordinates the Social and Behaviour Change Communication field of study in the Wits School of Public Health. Nieuwoudt was the lead author on the Infant feeding practices in Soweto, South Africa: Implications for healthcare providers study (September 2018).
“EBF is increasing, from less than 10% to about 32%, in large part due to the removal of free formula from public clinics and increased breastfeeding promotion by health workers. But our study suggests that some frontline health workers are still reluctant to abandon formula as an option for HIV-exposed infants,” says Nieuwoudt – this despite the 2011 Tshwane Declaration for the Promotion of Breastfeeding, which made breastfeeding promotion national healthcare policy.
Although the Tshwane Declaration was an important step, it hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface of the challenge to increase breastfeeding uptake, says Patricia Martin-Wiesner, attorney, senior policy analyst and author of a breastfeeding policy review commissioned by the CoE in Human Development.
“The problem can be seen in the enormity of the gap between EBF and other feeding practices in South Africa: 25% of children are not breastfed at all, 45% are fed using a bottle, and nearly 20% of mothers introduce solid food in the first month of the child’s life. Solid food is not recommended for the first six months of life,” says Martin-Wiesner.
Working women breastfeeding
The results of the South African workplaces surveyed for the policy review were in stark relief to policy goals. In most instances, there was an absence of informal or formal policies to support breastfeeding when mothers return to work.
“What struck me was the big knowledge vacuum in the corporate and NGO sector on the responsibilities created by law – internationally and nationally – to provide a supportive environment by providing breastfeeding breaks and a hygienic space to do so,” says Martin-Wiesner.
“Many businesses are not doing much because they don’t know they have to. There is no education on or monitoring of the Code of Good Practice on the Protection of Employees During Pregnancy and After Birth of a Child law, which is part of the national Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Similarly, women do not know about it and so do not use it to enforce their rights through our labour protection framework and structures. There is also a reluctance to incur the costs and possible inconvenience of providing a supportive workplace.”
Nieuwoudt says breastfeeding is often seen as a “women’s issue” instead of the countrywide developmental issue that it is. This perception makes it hard to mobilise the private sector, trade, and labour to support breastfeeding proactively. “Resources are hard to secure for health promotion. The formula industry, which has a commercial interest in pushing their products, actively undermines efforts to make breastfeeding the norm. And many women simply don’t feel comfortable breastfeeding in public spaces at present.”
Breast is best for health and the pocket
One of the first steps towards improvement would be for workplaces to recognise the economic benefits of supporting EBF. While the cost is relatively small – one only needs a clean and private space for pumping – breastfeeding support is a sound financial investment.
“The biggest reason why women give up breastfeeding is because they have to go back to work where there is little, if any, support. If companies support breastfeeding, jobs can be saved rather than lost,” says Martin-Wiesner.
Should companies support breastfeeding, new mothers (in whom the company has already invested) will come back to work and be motivated and loyal. Mothers will also not take as much leave for sick children suffering from common problems associated with bottle-feeding.
“In the longer term, it contributes to healthy early childhood development, which is the bedrock of sustainable social and economic development. Indeed, for the most vulnerable and marginalised babies, breastfeeding is recognised as one of the key equalisers to afford them equal opportunities to develop to their full potential and ultimately escape the traps of poverty.”
At a family-level, breastfeeding saves time and money compared to formula feeding. Breastfed infants are sick less, particularly in contexts like South Africa where access to clean water and sanitation remains an issue for many households. This translates into fewer sick leave days, higher productivity for working mothers, and fewer burdens on the health system.
In addition to lower infant mortality, breastfed infants enjoy fewer diarrhoeal and respiratory illnesses, because breastmilk contains healthy bacteria, antibodies and nutrients that are not in formula. If a mother is using antiretrovirals, the risk of transmitting HIV through breastfeeding is less than 1%.
But simply passing new laws won’t be enough. Resolving the problem requires a nationwide response at a policy, resource and system-level, from trade and industry, labour, the corporate sector, and the health sector. Breastfeeding support must not be seen as a health issue, but as a development issue that concerns the entire country.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
You are what your Ouma ate
- Beth Amato
The health of your mother when you were born is a known indicator of your prospects in future, but new research shows that you inherit your health even earlier.
In the UK in 1911, Ethel Burnside, the Lady Inspector of Midwives in Hertfordshire was tasked with improving children’s health. There was widespread concern at the time that the health of the general population was very poor. In meticulously recorded ledgers, midwives documented each baby’s birth weight and, on subsequent visits, their illnesses, methods of infant feeding, and weights as one-year-olds.
This data, which ultimately led to the hypothesis of the developmental origins of health and disease, proved seminal in understanding the link between a mother’s pre- and postnatal health and her child’s health, and then, especially, the child’s health in its adult years.
The Hertfordshire research study revealed that a low birth weight was associated with an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease and type two diabetes, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, osteoporosis and sarcopenia [degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass] in later life.
Further studies conducted around the world have suggested that the nourishment a baby receives from its mother during pregnancy, as well as its nutrition and illnesses in infancy and early childhood, determine susceptibility to disease in later life.
In South Africa, data from the Birth to Twenty Plus (Bt20+) cohort study at Wits, which is Africa’s longest-running longitudinal cohort study, confirms that the first 1 000 days of a child’s life are critical for later health.
What makes the Bt20+ findings so significant is the discovery that not only is a mother’s nutrition critical during pregnancy, but a grandmother’s antenatal nutrition is too. Research shows that a mother’s nutritional status (which uses height as an indicator) and her infant daughter’s birth size are significantly linked with the birth size of that daughter’s own baby (when she has given birth herself later on).
This suggests that the nutritional status of the grandmother affects the grandchild’s risk profile for cardiovascular, metabolic, immune and neurological morbidities via her programming influence on the mother during the foetal period.
But your grandma might get off the hook. Other factors also contribute to your health trajectory throughout your life.
“While pregnancy and infancy are crucial periods, new research suggests that the next 7 000 days until a child hits official adulthood are also important and sensitive times in terms of health outcomes,” says Norris.
A child with a high risk of developing diabetes as an adult – because of inherited nutritional deficiency – may not necessarily get diabetes if there were appropriate nutritional and environmental interventions during childhood and adolescence, particularly not gaining rapid or excess weight as a child.
Yes, we are profoundly affected by the diets of our ancestors, but there are potentially opportunities to change health trajectories.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Body cravings
- Delia du Toit
Adolescent South Africans increasingly struggle with eating disorders, unhealthy eating attitudes and body image issues, in both city and rural settings.
Anorexia has traditionally been seen as a disease of the privileged. Most people believed that if you have anorexia, it meant you had an obsession with designer clothes that required a whittled waist. Who would shun food, after all, when they didn’t even have enough of it to eat?
More recent research has shown that eating disorders are a much more complex issue that have very little to do with vanity – quite the opposite. But, in South Africa at least, it remained an affliction of an urban life.
As the country transitioned into democracy in the early 1990s, and racial integration increased across society, research indicated that there would be increasing numbers of eating disorder sufferers within the black community.
Early eating attitudes in city settings
Professor Christopher Szabo, Head of Psychiatry at Wits, conducted a cross-cultural study of eating attitudes in adolescent South African girls in 1996. The aim was to demonstrate that setting, and not race or ethnic group, has an important influence on eating attitudes.
“Within the South African context such data is important in terms of dispelling notions of racial exclusivity regarding the risk for the development of eating disorders,” said Szabo at the time.
The study was conducted among 1 353 learners from all-girl private schools, as privately funded schools were one specific area of racial integration at the time, but were viewed as institutions dominated by Western values. 37.5% of the black girls who took part in the study showed potentially pathological eating attitudes, which suggested an emerging phenomenon.
“Today, there is an increasing awareness of the impact of urbanisation on mental illness. Earlier data demonstrated an urban-rural distinction in eating attitudes and this remains as relevant today as in our 1996 study,” says Szabo.
Country-living culture clash
A 2016 study by Lisa Micklesfield from the South African Medical Research Council/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU), among adolescent girls and boys in rural South Africa, showed that 83% of girls in rural settings are dissatisfied with their bodies. In contrast with urban attitudes, the girls in the rural study wanted to be either thinner or fatter. Although the majority wanted to be thinner, those who were overweight wanted to be fatter. This shows how the adoption of Western ideals is in conflict with traditional norms.
“Culturally, bigger is better in this demographic,” says Professor Shane Norris, Director of the DPHRU and founder of ACTION, (the African Centre for Obesity Prevention), who worked on this study. “For some of these young women, bigger remains the ideal. But several studies have shown that eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are increasing among black females as they acculturate Western messages and ideals of thinness.”
This study confirmed that eating disorders and disordered eating attitudes, but also obesity, are increasing among black women and girls – in both urban and rural settings.
This was also the first local study to look into both female and male adolescents’ attitude towards different body shapes. The majority of both boys and girls chose words like “unhappy” and “weak” to describe underweight silhouettes.
For the overweight silhouettes, the results were much more conflicting and included “more respect”, “strongest” and “happiest” – but also “worst” and “less respect”. Interestingly, the overweight females chose silhouettes with a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than theirs even when they wanted to be fatter.
“Body image concerns are central to eating disorders,” says Szabo. “Eating disorders are powerful indicators of distress that go beyond food and body issues alone. Every sufferer has an individual story. Hence, eating disorders are complex conditions to both understand and treat.”
A menu of bite sized changes
All the studies point to a need for policy intervention, such as school-based nutrition and physical activity programmes, to address a healthy body size among South African adolescents. Norris says young black females are in a particularly vulnerable position now when it comes to eating attitudes.
“In rural areas, older generations value a larger shape, but younger generations have a different view. Unfortunately, they’re reliant on the family decision makers. And even when they want to live healthy lifestyles, their ability to do so is determined by other factors, like income.”
Family factors also affect eating and attitudes to food. Norris worked on another study, published in 2018, which showed that eating the main meal with family, whether on some days or almost every day, and irregular breakfasts on weekdays, were all associated with an increased risk of overweight and obesity in this group.
“There’s no silver bullet to make everyone desire a healthy body shape,” says Norris. “In the end, it comes down to increasing awareness and enabling people to live healthier lives. We need to get the message out there that either extreme – whether too thin or too fat – is unhealthy. But being healthy doesn’t have to mean a drastic, expensive change. It’s about small changes, like being less sedentary, consuming fewer sugar-sweetened beverages and energy-dense convenient snacks and food, and eating more vegetables. Every little bit helps.”
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Eat to live not to shrink
- Shanthini Naidoo
There are almost 10 billion people on Earth and possibly 9 billion ideas of the perfect diet but there is no scientific proof the latest fad diet will work.
Food has evolved from a means of survival and metabolising energy into an undefined entity. It comes from all over the globe, in fashionable phases, and innumerable forms and culinary permutations. Our ancestors would be scratching their heads if they came across a multi-coloured quinoa Buddha bowl – although that wouldn’t be a bad lunch option.
Food as the key to being healthy, slim, satiated and to achieve longevity is even more of a conundrum, but Wits University experts agree – fad diets are not the answer. Intermittent fasting, prehistoric diets, nano-level blood diets, Banting and ketone counting are not only ineffective for long-term health, they may do more harm than good.
There is evidence that fad diets may be harmful, and eliminating foods (such as carbs) from a balanced diet can possibly cause apoptosis or cell death. Professor Gavin Norton, Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Genomic Research Unit at Wits, says, “I believe very little in fad diets as by their very nature there is no evidence that they save lives. Even more established diets, such as low-salt diets, have never been shown to save lives and more evidence shows that they may in fact kill us. The only diet ever to show benefit is a Mediterranean diet. The safest thing to do is eat a balanced diet with all the nutrients recommended by professional nutritionists who, if trained properly, would never recommend a fad diet to begin with.”
Dr Sandra Pretorius, who deals with non-communicable diseases at the Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at Wits, says human beings should avoid any diet that eliminates or severely restricts entire food groups, such as carbohydrates. “Even if you take a multivitamin, you’ll still miss out on some of the crucial macro- and micronutrients or vitamins and minerals,” she says. “Also, avoid diets that allow unlimited quantities of any food, such as grapefruit and cabbage soup. It’s boring to eat the same thing over and over and hard to stick with monotonous plans.”
Pretorius adds any diet that excludes exercise is unlikely to work for weight loss.
“Generally, one considers diets as a means to accomplishing weight loss, with the target nutrient culprits being fat and sugar or carbohydrates. It is important to note that these are normal dietary requirements, which have specific important roles in our well-being. The various iterations of diets revolve around the source, type, quantity and frequency of intake as well as the quality of these nutrients,” he says.
Instead, says Erlwanger, focus on the point of nutrition, which is “to produce healthy outcomes which include appropriate growth, disease-free states, physical and emotional well-being”. Remembering that some people need specific diets for unique situations, such as post-surgical recovery or muscle building for athletes, Erlwanger says there is a type of diet that should work for most of us to live long, healthy (and hopefully moderately sized) lives. In simple terms, it is the Mediterranean diet – and for no other reason than the science has shown results.
Food, flora and family
“Studies on populations where a larger proportion than that of the rest of the world’s population is characterised by longevity, low incidence of metabolic diseases, hypertension and cancers, show that the food consumed is unrefined, plant-based, relatively meat free, high in seeds and nuts – Mediterranean,” says Erlwanger.
But it isn’t just about the food. It is how you consume it and what goes along with the lifestyle. “Familial closeness and physical activity are key components of lifestyle in these healthy populations,” he says.
And don’t forget your gut. Increasingly, the microflora and fauna in the gut has been proven to affect everything from our digestion to mental health.
The next step to healthier diets is personalised nutrition says Erlwanger. This is a tailor-made approach “based on physical, biochemical and genetic profiles, amongst other biological factors” and another reason you can’t turn to a fad diet, because what may work for a friend, might not work for you.
Food fights
While we may see evidence of weight-loss in those who follow fad diets, and that menus cater more frequently for those who want to leave the buns off a burger, Professor Demitri Constantinou, Director of the Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine says the evidence should be more reliable than “popularity”.
“People are all different and have different pathology, which may mean they may in fact react differently to similar diets. Very often, fads are driven by popularity and certain industries,” says Constantinou.
“What we know about good nutrition and diet is that even within the scientific sphere there is a lot of controversy. The American Heart Association removed saturated fats and replaced them with polyunsaturated fats, for instance, but if you look at the evidence, this may not reduce your risk of heart disease. Lots of the advice we see is not evidence-based. In the absence of very obvious choices, like too much sugar being unhealthy, the average person has a problem making decisions because even scientists are not convinced one way or another!”
However, Constantinou says that what evidence has showed does lean toward the Mediterranean diet, because it is supported by research. This means moderation, and portions of fruit, vegetables and legumes.
“It is largely plant-based meals with a moderate intake of meat, using things like herbs instead of salt. Obviously in the Mediterranean, butter and margarine don’t feature, and olive oil is preferred.”
We eat what we think
But at the heart of the matter is that old human conditioning towards the ‘quick fix’.
Constantinou says he has seen extreme dieting in patients, one who ate only grapes for a week or two. “It’s a component of the Mediterranean diet but that is not sensible. It is about desperation. People seek to have something that is going to give them the most benefit the quickest - 'if you do this, this is what is going to happen' - that isn’t how it works,” he said.
“People don’t always want to do the right thing to get healthy and fit. We are a generation of immediate satiety. As a whole, the lifestyle should be about diet but also about being physically active. It is the most crucial factor for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Smoking, the excessive consumption of alcohol and the less tangible influence like the stress hormone add to it. Genetics play a role, but one can influence that to a degree with lifestyle. We can modify the expression of those genes to be healthier, which may not link to weight loss. The feeling is that if you are fat and fit, you are better off than being thin and unfit. Weigh up the odds,” says Constantinou.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
The rat race towards obesity
- Shaun Smillie
The fast food generation is trapped in an “obesogenic environment” due to international junk food giants and sugary sweet marketing.
To get out of this trap, we need some out of the box thinking, including looking for answers in traditional medicinal plants.
Hamburgers, a side of chips, and a doughnut for dessert, all washed down with a sweetened carbonated drink.
If the young rats in the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Lab in the School of Physiology at Wits were the human children they were modelled on, this might have been a typical meal. But these lab rats had consumed a high-calorie fructose [fruit sugar] solution designed to mimic the sugar-enriched Western diet behind the obesity pandemic that is hitting South Africa hard.
The rats were fed a high-fructose diet to test: a possible new weapon in the arsenal against obesity and the metabolic diseases associated with it. Surprisingly, it is a weapon that humanity has known for millennia – it’s the Terminalia sericea, the silver cluster-leaf tree, widely distributed in southern Africa.
Traditionally this plant has been used to treat a host of ailments, including intestinal infections, hypertension and diabetes. Studies have shown that the silver cluster-leaf contains chemical compounds that break down fat.
A tree, a rat and liver fat
Intrigued by the plants’ ability to break down fat, Dr Busisani Lembede was interested to see whether it could be used to fight the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the number one liver disease in the world. Fatty liver disease refers to a range of diseases related to a build-up of fat in the liver cells, and the risk of developing it is increased by obesity.
“We speculate that some of these chemicals in the silver cluster-leaf tree may also prevent the deposit of excessive fats in the liver,” says Professor Eliton Chivandi in the School of Physiology at Wits.
NAFLD is a growing problem globally and a leading cause of liver damage. An estimated 30 to 40% of the global population has NAFLD. In the United States, 17.3% of children between the ages of 15 and 19 years old have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
“There are so many causes of obesity, but in South Africa it is the lifestyle – particularly the dietary component of it that seems to be the main cause,” says Chivandi. “People are consuming a lot of sweetened foods with fructose and high in saturated fats, and this contributes to the production of excess calories.”
In the lab, some of the rat pups consumed a control (normal) diet, while others consumed the high-fructose diet of either fenofibrate (a conventional pharmacological agent) or extracts from the silver cluster-leaf tree. The scientists found that the extracts from the silver cluster-leaf suppressed fructose-induced liver lipid accumulation and fatty liver disease.
Fat-fighting flora
The silver cluster-leaf tree is not the only traditional plant-derived medicine potentially with properties to tackle obesity. Countries like India and Italy are taking a serious look at plants to see if they can fight fat.
“There are plants such as the Moringa oleifera Lam tree [Moringa tree], garlic, and the common fig with potential health beneficial properties,” says Chivandi. Research has shown that people across the globe are more willing to use natural remedies rather than Western medicines, which they perceive as having side effects.
“About 80% of the global population uses traditional medicine. In fact, the World Health Organization says that: more research should be carried out into traditional medicines, as this would reduce the pressure on health facilities,” says Lembede.
However, even if the silver cluster-leaf tree proves to be a cure for fatty liver disease, it won’t be enough to curtail the obesogenic environment in which we find ourselves. An obesogenic environment is an environment where external influences, opportunities and conditions impact our lifestyles to cause obesity.
An obesogenic environment
“We have an obesity problem and a food security problem,” says Wits Professor Karen Hofman, Director of PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons for Systems Strengthening SA) who co-authored a study on obesogenic environments. “We must not forget that we have 20% of children in South Africa who are still stunted. Yes, we do have an obesity epidemic and it is increasing by the day. But we can't turn back the clock, because the deed is done.”
Obesity does not differentiate between the rich and poor. The poor get their fix of the high calorie diet that causes obesity from cheap, processed foods, as healthier food is often more expensive, and out of reach for more vulnerable groups.
“This is not an individual lifestyle choice – it is caused by a concerted effort driven by profit to ensure that countries that can provide a growth target for these companies are subjected to processed foods and beverages that contain often high levels of sugar. This is all about marketing and particularly marketing to children and teenagers,” says Hofman.
The majority of South Africans got a taste of this new diet with the dawn of democracy.
Twenty years later and South Africa is the most obese country in sub-Saharan Africa. With this weight-gain has come the highest prevalence of diabetes on the continent. However, it is difficult to work out just how many people have diabetes, as half of sufferers have yet to be diagnosed.
“In 2013, the prevalence of diabetes was 26 cases per 1 000. In the public health sector in 2014, there were 5 000 new diabetes cases a month. By 2016, that was close to 15 000,” says Hofman.
It is not just processed foods and sugary drinks that are expanding our waistlines. South Africans, like so many others worldwide, are becoming increasingly sedentary. Chinvandi, who is also a warden at one of the Wits residences, is regularly shocked to see how many delivery bikes deliver fast foods such as pizzas and chicken to students.
“Our students won’t walk. They would rather order it. So that shows how sedentary our population has become,” says Chivandi.
But exercise alone is not enough to beat the epidemic. “As they say, you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet. And all it does is confuse people,” says Hofman, who believes fighting obesity comes down to a holistic approach, with the state taking the lead.
A 2016 study published in the peer-reviewed BMJ reported that annual sales of sodas in Mexico declined by 6% in 2014 after the introduction of a similar tax. Sugar tax in South Africa could make an enormous difference.
“Nine and 10 year olds in South Africa are the highest consumers of sugary beverages in the world,” Hofman says.
Although it is too early to assess the effect of the health promotion levy in South Africa on the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages, Hofman says there has already been one positive effect. In October, Treasury announced that it had collected just over R1 billion in sugar tax revenue between 1 April and 31 August – a significant income considering
R1.64 billion was expected for the entire 2018-2019 fiscal year.
Kids and candy from corporate strangers
Research shows that unhealthy food preferences are established at an early age. Another measure Hofman advocates is preventing corporates from marketing to children. The way that corporations target children can be seen in how supermarkets often place sweets and junk food within eye level of children. Low-placed shelves at checkout aisles are packed tight with chocolates and other sweets.
“Children are repeatedly exposed to marketing [which] portrays unhealthy foods as fun, ‘cool’, exciting and positive. [Marketers] use promotional packaging, they use celebrities and athletes to endorse their products, they have kid-friendly animations, use child actors, and video games. Billions are spent on targeted marketing to children,” says Hofman.
A study found that 50% of schools had Coca-Cola signs on their grounds. This, Hofman points out, was five years after Coca-Cola said it would no longer market to children. Hofman says schools should remove all unhealthy food from their tuck shops.
Labelled for losing
Another measure that could help in the fight against obesity is to improve food labelling.
“Labelling will guide us with choices, as most consumers take less than 10 seconds to select a food item,” says Hofman. She believes labels need to be bold and to the point – like the in-your-face warnings on cigarette packets. There is already labelling on some food items but the problem, says Hofman, is that it is often designed to bamboozle customers.
“The global experience tells us that negative, clear warnings are very effective. You need something that tells you, ‘this is very high in sugar’. Period. That is all.”
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
What not to eat
- Donald McCallum
Although eating insects might stave off starvation in a survival situation, chowing down on foam grasshoppers or red-yellow-black bugs could be fatal.
Many people find the idea of eating bugs repulsive. The half worm found after biting an apple is seldom celebrated as extra nutrition – rather it may leave a person horrified and nauseated. What a contrast between a Western attitude to consuming bugs and that of many cultures, particularly in tropical areas where, at certain times of the year, insects form a very important part of the diet. The list of species of arthropods eaten worldwide is now around 1 900, an impressive number.
In a survival situation, eating bugs could save one from starvation, but what should one avoid? With so many different species eaten, it is not a simple matter knowing which not to consume. Scorpions, bees and wasps have venom yet scorpions are eaten in Thailand and bees in China. Some wasps are said to be tasty. The UK Independent of 16 August 2018 reports a lost hiker in the pacific northwest of the USA who survived a week eating bees and berries. Clearly venomous and inedible are not linked!
Another way to decide which bugs to avoid could be those with warning colouration – red and yellow often combined with black as a contrast. This colour combination warning would save you from eating blister beetles, which contain a toxin, cantharidin, which can be fatal.
Foam grasshoppers resemble edible locusts in shape and size but often have brightly coloured bodies, or red wings which they open when threatened. Deaths have been reported from eating some species. Regrettably, avoiding warning colouration would deny you Mopane caterpillars, which have red and yellow markings and look quite intimidating.
But not only are they safe to eat, they are very nutritious with a high protein content.
Avoiding bugs from plants that you suspect or know are toxic is wise. Foam grasshoppers and the caterpillars of the African Monarch butterfly are poisonous as a result of storing the poisons from milkweeds such as Gomphocarpus. Pest species of cockroach are known to eat almost anything, and could well contain pathogens, however, cockroaches that live in the veld and woodland would be fine to eat – they have a better diet!
Given that it is difficult to decide which arthropods should not be eaten it may be easier to know which are likely to be safe to eat. Termites would be one such insect. They are widely distributed, relatively easy to find and present in large numbers. With little effort many can be caught using a piece of grass or by throwing a piece of material over a place where flying ants are emerging. Dried termites have from 25% to over 50% protein and around 2% fat – not at all bad for free food!
Crickets are probably also a good choice as a number of species are eaten in different parts of the world, and not too difficult to recognise. Locusts are often abundant, but care needs to be taken to distinguish them from foam grasshoppers. A number of different emperor moth caterpillars are eaten in various parts of Africa, and many of these are found in large numbers on their host plants. In a pinch, I would risk eating any caterpillars in the baby finger or larger size range.
Donald McCallum is a botanist in the C.E. Moss Herbarium in the Wits Life Sciences Museum, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES). In addition to his work with plants, he has a strong interest in informal teaching through displays, gardens and exhibitions. His interest in insects as a food source developed from having edible insects to taste at the annual Yebo Gogga Yebo amaBlomo exhibition at Wits.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Crunchy on the outside, squishy on the inside
- Shaun Smillie
Edible stinkbugs and pre-dawn insect hunts; only for the brave.
Entomophagy is the human practice of eating insects. Not only is the word a mouthful, but the practice holds a potential solution to food insecurity in South Africa and presents possibilities for eco-tourism.
In the hills of Venda, an elusive quarry is the target of a hunt in the pre-dawn of winter. The hunters are on the prowl for clumps of insects that gather in the morning cold for warmth. Known as edible stinkbugs, some consider these insects a delicacy, for which they are willing to pay good money. By winter they are full of fat, which turns them tasty when fried with a bit of salt.
Munch on a bug for tourism
Most people have never heard of edible stinkbugs, but Dr Cathy Dzerefos wants to change this. The former Wits PhD student believes that edible stinkbugs could be good for tourism.
The idea is that tourists would come along on one of those pre-dawn insect hunts, and later – if they are brave enough – feast on what they have collected.
While entomophagy seems to be a slightly radical form of eco-tourism, it could assist poorer communities and aid conservation. For many city-dwelling South Africans, chomping down on a bug is more of a novelty they might experience at a science fair, or in a restaurant. But for others, insects are a staple and an important source of protein when meat is unaffordable.
“There are insects out there that people are eating, that we don’t even know about,” says Dzerefos, who is now a researcher at the University of the North West. Recently scientists discovered four more species of insects that local residents in the far north of Limpopo province eat.
Insects in need of reputation management
South Africans are not the only ones with a taste for creepy-crawlies. An estimated two billion people regularly munch on as many as 1 900 different species of insects around the world. With so many in the world already eating bugs, scientists are starting to see these potential sources of protein as a solution to global food insecurity.
But there’s a hitch, says Professor Wayne Twine in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at Wits. Besides some South Africans being squeamish about chowing down on something with more than four legs, insects also have an image problem.
“The challenge remains in mainstreaming these cultural uses,” says Twine. “Popularising [entomophagy] with the emerging middle class is a challenge, as there is a stigma attached to edible insects – they are seen as old-fashioned or as poor people’s food.”
Medium to rare, please …
Working near Acornhoek in Mpumalanga in 2004, Twine and his colleagues found that insects were an important source of protein for families facing hardship. After losing the passing away of the breadwinner, some households turned to insects – mainly locusts – to substitute meat to maintain their protein intake.
“Insects would be a more sustainable source of protein than cattle feed lots with their methane (emissions),” says Twine. “The use of edible insects could also be intensified, but with a smaller environmental impact.”
R20 per teacup of stinkbugs
The insects that might lend themselves to farming in South Africa include mopane worms, termites, and locusts. Edible stinkbugs are more localised, which is why Dzerefos feels going the tourism route might be a money-spinner.
These small shield-shaped bugs are usually found near Thohoyandou and Ga-Modjadji in Limpopo and Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, but they are traded widely. “We know of people who will phone in their orders from the cities,” says Dzerefos. Sacks of dried edible stinkbugs are transported to market on mini bus taxis. In Thohoyandou, a teacup filled with dried stinkbugs can cost R20.
“They are said to be good for a hangover,” laughs Bianca Mkhize, who works with Dzerefos and is studying the use of edible insects in tourism.
There is concern that habitat loss could threaten these bugs and in Zimbabwe, villagers use ‘caretakers’ to protect the critters. In the Jiri forest, these caretakers ensure ethical and sustainable harvesting practices, and Dzerefos believes that making stinkbugs a tourism commodity would help their conservation.
“Look, people come to see butterflies. Why won’t they come to see edible stinkbugs?” asks Mkhize.
Cooking like your grandmother used to cook
There is a skill to harvesting insects and cooking them, and this worries Mkhize.
Take the edible stinkbug, for example. It gets its name from an unpleasant smelling chemical that stains hands yellow and can even cause temporary blindness. The stinkbug is only edible if this chemical is removed. This is done by beheading the stinkbug and squeezing the chemical out, or by putting the bug in warm water.
This kind of knowledge, passed down from one generation to the next, is disappearing. “This is why there is still a lot of indigenous knowledge that still needs to come out,” says Mkhize.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Slave Maize: The truth about mielies
- Karabo Kgoleng
Most Africans consider maize (corn) to be their staple food but few realise it carries a history of slavery, colonisation, modernisation and globalisation.
The origins of corn are not explicitly clear but scholars widely agree that it originated in the Mexican highlands around 1500 BC and was established in Africa around 1500 AD. Before the introduction of maize, African staple diets consisted of sorghum, rapoko, millet, manioc and yam. How did maize come to dominate the dishes of billions, what has been its societal and environmental impact, and is it a viable option for food security?
Ecological imperialism and the Columbian Exchange
According to Professor Mucha Musemwa, Head of the School of Social Sciences at Wits, an American environmental historian, Alfred Crosby coined the phrase ‘ecological imperialism’, a theory about the “biological expansion of Europe from 900 to 1900”. It began with Christopher Columbus who left Spain on several voyages financed by the Crown. In the year 1492, the territories now known as Latin America were conquered.
“When he left Spain, Columbus took a boat full of plants, flowers, animals, people and bacteria. When he landed in the Americas, he unleashed all of these on the new terrain, which lead to the destruction of indigenous plants and animals, and the spread of disease. The people of Meso America, the Aztec in Mexico and the Inca in Peru succumbed to the conquistadors’ weaponry, which was also biological. About six million died of smallpox”, says Musemwa.
The political empire-building that took hold in Latin America also transformed the local ecology. The Spaniards drove the social and environmental reproduction of Europe in this New World, having brought all the goods that make up European life with them across the ocean. They returned to Europe, taking with them foods such as corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, groundnut and tomatoes, and this came to be known as the Columbian Exchange, the genesis of globalisation.
“This was not an equal exchange,” says Musemwa. “Diseases and invasive species from Europe dominated and obliterated much of the indigenous flora and fauna in Latin America, although not everything was affected. The imperialists were also exposed to the coca plant, which was being consumed as part of indigenous culture. After experimentation, they developed cocaine, which led to the development of the narcotics trade.”
A ‘botanical bastard’
Mexican anthropologist Arturo Warman describes in Corn and Capitalism: How a Botanical Bastard Grew to Global Dominance how maize was central to the world economy and politics since 1492. Although corn is not as drought resistant as other staple foods, it matures early, is high in calories, easy to prepare, highly storable and easy to process. These characteristics enabled rapid population growth and maize became established as the main food source for the poor and powerless across the world. This is also how maize facilitated the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism in Africa and the overthrow of feudalism in Europe.
Warman calls maize a ‘botanical bastard’ because its impact on the world is paradoxical. On the one hand, it has increased populations and life expectancy among the poor. On the other, it “generated wealth for European landowners, shopkeepers and money lenders, overlords, and the new middle class”. Corn is a global agricultural success yet it is entirely dependent on humans for its propagation because it cannot reseed itself.
A lecture by Musemwa, Seeds of Change: How Food Crops Connected and Altered the History of the World references ‘maize’s historical encounter with the landscapes of Africa’ from introduction to its current status as Africa’s dominant food crop. The 20th Century saw a marked increase in the crop’s area, to the point that it provided more than half of the food calories in several African states.
Mielie-making impact in Africa
The environmental impact of maize production on African soil is significant. If not managed properly, it causes soil degradation and erosion, destruction of wildlife and plant biodiversity, loss of food crop diversity, and climate change. Its dependence on irrigation and its low tolerance for drought is a concern in water scarce regions.
Maize is contentious from a food security and safety perspective. While advances in technology have brought successful hybrids, the issue of genetic modification remains controversial. The long-term effects of genetically modified maize on the health of humans have yet to be realised and people cannot be used as test cases.
For rural populations with access to land, the Old World farming methods of crop rotation and permaculture can reduce the reliance on maize as a staple. However, mass migration to cities will increasingly challenge urban populations who are reliant on commercial agriculture for affordable food. This means that maize will continue to dominate the plates and palates of billions for the foreseeable future.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
The fight in food prices
- Pearl Boshomane Tsotetsi
New research due this year show link between relative increase in food and beer prices with levels of crime and violent behaviour.
To say that South Africa is a country with high levels of violence is not new – the crime statistics shock us every year. It’s to be expected that our divided past would affect us but the reasons behind the nature of our society today are deeper than trans-generational trauma.
While the causes of violence and the links between poverty and mental illness have been researched globally, and to an extent locally, a new paper has found that relative increases in food and beer prices can be linked to crime levels and violent behaviour in South Africa.
Authored by Dr Gareth Roberts, Professor Tendai Gwatidzo and Dr Dambala Kutela in the Department of Economics, School of Economic and Business Sciences at Wits, the paper, The Effects of the Price of Food and Beer on Crime in South Africa is due to be published early in 2019.
The researchers looked at the South African Police Service’s crime statistics in every province for each month between January 2008 and March 2012. They combined those with data released by Statistics South Africa of the consumer price indices of different goods and service categories in these provinces. This allowed them to estimate the impact of food and beer prices on crime. However, methodological constraints make it difficult to determine in which provinces the impact was the highest.
“We can show the correlation between food prices and crime in different provinces – but correlation is not causation. What we try to do in the paper is identify the causal effect and to do that, we have to exploit differences in these prices in different provinces at different times,” says Roberts.
While Roberts acknowledges that it is difficult to identify causality in applied microeconomics, a key finding from the study is that a relative increase of food prices leads to an increase in certain types of crime. Conversely, an increase in the relative price of beer resulted in a decrease in some crimes.
Increased theft when food prices rise, crimes of a sexual nature down when beer price goes up
“We show that an increase in the relative price of food leads to an increase in many types of violent crime and theft, while an increase in the price of beer generally does the opposite, including for crimes of a sexual nature. This tells us that there is a socioeconomic component to the high level of crime in South Africa. It also tells us that the availability of alcohol plays a role,” says Roberts.
However, it’s almost impossible to know exactly why the increase in beer prices leads to a decrease in the numbers of crimes of sexual violence.
“One possible explanation is that the consumption of alcohol is sometimes associated with aggression and with people not being as alert as they normally would be. If the price of beer goes up and a person has one less beer, this may reduce their chances of becoming more aggressive, or of being less alert,” says Roberts.
The research also touches on the topic of hunger. The authors hypothesise that a possible explanation for rising food prices and corresponding increased levels of theft is that hungry poor people may have to steal to feed themselves.
“In the case of beer, we suspect that a relative increase in the price of beer reduces consumption at the margin – that is, consumers now have only one beer instead of two and are less likely to become aggressive and less likely to be exposed to theft. That said, this is only an overall net effect – it’s possible people could steal to afford beer.”
The study may have implications for policy, as it’s possible that the VAT zero rating on certain items of food, and sin taxes, reduce crime. Policy-makers should also plan for a possible spike in crime when food prices increase.
“This may happen if domestic production of food becomes constrained in some way. However, it’s difficult to generalise beyond the main findings at this stage,” says Roberts.
Pearl Boshomane Tsotetsi is a freelance journalist.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
No space at the table for food communing
- Ufrieda Ho
Food commons promote returning food (and access to it) to a place where food exists for the public good, rather than to benefit private, commercial interests.
When John Lennon famously imagined a world with no need for greed or hunger, it was a political statement – also a pipedream. Nearly a half a century since the 1971 hit song became an anthem to imagine a better world, greed and hunger remain at the table even as the ideal of food commoning is yet to pull up a chair.
Agencies like the United Nations World Food Programme continue to highlight the fact that global food production sufficiently meets food demands. There is enough food, yet one in nine people (about 817 million individuals) go hungry and a much higher share do not get the minimally nutritious food required to live healthily.
This perversion in our modern industrialised food systems is an unsettling truth. It is the reality of cityscapes dotted with fast-food joints and petrol station food stops, but hardly a traffic light without a beggar desperate for food or a few coins. It is also the occurance of people who are simultaneously obese and malnourished.
In recent years, the idea of a ‘food commons’ has emerged as pushback to society’s warped structures. Food commons promote the idea of returning food (and access to it) to a place where food exists for the public good, rather than to benefit private, commercial interests. Food commoning seeks to dismantle the commodification of food and to make food and access to food, water, and fertile land more freely accessible.
Food commoning initiatives can take various shapes. These include food co-operatives, urban food gardens, reducing food waste, finding markets for “ugly” produce, restaurants for the poor, food banks, and activism fighting for higher minimum wages and improved working conditions for the most vulnerable.
The politics of communing
Commoning is inevitably political though, and comes with both pitfalls and potential, says Patrick Bond, Professor of Political Economy in the Wits School of Governance. Bond co-authored a chapter in the upcoming Routledge Handbook of Food as a Commons with Mary Galvin from the University of Johannesburg. They write in their chapter entitled, Water, Food and Climate Commoning in South African Cities: Contradictions and Prospects that “Commoning is not simply a matter of technicist collective resource management, but a political ideology in which socio-ecological contradictions inevitably emerge”.
Modern humans are fighting to adapt to societal and environmental pressure and as some of these fights intersect and overlap, there is increasing fragmentation and competing agendas – even among activists themselves. It comes with a loss of ideology that goes against the grain of commoning.
In Johannesburg, for example, Bond says property rights and ratepayers’ rights are defended to the exclusion of accommodating people who don’t fit the category of land owner and those with municipal bills in their names.
“People as a result are locked out based on race and class. Finding well-located land to live on or to grow food on is almost impossible,” says Bond. He doesn’t believe cities need to be so exclusionary, pointing out that across our border in Harare, there is an enduring tradition of informal vegetable gardens on land commons throughout the Zimbabwean capital.
Bond and Galvin write: “Given the history of land and food in South Africa, and the dominance of privately owned lands and commercial farming, land remains a struggle around which people make demands for reparations … But food farming itself rarely moves past material concerns into ideological ones”.
“South African food systems serve the rich and powerful who engage in corrupt practices like price-fixing bread and ‘plumping’ [injecting water into chicken carcasses], even though bread and chicken are staple foods for 65% of our population, who are poor. This reflects a food system which is unjust, unsustainable due to climate change, and unsafe due to genetically modified organisms.”
Cock echoes Bond’s point that the greatest challenge of food commoning is to reverse the “intense individualism of neo-liberalism, which inhibits sharing". Cock calls it the “Me First” affliction.
Common ground
Still, there are success stories, even if they may not tick all the ideological boxes. Professor Michael Rudolph, founder and director of the Siyakhana Initiative in Bez Valley, in Johannesburg’s eastern suburbs, says their urban food garden has grown over the last 13 years. It began in 2005 as a 5 metre by 5 metre vegetable patch and now it’s a one-hectare farm, with other sites being developed.
“We are about growing healthy food and also about using research, advocacy, training and social entrepreneurship to fight the hunger and poverty crisis in the country,” says Rudolph, whose background is in community dentistry and he was previously director of the Wits Health Consortium.
Rudolph adds that the project has been able to reach people through providing food for vulnerable families, education about water and energy conservation and raising awareness about ecology, health and nutrition.
“Siyakhana has become a tangible platform to engage with farmers and growers and their families, school children who visit, researchers from universities across the world, corporate representatives, and local and provincial government policy makers,” says Rudolph.
Siyakhana keeps evolving – even this is necessary adaptation and resilience. The next phase, says Rudolph, is to build their human capacity, increase their social media presence and streamline models for replication at different sites.
The garden is a small example of food commoning, but its small multiple strands pulling together that weave a stronger human-environment web – exactly what growing the common good looks like.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Appetite for dignity
- Vishwas Satgar and Jane Cherry
Despite efforts to address hunger at Wits, ad hoc food security interventions cannot keep pace with increasing numbers of hungry students.
The Food Sovereignty Centre at Wits not only empowers and dignifies food-stressed Witsies but is also a model of how to shift beyond food security initiatives to food sovereignty alternatives.
While interventions such as feeding schemes on campus are necessary in the short term, they don’t offer sustainable solutions for food-stressed students. Add climate change to the mix, and the future for hungry students is even bleaker. Our natural food-producing systems are unravelling and hunger is increasing.
Finding sustainable solutions to hunger, climate change, and environmental degradation involves tackling the root of the crises. Advocates of food sovereignty and climate justice identify systemic causes – and solutions lie not in existing ‘business as usual’ trajectories, but rather in community, ecological and people-based alternatives.
The Food Sovereignty Centre at Wits provides a pathway for such alternatives on campus and the inner city of Johannesburg.
Food sovereignty takes root at Wits
Food sovereignty refers to a food system in which the right to food is affirmed through control by small scale farmers and consumers to ensure agro-ecological food production, solidarity economy relations, healthy and culturally appropriate food.
A series of factors and events culminated in what became the Food Sovereignty Centre at Wits. These include the formation of a student-led food sovereignty and climate justice forum, which students in the International Relations class at Wits organised. The forum was formalised as a student society, the Inala Forum, in 2015. Inala is isiZulu for ‘abundance’.
Another factor was a march in 2016 against high food prices. Here Inala, the Co-operative and Policy Alternative Centre (COPAC – a grassroots NGO), and the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign (SAFSC) handed over a memorandum to University management. The memorandum highlighted the plight of hunger in our universities and the need for Wits to support the call for a zero waste, zero hunger, and zero carbon institution.
A central demand of the memorandum was a space of dignity for food-stressed students whom the Wits Community Citizenship and Outreach (WCCO) programme supports. The WCCO runs a feeding scheme, which provides more than 1 000 hot meals to students daily, and a food bank, which provides students with non-perishables. The University subsequently earmarked the Sanctuary Building on Braamfontein Campus East for a Food Sovereignty Centre.
Food for thought too
Inala, the WCCO, and COPAC have since deepened their collaborative efforts to establish the Food Sovereignty Centre and its composite parts. A food garden that Inala initiated on campus in 2015 now supplements the WCCO’s food bank with spinach, carrots, onions and cabbage. Earlier this year, COPAC and Wits signed a memorandum of agreement to bring about the first eco-centric university in South Africa.
The Wits Food Sovereignty Centre is organising and enabling the food sovereignty pathway at Wits. The centre is a pilot to advance and model eco-centric practices for the University, other higher education institutions, and society.
It comprises three spaces:
A community engagement and eco-demonstration space advances learning about climate justice and agro-ecology. The building is being renovated to embody the principles of eco-centric living and will model water harvesting, renewable energy, insulation, waste recycling and sustainable architectural design and building materials. Fruit orchards and agro-ecology gardens are being established and another 20 food gardens are planned.
A space of dignity for food-stressed students, is managed by these students and includes a communal kitchen and culturally appropriate food preparation space. The first communal kitchen was launched this year and a student-led initiative to recover indigenous foods and local recipes is envisaged. There is already an outdoor communal eating space and fundraising initiatives are underway for modular kitchens and covered areas for students to eat. The communal kitchens and eating spaces represent a food sovereignty alternative to the fast food sold on campuses.
The purpose of the support space is to advance food sovereignty in society. A weekly Wits community market involving about 20 rooftop and inner city farmers is envisaged. An eco-centric building, including a seed bank, an indigenous and South African food archive, and a training space for agro-ecology is planned. The latter will be linked to the 20 other agro-ecology gardens mapped and planned for the University.
Jane Cherry is the Executive Manager at the Co-operative and Policy Alternative Centre (COPAC). She obtained her Master’s in Development Studies (Wits, 2015), which focussed on food sovereignty in South Africa. Through COPAC, Jane has been involved in the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign and the Wits Food Sovereignty Centre. She has worked on activist tools (seed saving, water sovereignty, a People’s Food Sovereignty Act, and sustainable land use), and has organised national events for food sovereignty and climate justice.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
A healthy meal in every neighbourhood
- Brittany Kesselman
Few Johannesburg residents enjoy the right to food and even fewer are aware that they have such a right. Community Food Centres could help change that.
The right to food is enshrined in Section 27 of the South African Constitution. Despite this, almost 15 million South Africans experience hunger and just over 16 million more are at risk, according to a study published in 2013.
Like many developing countries, South Africa is experiencing a ‘double burden’ of disease. Hunger and under-nutrition co-exist with obesity and diet-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension.
Systemic insecurity in the city
In Johannesburg, estimates of food insecurity range from 27% citywide to up to 90% in the poorest wards. This is not due to a shortage of food – there is more than enough for everyone. Rather, it is the result of South Africa’s unjust food system.
Food justice is a concept that recognises the structural racism and economic injustice in the food system, and strives for greater equity and fairness. Food justice is about placing more control over food-related decisions in the hands of farm workers, food sector workers and marginalised communities. It goes well beyond the technical questions of food security and considers power relations in the food system.
To date, food-related interventions in Johannesburg have tended to focus on either charitable food distribution (soup kitchens and food parcels) or support for urban agriculture (market-oriented or subsistence). While these may help some individuals, neither addresses the underlying structural issues that contribute to hunger and malnutrition – issues such as the concentration of the capitalist food system, the gendered distribution of household labour, or the impact of colonisation and apartheid on dietary preferences and practices. Without addressing these underlying issues, food-related interventions have limited impact and cannot make a long-term contribution to food justice.
People’s restaurants in Brazil, community centres in Canada
There are examples from other parts of the world of policies and projects that have contributed towards a more just food system. In the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, the food and nutrition security programme explicitly acknowledges the right to food and has made significant strides against hunger over the past 20 years.
One innovation is the people’s restaurant (restaurant popular), which serves inexpensive healthy meals to thousands of people each day. These people’s restaurants are open to all, with meals designed by nutritionists. Meals are subsidised to varying degrees and free for people living on the streets.
Combined with the other interventions of the municipal and federal government – such as the family grant (Bolsa Familia) and support for urban agriculture and peri-urban small farmers, subsidised fresh produce markets, the municipal food procurement programme, the school nutrition programme – the people’s restaurant has reduced food insecurity and improved nutrition.
In Canada, the Community Food Centre (CFC) model, first developed at ‘The Stop’ in Toronto, uses food as an entry point to address poverty and hunger at the community and national level. The CFC is a non-governmental organisation, which provides emergency food assistance (through a food bank and drop-in meals) alongside educational, capacity-building and civic engagement programmes. The CFC is explicitly committed to social justice, which influences the form and content of all its programmes, educational and advocacy work.
A community food centre in every Johannesburg neighbourhood
Based on research on food production and consumption in Johannesburg, I believe community food centres could be a key component of solving the city’s food challenges.
CFCs would enable people to access affordable, healthy meals; learn food production and preparation skills; and mobilise for food system change. A CFC has the potential to:
improve access to healthy food, thereby combating hunger and malnutrition,
develop skills, in terms of food production (urban farming), preparation (healthy cooking), preservation and processing,
increase awareness of the right to food, food system injustices and food sovereignty alternatives, which leads to mobilisation on food issues,
provide a market for urban farmers, enabling them to improve incomes through stable sales of a more diverse range of produce,
generate new knowledge on the food system to underpin educational and advocacy activities, and
help build community, through joint activities in a community-oriented space.
Ideally, there would be a CFC in every neighbourhood of Johannesburg, serving meals to the local community, buying produce from local farmers and helping to educate people around food system issues.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Phansi, profiteers, Phansi!
- Schalk Mouton
The Constitution guarantees the right to food and there is enough for all but a system that prioritises profits over people undermines both society and justice.
If we are serious about solving the massive food insecurity problem in South Africa, then it is time to completely overhaul the food system in the country.
This is the view of Dr Tracy Ledger from the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), who believes that food provision should be treated the same as other services guaranteed in Section 27 of our Constitution.
“The last time I read Section 27, nowhere did it guarantee the right to make a profit, but it does guarantee the right to food,” says Ledger, who wrote the book, An empty plate: Why we are losing the battle for our food system, why it matters and how we can win it back.
“We have been very successful in commoditising food and leaving food distribution in the hands of commercialised retailers. If we treated water or education [other rights guaranteed in Section 27] the way we treat food, it would mean that we would have handed over the decision about who gets water and who doesn’t to the profit-making sector,” she says. “We all understand that this isn’t in our collective best interests when it comes to water, but when it comes to food, we do exactly that. We all carry the enormous social costs of that decision.”
Access and cost over quantity
Food security, says Ledger, is not just about producing more food. It is about reducing the cost of food and making it more accessible to vulnerable communities.
“While it may generate some employment opportunities for a few people, there is no way that establishing a couple of rooftop food gardens in Johannesburg is going to feed the literally millions of food insecure people in the city,” she says.
Since 2014, the number of households with a monthly income of R3 200 or less that has skipped a meal in the last year rose from about 23% in 2014 to 37% in 2018. For households with earnings between R3 201 and R12 800 per month, this number doubled from 9% to 18%.
According to Ledger, 80% of South African households do not spend enough to buy a nutritious basket of food.
“According to dietary recommendations, a child should have at least half a litre of milk per day. That costs R210 per month, which is more than half the current childcare grant. What is the point of teaching people about nutrition if they cannot afford it?” she asks.
Hangry – “bad-tempered as a result of hunger”
Ledger believes poor nutrition is a problem for everyone, not just the hungry. Several thousand children literally starve every year, a quarter of South Africa’s children are classified as stunted, increasing numbers of children are both stunted and obese (this is possible when children eat too much food of very low nutritional value), and childhood malnutrition has been positively linked with an increased propensity for violence in adulthood. Society as a whole carries the resulting costs – and this in a world where we actually produce enough food for everybody; it is just not accessible to everybody.
“If you look at our food systems from an economic point of view, things are going great. It is run smoothly and efficiently, and companies make profits. If you look at it from a social justice point of view, it is a disaster,” says Ledger.
The hunger games
Gillian Maree, Senior Researcher at the GCRO says that all the costs related to producing a nutritious plate of food have increased, pushing it out of reach for large numbers of Gauteng’s city residents.
“The costs of transport, food, electricity and energy have all gone up hugely, and they all contribute to preparing a decent meal. If you consider then that a person who earns a minimum income and travels two hours to work a day, works eight hours and travels two hours back home, the chances that they would spend time preparing a decent meal – with scarce resources – are minimal,” she says.
To add to that, our quest to mass-produce food has stripped it of nutritional value while increasing the levels of salt, sugar and fat in the products that are available and affordable.
“Access to food is a clear indication of inequality,” says Maree. “You can clearly see a divide between the haves and have nots.”
Ledger believes giving urgent attention to these issues is not just a moral obligation.
“Ignoring these issues is putting enormous pressure on our social fabric,” she says.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Food takes root in Africa
- Ufrieda Ho
Africa has the ability and resources to feed the world, but much needs to be done on a continent full of challenges, opportunities and pitfalls.
Heard of the lablab bean? No? It is not surprising, but this indigenous African pulse is a metaphor for the continent’s potential to beat food insecurity – provided we’re wiser about optimising what we have.
The lowly Lablab purpureus, also known as the Hyacinth bean, is widely consumed in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Africa. It is a hardy plant that grows wild in nature, gets the thumbs-up for taste, is high in protein and is versatile enough to be served for dinner or to be used in animal feed.
For Simatele, the lablab bean represents an opportunity for the continent to think about biodiversity in a time of climate change, widening urban-rural divides, continued technological deficiencies, a low skills base and yawning wealth gaps.
“We have to go back to basics, think about how to optimise scarce resources like water and start realising that Africa’s food security crisis cannot be addressed just by looking at it through a single lens,” says Simatele.
One of the basics Simatele names is switching to growing a wider range of indigenous crops. These crops will better withstand the coming extreme weather patterns. Another of Simatele’s basics is promoting food production in urban and peri-urban areas, closer to where most people live, in order to reduce energy and fuel needs that add up to larger carbon footprints. There’s also room to strengthen networks across disciplines – from weather monitoring through engineering to indigenous knowledge systems, and even activism to shift policy and hold leaders to account.
The lay of the land
Simatele says the food crisis for the continent is complex and is a mirror of multiple failings and pressures in society. It has taken hold over generations, compounded by everything from a legacy of highly industrialised agricultural practices that have excluded those with limited financial access, to the dominance of crops imported to the continent in a colonial era, to present-day bad governance and corruption.
But somewhere between the picture of Africa as a write-off and Africa as the new food Eden, is a version of the continent that is less exaggerated and in its honesty holds plainer answers to what strategy, resilience-building and appropriate adaptability for food security must look like.
The dirt on soil
For Professor Mary Scholes who holds a Research Chair in Systems Analysis in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at Wits, a crucial starting point is identifying what we have so that we know how to harness its potential. As a soil expert, Scholes says that because Africa has mostly old, tropical weather soils, we have a limited amount of fertile, arable soil.
Imperatives that may help the soil are the correct use of fertilisers and better adjudication in granting water-use licences, especially in areas where water is the most limiting resource.
“Inorganic fertiliser used correctly can boost the soil’s phosphorus and nitrogen composition to improve yields in the short-term,” says Scholes. “Organic fertilisers like maize stover, grass clippings and chicken or cattle manure may be more sustainable in the long-term, but you may need huge amounts for it to be effective, which is not always practical.”
On water licences, Scholes gives the example of how, in some instances, it makes more sense to give licences for ventures in aquaponics rather than for maize crops. Humans require a balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates and minerals and these needs should be met by regional production to minimise transport costs.
The green revolution and genetically modified crops
Africa “missed” the agricultural revolution of the 1960s. The so-called “green revolution” of that time had its pitfalls, including soil erosion, mono cropping and increasing the pesticide load in the environment. On the flipside, the form of farming that embraced science and technological approaches – including the use of hybridised seeds, pesticides and improved irrigation systems – made large-scale farming possible in more areas and for longer periods throughout the year. Judicious funding was also integral to the success of the green revolution. It is widely regarded as an intervention that solved starvation among the most vulnerable people in the world half a century ago.
This is why Scholes doesn’t discount the role of genetically modified (GM) crops. GM foods and crops continue to divide the room and remain controversial. Critics shun it over concerns about its impact on the environment and for the long-term health of people and animals. It is also considered problematic in deepening the commoditisation of food, entrenching corporate monopolies and muscling out smaller farmers.
Scholes says though, “If you are wealthy, you have the choice to walk into a supermarket and choose a product that is GMO-free, but if you are poor, it is a case of eat GMOs or starve.”
Pragmatism and sensible, informed decision-making matters in overcoming food insecurity, says Scholes.
For Dr Tracy Ledger, a researcher at the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), sensible decision-making stops when food is not affordable and accessible to most of the population. Ledger wrote the book, An empty plate: Why we are losing the battle for our food system, why it matters and how we can win it back. She believes we produce enough food – but we’re not making it accessible to those who need it most.
“We live with a system of buyer-led (retailer) value chains,” says Ledger. “Just because you grow more food does not mean you are better off. If you grow more maize in the Eastern Cape, it does not mean you are going to put food on the table for a family in Ivory Park. The planet already produces enough food. The problem is people don’t have access to it.”
According to Ledger, it is crucial to understand the enormous implications that the skewed food system has on our society.
Land and food
This skewed food system includes the way we grow, buy and distribute food. It includes the costs associated with getting a plate of food on the table, issues of land tenure, title deeds, microfinancing, and access to markets, science, and technology for many smallholder farmers.
“It is a wicked problem for smallholder farmers stuck in debt and still not growing enough in some years. You also can’t expect people to care for the land and to grow food on the land if they do not have title deeds or secure tenure,” says Scholes.
Land reform and land expropriation have dragged on in South Africa. Settling the matter decisively and smartly can bring about the clarity and stability needed to shape policies around food security.
This is part of the good governance and leadership that needs to be threaded through everything, including food security strategies, says Professor Ronald Wall, who holds the Chair in Economic Development of the City of Johannesburg in the School of Economic and Business Sciences at Wits.
Sound governance, cooperation and vision are at the heart of Wall’s best-case scenario for a transformed continent that can attract the right kind of foreign direct investments (FDI).
FDI improves everything from medium to high-tech infrastructure development through to better sanitation – all of which impact on improving agriculture and food processing, which in turn can help make Africa more food secure and more prosperous.
Good governance for (food) growth
Wall, a chief researcher and author of the UN-Habitat report The State of the African Cities 2018 report: The geography of African investment released in July 2018, believes there are reasons to be optimistic. Positives are Africa’s large youth population, the opportunity to optimise low, medium and high-tech production in the pockets of arable land (particularly in cities and peri-urban areas) and the opportunity to leapfrog errors made by other countries and to experiment with new ideas and technologies.
“Agriculture and investment in agriculture have been under-looked for a long time because farming is considered to be linked to poverty and to things low-tech and rural. But we have an opportunity to combine knowledge-intensive food production and our huge human resource in young people to create employment and opportunity through valued-added agricultural processing businesses,” says Wall.
City farms
South Africa’s nascent city food gardens, A-frame hydroponic rooftop gardens, food gardening as landscape, and food waste management initiatives represent a trend of agro-urbanity and creative problem solving. It attracts young people who see themselves as farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs.
“We need to be able to build cities that are a mosaic of productive areas. Road networks and infrastructure need to improve to close the urban-rural divide. This helps cool the unprecedented rate of African urbanisation, while giving opportunity to people in rural areas. Food production should be something that is part of city life, not something that happens somewhere faraway.”
Wall believes urban people need to experience food systems to see explicitly that they are also about political power and investment flows. He warns, for example, that Africa’s arable land is being gobbled up by food multinationals to grow food for export markets, not the continent’s people.
“Africa is a potential food basket for the world, but not for Africans themselves,” says Wall.
Ledger says a great example of this is the state of the small dairy farming industry, which has been decimated in South Africa. In recent years, 5 000 small dairy farmers who used to provide 50 000 jobs in the country have gone out of business.
“Farmers get paid R4.80 per litre of milk that is sold for over R15 in the shop, so almost every small dairy farmer in South Africa has gone out of business. Farmers take all the risk with producing milk, while retailers (and to a lesser extent, processors) make most of the profit,” says Ledger.
Wall and his fellow authors write in the UN-Habitat report of the dangerous seduction of food FDI in Africa that is only concentrated on land acquisition and international food exports. Bad deals with multinationals negatively affect local economies due to related social, economic and political conflict. Fairer deals should include the likes of joint ventures, increased local employment and guaranteed technology transfer to local producers.
“Studies have shown that 115 million acres of agricultural land have been leased to investors worldwide (international land outsourcing for food exports) and that the bulk of this is in Africa (Land Matrix, 2016). Hence, food investment in Africa has become a ‘resource-seeking production and export platform’ venture that generally does not support local food availability.”
Wall, like Simatele, says protection and pushback against international pressure comes down to engaged, critically aware citizenry and good governance. Regional economic communities like the Southern African Development Community or the Economic Community of West African States need to be strong and the African Union as a whole has to be able to withstand potential exploitation through skewed deals.
“You can’t have a case where a foreign firm negotiates with one country and if it doesn’t get the deal it wants simply goes to a neighbouring country to make a similarly bad deal,” says Wall.
He has more bad news, pointing out that land grabbing, inefficient land administration, poor documentation, lack of transparency, low capacity and the demand for land surveyors are all barriers to attracting the FDI that could positively impact food security.
Still, Wall is optimistic and says vision and hope have very real roles to play in turning things around for the continent. These may seem intangible, but inspiration, imagination and optimism are the stuff that make people believe they can and should map out their future solutions, rather than remaining stuck in dead ends.
Hope may seem a huge leap for the question of how dinner gets on to a plate tonight, but planting and nurturing a seed gives it every chance to grow to its fullest potential.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Disco soups and nutraceuticals
- Deborah Minors
FOOD BITES: From a new form of food activism making gardening “cool” to developing new ways to deliver the medicines – or nutraceuticals – that our bodies need.
Food gardens and disco soups
A new form of food activism is making gardening ‘cool’ in the township of Khayelitsha. A research project on food governance, based in the Wits School of Governance, is investigating this new activism.
The Earth Connections food research project is a science-citizen initiative that explores the intersection of matriarchs, gardeners and their relations with land in a South African urban township context. The research team comprises three academics from Wits and the Nelson Mandela University, and two food gardeners from Ikhaya Gardens in Site C in Khayelitsha, Western Cape.
The political philosophy of food gardeners
The research site, a food garden at a primary school in Khayelitsha, is a ‘space of hope’ where children participate and learn from food gardeners. Food governance and the food garden are a response to Big Food retailers who dominate food consumption and distribution.
Philosophically, a food garden represents a site of self-governance for the body. A food garden is a place where we control our own food and, by extension, our own bodies. Reconnecting with the earth through a food garden reduces feelings of alienation that are symptomatic of modern life.
“Neo-liberal governance produces extreme forms of alienation in the work and social environment. Connecting with the food garden produces a site of revitalisation and relative autonomy within our social relations,” says Dr Darlene Miller, Principal Investigator of the Food Research Team.
Connecting with ‘cool’
The Khayelitsha food gardeners host ‘disco soups’ where they mix music, recite poetry and make soup with recycled vegetables. At the spinach ‘bar’ near a Khayelitsha train station, you can buy a spinach bread loaf for R10.
Earth Connections has produced a documentary of the political philosophies of these food gardeners.
“We are more focused on education. We are more focused on bringing back the dignity of the people – the independence. We are more focused on self-reliance where we say that you can feed yourself from the small soil that you have. So we’re more about expanding the knowledge of growing,” says Xolisa Bangani, a food gardener.
Feeding functional foods effectively
Nutraceuticals are nutritionally enhanced food but the way in which we consume them could compromise their efficacy.
Nutraceuticals are medicinally or nutritionally enhanced ‘functional foods’. They include everyday products such as yoghurt and fortified breakfast cereals, or more advanced ‘designer’ foods that improve a food’s health benefits and prevent or treat diseases.
Delivering nutraceuticals to the body is a complex process. These naturally derived molecules must be adequately protected, remain viable and, where necessary, absorb effectively to deliver health benefits.
The WADDP team use innovative biomaterials to develop formulations that enhance the delivery of nutraceuticals to the body. Biomaterials are any substance engineered to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose.
The WADDP is now researching new ways to deliver gut microbes, which have proven effective for gut health and preventing or treating obesity. Studies show that gut microbes (microorganisms that live in the digestive tract) are linked to obesity risk and related metabolic disorders. The WADDP’s nutraceutical formulations can manipulate gut microbes to facilitate weight loss or prevent obesity in humans. This work is undertaken by two Postdoctoral students within the team – Dr Mershen Govender and Dr Sunaina Indermun.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
The Hunger Games
- Zeblon Vilakazi
EDITORIAL: It is tragic that we live in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, yet we have millions of people who starve every day.
It is incongruous that we have more data than ever before, scientific research that can be used in smart decision-making to influence national policy, yet we hesitate to do what is best for the majority. It is ironic that it costs so much more to eat healthily and that the most vulnerable amongst us are often left malnourished or obese as it is too expensive to access healthy food. It is paradoxical that Africa is a resource-rich continent but, in the words of Wits Professor Ronald Wall, “Africa is a potential food basket for the world, but not for Africans themselves.”
The Hunger Games are real and the threats to the sustainability of the African continent and the futures of African people are significant. The stories reflected in this issue of Curios.ty delve into the opportunities for a food sustainable future for Africa, the green revolution, and good governance in food production and supply. Some researchers (p. 12) argue that the right to food should be treated in the same way as the right to water in South Africa – as a basic human right – to benefit all in society.
Wits Professor Vishwas Satgar and Jane Cherry advocate food sovereignty and believe that the solutions to food security lie in “community, ecological and people-based alternatives”. Read more about the Wits Food Sovereignty Centre on p. 16.
Context matters and it is imperative for us to find African solutions to African problems, whilst drawing on the best ‘glocal’ research and practice available. For example, Professor Luke Chimuka has developed a Moringa Energy Drink with high nutritional value but without caffeine and significant amounts of sugar (p. 42), whilst many Wits researchers study entomophagy – the human practice of eating insects – a potential solution to food insecurity.
There are dedicated inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary teams at Wits who research food, health and society. We should be worried when they describe parts of South Africa as “obesogenic environments”, in a country where about one-fifth of children are stunted. Professor Karen Hofman and her team in PRICELESS SA have successfully undertaken research and advocated for the introduction of a ‘sugar tax’ on sugar-sweetened beverages, which saw a major policy change in South Africa in 2018 (p. 27), but many challenges remain – especially on the food labelling front.
Professor Shane Norris, leader of the Bt20+ study, explores the attitudes of young South Africans towards food, body image and eating disorders, in both rural and urban settings. Learn more about diets and exercise from experts in the Wits Sports Medicine and Exercise Science Centre on p. 30.
We are fortunate to be in a research-intensive university like Wits, where we have the expertise and experience across disciplines and the relevant links to the public and private sectors to tackle the complex challenges of the 21st Century. Food security should be high on our list if we are to eliminate the Hunger Games and ensure a sustainable food future for Africa.
Read more in the sixth issue, themed: #HungerGames where our researchers and academics unpack the latest research on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
Curiosity, Issue 6: You are what you eat
- Wits University
Our online research magazine focuses on the socio-economic, political, physiological and psychological dynamics of food and nutrition.
The sixth issue of Wits University’s research magazine, Curios.ty, is themed:#HungerGames and our researchers unpack their latest work on food security, food science, food politics and governance, nutrition and food-related health issues such as obesity, diets, breastfeeding, and body image.
The #HungerGames in South Africa and Africa are real; the socio-economic, political, physiological and psychological dynamics of food and nutrition brings to light the tragic reality that millions of people are still starving every day despite our societal advances.
Here are some sobering facts from the research:
Since 2014, the number of households with a monthly income of R3 200 or less that skipped a meal in the year rose from 23% in 2014 to 37% in 2018. For households with earnings between R3 201 and R12 800 per month, this number doubled from 9% to 18%.
The average monthly cost of a thrifty basket of food for a four-member household is estimated at R2 786.
Preliminary findings in new research due for publication in 2019 indicate a link between the relative increase in food and beer prices with levels of crime and violent behaviour in South Africa.
Small dairy farming has been decimated in South Africa: Over 5 000 small dairy farmers who used to produce 50 000 jobs in the country have gone out of business. Dietary recommendations advise that a child should at least have half a litre of milk per day – at a cost of R210 per month, which is more than half the current childcare grant.
A quarter of South African children are stunted and childhood malnutrition has been linked to an increased propensity for violence in adulthood.
South Africa has the highest prevalence of diabetes on the continent. In the public health sector in 2014, there were 5 000 new diabetes cases a month. By 2016, that was close to 15 000.
ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
Our feature story, Food takes root in Africa (page 8) shows how Africa’s arable land is being gobbled-up by multinational food giants that grow food specifically for the export markets and not the continent’s people. But the research also provides viable solutions to stem the tide and create a food sustainable future for Africa.
About Curios.ty
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
The history of housing, student accommodation and segregated living at Wits University.
Before Wits became a University officially in 1922, it was the School of Mines. In 1911, the School acquired Sunnyside, Lord Milner’s former residence in Parktown. Sunnyside was to become a Wits student hostel and building began in 1920. College House, the men’s residence, was first occupied in 1921 while Dalrymple, the women’s residence, received its first students in 1922.
Men's Residence, 1929
In 1928, hostels were allocated £60 000 of the £500 000 budget from the Government Building loans. In 1930, the women’s residence at Milner Park opened. That year, the student numbers totalled 1 609, rising to 2 544 by 1939. At that time, 53% of students came from Johannesburg, 11% from other Reef towns, and 18% from elsewhere in the Transvaal. The Orange Free State and Cape Provinces each provided 6% of the student population, and Natal, 3%.
Out-of-town students were accommodated in three residences – College House, Dalrymple House for 150 men, and Sunnyside (later Isabel Dalrymple) for 100 women. The remaining students who didn’t live at home resided in training college residences, or in private lodgings in Berea, Auckland Park and Braamfontein, north of Jorissen Street.
The majority of black students who came to Wits in the 1940s came from outside of Johannesburg. Initially, black students attending the Wits Medical School stayed at Wolhunter Native Hostel in Sophiatown, west of Johannesburg. In 1944, the Native Affairs Department agreed to £30 000 for construction of a residence for black medical students. The Douglas Smith House for Africans, located on Showground Road (today Enoch Sontonga Avenue) opened in 1946 for 30 men and six women – unique amongst Wits residences in that it accommodated both men and women.
The University made no provision for Indian students despite their petitioning for a hostel in 1941. Indian students had to find lodgings in religious hostels or private households, predominantly in Fordsburg, Vrededorp and Newtown.
Student housing more than doubled after World War II with the creation (for white students) of new residences and bungalows. Cottesloe Military Hospital in Auckland Park accommodated ex-war volunteers, including 400 single men and 30 married couples. Further afield, at Frankenwald, bungalows were built for 60 male students who were taking the Soil Conservation course at Wits.
On campus, College and Dalrymple House for women accommodated 270 students. Other men stayed in Knockando and women in Medhurst. Around one third of the fulltime student body lived on campus on the immediate surrounds.
At the end of the 1950s, Wits residences accommodated some 750 students – around 15% of the student population. The men’s hall of residence on campus, College House and Dalrymple House, accommodated 150 men; Isabel Dalrymple House (“Sunnyside”) housed 160 women; Cottesloe, 400, and the Douglas Smith House for Africans, 36. Today, Wits accommodates about 6 200 students, although the demand for accommodation is estimated at 14 000.
Sources:
Wits the Early Years, A History of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and its Precursors 1896-1939, Bruce K. Murray, Wits University Press, 1982.
Wits the ‘Open’ Years, A History of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 1939-1959, Bruce K. Murray. Wits University Press, 1997.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Pushing privacy buttons
- Schalk Mouton
COLUMN: It feels like I am trapped in a scene of the Ferris Beuller movie. It is all a dream of the (near) future. Or a nightmare?
It is 5am. My cell phone alarm goes off. The Wifi-enabled cat had come in through her personally secured cat-door and had begun making pudding in my armpit from 4:40.
The cellphone immediately switches on the coffee maker. The cat wakes the dogs, who bark. The barks are real. Not digitised. I get up. Go to the loo. The toilet roll holder tells my local Spar that my toilet roll supplies are getting low. I have no idea who the toilet is talking to, and what it says to whomever listens.
Breakfast. A good fry-up. Eggs, bacon, some veggies. The radio is on, but it realises that the music is not to my taste. Bieber. It switches automatically to a channel that plays music from back in the day when music was real.
The sun rises. The curtains open and adjust automatically to keep the temperature optimal in the house. Both the temperature and CO2 levels are regulated by the central brain of the house. I’ve got a smart house. Even the refrigerator has enough computing power to send a space ship to the moon. I feel intimidated. The thing’s got only one job, and one job only! That is to keep my food fresh and cold, for crying in a bucket!
Breakfast’s done. The coffee pot’s empty. The coffee machine tells my car I am ready to leave. The car switches itself on and starts heating my seat.
On my way to work, the cameras watch me. When do I leave? Where do I go? Which route do I take? They’re mapping all my movements. I know the security firm buys the feed from Vumacam. That is all fine, but to whom else do they sell the feed? Who else is tracking my movements?
Hungry already and feeling like a snack. The local McDonalds knows this. They know I am in the area. They automatically get my order ready. It is based on my mood, my tastes, the time of day and year, and the length of my hair at the moment. All established from all kinds of data, from previous buying history, to scraping my Facebook account. It is all very smooth. The only problem is my food is cold when I arrive, due to a malfunctioning traffic light, which the City still doesn’t seem to be able to get right.
It feels like I am trapped in a scene of the Ferris Beuller movie. It is all a dream of the (near) future. Or a nightmare? I am not sure. Where is this world going? What is happening to us? Never mind being replaced by robots in the workplace, I am becoming redundant in my own home! What in the world is wrong with closing the curtains yourself?
Now I realise I sound quite negative about this new world into which we’re heading. I’m not really. There are many ways smart homes might enhance our lives and new technology does add value. For instance, when you are on holiday, a smart water geyser, linked to the internet can immediately inform you when there’s a problem, or that it has burst. It will immediately automatically switch off the water supply to prevent you from having a flooded house when you get back home, while at the same time contacting the insurance company to open a claim. Should your house be fitted with smart locks, you can even let in the plumber (whether a person or a drone) from where you are lying on the beach with a tap on your cellphone, and the problem is fixed even before you get back from your relaxing holiday.
But I think we need to consider what this high-tech future might mean to us as human beings. There are a number of challenges still to overcome with this new tech in our homes and societies. For instance, how do I know that my intelligent fridge (my fridge is more than smart – it can send stuff to the moon), is not busy rigging the upcoming elections, while placing my order for fresh marshmallow Easter eggs? And no, this is not as far-fetched as you think!
Also, do we really need to be listened to, and watched constantly? By 2021, the virtual smart assistant – Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri Home, and so forth – market globally is expected to be worth $16b. These devices are built specifically to listen to you. In 2018, Alexa “inadvertently” recorded a private conversation between a couple and sent it in an email to a random contact. Amazon provided a highly unlikely scenario to explain away the incident. What does “inadvertently” mean?
Why record a private conversation between two people in their own home in any case? This, to me, is reason to worry. The device is designed to listen to you all the time! Yes, you can ask it to change your radio station when you don’t want to listen to Bieber, but again, what is wrong with pressing a button?
The smart home business is growing to staggering numbers at the moment. It really is the next best thing. Imagine what the iPhone did to our society in the past decade, then you can imagine what smart home systems and the Internet of Things will do to us in the next decade. No, I am not a sceptic. I just still like my privacy. Being the good introvert that I am, I like to be alone. I need to be alone. I don’t like to be watched and listened to all the time, nor have all my movements tracked.
Yes, I would like to have all my groceries delivered to me every week, but I still actually enjoy the outing of going to the fresh grocer every now and then and actually chat to the people who supply my food. At least, they make me feel welcome, and relevant, when I pull out my credit card to pay … Call me old fashioned!
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
The mouth of a shark
- Adanma Yisa
COLUMN: Adanma Yisa shares her journey of being an African researcher in Africa today, but raised and educated in the Global North.
Leaving Africa for Europe was a common sense decision for my parents – it was most likely a desire. My parents were born in Nigeria and relocated to England where I was born, raised and completed a significant part of my education.
The way in which Africa was returned to Africans and the subsequent relationship they have to their irrevocably altered home has resulted in a seemingly commonplace and natural desire for Africans to leave for the West. Reflecting on the question of home, British-Somalian poet, Warsan Shire, offers this: “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark”.
The implications of my being an African researcher in Africa, but raised and educated in the Global North has caused me some anxiety. I am always fearful of being the middle class black woman making the odd excursion to rural areas for sound bites that enrich my academic career, yet create no real change for the women on whose life my work is supposedly focused.
An African academic from England
Insights from African gender theorists were important considerations for me when conducting my Master’s research that centred on interviews with black South African women. These theorists have problematised the intellectual dislocation and geographical location of those who theorise the experiences of African women from a diasporan perspective (a diaspora being a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale).
They question how African gender theorists based in or raised in the West and with divergent socioeconomic positionalities to the women they write about can really provide relevant research. Worse, and my own greatest fear, the work of African disaporan researchers is deemed patronising due to this issue of relevance.
African diasporan researchers like me have to acknowledge that our experiences mean we are not simply African researchers theorising about our own people. Growing up or being educated abroad makes us different. To confront the issues of relevance, I designed my research so that the women I interviewed had protagonist status. I used a critical narrative interview style that allowed participants to tell and reflect on their own life stories. I also found keeping a reflexivity journal an important element of conducting research from a contested positionality. Reflexivity is a sociological concept referring to an act of self-reference where examination or action “bends back on”, refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination.
My journal included notes on the embarrassment I felt around asking for translations and the way that confessional narratives made me reflect on my own similar experiences. More generally, I have found the concept of a “pedagogy of discomfort”, suggested by education academics Megan Boler and Michalinos Zembylas, helpful. Encounters with issues relating to power, oppression and belonging that cause uneasiness are an opportunity to examine how one has learned to perceive themselves and others.
The contested nature of home
Anxiety about my positionality goes beyond my academic research. Home is a question that can brutally assault my sense of identity and belonging. Growing up in England, I was constantly confronted with the contested nature of home. I still am. At school, I learned about World War II and my peers saw images of the stories that they had heard from grandparents; stories that were foreign to me.
Interestingly, later in life I would find out that as a resident of the Empire, my grandfather was stationed in Burma (modern day Myanmar) during World War II. Aunties would laugh at my inability to speak Igbo and gasp when I explained I had only visited Nigeria once as a toddler.
There was always the question of whom I supported in the World Cup (it used to be Nigeria, but now I support Nigeria, England, and South Africa). And, of course, there was the hair… Do you do your braids every morning (all 80 of them!)? Do you wash your hair? Why can’t you get your hair wet? Can I touch your hair? Endless!
Colonialism – the imposition, the extraction, the indignity – transformed home for so many of us. It led my parents to leave Nigeria in search of a better life. Whether England really offers a better life than Nigeria is a difficult question for colonial subjects, such as my parents, to answer. My father and I have been having the same argument over the last ten years about whether Africa’s underdevelopment is rooted in the African or the colonial abuse of Africa. The interlinking systems of racism, patriarchy, neo-colonialism and capitalism have skewered perceptions in a way that makes England seem almost unquestionably better than Nigeria. In the words of my father, Nigeria is a “bloody nonsense country” and I am a fool for not cherishing being raised in a place “where things work”.
Decolonising ‘common sense’
England being better than Nigeria ceases to become a question; it becomes a common sense understanding. The thing about common sense understandings – like the notion that England is better than Nigeria – is that they maintain unequal relationships of power. The consistent drain of Africans to Europe and North America serves the interests of the West. It is a loss to the continent and an increase in resources to imperial power. It means Africa will always be a problem in relation to the West. An important part of challenging power is unpacking taken-for-granted norms. This is why interrogating common sense is an important part of my research, and the reason my father and I will continue our argument for the next ten years.
My upbringing has fed into my positionality. I am both Nigerian and British and both come with a range of associations that I embody. This is why the work of reflexivity is so important to me. Reflecting on the how, what and why of what I do will be a continuous part of my journey as a researcher. Positionalities are a crucial consideration when understanding and digesting research and African research is littered with thinkers who find home a complex question to answer.
In reckoning with the task of decolonising knowledge, the issue of who writes and where they write from is something to which we must pay close attention. My dedication to the decolonisation project means continually grappling with the question of home. It means gazing into the mouth of a shark.
Adanma Yisa is the External Relations Manager in the School of Law.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
You and Big Brother @Home online
- Amy Musgrave
Technology and surveillance cause a sense of moral panic, but such scrutiny has the potential to enhance society.
The tension between cyber phobia and cyber euphoria is one of the enduring questions of the technological age. And as the technologies of the modern world become more powerful – even more intrusive – the question becomes even sharper.
This sense of moral panic is surely linked to the way in which today’s technologies intersect – and even take over – the most personal spaces in our everyday lives. Many of the technologies that resulted from the second industrial revolution during the early 20th Century carried with them a limited invasive capacity. This was the case even when these innovations were developed for mass consumption, and thus entered our homes.
So the motor car, the telephone, the television set and video recorder became commonplace in the developed world, but they each belonged to a single identifiable place in the home. The car in the garage, the TV and VCR in the lounge, the phone in the study. The user could leave them in their designated place. Technology had also not yet broken down the distinction between home and office, work and leisure, or personal and public.
Convergence calamity
Modern tech is different and this altered relationship in the interface of the individual-to-consumer technology is perhaps the main distinguishing feature of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – and arguably a key driver of 21st Century techno-anxiety.
It does not help the sense of moral panic that consumer tech also obliterates the distinction in the use of the various devices we own and operate, thus increasing the individual’s dependence on these devices. TV and recorder, phone, messaging, watch and office capabilities can now be had from a single device. Home, work, and play now also exist seamlessly, challenging established notions of work/life balance.
Surveillance capitalism
But is the sense of dread justified? Breckenridge thinks this anxiety has a lot to do with the fear of surveillance, which modern tech makes easier. Fear of surveillance is based on the notion that the state – or large corporations today – are gunning for maximum control of our personal information for dubious purposes.
He cites the example of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Futureat the New Frontier of Power, Shoshana Zuboff’s 2018 book about the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behaviour. “Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector.”
But Breckenridge makes the point that states still collect more information than any corporation, despite the data collection and storage capacity of the mega corporations of the internet age. This is especially true of the developed ‘mega-states’, such as the US, China, and the European Union governments. And, he adds, there is nothing wrong with states collecting as much information as possible, even through surveillance systems. “Every just society has and relies upon vast systematic surveillance,” he says.
Surveillance for citizen services
To understand and appreciate the point, it’s perhaps necessary to shift from the popular understanding of ‘surveillance’ – with its connotations of spying, intrusion and invasion of privacy – towards what Breckenridge means by it: the collection, collation and categorisation of citizens’ information to enable the state to deliver services efficiently.
One example is the developed welfare states of the Scandinavian countries, where citizens are required to notify local authorities within a certain period of relevant changes in their personal and family circumstances, such as moving to a new house. This allows better state planning and services such as schooling and healthcare.
The surveillance state, according to Breckenridge, works best as a trade-off between the individual and the state: you give the state maximum information about yourself and your personal circumstance, in return for socio-economic “goodies” (social grants, health, education, safety), in other words a state that takes care of basic needs.
In the South African context, better surveillance of citizens’ movements and lives will allow the state to be more efficient at paying out social grants, as well as tracking how the money the state pays out is spent, which is critical knowledge to have when planning local economic development.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Migrant moms keep the home fires burning
- Refilwe Mabula
How motherhood has been redefined through the feminisation of migration and maternal motion.
Historically, men dominated migration patterns as they moved in search of employment opportunities to provide for their families. Patriarchal societies expected men to be the sole provider while women looked after homes and families. The feminisation of migration shows that women are migrating increasingly and providing as heads of households. This changing family dynamic has implications for ways of understanding motherhood and gender roles.
Working women on the move
“Migration challenges normative ways of understanding parenting,” says Thulisile Zikhali, a PhD candidate in migration and displacement. Zikhali’s Master’s in the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) at Wits explored the mothering experiences of Zimbabwean women living in Johannesburg who had to leave their children at home in Zimbabwe.
Titled, Mothering from across the Limpopo: Experiences of Zimbabwean mothers living in Johannesburg, Zikhali’s study focused on migrant Zimbabwean single mothers in the informal labour sector in South Africa. These mothers endured various challenges but they all had a common goal – to invest in their children’s future and provide a decent life for their children.
Zikhali found that the women were proud of their roles as mothers who could provide, but they had to deal with the emotional turmoil of separation from their children. Yet, despite the separation anxiety, self-blame for their absence, and feelings of estrangement from their children, being away from home was for the greater good.
Dr Katherine Bain, Senior Lecturer in the Wits Psychology Department, says that regular telephonic contact and reassurance are the foundation of a good mother-child relationship.
“As long as the children have a sense that their mother loves them and that she is available for them when they need her, a good relationship can be built. Regular telephone contact, even from age one, can help children feel held in mind by their mother. It allows children to remember their mother’s voice and feel that their mother is interested and available, which is the basis for a nurturing, loving relationship,” says Bain.
When moms sell sex
The emotional hardships of the migrant mothers is exemplified in the Setswana idiom, Mmangwana o tshwara thipa ka fa bogaleng – the mother of a child holds the dagger on the sharper edge – describing the lengths to which mothers go for the wellbeing and protection of their children. For some migrant mothers working as sex workers, this means enduring victimisation, criminalisation, and dangerous working conditions. Dr Rebecca Walker, a postdoctoral fellow at ACMS, researched migrant mothers who sell sex in South Africa.
“Many sex workers are the sole bread-winners for their families and criminalisation makes providing that much harder while doing nothing to combat exploitation in the industry. Sex workers are often labelled as ‘bad mothers’, yet the high levels of abuse and violence they face in order to provide, means that they are actually doing an incredible job as mothers in very difficult and often dangerous circumstances,” she says.
Redefining motherhood
Zikhali found that the migration of women and mothers has redefined the concept of motherhood – providing for children is more important than being physically present. Yet, despite the financial contribution migrant mothers make to their households back in Zimbabwe, their ideal form of mothering was being personally present with their children back home.
Thembi, a migrant mother from Zimbabwe, is not able to invest in her child’s future. She is unemployed and unable to provide for her child back home. She takes comfort in knowing that, despite her absence, her parents are providing a loving home for her daughter.
Bain says that for children to develop along a healthy trajectory they need to feel safe, loved and reliably cared for – and this caregiver does not have to be the child’s mother.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
The shape of the South African family
- Beth Amato
Migrant labour has intrinsically shaped family life in SA. Family structures and the concept of 'home' would be vastly different if it weren’t for this history.
On the M2 West highway between the Ruven and Heidelberg Road off-ramps, the original hostels for black mineworkers stand as monuments to migrant labour, which has shaped South Africa in ways we’re still trying to understand. At first glance, the hostels seem drab and derelict but evidence of domesticity – flapping laundry from windows and a lively soccer game on the fields adjacent to the buildings – suggests that life continues here in a new form and will continue to change as it always has in Johannesburg. The mine dumps, like the City’s custard-coloured waste mountains, lie beyond the hostels to the south. They too are being re-mined and repurposed.
Hostels as homes in eGoli
The Mandela Initiative (a multi-sector platform to investigate and develop strategies to overcome poverty and inequality) provides an historical overview of South Africa’s migrancy. Labour migration can be traced to the diamond rush of the 1800s and then the discovery of gold reefs on the Witwatersrand. Migrant labour was systemised by the state and the mining companies, and later became central to the apartheid government’s strategy to control black influx to “white” cities while ensuring a steady supply of labour.
The single-sex compound or hostel system that provided accommodation for mainly black men was a key feature of migrant labour, resulting in the fragmenting of families, who stayed behind in what became “homelands”. Research by Wits Professor Dori Posel shows that the migrant labour force peaked in 1986 with an estimated 560 000 migrants on the mines. Many men found partners in the City and had children. “Dual household members and temporary migration have continued post-apartheid,” said Posel.
“In particular, apartheid fragmented families and weakened communities,” says Hall. This was a result of legislation and forced removals, but was also achieved through structural impediments to family life. Many of these obstacles to family life persist today – shortages of adequate family accommodation in urban areas; the under-resourcing of schools, health services and childcare facilities; and the lack of infrastructure and economic opportunity in rural areas. Therefore where “home” is, and where children live, may be a strategic decision made out of necessity.
Parents might work in cities and children live with grandmothers in rural areas because childcare support in urban areas is hard to come by and expensive. Children may move to live with other family later, especially if they are closer to good schools and other services.
“Both families and households take diverse forms and household arrangements may change over time as people move. South Africa has high internal migration rates and children are also mobile. Any picture we have of households is just a snapshot in time,” notes Hall. Many families are “stretched”, for example, with members moving between households that span urban and rural areas. It is not unusual for children to be raised by grandparents or other family members – kinship networks have historically played an important role in the care of children. The apartheid migrant labour system relied on this, and contemporary society continues to do so.
But the state still tends to view the nuclear family (two biological parents and their children) as the standard. “Its privileged status is sometimes implicit in policies and the attitudes of those who implement policy,” says Richter.
The statistics in the Child Gauge highlight that 62% of children live in extended family households, and that only 25% live in nuclear family households.
Remaking South African
“When parents are absent from their children’s households, it does not mean they have abandoned their children. Ninety-three percent of children with an absent mother and 78% with an absent father are in contact with their parent. Around half of absent parents send some financial support for the child,” says Hall.
The authors of the Child Gauge 2018 argue that that government policies and programmes should recognise the current (and changing) shape of families and support families to achieve the living arrangements that best meet their needs and their children’s needs. Programmes need to be sufficiently flexible to respond to diverse and changing forms as families strategise to maintain homesteads, to gain secure tenure at places of work, to care for children and other dependants, to further the education of their members, and to provide income.
The Child Gauge 2018 offers insight into how policies and programmes can be structured and implemented. Ultimately, The Child Gauge 2018 attempts to help us break down the meta-narrative of the nuclear family and “home” as something bounded and static. Households are constantly made and remade in South Africa.
Beth Amato is a specialist writer at the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development hosted at Wits University and a freelance journalist
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Q&A: Are ecobricks the answer to plastic pollution?
- Curiosity
Professor Herman Potgieter answers questions about whether the planet’s plastic trash tsunami can be stopped.
The use of single-use plastics in households has become a pariah. Many people are trying to reduce the use of single-use plastics or to recycle them. One such innovation is creating “ecobricks” – filling empty two-litre plastic bottles with single-use plastics over time – and delivering these to collection points for use in constructing low-cost houses. Schalk Mouton asks Professor Herman Potgieter, the Head of the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, if ecobricks are really a good idea.
How to make Ecobricks
Take an empty two-litre plastic bottle. Fill it with all your single-use plastics over time. Make sure to compact the plastics properly. When full, deliver at a collection spot. These “ecobricks” will then be used to build low-cost houses.
Are these plastic-based ecobricks safe for the environment?
As long as the plastic keeps its original form, yes. However, plastics are not biodegradable and all plastics – no matter what form or shape they are in – are made up of small, granular pieces that are between 5 to 10 micron (0.005 to 0.01 mm) large, and will eventually break down to that size. Most plastics are also sensitive to ultraviolet light and will break down when exposed to the sun. So no, plastic is not an ideal building material.
What happens to plastics when they break down over a number of years?
Plastics take very long to break down and they usually don’t break down into liquid form but as smaller solids, called micro-plastics. Nobody really knows how long it takes for plastic to break down into its chemical compounds – it could be hundreds or thousands of years. Micro-plastics can cause tremendous environmental problems.
How do these plastics affect the environment in the long-run?
Plastics have a devastating effect on the fauna of the planet’s oceans. These small plastic particles can cause havoc for animals such as whales and fish. In one instance, a dead fish was found with 22kg of plastic in its stomach.
Can chemicals result from plastic breaking down affect human, animal or plant health?
Not really, but plastics and micro-plastics of any size can pose a threat to living organisms. In the sea, they can block whales’ digestive tracts, entangle sea turtles, and affect the photosynthesis of algae. They’re also a problem in rivers and fresh water lakes. It could be that when you drink water out of a plastic bottle, you are ingesting micro-plastics. Nobody really knows what the consequences are for the health of the consumer. It’s best to take no chances – don’t drink out of plastic bottles. Micro-plastics and microbeads (in various commercial products such as facewash and tooth paste) can be hazardous in the long term and microbeads have been banned in various products.
What is a better way to dispose of plastics in an environmentally friendly manner?
Ecobricks are an example of low-grade recycling, which is better than no recycling. High-grade recycling refers to recycling of the same product, that is, recycling plastic bottles to be reused as plastic bottles. Another solution is to make products from biodegradable bioplastics. Yet another solution is just not to use plastic products where there are alternatives. At the Wits School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, we are researching ways to break plastics down – through the process of purolisis – into its original forms, such as liquid carbohydrates and oils. We can then use these products in generating energy for industrial processes. Through these processes, we can add much more value to the recycling of plastics in generating energy, which can lead to job creation, rather than merely using them in low-tech, low-cost recycling practices such as ecobricks.
Overall, is the idea of building houses with plastic bottles a good idea?
There are better ways to dispose of plastics, or to recycle them. If you use these plastic bottles as “bricks”, you have to use something to bind them together. If you use normal cement, it has a quite a high pH of 12.5 (alkaline), so there is a possibility that there can be an interaction between the plastic and the cement, which can affect the structural integrity of the building. Plastics are also highly flammable. If a house built with plastic bottles catches fire, it will burn out of control, releasing highly toxic gasses such as dioxins, furans, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls into the atmosphere. Further, burning of poly vinyl chloride liberates hazardous halogens and pollutes the air, the impact of which is climate change.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Kalahari communes
- Delia du Toit
Sociable weavers are a rarity among birds. Not only do their massive nests endure for generations, but they house several other species as well.
It is six o’clock on a sweltering afternoon in the Kalahari Desert and the mercury is still hovering around 40 degrees Celsius. The arid landscape seems empty, save for a few bushes and camelthorn trees in the distance. On some of the trees, what appear to be half-constructed thatched roofs weigh down the dry branches.
Get closer to these trees, and a wondrous hub of life reveals itself. The thatch-like canopies are massive nests created by sociable weavers (Philetairus socius), who, unlike their cousins commonly found in suburban gardens, don’t so much weave their nests as stack them, using whatever plant-like material is available in the desiccated landscape.
Sociable weavers build large compound community nests – a rarity among birds – and these structures are the largest and possibly the most spectacular structures built by any bird. They are large enough to house over a hundred pairs of birds spanning several generations at a time.
And with so little shelter to be found in the harsh desert environment, not only weavers inhabit these nests …
Awkward neighbours
Professor Graham Alexander, a Lecturer in Herpetology [amphibians and reptiles] and Head of the Herpetology Research Laboratory in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at Wits, became fascinated by the nests while studying reptiles in the desert. The nests are home to a number of other animal species.
Socialble weaver nests consist of separate chambers, each of which is occupied by a pair of birds, sometimes with their offspring. The entrances to the chambers can be seen from below, giving the structure a honeycomb-like appearance. The central chambers retain heat and are used for night time roosting, while the outer rooms are used for daytime shade. Large nesting colonies can span many generations and decades, all in the same nest – some have lasted close to a century. New chicks aren’t hatched on a strict seasonal cycle. Rather, females lay eggs shortly after rain. Lizards and other animals have been noted to also respond to the birds’ alarms when there’s a predator nearby. Sociable weavers eat grains and insects and have evolved to get all their dietary water from their food. Colony members will sometimes visit nearby nests but will return to the same nest every night.
“The nests are really a micro-environment within a bigger environment. Because the huge nests provide shelter and serve as a buffer against the extreme outside temperatures, many species besides weavers have been known to inhabit the nests, from Kalahari tree skinks to barbets and even wasps. Besides that, the birds also bring so much energy to an area, attracting insects that lizards, for example, feed on,” says Alexander.
“Pygmy falcons will at times also inhabit up to four chambers in a nest and have an interesting relationship with the weavers. At first, it seemed like there was no benefit to the weavers, because the falcons take up so much space and will even prey on the weavers at times, even though their diet is mainly made up of lizards. Now we suspect the weavers may also gain some benefit from the falcons – likely, the falcons help deter snakes and other predators – but this hasn’t been confirmed in a study yet.”
With such a buffet of animals in one location, the predators that the birds face from their perched utopia are ruthless. There are records of snakes living in the middle of the nests for up to a week, devastating the colony and eating nearly all the eggs and chicks.
Investigating ecological engineers
This is where Alexander’s work and the world of the weavers cross paths. “One of my former PhD students who is now a collaborator, Bryan Maritz, came up with the idea of studying sociable weavers because of the massive impact snakes have on the birds and, as such, on the environment,” says Alexander. “Sociable weavers are called ecological engineers because, by making homes for themselves, they influence the ecosystem and benefit other animals. So anything that affects them has a much larger footprint on life in the desert.”
For the study, the research team is implanting sensors and trackers in cobras and boomslang [tree snakes] and then releasing the snakes, recording their movements and body temperature every 30 minutes.
“This lets us record when they’re above or underground, when they feed and shed, and where. Cold-blooded animals have a massive temperature shift during these activities because their bodies don’t self-regulate temperature. We’ll know when they’re in a cooler underground hiding place, when they’re basking in the sunlight, and even when they’re expending energy – raising their body temperature by hunting or feeding.”
The researchers want to use the data to assess whether individual snakes depend on these nests for food. “We already know that some cobras visit the same nest frequently, retreating to a nearby hole and again visiting the nest at a later time, but we’re not sure if it is indeed the only source of food for some,” says Alexander.
KEEP exploring eco-environments
The study is being conducted at Tswalu Kalahari, South Africa’s largest privately owned game reserve, which has an onsite research camp. It is the first study of its kind, and forms part of a much larger study called KEEP (Kala Endangered Ecosystem Project) that involves a team of 20 biologists from five universities – Wits, Unisa, and the Universities of Pretoria, Cape Town, and the Western Cape.
Professor Andrea Fuller in the Wits School of Physiology leads KEEP and Alexander is Co-Principle Investigator. The project aims to study the way different animals deal with harsh environments such as deserts – either adapting to it (such as weavers building their nests), tolerating it (such as puff adders do by, at times, simply hiding in grass), or avoiding it (such as cobras going underground).
The data will also be related to climate change to assess what effect it has on the ecosystem. “The study has just kicked off and though we’ve received vehicles from Suzuki, we’re still in desperate need of funding to keep it going. This is the first study in the southern hemisphere that will look at the impact of climate change on the ecosystem as a whole,” says Alexander. “The Kalahari is an ideal study site as climate change has occurred here almost twice as fast as in other parts of South Africa. One strong possibility is that some animals might change their activity schedules – I suspect cobras, for example, could start hunting earlier in the mornings and later in the afternoons to avoid the increased temperatures.”
This, in turn, could influence other animals and the way they live. Only time will tell what impact the world’s rapidly changing climate will have on the desert and its inhabitants. But one thing is certain: many of them will still live in communal bliss with sociable weavers.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Backyard not backward
- Buhle Zuma
Intentional living, the rise of imikhukhu and urban densification for dignity.
Backyard dwellings are a growing trend in a world where the need for accommodation is pressing. By saving money on their living spaces, many tenants are saving money for other investments.
Mncedisi Magadla opens the gate to his home in extension 2, Ivory Park. As he makes his way to the front door his path meets with that of his neighbour who greets him politely before dashing towards the gate. The neighbour is one of many residing in the small stand designed for one house.
The yard houses eight dwelling structures – one shack made from iron sheets in the front, known as umkhukhu in the townships, an RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme] house in the middle, followed by four more imikhukhu at the back. Two other cement block rooms complete the structure. Magadla occupies the RDP house, which he rents from the owner who lives elsewhere in the township.
Magadla, who hails from the Eastern Cape, moved into this RDP house in January with his wife and three kids. The two girls are aged 22 and 11 years and the boy is 15-years-old. Prior to this, Magadla was a tenant for three years in a similar abode before things started going sour with his landlord, who refused to do maintenance.
To Magadla, the place where they live is just a place where they shelter and can hardly be called home. It lacks privacy and space, but it provides a place to lay their heads, he says. Magadla was forced to sell his freestanding home when the company where he worked as a furniture salesman ran into financial trouble in 2012. Sensing that there would be retrenchments, Magadla quickly took the decision to sell his home before the bank could repossess it, and lose a 10 year investment.
“It was the best decision that I have ever made. I took the money and built a more beautiful home in the rural Eastern Cape,” says the manager of a busy bed shop.
The Magadla family resides in what is a common setting in Gauteng townships. Many owners of formal dwellings have, without planning permission, constructed other dwellings on their properties in order to derive income from rental. Many are built with bricks and mortar, while others are more informal, according to a report produced by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory [GCRO].
A search on property sites shows that a 240 metre square stand with 13 backyard rooms can fetch as much as R18 000 per month in rental income. The same stand with a double storey block of flats can fetch double that amount. Magadla pays R3 200 for the two-bedroom RDP house. Research by Professor Sarah Charlton in the Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies [CUBES] at Wits also found that the biggest industry in townships is the renting of accommodation space.
A market meeting needs
Satellite imagery obtained by the GCRO shows that backyard structures have increased dramatically over the years. The major increases are in Mamelodi, Diepsloot and Tembisa; in others, such as Soshanguve, they have been associated with an expanding footprint of settlements.
The report, titled Backyard and informal dwellings: 2001-2016 found that in 2001 there were far fewer backyard structures than dwellings in informal settlements. However, backyard dwellings grew at a much faster rate (205%) than informal settlement dwellings (51%) over the period, and by 2016 there were over 800 000 backyard dwellings in Gauteng compared to some 600 000 informal settlement dwellings. Tshwane experienced a remarkable 393% increase.
Public opinion is divided on backyard rooms or rental rooms in townships. Some neighbours are the most vocal when it comes to these dwellings, fearing that these will decrease the value of their property. Some of the notable outcries have come from traditional suburbs where there’s a growing appetite to convert households into student accommodation and communes, where a single room costs anything between R2 800 and R3 500.
There are also perceptions that the growing number of backyard rooms are a threat to government’s plan to provide decent housing for people and to eradicate overcrowding in township houses, in order to promote human dignity. The sheer number per stand is a hazard.
“When we think about backyarding, we need to think about what is densification and what is overcrowding.”
Densification is the optimum use of the land space and is more desirable than overcrowding.
“Different areas have different abilities to support backyard rooms and densifications. Some of the older areas built under the apartheid have very high specifications in terms of the infrastructure that was provided and can probably support high numbers of units,” explains Rubin.
“Conversely, we have seen, for example, that the specifications on the new RDPs are quite small in terms of what they can support and can result in infrastructure overload.”
However, this is no reason not to support backyarding. A more useful response would be to improve infrastructure in order to cope with the settlements.
Where there has been overcrowding the government’s response was to de-densify the area, which Rubin feels is uninformed as evidenced in the Orlando de-densification programme which displaced over 70 000 people.
In the early 2000s, government sought to deal with overcrowding in Orlando by dangling a carrot stick to landlords. In agreement with the landlords, government offered to replace the poor structures of existing backrooms with more formal and safety compliant cement structures. However, these were limited to two or three units per yard.
Densification for dignity
De-densification is not the solution to the desperate need for accommodation, argues Rubin.
There are social and economic factors driving backyarding. These include affordability and proximity to services, economic and educational opportunities, and they are considered relatively safe compared to informal settlements.
In light of the national housing backlog, the model of backyard rental rooms should be supported according to Rubin. It meets the demand and also provides income to property owners, especially those who are unemployed, including RDP owners who draw public wrath for selling their homes in exchange for cash.
“It allows the poor to leverage on their property which is exactly what the government intends to achieve with state-sponsored houses.”
It’s not a perfect system, but it works in the absence of a national renting housing strategy. The market offers internal migrants from other provinces coming into Johannesburg an opportunity to save money, while they fulfil other family responsibilities and establish themselves.
The desire to own a house is also strong among backyard dwellers. Tshilidzi Ranguvha works as a security guard and pays R300 in rent for an umkhukhu that he erected in the backyard after negotiations with the unemployed landlord who stays in the main house. The remainder of his income goes towards monthly expenses and the construction of his house in Venda. Similarly, Rose Nethononda, who earns ±R8 400 a month, is proud of her home back in Venda, which she says gives her great pride.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Decolonising houses
- Delia du Toit
PROFILE: A Wits study is the first to look at transforming Victorian/Edwardian bungalows into urban compounds in Yeoville and Rosettenville.
Drive through Melville, Parktown and Yeoville – some of Johannesburg’s oldest suburbs – and you might notice a pattern: thousands of buildings in the same Victorian style dotted across the landscape.
These near-identical residential buildings, in a bungalow architectural style, were constructed after the discovery of gold in the last years of the 19th Century and marked the first speculative mass housing model rolled out in the City for the working- and middle-class.
The one-story houses were a cut-and-paste job; a similar size and lay-out, with pressed ceilings and columns on the front porch – an aspirational nod to the building style favoured by higher income groups in Britain.
There are an estimated 30 000 of these houses on the northern side of the Johannesburg mining belt alone. And in some suburbs, these buildings, made in another time and for different people, have been re-appropriated by their inhabitants and given a distinctly African flavour.
Kirsten Doermann, architect and Lecturer in the Wits School of Architecture and Planning, is studying this phenomenon in the suburbs of Yeoville and Rosettenville for her PhD. “We’re looking at the transformation of the Victorian/Edwardian bungalow into urban compounds in these suburbs,” says Doermann. “While several studies have been conducted on the transformation of modernist high-rise buildings, these bungalow compounds have also become a form of affordable co-housing in the African metropolis but have not been acknowledged or researched as such. Yet they’re potential role models for DIY-urbanism – especially in the inner city, where affordable housing is lacking.”
Yeoville’s facelift: Bungalows are the predominant residential buildings in Yeoville, accounting for 62% of its overall fabric, complemented by blocks of flats. From the outside, the Victorian structures have remained largely intact over the last century and are still recognisable. Inside, however, things have changed. The suburb was a predominantly white middle-class area in the early 19th Century. Today, it has been almost entirely repopulated, and the population has more than doubled in the last 20 years. In 1951, for example, just over 17 000 people lived in the area – 76% of them white. Today, almost 37 000 people call Yeoville home – 95% of them black. Rosettenville, although slightly bigger, shows the same radical demographic shift.
A new way of life
The people now inhabiting these houses in Yeoville and Rosettenville, whether locals or migrants, have imported these artefacts into their culture and creatively turned them into a working model for modern affordable housing. Some of the 500 square metre compounds house up to 40 people in 20 rooms, with two shared bathrooms and one kitchen. Others have 20 inhabitants in 10 rooms that have been converted into shared flatlets, with a total of five bathrooms and kitchenettes in the compound.
Some have crèches operating from a detached room; others have spaza shops facing the street, with advertisements for fish and chips or fruits and veg painted on the perimeter walls. In some cases, these outhouses were built to house domestic workers under the apartheid administration, without even a bathroom, and have now been reclaimed as entrepreneurial schemes that empower inhabitants.
“The social networks that run through these spaces have continuously amazed me,” says Doermann. “Some of the leading characters in these unique narratives of everyday domesticity include a man who runs the compound owned by his father, renting out rooms while strategically living opposite the veranda to keep an eye on the goings-on in the compound.”
Another resident, Mama Christie, has lived in the same bungalow for 14 years and has become famous for the dried fish she makes and sells from the communal kitchen.
Besides the clever remodelling of these houses into dwellings for multiple families, they’ve become a means of job creation and are even quite lucrative for owners – one has just been put on the market for R1.2 million. Others have the potential of earning around R55 000 a month in rental income.
However, the houses are difficult to purchase for those who can’t afford to pay in cash. Because structures have been added or remodelled without council approval throughout the years, often long before the current inhabitants or owners arrived, many don’t have the formal, approved building plans required when applying for a loan – even when the structures fall largely within the parameters of planning regulation.
Toolbox for the future
Doermann’s research is crucial at present: with little available building space close to the inner city, where there is a desperate need for more housing, there have been talks of destroying the bungalows to make space for apartment buildings.
But she believes this would be unnecessary and, in fact, a potential waste of resources. “The rule of law treats the mainly informal, organic appropriation of the building and its yard as a spatial illegality requiring replacement, rather than a cultural transformation with socioeconomic opportunities.”
She hopes to propose the bungalow compounds as a 'toolbox' for modern urban living. She believes in the area so much that she’s recently bought a property in Yeoville with her partner. “As an architect educated in Germany, I’ve always been fascinated by postcolonial narratives of merging cultures in Africa and did my postgraduate studies on the topic in Amsterdam. I first came here in 2000 as a visiting lecturer at the University of Cape Town, and then moved to Johannesburg for good in 2005.”
She started working at Wits in 2008, when she noticed the bungalows and began her research on urban compounds, while teaching design.
As productive forms of co-housing, the bungalows offer explicit opportunities considering the housing crisis in the inner city, she says. “They’re a smart model for low-cost housing in Johannesburg and could solve many urban planning problems, if only they could be recognised as such.”
In official documentation from the City of Johannesburg, these bungalows are listed as one household without considering the multiple subdivisions. This places them in a low-density dwelling category with one to three members per household, when they’re actually medium- to high-density in low rise structures.
“If the legalisation process is simplified and the infrastructure updated for the correct number of inhabitants, it could be a thriving neighbourhood,” says Doermann.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
How African homes impact health
- Beth Amato
Machine learning study finds housing have improved in sub-Saharan Africa but adequate water and sanitation remains biggest challenge.
The study, thought to be the first to use machine-learning to measure housing conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, has found housing quality transformed but the persistence of slum conditions compromise health.
Medical entomologist, science prodigy, and Associate Professor of Public Health at Wits University, Fredros Okumu, was 18-years-old when he was recruited as live mosquito bait as part of a PhD research experiment. Inside that tent waiting for the insanity-invoking buzz near his ears, Okumu’s fate was sealed: he’d work tirelessly during his academic career to find a solution to one of humankind’s most vexing public health problems in Africa – the deaths caused by malaria.
His initial focus was inside the home: he simulated the attractive qualities of human beings to mosquitoes (such as blood, scent and other particular biological markers) in a “decoy site”, which contained pathogenic fungi to kill the flying critters. This complemented other interventions like nets and insecticides. In 2009, his team developed location models to determine where best to place mosquito decoy devices using digital geographical information systems and participatory community mapping.
Okumu’s specialisations are applied parasitology and the combined disciplines of geo-information science, earth observation and environmental modelling. He has recently looked at the quality of rural and urban housing in sub-Saharan Africa as an opportunity to accelerate the efforts against combatting malaria and other significant public health concerns in the region.
Okumu co-authored a ground-breaking paper entitled Mapping changes in housing in sub-Saharan Africa from 2000-2015 in the international science journal Nature, which is the first accurate approximation of urban and rural housing quality in the region.
Jigsaw housing analysis
The study is innovative in a number of ways, notably because it built a machine-learning model to fill in data gaps, much like a jigsaw puzzle. To Okumu’s knowledge, this study is the first to apply a geostatistical modelling approach to measure housing conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. The data also reveal the differences in each country’s adoption of safe housing.
Said Okumu, “The quality of housing determines the risk of diseases such as malaria, respiratory infections and diarrhoeal disease. We knew anecdotally that African housing is changing, but until now this trend had not been captured on a wide scale.”
The study was led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Imperial College London, and the Malaria Atlas Project at the University of Oxford. The study quantified changes in housing in the region using national survey (data was gleaned from 661 945 households in 31 countries) within a geostatistical framework.
A marked transformation in the quality of housing was observed, which bodes well for the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 – the achievement of sustainable cities and communities. Adequate housing, said lead author of the study Dr Lucy Tusting, is a human right and will become more urgent as Africa’s population will double by 2050. By then, UNICEF predicts, one in four people on Earth will be African with the population likely to rise from 1.2-billion to 2.5-billion.
Prioritising roofs and taps
Housing was considered improved using the United Nations standards: safe water and sanitation, an adequate living area, and durable construction (no gaps in walls, eaves or doors). But, while the study shows that improved housing has doubled between the years 2000 and 2015 (from 11% to 23%), 53-million urban Africans continue to live in slum conditions. Adequate water and sanitation are by far the greatest challenges in the region.
The findings highlighted poor sanitation as commonplace, which is one of the chief reasons that hold back progress to improve living conditions. Alongside SDG 11 is the need to prioritise SDG 6 – clean water and sanitation. “The two are intrinsically linked,” said Okumu.
The most improved housing was seen in Botswana, Gabon and Zimbabwe. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, and South Sudan had the worst housing conditions.
Notably, Africans are self-financing home improvements. “In general, the housing improvements are driven by people’s own household incomes, which means that the poorest households are left behind,” said Okumu.
Because changes are linked to economic factors, the poorest communities need support for housing improvements. “Legal structures combined with subsidies on construction materials and training for local construction workers are potential options,” he added.
Constructing healthier cities
For the goal of universal access to safe, adequate and affordable housing to be achieved, reliable baseline data, such as what the study provides, is critical. Measurements (prior to the release of the study) of housing conditions in Africa were limited to specific years and urban areas only.
“If we were to trace the trends beyond 2015, it is unlikely that the 2030 target will be achieved. However, these findings still provide a great demonstration that a deliberate effort could accelerate these trends,” said Okumu.
The poorest households thus need government support, particularly around improved drinking water and sanitation.
Okumu said, “In addition, it is vital that building regulations and housing programmes are cognisant of the design features that can safeguard health. For example, screening and improving houses has been shown to be an effective means of reducing the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, while reducing standing water in urban environments can reduce the presence of mosquitoes that transmit dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and the Zika virus. It is vital that health specialists work closely with urban planners, engineers and governments to help ‘build out’ these diseases across Africa.”
Okumu’s and Tusting’s next step is to understand the implications of the changes in housing for health in sub-Saharan Africa. Their baseline data can be used by researchers working to establish housing trends and their study can provide the technical documentation needed for policy makers to improve housing. In addition, Okumu and the authors’ seminal research is also important to prepare adequately for climate change in Africa. The UN posits that sub-Saharan Africa (which has already experienced more frequent climate change extremes) will have longer and more frequent heat waves. Climate change is already considered a threat multiplier, exacerbating existing problems.
Housing and climate change
The UN-Habitat notes that cities in particular are facing unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, spatial and social challenges and that urbanisation has put these into relief. Six out of 10 people will live in cities by 2030, with 90% of this growth occurring in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Despite the Earth heating up, cities are ill-prepared to cope. Reasons for this include a lack of city policies and the existence of regulations on urban planning and the environment which haven’t been adjusted to manage climate change.
Okumu and Tusting have suggested that a multi-sectoral approach is needed to improve health and wellbeing across the continent and to build resilience against threats such as climate change. “Government agencies in housing, financing, environment, education and health can join hands in tackling this challenge,” said Okumu.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
For a million bucks, would you change your gender?
- Ufrieda Ho
If you grew up accepting the gender written on your birth certificate, you’re cisgender and probably would’ve never given this question much thought.
“I would have answered yes to that question and I would have done it for free – but a million bucks would have been nice too,” says Dr B Camminga, with a laugh.
Camminga, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) at Wits, likes to pose the gender question to their(*) students as a way to get directly to the heart of how skewed the modern world is towards the binary of “he” and “she”.
(*) The pronoun “they” is used to describe people who "identify as neither male nor female." It is increasingly common for people who have a non-binary gender identity to use they/them as their pronoun. Read more here: https://bit.ly/2hbPuDG
It makes for a tight squeeze in the heterosexual box, but it is because a dominant heteronormative world has never had to reflect long enough to make more room for anything else.
Camminga says the world, framed in this way, presents huge challenges for transgender people, and in particular for African transgender asylum seekers arriving at South Africa’s borders. It prompted Camminga to write Transgender refugees and the imagined South Africa – bodies over borders and borders over bodies, which was published as part of the Global Queer Politics Series by Palgrave MacMillan at the end of 2018.
Camminga says that in the past few years there has been a growing number of “gender refugees” arriving at South Africa’s borders. Gender refugees, says Camminga, are people leaving their homes, fleeing persecution, violence and discrimination on the grounds of their gender identity or expression.
“Being transgender, you’re already on society’s margins, but being trans and being African and being an African asylum seeker, you are even more denigrated,” they say.
Author Dr GG Bolich writes: “Despite a long history of transgender realities in Africa, many modern transgendered people there experience well-warranted fear because of hostility in their families, tribes, or nations … Much of this modern hostile response has been placed on the influence of European culture, both because of a colonial past and because of contemporary pressure, or the influence of foreign religions.”
It explains why some transgender people are forced to leave their home country and to make real what Camminga writes about in their book of transgender “being predicated on movement and, as an analytical category, encompasses concepts such as border, imaginaries and home(s). It is at once about an individual’s physical body and the lived experience of the everyday … As a term, it is also a site of travel, accruing baggage and meaning through its traversing of countries, cultures and varied institutional frameworks”.
Gender refugees cross borders into South Africa with hopes of better opportunities, of freedom, of maybe finding a place they can call home. “I met someone who just arrived with a bag full of dresses because she wanted the freedom to wear them in public,” says Camminga.
Even though South Africa is not always the first migration choice, it is a stepping-stone out of a home country towards destinations in Europe or North America. The migration to South Africa from other African countries frames Camminga’s research through a fresh lens of African perspectives, not those imported from the Global North.
But South Africa is often more of a rude awakening than a better life for asylum seekers. Camminga says transgender people are forced to disguise or lie about their identity or to “finesse the system” to bypass bureaucratic hurdles. Home Affairs, Camminga says, is ironically anything but homely. “You have to first get inside a refugee reception centre – you are literally an outsider trying to get in and the queues are split into one for men and one for women. If a trans woman dresses as a woman, men may pull her out and accuse her of trying to jump the queue. Should she dress as a man and get inside the building dressed as a man, she may be confronted by an official who is ill-informed and untrained who asks, ‘if you are a trans woman, why aren’t you dressed like one?’” says Camminga.
Some transgender people may choose to seek affirming healthcare in South Africa are also often subjected to prejudice and scorn. “It can be brutal. At some facilities people are expected to show up in the binary. One person I interviewed told me how they arrived at the hospital in a pantsuit and was told they weren’t dressed in a very womanly fashion,” says Camminga, whose research found that only about 4% of all asylum seekers are successful in gaining refugee status. It leaves asylum seekers in an in-between status, and transgender asylum seekers often resort to sex work and floating between cities while confronting the violent realities of homophobia, transphobia and xenophobia.
There is, however, also personal resilience, agency and adaptability among those transgender people who end up leaving their home countries. Making the leap is a resolution, arriving to survive in a South Africa that doesn’t tick the boxes for “safe”, never mind welcoming, takes certain courage.
“Some cisgender people react out of fear or aggression towards transgender people, but we should be having new conversations about gender. Just as in the seventies, people started to shift their thinking that homosexuality was not a condition or something that needed diagnosis and also realising that gays and lesbians were not going away,” says Camminga.
Trans is a possibility and a presence. It is what South Africa needs to make room for to keep the country from being a home for the darkest forms of bigotry with a Constitution that’s reduced to a beautiful mirage.
Bodies in bathrooms
Even universal symbols have to adapt with the times, and the stick figure pictograms of a man and woman, indicating gendered toilets, are now joined by a third pictogram for gender neutral toilets.
Tish Lumos, Programme Coordinator of Wits’ Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Advocacy Programmes, says the introduction of gender-neutral toilets in 2016 has been about creating safe spaces and making transgender people feel more at home at their University. It has also been a great opportunity for the University community to think creatively about the design of new symbols.
“We now have over 50 gender-neutral toilets on campus and they are spaces where transgender people don’t need to feel conspicuous or threatened. The icon we’ve gone with is a third stick figure without a bottom half,” says Lumos.
Popular gender neutral signs around the world include the third pictogram as an amalgam of the stick figures of a man and a woman or a combination of the traditional Mars and Venus symbols and a third symbol.
Lumos says: “When we introduced the gender neutral toilets, we imagined we might have some hostility but in fact the students have been very chilled about it.”
The Wits Transformation and Employment Equity Office has embarked on a toilet etiquette campaign that focusses on tolerance and respect, ways to report discrimination, homophobia and transphobia, and where to find support.
It’s backed up by the University’s SafeZones@Wits programme that’s been in operation since 2011. The programme is about creating environments that are accepting and welcoming of LGBTIAQ+ people through training volunteers who become “allies” who are already part of the staff or student body.
“People are more likely to approach someone they’ve seen in class than walk into an office. The volunteers are trained to record all incidents and they make themselves known through stickers they can leave in public spaces, the lanyards they wear and their details are on our website,” says Lumos. There are currently 200 trained Wits allies.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Coming home to South Africa
- Delia du Toit
Migration myths, human rights and the ongoing struggle to make a house a home.
When does a house become home? Foreigners, no matter how long they have stayed in a country, are often not afforded the same rights as those born locally. How do we address this global human rights issue?
Shortly before Human Rights Day this year, the Gauteng Department of Health released a circular in which it sought to limit foreign nationals’ access to healthcare services by requiring them to pay for all services. The circular, decried as an outrageous human rights violation – particularly in light of South Africa’s progressive Constitution – has since been rescinded, but experts aren’t convinced that this is the end of the matter. For some people, their house will never quite be home, if policy doesn’t change for the better.
Fear and loathing
The UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration & Health, published in December 2018, revealed that harmful and unfounded myths about migrants prevail that are used to justify policies of exclusion.
One of the most prevalent and harmful myths about migrants is that they bring disease into a host country and burden its healthcare systems. However, the Commission shows there is no systematic association between migration and the importation of infectious diseases. International migrants in high-income countries also have lower rates of mortality compared to general populations across the majority of disease categories. In addition, rather than being a burden, migrants are more likely to bolster services by providing medical care, teaching children, caring for older people, and supporting understaffed services – in the UK, 37% of doctors received their medical qualification in another country.
The myth that migrants are an economic and job-drain on a country is also unfounded. In fact, the Commission showed migration contributes to global wealth distribution. Migrants sent an estimated $613b to their families of origin in 2017, three quarters of which were to low- and middle-income countries. This is an amount three times larger than official development assistance. In advanced economies, each 1% increase in migrants in the adult population increases the gross domestic product per person by up to 2%.
“Migrants are often used as scapegoats for the poor functioning of public systems such as healthcare systems and in the national elections we’re seeing more use of this negative language linked to campaigning. This is not only a South African phenomenon. Moral panic surrounding the movement of people across borders is a global problem. Yet there is no evidence that foreign nationals bring disease, nor that they displace people from labour markets – in fact, they’re likely to create jobs,” says Vearey.
Instead, unfounded or inflated statistics are often quoted.
Migration myths
The number of undocumented migrants in South Africa, for example, was estimated as high as 11 million by national Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole in 2018. But Vearey and most other experts put this number at between three to four million documented and undocumented migrants.
Even if the politically quoted figures included internal migrants, the numbers don’t make sense. Dr Carren Ginsburg, Researcher in the MRC/Wits Agincourt Unit in the School of Public Health, says that based on data from the latest population census in 2011, 5.3% of the South African population (just under 2.7 million people) had migrated within the country’s borders in the preceding five-year period, while only 1,5% had migrated into South Africa from destinations outside the country (just over 740 000 people).
The University College London-Lancet Commission shows that, worldwide, only a quarter of all migrants (an estimated 258 million people) are international migrants. In the past three decades, the number of international migrants as a percentage of the world’s population has changed very little – from 2.9% in 1990 to 3.4% in 2017. Approximately 65% of international migrants are labour migrants and a much smaller proportion are refugees and asylum seekers.
The South African Constitution does not afford rights only to citizens – South Africa belongs to all who live in it. The Constitution provides for the right to access healthcare services and that no one may be denied emergency medical treatment.
Furthermore, the National Health Act specifically provides that, regardless of nationality, all persons are entitled to free primary healthcare services as long as they do not belong to medical schemes. Pregnant or lactating women and children below the age of six are entitled to free healthcare services.
Yet even internal migrants are currently disadvantaged by the lack of planning and systems surrounding migration, says Vearey.
“Though non-nationals face additional challenges, the majority of South African migrants struggle to access healthcare services. There is no mandate or support for migration, whether international or internal. As an example, orders of antiretroviral drugs are currently based on head counts for the previous month. But when internal labour migrants return home over Christmas and Easter, say from Gauteng to Limpopo, no provision is made for them. South Africa will struggle to meet its targets in treating HIV, malaria and TB if these treatment gaps aren’t addressed.”
Ginsburg agrees. “Migration is an important means of creating wealth in rural areas. Our research in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, shows that young adults will work for a number of years in Gauteng, while periodically going home to their original households. They send money to these households and there remains a strong interconnectedness between family members. Yet they may encounter difficulty accessing healthcare services in Gauteng, compromising their health. Better monitoring and planning are essential.”
Future perfect
Professor Loren Landau, South African Research Chair in Human Mobility and the Politics of Difference at the ACMS and formerly a member of the South African Immigration Advisory Board, says mobility should be seen as a move towards empowerment – the opposite of the current way of thinking.
“People who move do so in the hopes of improving life for themselves and others. Where communities have embraced migration as a form of development and diversification, the responses can be positive on aggregate. However, we have increasingly seen – in South Africa and elsewhere – that outsiders are used as a scapegoat to further personal economic and political ends. It is fear and those who play on it that accounts for the continuation of unfounded myths.”
By focusing on migrants as the source of South Africa’s very real economic and health challenges, we are distracting ourselves from solutions that could benefit everyone, he adds. “Migrants represent a very small percentage of the population. If they stopped coming, there would be little change in health, joblessness or crime. Stopping migration is not beneficial, nor practical. Instead, policy makers must respond to people’s desire and mobility. Policy should be pragmatic, informed by humanity and an elaborated understanding of our collective self-interest.”
Attitudes on the ground
The Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), an institutional collaboration between Wits, the University of Johannesburg and the Gauteng Provincial Government, asked over 30 000 respondents about their attitudes towards various societal aspects, including migration. The results were released in a research report entitled Social cohesion in Gauteng in February 2019.
Respondents from households with a monthly income of more than R38 400 were the least likely to feel that foreigners must be sent home (17%), while those with a monthly income of less than R1 600 were the most likely to feel that foreigners must be sent home (26%). This suggests that reducing socioeconomic inequality could promote greater social cohesion, says the report.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Home truths and storied streets
- Beth Amato
Understand Johannesburg’s challenges, opportunities and intricacies through the cultural microcosm that is Orange Grove.
If one aims to have a loose understanding of Johannesburg as a whole, 10th Street in Orange Grove is one of its microcosms that offers some insight.
On the corner of 10th Street and Louis Botha Avenue, there is a charismatic Ethiopian church in a run-down building and a makeshift hair salon that shares premises with a junk shop.
The corner has seen the remains of burning detritus as residents protested against the City’s lack of progress in allocating low-cost housing to them. Tenth Street and Louis Botha Avenue is also a busy one-way traffic intersection leading the BMW X5s and other expensive cars east to the richer residential area of Linksfield, to one of Johannesburg’s top private hospitals, and an abundance of “good” schools.
On the opposite end of the street, which ends in a cul-de-sac and which is closest to affluent Norwood, there’s a Shul, a religious Jewish school and a Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In this cul-de-sac, there are a mixture of high walls with electric fencing, and low palisade fences – the latter amenable to neighbours enjoying late afternoon conversations, usually complaining of the washed-down rubbish from Louis Botha Avenue’s many informal activities after a thunderstorm, and the stray cat that causes havoc with the other beloved pets on the block.
History in the ‘hood’
The history of Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove and Norwood is inextricable from the history and development of Johannesburg. Alexandra Appelbaum, as a researcher in the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP) at Wits noted in her report, Contestation, transformation and competing visions: a study of Orange Grove and Norwood that, “Much of the story of Johannesburg unfolds along its central artery to Pretoria and in some of the City’s first suburbs … The inner city ‘decline’ of the late 1970s and 1980s was mirrored in Orange Grove, and saw Norwood – which had often been considered the less desirable, lower-class equivalent of Orange Grove – flourishing … This historical moment marks a significant shift in the area that continues to influence the contemporary neighbourhoods.”
Orange Grove has always been a place where immigrants and migrants have settled. After the First World War in 1918, Italian women (who packed dynamite for the military in their home country) moved to South Africa to work in what was then a dynamite factory in nearby Modderfontein.
Orange Grove thus came to be known as “Little Italy”, with Super Sconto deli on 5th Street and the Italian Machinery shop just opposite on Louis Botha Avenue as its relics. The suburb continues to be home to foreigners, mostly from other African countries. Appelbaum notes that 47% of the residents in Orange Grove who responded to an SA&CP survey listed their birthplaces as outside of South Africa.
Future urban inspiration
The racial, ethnic and income diversity of Orange Grove, its proximity to a transport hub and to economic activity, and where residents mostly “work, sleep and play” is what the City of Johannesburg aims to emulate in other parts. While the area has experienced significant urban decay, there’s untapped potential for further social and economic vibrancy. Hence, Orange Grove was earmarked as a key node along the City’s Corridors of Freedom initiative, an ambitious project that, by 2057, would see Johannesburg transformed and apartheid-era spatial planning dismantled.
The Corridors, which run along Empire-Perth Roads and Louis Botha Avenue, and within Turffontein, are designated for high-density development, efficient and cheap transport systems, and low-cost residential housing. The project is now known as Transit-Oriented Development Corridors (TOD).
For 18 months, SA&CP at Wits University worked with collaborators Agence Française de Développement and the City of Johannesburg to imagine Johannesburg’s future. SA&CP Research Chair Professor Philip Harrison indicated that the collaboration brought together institutions around “a compelling agenda – that of building an urban future which meets the needs of and responds to the hopes of all segments of our society.”
But while Orange Grove is already representative of much of what TOD aims to achieve, the area is also emblematic of the deep tension and fractiousness present in Johannesburg and, perhaps, South Africa as a whole. Indeed, Orange Grove is an area that has undergone considerable post-apartheid transformation and illustrates the complex effects of such a process.
Appelbaum observes “the story of Orange Grove is one of many narratives and no single truth. Stakeholders in the area present their ‘truths’, which differ widely and cause conflict”.
City fears and desires
Italian journalist, Italo Calvino (1923-1985) writes that “cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else”.
Nowhere are these desires and fears more evident than at Paterson Park, which separates Orange Grove from the more affluent Norwood. Paterson Park is City-owned green space earmarked as a City-led affordable housing development. The Park is simultaneously the site of possibility, and a deadlock between conservative residents worried about property owners, and progressive forces attempting to find new ways to integrate the City. Low-cost housing and mixed-use facilities are under construction.
Yet, Paterson Park remains a significant opportunity for enhancing social and community infrastructure in the area and Johannesburg as a whole. The TOD plan envisages a “safe neighbourhood” with pedestrian and cycling paths, attractive streetscapes, calm traffic flows, mixed-use developments that encourage economic development, and a wide range of accommodation and transport options.
The City of Johannesburg envisions “integrated spaces with rich and poor, black and white living side by side”. This could happen if we let go of trying to find a binding narrative in Orange Grove.
Appelbaum’s report notes that, “The ongoing insistence of all stakeholders that a single truth is found is counterproductive; rather, the many truths, narratives and realities need to be understood and acknowledged before any accord will be reached in the area”.
Beth Amato is a freelance journalist anda resident of 10th Street, Orange Grove.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Address: Unknown
- Ufrieda Ho
Home, health, identity and dignity - creating smarter solutions and symbiotic thinking for Jozi’s homeless people.
The streets of Johannesburg are home to a variety of people trying to make a living from whatever the City provides. While we need to rethink how we include homeless people into our communities, Wits Health Sciences students are showing us how to care.
When day gives way to night in Joburg, parts of the inner city become an enormous bedroom. Under bridges, on grassy verges, and against shuttered stores, hundreds of homeless people lay their heads. By dawn, the homeless retreat into the blur of a city too distracted to notice or to care much. It has made homelessness in the city conveniently invisible and smarter responses to homelessness a low priority.
“There is high diversity in people who are homeless. Homeless people are not all the stereotypical drop-outs, vagrants without purpose, disconnected, on drugs, or criminals,” says Charlton.
Many people who are “sleeping rough” have productive lives, says Charlton. It may be the piece-job construction workers who camp out in parks near their construction sites because their wages don’t cover commuting and accommodation costs. There are also the City’s recyclers, many of whom sleep near recycling depots.
Homeless individuals
“It is more complex than we realise and we need to learn to differentiate and understand individuals’ life circumstances,” says Charlton, whose work around homelessness and the city has shown that, in the last few years, homelessness is more directly embedded in the suburbs than on the City’s edges.
It is the likes of informal shacks rising on open plots at the front door of the Oppenheimer’s Brenthurst estate. It is Saturday morning Parkrunners literally running into people eking out a life in the corners of the parks. It is homeless people seeking shelter in the storm water drains that mark the still-serviced areas of the City.
It is the kind of collision that makes for WhatsApp group noise, and takes up column-centimetres of rage and frustration in local newspapers. What it doesn’t do, however, is advance thinking that allows more multi-pronged solutions to take root in the City’s response to urban homelessness.
While Charlton doesn’t have a magic wand for easy fixes, she says there are initiatives that can shift mind-sets and build a more resilient Joburg in the long-term.
“We can start by thinking about what wages we pay people, and whether these cover transport and accommodation costs; or why the focus remains fixed on property owners’ rights and keeping parks pristine without also finding ways to support poorer people in these areas. It enforces inequality and exclusivity in the City,” she says.
Inclusionary policy inflammatory
Charlton notes positive policy shifts like the City of Johannesburg’s new inclusionary housing policy, adopted in February. It compels private property developers to reserve 30% of all new developments of 20 units or more for lower income earning buyers, or to meet their obligations through one of the other mechanisms.
The policy is meant to integrate residents across income brackets, to close inequality gaps and encourage sharing of amenities, reduce commuting time and costs, and stimulate localised business and job opportunities.
But the policy has been controversial. Private developers say it dents profit margins and discourages investment in residential property development. Others say it is a policy of political point scoring that will devalue suburban house prices overall and create more urban slums.
Charlton counters, “We are not talking about RDP [Reconstruction and Development] housing. We are talking about more options for lower- and middle-class income earners. It would be the nurse who is looking after you in the private hospital, for instance. Why would she be good enough to help you recover, but not good enough to be your neighbour?”
A wellbeing economy
For Wits PhD candidate Simon Mayson, the creation of a wellbeing economy holds answers to responding to homelessness in the City. Mayson says this includes addressing spatial inequality in Joburg.
“For many people who own big properties, their homes are unmanageable in terms of maintenance, security and upkeep. It is also wasteful. That extra space could be freed up for alternative housing options,” he says.
Mayson says a shift to focusing on wellbeing over personal profit and introducing localised, community-oriented solutions can make small initiatives massively powerful. It can help those sleeping rough and it can leave people who have wealth and privilege happier through sharing meaningfully.
In the suburb of Lorentzville in Joburg East, where Mayson lives, works and conducts research, he has introduced ideas like developing a localised skills directory and leveraging local assets that include established businesses and anchor developments. He bridges these to create access to markets for jobseekers and to competitively priced supply of labour, skills and products for local businesses.
Homeless, health, identity, dignity
For Trinity Health Services and the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, merging strengths and collaboration has also helped them make the most impact for the homeless community on Wits’ doorstep.
Trinity Health Services began in 2004 when Wits health sciences students approached the Holy Trinity Church about running a health service parallel to the Church’s soup kitchen and regular religious services.
Deanne Johnstone, Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at Wits, says the collaboration was a first of its kind. “It illustrates religion and medical science working together, pointing to a new direction for churches involved in healthcare in an era where the older paradigms are no longer possible,” says Johnstone.
Smarter solutions and symbiotic thinking allow for ways to optimise shrinking resources even as needs grow and competing agendas keep pulling people apart.
Johnstone says that the student-driven and run Trinity Health Services programme is both a valuable learning experience and a lesson in service and recognising the needs of the most vulnerable in society.
Father Nobert Munekani of the Holy Trinity Church says they see around 80 people every day at their daily soup kitchen and this swells to 300 on clinic days, when the Church runs two soup kitchens.
Munekani says it is important to remember that the needs of homeless people vary, even as they may have a basic need to fill a grumbling tummy or treat a cough.
“Some people come from the rural areas, some from other countries. They are on the streets for different reasons. We have even helped some people go home, but they find their way back to Joburg in a few weeks,” says Munekani.
He says some of the greatest needs are helping homeless people to apply for identity documents and providing technical skills training so people can become more employable.
Munekani says homeless people have also asked for Bibles. This was unexpected, but prompted the Church to launch its “Come home to Jesus” group.
The Trinity Health Services clinic and pharmacy operates from the Church’s basement floors every second Monday of the month. Volunteers like fifth-year medical student Caitlin Johnstone say homeless people battle most with access to medical treatment in the City.
“There is still a lot of stigma around homeless people and it makes it easy to dismiss them. But we’ve met people who have degrees and families and they’ve just fallen on hard times,” she says.
Caitlin says the volunteer clinic “re-ignited the spark” of studying medicine for her when she signed up in in her second-year. The volunteers are aiming now to involve more student volunteers from other disciplines, including dentistry, psychology and social work. It is aiming for holistic care.
“Volunteering at the clinic helps you to really see people, to have empathy. Sometimes you may just be treating a cold but that person is benefitting from being seen, being looked after and being acknowledged,” she says.
Living Inside a Bridge – Alon Skuy
Photo-journalist Alon Skuy is a Ruth First Fellow in the Wits Department of Journalism. Living Inside a Bridge was his exploration of unusual and challenging living spaces inhabited by people who use means other than electricity to survive.
The opening is no bigger than a manhole. Beyond it lies the dark belly of one of the busiest highways in Johannesburg. Thousands of cars rush over it each day, completely oblivious of the world beneath them.
Inside the highway, a small group of men and women live quietly, surfacing to work, wash and cook. When the sun sets, they retreat inside where candlelight flows through thin partitions separating a motley mix of lives. Posters of FHM beauties hang on the bare concrete, dusty Persian rugs are rolled out and people rest on mattresses. The highway never sleeps, it rumbles under the river of tyres. Inside it, live people.
They are a group of around 20 people, living as a closed-off society. They decide who joins them and who doesn’t – some have lived inside the bridge for many years. Some work and others don’t. The police have raided them before. The people wash in the storm water drains and cook over wooden fires. They hail from different countries – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Kenya, and Malawi – but live as one, surviving in a world with no electricity, fresh water, or healthcare. There is limited air and precious heat during cold winters.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
This is my land
- Shanthini Naidoo
Land ownership has historically been the great divider, and South Africa is no different. But is this the silver bullet to address our gross inequality?
The national general elections in 2019 served as a platform for land redress to be discussed, promised and instilled in the collective consciousness of South Africans. But was this the silver bullet to address the gross inequality in a country so many call home?
There is a side route into the Sandton CBD that can be used to avoid the arterial chaos in Joburg traffic. It is a hilly but quiet avenue, interrupted only by birdsong and three traffic circles. The homes on either side of the road are anomalous, even by this city’s standards of wealth. Sprawling mansions with ornate double gates that open remotely like filigree wings. Large European SUVs appear from long driveways to join the commute.
Interestingly, there are just a few people visible along this road. Dog-walking, grass-manicuring, rose-tending people who might have travelled in to the area for their work. It must be quite unnerving to service properties like these in the time that the “land issue” in South Africa emerged – 22 years (two centuries for some) since the imbalance in land ownership began.
The lay of the land
The national general elections in 2019 were a platform for land discussions. Academics and experts say it may not mean that anyone who lives on millionaires’ row will be swapping places with their staff (although, constitutionally, it could happen) but, even if it did, what would it mean in a globalising world that encourages mobility to the extent that some humans are planning on moving to Mars?
A roof over our psyche
Clinical psychiatrist and Wits alumnus, Dr Jonathan Moch says when thinking about land, it is important to understand why ownership is so important to human beings: “It goes back to our deepest evolutionary drive, the need for security. It is a basic core psychological requirement (according to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). It explains the formation of armed tribes, fortified villages, border controls, refugee crises, and building walls to stop the Mexicans from getting into the USA. And even at the home level, high walls, electric fencing, armed responses, entrenched property rights, all speak to this need.”
Moch says that land ownership, historically, is a major and contentious issue – one that is likely to continue indefinitely. “Not only in South Africa, but every habitable place on the planet from the beginning of recorded history, has battled with land, literally. Apartheid has many forms, especially around land division. Race, of course, in South Africa, but also religious affiliation (referring to the conflict in Northern Ireland), economic status (such as gated communities), class and creed (which exists in India). Thus, land ownership is a great divider. The Bible is dotted with many examples of land issues ending in fatal wars, such as the one that continues to this day in the Middle East.”
For South Africans though, the issue is closer to home – so to speak – because of our recent past when people were not allowed to buy land, and those who were, had to move too far from any location deemed decent, because the Group Areas Act of 1950 divided people geographically by their race. This, while others built their mansions on the road previously mentioned. Who wouldn’t feel piqued once it is put into context?
Obviously, land ownership also comes down to money and power, says Moch. “Economically, land ownership is an essential financial collateral that can secure a loan for a business, providing essential capital – and a vital psychological wealth effect. Owners of land such as farms have enormous power over indigent workers who live on that land, which goes back to the Dukes of Old England. This is why there is enormous tension, especially on rural farms in South Africa. Now, amazingly, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos et al want people to inhabit Mars. This land story never ends. In fact, never a dull moment when it comes to the human obsession for land use, the protection and possession of it.”
“The legacy of people not being able to own land has had a huge impact on the psyche of the nation. People were simply disallowed from owning land. It was a key way in which the apartheid state constructed and created secondary citizens. This was a discussion in 1992 [when apartheid was abolished in SA], so there is very little doubt that the redress of property ownership needs to happen.”
Rubin says the method and the reasoning behind land redistribution is imperative, although if it isn’t done correctly, it is unlikely to be the solution for our economic disparities. She says ownership as well as secure tenure of land, such as rental agreements, which provide access to the city and its opportunities, are the starting block to economic freedom.
Rubin says that a more balanced view on what property means as a vehicle for growth should be taken. “It is a question of access. What provides the best access to opportunities in cities? More than access to land, as a country we need to ensure that everyone has a chance at economic growth, and this could mean ownership, or good quality accommodation under secure tenure [rental agreement] in a backyard where someone is not being exploited, that enables them to earn a living in an urban environment.”
“At the same time, we need to ensure that we change our property owner profile, so people who have it are able to collateralise it, to do other things with that money and have social mobility. It is about enabling people in a way that is beneficial for them to achieve their best potential as a human being,” she says.
“We need to reconsider the question of rental and see it as an important feasible housing option, which allows for mobility, particularly for people where the need for mobility to find work is a priority.”
However, this type of reasoning may not be enough for South Africans, says Loren Landau, Professor and South African Research Chair on Migration and the Politics of Difference at the African Centre for Migration and Society at Wits.
He says that the emotional reasoning for land will need to be addressed: “Some kind of substantive land redistribution may be essential to satisfying people’s legitimate demands for justice.” Yet, he too believes that property ownership may be not the only way to ensure greater economic inclusion and upward mobility for the poor majority.
“I don’t believe there is an innate human desire to own land or property. For thousands of years, people have experimented with multiple models of land use and ownership. Some include no ownership, some collective ownership or management, some privatised, commodified land. My sense is that two things are at work now – both highly symbolic and rooted in particular South African histories.”
Landau says the symbolism in the land redistribution issue is that it has “become a sign of transformation quite apart from any material or social benefit it might provide. Also, we live in a commodified, capitalist system where many people associate private land ownership with status.
Access to land use is something we all need, but in different ways. While greater equity in access to land and other resources is central to economic and social transformation in South Africa, simply offering people land is unlikely to achieve anyone’s long-term objectives.” This is where politics comes in to play.
A political philosophy of land
The redistribution of land issue took centre stage in the 2019 elections by playing on the nation’s economic woes, emotions and sentimental needs for redress – suddenly urgent 25 years into democracy. “It’s time”, says Roger Southall, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Wits. “This is such a wound of the past, I don’t think we will easily overcome it.”
Southall wrote recently that while society should be wary about electioneering, the issue of land ownership is also not only about getting votes. “Politicians say things, whether or not it is entirely wise to say them, to get votes. Yet the land debate is about much more than party politicking. In many ways, it goes to the heart of South Africa’s post-colonial politics. It speaks to fundamental racial chasms. This points to the very real danger that the different terms on which the land issue is debated simply don’t address each other.”
As a country debating land redistribution, those who are opposed to the idea must first be aware of the “grossly disproportionate amount of land owned by whites that has arisen out of the injustices of the colonial past, and agree that it needs to be addressed for reasons of both social justice and political stability,” he says.
Worryingly, even this first step does not seem to have been taken by South Africans whose emotions run high once the debate begins. Southall wrote recently “there is disagreement about ways, means, and the urgency of land reform”.
“The land debate is here, and it is not going to be wished away quietly. Even if you go through a careful modulated practice of land reform, not the rhetoric we are getting now, this will continue past our lifetimes. There will be voices saying it is not happening fast enough, and then there is the issue of compensation.”
One of the reasons, Southall said, is that it is not as simple as transforming the civil service, for instance, where you can measure demographic representivity. “With land, you can’t simply look at proportions, because different land has different value.” It speaks to the example of the leafy suburban mansions and the poor workforce. “What about commercial agriculture, food production and security? You have to be as much a philosopher as a land specialist.”
Ultimately, says Southall, the land debate must progress, fairly and rationally: “The address of the land issue requires a meeting of minds … humility and willingness to listen to competing perspectives should be at a premium.” And for each person to understand that home and country are as much a part of us as we are of it.
How could South Africa deal with the land debate?
Wits Professor of Sociology Roger Southall says a precarious balance of three approaches should be considered. “One is not more important than the other, but one might have greater political impact than the other.”
The instrumental approach, which argues its case upon both ideological and constitutional grounds. There is the argument that the ANC’s move to land appropriation without compensation represents a fundamental undermining of property rights, to the extent that it might even threaten the ownership rights of ordinary house-owners in urban areas. This might derail President Cyril Ramaphosa’s highly touted goal of attracting $100b in investment over the next five years. While the Constitution already allows for the expropriation of property by the state for public interest purposes, for instance on farmland, appropriation without compensation would mean farmers would disengage on their properties, which is a major threat to both jobs and economic growth.
The functionalist approach, which shows a desperate hunger for land among impoverished black poor people. “This needs to be addressed on the grounds of need and political stability. Economically, the argument is that, while the role of commercial agriculture as the principal producer of the nation’s food supply and of significant exports needs to be recognised, there are many areas where farming could be successfully undertaken by black farmers, given the right support.” Southall says this has been proven by history, and could redress how white commercial agriculture “was systematically advantaged by the state under white rule, and how prosperous black peasant communities, whose competitiveness constituted a threat to white farmers, were dispossessed.”
The symbolic approach “appeals to the heart as much as to the head,” says Southall. “It harps on the point that land belongs to Africans. It was stolen by the colonialists and should be given back. The symbolic approach is overwhelmingly about African dignity. As such, it often involves notions of reparations. It tends to brush aside all the difficult policy issues about how land transfer should be managed, let alone the injustices which may be heaped upon white landowners who had nothing to do with the original theft of African land.”
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Feel at home at the office
- Mirah Langer
If home is your castle, can the office be your palace? The need to ensure wellbeing at work is critical.
In particular, innovation around office design is at the core of ensuring workplaces can serve as a healthy ‘home away from home’.
While the kind of work you do and your relationship with your boss are crucial factors, the three most critical factors in constructing favourable work conditions are fresh airflow, noise levels, and the quality of light.
“The most important factor to [sustain] mental health from a built environment perspective is actually fresh air,” says Thatcher.
“Generally, a good and healthy environment is one where you have adequate lighting for the type of work that you are doing … Natural light is generally the best for most tasks.”
Daylight ensures you remain connected to the outside world – rather than become immersed in a workplace bubble. “If you are working entirely with artificial light, it creates a psychological disconnect.”
In terms of noise levels, suitability is determined according to the type of tasks. However, research has also shown a link between personality types and productive noise levels.
“Extroverts tend to function better in noisy environments whereas introverts tend to concentrate much better in quiet environments.”
Work moves and ‘coffices’
‘Agile working spaces’ are one way to cater to more varied needs: “People, during a work day, are not always doing the same task; instead, they move between tasks. At times they need to collaborate, at other times they need privacy; they might also need some downtime just to get a coffee.”
With activity-based workspaces, companies create diverse office areas and people move between them as needed.
Thatcher has conducted research on the benefits of these spaces in some well-known South African companies. He found that initially employees were very resistant to the change – becoming territorial over spaces. However, once they move beyond this reaction, the advantages are striking: “People end up moving around a lot more, which is good for their health … They also are able to choose where [in the office spaces] they can be most productive.”
The rise of mobile office spaces and the use of sites like coffee shops as instant offices, can also be useful as it allows people to move around until they find the most appropriate space for them.
Holistic office health
Another innovation in workplace health is the shift towards establishing so-called green buildings or well-building institutes. These are workspaces designed to ensure productivity as well as promote holistic wellbeing.
Great success has been shown when a workplace integrates access to other services for their employees, for example, when an office complex also offers a gym, dry cleaner, or even has an adjacent shopping centre.
Initiatives that further encourage workers to feel some kind of personal connection to their office space, such as decorating a desk, have also shown positive results.
“The minimalism trend in the early 2000s to limit clutter and have clear desks was an unmitigated disaster … In most office environments, some personalisation allows people to connect to their work. When they connect to their work, they are more likely to be more productive and feel better about being there.”
Policies that allow people certain days when they can work from home rather than at the office actually have contradictory results. Research showed that in order to cope with the disruptions of the home environment, workers push themselves harder and for longer hours.
“Organisations love that – but it is not necessarily healthy and good for a person. It may lead to issues of burnout.”
One of the key challenges about modern work life is how it tends to leak into the home space so significantly. “There are real psychological dangers when you think it is okay to answer a work call at dinner … You are extending your disembodied self into another realm.”
As such, Thatcher supports initiatives like those in France where it is illegal for companies to force employees to respond to work messages or emails after working hours.
“It is great – it is turning around to an organisation and saying that you do not own this person’s life.”
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Owner or roamer?
- Brendan Peacock
Is buying a house still the solid investment once thought or is it time to turn nomadic?
Just when South African property prices looked like they would rebound from the effects of the global economic crisis in 2008, a protracted period of slow domestic economic growth set in, slowing down house price inflation.
According to property analytics company, Lightstone, year-on-year house price inflation hit a high of 6.5% in 2014, the highest in the last decade, and has since slipped back to its lowest level in the last decade at 3.3%. This means that anyone who owns property is seeing the value of that property contracting in real terms, as inflation averages over 5%.
The forecast for 2019 is more of the same: subdued growth. However, coming off a low base, we may see a positive turnaround in the second half of the year.
The main impacts on house price inflation are made by consumer price inflation; income levels not keeping track of the rising costs of living; and interest rates. The result of slower economic growth has been an expansion of the number of South Africans moving into the lower end of the property sector, as first-time buyers, while homeowners in higher-value segments opt to downscale.
While this has held up prices in the more affordable segments of the residential property market, low economic growth will slowly see those segments losing steam too.
Long-view investments
If residential property seems like a poor investment alongside other asset classes, Dr Kola Akinsomi, Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance and Investments in the Wits School of Construction Economics and Management (CEM), says the investment case for property should not be measured by short-term returns.
“Compared with 2008, when the prime interest rate for those getting mortgages from banks was 16%, the cost of borrowing is now 6% lower. Yes, property price growth in real terms is negative right now, but property is relatively illiquid with high transaction costs, so it’s not a short-term asset. Buyers need to look at it as a saving mechanism,” Akinsomi says.
“If you buy property today and pay down the principal amount over the term of a typical 20-year mortgage term, at the end of that term, the property belongs to you. The average age of first-time buyers is now 37, which means most of these buyers will have paid off a property just before retirement age. They have built capital and they can decide what to do with it – which is very often to downsize and have some of the capital returned to them at the point of sale.”
The alternative is renting long-term. “If you don’t invest, whatever excess you have after the rental cost each month needs to be put into retirement savings, but we know that most people tend not to be so diligent about saving. It is still wise to invest in property because that capital value will come back to us.”
Akinsomi says there are few investments that are as low-risk as property. “Property makes a good inflation hedge over the long term. The current trough is actually the perfect time to buy – it is a buyer’s market right now.”
Gig economy opportunities
A potential problem that may arise in the lower-value end is a shift towards the gig economy, which means fewer young people have long-term employment that lends itself to being seen as a good credit risk for lenders. The solution, says Akinsomi, will probably involve both the private and public sectors.
“The government can intervene to partner with developers, either by supplying state-owned land for development, or by applying tax incentives to make the lower tier of property values more accessible. Such inducements could stimulate demand, as could innovation from banks in developing mortgage-backed securities to bring to market as investable assets for the public.”
Prisca Simbanegavi, a Lecturer in CEM, says there are risks for property buyers – in the form of utility costs and municipal inefficiencies – that can raise the levels of mortgage defaults, as these can put pressure on affordability, but she doesn’t expect to see house prices going down for long. Residential markets are usually resilient to short-term changes in demand.
“Supply will remain under pressure. It’s always better to buy than to rent when rentals exceed mortgage repayments. While freedom of movement comes as a benefit of renting in the short term, the benefits of ownership outweigh those of renting. You’d rather have paid more into your bond than to deal with escalating rental costs.”
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Home in the Arts
- Ufrieda Ho
When you are thousands of kilometres away, ‘home’ may be what you carry in memories, but it might also be what you choose to forget.
home: /həʊm/ noun 1. The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. Arts: the theory and physical expression of creativity found in human societies.
For Dr Duduzile Ndlovu of the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) at Wits, the way memory, identity and a sense of belonging keep changing – especially for migrants – makes art one of the most powerful ways to make meaning of dislocations, disorientations and journeys. It is also a way to process versions of truths and to find power in personal creative expression.
She argues that art, like indigenous wisdom, is a part of knowledge production that has depth and reveals clues to lived experience, even if it may remain outside of academic convention. She believes art deserves increased academic inquiry to avoid becoming a blind spot that prevents transformation in academia.
Zimbabwe-born Ndlovu has lived in South Africa for 13 years. Through her research and poetry, she has explored the use of poetry, story, music and performance art in how she and other Zimbabweans living in Johannesburg remember the Gukurahundi. This was a series of massacres of Ndebele civilians by the Zimbabwe National Army between 1983 and 1987. Conservative estimates put the number of people killed in that period at around 20 000.
Hostage to hostility at home
“In Zimbabwe, Gukurahundi remains silenced from the public domain, although people continue to speak (about it) in ways that are not always clearly recognisable, to avoid a backlash from the government. There is no narrative to make sense of the event or to justify the experience as necessary in people’s lives. This means the narrative of Gukurahundi is open to being reframed in different contexts,” she says.
For many Zimbabweans living in South Africa, being away from home has opened up a space of freedom to speak out. And art has given them the tools to frame and reframe their stories for different contexts and different audiences.
“The idea of home is therefore a complex one. It is not necessarily the place of safety we think it should be,” she says.
Distance from home allows people to “constantly re-story their lives”, creating versions of themselves to fit different spaces at different times.
“With art, we don’t need to be after absolute truths. We’re about asking questions about versions of the truth. Questions like ‘whose voice gets heard?’ and how official versions of the truth don’t turn out to stand up over time,” she says. “There is also a sense of hope in art; it creates a space that allows people to be, to be social, and even to take enjoyment in expressing and sharing.”
These days, Ndlovu finds herself singing songs from her childhood to her children, who are growing up as South Africans. These songs connect her to Zimbabwe, she says. The words are reminders of what’s been passed to her, a kind of birthright in lyrics, but they are reminders, too, that for her there is no “going back”.
It doesn’t leave her in an in-between space, though. Ndlovu stresses that it’s not a case of being split or not feeling at home in either place. Rather, that she’s still wholly and fully herself, existing in two different contexts.
Meghna Singh, a Research Associate at the ACMS and PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town, relates to the contexts that Ndlovu speaks of as liminal spaces. They’re the ‘no man’s lands’ that Singh explores in her artistic video productions and installations.
Since Singh moved to South Africa from India in 2013, her works have included a short film called Arrested Motion. For nine months, she followed a group of Indian seafarers stuck in Cape Town as the supply ship they were working on was detained en route to Dubai from Nigeria.
“These men literally didn’t know when they would be allowed to set sail again and they were caught up in a world of complex channelling of capital between shipping corporations,” she says.
Prison homes
Singh used the technique of observation film with no dialogue, and soundscapes, to create an immersive experience for her audience. Her art showed the passage of time and its effects on the bodies confined to a place that became both home and prison.
She did something similar in Rusted Diamond when, on and off for three years, she spent time with a group of Ghanaian men who were left to pump water daily from a rusted wreck they lived in, which was once a deep-sea diamond mining vessel in Namibia.
She also turned this film into an installation that included flooding three rooms at The Castle in Cape Town and asking people to enter, mostly on their own, to temporarily be immersed in these other worlds of precariousness.
“I am hoping that I am creating experiences for my audience to think about how people on the fringes are caught up in capitalism, and how they are abandoned when capitalism moves onto the next thing. It is part of creating connection and empathy,” she says.
Singh brings this visual methodology to her current research and art project called Container, in collaboration with her filmmaker partner, Simon Woods. The virtual reality and installation art piece has received National Geographic Explorer funding and is expected be completed in October when world anti-slavery month is commemorated.
Container makes visible the history of the slave trade and focuses on the São José Paquete Africa, a Portuguese slave ship that sank with 212 slaves on board en route to Brazil from Lisbon in 1794, near today’s Clifton beach.
Forced removals
The project hooks back to the present day, showing how more than 200 years later, people are still reduced to commodities, often forced from their homes to become modern-day slaves. They often moved in metal shipping containers across oceans, stuck here for weeks with the memory of home as a place of safety and sanctuary – or just the known – disrupted forever.
These are the contexts and lived experiences from which Singh and Ndlovu want people never to turn away.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
An eye on assistive tech at home
- Deborah Minors
Eye-gaze devices as assistive tech have the potential to empower people with disabilities by improving their independence at home.
Wits biomedical engineer Adam Pantanowitz discovered he had a neuromuscular condition as a teenager. Since then, the Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering has researched the potential of technology to empower people with disabilities. In particular, he has explored the untapped potential of the brain through brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).
The brain as a network device
In February 2019, in an experiment believed to be a world first, Pantanowitz and colleagues incorporated the human brain as a computer network. Dubbed ‘BrainConnect’, the proof-of-concept innovation is under review for publication in the journal Communications in Information Systems.
The researchers connected two computers through the human brain and successfully transmitted words like ‘hello’ and ‘apple’, passively, without the user being aware that a message is present.
“We don’t know of anywhere else where the brain has been used to connect two disconnected computers so this presents an interesting theoretical system with a human literally being ‘in the loop’,” says Pantanowitz, co-author of the paper with Wits alumni Rushil Daya and Michael Dukes.
Morse code via light signals
BrainConnect links light, signal transmission, the visual cortex of the human brain, and two computers. It works by attaching a device to a person’s head, which links the two computers.
The person passively stares at a flashing light whilst a word, for example, ‘apple’, is encoded in the light signal. The flashing light stimulates the visual cortex in the brain and an electroencephalogram [EEG – a measurement that detects electrical activity in the brain] wirelessly transmits information to a second computer, which decodes the signals to appear on the second computer.
“You can think of it like Morse code via light signals,” says Pantanowitz. BrainConnect can decipher up to 17 symbols at a rate of four seconds per symbol. The more relaxed the person is, the greater the possibility of invoking a response through this ‘steady state visually evoked potential’.
Visionary assistive tech
Although BrainConnect is fledgling research, Pantanowitz says this brain-computer interface may have applications in eye-gaze devices, which allow for the control of the environment by detecting where gaze is focussed.
In a similar project, Wits students Kimoon Kim and Chelsey Chewins worked with Pantanowitz to create an eye-tracking system to interface more naturally with a computer. This project enables you to control your computer using a mouse that you control with your eyes.
“BrainConnect works through light stimulus of the visual cortex. Similar eye-gaze devices already serve as assistive tech to empower motor-impaired people or paraplegics,” he says.
Frugal innovation in Africa
He cites futurists who predict greater human-tech integration by 2030. The Fourth Industrial Revolution [4IR] is a feature of 21st Century society – human beings are now deeply connected to tech through smart phones and other close-contact devices. Research in South Africa and Africa, similar to this engineering innovation at Wits University,has the potential to advance 4IR.
“Africa’s challenges need unique solutions. The brain research is being conducted under what’s known as a ‘frugal innovation’, where low-cost equipment and innovative approaches keep costs down,” says Pantanowitz.
Robotic hands and Brainternet
Another of his similarly frugal innovations was a basic robotic hand, the prototype of which cost just R1 800 in South Africa, compared to a budget of close to a million Euros for a similarly functioning device in Europe. Pantanowitz and Wits students Graham Peyton and Rudolf Hoehler created a device with similar intentions to the European model, using the same technology of gazing at light to turn the device off and on.
Pantanowitz previously also pioneered'Brainternet', where he connected the human brain to the internet in real timeand streamed brainwaves onto the internet. He says that for people with epilepsy, for example, Brainternet could potentially predict the next seizure. “If they get into a particularly bad space, they could alert their friends and family without them being able to do so physically.”
Pantanowitz says, “There is potential for us in Africa to advance brain-computer interfaces and other assistive technologies, which could empower people with disabilities to control their environments with greater ease, and their homes are one context in which this can be life-changing.”
Read more in theseventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Homes of the future
- Shaun Smillie
In the age of densification, where will we sleep? Hyper-connected pods, embedded technology and micro democracies.
At home here in Africa, the population is exploding just as housing is shrinking and tech is advancing. Our homes in the future may be hyper-connected pods that transform our habitat, communities and politics as well as the way we live.
Caption: The Utopian Village, designed in 2018 by first-year students in the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits, was inspired by a decolonised design curriculum that contextualises the Global South and informs teaching design through an African lens. The Utopian Village responds to local South African culture, context, human migration, new emerging social organisation, and the demands of global environmental change and sustainability. These are the dwellings of the future. Lecturers: Mike Dawson; Ariane Janse Van Rensburg; Sechaba Maape; Kshama Rajagopalan; and Anita Szentesi.
On trash collection day, a waste-picker parks her self-drive trolley and gathers recyclable garbage. Inside the nearby house, electricity supplied by the micro grid fires up a dishwasher, while overhead a drone competes for airspace amongst the hadedas – Joburg’s ubiquitous, vocal bird – as it scans the ‘hood for security threats.
This could be a typical higher income Joburg suburb in the future, when lumbering state service providers like Eskom have bitten the dust and local power producers, waste collectors, and water suppliers have replaced them.
It is also a world where that phrase, the ‘Internet of Things’, has become a reality, thanks to lightning fast cyber connectivity embedded in physical devices, everyday appliances, and perhaps even in human beings.
The Africa we will inhabit in future is going to be far different from today. This continent will experience a dramatic population explosion, expected to double by 2050. Of that, 60% of Africans will call cities their home.
Johannesburg by 2040, according to a report released by the Johannesburg Roads Agency, is predicted to increase to between six and eight million people – over double its size today.
This rapid urbanisation is likely to leave its mark on the homes of our descendants. This will also be a world where large sections of the population, like today, will most likely be living in informal settlements.
In this age of densification, homes are likely to be downsized and even shared.
“If you look at it, we are a young country and if you look at the trends of young people, they change jobs quite frequently, they often live far from where they work, and it is expensive to travel,” says Dr Gerald Chungu of the Wits School of Architecture and Planning. “This means that they are going to be more willing to live in smaller spaces or to share spaces. This is already a common trend and from reading this we can see the direction towards smaller housing.”
Transporting these workers to their jobs – even in the future, believes Chungu – could be that bane of the present day transport system: the mini bus taxi. Though, by then, they might be better policed.
Advancing inclusivity
In this future, it might still be state policy to provide housing for the poor. This policy might borrow on what is already being worked on now.
“Instead of the idea of delivering tiny RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme] houses, we have seen a shift in housing policy in the last two decades towards settlement upgrading,” explains Professor Anne Fitchett, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at Wits.
“It is speaking of a more inclusive approach. It is not just about putting a roof over someone's head but creating a broader living environment, with access to jobs, access to schools and hospitals.”
Curiosity 7, #Ekhaya cover: Rodwin Malinga, 21, and Erik Prinz, 22, are fourth-year students at Wits completing Bachelor of Arts in Digital Art degrees, majoring in Game Design. Malinga and Prinz created this cover of Curios.ty, the Ekhaya issue, using Minecraft, a "sandbox" game. This refers to a video game system with defined rules that the players can interact with but with which they have complete freedom. There are no goals that are necessary to progress in the game and players are free to create, modify or destroy their environment. Malinga describes himself as an artist proficient in a plethora of different media forms – “I enjoy creating art out of anything and everything I can find ... games such as Minecraft are an excellent way of letting players get involved in the creation of art,” he says. Prinz is passionate about playing and making games and creating memorable work. He says, “I’ve always created games and narrative experiences for my friends ... I’d construct some of these experiences with Minecraft. Thus I have quite a bit of experience with the game.”
Tech pad address
Finding enough space for its residents will be a challenge for the future Joburg, but technology is likely to be the saviour.
“In terms of smart cities, the use of digital technology to help to manage everything that happens in the city will become widespread and very profoundly different. And I am sure that the construction of dwellings will be built around the capabilities of these digital technologies,” says Dwolatzky, who caught a glimpse of future housing possibilities when he visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) media laboratory in the US.
“There is a South African architect there who is working on a project where he is designing a pod-like house. It is a very efficient use of space, with every embedded technology. It is almost like you live in a pod, but you don't feel like you are living in a pod. So I have seen one future, but whether it is going to be our future, I don't know.”
What is likely to influence this future are the differing needs of the Global North and Global South, believe Dwolatzky and Chungu. While Africa is set to experience a population explosion, Europe is going through the initial stages of a population collapse.
“In Africa, the biggest challenge might be the use of energy, where houses are designed to better use energy, dealing with things like waste and recycling. If we are not careful, cities will become choked in waste,” says Dwolatzky.
Decentralised micro tech services
The state might not provide these services in future, as it does today.
“We are going to move away from the big grids on to the smaller micro grids – the current thinking is that you build a huge power station, which then powers millions of consumers,” he explains.
In future, however, these are services that could be provided at a micro-level, for example, a couple of houses linked to a solar energy source or a recycler dealing with a street’s rubbish.
The home of the future is also likely to supplement its own power through super-efficient solar panels on roofs, and even in walls.
It is likely that not just the wealthy will take advantage of tech.
Fitchett says that experiments involving solar paint are underway. This paint will absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity. Recycled waste could also find another use in the future.
“At the moment there is also a lot of work going into the development of different types of concrete. There is one where they are using recycled polystyrene as an additive into cement, which makes it a very good insulator,” says Fitchett.
But this move to decentralise might even have an influence on the politics of these communities. This has already happened in the US.
Micro democracies in our ‘hoods
“Once you break things down into small parcels you start to think in a more decentralised way, rather than at a national level,” says Dwolatzky. “In the US, local communities are becoming more and more the centre of local democracy and people are losing interest in national politics, because local gives them everything they need. And it is encouraged by micro grids, water recycling and producing things locally.”
Already just over the horizon is new communication technology set to change the way we live.
“There is a pro and a con,” says Dwolatzky. “The pro is that you can draw much more data and make better decisions about things like the use of energy in the home. The disadvantage is that it opens the way for a lot more surveillance.”
Besides ultra-fast cyber connectivity, other technologies have already made their appearance and are set to leave their mark on the future. One of these is 3D printing.
“These new modes of manufacturing lead to the possibility of mass producing stuff that could be tailor-made for every single person’s needs,” says Dwolatzky.
Although the future may be a scary place, technology in our homes and on our streets will most likely save the day. And yes, your bot will be there to hold your hand.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Places we once called home
- Shaun Smillie
Archaeologists and anthropologists peer into original homes of the past to see what made us who we are today.
Caption: Klipdrift Cave and Klipdrift Shelter, located in the De Hoop Nature Reserve, southern Cape, South Africa, have elicited findings from roughly 65 000 years ago to 59 400 years ago, including a hominin molar, floral remains, and more than 95 pieces of eggshell engraved with diverse, abstract patterns.
There was a time when the laughter of Stone Age children filled the Sibudu Cave. About 64 000 years ago, a child was part of a hunter-gatherer family that took temporary shelter in this cave, which lies close to the KwaZulu-Natal town of KwaDukuza.
When this child died, it didn’t leave its bones in the cave for discovery by archaeologists of the future – the only thing left behind was a milk tooth. In modern times, the mythological ‘tooth fairy’ whisks away children’s teeth, but we don’t know what the rituals were back then.
“The interesting thing about the teeth is that we know this is a home-base, because there were children there, and that is quite nice,” says Wadley. “But the [research] papers also suggest that the teeth were perhaps a little bit larger than the teeth of children today. So maybe the people were a little more robust.” These children perhaps had access to better diets than we have today.
“A lot of people have pointed out that moving to the diet that farming people had was not necessarily improving the health of people. There are higher carbohydrates compared to protein, and with it comes poorer tooth quality and poorer bone quality,” says Wadley.
“Part of the reason why hunter-gatherers had a better diet was not because of what they were eating, but the fact that groups were smaller and this meant that people had better access to quality plant foods.”
Cave sites like Sibudu are providing scientists with a peek into what our earliest homes looked like. These glimpses give archaeologists not only a better understanding of how our ancestors lived, but also how we evolved into the species we are today.
No fixed abode
From the deep past, scientists are uncovering the stuff that makes us human – from forward planning, to the very beginnings of art. One of these discoveries is that our ancestors were not homebodies. We were wanderers who kept our stays short.
At Blombos Cave in the southern Cape, Professor Christopher Henshilwood and his team have been sifting through the leftovers of these brief visits that go back over 100 000 years. Henshilwood holds the DST/NRF SARChI Chair in The Origins of Modern Human Behaviour at Wits University and is the Director of the Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), a new Centre of Excellence at the University of Bergen in Norway.
“We think that Blombos, at some stages, was occupied for just one night. We are seeing what looks like a ghost of a visit. You find a few shellfish, a tiny little fire and almost nothing else. And then there is nothing after that,” says Henshilwood.
The world’s first hashtag
Some of the discoveries at Blombos have advanced our insight into early human cognitive development.
Last year, Henshilwood and his team revealed a silcrete (hardened mineral crust) flake to the world that had six crosshatched lines on it – much like a hashtag. A human, using an ochre crayon, 73 000 years ago, had drawn these lines.
It took two years of scientific testing to come to the conclusion that this is the earliest example of a drawing, says Henshilwood.
Even this long ago, at Blombos Cave and Klipdrift Shelter, another of the sites excavated by Henshilwood’s team, you can see that people bring to the site what they need to carry out a particular task. “These people are capable of planning, they have templates or recipes in their heads, for what they need in the cave,” says Henshilwood. “This is one of the markers of behavioural modernity.”
When that artist made that drawing on that piece of silcrete, he or she would have been one of only about 10 000 humans living in the whole of Africa.
There are other artefacts left at these temporary homes that point to our ancestors being highly intelligent problem-solvers. At Border Cave on the Swaziland border, Wadley and Dr Lucinda Backwell found traces of poison on a thin wooden stick that dates back at least 20 000 years. The poison is thought to have been used on arrows.
Homemakers and hunter-gatherers
Wadley believes that snares were also used by the people who periodically made Sibudu their home. But it is the presence of buffalo bones in the cave that points to team work, which would have probably included women.
“If you look at your typical hunter-gatherer group – let us say there are 60 people – more than half of those are going to be children who wouldn't take part in the hunt. Then you have some old people. So if you break down the demographics, you might only end up with 10 able-bodied male hunters,” says Wadley. “If you want to manage a dangerous animal hunt, you are going to have to bring in the women too, even if they are just beaters.”
What archaeologists are rarely seeing is evidence of other homes away from the caves and rock shelters. These rudimentary shelters would have been where our ancestors slept for a couple of nights before moving on.
Home security
Professor Robert Thornton, social anthropologist in the School of Social Sciences at Wits, says that three basic needs would have driven early humans into utilising and making shelters. “Our earliest habitats were primarily designed to keep our food safe, secondarily to keep the goggas [insects] and other stuff away, and finally for climate control. But before that, it was important to keep your view open,” he says.
“People imagined that early man lived in caves, or they had to have four walls around them, but that is one of the worst things you can do, because you cannot see the rest of your environment. You want to be in the open, you want to see 360 degrees, particularly when there are big cats around.”
But it is in the caves where the treasures lie. It is here that the artefacts are best preserved, and where they accumulate in layers of earth that sometimes stretch back hundreds of thousands of years.
At Blombos, Henshilwood hopes he might one day find the rest of that silcrete flake that would reveal more of that earliest drawing.
But there are more artefacts to be found in places we once called home that will give us insight into a time when humans first began to act and think like we do.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
Homegrown research crosses borders
- Zeblon Vilakazi
EDITORIAL: Where do you belong? Where do you feel most at home? Curiosity explores these questions and many more in our latest issue.
For some people, Ekhaya (isiZulu for ‘home’) may evoke feelings of belonging and security, representing a physical space inhabited by people with whom they identify. To others, the word may induce quite the opposite reaction – Ekhaya may be a physical or psychological space that people reject.
I grew up in Katlehong in the East Rand. My home for my formative years, I will always identify it as a place where I belong. At the same time, I still have vivid memories of violence that my hometown was subjected to in the ‘80s and early ‘90s and the memorials of those buried in the fight for freedom. Sadly, although there has been some progress in uplifting this community, not much has changed in my home, 25 years after democracy.
As South Africans went to the polls this year, some politicians continue to use divisive issues relating to land and migration to score political points. This issue of Curios.ty features research-based stories on land ownership and reclamation, migration, and xenophobia, amongst others. As an internal migrant from south-eastern to northern Johannesburg, I relate to the story on internal migration.
At the same time, I must admit that I feel just as at home in a physics laboratory at Wits – as I do in Russia, the US, or at CERN in Geneva where I undertake my research. While the concept of home may ground me physically to a particular space and time, the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the world as we know it. The world of physics is my intellectual home, but the confines of time and space matter less as I engage remotely with peers across borders in real time.
This issue includes stories about homes of the future, assistive tech in the home, what our prehistoric homes can teach us, and even what we can learn from birds who build multigenerational treehouse nests.
Discover how housing quality has changed in sub-Saharan Africa, and how housing is being decolonised in Yeoville with the transformation of Edwardian-era bungalows into African urban compounds. Explore how we share spaces via backyarding and with the homeless, and have your questions on ecobricks answered.
How is Ekhaya represented in the arts and how does it feel to not feel at home in your own skin? Ekhaya is as subjective as it is tangible.
Read more in the seventh issue, themed: #Ekhaya(isiZulu for ‘home’)about our homegrown research that crosses borders and explore the physical spaces we inhabit, where we feel we belong, where we’re from and what we identify with, including the physical/psychological space we may return to – or reject.
When computers came to Wits
- Deborah Minors
The University bought its first computer from IBM 59 years ago. Today, Wits and IBM are partners in quantum computing.
In 1960, Wits was the first university to have a computer in South Africa. Professor GuerinoBozzoli, Vice-Chancellor from 1969 to 1977 purchased an IBM Model 1620 Mark 1. At this time, International Business Machines (IBM) sold computers to universities at an 80% discounted rate so that IBM could dominate the fledgling computer market.
The computer required its own room and a special cooling plant. Data were fed into the computer by means of a punched tape and the output printed on a telex machine. The capability of the IBM 1620 Mark 1 was approximate to a then R50 calculator. Dr Derek Henderson was director of the Wits Computer Centre and the first Professor of Computer Science at any South African university.
The Wits Computer Centre was firmly established by the mid-1960s. A card machine soon replaced the punched tape input and afast electronicprinter was acquired. Later, an upgraded IBM System 360 could very quickly solve simultaneous equations, which enabled Wits to service business and industry.
By 1988, the Collins Dictionary of Computing published that year declared ASCII “the most important code for microcomputing purposes” and noted that ‘modern’ programming languages and terminals made coding sheets largely obsolete.
Fast-forward to the 21st Century and in June 2019, Wits University and IBM announced a new collaboration thatmakes Wits the first African partner on the IBM Q Network. This enables Wits to access the 20 qubit-IBM Q quantum computer.
Today, theSchool of Computer Science and Applied Mathematicsat Wits has invested in preserving the remnants of the original mainframe computer. This and other old Wits computers are preserved in theComputer Museum, which is part of the TWKambuleMathematical Sciences Laboratory in the Science Stadium on Braamfontein Campus West.
Sources:
G.RBozzoli(1995), A Vice-Chancellor Remembers, The Computer Era and The Nineteen Sixties, pg. 94-97, Wits University Press
Ian R. Sinclair (1988), Collins Reference Dictionary Computing, Code, Code Conversion, Coding Sheet, pgs.48-49, Collins
MrShunmugaPillay, Manager: Scientific and Research Systems, Mathematical Sciences and Curator, Wits Computer Museum
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
How not to win the lotto
- Schalk Mouton
COLUMN: Today, I am coming clean. Like most South Africans, I am in desperate need of cold, hard cash.
And not just a little cash. I need real money, real fast.
Life in the fast lane is catching up with me, and a Wits salary can only get you so far. The cost of living is quickly increasing, we are renovating our house and each new week the builder comes with an increasing bill. Also, my car is starting to fall apart.
Where am I going to get all the cash I need for financial freedom in my lifetime? I have tried all kinds of ways to make extra cash, but so far, I have nothing to show for it.
Two weeks ago, when depressed and deflated, I loafed in my office, trying to work out a scheme to make cash, quickly. In walked a colleague, whom I know only from taking the occasional lift-ride together.
“How can I easily win the Lotto?” I ask him spontaneously.
“Easy,” he responds, without any hesitation. “You just buy a Lotto ticket for every conceivable combination that is possible.”
Huh?
He explains.
“You just buy a single ticket for every possible number combination, and you are guaranteed to win the Lotto.” To do this, he says, you would just need to buy a couple of hundred thousand Lotto tickets. It will cost you about R10 million, but you are guaranteed to win the jackpot! And what is more, you will not only win the jackpot, you will win all the secondary prizes in the draw. If you play at the right time, you will win around R140 million, plus change, which gives you a R130 million return on investment!
That’s it! He must be right! After all, he’s a computer dude, and he’s even written an algorithm for it, he says. And, as we all know, algorithms can do anything. They are the new virtual Superheroes of our society.
I’m sold. The math makes complete sense to me.
And so, although I’m probably one of the few people in South Africa who has never bought a Lotto ticket, I concede and head off to my local Spar to get in the queue. Standing in line, I phone my wife.
“I’ve got a cunning plan!” I say and roll it out excitedly, confident that by next week, I won’t need to work another day for the rest of my life.
After a long silence (I am not sure whether she was trying to find a polite way to set me straight or whether she was wondering how exactly she got stuck with someone with suchobvious limited mental capacity), she says: “But Schalk, dear love of my life, if we had R10 million, we would not need to play the Lotto, do we?”
Doh!
But still, I’m determined. I’m going to win the Lotto. There’s just the small matter of how to fund it.
Crowdfunding!
If I can get enough people to give me R500 each, we can raise the R10 million in no time, and share the spoils.
The first person I proposition signs up immediately. He’s excited. He hands over his R500. As a former newsphotographer,he is used to being led into riots, explosions and violence without asking any questions.
Right, now for the next investor. I’ve got a R1 000 cash in hand, which I count as I grab a calculator.
To raise R10 million from asking one person to invest R500, I need 20 000 investors. If I win the Lotto of R140 million, and we share it equally, we would each make R7 000 return on investment – which, still is an impressive 1 300% on my initial investment.
But R6 500 profit is hardly worth the effort, is it?
I need a second opinion. Perhaps, this time, a real expert.
Firstly, he says, to buy every single combination of Lottoticket, I would need to buy 13 983 816 of them. This would cost slightly more than R10 million I initially estimated – the actual investment would be R69 919 080.
If I am so sure about my model, Khoza challenges me, why don’t I take a loan from the bank and prove my theory byactually winning. After all, that is how American Mathematics Professor Edward Thorpe got rich. He worked out to beat the system at the Blackjack tables in Reno and Las Vegas by counting cards, and then writing a book about it. Using $10 000, Thorpe won $11 000 in the first weekend, proving his model was successful. He later became a hedge fund manager extraordinaire and laid the foundation of an entire generation of what we now call quantitative analysts. This is where he made his big bucks.
Khoza warns me, however, that while there are cases where “under-sampling” can yield reliable results (for instance, in the case of the lottery, buying fewer tickets than the possible number of combinations), it comes with risk. It is impossible to get “guarantees”, as the actual pool of the outcome of the Lottery results is much smaller than the pool from the number of possibilities that my 13 983 816 tickets are obtained from. In other words,in reality itmatters whether my model predicts {1, 4, 6} as opposed to {4, 1, 6} because of the elimination process and the how the balls are arranged initially.
As a result, model riskwould be a more serious factor to consider than initial appearances would suggest, even if the combinations the model produces yield (temporary) financial gains.
But surely there must be a way – what with all our fancy tech and computers and Superhero algorithms that we can predict the winning Lotto numbers?
Not so! Predicting the outcome of the Lotto through analysing past outcomes of the lottery is just about as effective as predicting apossibilityof having a hurricane at a certain time in a certain place – virtually impossible. The problem, says Khoza, is sensitivity to initial conditions.
Even if the model is completely accurate – whichin reality italmost never is – you cannot predict an event with accuracy. There are just too many variables, including the initial way that the lotto balls are organised, the timing of the “ball releases” by the machine operator, to the dynamical system itself which generates the lottery numbers. This dynamical system could very well be “chaotic”, much like the comparable billiard ball problem, where it is impossible to predict where billiard balls on a pool table end up after bouncing on the boundaries, says Khoza.
In chaos theory, small changes to the initial state of a dynamical system might lead to huge errors (or variables) down the line. One such an example is the “butterfly effect”, where, in theory, a butterfly flapping its wings in China canactually causea hurricane in Texas. In other words, small differences to the way the Lotto numbers are generated may lead to countless combinations down the line. One would even have to consider the if there was a small Earth tremor whenNimrodpressed the “release button”.
The situation isactually notdifficult to assess, says Khoza. If a guaranteed strategy to win the Lotto existed, then its implementation would bankrupt the lottery system. If the lottery operators detect the problem before they become bankrupt, then they would increase the ticket price in order to make it uneconomical to implement this strategy.
So, in short, I am stuck – and there I was thinking experts were supposed to make life easier for us! There is no way that I am going to get a quick, guaranteed fix to win the Lotto. Seems like I should perhaps withdraw my resignation … and I now owe my photographer friend R500.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Data and dominance
- Imraan Valodia
COLUMN: Data domination by Big Tech, both nationally and internationally, has ominous implications for economies – and privacy.
The so-called 4th Industrial Revolution, the associated growth in artificial intelligence (AI), and the use of data science has become a key feature of our current economy.
The data aspect has seena number ofuniversities, including Wits University, developing new programmes that combine data science with finance, health, engineering and related fields.
While there is potential for these developments to generate new sources of economic growth, there are some concerns too, which policymakers need to address.
One concern has been the use of data by technology giants like Google and Facebook, and the associated concerns about privacy, use of data without consent, and, as the notorious Facebook-Cambridge Analytica case shows, concerns about the political use of data and AI.
Exclusion by domination
An area that has not received much attention – at least in public debates about data-related issues – is the fact that data collection and its use (or misuse) may be creating conditions in some instances for firms that dominate economic activity to exclude other players in the market, especially new and innovative entrants. Competition economists and lawyers have been grappling with these issues fora number ofyears.
In June 2019, the United States Federal Trade Commission announced that it was investigating a potential anti-competition case (or antitrust case, as the US refers to it) against Amazon, which has a market share of almost 50% of all online sales in the USA. It operates both as the provider of a platform for online sales, and as aretailer in its own right, usingits own platform to sell goods. Third parties also use the Amazon platform to sell their goods.
The allegation against Amazon is that it may be using the data generated on its platform to exclude its retail competitors that sell their products on Amazon’s platform. The problem is that third party retailers have no option but to use Amazon’s platform.
GAFAgang
The Amazon case followsa number ofother similar cases in the European Union (EU), where the region’s competition authority recently fined Google 2.4 billion Euros for anti-competitive behaviour in its comparative shopping service.
Google is used for over 90% of all internet searches. Google also has interests in goods and services that people purchase when they search using Google’s shopping search facility.
Google was fined because it changed the algorithm that displays shopping search results from a neutral algorithm to one that favours search results in which it has interests – essentially, the search results prioritised Google’s own shopping companies and demoted those of its rivals to much lower in the search results. Since no one looks beyond the first page or two in a Google search, Google’s rivals were effectively excluded in the search results.
The EU competition authority argued that this behaviour is anti-competitive and illegal. Furthermore, in the largest competition law fine in history, Google was fined 4.3 billion Euros for forcing cell phone manufactures that use its (supposedly free) Android software to preload the Google browser (Chrome) and search facility (Google Search).
The EU is also investigating Facebook for anti-competitive behaviour. The German competition authority has banned Facebook from combining users’ data across its own platforms without their consent, because this places Facebook in a position to exclude its competitors from competing fairly.
These and similar cases against the so-called GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) raise important questions about the use and abuse of data in the economy. Many of these cases are on appeal and it will be interesting to see the outcome.
Killer acquisitions
From an economic perspective, the developments in these cases raise policy questions. One is the question of ‘killer acquisitions’ – are large digital companies purchasing virtually all smaller tech companies that could blossom into competitors?
The economic question here is whether these mergers and acquisitions entrench power over information, and remove small companies from the market before they become competitive rivals?For example, when Facebook purchased WhatsApp, Facebook argued that the companies operate in different markets and it would be impossible to combine data from these markets. The reality has proven different.
A number of these data industries are characterised by what economists call a ‘two-sided market’ – these are markets with two distinct user groups. Credit cards are a good example of a two-sided market – card holders and merchants engage and trade through an intermediary’s platform. The rise of data has created a number of these platforms.
The competition policy challenge is that these two-sided markets often ‘tip’ – that is,a number offirms compete in the market but, at some point, the market tips so that only one player – or a few players – come to dominate the market. Google’s dominance of the search industry exemplifies such a tip.
Big Tech bullies
The difficulty from a policymaker’s perspective is that there is a lot of innovation and competition in these markets to begin with, but once the tipping point has been reached, one firm or a group of firms then dominate the market and may well be stopping smaller, innovative firms from growing. And, they may well be acquiring and ‘killing off’ very innovative new competitors, thus reducing the rate of innovation and technological development.
The challenge is the difficulty in predicting the ‘tipping point’. So often these challengeshave tobe dealt with when firms are already dominant and possibly abusing their dominance of data.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Albinism inside out
- Beth Amato
People living with albinism endure parochial prejudice and medical scrutiny but their humanity is no less definitive than that of any other along the continuum.
In the 1995 film, Powder, the protagonist Jeremy Reed (played by Sean Patrick Flanery) lives with albinism. Reed has magical powers in that he doubles as an electricity source. His mother seems to have been struck by lightning when pregnant with him (hence the resultant electrical conduction gift) much to the horror and wonder of the world. Reed, the “albino” and a source of familial and communal shame, is bullied and shunned. At the end of the movie, after teaching the townsfolk some compassion and healing their prejudice, Reed is obliterated by a flash of lightning.
Albinism is a hereditary condition whereby little to no melanin is produced. Melanin is a pigment produced in the cells that gives human skin, hair, and eyes their colour. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that a person with albinism possessessuperpowers.
WhilePowdertreats albinism glibly, those living with this condition endure people’s precarious belief systems – in some parts of the world, those living with albinism are hunted and murdered for their body parts, seen as an HIV cure and raped, or something to be solved medically. Where albinism occurs, mythologies include the mother being touched by an “albino”, having been unfaithful, or the result of a curse. To “prevent albinism”, people may walk past a person with albinism and spit on them.
The erroneous labelling of those living with albinism must be contested and the codes applied to them dismantled. Britishartist and academicProfessor RaimiGbadamosi, who lives with albinism, intended to contribute to this de-codification through the seminar,46 Chromosomes: Querying Albinism, hosted by theWits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), whereGbadamosiis currently a Research Associate.
Two copies of an abnormal gene
The human body’s 46 chromosomes contain the genes that code all the information our bodies need to know so that they can function. Albinism is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern whereby an individual receives copies of a gene from both the father and the mother to develop albinism. Google ‘albinism’ and phrases such as “a group of hereditary disorders”, “characterised by a deficiency of melanin in the skin, hair and eyes”, “skin cancer”, and “mutated genes” come up. Seminar speakerNomasontoMazibuko, a person with albinism who founded the Albinism Society of South Africa, points out that when a baby is born with albinism, the midwife often asks the mother “What did you do to have this kind of baby?”
While living with albinism certainly has its medical challenges – indeed, the condition has recently been deemed a disability in South Africa so that critical accommodations are made –Gbadamosiinsists that those living with albinism should not be seen from the outside in. Those living with the condition are multitudinous. “Western medicine treats albinism as if it’s a fundamental flaw in the makeup of a person, while non-western medicine simplyregards the whole body with albinism as dispensable. We need to shift this discourse. There are no “albinos”, just people living with a hereditary condition that causes albinism,” he says.
Beyond the binary
Medical humanities specialist, Professor Catherine Burns, explained at the seminar that albinism exposes humanity’s inherent struggle with doubles and opposites. She suggested that albinism is not a binary concept, much like sexuality, gender and race are not. “We don’t know how to handle nuance. People exist on a continuum, with binary concepts trapping and caging them.”
Burns spoke about the contestations around the concept of “intersex”. A case in point is Caster Semenya’s battle against the International Association of Athletics Federation’s ruling that women with high testosterone levels competing in races over 400 metres and up to 1 500 metres must take medication to lower testosterone levels. But Semenya defiantly said: “I am a woman. And I am a world-class athlete.” She defined herself from the inside out.
“The desire to box people with albinism is linked to the fanatical historical pursuit of racial purity and an eradication of what was deemed to be abnormal … We know now that there is no such thing as a stable racial and sexual body,” added Burns.
Mazibukohas worked closely with hospitals and communities to reduce the stigma around albinism. Instead of judging the mother, nurses and midwives are encouraged to be compassionate and to arrange counselling sessions for the mother. “To change how people treat us, we must begin in the labour ward,” saidMazibuko.
In the quest to decode and debug the culture that insists on homogenous and distinct human categories,Gbadamosiquestions the meta-narrative and the violent structures that govern our language and social systems. “We must open ourselves to the plethora of possibilities of what it means to be a man, a woman, and a human being,” he says, even as he concedes that this is not an easy task. “I still get asked weird, intrusive questions. It’s hard when people see the ‘uniform’ and not beyond and behind the camouflage.”
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Navigating political land mines
- Schalk Mouton
Using text mining – a relatively under-utilised approach in South African humanities research – to unlock patterns and relationships.
The words that someone chooses to use often tells you more about the person than what you might think. It could even be used to predict where a person’s thoughts are heading, and – in the case of politics – identify where ideological differences or similarities lie that could forge or destroy alliances.
Using text mining techniques, Dr RethaLangaanalysed the court papers of the hate speech case that Afrikaans civil rights organisationAfriForumbrought against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema, over his singing of the songDubulaibhunu(Shoot the Boer), in order to see what the underlying thought patterns were that led to specific future events.
“Text mining is a relatively under-utilised approach in South African humanities research, but one that can help us unlock patterns and relationships that might otherwise go unnoticed,” saysLanga.
For instance, in 2018, the land issue exploded onto South Africa’s political stage with the public hearings about amending Section 25 of the Constitution showing that it is simultaneously a political and a deeply personal one, rooted in our segregation and apartheid past.
Decoding the lay of the land
Threats were made by some to go to war to defend farms, while others called for the restoration of dignity and a return of the land. When analysed, the Malema/AfriForumtrial seven years earlier over whether a struggle song constituted hate speech, shed some light on these events. This case featured several high-profile witnesses, including DerekHanekom,GwedeMantasheand Malema, who was then still president of the ANC Youth League.
Langapulled a dictionary closer, tracked the occurrence of specific words, and looked at three recurring themes, namely ‘reconciliation’, ‘transformation’ and ‘land’. Reconciliation keywords included ‘dialogue’, ‘Constitution’ and ‘Mandela’. Words such as ‘freedom’, ‘revolution’ and ‘transformation’ formed part of the transformation cluster, while land words included ‘farm’, ‘land’ and ‘agriculture’.
“Land was the dominant theme with words in the land cluster appearing 335 times – 51% of the total. Reconciliation terms occur 174 times (27%) and words in the transformation cluster occur the least – 144 times (22%),” saysLanga.
The ANC’s testimonies revealed several interesting patterns. Its transformation cluster was slightly bigger than its reconciliation one, with the party’s five witnesses (Mantashe, Malema,Hanekom, CollinsChabaneand ProfessorMonganeWallySerote) using 120 transformation words compared to 115 reconciliation terms.
Langasays this could point towards the tension between ideas around reconciliation and transformation which has since erupted openly as the party becomes more embroiled in brutal internal battles.
Secret synergies
Differences emerged whenLangazoomed into the ANC’s testimonies to compare views within the party. To do this, the normalised testimonies ofChabane,Serote,MantasheandHanekomwere divided by four to create an average ANC ‘veteran’ witness. This was then compared with Malema’s normalised testimony. A very clear difference between Malema and the other ANC witnesses emerged.
“Malema was clearly an outlier,” saysLanga. “During the trial, the ANC ‘veteran’ witnesses were still holding on to former president Nelson Mandela’s vision of reconciliation, while Malema – who would be expelled from the party 10 months later – was already pushing a more radical agenda, which would see him emerge as a thorn in the ANC’s side.”
Not long after the trial, Malema would use the failure of both land reform and the reconciliation ideology as foundations for his political revival within the EFF.
Catching feelings
Langawent one step further, aiming to explore emotion in the witnesses’ testimonies. By using sentiment analysis, with a lexicon containing thousands of English words assigned scores for positive or negative sentiment, she again mined the court papers for their hidden treasures. The word “kill”, for instance, had the biggest impact on negative sentiment, while “freedom” made the biggest contribution to positive sentiment.
“The testimonies were overwhelmingly negative.Hanekom’ssentiment score was the lowest, followed by Malema andAfriForum’sErnstRoets,” saysLanga.
“The testimonies were generally characterised by a high level of emotion. Witnesses often became emotional during the trial, especially when testifying about land.”
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Decoding knowledge
- Wits University
Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) is not a magic bullet to transform education, but it holds potential for educators and students.
The transition from matric to first-year university can be daunting for students unfamiliar with the ‘rules of the game’. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) is a theory of learning and teaching that provides a ‘toolkit’ to analyse knowledge construction in cultural fields, especially education.
Arriving at university for the first time can feel like taking part in a sport where no one’s told you what rules apply. Being unable to figure out the demands and expectations quickly enough can be the difference between success and failure. For many new students, the “rules of the game” on campus, and how to acquire knowledge successfully, remain a mystery.
Recognising excellence
Making these “rules” more explicit is key to Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Over the past two decades, LCT has developed as a theory that reveals complexity in knowledge-based practices. LCT provides concepts and codes that enable the study of knowledge in various practices and disciplines, including education.
Professor LeeRusznyak, Deputy Head ofSchool of Educationsays, “We often see students work very hard on an assignment but are then disappointed when they get low marks, because they don’t yet understand why they have not done well. When students are better able to recognise what excellence looks like, they can work towards achieving that.”
Analysing how knowledge works
LCT architect, Professor KarlMatonis the Director of the LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building, University of Sydney, and a Visiting Professor at Wits. He was at the third biennaleinternational LCT conference that Wits hostedin July 2019.
“If you are the first in your family to go to university, like I was, you arrive at university just trying to survive, never mind trying to succeed,” saysMaton. “LCT is a way to analyse how knowledge works in different practices. Then we can teach these underlying ‘codes’ to students who all arrive at university with their own socialisations and dispositions. LCT provides the tools for educators to think about cumulative knowledge-building in their fields of expertise.”
LCT also offers the possibility for transforming practices. When the sets of codes that are accepted as the basis of success are revealed, they can be challenged and changed if necessary.Matonexplains: “There are struggles over the legitimation of practices – struggles over whose way of seeing is legitimate and whose way of seeing is dominant and how this informs curricula, for example.”
Africanisation of education
Embracing these debates make LCT a powerful tool that can contribute towards understanding how to advance social justice within the education landscape. In South Africa, decolonising education, and how to do this effectively, has become an urgent priority.
“LCT can be a lens into understanding different perspectives and to understand who controls knowledge and who produces and reproduces knowledge,” says Maluleka, for whom LCT’s focus on getting to the underlying DNA means that transforming education in a socially just way extends to considering all elements of why success eludes many.
African-centric equality
For Maluleka, decolonisation is not only about how knowledge-practices work in curricula; it must also consider the contextual realities of education in South Africa, like why there are still schools without electricity, why measurements of success – like exams, or being taught in English – apply equally to students with different challenges and lived realities.
“Decolonisation and Africanisation of education are two differentconcepts,and both should be viewed as on-going projects for everyone in this country, everyone in the world, in fact. It’s not about replacing one system with another, but it’s about seeing African knowledge and African ways of being as equal and bringing these to the table so that we can develop an African-centric approach that builds a more just world that is good for everyone,” Maluleka says.
LCT is not a magic bullet to transform education, but it holds potential for educators and students in its ability to work with theoretical ideas and practical realities within a social justice agenda.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
The invisible image
- Karabo Kgoleng
How animation depicts Bible stories: comparing panel-based image story-telling techniques against those of animation.
The Bible is one of the most important texts in human history. It has shaped the English language and it has governed many aspects of society in Africa, South, Central and North America, Europe and parts of the Middle East. The laws and codes that govern the behaviour, the socio-political and economic contracts of a large part of our society, and which mediate their lives, can often be traced back to the Bible.
Rachel van Rooyen is a teaching assistant and researcher inDigital Artsat Wits. She holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Pretoria and a Master’s in Digital Arts, specialising in animation, from Wits. Exposure in her childhood to KTV, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network kindled a lifelong love for animation and storytelling.
For her Master’s, van Rooyen analysed two scenes in the depiction of the characters in the DreamWorks Studio filmThe Prince of Egypt(1998). She aimed to examine the symbolism, language, culture and historical context of the Bible, and the audio-visual animation of its stories.
“Bible stories are highly familiar,” says van Rooyen. “There are story arcs that even modern films take from biblical sources. For example,The War for the Planet of the Apesuses the concept of The Alpha and Omega [the main antagonistic force in the form of a military organisation that goes by the same name in the film], and the apocalypse.”
Even if someone has never read the Bible, they still know many of its stories, says van Rooyen. In terms of visual representation, sequential imagery is a strong part of that history, and even the religious practice of Mass uses storytelling that involves pictures – especially in the re-enactment of the Last Supper.
“Jesus is a postmodern meme; very quickly recognised with highly proliferated images over time,” says van Rooyen.
Indeed, in their book,Who’s Bigger? Where Historical Figures Really Rank(Cambridge University Press, 2003), StevenSkienaand Charles Ward formulated an internet-based ranking system that revealed the Christian Messiah to be the most recognisable figure ahead of William Shakespeare and Alexander the Great.
Van Rooyen explains how the adaptation of biblical accounts into visual mediahas a centuries-long history and her researchexamines the representational processes involved for animation to communicate meaning through semiotics (the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation) and discourse theory.
A major feature of animation is its use of exaggeration and its requirement that viewers suspend disbelief, while simultaneously making an implausible situation easy to digest. Thismakes for a beneficial link with biblical accounts, which require the same from their audiences.
In analysing two case studies fromThe Prince of Egypt, van Rooyen studied how the film uses visual cues – especially colour and scale – to contrast the characters of Moses and Rameses, and how animation can be used to “bring the story of Moses to life”.
The scenes of the parting of the Red Sea and the 10 Plagues of Egypt, for instance, respectively express the things that stand in the way of our dreams (the Israelites’ quest for freedom), and God’s moral law and justice when dealing with the unrepentant (Rameses refusing to free those in captivity).
“These scenes aresupernatural,so it is easier to process them in animation than in live action film,” says van Rooyen.
In a second case study, van Rooyen examined the depiction of the two Egyptian priests,HotepandHuy, who served under Pharaoh. The priest characters’ physical proportions are exaggerated, using visual cues that audiences find familiar and from which they derive meaning.Hotephas short, rotund features that audiences associate with trustworthiness, whileHuyhas tall, thin, angular features that viewers have come to associate with evil.
“These qualities are reflected in their characters. While both priests are disdainful towards Moses,Hotepis more passive-aggressive toward him, butHuyis more derisive in his attitude,” van Rooyen explains.
“When they both approach Rameses to broach the subject of Moses’ crime of killing an Egyptian, yet being unpunished,Huyyells ‘death!’ in answer toHotep’sexplanation of what the law demands as a punishment, even beforeHotepis able to finish his sentence.Hotepthen finishes with ‘we hesitate to say’ to try and softenHuy’sobvious contempt.”
The Prince of Egypthas performed well commercially and has become an animation classic, pleasing audiences while maintaining respect across the Abrahamic religious community, says van Rooyen.
“DreamWorks adaptedThe Prince of Egyptto ensure audience engagement so that people today could identify with the various elements of the story, such as Moses’ relationship with his brother, the main characters’ personal struggles, marriage and its relationship to kinship, migration, belonging, how the villain is haunted by the legacy of his father, and the wider stories of Egypt and Israel”.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Telling tales of ages on stages
- Mirah Langer
For a Wits postgraduate drama student theatrical story-telling is a means to bridge generations and mutually empower seemingly disparate groups.
“I perform my story and that is a wonderful feeling … To be in front of people, telling them my story, I feel a lightness of spirit.”
This is the declaration of FloraMtembu, an elderly woman based inHillbrow, who in her sunset years has embarked on a new path as a stage actress.
“Finding my identity confused me most of the time and it made me feel like I have no ambition. However, listening to other stories really changed my mindset of how I’m not alone.”SoreflectsTsepangLebelo, a teenage budding thespian, about what sharing a stage with, not just his peers but also his elders, has come to mean to him.
Another teen,MbongiseniMahlangu, adds that through this process: “Now I'm growing… I'm now my real self!”
These are the comments of but three participants in a group of elders and youngsters based in the Johannesburg city centre, brought together through theatre. They have come to share not just a stage, but also their own stories, struggles and support.
Behind the scenes, it is thanks to Wits Master’s student,GcebileDlamini, that thisgroundbreakingintergenerational theatrical work is taking place.
“My focus now is on the coming together of these intergenerational stories. The young find themselves by telling their stories and hearing those of the elderly. The elder people, in remembering their stories, also find a sense of purpose.” This is how Dlamini explains some of the outcomes of her work in making theatre productions with casts united by a love of drama but decades apart in age.
This year, Dlamini, who has also served as an external examiner at Wits for Applied Theatre Studies, embarked on her Master’s in Creative Research throughDrama for Life. With funding from the Nedbank Arts and Culture Trust and the National Arts Council, Dlamini hopes to continue the intergenerational theatre work that began many years ago.
Intergenerational impact
At that time, as a drama graduate desperate to escape waitressing, Dlamini dropped off her CV at theHillbrowTheatre Project, now renamed the Outreach Foundation. She was hired as a director of an afterschool programme after proving her mettle by conjuring up a full production, involving over a dozen teenagers, within just two weeks.
As her engagement with these teenagers continued, Dlamini began to realise the impact that creating theatre had on them and their lives.
“These kids didn’t have drama at school. They knew they loveditbut they’ve had nowhere to express it; this was their only outlet.”
Productions she created with the teenagers featured hard-hitting topics like religion and sexuality, xenophobia and the Rwandan genocide. These works transformed the way in which these young South Africans began to see themselves: “They become fully conscious.They just wanted to do things andtake action, they become advocates. They would reflect about how they were coming to understand who they were, in this place, South Africa, on the continent and in the world.”
Dlamini began to dream of finding new ways to deepen this kind of exploration through drama. When one of the cast members from a production at the Outreach Foundation mentioned that an old age home inHillbrowwas looking for volunteers to help with things like cleaning, Dlamini decided to take it a step further – she proposed to the staff of the Tswelopele Frail Care Centre that any willing residents join her teenage students on stage.
“The first group that we had was a group of four men. They were aged between about 65 upwards and they were very energetic.”
The first key production to showcase the collaboration was calledyoung@home.
“The first rehearsal was so scary … The kids are used to being there to show off themselves and the elderly, well … for many, firstly, they just want to be able to go out to a theatre!Soyou have to try and bring these two energies together. They live in two separate worlds. And, as the director, you are in the middle.”
Yet, soon the two groups found a synergy
“At first the elderly kept quiet. We had to teach the teenagers that it was not only them who could offer opinions. They too had to give the elderly a platform to talk. And once the elderly started being able to voice their ideas, the kids started understanding them – and then the two groups gelled.”
In a production video released by the Outreach Foundation, the care and connection between the group resonates – not just on stage, but also backstage. At one point, a young girl massages the feet of her elderly co-star in between scenes. In another, a grandmother figure holds hands with a young actor while waiting in the wings.
Envisaging growth
Still Dlamini remained hungry to weave a web of theatrical magic over disparate groups of people.
In 2018, looking for her next challenge, she approached the Johannesburg Society for the Blind to find out if any of those under their care had ever felt an acting itch.
“Here are the visually impaired people with their sticks walking into the theatre. Here are the old people walking into the theatre, and then you have the kids – three energies together.”
Yet, immediately it was the visually impaired who took control of the situation.
“They told the kids: ‘Listen, we are like you. We were once your age; some of us one could see at some point; some of us never saw anything. We do not want to be treated like we can’t do anything. We have all the feelings that you have … What you can do, we can do. The only thing we can’t do is drive’.
They also told the others: ‘And please don’t be afraid to say when you speak to me, ‘can you see?’ ‘Because, yes, spiritually we can see’. From then, everything was easy,” recalls Dlamini.
Encore!
The production that ensued,In My Mother’s Womb, was performed mainly in the dark, using sound and movement illuminated by flashes of light.
It was one from which the response of the audience was uniform: “They cried.”
It is not just the profound personal growth that the cast members undergo, which moves Dlamini about the work she does; it is also the professional pride and integrity with which the participants come to conceptualise their theatrical vocation.
“It is amazing to see the level of artistry that is now in their heads. They are very much aware that they are actors and actresses.”
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Visiting gayle
- Delia du Toit
It might never be one of South Africa’s 11 official languages, but that would defeat the purpose of gayle – a language of secrets.
The research focus of Film and TV postgraduate, Lauren Mulligan, was to tell the story about identity and the role language plays in bonding a community. This culminated in her documentary film: Visiting gayle, that was shown at the Iziko South African Museum Gallery in Cape Town. Delia du Toit spoke to Mulligan about her Master’s degree journey.
patsy.hilda.mavis. carol. (*) Women’s names, clearly. But to those in the know, each of these names has a secret meaning: party. hideous. effeminate. cry.
Such is the nature of gayle, a coded language developed in the Cape LGBTQIA community that has since spread across the country. Still, tell the average Jo’burger to “carla that paula bag” and they would likely look at you with a rather perplexed expression. Say the same thing in Cape Town, and that bewilderment would be directed at someone else (“Look at that ‘posh’ man”).
And that’s exactly whygaylewas created, explainsLauren Mulligan, formerly a multimedia officer at Wits who completed her Master’s in film and television ongaylein 2018. “Initially, it was used as a way of protecting each other – you could tell your friend to be careful around a specific person, or that a certain power dynamic was at play – without the subject of your conversation understanding,” says Mulligan.
Mulligan first heardgayleas a teenager, when her brother and his friends used it. “It’s pretty jarring when you first encounter it, but equally fascinating. On the way home from his friends, I’d always ask him the meaning of new words I’d heard, and so I picked up bits and pieces along the way.”
gayle, however, is constantly evolving – so much so that when Mulligan, who now lives in Johannesburg, visits herhometownof Cape Town, she will wait a few days to pick up the newest words before she starts “gayling” with her peers. “Different generations ofgayle-speakers sometimes won’t understand each other because the language changes so much; new words are added, and others take on new forms.mavis[an effeminate man], for example, ismaybellineto newer generations, because ‘maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’smaybelline’ – the brand’s newer slogan.”
It was during one of her family visits to Cape Town in 2015 that Mulligan decided to make a documentary aboutgaylefor herMaster’sdegree. “During that holiday, I was searching for a topic for my research, my friends weregaylingand I realised I’d also never encounteredgayleon television. There’s this entire community that’s not being portrayed in mainstream media. I wasn’t seeing the characters I wanted to see, and I decided to make a documentary about it.”
According to various sources,gayleoriginated among coloured people in Cape Town in the 1960s, or even earlier, and was mostly used by the LGBTQIA community. Mulligan’s research, conducted during several trips to Cape Town over two years, points to hair salons in Cape Town’s District Six, and she believes some of the old names used ingayleare indicative of the time that it was invented– but the exact origins are unclear. When Mulligan was once interviewed on air about her research, several listeners phoned in, claiming that they had started the language back in the day.
Some research explores interviews with gay men who said they would nevergayleto a heterosexual man or a woman, while other research reveals that there are women and straight men who are well-versed ingayle. The origins have become obscured over time, almost an urban legend, as the language spread and evolved.
What is clear, however, is that besides using female names,gayleborrows from English, Afrikaans andKaaps, both in structure and vocabulary. In recent years,gaylehas emerged from the shadows of subculture to become mainstream. Today, it’s no longer only used as a cloak in dangerous situations, or within the confines of a period of oppression, but has become a way to empower its speakers, a way to bond a community, and a means to play around with words, says Mulligan.
In her documentary,Visitinggayle, Mulligan interviews several regulargayle-speakers from different walks of life. For her research paper, she spoke to several more, including the rap artist Dope Saint Jude, who usesgaylein her lyrics and so delivers the language to a much wider audience than in bygone years.
“It might never become a fully-fledged, documented language, but that would also defeat its purpose –gayleis a secret between friends, a way to bond, a way to have fun. One person or group can’t own a language, and it means different things to different people,” says Mulligan.
Aphotojournalist and Fine Artsundergraduate, Mulligan also created several illustrations for the film to visually describe the words as they’re spoken. Through her animated illustrations, pencils transform into prison bars and safety pins into a dog’s head. These also add a feeling of nostalgia to the speakers’ descriptions of the language, clearly near and dear to them. “The illustrations are there to show the duality ofgayle– that everyday things aren’t what they seem and can have a different meaning.”
Visitinggaylewas shown at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town – a dream come true for Mulligan, who first visited the Museum as a child and hoped to one day show her work there too. When asked about her own favouritegaylewords, her reply is perhaps the perfect illustration of whatgaylemeans to its speakers:
“I probably usehilda[ugly] andmilly[crazy] the most,” she says.
“Is thatmillywith a -y or an -ie?”
“It’s whatever you want it to be,” she laughs.
(*)gaylewords are written in lowercase to avoid formalising the code and to maintain its fluidity.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Lingua franca of mathematics
- Shaun Smillie
Speaking to visitors from outer space would one day require a common language and one not found in a dictionary.
One day, when extra-terrestrial aliens finally make contact with us Earthlings, we’ll need to communicate. Such an historic occasion will demand that we make a good impression, and that might mean leaving the introductions to a mathematician or a physicist.
“The natural place to start conversing with aliens would be to use mathematics because it is universal,” saysProfessor VishnuJejjalain the WitsSchool of Physics. “Aliens might not have the same biology as we do. We are carbon based, they could, for instance, be silicon based.Who knows? But whatever their physiology is, the mathematics that we have is exactly the same as the mathematics that aliens have.”
The persistence of Pi
DEFINING Pi: Pi (π) describes the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter. Pi’s decimal representation (3.14…) never ends and never settles into a permanently repeating pattern. The Guinness World Record for a person to memorise the value of Pi is 70,000 digits.
Across the universe, the same numbers keep cropping up in unexpected places, much like an invisible code that appears to unite unrelated principles. The famed mathematical constant, Pi (or π), which describes the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter (with a value of 3.14…) is one example.
Another example is the so-called ‘Golden Ratio’ – also known as the Divine Proportion – which is expressed not only in the geometric shapes of nature (such as in the shape of the Whirlpool Galaxy, Nautilus shells and hurricanes) but also in many human creations. The Pyramids of Giza were allegedly built using the Golden Ratio, and artist Leonard Da Vinci apparently used its eye-pleasing proportions to paint the iconic Mona Lisa.
Jejjalaexplains that numbers such as Pi and the Golden Ratio recur because the language we use to analyse physical phenomena – mathematics – is in itself a universal language.
“As a physicist, I work on various problems and the same sort of numbers appear in various places. It is not just the same numbers appearing, it is also the same equations that areappearing; the same phenomena that manifest in vastly different situations.” Pi, for instance, appear everywhere because circular forms appear in various places in nature, saysJejella. “Pi is just a reflection in phenomena in which these things happen.”
Other examples of where numbers appear across a variety of disciplines appear in periodic phenomena.
“The infection rate for disease might be one example. Such periodic behaviour is characterised by trigonometric functions, like sine or cosine. The period for such a function is 2Pi, which relates back to the circle [the circumference of a circle is 2PiR].”
Various other phenomena are exponential. The half-life of radioactive isotopes, the inflationary phase of the cosmos, the population growth of various organisms are all described as “e” raised to the power of something.
“The number ‘e’ – or Euler’s Number, which is approximately 2.71828, pops up everywhere, like in calculations of compounding interest and probability theory, while other numbers, such as the Euler-Mascheroniconstant, the zeta function evaluated at special points and the Golden Ratio that all appear in different contexts.”
E.T.phone home
So, because mathematics is universal, it would be the natural lingua franca for a conversation with Martians. But what form would such a conversation take? How would we say hello?
“The conversation might start with teaching each other prime numbers,” saysJejjala. “The distribution of prime numbers is described by Riemann's zeta function. The famous Riemann conjecture states that all of the non-trivial zeroes of the zeta function have real part equal to 1/2. No one has been able to prove this statement. We could, for instance, describe the function in terms of the prime numbers and ask the aliens for help.”
Mathematics has been described as “unreasonably effective at describing the natural world”. The fact that everything in nature works so well (through mathematics) have had philosophers, mathematicians and physicists puzzled for years, but, up until now, there are only partial answers.
“In the end, it seems that every bit of mathematics has some utility in physics,” saysJejalla. “The second thing to note is that there are only certain equations we can solve. So we are bullying whatever we thought into one of the equations we can solve.” And while progress is slow in deciphering newly discovered equations that could advance our understanding of the world,Jejallabelieves we are on the right track.
“One of the key insights in science is that the same patterns appear in many places and the methodologies for describing those patterns is largely the same irrespective of the subject. This is how we translate developments in one area to other areas.”
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Reptile laundering
- Delia du Toit
PhD candidate Shivan Parusnath plans to use social media and machine learning to help stop illegal reptile trade on global scale.
In 2017, a man who had travelled to South Africa from Japan was caught by Malmesbury police with 48 lizards he had poached from the wild and intended to smuggle out of the country. His sentence was 13 years imprisonment or a R1 million fine. A month later, another Japanese man was caught for the same offence, and a few months after that, two German men.
His post-doctorate, for which he is currently procuring funding, will focus on the sale of South African reptiles on online forums, social media, and at international reptile fairs. His initial research reveals how crucial this study will be.
Parusnath’s documentary on sungazers, Saving Dragons, recently won the Simon MabhunuSabela Award for Best Environmental Conservation film from the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission
“Without much difficulty, I found several reptile trade groups selling South African reptiles on social media. I’ve even done some searches on the dark web, which came up empty-handed. Chances are that social media already provide such an easy means to conduct illegal trade that using the dark web isn’t even necessary,” he says – the dark web, often used for illegal trade, refers to websites that exist on encrypted networks and cannot be found through traditional search engines
Although some platforms have banned the sale of live animals, the rules are not always enforced. “There are many loopholes, such as creating secret groups on Facebook, or pretending to ‘rehome’ animals – those in the market will know that it’s code for a sale, and will contact the person privately,” explainsParusnath.
Getting a better idea of the species being sold in this manner, and in what quantities, will help inform legislature and scientific authorities to better protect species threatened by trade.
Besides manual searches and visiting international trade shows,Parusnathalso employs machine learning for his research. After feeding an algorithm with training data (images of reptile species to be searched for), the software will be able to access data on which speciesare being sold online, where they are sold, and at what price, and even identify false keywords or guises used to cover up sales.
Genetic barcodes
Parusnathhas so far concentrated most of his research onsungazerlizards (Smauggiganteus), named for their upward-arching stance when basking in the sun. Over the past decade, several of these vulnerable lizards were shipped or smuggled from South African shores into the hands of exotic reptile collectors, fetching thousands of dollars each. The biggest markets are in Europe, Japan and the USA.
In his PhD,Parusnathfocused on investigating the genetic structure of the species by ‘DNA barcoding’ almost 200sungazersin 13 different colonies in Mpumalanga and the Free State – their only natural habitat. This was done using microsatellites, special genetic markers he developed especially for thesungazer.
“Microsatellites allow one to understand more about the population and social structure of a species in the wild. You can, for example, determine if a baby belongs to a certain parent, if two animals are first cousins, or if they are not related at all. You can then use this information to learn more about their social behaviour, for example if babies and parents live together in a burrow or not,” saysParusnath.
Secondly, the information can be used in regulating trade in the species.Sungazersare listed on CITES Appendix II, a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals, and species on this list may only be traded if bred in captivity. Microsatellites can help clarify whether animals were indeed bred in captivity when a trader applies for a permit.
The technology is so effective that it’s been used to identify poaching hot spots for elephants. When a detailed enough network of DNA barcodes is collected from across a species’ distribution, it can be used to determine where an animal came from.Parusnath’snetwork is already big enough to determine if a confiscatedsungazercame from the East or West Free State, for example.
Code Red
For his Master’s,Parusnathreassessed the conservation status of the species, which was last done in 1978.Sungazerpopulations had declined 30% since the last assessment, and they’re at the same level as rhinos on the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (Nemba) list of Threatened or Protected Species.
His research led to the finding by the South African scientific authority that trade in wild-caughtsungazerswould be detrimental to the species. A legislative change followed, and trading insungazersnow requires proof of captive breeding before a permit is issued, effectively stopping what is known as reptile laundering, where wild-caught animals are sold under the guise of captive breeding.
Parusnathis also a professional photographer with a number of awards under his belt and uses his wildlife images to educate and raise awareness. “A good photo can make people see an animal differently, and make even spiders, snakes and scorpions more relatable. Some scientists judge their career on the number of papers they’ve published. For me, it’s about making a difference.”
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Recreating Earth through code
- Schalk Mouton
The first Earth System Model developed and based in Africa are creating one of the most reliable and most detailed modulations of climate change.
What does it take to recreate Earth? A couple of thousands of line of code, throw in some data from all the weather stations around the world, and a supercomputer.
Add to that mix a specialist climate model developer such asProfessor Francois Engelbrechtfrom theWits Global Change Instituteand you’ve got the first Earth System Model developed and based in Africa, which is to contribute to the World Climate Research Programme’s Coupled ModelIntercomparisonProject Phase Six (CMIP6).
Engelbrecht, who joined Wits in January 2019 after working at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for a decade, is working to build a mathematical model of Earth, including all the atmospheric, oceanic, land and carbon cycle processes and their interactions, in order to be able to project the impacts of future climate change in Africa and across the globe. Towards this end, he is working in close collaboration with scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, the CSIR in South Africa, the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Venda.
“Coding is part of my life. I code every day,” says Engelbrecht, who is one of only a handful of climate model developers around.
How to build an Earth System Model
Building an Earth System Model is no simple task. To do this, Engelbrecht needs to process data from 50 layers of Earth’s atmosphere, which is approximately 50km deep; the ocean from its surface to the bottom, divided into 30 layers and the land, divided into six layers to simulate soil moisture and temperature.
An Earth System Model provides a numerical sampling of all the physical processes occurring in the three-dimensional coupled ocean-atmosphere-land system. He also needs to include ocean and atmospheric chemistry, including the effects that the carbon cycle has on the climate system.
“Both the ocean and the land are large sinks (absorbers) of carbon. There are also natural processes that release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We need to see how these processes work and model how the carbon cycle will impact climate in the future in the presence of increased carbon dioxide emissions emanating from our dependence on fossil fuels for energy,” says Engelbrecht.
An Earth System Model is based in a set of mathematical equations that describe how Earth changes over time to changing radiative forcing (for example, increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide). That is, when the laws of physics is applied to the atmosphere, one obtains a set of partial differential equations. These equations can be solved numerically to get a picture of our future climate.
“The moment that you work with these types of data and numerical mathematics, you need a supercomputer to process it,” says Engelbrecht.
“The mathematical model breaks up the atmosphere in a number of layers, and the Earth in horizontal grid points. The larger the computer, the more grid points you can add, which makes the model more accurate.”
Accessing hte power of supercomputers
Engelbrecht only in recent years gained access to a supercomputer with sufficient processing power to undertake these computationally expensive simulations and process theenourmous of data. This is theLengaucluster of the Centre of High-Performance Computing (CHPC) of the Department of Science and Technology based in Rosebank, Cape Town. A single climate simulation requires the use of hundreds to thousands of processors on the cluster, applied in parallel to solve the intricate equations of the Earth system.
Even on the fastest supercomputers of the world, the spatial resolution of Earth System Models remain limited to about 100 km in the horizontal. In a recent development, Engelbrecht and his colleagues are also moving into the world of Artificial Intelligence, to utilise specially engineered algorithms that can represent the finer details of the system at spatial scales not directly resolved by the Earth System Model.
“Traditionally the representation of fine-scale processes in Earth System Models was based on conventional statistics informed by field observations of how the fine-scale processes relate to the large-scale flow features of the ocean and atmosphere. Machine learning allows for more complex and thus more realistic relationships to be formulated between fine-scale and larger scale flow features in the climate system,” Engelbrecht states.
Engelbrecht, who did his PhD in numerical meteorology at the University of Pretoria leads the development of the global ocean model applied within the Earth System Model. The CSIRO provides to the system sophisticated global atmospheric and land-surface models, while the CSIR is providing and developing the carbon cycle model and atmospheric chemistry applied within the Earth System Model.
In order to describe an initial state of the ocean and atmosphere to the Earth System Model, Engelbrecht and his colleagues use information from weather stations all over the world, which is compiled and shared through the World Meteorological Organisation.
Engelbrecht points out that understanding the climate and carbon cycle of the Southern Ocean and the dynamics of the Antarctic sea-ice and ice sheets is critical to the reliable projection of future climate change.
“The Southern Ocean is a massive carbon sink, and we (South Africa, through the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observatory (SOCCO) of the CSIR), have the best knowledge in the world about the Southern Ocean chemistry and physics, which makes our Earth System Model incredibly relevant for the rest of the world,” says Engelbrecht. “Our model is built through the lens of Southern Ocean and African climate processes.” SOCCO of the CSIR andUCT’s Marine Science Institute are therefore important partners in the development of the Earth System Model.
“A National Research Foundation Earth System Science Research Programme (ESSRP) project is providing important initial momentum to this collaboration,” says Engelbrecht.
Building an Earth System Model is a completely interdisciplinary task, involving experts from a variety of fields, including climatologists, oceanographers, ecologists, mathematicians, physicists, chemists and computer scientists. Engelbrecht intends to increasingly attract experts in all these fields to work together in building and improving the African-based Earth System Model.
“One of the reasons I came to Wits was to expose the Earth System Model development process to colleagues whom have leading expertise in oceanography, climatology, numerical mathematics, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence so that we can collaborate and jointly contribute to this truly multi-disciplinary field. We have already assembled at the GCI and the Wits Schools of GAES and APES a strong group of post-graduate students that will have the opportunity to work in this exciting multi-disciplinary field, while contributing their novel thinking to the Earth System Model,” he says.
“We are creating one of the most reliable and most detailed modulations of climate change for Africa. If we can reliably project our likely climate change futures in Africa, then we can estimate risks to aspects such as water security, agriculture, biodiversity, and human health, and take timeous action through climate change adaptation and mitigation projects.”
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Diagnosing the dead and predicting mortality
- Shaun Smillie
A new generation of apps could soon help health professions to decode the causes of death, and predict the likelihood of dying.
Two academics in the Wits Institute of Data Science are investigating the use of machine learning (ML) to sift through masses of data and, through coded algorithms, identify patterns that will give health practitioners real time lifesaving information.
Mpanyais working on a project that, if all goes well, will assess a patient’s probability of being hospitalised or dying as a result of heart failure.
Heart failure is a common pathway for most heart conditions such as hypertension and coronary artery diseases.
“Machine learning refers to the ability of the computer to learn without any form of explicit programming, meaning that the computer analyses pre-existing data, learns patterns and subsequently makes predictions,” explainsMpanya.
Her project involves mining data collected since 2009 in the Division of Cardiology at CharlotteMaxekeJohannesburg Academic Hospital. These data were captured electronically from patients who were admitted to the hospital with heart conditions.
Mpanyaplans to use this data to create a risk model that predicts a patient’s likelihood of mortality and hospitalisation.
“This risk stratification is important because if a patient is at a high risk of mortality, then such patients can be seen more frequently at a hospital, optimising therapy,” saysMpanya.
“Already we have such a high burden of patients with heart diseases in South Africa and there aren’t enough cardiologists. So, with my model, once you have risk stratified the patients, those that are at low risk will be seen less frequently and may even be seen by doctors at a primary or secondary health care level. And those that are high risk will be seen by specialists.”
South Africa has a growing cardiovascular disease epidemic and one of the biggest problems facing doctors is identifying those at risk.
Recent statistics show that one out of three South Africans over the age of 15 has hypertension (high blood pressure), which puts them at risk of a heart failure. Most don’t even know they have hypertension.
This risk calculator,Mpanyahopes, will take the form of an app.
“So, if you are in a rural area and you are treating a patient and you don't know what is wrong with them, that risk calculator will tell you that patient is high risk and send them to a hospital,” she says.
The app will work by requesting a doctor to input details such as the patient’s demographic and clinical parameters and thereafter will estimate the probability of mortality and hospitalisation.
Pathological patterns
WhileMpanya’swork deals with the prevention of mortality, her colleagueMichaelMapunduis using machine learning to diagnose the deceased.
Verbal autopsies are often used as a method to establish cause of death in low- and middle-income countries. Most of the world’s annual deaths are undocumented, meaning there are no autopsies.
How verbal autopsies work is that health professionals will gather information about the deceased, collected from those who knew them and from learning about the circumstances around their death. The World Health Organization has a set of guidelines governing how verbal autopsies should be performed.
Through machine learning, this data and future data could alert authorities to disease patterns that they are not seeing in hospitals and clinics.
“Those verbal autopsy narratives, they have a diagnosis which is labelled by an expert who might be a doctor,” saysMapundu, in theWits School of Public Health. “From these narratives a possible cause of death might be added and that gives us a label that you can use to train our machine in order for it to possibly predict a possible cause.”
As withMpanya,Mapunduenvisions an app that will be web based, easy to access and work in a rural setting.
“It will have real time classification where a user can feed data and those narratives can be automatically classified by our machine learning model,” he explains.
Machine learning prediction models are in use in the Global North, but their introduction here in South Africa promises to save lives through data gleaned from the living and the dead.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Editing disease in South Africa
- Beth Amato
Gene therapy – there is a long road ahead to mainstream techniques and ensure that the technology is cost-effective.
Consider the following scenario: a young South African woman, whose mother developed breast cancer, wants to have a baby. But because breast cancer is often hereditary, the young woman gets tested for the pathogenic BRCA1 gene, a mutation that causes breast cancer. Her result is positive so the woman decides to have a baby via in vitro fertilisation (IVF) – a more precise way to control what the baby inherits.
After undergoing the process, a few embryos are created. Let’s imagine the male embryos aren’t viable, and that two female embryos are healthy. However, both female embryos test positive for the pathogenic BRCA1 gene. How does one eliminate the chances of developing breast cancer? One way is to edit the genome of the embryo.
Ethical by design
Human genomes comprise the entire set of genes within an individual and encode a series of messages within the DNA sequence. A scientist, with molecular scissors, could chop and change the sequence to alter the message it relays. If this is done with this embryo, it may grow into a woman free from breast cancer and its consequences.
Germline editing – the process of changing the genetic code of an embryo – is no longer relegated to the pages of a 1970s science fiction novel. In 2017, a Chinese scientist, HeJankui, used genome-editing technology, CRISPR-Cas9, to produce twin girls (through IVF) that were naturally immunised against HIV.Jankuicrippled the production of the protein CCR5, which HIV uses to drive an infection.
Germline editing has been widely criticised by scientists, including US scientist JenniferDoudna, who helped develop the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique. Molecular scientists and ethicists at Wits University are wholly against germ cell editing, and the misuse of powerful gene editing technology.
Professor AmesDhai, Director of theSteve Biko Centre for Bioethics, says that the making of the so-called designer CRISPR babies could spell disaster for future generations and, indeed, this experimentation has been banned in many countries. “We don’t have enough information about the effects of germ cell gene editing. If you chop something out, we need to know what effect that has on other systems in the body,” saysDhai.
Antidotes for Africa
The use of CRISPR-Cas9 and other gene editing technology is powerful, however, if used to recode somatic cells – these being any cell in the body that are not gametes (sperm or egg), germ cells (cells that go on to become gametes), or stem cells. Dr Stuart Ali, director ofPrecision Medicine for Africa, says somatic cell gene editing is particularly useful in targeting viral and bacterial infections, and doesn’t affect the human genome.
Somatic cell gene therapy research (which includes gene editing technology) in South Africa is focused on “high burden” diseases, such as HIV, hepatitis B, tuberculosis (TB), and cancer.
Research Professor at thePerinatal HIV Research Unit at Witsand President of the South African Medical Research Council,GlendaGray, says that there could be a “serendipitous breakthrough” in curing HIV with gene editing technology, and that this could happen within the next decade at the current rate of scientific innovation.
AGTRU is currently researching a cure for hepatitis B, a contagious virus that wreaks havoc on the liver. The team uses CRISPR-Cas9 and TALENS gene editing technology to disable the virus. “We deliver the CRISPR-Cas9 system to the liver, hone in on the hepatitis B virus to deactivate the DNA, and halt the infection process,” says AGTRUAssociate Professor Abdullah Ely. TALENS (Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases), on the other hand, are enzymes that can be coded to cut DNA sequences, thus inactivating the hepatitis B virus.
Tuberculosis is another disease burden in South Africa. The bacteria that cause TB have a very thick cell wall, which prolongs the duration of treatment. “These cell walls are like thick armour capable of blocking the strongest of drugs,” saysProfessorBaveshKana, Director of theCentre of Excellence in Biomedical TB Researchat Wits.
Gene editing technologies can weaken this cell wall. “Ultimately we’d like to inactivate the enzymes responsible for building the bedrock of the cell,” says Kana. He notes that TB treatment has come a long way in South Africa, with shortened treatment regimens and a better understanding of managing the effects of TB, such as reducing inflammation in damaged lung tissue.
Cancer is the toughest disease to treat with gene editing technology, notesProfessorPaul Ruff, Head ofMedical Oncology at Wits and the CharlotteMaxekeJohannesburg Academic Hospital. “There are so few cancers with a specific gene. In addition, cancer is very clever, outsmarting many attempts to cure it,” says Ruff.
Currently, the pillars of cancer treatment have been surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. However, cancer research is advancing each year – a patient’s own immune cells can even now be engineered to treat cancer. “While modern immunotherapy [a component of the gene editing field] is an exciting field, it’s prohibitively expensive,” says Ruff.
Universal health coverage
The health budget is stretched in South Africa, and not enough is done to address the systemic injustices in the healthcare system, sayDhaiand Kana. “The debate needs to beabout how to provide universal and quality healthcare to everybody, not just to the 20% who can afford it,” saysDhai. “I am not saying we must halt science – I am saying we need to place social justice first.”
This is why AGTRU is pioneering accessible and affordable technology. “We need our work to serve everybody and to tailor what we do to ensure scalability,” says Ely. This will change the health landscape in South Africa. Gene therapy is able to treat a wide range of diseases previously thought untreatable.
“Our view is that the need for gene therapeutics is immense, particularly in a country like South Africa. The cost of living with HIV, for instance, needs to be assessed against that of a possibly expensive, yet single therapeutic cure. If gene technologies become mainstream, costs will be significantly reduced,” says Arbuthnot. “South Africa must prioritise this so we can reap the benefits of this very promising medical intervention. While not a panacea, gene therapy holds significant promise to combat intractable medical problems. We feel strongly that South Africa needs to invest in these promising technologies to gain maximum benefit rather than relying on researchers in the developed world.”
Wits University haematologist,Professor Johnny Mahlanguis leading research set to revolutionise the treatment of haemophilia, a genetic blood disorder. Gene therapy for haemophilia offers a single administration of the therapeutic to potentially produce a lifelong cure and in so doing to overcome many of the shortcomings of traditional replacement therapy.
Haemophilia gene therapy in South Africa is burgeoning, with several FVIII and FIX programmes having started. Two South African patients who received gene therapy for severe haemophilia in Europe are currently being followed up locally. A regional gene therapy infusion centre has been set up in Johannesburg, and patients for several gene therapy studies are currently being recruited. Participation of patients of African origin in gene therapy is particularly important, as they have generally been under-represented in global gene therapy studies.
Professor Michèle Ramsay, Research Chair and Director of theSydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscienceat Wits has been selected to serve on an international commission to develop principles, criteria and standards for the clinical use of genome editing of the human germline, should it be considered acceptable by society. The Commission, convened by the UK’s Royal Society, the US National Academy of Sciences, and the US National Academy of Medicine, comes at a time when reports of the first genetically edited babies were publicised at the end of 2018. The Commission’s final report will be issued mid-2020.
Read more in the eighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre,and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Street talk: Behind the tag
- Ufrieda Ho
Codes are changing and the rules of the game keep blurring as graffiti becomes a casualty of the era of social media.
Even when the writing is literally on the wall, it can be difficult to understand – particularly in the case of graffiti, which thrives on being different things to different people.
Graffiti is by its nature confronting, contrary and coded. It’s the collision point between the two worlds of the mainstreamand an urban sub-culture. It’s also full of contradictions of being publicly seen, but only truly known to a closed group. It’s often bold and deliberate but also fleeting and ephemeral. It makes statements, but hides in anonymity.
The mainstreaming of graffiti in the last few years has also seen graffiti change to include a broad range, from tagging (graffiti artists’ signatures) and throw-ups (stylised versions of signatures), to stencil works, street art, public art and even corporate commissions and advertising. These are discrete categories but share the streets and together they bring a different dimension to the visual language and feel of a city.
Colour-coding Jozi
Wits University’s own backyardis a canvas from that which pops up periodically across campus, to what appears throughout Braamfontein and home to Grayscale Gallery and Store, a hub for sub-culture art forms of graffiti, tattooing and street art. The owners are also behind the annual City of Gold Urban Arts festival, which has focused onBraam’sunique alleyways for transformation by street artists.
There are also artworks under flyovers on the routes to and from Wits, andThe Stargraffiti wall at the throbbing intersection of Jan Smuts Avenue and Empire Road has been a public canvas for years. The street art in these spaces hints at clues and codes of the clashes, mood and shifting urban agendas of the City.
JoBuitendachis founder of city tour company Past Experiences. A self-confessed lover of graffiti, one ofBuitendach’spopular tours takes visitors on a deep-dive into Joburg’s thriving graffiti culture.Buitendachcompleted herBSc in Archaeologyat Wits and her Master’s on political graffiti at UCT.
Kings, toys, street code
“All the great cities of the world have a strong graffiti culture,” she says of how graffiti and urban identity entwine in a tangle of blight and beauty and the unapologetic bending of laws to breaking point.
“Graffiti culture is not ever going to go away – it’s about leaving a mark,” she says, even as individual pieces are created to fade, be scrubbed off, or themselves vandalised. She saysgraffiti culture is about belonging, identity, social hierarchy and structure and even as an alternative form of family.
“Graffiti is about family. Artists work in crews where there’s a king at the top and toys at the bottom, so there’s structure. There’s a code of the streets and the movement too – like not tagging over someone else’s work.
Graffiti artists also tag for different reasons; tagging is often seen as vandalism but I think tags are beautiful and they give voice to people – often young people – who are on the margins,” she says.
The Tag vs. The Man
Codes are changing though and the rules of the game keep blurring as graffiti becomes a casualty of the era of social media, conspicuous consumption and commoditisation. An artist’s Instagram handle may be standard with a tag nowadays as a way to boost profile and personal brand-building, and to draw work prospects. Corporate commissions of wall murals come with corporate dictates that can reduce free expression to paintjob and sales pitch, and the average passer-by may never know the difference.
Professor MelissaTandiweMyambois a Research Associate with theCentre of Indian Studies in Africaand an honorary research fellow at theWits City Institute. She says graffiti, street art, public art and paid commissions should be read as parts of a spectrum of what is on city walls today. The rule-breakers have to fight for space with corporate conformists and the dividing lines are sometimes deliberately fuzzy.
“Graffiti suffers from the same fate as a lot of hipster culture. It may begin as counter-cultural but ends up getting co-opted by the corporate sector and then deployed as a tool to market something or other. Ironically, even counter-cultural critiques of mass marketing and consumption get used this way. The growth of social media and branding means everyone is playing the same game now, so sub-cultures quickly become monetised and commodified. When they become popular enough, they are no longer sub-cultures but part of mainstream consumer capitalism,” saysMyambo, who edited the bookReversing Urban Inequality in Johannesburg(Routledge, 2018).
Graffiti though remains a story and a social record.Myambodescribes graffiti as “an art form that is meaningful because it’s contextual and is open to various interpretations, which can make how it is perceived unpredictable”, which is also its nature.
Mood and moment
Capturing change, context and being able to offer insight into some connecting points between graffiti and deciphering the mood and the moment of urban life has informed aGCRO (Gauteng City-Region Observatory)project.
GCRO researchers Dr Alexandra Parker andSamkelisiweKhanyilehave been working with Open Data Durban on developing a mobile friendly website that works like an app to createa digital repository of graffiti and street art. It’s expected to be ready for public use this spring and will focus on Johannesburg and Durban as its launch cities.
Parker says that a digital archive means that something that is temporary is recorded for analysis and public access. She points to the iconic “Wewont[sic] move” graffiti inSophiatownduring the forced removals of apartheid. Photographer JürgenSchadebergcaptured a street scene in 1955 of three men sitting kerbside under the defiant slogan even as the bulldozers were ready to move in. The photograph is what remains to tell that story.
Khanyilesays: “We don’t see that much political graffiti as before though there were works from #FeesMustFallthat tell a story of that time and that’s the kind of graffiti that should be recorded.”
Artistic archive of identity
Parker andKhanyilesay that building an archive will allow researchers to use graffiti to understand the identity of a place and what is expressed in public spaces even when it may go against municipal bylaws. They say it maps urban evolution, the evolution of graffiti itself, and the interplay between the two.
The mobile website will allow the public and street artists to upload photographs of works. Its location will be picked up from the metadata of the photo and the person uploading the photo will be prompted to submit details of the artist and the work and to comment. There will be an edit function so information can be verified and updated. Eventually people will be able to search graffiti and street art by neighbourhood and by artist.
Parker adds: “Over time graffiti becomes a collective visual language. It adds texture, vibrancy and colour to dull infrastructure and it raises the question of who gets to decide about the identity of our shared urban environments.”
Khanyilesays graffiti has given her a different connection to the city that is her home but can sometimes seem given over to crime and grime.
“I’m a scaredy-cat but even if it’s just a shift of one percent, graffiti and street art makes me feel more welcome and a little safer and it makes me want to leave the office and go onto the streets to see it. And when I’m driving around the city I’m always excited about new pieces of graffiti and I can’t help talking about the different styles and possible meanings to whoever may be with me in the car,” she says.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
How knitting won the war?
- Stacey Rozen
Craftivists have been savvy cryptographers for aeons longer than any computing geek.
An undercover operative dodging adversaries on a secret assignment makes for a gripping spy novel. Yet, this intriguing yarn about codes and craftivism is a real-life story. During World War II, a secret agent, perceived to be an innocent grandmother, was stealthily observing while clicking her knitting needles.
Granny’s stereotypical feminine façade hid encoded espionage messages knitted into fabric. The Belgian resistance had recruited her to record the type and time of trains passing her kitchen window overlooking the railyard.
Granny was a learned artisan with the technical prowess to transform stitch alphabets and patterned configurations into data for intelligence gathering – hidden to the uninformed eye yet decipherable to those privy to steganography [the technique of hiding secret data within an ordinary, non-secret, file or message].
The Office of Censorship banned the postage of knit and crochet patterns abroad, suspecting they held coded classified communications. Yet, it was the knitted garments themselves encoded that the censors never spotted.
Code name: Paulette
British spy and proficient knitter, Phyllis Latour Doyle, parachuted into Normandy under the code name Paulette. No ordinary coder, Paulette had handicraft skills she inherited from generations of knitters in her family that resulted in her becoming a brave craftivist with the ability to code in dangerous contexts. She knitted encoded information into scarves and beanies while riding a bicycle through enemy territory. Seventy years later, the 93-year-old heroine received the Legion ofHonourin recognition of her courage in assisting the Allied forces. James Bond is an amateur sleuth in comparison. Perhaps he should take up knitting …
Charles Dickens was inspired by knitting codes to create the fictional character, Madame Thérèse Defarge inA Tale of Two Cities. As atricoteuse, Madame Defarge encoded the name of the beheaded in her knitting as the guillotine fell at public executions during the French Revolution. A gory story captured through the hands of a craftivist.
Even though the term craftivism was only coined by sociologist Betsy Greer in 2003, brave women have been craftivists for centuries. The earliest woven fabric, created using a technique callednalebinding, was found at Dura-Europos archaeological digs and dates back to 265AD.
Knit-as-code
Computer code is a descendant of knit and crochet code. The analogue code of threadedfibreand the digital code of Internetfibreco-create. Similar to the 0s and 1s of binary computerese, there are two stitches in knitting: knit and purl. An index variable with incremented and decremented operations echoes a knitted row with increased and decreased stitches. Knit and crochet patterns are like computerprogrammes: input a thread of yarn and output a sweater.
Morse Code knitters use a single purl stitch for a dot and three in a row for a dash creating short and long coded signals. The compiler is the craftivist.Knit-as-codeis being formally researched by Dr Elisabetta Matsumoto in her physics lab at Georgia Tech. She investigates yarn as a programmable material with stitchpatterns more complex than the ones and zeroes of binary.
Granny’s knitted espionage secrets were mathematical topologies of slipknots, which makes a grandmotherly Elder a highly qualified tutor at Knit to Code, anorganisationusing knitting as a teaching simulator for computer coding. Both media use the same logic: Learning to knit assists in learning to code. So, contrary to popular belief, Granny is actually on par with her millennial granddaughter’s generation of computerfundis[experts].
The preservation of traditional handicraft skills for craftivism continues today. Susan Hewes is an extreme handcrafter with two Guinness World Records: the first for knitting the longest scarf and the second for crocheting the longest chain… both whilst running marathons! That’s an incredible feat in coding-while-multitasking and raising money for Alzheimer’s research.
Yarns the tellers of us
Another layer of code allows handicrafts to carry personal and collective narratives embodied with thought and emotion. The suffragettes, protesting for women’s right to vote, hadcolourcodes for their embroidery threads – purple for dignity, white for purity and green for hope. FromPussyhats, handcrafted to raise awareness about women's issues in the USA, to protest banners handcrafted by Story Scarves to stop gender-based violence in Soweto, craftivism artefacts hold coded clues inciting mindful dialogue in the social fabric of our lives, globally.
Some of these stitched stories are invisibly submerged awaiting decoding. The coded fabric’s significance is in its potential to make meaning. Human beings have an innate ability to decipher these meaningful codes. Craftivism is indelibly shaped by code that make our yarns the tellers of us.
StaceyRozenis a story-weaver, craftivist, creative arts practitioner and interdisciplinary designer. She will graduate with an MA from Wits in December 2019. Her dissertation focusses on craftivism and the use of handicrafts to inspire social change. She is currently working on a series entitledOur Yarns are the Tellers of Us, which delves into the synergy between analogue and digital craftivism for personal and collective narratives. She was director ofStory Scarves, a craftivism project for young women in Soweto.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Do kids need to code?
- Ufrieda Ho
Preparing for a digital revolution is as much about getting the basics right as it is looking to the future.
Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and greater automation is on the horizon. But, says Mitchell Cox, a Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits, the dreams of AI and the 4IR are not the things to worry about, if we lay the foundation of teaching and learning that builds the critical skills of problem solving, reasoning and logic.
Reading, writing, reasoning?
Back to basics, he says, can start with setting the foundation of maths skills at a primary school level. It’s the first building block of computer programming or “coding”, Cox says.
Maths presents a way to break down complex problems into components, allowing us to organise our thoughts and processes to allow solutions to be constructed – it’s a thought process at the heart of coding, which in turn is at the heart of making computers do what we want them to do for us.
Programming is not likely to become obsolete in the near future, but it will certainly evolve and become more sophisticated, as the relationship between people and machines evolves and become more sophisticated.
“Programming is never going away; programming gives the instructions to computers to perform more of the mundane, routine tasks. Automation frees people up to do more creative things, solve other problems or even become more sophisticated programmers,” he says.
Coding for communication
Cox also believes that basic proficiency with code is a useful skill for everyone to have, regardless of age or discipline, especially in an era of hyper-customisation or personalisation of devices and apps. It’s the difference, he says, between using more of the functionality of an Excel spreadsheet or getting better results from a Google search. He calls it “speaking Google” fluently.
“Speaking” to computers is one element of building skills for the future. The other is better communication. Cox says that communication allows for better collaboration across disciplines and that the ability to factor in different perspectives allows creativity to flourish.
“It’s why we teach in a way that’s that not about giving students all the answers or all the ways to find answers. Allowing them to figure out things for themselves, to follow their own leads, teaches them adaptability and resourcefulness, which are the skills they will need to survive,” he says.
Empowering humans
Preparing the next generation at foundation phase level are the likes of school teacher Dorian Love. He teaches coding at a private all-girls school in Johannesburg and believes coding skills recalibrate the power balance between people and computers in human beings’ favour.
“For me it is about finding the most humanising approach so humans determine how machines serve us,” he says. Love completed his Master’s at Wits University researching the role of knowledge in Information Communications and Technology (ICT) integration at his school, through the principles ofLegitimation Code Theory(LCT – a sophisticated framework for exploring practices in terms of their organising principles or ‘legitimation codes’).
Love says it’s as much about making all teachers less afraid of technology as it is about convincing girls to become interested in coding. Demystifying coding and showing its real life implications can help close the gender gap that still exists in the world of tech.
“I tell the girls that men still dominate when it comes to things like developing computer games and, because men and women experience colour differently, men get to decide on the colours, even in games. It’s one way to get them [girls] thinking about why having coding skills can mean women have a greater say in the world,” he says.
“It’s a bit like you may never know what’s going on inside your TV that makes it work, but you want to know how to use the remote so you can get to the channel that you want,” she says. Williams adds that the current panic – about the digital divide and people who don’t code falling through the cracks – is not productive.
“We need to create a way of thinking that allows people to use technology as an enabler. We need to help children find their unique value and to think like entrepreneurs in using this unique value, together with technology. For that, we all need to be continuous learners, be agile and be attuned to the world around us – we should be connecting more across the continent right now for digital innovation.”
It means there’s work to be done in the present and opportunities in the moment that need to be seized so that our digital future is to be one that holds more potential for more of us.
Says Williams: “While there will be job losses in digital transformation, new unknown industries will be birthed giving rise to new forms of employment. We need to focus on developing adaptable skills, because technology will keep becoming obsolete. Coding as a language needs to penetrate the ranks of the education system so we bridge the ever increasing digital divide that low-income communities are not accessing.”
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Why words make language
- Shanthini Naidoo
From hieroglyphics to emojis, and grunts to gestures, humans have always used multiple modes to communicate, including language.
If you’ve ever sent a text using emojis, which the recipient received and understood, then you’ve communicated in a new language code. Communication codes have been with us since the grunts of our ancestors developed in to the first languages – Aramaic, Sanskrit, Tamil – the latter having made an appearance in 300 BC and considered the world’s oldest language.
Dr GillesBaro, asociolinguist at Wits, says that what we consider languages today are “organised, systematised guides to communication”. “People have always communicated using multiple modes, such as gestures, sounds, words, scripts and images. Languages are one of those modes and they are not ‘invented’. Rather, people – usually the elite – decide on a norm for communication, and that is what we consider ‘language’ today.”
“Languages evolve naturally as a result of the migration of people, which in turn results in languages getting into contact with each other. Think of Afrikaans, which was originally spoken by the Dutch, but began to develop distinct characteristics as a result of its contact and borrowing from South African languages, especiallyKhoeand San languages.”
Similarly, saysKadenge, South African spoken languages that evolved because of contact between existing languages includeFanagaloandTsotsitaal. “Both of them have borrowings from Bantu languages like Zulu, Xhosa, English and Afrikaans.Chilapalapadeveloped in Zimbabwe [then Rhodesia] from the contact between English, Shona varieties and Zambia languages,” he says.
Brave newword
Barosays that along with migration, new environments and technology also influence how language evolves. Emojis and text language are an example of how spoken language has merged with digital communication.
“Today, considering the internet, language is more open and in a way more vulnerable to be changed or influenced. We are exposed to a lot more variations than in the past. For example, a study done at the University of Cape Town showed the increasing use of the word ‘like’ as a quotative, hedge, or discourse particle by young South Africans was influenced by their exposure to North American popular culture, via movies and songs.Often the accent and vocabulary of a nearby community will influence a language too, through the borrowing of words.”
A quotative is a grammatical device to mark quoted speech – essentially “spoken quotation marks” – while hedge and discourse particles make speech less direct and manage the flow of dialogue.
Degrees of understanding
“The word ‘language’ is broad and fluid, as it has both linguistic and political connotations. In simple terms, a language is a communally owned means of communication, which is passed on from one generation to the other through the process of socialisation,” saysKadenge.
The reason we have differences in languages and dialects is essentially to understand each other in a particular space and time. “One of the criterion that are used to consider varieties such as dialects of the same language, or as distinct languages, is mutual intelligibility. This simply refers to the degree to which speakers of different languages understand each other in the same conversation,” he says.
Kadengeexplains: “Normally, varieties that are mutually intelligible are considered dialects of the same language. For example, the Zimbabwean language – Shona – is made up of four main dialects, namelyKaranga,Zezuru,KorekoreandManyika, whose degree of mutual intelligibility varies. These varieties are considered dialects of the Shona language. However, Scandinavian languages – Danish, Norwegian and Swedish – are mutually intelligible, just like the Shona dialects, but are considered different languages, probably because they are spoken in different countries. Against this background, the question on what makes a language a language is not easy to define.”
EmpoWORDment
Some would argue that language is steeped in our identity, and can separate communities.Barosays variations in language are also clues to particular traits of identity. “So when hearing someone use language, we can guess their gender or sex, race, class, etc.”
Language, being a social aspect of life, has the power to divide as much as it brings people together. In South Africa particularly, it is contentious when public discussions are held in a language that only some can understand. People who cannot speak the language would undoubtedly feel excluded from the group.
“Languages signify identity and belonging. This is primarily because people who speak the same language understand each other, the languages contain words that all the members of a community understand,”Kadengesays.
“In South Africa, due to internal colonialism, some big and politically powerful groups tend to suppress smaller groups. This is evident in language policies and practices. Why is it that the national anthem has English, Afrikaans, Nguni and Sotho languages but does not includeVenda and Tsonga languages? The national anthem is one of the main national symbols; sacrosanct heritage and rallying point of the country. This tells you who is in power and who is not. Language symbolises power, and when you exclude some languages in the linguistic landscape, such as a national anthem, you are disempowering the speakers.”
Culture carrier
But language also allows us to pass our cultural values and sensibilities from one generation to another, saysKadenge. “Hence, we usually say language is a carrier of culture. It is the means through which we share our values and socialise our children.”
Simultaneously, language also allows us access into other cultures. “Many people around the world now have access to the Chinese culture because the Chinese language is spreading around the world through the establishment of Confucius Institutes and the teaching of the language all over the world. This is how English culture has spread around the world. English is now considered a global language. Right now, South Africa is strengthening its links with East Africa by introducing the teaching of Swahili in its education system. It is why Swahili has been taught at the University of Zimbabwe for a while.”
Thinking aloud
While the number of spoken languages is said to be reducing globally, language code is developing in other ways. English is being manipulated, moulded and restructured using psycholinguistics, or psychology of language, which considers the way that it is shared and understood.
Baroadds, “Agency is important, meaning that people purposefully make use of different variations of language in order to perform aspects of identity. Formality versus informality, humour, or wanting to sound serious, for example.”
“Because of our agency to use language as one form of communication, we get to express ourselves using language based on how the language and its different forms or variations are perceived in society. One will use different forms of language if they want to appear friendly or unfriendly, for example. This is why language is considered a system, because each word, sound, accent, variant, indexes a particular meaning,” saysBaro.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Plugging digital leaks
- Tamsin Oxford
Data are gathering in pools and lakes. As we dip our toes into these murky waters, we see a sign that says, ‘Here be dragons…’
The student standing in the corner tapping updates onto her Instagram profile. The tutor sending a quick WhatsApp to his wife, ‘Sorry, I’m going to be late’. The accountant uploading documents to the company intranet. Marketing releasing the monthly newsletters. Each individual adding another byte to the data lakes pooling in virtual space, filled with structured and semi-structured data that teases insight and value but never quite seems to deliver.
Oceans of info
This data is supposedly capable of helping decision makers gain granular insight into their business yet the nature of data is constantly changing in both how it is captured, why it is analysed, and what value it can deliver. It’s an evolution from hastily scribbled notes about the good, the bad and the organisational ugly into digital archives that have swollen with information that has no context or relevance and yet whisper about possibility.
“The problem is that data hasn’t been strategically recorded in such a way as to deliver a specific economic value, or considered in light of ‘If we do X with the data, then we will achieve Y’. Instead we now have tons of data and no clear vision or idea on what to do with it or how to get it to share its most valuable secrets.”
Potential in the pool
Khoza teamed up with 10 other researchers to developScilinxLaboratory andScilinxResearchwith the goal of advancing the operational capabilities of organisations through a hybrid structure that targets the generation and application of value-creating research insights.In short, brilliant minds applying themselves to the data conundrum, working to pull out its potential from the mess that relentless data collection has left behind. The goal is to create intelligent networks that define the next generation of analytics and how data relationships are interpreted across multiple data platforms and sources.
At the peak of the big data hype, people were trotting in with fancy algorithms and mathematical constructs supposedly designed to whisk out insights from within these lakes of data. Yet what they saw, what they found, didn’t make much sense. The problem wasn’t the data but the questions that people were asking. Pipelines built to carry data insights into stressed executive offices literally leaked insights from every conduit but they lackedrelevance. Where was the insight that would help the business make a decision that would positively impact bottom line or customer engagement?
Data conundrum
“Businesses were told that if they built these data centres and gained access to all this computational capacity that they could extract economic value from this data,” says Khoza.
“But when it came time to do this extraction, it couldn’t be done. The off-the-shelf solutions were incapable of dealing with the heterogeneity [differences] of the data. These collections of data across email, social media, and operations, that were different dependent on the organisation, were impossible to unify into single solutions. You cannot interpret the data-powered insights from a supply chain company against one that operates in financial services.”
What happened next? Companies started to invest into the potential abilities of emergent technologies such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) – technologies capable of deep diving into the data and scouring the murky depths for even the tiniest grain of relevant insight. These technologies are essentially the pen needed to connect digital dots. Yet they too slip at one hurdle – context. Is the data generated for the marketing department being interpreted by a data scientist who understands what marketing needs?
Science-link solutions
“Scilinxcombines machine learning and science to find out what is happening,” saysTresiaHoltzhausen, a member of theScilinxResearch team and a lecturer at Nelson Mandela University. “Everything around you is a system and these systems can be represented by networks and managed by ML and AI. We examine where we can improve and optimise data interpretation, using techniques that are not embedded in traditional mathematics but that emphasise the connection to maths and network science, to find out where to make the most improvement and to see what’s happening underneath the waters of big data.”
There is so much information. Vast quantities of data with no context, no point of reference, all gathered relentlessly from the moment that someone said, ‘Gosh, maybe this could be useful one day.’
Through theScilinixResearch work, the team has developed a prototype that can pull data from multiple sources such as twitter, PDF documents, and emails, and build a picture of what is going on.
“We are taking particular datasets and applying a range of ML techniques, some we have developed from scratch, and seeing the results we get, then working out a systematic approach to integrate them,” says Khoza. “We draw a narrative across varied datasets and unlock the relationships hidden within.”
This research combines the information to create analysis that allows the business to make systematic and relevant decisions. It helps the organisation to pull together data from multiple sources and spaces to create a coherent picture. From the broken cash machine (backend alerts) to the outraged consumer (tweets of fury) the data is collated with context and relevance to present an outline of the real business situation.
“Nobody has the right answer – we are all partially right and partially wrong,” concludes Khoza. “If, together, we can erase our biases and create a more accurate representation, then the data have inordinate value. Data allow us to understand why things happen, what people do, and why things have gone wrong. It allows for the business to change and improve, to adapt to what the market wants. As we become increasingly adept at adding context to the data and asking it the right questions, the more we will see how everything is connected.”
The data mess is tidied up not with a plug in a panic, but by dropping a stone into a lake and watching the ripples as they expand outwards and influence markets, businesses, individuals and insights. There, within those myriad mixes of sentiment and data lay the answers the business seeks, not trapped in numbers but revealed in relationships.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Fair trade: Your soul for data?
- Retha Langa
In an increasingly data-driven world, are we just walking data sources for the benefit of giant multinational corporations?
Every single minute, there are 3.8 million search queries on Google; 4.5 million videos watched on YouTube; almost $1 million spent online; 41.6 million messages sent via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger – and these are a fraction of the interactions that currently happen online.
As we go about our daily lives – sharing our personal experiences on social media, asking Siri to set our alarms, and counting how many steps we walk on our wearables – we are essentially becoming walking data points, where our information is collected and analysed to predict behaviour. Where will it end?
Wits Biomedical engineers have already connected a human brain to the internet in real time. ThisBrainternetprojectessentially turned the brain into an Internet of Things node on the World Wide Web.
“Do we really need to have our physical bodies to experience life, or do we only need to have our own brain?” asksCelik. “We will be seeing the systems creating those virtual environments to give humans an experience of nature. You want to go and see theosean, but do you really need to physically go there? Can I stimulate a part of my brain to give me that experience?”
Android rights and the Big Other
Dr Christopher Wareham, Senior Lecturer in theSteve Biko Centre for Bioethicsat Witsargues that we need to think about the implications of such technological developments from the perspective of artificial agents. These “digital beings” will potentially have lives – and rights – of their own.
“Traditionally the focus on this question is very much on the other side of the issue: How are we going to stop them from harming us? There is very little work that looks at it from theother side. How are we going to prevent humans from harming this being, experimenting on it? Should there be laws that protect this type of being?”
The developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) already significantly affect how we live our lives today. American academic ShoshanaZuboffcoined the term ‘surveillance capitalism’ in 2014. Surveillance capitalism depends on “the global architecture of computer mediation… [which] produces a distributed and largely uncontested new expression of power”.Zuboffchristens this the “Big Other”. Currently, the “Big Other” includes Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
Surveillance capitalism
Writing inThe Guardian,Zuboffexplains, “The logic of surveillance capitalism begins with unilaterally claiming the private human experience as free raw material for production and sales. These experiences are translated into behavioural data. Some of this data may be applied to product or service improvements, and the rest is valued for its predictive power. These flows of predictive data are fed into computational products that predict human behaviour.”
Surveillance capitalism is a “real issue”, saysProfessor Brian Armstrong,Chair in Digital Businessat theWits Business School. “In my view, a very big concern is around the whole idea of social scoring.” This refers to the practice of developing a social rating system to establish if a person is a fit and proper member of society, in terms of their “social score”.
In China, private companies are already operating social credit systems, as is local government in pilot projects. The plan is to develop a nationwide system that scores the individual’s behaviour, including giving citizens a score and adding rewards and penalties for specific actions. For example, if you donate to charity, you score points but you lose points for traffic violations.
But one need not look as far as China for Big Brother-style surveillance. In Johannesburg, thousands of surveillance cameras already monitor motorists and pedestrians 24/7. In June, the Financial Mail reported thatVumacam– a subsidiary of internet fibre company,Vumatel– had installed more than 1 200 surveillance cameras to combat crime. By 2020, the number of cameras will increase to over 10 000.
Local security companies can access theVumacamlive feed and, as the artificial intelligence system learns what a typical day in a neighbourhood looks like, it will flag behaviour that is out of the ordinary for that area.Dr Helen Robertson, who lectures Data Privacy and Ethics in theSchool of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, refers to the battle between our right to safety and our right to privacy that such forms of surveillance bring to the fore.
“It strikes me as plausible that we think our claims to safety have increased weight in contrast with our claims to privacy. If the relevant algorithms are going to identify abnormalities in the footage, we need to keep in mind how good these algorithms are or aren’t.”
Safety vs. privacy
Our views on privacy have not only been impacted by safety concerns. The pervasiveness of social media has also played a role. Robertson says that the average person is willing to share a lot more about their private lives today compared to a few decades ago. These evolving views are not necessarily problematic.“It might simply be a matter of one society’s convention in contrast with another society’s convention, and how they tend to feel with regard to how much they are willing to share.”
Celikbelieves that privacy will become personalised, with individuals being able to define how much privacy they want for themselves.
Our autonomy is another area influenced by the online world. Wareham argues that a lot of micro-targeted advertising and political messaging is designed specifically to degrade our autonomy. “If you do a Google search now, you’re not going to get an unbiased sample of information … you’re going to get information that Google has catered for you to get ... these sorts of micro-targeting … want to trigger you through nudges to behave in certain non-rational ways.”
The question then becomes about who decides what you read, listen to, or watch, and who makes the decisions on what content is “appropriate” for a specific digital platform, and what is not.
Towards tech that teaches
Data-driven advancements are, however, not all doom and gloom. “Data in itself is not agnostically good or bad, but it is what we do with it. It can be abused, or it can be used for very positive purposes,” argues Armstrong, adding that education is one area in which South Africa could benefit immensely.
“If we were able to use learning management systems more efficiently to see how students are learning, to see what material they are struggling with … to learn what teaching styles work best, we can individualise the learning experience.”
In China, AI-enabled education has already blossomed with tens of millions of students using some form of AI to learn. This includes tutoring platforms where algorithms curate lessons and adapt the curriculum based on an individual’s understanding of specific concepts, reports MIT Technology Review.
Protecting personal data
Staggering amounts of data are generated daily, but who owns all this data? Robertson points out that there is currently no consensus among ethicists about this thorny issue.
Some argue that the data subject owns the data. Others say that the data processor who uses his/her resources to create and analyse a dataset has ownership rights, while someargue that in certain cases, such as medical research that benefits society, the public’s need for medical treatment and breakthroughs mean that data belong to the public.
These different claims to ownership “add a lot of ethical greyness”, says Robertson. “The ownership of data is particularly difficult. It is an object that can be traded, but at the same time, it has a reference to an individual, something like other artefacts do, such as photographs. The rights certainly seem to pull in different directions.”
In the near future, South Africans will have considerable legal power regarding the protection of their data. The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) aims to protect the right to privacy, while enabling the social and economic benefits that result from the free flow of information. POPIA stipulates conditions under which personal information must be processed lawfully, although there are exceptions.
These conditions include that personal information “must be collected for a specific, explicitly defined and lawful purpose”. Further processing of personal information can only take place if it is in line with the purpose for which it was originally collected. Most sections of the Act have not yet commenced. The announcement of a commencement date is expected before the end of 2019, after which companies will have one year to comply.
VerineEtsebeth, a Senior Lecturer in theWits School of Lawwho specialises in data protection and information security law, says the POPI Act is long overdue. “The sooner it is in practice, the sooner it can come before our courts and we can have precedents set,” saysEtsebeth. “It is going to be survival of the fittest. If your competitor complies and you don’t, you won’t be able to retain your customers. Companies will realise just how much their reputations are worth.”
Digital disempowerment
Despite the excitement over technology’s potential to solve some of our most complex problems, many South Africans are still excluded from these advances. Only 40% of Africa’s population has access to the internet compared to 61% for the rest of the world. In South Africa, internet penetration currently sits at 56%.
“In today’s world, digital disempowerment is one of the most profound forms of disempowerment,” says Armstrong. “Digital disempowerment comes in three levels. The first is do you have access, secondly do you use it, and thirdly are you engaged, transacting and impacted? In South Africa, you don’t have access if the networks don’t cover where you are, or if you can’t afford the mobile device … or if you can’t afford the price of data. In all of those areas we have a challenge.”
Read more in the eighth issue, themed: #Code how our researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Surfing the data tsunami tomorrow
- Shaun Smillie
Humankind is facing an ever-growing data tsunami that could swamp us as a species – or provide us with unheard of opportunities.
We have entered an age where information is being released at increasing rates. Ninety percent of all data generated in the history of humankind were produced in just the last two years. Mining and analysing this data will require new technologies and skill sets, and this is where universities like Wits hope to play a role. With new technologies come the promise of jobs, medical breakthroughs, and scientific discoveries. And it is all so new.
"Data analysis and data science were not fields of study 15 years ago, so some of the jobs to be created by this technology do not exist," explains ProfessorZeblonVilakazi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Postgraduate Affairs at Wits. "So the future of data is about the future of jobs."
There have already been projects where South African scientists have had to tackle big data. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in the Karoo is now generating more data than the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. And the SKA is still in its infancy and promises to spew out even more data in the decades to come. “So there has to be a future where we need to be thinking how we manage this data,” saysVilakazi.
As a species, humans are not neurologically wired to process all this information.AdamPantanowitz, a biomedical engineer in the WitsSchool of Electrical and Information Engineering, says, “Dealing with data in the future is going to be a challenge and an opportunity, and one of the main ways we are going to tackle this is through machine learning and artificial intelligence [AI].”
Both these technologies will enable us to process and make sense of vast amounts of data. Wits has joined several projects across the continent to deal with the data management challenge. In 2019,Wits became the first African partner on the IBM Quantum Computing (IBM Q) Network, which will include 15 African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) partners. This network will enable researchers to use quantum computing and machine learning in fields such as cosmology, molecular biology and HIV drug research.
Wits University is also afounding member of the 4IRSA, which aims to help South Africa respond to the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, through research. By harnessing data and utilising it to its full potential,Pantanowitzbelieves the spin-offs will be immense.
“A huge belief I have is that the most successful cities, nations and continents of the future will be those that will be able to sense their environment and create feedback loops that act rapidly on that environment,” he says. “We would be able to make better decisions from a resourcing and governance perspective.”
The African advantage
Although it may appear that Africa – with its lack of infrastructure and digital divide – is ill prepared for such a future, this might be to the advantage of the continent, believesVilakazi.
Participation has grown remarkably over the last couple of years, but being able to leapfrog existing technology means having something with which to replace it. In the WitsSchool of Physics, scientists are working on something that could one day transport huge packets of data.
“We have trialled it in the laboratory and it all works. Now we have a local company that has ceded their IP [intellectual property] to us and we plan to use this IP as a platform to build a practical device,” says Forbes. “We are hoping in the next few years that we would have taken the lab demonstration through to a device that can then be commercialised.”
With the ever-increasing utilisation of data come issues of ethical use. Already there are allegations of elections being swung through the information gleaned from millions of social media accounts.
“We have been looking at what should be happening with AI in Africa. There are a lot of questions on what kind of expectations people should have, what should be taken into consideration when these systems are built,” he says.
Another issue is that of culture. “It is important to get more involvement from society, and for people who think about societal norms and values and ethics to get involved in these conversations, otherwise they are just kind of implicitly dealt with by whoever designed the system,” he says.
Ultimately, it is going to come down to just how we are going to deal with that data tsunami and if we learn to surf that wave to a brighter future.
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Decoding Wits’ innovations the past 100 years
- Zeblon Vilakazi
EDITORIAL: It is only through understanding yesterday that we can shape today and create tomorrow.
Anyone who knows me will know that I am a physicist with a keen interest in history and the history of technological developments in particular. I am a firm believer that we learn from the past to build our collective futures. As Wits approaches its 100th anniversary, the timing is appropriate to decode some of the University’s innovations that open up endless possibilities in the 21st Century.
Take our advances in moving from binary to quantum computing as an example. In the 1960s, Wits was the first university to host an IBM mainframe computer in Africa (p. 50). Today,Wits is the first African partner on the IBM Q Network, enabling academics across Africa to enter the quantum computing universe. Quantum computing is exponentially faster than classical computing and promises to solve problems – from chemical simulations to reducing the time for drug discovery.
This issue ofCurios.ty, themedCODE, explores how we decipher and create meaning out of systems, letters and symbols. For those caught in the hype of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, CODE is associated with computer coding, big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning – all areas in which Wits leads currently. Read aboutWits’ 4IR effortson pages 6, 8 and 12. And yes, it’s good for your kids to learn to code (p. 16).
This issue also explores CODE-related climate change modelling (p. 30), decoding knowledge and languages (pages 14 and 42), mathematics as a universal code (p. 34), decoding political texts (p. 43), data dominance (p. 46), and representation in the arts (pages 38 and 40). We delve into issues around data privacy, ethics, governance and access in a hyper-connected world (pages 8 and 24). Transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research approaches are evident in many of these stories.
Wits is renowned for its world-firsts such asbouncing the first radar of Northcliff Hill after World War 2began, but today I found the story on how knitting won the war through Morse code particularly intriguing (p. 18). The first medical school in Johannesburg opened its doors in 1919 (three years before Wits was inaugurated) and amongst its eminent alumni isNobel Laureate Sydney Brenner, recognised for his work on genetic codes and molecular biology. At Wits today, scientists build on this legacy through advances in precision medicine (p. 24) and revolutionising the treatment of haemophilia, a genetic blood disorder (p. 26).
Read more in theeighth issue, themed: #Codehowour researchers are exploring not only the Fourth Industrial Revolution manifestations of code, such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti. We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Enabling the future by decoding the past
- Curiosity
The eighth issue of Wits University’s research magazine, Curios.ty is themed: #Code, and is available download or read online.
#Code refers to any systems, letters and symbols that have meaning, are representative and govern behaviour. Today it is also associated with computer coding, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
In this issue Wits researchers explore not only these Fourth Industrial manifestations of code, but also our genetic code, cryptic codes in queer conversation, political speak and knitting, and interpreting meaning through words, animation, theatre, and graffiti.
We delve into data surveillance, the 21st Century ‘Big Brothers’ and privacy, and we take a gander at how to win the Lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics.
Highlights
Are we just walking data sources for the benefit of giant multinationals? [Page 8]
How knitting won a war [Page 18]
Gene editing: Designer babies could spell disaster for future generations [Page 24]
Gayle – A South African language (or code) of secrets [Page 36]
Data domination by Big Tech, such as GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), has ominous implications for economies and privacy globally [Page 46]
How to win the lottery by leveraging the universal code of mathematics [Page 48]
About Curiosity
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
Monitoring the timing of recurring biological events is key to understanding the effects of climate change.
Jacaranda trees were introduced to South Africa from Brazil in the early 1800s, with the first trees planted in Pretoria. Since then, many Jacaranda trees were planted in Johannesburg and fewer across the rest of the country. Some of those Johannesburg Jacarandas are on the Wits campus, the most notable framing the Great Hall.
Urban legend on campus is that if the Jacarandas start blooming and you’ve not yet begun studying for year-end exams, it’s too late to pass! Conversely, if a Jacaranda flower lands on your head, you’ll ace your exam.
Indeed, the purple haze across Gauteng in early summer has been well timed with the November examinations, and provides a beautiful display for those staring out of the window while trying to cram in a year’s worth of work.
Today’s students might find this urban legend puzzling – in 2019, Jacarandas started flowering in mid-September, a full month and a half ahead of the start of the Wits exams, at the beginning of the fourth teaching block. While some students should probably start studying that far in advance, many probably would not be doomed to fail if their notes weren’t in order at this point. Does this mean that previous generations of students needed more time to study? No, it means the Jacarandas are blooming earlier than they used to.
Phenology refers to thetiming of annually recurring biological events. For plants, these include the timing of flowering in spring, fruit development through summer, and leaf colouration and fall in autumn.
In animals, phenology is more diverse and includes the timing of migration, hibernation, egg-laying and hatching. Seasonal changes in the environment trigger these phenological events, which most often relate to the temperature change in the shift from winter to spring.
As the world’s climate warms, temperatures previously experienced during the spring months of September and October are now occurring frequently in the late winter months of July and August. This means that phenological events in plants and animals who are triggered by spring events are now occurring in winter. Similarly, early summer is now being experienced in mid-spring.
We tracked the timing of Jacaranda flowering in Gauteng over the past century using a collection of articles from The Star, Rand Daily Mail,Beeld, and Wits’ own Vuvuzela. Ourstudy confirmsthat the phenological advances seen globally are occurring for our Jacarandas. In the past decade, there has been a 2.6 day per decade advance in flowering from 1919-2019, from an average peak flowering date in mid-November in the 1920s to late-September.
These shifts demonstrate the plants’ adaptation to the warming climate. However, this advance in the timing of flowering cannot occur indefinitely, because it progressively affects the trees’ capacity to take up water, cycle nutrients, and withstand stressors.
As Jacarandas are invasive trees, for which replanting is prohibited, the long-term effects on tree health threaten our purple city in early summers.
Dr Jennifer Fitchettis an Associate Professor in Physical Geography intheSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studiesat Wits. Her research is situated in the discipline of biometeorology, exploring climate change over long- and short-periods, and the impacts on plants, animals and people. Postgraduate students HeritageFaniand Kestrel Raik contributed to theresearch on Jacaranda phenologyduring theirhonoursdegree studies in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Dare to care in an ocean of apathy and expenditure
- Schalk Mouton
COLUMN: Black Friday blues’ impact on my quest to go green, on my green backs, and the implications for Earth.
It is Black Friday. Getting to work today is easy. There’s no traffic. On 702, the traffic reporter makes a joke about traffic being 70 percent discounted. Funny man.
The newsreader talks about queues of shoppers trampling each other just to get ahead in the queue. I can see the pictures in my mind. It is all too familiar. Too fresh.
A bruising Black Friday
It all started out as excitement at the local Game store the night before. There was such a vibe before the doors opened at midnight. People telling each other what they were going for, the research they had done, their budgets all worked out. I made at least three recce trips to the store in the past two weeks, so that I could find the fastest, shortest route to my favourite bargains.
How I was going to pay for my spoils was of no concern. My budget already blown on two new cell phone contracts and a beach umbrella that I just couldn’t resist. My current contract ends in only four months’ time, but the deal the telesales person offered just sounded so good. And, after all, what are credit cards for?
3 … 2 … 1 … STORM
The going is slow. Like the start of the Comrades. Just more physical. Push. Shove. Duck from a swinging golden handbag. I feel a kid crawling in between my feet. He’s the only person, really moving … brilliant!
I get on my hands and knees and follow him. Going is quicker. Much quicker. Almost at the front of the brawling mob now. I hear people screaming. Shouting. Swearing. Someone faints right behind me. Luckily, I had already passed through, else she would have blocked my way.
But then … a big, juicy, white calf is planted between me and my path to eternal consumer happiness. A tattoo of the familiar Apple Inc. logo stretches across it … looking like a slightly overripeavo.
The sight is not too appetising. Yet, it is the only way I can think of to make it through. I close my eyes, and plant my teeth firmly into theavo… A scream! The calf moves. I dodge the handbag then slip through …
In the store now. Fresh, cool, airconditioned air washes over me. Total bliss.
I realise immediately that I can’t waste any time. I am not alone. People are already flooding into the store. I run. Past the fruit and veggie counter, through the stationery section. Into the camping section … the Weber braais are 50 percent off. I hesitate for a moment, but I can’t lose focus. I run on.
As I stumble into the entertainment section. Breath wheezing. Heart beating. I stop in horror at the sight confronting me. A man putting up a SOLD OUT! sign on thePlaystation4 display, while a bratty little boy – the very same little critter who led me through the gauntlet at the door – walks away with the lastPlaystationunder his arms. He turns around and flashes a fiendish grin my way.
Keeping up with the Kardashians, theKrugers, theKakazas
Black Friday creepily snuck its way into South Africa’s consumer market. A couple of years ago there was no such thing. People happily bought whatever they needed at whatever price they could find. Now, this American consumer ploy seems to have grown bigger than Christmas itself. It is as if everybody lost their faith in Santa Claus…
And, South Africans are not the only ones being led by the nose. In Paris, Amazon is estimated to have made 2.5 million deliveries on Black Friday. This is 10 times more than usual, leading some “greenies” to blockade the road leading out of the company’s warehouse in Paris, in protest against the over production and consumerist culture that is being created … not even to mention all the greenhouse gas emissions from the deliveries.
We have been successfully brainwashed into thinking that the more we have, the happier we will be. Everything needs to be bigger, better, smarter and newer. We are trapped in a consumerist lifecycle, and, while it is not all our fault, we are happy to play along.
Every two years ourcellphonecontracts run out and need to be “upgraded”. Six months before the end of your contract, you start to get bombarded about new “deals” for your upgrade. Some companies offer car allowances that in effect force employees to buy a new car every four years. Unlike in the old days where products were built to last forever, they are now built to spontaneously implode in a set amount of time.
Consumer brands spend millions on market and psychological research, aimed at trapping us into believing we cannot possibly live without their product – while a couple of years ago, that product didn’t even exist.
Down to Earth with Millennials
In 2018, while doing my MSc inGlobal Change, I calculated my environmental footprint. I found out that If everybody on Earth were living the same lifestyle as I do, we would need 2.2 planet Earths to sustain ourselves.
This is shocking. My wife and I are very environmentally conscious. We don’t buy stuff we don’t need. Both of us have bought our cars over 10 years ago. We re-use water where we can and use resources like electricity sparingly. We even chose not to have children because of the impact each human has on our planet. Yet, my lifestyle is outstripping the very resources we have to live on. And it is not even about us. It is about the generations of people that come after us.
In my research, I intervieweda number ofstudents on how they think climate change would affect them. All were very worried about their future, and how climate change might impact their lives, but none of them knew how to deal with it, or how to change their lifestyles to cope with it. One student – a 24-year-old girl, broke my heart by saying that she would love to have children, but, at her early age, had decided not to, because of the world we are leaving for them.
Two other students taught me that our consumer and lifestyle choices are not entirely our own. Even if we did care about our environment, our infrastructure, society and circumstances influence our actions. The students growing up in rural areas said that due to the lack of municipal services, their waste disposal happens wherever possible – mostly by dumping it in a river or burning it.
Their circumstances make my little environmentalist pet peeve seem petty: For over 30 years, my coffee filters came packed individually loose in a box. Only in the last year – when everything and everyone else is trying to get rid of single use plastics – has the company started to wrap these filters in a flimsy wrapping plastic. Why?
Gathering my breath outside the GAME store. My main mission unsuccessful, I take stock of my loot: a new rolling, perching ergonomic chair; a bananaslicer; two packets of baby nappies (I don’t have children) and a new tennis racquet at 15% off – even though the closest that I ever come to a tennis court is to watching Wimbledon on the TV set that I looted last year at 20% off.
This can’t go on. Whether you believe in climate change or not – and youdefinitely should– our way of life is unsustainable and should be changed. We need to start to care and make new consumer choices. Only the choice you make when choosing to take out your wallet (or not to take it out), will change things.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Rise of the African Eco-Warriors
- Mithika Mwenda and Patrick Bond
COLUMN: While there is paralysis from above, exciting new forms of movement-building from below in Africa are saying ‘No to climate genocide!’
In the wake of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in November 2019, Wits School of Governance academics share their perspective on the rise of African climate justice as world elites fail.
Among the several million protesters at the global Climate Strike on 20 September were thousands of Africans. Amongst the two dozen African cities hosting protests, young activists marched in Nairobi, Kampala, Dakar, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Yet their protest is not new – recall a point 10 years ago, when vocal Africans made the case that the global North was preparing Africa for a climate “holocaust”: Copenhagen’s 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
African climate holocaust
Sudanese diplomat and a leading African negotiator, Lumumba Di-Aping, used the word ‘holocaust’ in December 2009, after the leaders of the United States, Brazil, South Africa, India and China conspired to sabotage existing United Nations processes in a small side-room. The Copenhagen Accord was adopted outside the parameters of the main negotiations. Hence, this “league of super-polluters blew up the United Nations,” according to Bill McKibben, American environmental journalist and leader of the climate campaign group 350.org.
However, it was also at this summit that a spontaneous protest had erupted from the floor 10 days earlier. Impatient with negotiations, thePan African Climate Justice Alliance (Pacja)temporarily disrupted the formal event and addressed a rally at a makeshift podium at Copenhagen’s Bella Centre.
Chanting “Two degrees is suicide! One Africa, one degree!” and proclaiming “No to climate colonialism! No to climate genocide!”, thePacjaactivists demanded much greater emissions cuts from the gathered leaders. Supporting the activists, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu wrote to the UNFCCC leadership: “We are facing impending disaster on a monstrous scale … A global goal of about two degrees Celsius is to condemn Africa to incineration and no modern development.”
In 2011, the UNFCCC summit was held in Africa, but even worse power relations prevailed, as the host South Africa played into the hands of the US State Department. At the summit in Durban,Pacjabrought three busloads of activists from as far away as Uganda to participate in a major climate justice protest demonstration outside.
Last tango in Paris
In 2015, the major emitters – the US, Europe, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan – agreed in Paris on new ways to undermine global climate governance. For example, not only was the voluntary character of the Copenhagen Accord reaffirmed, there was no accountability mechanism nor attempt topunish those countries which backslid. When in June 2017, shortly after ascending to the US Presidency, Donald Trump announced he would withdraw the largest historic emitter from the deal, there was no punishment, notwithstanding calls across the spectrum – from Canadian author Naomi Klein, American economist Joseph Stiglitz, and former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy – for anti US sanctions.
Together with its fundamentally voluntary character, another fatal flaw in the Paris Agreement is that costs of ‘loss and damage’ from climate change are being disproportionately borne by Africans and others who did the least to cause the problems.
Thanks to a Paris provision, Africans have no recourse toclaim‘climate debt’ and polluter liability in lawsuits.
And there are still no compensation provisions, since the dysfunctional Green Climate Fund did not achieve even five percent of its $100 billion per year objective by 2020, as former US President Obama had promised when selling the Copenhagen Accord to those who were sceptical. And no progress was made to enhance African acquisition of climate-friendly technologies that have long been protected by Intellectual Property.
Groundswell of African climate activism
But while there is paralysis from above, exciting new forms of movement-building from below can be found in Africa. Even the fragmented South African sites of struggle provide a degree of optimism for future unification once they impose substantial pressure on the carbon-addicted government of CyrilRamaphosa, himself a former coal tycoon.
This mirrors climate justice activism internationally, where the most spectacular new post-Paris movements barely register the UNFCCC as a relevant force. Instead, these activists are committed to direct actions that block high-C02 activities and corporate polluters, for example, Extinction Rebellion and the indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock in South Dakota.
Simultaneously, the younger generation is already explaining to its elders why UNdeal-makersand other high-carbon elites should stand aside. Addressing the UN Climate Summit in September, Swedish youth activist, Greta Thunberg, 16, was furious: “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Mithika Mwenda directs Pacjaand is a PhD candidate in theWits School of Governance, wherePatrick Bondis Distinguished Professor of Political Economy. This is an edited excerpt from the authors’ contribution to a book,Climate Change Resistance and Renewal(London, Routledge, 2020).
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Rock steady, grassy green
- Ruth Krüger
COLUMN: Reflections on former Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron’s critical jurisprudence and the environment.
On 20 August 2019, Justice Edwin Cameron delivered his last judgment as a judge of the Constitutional Court, and law students everywhere groaned – not in response to the judgement (in which he lambasted government for its failure to assist labour tenants on farms, and made an unprecedented and creative order), but because there will be no more Justice-Cameron-judgments and his fan club is not sure what to do with their time. There has been talk of knitting. Or white-water-rafting. Anything to fill the void.
Landscape of environmental law
I’m making light of it, but the fact is that Justice Cameron has quite a following amongst Wits law students. It’s not surprising. He’s just as well known for his forthright, wide-reaching legal decisions as his unshakable personal strength. As a proudly, openly gay man living with HIV, Justice Cameron has rallied countless South Africans.
And at thesymposiumhosted by theWits School of Lawin his honour on 4 September 2019, we also learnt of his kindness and thoughtfulness – he memorised the name of practically every participant in the space of a day.
Arguably less well known about Justice Cameron is the importance of his judgments for environmental law – a field in its infancy in this country and globally. South Africa’s Constitutional Court has had scant opportunity to engage with environmental issues, but there are principles in Justice Cameron’s judgments that set up a rock-steady foundation for environmental law. It is just one of the ways in which Justice Cameron has established a valuable legacy.
Empowering local government for sustainability
The first important principle Justice Cameron gave us for environmental law relates to the powers of different spheres of government in planning decisions. In the Habitat Council case, Justice Cameron ruled that municipalities have independent planning competencies, which are not subject to review by the province. This reminds us that some decisions need to be made at the local level, and that this is also a sustainability issue.
Mismatches of scale have very real results in environmental governance. This has been seen for example in the Sahel desert – thought for years to be growing when in fact it was just moving but being studied at too small a scale. Thus, the powers given to levels of government at different spatial scales may have significant environmental consequences. It is important that local government powers remain real powers.
Giving voice to the undermined
The next principle comes from the Liquor Bill case, where part of a Liquor Bill was declared unconstitutional as the provinces had not been consulted sufficiently. Justice Cameron was making a powerful statement about the principle of stakeholder involvement, which is crucial in environmental rights.
For example, Mpumalanga province, pockmarked with mines and coal-fired power-stations, has the highest rate of nitrogen dioxide pollution in the world. An NGO called Centre for Environmental Rights does excellent work with communities there, who are commonly poor, wracked by respiratory disease, and have verylittlesayin decisions that affect them and their environment. For such people, better systems of stakeholder involvement could literally belife-changing.
Animal rights
In both decisions, Justice Cameron built on existing constitutional principles. However, at other times, Justice Cameron has not been afraid to reach outside of the existing legal framework to promote constitutional values. NSPCA v Openshaw is a case in point. Here, the NSPCA [National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] had applied for an interdict to prevent Openshaw from engaging in acts of animal cruelty. Most of the court found that the requirements for an interdict had not been satisfied – but Justice Cameron chimed in. He pointed out that “though animals are capable of experiencing immense suffering, and though humans are capable of inflicting immense cruelty on them, the animals have no voice of their own. Like slaves under Roman law, they are the objects of the law without being its subjects”.
Justice Cameron would have granted the interdict, as Openshaw had contravened the statute, and had not given any assurance that he would not do so again. Justice Cameron’s comments make an important contribution to thinking about animals and the law. He pointed clearly to our responsibility as humans, as well as the strange fact that animals, despite being sentient, have no power within the law.
Greener grass on the legal side
In the judgments, Justice Cameron never failed to show us that law is a tool to achieve just ends – nothing more. Where there is a problem in the law, he never hesitated to say so. His legal decisions have established the rock-steady foundation we law students will need in future. But these principles should notbe seen asproducts of the past – they are alive and will guide us even through new and developing areas of the law, such as environmental law. They are grassy green.
Ruth Krüger is a sustainability scientist currently studyinglaw at Wits. She holds a Master’s in sustainability science from Lund University, Sweden and an undergraduate degree in environmental science and legal theory from Rhodes University. She has worked at the Centre for Environmental Rights.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Climate engineering: saving the world or smoke and mirrors?
- Schalk Mouton
Q&A with Professor Bob Scholes on a major project that is about to begin at Wits to look at potential and problems with four climate engineering ideas.
Climate engineering may offer a last-ditch technological solution to catastrophic climate change, but who makes the decisions on which solutions to implement, and who the beneficiaries will be? Once we start fiddling with the Earth’s fundamental processes, where will it end? Schalk Mouton asks Professor Bob Scholes.
What exactly is climate engineering?
Climate engineering, formerly known as geoengineering, are big-scale technological solutions to fight climate change if we fail in doing the obvious thing, which is to urgently and radically reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases. It includes ambitious and largely untested technologies that could keep the world liveable, if not exactly ideal.
Can you give examples of some of the ideas being researched? Are any viable?
One example of climate engineering is Carbon Capture and Storage, which involves taking CO2 streams from industry, compressing them, and injecting them deep underground into places where they can’t escape back to the atmosphere. This approach is technically possible and proven at moderate scale, but it is very expensive. Another example is the fertilisation of the oceans with iron, to promote phytoplankton growth. Phytoplankton absorb CO2, die and sink to the ocean floor, thereby burying the carbon deep in the ocean.This has been tested at small scale, but it does not work very well and has lots of unintended consequences. There are about 10 other serious contenders, such as the plan to inject shiny sulphur particles into the stratosphere to reflect some solar radiation.
Why is climate engineering controversial?
For climate engineering to work, ithas totake place at massive scale, and is therefore sure to have lots of side effects which we don’t yet understand. Secondly, it may seemtomany to be a ‘get out of jail free’ card, which distracts us from doing what we know we have to do, but lack the political will. Thirdly, there is the question of who makes the decisions on what global measures to take, and who the main beneficiaries will be, since the outcomes are patchy.
What are the pros and cons of climate engineering?
Pro: It could save the lives of future generations.
Con: It could fail, in which case it would have stopped us from doing the things we should have done earlier, such as decreasing our greenhouse gas emissions. There are a lot more cons too, such as unintended consequences, impermanence, and inequities in governance or decision-making.
If we are in a climate crisis, should we not try anything to remove the threat, and would engineering solutions be a reliable, sustainable option?
We need to explore these solutions well before we are in crisis mode. We know what our options are. Some climate engineering ideas are quite benign and may be good things to do anyway.
Are there any climate engineering projects going on in South Africa? Why or why not?
Yes, there is work on Carbon Capture and Storage going on at the South African National Energy Development Institute. TheGlobal Change Instituteat Wits is about to begin a majorproject looking at the potential and problems with four climate engineering ideas, which could find application in South Africa.
Any further thoughts on climate engineering?
There are two main sorts, carbon removal technologies and solar radiation mitigation. The former is much more benign, but the latter may offer some apparently cheap and quick but temporary fixes, which a wealthy country or individual might be tempted to undertake unilaterally, without properly examining the consequences.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Living yoga for the mind
- Reshma Lakha-Singh
Plants in the office are not there just to look pretty. They can lead to increased productivity, as well as improved mental health for workers.
We all know that taking a walk in the garden or going for a run in the park after work can do miracles for getting rid of the stress of a hard day in the office.
Greenery and plants have been recognised to haveacalmingimpact on us. For example, Apple Inc.’s four storey circular building in Cupertino, California, nicknamed the “spaceship” is filled with drought-resistant trees and indigenous plants. Microsoft employees at theRedmontCampus in Seattle make use of treehouse boardrooms and Amazon has a look-alike rainforest office space that houses 40 000 plants in downtown Seattle.
By recreating “natural” spaces, these multinational corporations hope to encourage and enable creativity, mindfulness and innovation amongst their employees through a link to nature.
Headspace
“There are obviously many physical benefits to having plants in theworkspace,but the reality is that in order to truly feel the real C02 and 02 transference, you have to have a jungle in your office,” saysProfessor Andrew Thatcher, Chair of Industrial and Organisational Psychology and aspecialist in green ergonomicsat Wits.
“However, the psychological benefits based on Attention Restoration Theory (ART) hypothesised by University of Michigan Professors Rachel Kaplan and Steven Kaplan, indicate that nature is not only pleasing to the eye but can also help concentration and renew mental energy. It provides an escape from our normal indoor sterile environments.”
Interested in the study of the reciprocal relationship benefits between human and nature, Thatcher investigated the psychological benefits of plants in the office after seeing a similar study conducted in the northern hemisphere, in countries with severe winter conditions.
“We wanted to replicate the study in a country with warmer temperatures that enable plants to survive all seasons,” says Thatcher.
He placed groups of participants in three rooms. The first room had plants, room two had pictures of plants, and the third room was bare. All participants were given tasks to complete. The results indicated thatperformance was best in the room with plants, thereafter the room with pictures of plants and the worst result was the sterile environment.
“Another case study done internationally placed office workers into three groups. One group did yoga in a closed room, another walked the city, whilst the third walked around in a park. The park had the best restoration effect and the yoga studio had the worst. The point was not doing yoga, but getting out into nature,” says Thatcher.
He adds that in our constructed environments our attentional capacity becomes shortened the longer we spend in those environments.
“The type of work we do is highly cognitive and very stressful. Our escapes are talking to others but very often we talk about work. We don’t get an opportunity to recoup our attentional resources, therefore you need a way of topping up those attentional resources. Plants enable us to do this,” says Thatcher.
“Many of us spend so much time interacting with technology, cooped up in closed offices. Our jobs require us to solve problems, multi-task and pay attention to detail. Our daily lives are filled with ambient noises such as alarms, ringing phones, television and sirens – the list goes on. So, plant up your office space, it may just be the yoga that your mind needs.”
ReshmaLakha-Singh is Public Relations and Events Manager atWits University.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
An evolving understanding of extinction
- Christine Steininger and Bruce Rubidge
Palaeoscientists are uniquely placed to interrogate the Earth’s geological records, the origin and development of life, biodiversity change, and extinctions.
Few things related to science capture the imagination more than the magic of worlds past. This includes the origins of life, dinosaurs, mass extinctions, meteorite impacts, and the evolution of our species. Understanding the evolution of life is central to the way we view ourselves and others and developing this field is thus critical.
Furthermore, South Africa’s rich palaeontological,palaeo-anthropological and archaeological record provides a unique competitive advantage to local heritage-related scientists.
Palaeosciencesis the only discipline dedicated to understanding the origin and development of past life and its interactions with changingenvironments.It is the responsibility of these scientists to ensure understanding of the depth of our dependence on Earth as a life support system.Additionally,paleosciencesresearch can provide knowledge of how to manage human interactions with the planet responsibly.
As our knowledge of the Earth expands, we begin to realise far more synergy and mutualistic relationships with the biological world – built up over millions of years – in many of the fundamental processes to secure biodiversity, soils, water, minerals, energy, and other resources.
South Africa rocks
South Africa is poised to become a global leader in an area of geographic advantage.
Because of the country’s immense diversity, antiquity, and continuity of geological, palaeontological, and archaeological records, and its rich genetic heritage,South Africa is unique in the world.
The country boasts some of the most significant mineral deposits on Earth and preserves, amongst others, the oldest evidence of life on Earth from over3 500-million years; the most distant ancestors of dinosaurs from 200-million years ago; and a remarkable record of human origins and achievements over four-million years.
Erasing Earth
The study of past biodiversity has recognised that five global extinction events have occurred in the last 500-million years, where between 65% and 95% of species went extinct over a relatively short period. South Africa has a record of four of these five extinction events. Many scientists consider that the Earth has now entered a new epoch – the Anthropocene. Like other transitions between geological eras, the marker for this transition is a mass extinction event, although this one – uniquely – is human-induced. And avoidable.
The current rate of species extinction is estimated to be 10 to 1 000 times higher than the natural, background rate. This is likely to increase as habitat destruction, global change, and other human-induced stresses on the natural environment accelerate.
South Africa is the only country in the world with the necessary fossil resources to undertake a research initiative over such an extensive period. Ourfossil archivesprovide case studies throughout Earth’s history to understand how climactic and environmental change affect biodiversity.
Decoding the mechanisms that lead to population extirpation [localised extinction] and ultimately species extinction under climate change is critical for scenario-planning,interpreting, and possibly predicting its impact on biodiversity and to inform policy to conserve South African biodiversity in future.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
The beauty of a good green deed
- Refilwe Mabula
PROFILE: An early fascination with the environment sparked an interest in its protection for Miss Earth South Africa 2019.
Wits alumna LungoKatete is determined to do good for the environment and her passion for environmental conservation earned her the Miss Earth South Africa 2019 crown in September 2019.
When it comes to the environment, she finds it “interesting how everything no matter how big or small serves a function”.
Katete entered the Miss Earth South Africa pageant “to inspire future generations and make a difference in the state of our environment.” The 22-year-old Wits architecture graduate says the unappealing state of our environment irks her.
“We often look at waste surrounding us and do absolutely nothing. It is almost as though the waste we see everywhere has become our everyday norm. Even though wesee what is happening, we are not doing enough to deal with the problems regarding our environment,” she says.
Anti-plastic Earthadvocate
“Love the Earth as you would love yourself. Earth is our home, the only one we’ve got.Soit is important that we give back what we take and nurture our home instead of destroying it,” reads a tweet fromKateteposted on 10 November 2019.
Her love for doing good green deeds is evident on her social media profile. “All you need to do is one good green deed a day and you’re one step closer to achieving the impossible,” saysKatete, who believes that taking care of the environment should be a collective responsibility.
“All it takes is foreach and everyone of us to pick up a single piece of paper and not rely on someone else to do it for us. This is our waste, we need to start taking responsibility and being held accountable for our actions,” she says.
As Miss Earth SA, one ofKatete’sduties is to raise awareness around preserving and protecting the environment and the planet, and she is an ambassador for environmental protection campaigns. Her greatest concern is plastic, which takes thousands of years to decompose and thus threaten the environment.
“I would like to see people using less plastic because plastic has a very negative impact on the environment. We use straws and plastic bags once and after that, they are thrown away never to be used again. Plastic that is not recycled ends up in a landfill and is then blown away by the wind and ends up in our lakes, rivers and oceans. These small pieces of plastic end up being consumed by birds, fish and many other species, resulting in their death,” she says.
#WasteStopsWithMe
Kateteis an ambassador for the Good Green Deeds Programme through which she educates learners about being environmentally conscious and the power of a good green deed daily.
The Good Green Deeds Programme is an initiative of the Department of Environmental Affairs. The programme aims to influence the behaviour of South Africans to avoid dumping and littering and promotes knowledge of proper waste management.
The#WasteStopsWithMecampaignin whichKatetewas involved calls on citizens to actively take a stand against damaging the planet and to take responsibility for the environment they inhabit.
“My aim is to help people understand that this is our planet and we are responsible for taking care of it as much as it takes care of us. We are damaging our planet and the only way we can move forward and make a change is if waste stops with me,” saysKatete.
Constructing a career in architecture
Architecture as a science and art is omnipresent and youngKatetewas intrigued by the design of the beautiful buildings she saw on television. Her love for architecture evolved and she aspired to work in the field.
“My love for architecture began in 2010, when I saw the Park Towers building on one of the engineering shows my father used to watch, where they discussed and showed the process of designing and constructing a building,” saysKatete, who grew up inMidrand.
The Park Towers are beautifully engineered skyscrapers in Dubai designed by globally renowned firm, Gensler Architects.Katete’svisualisionof the Park Towers as a giant 3D puzzle ignited a flame: “I discovered my ability to create in my mind art that one can live in.”
Nine years after experiencing that inspirational design, the beauty queen completed her degree inArchitectural Studies at Witsand is now an architectural technologist atKamoArchitects in Gauteng. She is responsible for drawing, detailing and occasion designing.
Being able to bring her design ideas to life through construction is what attracted her to the field, and she is enthusiastic about her work, which inspires creativity and innovation.
“It amazes me how as individuals we are able to create things that manifest as a thought and that through construction come to fruition,” she says. “I love immersing myself in things that are an expression of me and my thoughts, which is where architecture comes into play. And I want to inspire.”
Impossible is a dare
Katetebelieves that self-care is essential in caring for others. “To save our planet we need to take care of our spaces and our home, then we will know the value of taking care of our environment, because it is an extension of our home,” she says.
More importantly, she wants to combine her advocacy, passion and creativity to make a meaningful social impact in South Africa.
“I hope to change the minds of our generation and help them see the bigger picture. I always like tosay‘impossible is not a declaration, it is a dare!’ We think it’s impossible to salvage what is left of this planet, but the change starts with every little decision we make in our daily lives.”
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
The changing nature of accounting
- Jorisna Bonthuys
The days are gone where companies must only report on their financial bottom line. Now they should report on their impact on the environment too.
In a rapidly changing world, companies no longer have the luxury to rely on business as usual, where it comes to accounting and integrated reporting.
As almost every company on Earth has some form of impact on the environment, it is crucial to include the effects that a company has on its social, ecological and economic environment into their integrated reports, which – if done correctly and comprehensively – can even provide a firm with a competitive advantage.
“It can no longer be business as usual,” saysProfessor WarrenMarounfrom the WitsSchool of Accountancy. “Companies have a moral obligation to consider their contribution to the planet’s ecological demise and hold the key to unlock much-needed change in society.”
Marounis collaborating withProfessor Jill Atkins, Chair in Financial Management at the Sheffield University Management School in the United Kingdom and a visiting Professor at Wits to create a new accounting framework, called“extinction accounting”that aims to incorporate the effects that business decisions have on issues such as biodiversity.
Extinction accounting
“Extinction accountingaims to improve decision-makers’ and shareholders’ understanding of the impact of their business operations on natural capital. It also considers the effect of species loss on companies’ operations and prospects,” saysMaroun.
This new framework could help protect companies against risks and ultimately empower them to become responsible agents of change for the good of the planet.
Extinction reporting is a framework of accounting and governance that aims to implement species protection throughout financial markets, through reporting on these issues in the company’s integrated report. Ideally, it is designed to deal with the corporate threat posed by the mass extinction of species.
The framework draws on accountancy’s change-potential and, rather than attempting to find a substitute for current accounting and accountability technologies, it adds additional layers to corporate reports, making them practical tools to ensure sustainable business development that will mitigate the impact of business on nature.
“Traditionally, accounting was like preparing a tomato soup using a well-known recipe. Now, we are adding some extra textures and flavours into the mix. You could say we are making a minestrone soup, although it still has tomatoes as its main ingredient,” saysMaroun.
The system “translates” scientific reports on species loss and its impact on the natural world into a form that accountants can easily digest. At the same time, the approach also recognises philosophical concerns about the impact of businesses and capitalist mechanisms on ecological matters.
“Given the current rate of ecological change, this framework could help future-proof companies and reduce their operational risks,” says Atkins.
Marounand Atkins who both have their foundations in accounting, have, for instance, been considering how the accounting system can be expanded to deal with the business risks posed by climate change, habitat destruction and species extinction.
Not just Rands and cents
By weaving scientific evidence and theory into organisational disclosure and reporting, they demonstrate links between species extinction, business behaviour, accounting and accountability.
Anextinction accountcan take different forms, depending on the species or ecosystems at risk and the nature of the organisation’s dependence on the respective natural capitals.
Examples of the types of information which may be included in the report include: the cost of environmental remediation; the financial impact of species loss; a review of the reputational consequences of being associated with or contributing to the loss of species and a broader account of the social and cultural ramifications of extinction.
The reporting entity would need to define its responsibilities and levels of accountability and give an assessment of the relevant economic, environmental and social risks. Strategies for mitigating these risks, the capitals required to execute its plans and the consequences of failure (in both economic and biological terms) would also need to be clearly explained.
Averting an ecological crisis
“The world is facing an ecological crisis and this information needs to be translated for companies’ decision-makers,” saysMaroun. “The impending extinction of species on Earth requires a stretch of the imagination when it comes to accounting. We need more business intelligence to respond to this threat, and extinction accounting can help pave the way.”
One onlyhas totake the example of the possible extinction of the humble honeybee, in order to see the possible impact of the extinction of a species on a company’s bottom line.
Many pension and investment funds, for instance, have shares in retail companies that buy and sell certain crops like plums. And without honeybees to pollinate these crops, companieshave todevise ways in which to replicate the honeybees’ pollination service. In countries like China, humans already pollinate crops by hand – at huge cost.
“The loss of the honeybee could cost the economy billions,” saysMaroun. “This tiny insect is having a massive impact on our economy and the way our agricultural and retail sectors work.”
Marounbelieves the new extinction accounting framework will enable companies to play a more responsible role in their communities in future.
“Using an extinction accounting framework could help determine the true cost of business operations,” he says. “It makes good business sense to do it.”
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Changing the leopard’s spots
- Beth Amato
Chinese people and wildlife poaching: The Africa-China Reporting Project warns of “the danger of a single story”.
Since wildlife poaching in Africa became a critical conservation issue, Chinese people have been portrayed as ruthless in the apparent pursuit of wildlife body parts.The Africa-China Reporting Project in Wits Journalismenable journalists to cut through the rhetoric, stereotypes and generalisations.
Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke about the “danger of a single story” in a widely shared TED talk. Indeed, the narrative of a rapacious Asian Tiger persists in portrayals of Chinese people as ruthless poachers.
The Africa-China Reporting Project (ACRP) explains that it’s erroneous to peg Chinese people as the villains in what turns out to be a complex set of circumstances and responses.
The Project is a mechanism for breaking down dominant narratives about China generally, and in wildlife conservation specifically.
“Reporting on China and its burgeoning social, political and economic relationships in Africa was often black or white – China was either seen as a predator of Africa’s resources, or a benevolent contributor in a place to bolster failing infrastructure and economies,” says Project Coordinator,Barry vanWyk.
TheACRP’s missionis to enable journalists to “cut through the rhetoric, stereotypes and generalisations” and find a way to access thereal stories defining China-Africa relations“on the ground.” Understanding these dynamics and reporting them holistically will do more to advance a wildlife conservation and anti-poaching agenda constructively.
Wildlife crime reporting
The Project enables journalists from Africa and China to craft rich stories on environmental sustainability, community development and the dynamics of Africa-China relations in the context of wildlife crimes.
“We want to probe what the untold stories are. What are the on-the-ground perspectives and daily realities? What are the impacts on communities that live close to national parks?” says VanWyk.
A story in 2017, for example, featured a description by an African journalist of how pangolins are poached in rural areas in Cameroon and transported to the cities, and an exposé by Chinese journalists of an elaborate criminal pangolin smuggling network that passes through Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Mainland China – but the story also depicted the many volunteers in Mainland China and Hong Kong fighting the scourge of pangolin smuggling.
Journalists at the Wildlife Poaching and Trafficking Journalism Training Workshop, a collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Hoedspruit on the border of the Kruger National Park, from 9 to 12 July 2019 found that the poaching discussion had been racialised, and tended to portray the image of Asia rising in Africa, or East Asians encircling Africa’s wildlife. The blame for illegal wildlife trade was usually assigned to several scapegoats such as China and Vietnam, corrupt officials, and incompetent governments.
Furthermore, illegal wildlife trade lacked in-depth reporting, said ChristelAntonites, Queensland University of Technology, who analysed how the media covered illegal wildlife trade.
“Most stories focus on events at the expense of context and the factors behind the phenomenon. Communities living around national parks, for example,have tocontend withcomplex socio-economic realities that are a result of colonialism, apartheid, and civil war. However, in media reporting on illegal wildlife trade, these are usually just add-ons.”
Wolves in sheep’s clothing
In 2015, Chinese journalist Shi Yi spent three months investigating wildlife crimes in Namibia. Shi Yi focused her narrative journalism onBooysen, a wildlife poaching middleman:
Booysen comes from a village close to Katima Mulino and lives with his mother…After showing me the lion skin, Booysen said [if] I wanted to buy ivory, I’d have to wait for a couple of days since he needed to get the tusks from friends… According to the United Nations Development Programme, 31% of the 2.3-million people living in Namibia live on less than US$1.25 a day, and most of the poor live in the north. A policeman combating wildlife crime told me there are poachers and middlemen on the supply chain. The middlemen, often found to be locals or from neighbouring countries, hire poachers or simply buy the goods from them, and then sell it to Asian buyers. Booysen might be a middleman in the illegal trade. When I asked about his suppliers, he answered: “My friends get that stuff for me. You can count on me.” I agreed to wait two days for the ivory…. The police were tipped off and were waiting at the agreed venue when Booysen and his friends arrived at the agreed meeting time. Before he was arrested, Booysen was in a party mood as I shook hands with him and his friends in greeting … On October 5, two days after the arrest, Boysen and his two companions were charged with illegal possession of wildlife products.
Shi Yi, an ACRP-funded journalist, won Journalist of the Year at the 2016 China Environmental Press Awards.
Grapevine journalism
In 2013, the Africa-China Reporting Project and environmental investigative journalism unit,Oxpeckers, supported two Chinese journalists who were reporting in Nelspruit on the border of the Kruger National Park.
Chinese journalist HuangHongxianginvestigated the role that Chinese nationals play in the thriving rhino horn trade in Johannesburg. His articleelicited a heated response from the Chinese Embassy, who then invited him to meet and discuss ways of addressing the illegal smuggling.
The success of Huang’s work led to the establishment of China House in Kenya – an NGO supporting Chinese communities in Africa to undertake wildlife conservation activities.
China House, Mara Conservation Fund, Stop Ivory, Humane Society International, and the Africa-China Reporting Project then hosted the Africa-China Wildlife Cooperation Forum held at Wits University in 2015, that also involved the South African Chinese community.
“This shows how powerful storytelling leads to partnerships and meaningful action,” says VanWyk.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
How grass dances with fire
- Beth Amato
Grasslands have unique strategies that have ensured the enduring survival of southern Africa’s veld.
There’s a long-held myth that Johannesburg is the globe’s largest urban forest, resplendent with an annual purple Jacaranda show. But before the planting of these (alien) trees for timber during the Gold Rush in the 19th Century, Johannesburg was a rich and varied grassland – a biome [community of plants and animals] that is one of the least protected in South Africa. Fortunately, the Department of Environmental Affairs prohibits plantation forestry in our grasslands, because of the negative impact it has on water resources and biodiversity.
Sally Archibald, Associate Professor in theSchool of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES)at Wits, explains that grass-dominated environments comprise 40% of Earth’s land area and they are critical for the livelihoods of much of the developing world. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has made the preservation of such grasslands a priority.
First fires atFrankenwald
Grasslands are Darwinian gold medalists – they have adapted to almost all environmental stressors, including grazing animals and freezing temperatures. Some people might find it hard to understand, but protecting delicate grassy ecosystems requires fire. Controlled burning brings new life and enables grazing animals to benefit from the lush regrowth after fire.
Wits researchers were amongst the first torecognisethe benefits of fire in grasslands, back in the 1920s.Professor John Phillipsand his successor,Professor Edward Roux, demonstrated to farmers, land managers, and the global research community that the fires across the Highveld grasslands every winter were not unwanted destructive forces, but an essential ecological process. Their experiments took place at theFrankenwaldResearch Station, north of Alexandra township.
Although there is no longer active research atFrankenwald, grassland research at Wits continues.
Archibald and the APES team are working on projects to understand interactions between fire, drought and herbivory in grasslands across southern Africa. They are doing this with large regional sampling campaigns, as well as greenhouse and field experiments.
“In the Kruger National Park, we have shown that you can use fire to manipulate grass communities to benefit wildebeest grazers, and we are now investigating how this impacts insect, bird, and microbial diversity, as well as tree seedling establishment,” says Archibald.
Fanning the flames
The researchers also want to assess how drought tolerance strategies in perennial C4 grasses [warm season grasses, four carbon atoms] affect flammability, and whether changes in grass communities associated with drought can feedback to affect fire regimes. Wits postgraduate student,LondiweMokoena, found vast differences in flammability across grass species exposed to drought.
“Each species has a different strategy. Identifying links between drought and fire will help us to manage natural grasslands and to pick appropriate species to grow in different rangeland environments. It will also allow us to understand how fire regimes in natural grasslands might change in the future, as rainfall patterns and grass communities change,” says Mokoena.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Hands off our grasslands
- Shaun Smillie
Grasslands are vastly biodiverse areas and vital for the sustainability of human wellbeing.
In the north eastern Free State, a 60 km green corridor is being created that will link the upper Wilge Protected Environment to the Sneeuwberg.
The plan is to create a place of refuge for the bird species that are threatened by climate change and the destruction of South Africa’s grasslands.
It will be an add-on to the already 17 456 hectares that became part of theSneeuwbergProtected Environment in 2016.
For Dr Melissa Howes-Whitecross, who works forBirdLifeSouth Africa and is a Visiting Researcher at Wits’School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES), it is one answer to South Africa’s dwindling unique grassland habitats.
As grasslands dwindle, so too does the biodiversity they sustain. Grassland mammals like Oribi and grey rhebok have experienced population declines, while grassland bird species have been particularly hard hit.
The bird that graces South Africa’s coat of arms, the Secretary bird, has lost 50% of its population over the last three generations. To blame is habitat destruction, hunting and poisonings.
Other bird species are also being affected by climate change.
“Many of our grasslands are high altitude grasslands. We are finding that birds like the Yellow-breasted Pipit are extremely sensitive in terms of their breeding when it comes to average temperature increasing. So, there is a definite threshold where breeding fails,” says Howes-Whitecross. “We are very concerned for these high-altitude grassland species.”
The work towards creating green corridors is one of the first steps in protecting some of South Africa’s most unique biodiversity, its grassland biome.
“One of the big problems about grasslands is that they arecenteredaround places like Joburg, Bloemfontein and Pretoria, which means it is some of the most expensive land in the country,” explainsProfessor Ed Witkowski, Head of the Restoration and Conservation Biology Research Group, and Professor of Plant Ecology atAPES.
“There is a lot of mining activity in the area, it is valuable for agriculture and they have planted a lot of forests. So, declaring large areas of grasslands as nature reserves is expensive.”
If the grasslands are wiped out, the loss will eventually impact the humans who were responsible for the destruction in the first place.
“It is a necessity for human well-being to have intact ecosystems. If you take a wetland, which usually falls within a grassland area, for example, they are vital for storing water, cleaning water and preventing floods,” says Howes-Whitecross.
TheSneeuwbergProtected Environment happens to lie within a strategic water source area, which feeds rivers that provide water for many of South African cities. In a water-scarce country like South Africa, access to clean water is becoming a crisis, particularly for poorer communities.
As a recent study has shown, however, it is important that the right research is used in the fight against climate change and habitat destruction.
A paper by European scientists that appeared in Science, claimed that global tree planting could rid the planet of a third of the CO2 emitted since the industrial revolution. Africa’s grasslands were suggested as a prime spot to plant large numbers of trees.
“Firstly, their numbers are wrong,” says Archibald. “It is irresponsible to give people false hope that our global change problems can be fixed in this way. Secondly, the impacts on our natural ecosystems in Africa would be devastating.”
Famous veld flower
Near the town ofHaenertsburgin Limpopo, Sylvie Kremer-Köhne, an MSc graduate from APES is trying to make a small rare plant species famous.
Aloelettyaehas been made a flagship species for grasslands, meaning it has – much like a rhino – been chosen to be an ambassador for aparticular habitat.
The aloe was described in 1937 and, until recently, little was known about its biology.
“It is our flagship species because it only occurs in the critically endangeredWoodbushGranite Grassland, of which very little is left,” says Kremer-Köhne. “Sothe first job was to figure out just how many populations there are, and where exactly they are.”
The count revealed 10 800 plants clustered in several population groups.
Over the last century, exotic timber plantations – exactly what Archibald warns against – are believed to have destroyed more than 90% of the originalWoodbushGranite Grassland.What is left is now squeezed onto small fragmented pieces of land.
In 1917 botanistIlltydBuller Pole-Evans took a photograph of theMagoebaskloof, which lies close toHaenertsburg. A century later, a photographer stood in the near same spot as Pole-Evans and took an image of the same mountain.
What it revealed was how the Woodland Granite Grassland had been wiped out over the course of a century. Back in 1917, when the photograph was taken, the mountain was blanketed in grassland. By 2017,Magoebaskloofwas covered by heavily wooded vegetation.
To Witkowski, the two photographs show the devastating effect humans have had on the environment. “You see a combination of plantations and bush encroachment,” he says, adding that the bush encroachment on the mountain was most likely fuelled by global climate change and altered fire regimes to protect the plantation trees.
The biggest remnant of this grassland type is now protected in a126-hectareprovincial reserve that has been established just outsideHaenertsburg. However, Kremer-Köhnebelieves it is not enough. Other measures need to be taken to protect this crucial ecosystem, such as ongoing efforts to teach farmers to farm in a way that minimises their impact on natural grasslands.
But, ultimately, it comes down to changing the way humans think about themselves. “As humans we often forget that we are just another cog in a big natural wheel that is turning,” says Howes-Whitecross.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
The greenbacks in mobile phone mines
- Curiosity
Consumer products rule our world. Period. And in our modern lives, electronic equipment is no longer a luxury – it is a necessity.
No-one who is economically active can afford to go without at least a mobile phone, and at the pace that electronic equipment is re-invented, it’s only a matter of time before your ‘latest’ iPhone 11 ends up on a dump site.
As fast as we produce electronic equipment, we produce electronic waste. In fact, according to a joint report by the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and several United Nations agencies under the umbrella of the E-waste Coalition, the world produces 50 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) per year – this is more than the weight of all commercial airliners ever made.
And this electronic and electrical waste has a value of over US$62,5 billion.
Mine mobile, not Earth
As the world’s population creeps closer to 10 billion people on Earth by 2050, the amount of e-waste we generate increases concurrently. Although we’re well on track to producing 120 million tonnes of e-waste per year by 2050, there is literally a silver lining in the amount of e-waste we produce: As much as 7% of the world’s gold may be contained in e-waste.
The idea, saysProfessor Dean Brady,Head of theSchool of Chemistryat Wits,is to create a circular economy, where everything that is used can be recycled, reused, or repurposed into new products. “We have a lot of rare earth metals in phones that we can re-use,” says Brady.
According to the PACE joint report, there is 100 times more gold in a tonne of e-waste than there is in a tonne of gold ore. Furthermore, our cell phones, laptops, solar panels, and other electronic devices are crammed with rare earth materials such as platinum, cobalt, magnesium and copper.
Economy of circularity
“Almost everything from your phone can be recycled,” says Brady. “Our cell phones are going to become the next mines. If we can take all the rare earth metals out of our phones rather than of out of the ground, we can reuse them and create a circular economy.”
Currently only 20% of all e-waste is recycled, with the rest either ending up on a landfill or being recycled informally. In a circular economy, almost everything could be re-used or repurposed, leaving very little to go to waste.
Brady and his colleagues are working towards closing the recycling gap, by creating a circular economy from the chemical processes required to mine cell phones.
“While chemistry has changed the world during the last 150 years and has been responsible for major advances in almost every industry, we as chemists are also highly conscious of the impact we have on the environment,” says Brady.
Inspired by WitsProfessor Roger Sheldon, who is widely known as the “Father of Green Chemistry”, Wits chemists areexploring green chemistry practicesthrough researching renewable chemicals, recoverable catalysts for sustainable chemical processes, using CO2 and green chemistry through using enzyme reactions for anything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals and food ingredients.
“There is a huge wealth disparity across the world, and the great demand for more and cheaper products implies that we would need to manufacture about four times what we are manufacturing currently. However, we already have the sustainable [carbon] footprint of1.7 Earths [we are currently using the resources of 1.7 Earths to sustain ourselves], so we are going to need to produce about three to four times as much as we currently do with half the environmental footprint we now have,” says Brady. “This is a tall order.”
TheSchool of Chemistryis working on new technologies such as green chemistry through renewable chemicals; finding recoverable catalysts for chemical reactions through using CO2 as a catalyst and using biocatalysts to produce anything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals and food ingredients.
The alchemy of green chemistry
Professor Charles de Koning, lead on the project to find renewable chemicals, says: “Crude oil is the basis of our chemicals industry, but this is not sustainable. Not only is the supply of crude oil finite, but our use of fossil fuels is releasing carbon deposited over millennia into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, which will result in climate change.”
TheSchool of Chemistryis developing and using new products derived from biomass to replace fossil fuel-based chemicals, which will result in neutral net CO2 production.
“New technologies in chemical catalysis, bio-catalysis and biotransformation, flow chemistry, and bio-refineries will contribute to a more sustainable circular economy, with reduced waste, as defined by the Environmental (E)-Factor developed by Professor Roger Sheldon,” says Brady.
Ultimately, this green chemistry can galvanise a circular economy that can recycle cell phones to greenbacks. Sustainably.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
The subtle art of breaking the silence
- Beth Amato
Underneath the smoke and concrete, artists invite us to respond to changing climates.
What is one to do when climate calamity is sure to break apart our ecological and social fabric? The overwhelming, even Sisyphean, task of halting rising global temperatures in the next decade is enough for even the bravest soul to succumb to inertia and apathy.
Instead of demanding headlines and doom-laden forecasts, the conversation could be reframed, allowing people to feel they can contribute to a solution. Wits-affiliated artists,DaylinPaul,HannelieCoetzee, and Myer Taub show that art is not merely a vehicle to create awareness, but a means to ignite imagination and collaborative action.
Indeedtheir so-called “climate art” asks the public to co-create ways to respond to climate change, exercising meaningful agency. By involving the public, their art shows that the most pressing human questions can be dealt with communally and across disciplines.
Hyenas in theGreatHall
HannelieCoetzee’s hyena sculptures, part of theSynanthropeseries, displayed at the Origins Museum in 2018, and a feature of theWatershed series of public engagements hosted by Wits University, aimed to draw people’s attention to the “unseen” yet critical ecological realms of Johannesburg.
Coetzee is currently completing her MSc at Wits’Global Change Institute, and environmental engineer Chris Brooker first mapped the city’s ancient watershed, much of which has been concreted over. Then, Coetzee took her hyena sculptures (repurposed from wooden items, like old tennis rackets and crutches) and made them “walk” the watershed.A stop-frame animation captured the hyena’s path, which cuts through Wits’ Great Hall.
As part of her practice, Coetzee invites the public to walk with her as an immersive experience. People, she says, are not viewers of art, but participants in it. “People are often disconnected from their environments. But when theyrealisethey are walking on an actual watershed, their perspective changes. They are shocked at how such a critical piece of the city’s ecology is cut off. The part of the watershed they walked is now a concrete path.”
Coetzee also noticed that many of the walkers (67 people) assumed the watershed implied that rivers run underneath the surface of the city, which is not the case. “By walking, people became more aware of how water-scarce Johannesburg is, and the implications of hotter weather and droughts,” she says.
However, Coetzee doesn’t believe in explicitly telling people to enact change. “It’s about creating conversation, and gently nudging people to think about their immediate environment.”
In addition, hyenas are “synanthropes”, creatures which survivein spite of, and because of, human encroachment. Hyenas have adapted to the human environment and can navigate the city’s greenbelt in search of food and water – 60km a day.
“Hyenas teach us a lesson in resilience. Humans have to learn to adapt to a rapidly changing environment too,” says Coetzee. One of the first steps is to “re-root” into the earth and tobe aware of how humans have altered the land. Ultimately, it is we who must learn from nature’s patterns and intelligence.
Walking the spruit
Johannesburg’s vast road and highway networks, its poor spatial planning, its dilapidated pavements and the fear of crime has made the city hostile to walkers. Motorcars take precedence over people.
But artistDr Myer Taub,lecturer in theWits School of Arts, noticed quite serendipitously the “hidden” walking routes in the city: those along the spruits (streams). A few years ago, Taub decided to be car-free, but soon realised how unwalkable Johannesburg was, and how getting somewhere, even relatively close by, usually required transportation.
However, when he walked along the city’s spruit routes (such as the one that runs between Patterson Park and EthelGrayPark in north-east Johannesburg), he found that he reached his desired destinations relatively quickly and easily. Taub felt safe walking in these green belts.
“The spruits, indeed many of the city’s water assets, are invisible. We have built around them; locked them away. In doing so, we have disconnected from nature and forgotten how we can design our lives in tandem with nature,” he says.
In Traces of the Spruit, Taub’s art intervention at the Wits Watershed festival in 2018, he invited the public to walk with him along the spruits. “Some people decided not to join after all, because of safety issues, which speaks volumes about the perception of open spaces in Johannesburg,” he says.
Unfortunately, the spruits are highly polluted. As part ofTraces of the Spruit, Taub dressed up as a river rat to retrieve “treasure”. He submerged himself in the water. Some months later, when Taub got sick with another condition, medical investigations found that the exposure to polluted water had compromised his health.
“The pollution and toxicity of the spruit speaks to the utter disconnection from the meaning and importance of water. Through embodied practice (walking and submersion in the water), awareness israisedand change could occur, but I don’t explicitly push for that,” says Taub.
Broken land
PhotojournalistDaylinPaul’s black and white exhibitionBroken Land, which was shown atWits Art Museum (WAM), highlights the devastating effects of South Africa’s coal-burning power stations on human beings. Paul is the Ernest Cole 2017 award winner forBroken Land.
The contentious power stations built in Mpumalanga have polluted the land, the water and compromised the health of communities. Yet the country soldiers on with its fossil fuel industry goals despite the growing viability of cleaner energy sources to power the flailing economy.
Paul’s haunting photos show the human and cultural toll: there are remains of a Ndebele village destroyed by the building of coal mines; toxic rivers; and the poverty right outside the imposing mines and power stations.
“The people whose lives are most affected by the burning of coal for electricity, are often those who have no access to electricitythemselves,"saysPaul. He adds that it’s easy toforget the human beings whose stories are more “beautiful and tragic than the landscape that mirrors their lives”.
Paul’s exhibition was profoundly disturbing. People felt shaken to the core when, at the opening of the exhibition at WAM, guest speaker and journalist Sipho Kings, noted that just having lights in the venue cost someone their life.
Paul’s work speaks to climate justice: those who pollute the least are most affected by climate change and indiscriminate ecological and cultural destruction. His work is an overt indictment of all those who “sleepwalk ever closer to climate catastrophe”.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Never let a good crisis go to waste
- Ufrieda Ho
Although we are facing a global climate challenge, there are hidden benefits and opportunities if we respond to this challenge sooner rather than later.
Climate change can’t be sugar-coated. It is the crisis of our time. But a crisis need not mean certain doom. We have an opportunity to think, plan and act for a world that will be changed, but which perhaps can be saved from being burnt to a crisp.
“The governance debate in an era of climate change is about the idea of custodianship and the idea of co-production.”
Custodianship is less fixated on governance as a tick-box exercise for the likes of transparency, accountability and responsibility and more about facilitating learning, adapting and breaking down of bureaucracies and silos, so there are enabled environments for co-production.
Co-production brings more people into problem solving and leans on the other ’3Cs’ that are considered the essential skills of the 21st Century: creativity, communication and critical thinking.
Custodianship doesn’t pander to “green orthodoxy, the gold rush of the green economy, fake news by denialists and even green political point scoring,” he says.
Seeing the blind spots
In South Africa,Sarakinskybelieves, we have a number of opportunities to find solutions, such as reviving rail infrastructure to help reduce our reliance on road freight with its huge demand for fossil fuels; incentivising petrochemical industries to look at carbon capture and storage as beneficiated businesses; and even recycling used cement – a carbon intense commodity – instead of dumping it on landfills.
New business potential could also be sparked by lowering tariffs on imported electric vehicles and developing local industry to service and assemble electric motor cars. The same could be done with supporting the introduction of a smart-grid system where every household is a potential energy supplier and trader from solar photo voltaic systems (PVs) on their roofs.
“Even Wits should be thinking about how we go off grid, at least during the day, and become an example of how to be a sustainable, eco-friendly university,” he says. Interventions could include PVs on rooftops and carports; rain harvesting systems; urban food gardening; and greater awareness in our personal responsibility to change habits and behaviours.
Where it comes to climate change, transformed governance looks at context and nuance.Sarakinskysays the goal is not to challenge the clear evidence from the science, but to see the blind spots, weigh up the costs and benefits of risks and interventions better, and factor in environmental impact assessments.
For example,Sarakinskysays, while being a big win for producing clean electricity from a renewable resource, PV systems have a dirtier side too. They are energy and water-intensive to produce and are made with toxic chemicals. They also have a limited lifespan of around 20 years, meaning that in decades to come they could end up in landfills as a toxic burden if they are not properly recycled.
Wind turbines are another clean energy producer, but wind farms can result in habitat destruction and can disturb ecosystems as their rotor blades are known to kill birds and bats in large numbers.
Various policies and targets that are designed with the best intentions in mind can also turn out to be ineffective or poorly thought-through. Carbon tax, for example, has not gone far enough to penalise people for buying fossil-fuel guzzling cars or in curbing our reliance on air travel. “If you can affordityou’ll just keep consuming or buying a big vehicle,” saysSarakinsky.
Global carbon credit trading has also had limitations when these schemes are not set up as sustainable partnerships.Sarakinskypoints to the case of someSpekboomfarming initiatives in the Eastern Cape. TheSpekboomis an indigenous succulent and is known to be excellent in sequestrating high amounts of carbon dioxide. They are water efficient and help to combat desertification.
FarmingSpekboomfor carbon credit trading held the promise of job creation, community upliftment and fighting greenhouse gases, but as carbon trading ended as per the Kyoto Protocol, these projects folded.
The region is at risk to reach what he refers to as a“tipping point” in the climate crisis. This will result in more multi-year droughts and intense heat waves that will manifest in issues such as food and water insecurity, deepening migration and displacement and economic strain in many sectors, according to Engelbrecht.
“Under the Paris Agreement [signed in 2016] it is clear that in order to avoid the most dangerous aspects of climate change, investments should be focused on the renewable forms of energy,” says Engelbrecht.
“The country needs to formulate a clear plan of how it will systematically replace its coal-fired plants with alternative forms of energy, through a just transition process that does not leave anybody behind. Such a just transition will also imply significant international funding support and investments.”
President CyrilRamaphosa’ssubmission to the United Nations Climate Action Summit this September got the thumbs up from Engelbrecht, who calls it “an important ray of hope”. The submission outlines a vision of how South Africa can replace its dependency on coal with renewable forms of energy, through a US$11 billion just transition programme.
“If this vision can be realised, it would be the largest climate change mitigation project to be funded internationally,” he says.
Engelbrecht, who contributed to a study led by a team of international scientists and published inScience, entitled:The human imperative of stabilising global climate change at 1.5°C, believes bold steps will be essential. In theSciencestudy, the authors argue that prompt investment in the next few decades is vital to mitigate the costs of future damages.
“Theinvestment requiredin the energy sector in order to make the transition from fossil fuels to alternative forms of energy, as required to restrict global warming to 1.5°C, is estimated to be in the order of US$100 trillion by 2050. Although this is a staggering number, the benefits from damages that may be avoided by 2200 are estimated to exceed this number by a factor of five.”
Wavering agreements
However, the non-binding nature of international agreements on climate action make submissions such asRamaphosa’stoo flimsy to hold real promise of action or change, saysProfessor Patrick Bond, in theWits School of Governance.
“Ramaphosa’scommitments to the UN came after South Africa was prevented from speaking in the main conference, due to the government’s climate negligence,” says Bond.
“That was a well-deserved name-and-shame, exposing Eskom’s commitment to the corrupt, mal-designed Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power plants – the world’s largest such generators under construction – as well as three new ones, including a 4600MW Chinese project at the Musina-MakhadoSpecial Economic Zone, as well as intensifying offshore drilling for oil and gas from Durban to Hermanus, the KZN and Karoo fracking projects, and the planned export of 18 billion tonnes of coal through Richards Bay,” says Bond.
He adds: “The Paris Agreement has no legally binding responsibilities or accountability mechanisms; inadequate stated aspirations for lowering global temperatures; no liabilities for past greenhouse gas emissions; renewed opportunities to game the emissions-reduction system through state-subsidised carbon trading and offsets; and a total neglect of emissions from military, maritime, and aviation sources.”
He also warns that mainstream environmentalism is being co-opted by quick-fix fantasies, including biotechnology based on genetic modification, dangerous geo-engineering strategies (see page 42) and especially emissions trading, where South Africa’s pioneer project at a Durban landfill collapsed financially, due to a decade-long world carbon market crash that began in 2008.
While emissions-trade supporters believe that a “market solution can solve a market problem”, the carbon market is a “financial casino”, and once Brexit kicks in, the European market at the heart of the system could again collapse, says Bond.
Unifying activism
In a country like South Africa, climate activists face severe contradictions. PhD candidateMithikaMwenda and Bond write in their paperAfrican climate justice: Articulations and activismthat “while leftist trade unions increasingly propose radical versions of eco-socialism, they still defend carbon-intensive employment with an understandable desperation. A burgeoning youth andecologically-awaremiddle-class feint towards climate justice, but their stamina has not been tested. The mainstream climate action scene remains predictably tame and unambitious”.
Bond says NGO and civil society efforts remain fragmented and not enough international collaboration exists between these civil society bodies to exert the kind of pressure to disrupt the business-as-usual model. His ideal type of international movement that could U-turn states and corporates is the Treatment Action Campaign, which gained access to free HIV medicines and thus raised life expectancy in South Africa from 52 to 64 years over the past 15 years.
The intersection of complexities, contradictions and seemingly insurmountable challenges do make our climate crisis ever more explicit. And scary as it seems, now is not the moment to run; it is more the moment to act on former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s words: “Never let a good crisis go to waste”.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Clean careers and greener pastures
- Lem Chetty
The green economy could save South Africa in more ways than one – cleaning up the environment will contribute to the economy, too.
One expects solutions to environmental climate crises to be found in the lofty realms of academia, activism, laboratories or engineering and, although these skills are important, there are answers closer to you and me. So, says Dr PreshaRamsarup in the Centre for Researching Education and Labour(REAL) in the Wits School of Educationwho created the Green Skills Project for South Africa.
While designing theGreen SkillsProjectas part of South Africa’s first Environmental Sector Skills Plan,Ramsarup’sresearch revealed that, at an occupational level, green jobs don’t have to start from scratch but can be an adaptation of just about every current process of work. Furthermore, and in keeping with the purpose of green jobs, which are not only careers in the environmental sustainability sector, but any career which can be transformed a sustainable way, the green economy starts on the ground.
Freshly minted old jobs
“Originally there was a focus on technological change in transition to a greener economy, but what we’re after is a just, sustainable solution. It is a triangular solution of working greener – in an ecological, economic, and social way. In creating a plan for development of this economy, we had to ask how green jobs can achieve this triangle of elements,” she says.
So,there will be the scientists who look for green solutions, and Chief Sustainability Officers within corporates to determine social impact, wind energy farmers to find sustainable energy solutions. However, green jobs also require everyone to focus on the green aspect of their work – energy-focused auditors and engineers, writers and teachers, bakers and more. The informal sector, particularly in South Africa, will continue with the work of waste pickers and sorters, recyclers and market gardeners.
“We had to look at what the jobs could be that would enable people to enter the community, change the products and process of work, so that they answer the bigger questions about social justice and society, in addition to the ecological question. We are looking at new streams of work and how they can help local communities. This type of work is about sustainability that is moving beyond science and technology,” she says.
Defining the green economy
To begin the process of greening the economy – which refers to transforming current economic activity in a sustainable way – we must start reskilling with a green eye, so to speak.Green skillingcan begin at school and tertiary level, although postgraduate skills include analysis, planning and development. These can be adapted to take care of South Africa’s water, waste, clean energy and biodiversity, according toRamsarup’sbrief for the Environmental Sector Skills Plan commissioned by the government.
Greening includes reshaping the “blue” economy too, which looks at the oceans and coastlines, which are vast in South Africa. The skills and human capacity required to effectively manage, protect and utilise the resources in and around these areas are often highly specialised and scarce.
“Knowledge of marine ecosystems and their inter-connectedness with continents and global systems is essential. Additionally, there is a great need for localised expertise to work along the coasts, as well asoff-shore,” saysRamsarup.
For waste-water treatment works alone, green skills span engineering, sustainable farming, catchment management, business analysis, investment and economic planning, procurement, marketing and communications, air quality inspection, health and safety monitoring, teaching and more.
Green learning by sector
Ramsarupsays the environmental sustainability sector is currently unregulated, despite its size possibly being on the same scale as mining. “There is no Seta [Sector Education and Training Authority] for instance, around the green economy, so part of our research focuses on change-orientated learning pathways and sustainable development. It includes understanding the educational needs around greening in different sectors,” she says.
She is currently researching the paint, agriculture, paper, public procurement, coal, mining and automotive industries. “The idea is that green jobs are not a homogeneous concept [within the sustainability area], but they should resonate within the South African working system and how to strengthen them through the integration of green skills.”
Conceptualising and skills planning green jobs could take a decade,Ramsarupestimates but, for now, the focus is on greening the current landscape.
“It is about envisaging the work and reimagining it, whether it is from a production process or not. Where are the environmental hot spots in the chain? We can first address those needs with the knowledge we have and turn them around in a more environmentally-friendly way,” she says.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Green is the new black
- Shaun Smillie
In our bid to save the planet from catastrophe, we have entered “the age of green”.
Green cars and green energy are not new. Very few conversations go by without someone mentioning green variations of energy.
However, there’s a new kid on the block, one that new research has proven could drastically limit the CO2 emissions from our cars, while saving you cash in terms of fuel consumption: green tyres.
In November, two trucks did lap after lap around a track at theGerotekTest Facilities in Pretoria. One of these trucks was driving on conventional tyres, the other was fitted with abrand-newset of “green” low rolling resistance tyres.
(Low) Rolling in the green
As each vehicle was kept to a steady speed of 80km/h, researchers carefully monitoredseveraldatasets – including fuel efficiency – coming from the vehicles. Every two hours, the drivers would take a10-20-minutebreak.
“The problem that tyre companies have is that they have found it difficult to get the green truck tyre accepted in the industry because fuel consumption is dependent on so many variables,” saysProfessor FrankKienhöferin the WitsSchool of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering. “You look at the driver, the wind speed, and the vehicle. All of this means that tyre companies are struggling to pinpoint that tyres can make a fuel saving difference.”
Working under the umbrella of the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight South Africa, the research team, which included members from Michelin, Iveco,Afrit, Lafarge, and Total, with research institutions Wits, Cambridge University, and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, set out to establish whether green tyres actually make a difference, by setting up a highly controlled test environment.
Tyres on trial
The trials, over a year in the making, were set up by Wits researchers, whooversaw everythingfrom booking the test track, to setting up the test protocols.
“What makes the low rolling resistance tyres different is the materials are slightly different, they have silica instead of carbon black and the tread is different,” saysKienhöfer.
“There is less energy being wasted in terms of turning the tyre and that manifests in low temperature.” They are considered as safe as conventional tyres.
Once the team started looking at the results, they were pleasantly surprised. They found that, at 80 km/h, thelong-haultruck burnt eight percent less fuel on green tyres than on ordinary tyres. This means eight percent less CO2 was emitted into the atmosphere from a single truck. Multiply that by all the trucks on our roads, it could make a significant difference.
“We were thinking the difference would be more in theballparkof 5 to 6%,” saysRehaanAbdulla, a Wits MSc student involved in the study. “So,there appears to be massive advantages of using the rolling low resistance tyres.”
Even though green tyres have a 25% shorterlifespanthan their traditional counterparts, they still hold the edge when it comes to financial benefits to transport companies.Kienhöferpoints out that such savings on fuel could increase profits by 40%, even when calculating in the tyres’ shorterlifespan.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
The war on waste pickers
- Tamsin Oxford
South Africa’s waste pickers are critical to our recycling economy and green future, yet they are marginalised, maligned, and discarded.
The man in the tattered shirt, biceps bulging as he pulls an enormous bag of waste behind him on a trolley. The blaring horns as cars slide by, annoyed at the intrusion in their lane. The furtive WhatsApp messages on community channels, “Are these waste pickers dangerous? I don’t like them digging through my trash …”
These are the responses that marginalise a community that has grown out of discarded waste, the dumpster, and the landfill site – reclaimers, or waste pickers, are people with extraordinary expertise that have saved the government up to R748 million in landfill airspace and put South Africa’s recycling economy on par with Europe.
The invisible vital
“The reclaimers collect around 80 to 90 percent of all post-consumer packaging and paper left behind. If they stopped tomorrow, there would be no recycling industry in South Africa,” saysDr Melanie Samson, a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography in theSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studiesat Wits.
“They are the unseen but essential connection between the waste management system and the economy and they’re subsidising the entire thing. They’re not being paid for the work that they do, only a very small portion of the sale price on the recyclables they collect.Considering how much money they savegovernment,they are performing a critical role and yet they are largely stigmatised and harassed and not seen as people.”
Skilled city surfers
Samson began researching waste reclaimers in the early 2000s, initially focusing on gender, race, and the privatisation of waste management. In 2008, she started working with waste reclaimers in South Africa and globally, expanding her research to focus on forms of dispossession and inclusion. For Samson, the waste pickershave stepped into a gap left behind by a lazy populationthat doesn’t separate at source (SAS) and the waste pickers have created an entire recycling economy built on their expertise.
“People think of them as crazy, poor, dirty and uneducated people who scramble through the trash to eke out a living,” she says. “We need to change this perception. They are notmarginaland they do not need to be eradicated. We are not the experts, they are. Refusing to acknowledge their skills and ingenuity is a form of colonial thinking that has to change.”
Reclaiming participation
With a team of 16 graduate and postgraduate students, Samson hasconducted in-depth research into what waste picker integrationwould mean for residents, officials and the pickers themselves. The data will inform national guidelines for a system to integrate and empower waste pickers. The team collaborates with reclaimers directly to generate information about the contributions they make and the work that they do.
“Conversations about waste picker integration have always been about helping reclaimers to integrate their unpaid labour into a new, formal municipal recycling system,” saysSamson. “I turned this on its head and asked: How can government and industry integrate into the fantastic, well-functioning, SAS system that the waste reclaimers have already created? We need to recognise and build on what they have done, there’s no reason to start from scratch.”
The national guidelines are focused on what already exists within the recycling economy and how these can be effectively integrated into a more formal system. Analyses of what’s happening on the ground by Samson and her team enable the development of a participatory regulatory policy in collaboration with the waste pickers themselves.
Capitalist exploitation
“Governments don’t pay attention to these informal economies, often goingin tosituations like this and acting as if there’s no system already in place, creating new systems with private companies. Nobody recognises the impact that this has on the waste reclaimers and their lives. These people do so much and yet they are deeply and profoundly exploited,” says Samson.
When government contracts private companies to take on the SAS role, the income of the waste pickers can decrease by more than a third. They end up living in parks and waking at 3am just to beat the trucks. Not only does privatisation impact their quality of life, it also doesn’t work – when private companies take on the role, recycling levels drop because these companies are paid a fixed rate per household,whether or notthey collect the waste. It just costs the government money and the waste pickers their dignity.
“If we focus on what the waste pickers already know then we can build a better understanding of our recycling economy and change their lives,” says Samson. “They are skilled knowledge-workers who separate our materials for us and the city. They turn our rubbish into a thriving recycling economy, which begs the question – who really are the dirty ones?”
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Finding alternatives to our favourite dirty words
- Shaun Smillie
An energy crisis built on an obsession with fossil fuels. Can alternative energy resources save the day for South Africa?
For a long time in South Africa’s energy sector, coal was king, responsible for heavy lifting the country into the industrial age with its offering of cheap, reliable and abundant energy.
But in a post-industrial world, coal has become the black sheep, as cheaper and greener energy sources are becoming available.
South Africa still has a long way to go before it is weaned off coal fully as the main source of energy, if the state has its way, but private enterprise and the forces of economics might have the final say in the way that we generate energy in the near future.
That despicable, dark “L” word
In mid-October, while the country was in the grips of a week ofloadshedding, the government released its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2019). The plan mapped out what South Africa’s energy generation mix would be for 2030.
Coal will still play a major role in South Africa’s energy future, contributing 58% of South Africa’s energy needs.
The balance of 20.4 gigawatts worth of electricity will come from renewable energy sources in the form of wind, solar, and hydroelectric power, with wind contributing 18% of the country’s electricity.
“People keep on going on about South Africa having a world class coal resource, but it is no longer true. We have picked out the juicy bits and from here on out, our coal resource is of low quality or very difficult to extract,” he explains.
“We have a much more world-class solar resource.Actually, newcoal build is coming out twice as expensive as new solar or wind. So why choose a technology that is twice as expensive?”
Scholes adds that today whole countries are being run on renewables.
“It was always thought to be impossible. But now the battery technologies and smart grid technologies are so good you can essentially run any economy in the world entirely off renewables.”
That ugly “F” word
What is not in this energy mix proposed by government is something that, a few years ago, promised to be a saviour of the country’s economy. The highly emotive debate on hydraulic fracturing of gas shales, or fracking, has since died a quiet death.
Fracking changed the energy landscape of the US. Over the last decade the US has increased its oil production, and in 2012 it overtook Russia as the leading gas producer, all thanks to fracking. In South Africa, the Karoo was speculated to contain shale gas reservesof hundredsof trillions of cubic feet. Talk of fracking in the Karoo ignited a heated debate on whether this should be allowed in this fragile environment.
Scholes co-led the strategic environmental assessment of shale gas development for the Department of Environmental Affairs. They discovered thatdeveloping the Karoo shale gas resource was not economically viablewhen considering today’s energy prices. The main reason for this is the geological make-up of the Karoo.
“The fundamental reason is that horizontal drilling works just fine in the shale gas beds of the United States. They are horizontal beds of great extent,” says Scholes.
“The problem in South Africa is that we can’t drill for several kilometres horizontally, because you bump into a dolerite dyke. The distance we can go horizontally is not enough to make it economically viable, given the characteristics of the gas present.”
There are more conventional gas reserves available in South Africa. Included in this is the newly discoveredBrulpaddafield located 175km off Mossel Bay. It holdspromise, butis not the sole solution to our energy challenges, says Scholes.
“That is a resource of significant size, equivalent to two years of South Africanenergy use. It is substantial, but not manna from heaven.”
As the government is searching for solutions to the country’s energy problems, the private sector is already taking advantage of new green technologies, as it looks for a more reliable and cheaper alternative to Eskom.Home owners, for example, are taking advantage of increasingly cheaper solar panels and are moving off the grid.
That dirty “C” word – cleaned up
But the private sector can benefit further from alternative technologies that would make them independent of large utilities such as Eskom.ProfessorThokozaniMajoziin the WitsSchool of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering and his teamare advising industry on using waste heat to power electrical needs. Industries such as petrochemicals, food and beverage, pulp and paper, and the chemical sector all have waste steam at their disposal that could be run through a turbine to generate electricity. This steam is usually generated by coal.
“Coal is here to stay, but we need to think differently about how we use it,” saysMajozi.
The poster child of generating steam for electricity is petrochemicals giant Sasol.
“A company like Sasol generates one gigawatt on site and the other gigawatt it will get from the grid,” explainsMajozi. If Sasol had to source both gigawatts, it would mean the company would be drawing nearly 5% of the power available on the national grid.
“If you are saving one gigawatt, that is equivalent to about 10 000 houses in a big suburb,” saysMajozi. “It is a major impact.”
The “B” word to save the day?
Biofuels are another alternative source being used effectively in countries like Brazil.
Biofuels are produced from living matter. South Africa has a lot of waste material that lends itself to use as biofuels.
Daramola and his students are working on converting animal fat into biodiesel, using a catalyst developed from another South African waste material – animal fat.
“The animal fat from the slaughter slabs end up in landfills. It decays in the landfills and causes a lot of environmental problems,” says Daramola.
However, biodiesel is often difficult to use in colder environments because of poor flow performance. To solve this problem, additiveshave tobe added, which, due to a lack of research in this field, often comes up to guess work, says post-doctoral fellow, Dr CaraSlabbert.
The duo discovered that by shortening the carbon chains of fatty acid methyl esters, they could reduce the melting point of biodiesel significantly, making the fuel much more user-friendly.
“The next step I would think is to try it. We would need to find out if it is viable for use in a vehicle,” saysSlabbert.
How about the “H” bomb?
Whatever the future of South Africa’s energy mix in the next 10 years, Scholes sees no place for fossil fuels like coal.
“We will have to replace our generation capacity in approximately the next decade. Why will we replace it with more of the same?”
There are other renewable power sources on the horizon, which if tapped properly, will provide huge energy resources for not only South Africa, but for the rest of Africa.
Near the port ofMatadiin the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a sharp bend in the mighty Congo river squeezes the river into a gorge that is just 250m wide.
This is the site of the grand Inga dam, which could in future be the largest hydroelectric project in the world.
“The Congo river could produce more energy than we could ever use,” says Scholes. “But the problem is how do we get it from there to here and the main constrain on that is not an engineering one, it is a political security constraint.”
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Sunny-side up as Wits goes green
- Buhle Zuma
Universities breaking new ground in climate research should be models of sustainability themselves.
At Wits, initiatives to mitigate global change are taking root.The Greening Universities Toolkit by the United Nations Environment Programme notes that:
Worldwide, universities teach, conduct research, and contribute to the global knowledge base across every aspect of sustainability … Yet when it comes to the university’s own fabric and operations, there is frequently a significant disconnect.
Indeed, the number of universities participating in theTHEWorld University Rankings 2019 by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG): Climate Actionis far fewer than those in global academic rankings. There’s generally also less fanfare in the media about the SDG ranking and it is less scrutinised by alumni, students and the public.
Wits is taking a holistic approach to greening its operations in line with the 2030 SDGs, the agenda of which has 17 overlapping goals relevant to the University. Operationally, this includes infrastructure management (grounds and buildings), energy, waste, water and transport.
Lightbulb moments
An aerial photograph of campus reflects initiatives underway to manage the University’s carbon footprint – many buildings on Braamfontein Campus West are equipped with solar technology systems that produce electricity and heat water. In 2017,Wits’ first photovoltaic system (solar panels), which primarily supports office requirements such as lights, office and laboratory equipment, was installed. Many offices are now fitted with motion sensing lights, which prolong the working life of the light bulbs and thus reduce replacement costs.
“The energy efficiency programme and associated projects targeted at power generation and electricity savings began three years ago,” says Jason Huang, Planning and Development Manager at Wits, whose long-term goal is to “take Wits properties off-grid” and be independent of Eskom or City Power.
Alternative energy Junction
Anambitious pilot project at Wits Junctionaimed to install a system with enough power to meet the hot water demands of the residence complex, which houses 1 100 students in 14 buildings. However, there were constant interruptions to the hot water supply during the pilot. This prompted Wits to collaborate with the South African Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration Initiative (Soltrain).
The new system, introduced in 2018, combines solar, cogeneration and gas heating technologies and has proved to be more stable. It is the largest solar thermal hot water system in the southern hemisphere that combines various alternative energies for large residential areas, and a model for other institutions. Huang and his team won theSustainability Award from the Higher Education Facilities Management Association for this innovation, which has since been rolled out in Wits’ David Webster andBarnatoResidences on Braamfontein Campus West.
“The system has sufficient hot water generation capacity. The next step for us is to address student consumption, which is approximately 80 to 100 litres per day. This is far higher than the 50 litres a day of the average South African,” says Huang, highlighting the more challenging behavioural changes that must accompany sustainability initiatives.
Green operations
Head of Wits Services, IsraelMogomotsi, is looking at the entire value chain. Key divisions include Transport and Fleet Management; Cleaning and Hygiene; Wits’ Rural Campus; Printing and Mailing; the Professional Development Hub; Retail Operations Management; and dining halls.
All these divisions are crucial to resource management and environmental sustainability:
Supplier contracts emphasise environmental sustainability from those who provide cleaning chemicals, to machine and catering suppliers.
Recycling on campus is set to be revived and colourful recycling bins have been distributed to promote separating at source.
The fully operational recycling station established early in the 2000s, which faltered in 2017 when external service providers were phased-out due to insourcing, will resume in 2020.
The new garden policy promotes the planting of indigenous flowers and plants. Wits has two major roof gardens – on the Hillman Building and the Oppenheimer Life Sciences building – which makes them energy efficient. The gardens insulate the building in winter and keep the heat out in summer.
Bicycle and carpooling strategies are being explored as alternatives to cars. Aside from the carbon emissions, there is a shortage of parking for cars and Wits’ 3 000 parking bays consume land.
There are seven food gardens on campus supplying theWits Food Programme, which provides a hot meal to students in need. Furthermore, members of theCitizenship and Community Outreach Programmehave established a food garden at theYeovilleCommunity School, and another is on the cards for Trinity Church, which runs a soup kitchen for the homeless in Braamfontein.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Teens feel the heat of climate change
- Delia du Toit
Climate change not only threatens mental health in South Africa, but also heralds poorer matric pass rates as teens, in particular, inherit the Earth.
In 2017, when the drought in Cape Town was at its worst in over a century, aid organisation Gift of the Givers made an urgent call to South Africans to help farmers; suicide rates, amongst both small- and large-scale farmers, had surged in the few months prior. This and other evidencepaintsa bleak future picture in the context of climate change, and southern Africa is one of the areas that will suffer the most.
“Today’s youth will inherit a world made hazardous by greenhouse gases. The world’s temperature has already risen by 1°C above pre-industrial levels and, without major intervention, will rise a further 0.5°C by 2040. Heat waves and other extreme weather events have become frequent and intense. In southern Africa, temperatures are expected to rise at twice the global rate, creating virtually intolerable conditions for people in settings where buildings are poorly insulated and ventilated,” saysScorgie.
The effects are so severe, in fact, thatChersichpredicts an increase in violence, mental health disorders, and suicide, as well as poorer matric pass rates, if nothing is done.
“Exposure to high temperatures alters one’s physiology, raising anxiety, depressive symptoms, irritability and aggression. People feel powerless when they have no means of keeping cool, when they can neither fight nor flee the hot weather. The effects will be most pronounced amongst those who can’t afford air conditioning and we have no idea how communities who are not acclimatised to high temperatures will cope with several days of 40 plus degrees in houses with tin walls and roofs, zero insulation, and no cold water.”
Diminishing the bright sparks
And when learnersmustwrite matric in overcrowded and stuffy prefabricated or shipping container-classrooms in hot weather, even the smartest will struggle, he says.
“In many schools, classrooms are made of converted shipping containers or prefabricated sheeting with corrugated iron roofs. Most container classrooms have poor insulation, little natural ventilation and as many as 50 children in a class, who themselves generate a considerable heat load. In one study in Johannesburg, which has a relatively mild climate, temperatures reached as high as 47.5°C in the containers andthe majority ofstudents reported experiencing heat-health symptoms every day, including drowsiness, poor concentration and thirst.”
And even at much lower temperatures, the effects are profound. A meta-analysis of 18 studies calculated that students in classrooms with an indoor temperature of 30°C scored 20 percent lower on tests than those in classes around 20°C. “The performance of adolescents appears to be more heat sensitive than the performance of adults in occupational settings. Nevertheless, teachers exposed to high temperatures may also become lethargic and irritable. In classes with poor ventilation, levels of CO² or stuffiness rise together with temperature, and children experience symptoms that further affect concentration and learning,” writesChersich.
“For our research, we looked at close to 20 buildings. Each of them was given an indoor environmental quality (IEQ) score out of 27 as determined by the Green Building Council of South Africa’s green building rating tool [GreenStarSA], whichconsidersair quality, ventilation and ventilation rates, ambient temperature, noise and lighting. It’s incredibly difficult to get a perfect IEQ score, but those at the top end, with a score of 22-23 points, had productivity gains of 17%, which would translate to enormous improvements in large corporations, for example.”
And the solutions offered by IEQ principles aren’t restricted to corporate budgets. In container classrooms, simple adjustments could already make a difference, says Thatcher. “Orienting the container to avoid direct sunlight will help or placing it next to a tree for shade. A deciduous tree that offers shade in summer and loses its leaves in winter to let the sun in would also be a helpful solution in colder climates.”
Fresh air and flip-flops
Adding windows, he says, could make a crucial difference, referencing a Californian study. “The researchers hypothesised that daylight is an important component in classrooms. They measured performance in two southern Californian classrooms – one with big windows, one with small windows – and found that the kids with the bigger windows fared better, confirming [the researchers'] beliefs. But when they repeated the experiment in northern California, whereit’scooler, big windows made no difference. It turned out that daylight didn’t play a role in performance, but fresh air did – the classes in warmer southern California had their windows open.”
ScorgieandChersichare awaiting funding to conduct a study measuring these and other impacts in South Africa, and to investigate how exposure to ambient heat impacts children’s health, wellbeing and educational achievement. “We will test whether these impacts – such as dehydration, heat exhaustion, lethargy and poor concentration – can be reduced by using low-cost, low-electricity cooling methods, including natural ventilation, the installation of fans on classroom walls, painting the classroom roof white, placing plants and cold water dispensers in the classroom, and wearing sandals and loose, single-layered, cotton clothing,” saysScorgie.
These measures could inform policy to mitigate climate change, saysChersich. “There is much that can be done using low-cost interventions and little electricity. We urgently need sensible public health initiatives and ground-up activism to start to undo the effects already occurring.”
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
The burning issue of population control
- Beth Amato
Many are calling for increased population control but is this a solution to decrease the rate of climate change?
The increasing human population is putting large amounts of pressure on our natural resources and is contributing to climate change, leading many people to call for increased population control – especially for poorer communities. Beth Amato investigates whether this could be a solution to decrease the rate of climate change.
While the world’s resources are limited, increasing population figures are adding pressure on both our available resources and the rate of climate change. The human population has doubled since 1960 and currently stands at 7.7 billion. The United Nations estimates that it will continue to 9.8 billion by 2050.
It is no secret that humans have too large an impact on the sustainability of our planet. According to theWorld WideFund for Nature (WWF), we currently need 1.6 Earths to produce all the renewable resources we need. We are using far too many resources, and every person living on the planet is adding to that impact. Concerns over climate change have led to ever increasing calls for population control to mitigate our impact on the planet.
In a letter toThe StarNewspaper in May 2019, for example, a letter writer voices this call, writing that “work needs to be done to educate Africa’s people about the benefits of having small families”.
“Unless Africa gets a good handle on its out-of-control population growth, the continent will continue to be the beggar of the world, unable to take care of its own,” the letter writer said.
Like many others, this letter writerbelieves thatoverpopulation is the “elephant in the room” and the direct cause of deepening poverty and environmental degradation.
Celebrity environmentalists such as Jane Goodall and Sir David Attenborough are only some examples of people who have added their voices to the plea for greater population control to avoid the devastating freefall into ecological mayhem.
Thriving (selectively) together
As an ambassador for the Thriving Together campaign, led by the Margaret Pyke Trust, Goodall is at the forefront of advocating for the “removal of barriers to family planning” for the health of women, all humans and our fragile ecosystems. The trust is supported by 150 global organisations, including the United Nations.
“Women everywhere must be able to choose whether to have children, how many children, and the spacing between them. This is critical for their own wellbeing.But,they also need to be equipped with the knowledge as to how their choice affects the health of the planet and thus the future of their own children,” says Goodall.
“The Thriving Together statement demonstrates the widespread support and attention that this issue is finally beginning to receive from both the conservation and reproductive health communities.”
While women and girls should have autonomy over their bodies and have access to reproductive health services, Goodall has been criticised for not necessarily and primarily being motivated by women’s freedom and justice.
UK columnist Ella Whelan wryly asserts that “Thriving Together is prioritising beetles over black people … There is something deeply unpleasant about white environmentalists like Dr Jane Goodall and Sir David Attenborough fronting these campaigns to strongly discourage women in developing countries from giving birth to ‘too many’ children.”
The World Economic Forum, and data analysis organisation Our World in Data, both show that North America, home to five percent of the world’s population, is responsible for 18 percent of carbon emissions. On the other hand, Africa – with 16 percent of the world’s population – emits only four percent of the total carbon dioxide (CO2). The top 10 richest countries in the world are responsible for 75 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions, and 100 countries emit just three percent.
Comfortably numb
A (hypothetical) Joburg businessman wakes up in hisDainfernTownhouse and puts on a pot of coffee while he runs a shower. In the shower, which took a minute to get hot, he is spoilt for choice in shampoos and shower gels, all in plastic containers. He makes a mental note to buy a new shampoo only when the others are finished. Deep in thought of the business day ahead, he enjoys aneight minuteshower. In the middle of the winter, he makes sure that his towels are on the heated towel rail, while his house is heated throughout. He chooses to wear an outfit he bought a few months back, but because his checked shirt is a ‘fast fashion’ item, it is already starting to fray. He makes a mental note to buy a new one on his way to the airport later that day.
His office in Sandton is 45 minutes from his house in a gated estate, and he gets into his SUV. He travels alone to work, stopping at a local drive-through ATM to withdraw some cash. He then drives to a fast food outlet and joins the long queue to order his meat-based breakfast and agrandelatte in a non-recyclable cup. His breakfast comes with a plastic fidget toy, which he tosses out of the window.
At lunchtime, he orders lunch after forgetting to take his packed lunch in the morning. His wife often complains of having to throw out a fortune of expired food.
After a day’s work, he heads on to the airport to fly to the US on afive citybusiness tour. His wife and children will join him a few days later for a short holiday.
Living the (high risk) life
Two hours before our businessman hits his shower, his domestic worker has already been busy, getting her family ready for the start of their day. She has three children, with a fourth on the way. The businessman often chastises her for having too many children.
Upon waking in cramped accommodation in Alexandra township, Johannesburg, the woman prepares a simple breakfast of pap [mielie meal] on a gas stove. The night before, she collected water for washing and drinking from a local communal tap.
Ready to leave, the woman starts her 23km commute toDainfern, where she works. It takes her two taxis and around two hours to get to work. Her children walk to the local school with their lunch tins. No food is wasted. Sometimes there is spare change for the children to buy sweets from the informal shop.
With nothing else to do at night, the whole family winds down in front of the television.
Being a conscientious person – he’sactually labelleda “greenie” at work – the businessman decides to calculate his carbon footprint while waiting for his airplane meal. He is shocked to see that, should every person on the planet lead the same lifestyle as him, we would need 2.7 planets to support ourselves.
His family produced at least 13.80 metric tonnes of CO2 per year, which is just under double the average footprint for people in South Africa (8.98 metric tons) and just under three times the global average (5 metric tons).
His domestic worker’s family, on the other hand, produces just about the same amount of CO2 per year as what is needed globally to combat climate change, at 2,07 metric tonnes per year (worldwide target is 2 metric tonnes). If each person on earth lived the same lifestyle as her family, we would need just one planet to sustain ourselves.
If ourDainfernbusinessman lived in Texas, in the United States, things would have been much worse. According to Our World in Data, an average African’s carbon emissions is 17 times lower than the average American, with the average African’s carbon footprint coming in at 0,3 metric tonnes and the average American being responsible for 19,8 metric tonnes.
Removing the beam from one’s eye
Professor MatthewChersichof theWits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, says countries with low fertility rates are those which emit the most amount of carbon dioxide owing to their lifestyles. The WWF has said that if everyone lived like an average resident of the USA, “a total of four earths would be required to regenerate humanity’s annual demand on nature”.
“By using poor people’s family sizes as a scapegoat, wealthier people feel they don’t need to alter their carbon-rich and consumerist lifestyle,” he says.
Chersichacknowledges that unintended pregnancy can lead to mortality and morbidities, especially in poorer communities. Programmes to improve access to contraception and other family planning resources are a key health priority. Reducing the population number in poorer settings will lower the nutritional consequences of climate change and increase the resources available to countering climate change impacts. “However, reducing unintended pregnancies in these settings will probably do little to prevent further greenhouse gases … and halt climate change,” he says.
As far as climate change is concerned,Chersichsays family planning initiatives should be implemented in carbon-loving countries. “We should strongly encourage wealthy people to have as few children as possible. Each additional child means a whole lot more carbon dioxide and considerable harm to people elsewhere."
Mandersonconcurs that supporting women to have fewer children contributes to sustainable development, and food and water security.
It is critical to note, however, that climate change will affect demography more than demographic change will affect the climate. “Telling poorer people to have less childrenisa wonderful way to shift responsibility, given that the people who have the most children use the technologies that contribute to climate change the least,” saysManderson.
Climate injustice
Those who contribute the least to climate change – those in low to middle-income countries – will suffer the most from its effects. Richer countries (and people who live more comfortable lifestyles) should therefore focus less on the red herring that poorer countries with high populations contribute to climate change, and more on the idea that existing inequalities and poverty will only worsen on a warmer planet.
Jacklyn Cock, Professor EmeritainSociologyand Honorary Research Professor in theSociety, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP)at Wits, has noted that the climate crisis is less about the “poor other” overpopulating and destroying the planet, and more about the outcome of an unjust global system, where so few reap the benefits of capitalism.
Cock believes that alleviating climate change begins with establishing “alternative social forms, institutions and practices outside of capitalism”. These are mainly collective arrangements and mobilisation: bulk buying, decentralised, community-controlled forms of renewable energy, community food centres and seed sharing. In anarticle inThe Conversation, Cock says: “The concept of environmental justice provides a radical alternative to the discourse of conservation, questioning the market’s ability to bring about social or environmental sustainability. It affirms the value of all forms of life against the interests of the rich and powerful.”
It is wealthy and educated people, Cock says, thathave tochange by consuming less and conserving more.
Indeed, activists from the global south should forge ahead with alternatives, lobby powerful fossil fuel interests and certainly impress upon countries in the global north to have fewer children to save the planet.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Universities cannot be neutral about climate justice any longer
- Ufrieda Ho
With the world facing a climate emergency, higher education institutions should lead in securing a future for our children.
Universities have a privileged seat at the table of knowledge. However, climate change is the great leveller. To survive and adapt in this changed world, it makes sense to pull up chairs for indigenous knowledge and local wisdom to face these challenges.
ForDr PoppyMasinga, Senior Lecturer in theDepartment of Social Workat Wits, a return to working with the Earth and the elements represents way to build the survival strategies needed for a world of shrinking resources and unsustainably high reliance on industrialised food production, wasteful practices and over-consumption.
“I’m 60 years old now and I remember growing up in the rural areas, you could eat wild potatoes, wild berries and locusts – people knew where to find them and how to prepare them. When I tell my children these stories, they just laugh,” she says.
Old wisdom foranew earth
Masingaisn’t advocating for pizza night to be scrapped in exchange for foraging for insects and tubers (just yet), but she says old wisdoms should be recognised and incorporated into modern, structured learning. She says now more than ever there should be respect for working with ecosystems so that they in turn support human beings.
She believes that it is the kind of thinking that should inform how the next generation of social workers are taught. It’s not about ghettoising indigenous knowledge or reducing it to a “nice to have” but about embedding it in formalised knowledge production, she says. And this will place the right pressure on politicians and policymakers to make a commitment to direct resources towards these goals.
Social workers are the professionals at the front line of helping the marginalised people in our societies to survive better. “The most detrimental consequence of environmental injustice is climate change, which poses a threat to food security and access to clean, safe drinking water. The long-term impact is on all other systems, with the poor and vulnerable suffering the most. There is a need for curriculum transformation and integration of theoretical and philosophical perspectives and principles of radical social work practice,”she wrote in an abstractwithcolleaguesDrThobekaNkomo and DrNontembekoBila.
Best ofthe West andAfrica
Universities need to educate students to confront social injustice, inequality and the oppression of minorities. This, saysMasinga, is an ethical and moral imperative that cannot be ignored any longer.
“We have become accustomed to thinking that the Western way of doing everything is the only way, but when we combine the two – of western ways and our own African ways – we get the best of two worlds,”Masingasays.
Dr Darlene Millerin theWits School of Governancehas been trying to change the status quo. In 2014/15, when she was at the University of the Western Cape, Miller and her then colleagues DrNomalangaMkhize, DrBabalwaMagoqwanaand Rebecca Pointer created an initiative called the Green Leadership Schools (GLS) as an alternative approach to decolonising the university landscape.
Through the Green Leadership Schools, Miller and her colleagues aimed to provide a new approach to university curricula that “allows for the integration of the environment” into all aspects of learning at universities.
“The curriculum of the GLS [introduced at four sites in South Africa] dealt with land, gender and leadership and how these are related to crucial environmental issues such as climate change and indigenous knowledge,” says Miller.
“Finding alternatives to westernised knowledge is not easy, given the historical ruptures that have occurred in Africa. We face an epistemic challenge to find our way back to the beauty of the indigenous rather than the reaction of traditionalism. This endeavour is integral to the decolonisation of universities. The present university system still constrains the growth of black intellectuals and professionals and what we looked at was a radical alternative based in a grounded research method.”
Taking a stand
Another shift for universities will be to nail their colours to the mast in the fight for environmental justice, says Dr Robert Krause, a researcher based at the Environmental Justice Programme in theCentre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS)at Wits.
“Universities need to choose a side. Scientific rigour remains at the heart of science andresearchbut universities can’t be neutral about environmental justice any longer,” says Krause.
Universities have leverage and power, which Krause believes should be aligned more unequivocally to people who are often left to stand up against corporate polluters like mines and factories.
Krause sees potential for the exchange of knowledge, collaboration and for deepening partnerships between universities, communities and other civil society structures.
For instance, students can learn from the context and nuances that communities affected with the challenges of climate change live with. In return, the collaboration means these communities can be empowered to contribute to gathering data and evidence against offending companies, for CALS to build cases against polluters.
It is these kinds of partnerships, Krause says, that will help test the limits of legislation such as the National Environmental Management Act in holding polluters to account through real penalties.
“We know the next 10 or 15 years are critical to reduce CO2 emission levels to avert a climate crisis,” says Krause. “Economic power is still what makes default decisions for us, but we need to be able to build counter power through organising and mobilising communities.”
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Green Cross needed to halt the climate emergency
- Zeblon Vilakazi
EDITORIAL: We do not have a choice. It is incumbent on each of us to tackle the #ClimateEmergency.
Climate emergencyhas been declared the “word of the year”for 2019by Oxford Dictionaries, based on increased use of the term globally. We are in an environmental crisis and it may be too late to completely reverse the effects of climate change.
The climate crisis is an emergency and deserves the highest priority by individuals, cities, governments, corporates, civil society, the media and universities. Each one of us needs to own the climate emergency and act daily – we have the agency and the power to effect real change and to impact society now and for the benefit of future generations.
As a leading university in Africa, Wits must lead by example and use its influence to transform society through its leadership, education, and research. TheTalloiresDeclaration of 1990 – the first official statement made by university leaders of a commitment to environmental sustainability in higher education – recognises this responsibility. The statement raises concern “about the unprecedented scale and speed of environmental pollution and degradation, and the depletion of naturalresources”.Universitieshave a significant role to play in achieving sustainable outcomes that benefit everyone.
Universities can address the climate emergency by prioritising sustainability and climate change through interdisciplinary research – theWits Global Change Institute, with input from various faculties, leads in this respect; through empowering students, staff and individuals to tackle the emergency; through social leadership; and through building green campuses.
We can use our intellectual prowess to develop critical thinkers who are cognisant of the effects of climate change and who can tackle the emergency with fervour. We have an opportunity to provide our communities with graduates who have the knowledge and skills necessary to transform society and to live as responsible local and global citizens. Indeed, many Wits academics, researchers, scholars and social activists are already leading the charge on this front. Our students have just developed a cost-effective, modular-based solar energy kit that reduces e-waste, and which can be used in un-serviced and under-serviced communities.
Wits is also reimagining its physical and digital infrastructure to reduce its environmental impact, for example, through adopting an energy efficiency strategy that includes the use of renewable energy, and through the introduction ofnew online digital offerings. Recently, Wits implemented efficiency programmes that include rooftop solar PV installations; green buildings; building management systems; indoor lighting retrofits; sustainable hot water systems for residences; water, storm water andwaste waterassessments;food security; transport systems; green procurement policies; and effective land and waste management systems.
In short, we do not have a choice. It is incumbent on each of us to tackle the climate emergency. This GREEN issue ofCurios.tyfeatures questions, challenges, issues – and some of the answers – about how we can map a sustainable way forward. Please share your#ClimateEmergencythoughts with me viacuriosity@wits.ac.za.
Read more in theninth issue, themed: #ClimateEmergencyhow our researchers investigate the impact and implications of global change and climate change on people, places, and politics.
Curiosity 9: #ClimateEmergency
- Curiosity
2020: The year of extreme weather and how to mitigate the climate change.
The ninth issue of Wits University’s award-winning research magazine, Curiosity, is themed #ClimateEmergency (the 2019 Oxford Word of the Year) and is now available online athttp://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/.
The United Nations last week confirmed that 2019 was officially the second hottest year on record, and that globally “we expect to see much extreme weather throughout 2020”.
Climate change impacts all of us and inaction is no longer an option. We've witnessed the devastating Australian bushfires and, closer to home, a crippling drought has ravaged the southern parts of South Africa, threatening more than half a million people in Lesotho where tens of thousands are “one step away from famine”.
“At Wits we are using our intellectual prowess to develop critical thinkers who are cognisant of the effects of climate change and who can tackle the emergency with fervour,” writes Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs at Wits University, in this issue’s editorial.
In this issue, our researchers answer questions, highlight the challenges and issues, and provide answers through their research on how we can map a sustainable way forward during this critical year.
We interrogate the issues around:
Population control vs. birth control in #ClimateAction [pages 8 – 11];
How climate change also heralds poorer matric results as teens, in particular, inherit a warmer Earth [pages 12 – 13];
The ambitious aims of #ClimateEngineering and whether it can save the planet [pages 42 – 43];
The rise of the African eco-warriors and #ClimateJustice as the world elites fail [pages 46 – 47].
About Curios.ty
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. It is available in hard copy and online at the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
Former student leader and now Professor of Law, Firoz Cachalia, reflects on the mood before Nelson Mandela was released from prison 30 years ago.
The mood of the 1970s and 1980s at Wits feels like another time. What I remember are fragments only of what I am able to retrieve while thinking and writing.
It was certainly the worst of times. We lived ignominiously under a system which denied our humanity. In that system of fixed hierarchy, we were assigned our subordinate locations and inferior, humiliating identities from cradle to grave.
Yet it was also the best of times! We lived in communities with joy and hope. We had our own sporting heroes in a country with all white sports teams. What dazzling midfield generals for Benoni United were Boeti Faizel and Chubby Chekker! Boyhood memories ... White South Africa knew not of their existence. Can we share this memory today?
And it was an exhilarating and ennobling time – a time when the people rose up in the dockyards, in schools, on the streets in our communities, in universities, everywhere – to reclaim the memory of historical resistance and belief in the possibility of fundamental change through political action. The long arc of history pointed upwards and beyond to a better time. We hoisted flags (the ANC’s at Aunty Mary Moodley’s funeral) and burned flags (the Republic of South Africa’s on Wits campus).
I remember Bheki Mlangeni – short, sturdy and indefatigable. A bomb disguised as headphones killed him. Gentle David Webster, comrade academic – murdered in the wink of an eye by an assassin’s bullet. The memory still hurts. But despite mass incarcerations, banning orders, detention, torture, and assassinations, the Wits class of the 1970s and 80s remained undaunted. We were a generation that was determined to inflict a decisive blow on the regime. And we did.
But now, after so much time has passed, I am less inclined to hoist any flag. I will not live to see accomplished all that we had hoped for. But that’s okay. History has no end. As Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, advises, “Each generation, must assert its will and imagination as new threats require us to retry the case in every age.”
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Lockdown blues
- Schalk Mouton
COLUMN: Every lockdown has a silver lining, Schalk Mouton discovers as he roller-coasters through the emotional demands of living in isolation.
It is a cool autumn evening. I am alone in the car. Facemask on my nose. Coasting up a quiet, deserted road. It is just before curfew sets in. Quiet. Eerie.
I turn into a dark, deserted parking lot. The boom is up. There’s no need for security to patrol the area when no-one dares venture outside out of fear that a neighbour might post an incriminating pic of them contravening some silly rule on the local Whatsapp group. I stop the car and switch off the engine. In the dark, I dial a number on my phone.
“Hello,” answers a muffled voice. It sounds like someone trying to disguise his identity, but it’s probably from trying to breathe through the mask his grandma crocheted.
“It’s me …,” I say, not offering my name. The less information traded, the better.
“Just wait, I will come out.” The phone goes dead.
Time goes by slowly, during lockdown. The night is quiet again.
Some minutes – that feel like hours – later, a door opens. A man steps into the dark. His head covered with a black hoody. His face by a woolly pink and green facemask. I flash my headlights. Twice, as agreed. He hurries over, glancing left and right. A white plastic package is clenched in his fist.
The flicker of someone lighting a cigarette in a dark corner. As he reaches my car door, the hooded man glances over his shoulder. For an instant, I am sure he is going to run. I open the door, trying to distract him just enough to keep him from fleeing the scene.
“Here’s your food,” he says, peering over his shoulder.
I take the bag. We walk over to a dark corner to complete the deal. The noise as the credit card machine connects sounds like machine gun crackle in the night while the restaurant manager hides the faded blue light with his hands. He doesn’t even wait for the “approved” message before he turns and scurries back into his lair. The “thanks” I shout at the back of his head goes completely ignored.
National lockdown. Day 29.
The hard lockdown had lifted only a couple of days ago. My wife and I had decided to buy a meal from one of the local restaurants, to put something back into our savaged economy. To hopefully at least contribute towards saving someone’s job. I slowly drive back to the house, thinking just how much I hate our isolation. Not because we run the risk of getting arrested for walking our dogs, but because of the overwhelming mood it has placed over the country.
Like just about everybody else in the world, I have gone through various ‘mood swings’. My emotions dipping, flying and diving between optimism, determination, anger, satisfaction, frustration and depression. It is the latter I fear the most. It is a killer. Years ago, I promised myself I would never fall victim to that darkness again. In times like these, it is hard work.
A couple of days before the lockdown was officially announced, my boss told me to leave the office. “We don’t want to see you,” she said as my own Ally Mcbeal personality secretly thumped the air in victory. Packing up everything I needed to work from home, I thought to myself, “this is going to be fun!”
But sitting at home in my coffee-stained Batman onesie, while doing online team meetings with an increasingly horrifying hairdo, can be fun for only so long. On day two, work started piling up and the realisation set in that this wasn’t a free, unscheduled holiday. The workload mushroomed as colleagues’ communication needs grew and bored academics dreamed up weird, crazy schemes that would eventually turn up on my desk. By day four, exhaustion set in. Online Teams meetings grew longer, hairier and more tiring as colleagues, sitting in bed, no longer switched on their video feeds. I started counting down the days to when we would be allowed out of house arrest. Only 19 days to go!
By day seven, a vague feeling of wanting to throw something big, heavy and smelly at someone – ANYONE – set in. Then, the deep dark mood, followed by despair, determination and a little hysterical giggle. This, all before my first coffee of the morning. But I recalled Dr Imtiaz Sooliman of Gift of the Givers telling me during a trip to a warzone, that on every deployment, the eighth day is always the hardest. As they did then, his words gave me hope now. Just push through it.
Over 50 days later, like most South Africans, I have seen and felt it all. The combination of fear, anger and hatred in the eyes above the mask next to me in the shopping queue when I forgot my mask at home. The anger at the destruction of our already quivering economy. Friends’ frustration at not being able to do their daily exercise whenever they wanted to. The utter desperation after driving from shop to shop without finding any toilet paper. Relief at the general lack of populist politicians in the news, making nonsensical statements. The feeling of acting like a criminal when collecting a takeaway dinner …
Our world where people dream up plans to send people to Mars and take pictures of distant solar systems millions of light years away with remote cameras, was brought to a halt in a matter of weeks by one of the most primitive organisms on earth. Yet this has given me some hope. This little bug has given the world a much-needed and long-overdue jolt. It has us rethinking just about everything we do and how we will live our lives and interact with each other in the future.
Walking in the rush hour of morning exercise on the first day after the end of the hard lock-down, it was a joy to see our neighbours – people whom I’ve never seen in my life – out walking in the streets. Whole families! Together! Whether walking, running, or squeezed into tight 20-year-old cycling shirts and shorts plucked from under the mothballs the night before. Everyone smiling, greeting and happy.
It is as if the world has hit the reset button to remind us what is important. It has made us embrace new ways of doing things. Most of us have found a new way of working – and holding meetings – from home. The idea of getting into your car to drive to and from work every day is a distant memory.
While the lockdown has shown some worrying aspects of our society, it has also brought the good between people to the fore. Never, that I can remember, have neighbours been so caring of each other. People have offered to shop for those who can’t risk leaving their houses and have donated record numbers of food packages to the needy. Companies have not just cut clients’ fees, but actually given them cash to help them to survive. People have donated to crowdfunding schemes so that their local restaurants can pay workers’ salaries.
In future, restricted air travel will see us thinking twice about going abroad for a holiday or business meeting. Instead we will hopefully appreciate our own country a bit more – while rebuilding our economy. This behaviour is exactly what climate activists and scientists have been unsuccessfully pleading for, for years.
Covid-19 has forced us to hit the reset button and made us think again about our values – how we think, feel, behave and connect to the world and with each other. Hopefully it brings us as a nation and community a little closer to each other and makes us care more about the things and people that are important to us.
Schalk Mouton is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Facing feelings that fuel power relations
- Adanma Yisa
Critical Diversity Studies scholar, Adanma Yisa, explains why automated emotional responses shield us from confronting criticism can undermine reconciliation.
Race relations in South Africa are frequently fraught with emotion. Online comments by prominent white South Africans fuel flames that ignite feelings of injury and invisibility.
The World Health Organization (WHO) advises washing hands frequently with an alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Twenty seconds of hand-washing or the time it takes to sing the ‘Happy Birthday’ song. At this point it may be more appropriate to describe this advice as a commandment.
In mid-March, as Covid-19 panic rose in South Africa, Zelda La Grange delivered a warning. La Grange – who worked with former president Nelson Mandela for 19 years, initially serving as a typist before ascending to the role of private secretary to the president and a regular on the international speaking circuit – posted the following to Facebook:
“If you have a housekeeper, nanny, gardener or garden services, pool cleaner or anyone in your employment, demonstrate to them what a 20 second handwash looks like. Explain and show them how the virus transfers through handshake, touching, handling money, public transport, touching rails, ATMs etc. Don’t assume they know. I bought them Vit C tablets and a bar of soap and gave each food to take home to try and boost their family’s immune [sic].”
Critical effect and white privilege
La Grange’s post was met with accusations of racism, elitism and white privilege: What made Zelda think her black domestic staff did not know how to wash their hands? Why did she feel the need to demonstrate a 20 second hand-wash? Does she fear her domestic staff are particularly likely to bring Covid-19 into her home? If so, does she assume this is because her staff are black?
La Grange’s initial response to this criticism was to cite her “20 years’ giving back in supporting people who struggle”, explaining that she dedicates “every spare minute to the welfare of those around me and their extended communities”. She was “emotionally exhausted defending myself and my intentions”.
Unequal emotions
La Grange’s response to her critics displays a mixture of confusion, indignation, shame and anger – the sort of bewildering misreading of public criticism that South Africans have come to recognise from their Problematic Person of the Moment. ‘Critical affect’ theory is a helpful approach to understanding the type of white emotionality displayed by La Grange in the face of important criticism.
Critical affect considers feeling to be an active force mediating everyday life and a useful tool in analysing the way in which emotion mediates societal power relations. Emotions play a massive part in holding up the social norms that result in unequal social relations. Emotions are part of our habitual responses to the world around us – reactions that signal our internalisation and compliance with dominant ideology.
Feeling invisible
In my analysis of black South African women and their interactions with black male oppression, the women I interviewed described fear as a common emotion experienced when navigating black male patriarchy. This fear was part of their habitual response to black male authority, a reminder to these women to exercise self-regulation in order to comply with hegemonic black male patriarchal oppression.
La Grange’s resentment at accusations of racism is the emotional aspect of a habitual response to anti-black racism that seeks to invisibilise the operation of white supremacy in South African society.
Arguably, linking this white female former personal secretary to the first black president of democratic South Africa, and her hand-washing social media post to the operation of white supremacy could be seen as absurd. Although La Grange may be a perfectly fine woman, her inability initially to critically engage with anti-black racist critique suggests she is complicit in white supremacy.
When we consider La Grange’s anger at accusations of condescending bigotry, add Helen Zille’s dismissal of critiques of her take on colonialism, and mix in FW De Klerk’s bewilderment at the angry response to his statement that apartheid was not a crime against humanity, we begin to build a picture of habitual white emotionality expressed as exasperation that seeks to frame anti-black racist criticism as an overreaction, if not completely imagined.
Facing our feelings
Phrases like ‘white supremacy’, ‘anti-black racism’ and ‘complicit’ are scary. We think these words refer to other people, which is why it is disconcerting when we ourselves are faced with this criticism. However, the fear or shame or anger that obstructs our response to important critique must not stop us from dealing with the very critique itself. Society will not change if we keep to automated emotional responses that shield us from confronting criticism. This ultimately means that unequal power relations will remain in place.
La Grange followed her initial frustrated response to her critics with an apology “to those who felt harmed, insulted or hurt by my posts about washing hands”. This tends to be the typical way our Problematic Person of the Moment eventually concedes. We can only hope that such apologies are the result of a genuine re-evaluation of their worldview shaped by an engagement with the behaviour that caused critique. I truly hope Zelda’s apology is imbued with a greater understanding of the way her words contributed towards inequality. If not, I hope she and others take the time to sit with their emotions and think about what lies beneath.
Adanma Yisa is the External Relations Manager in the School of Law. She holds a Master's in Critical Diversity Studies (Wits, 2019).
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Building a better understanding of disability
- Tamsin Oxford
People with disabilities, be they physical or mental, are often treated differently, which may affect their mental wellness. How to remove the social barriers.
Disability. It is a complex word. It can have negative connotations that imply a person is limited, different, unable to achieve what the able-bodied can. It can also, however, be the definitive benchmark of achievement when a person ignores physical and mental limitations to reach extraordinary heights.
The definition of disability differs between those affected and those who come into contact with people with disabilities. There is little more inspiring than being around someone who has overcome adversity to become the embodiment of extraordinary, but there is a journey they have taken to reach this point. A journey that is taken as much by the mind as the body and by how they have responded to the society in which they live.
“When it comes to disability, there’s a lot that a person experiences emotionally that is due to the conceptualisation of being different,” says Dr Victor de Andrade from the Audiology Division, in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, School of Human and Community Development.
“People can struggle with the recognition that they are different. Similarly, society has often stigmatised disability so people are reluctant to discuss [disabilities] or bring them to the fore.”
That awkward feeling
It is the lack of a wheelchair ramp to the library, so a person has to use a proxy to find something to read. It is the lack of access to facilities that recognise the hearing or visually impaired, so they have to rely on others to achieve simple tasks. It is the waiter asking the able-bodied person what their friend in the wheelchair would like to eat when they go out for dinner, or the person unable to make eye contact with someone who is physically impaired. These built-in societal limitations have an effect on a person’s wellbeing and mental happiness.
“Many able-bodied people have a deep-seated fear around disability. Perhaps, this is because the possibility of being disabled at some stage in our lives can happen to anyone,” says Duncan Yates, a Psychologist and Neurodiversity and Mental Health Coordinator in the Disability Rights Unit. “If a person can engage with people with disabilities, then they can get around their fear. We should not be afraid to ask questions and we also need to be aware of how we communicate.”
It's all in a name
Think about the expression ‘Deaf and…’. Most people fill in the blank with the word ‘dumb’. It has become a common saying that today implies that people with a hearing impairment also suffer from a mental impairment. Dumb has evolved as a word – it used to mean ‘mute’ but now it can also mean ‘stupid’. This simple phrase can carry significant weight for those who are born with, or experience, a hearing difficulty.
“If a person has a disability and lives in a context that is not accommodating of that disability, then the disability itself is now embodied in that person and they experience greater disability,” explains De Andrade. “People with disabilities may struggle to express themselves fully because of the limitations imposed by society.”
“I think our understanding of the mental issues that people with disabilities can experience is very limited and this is hugely problematic. There are also very few mental health services which are accessible to people with communicative impairments,” says Joanne Neille, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Speech and Pathology and Audiology. “There is also the consideration around the violence experienced by people with disabilities, yet few people with disabilities have the opportunity to report violence, either because of [a lack of] access to services or because institutions are not set up to accommodate disabled people.”
Yates maintains that the more a society understands disability, the less likely people with disabilities will have to face physical and attitudinal barriers. “A recent survey showed that a lot of students at Wits didn’t want to reveal their mental health related disabilities, but when they did, they got the support that they needed. This positively showed there was less stigma than they originally perceived.”
Changing misfortune into fortune
Stigma and discrimination are two of the most potent factors that influence a person’s wellbeing when they have a disability. They are treated differently or people react awkwardly around their impairments, be they physical and obvious or mental and hidden. A person’s experience of their disability can be largely dictated by the environment they are in and how they are treated. In addition, there are the mental complexities that come with unexpected disability due to an illness or an accident. For many people, the sudden and dramatic change can seriously shake their mental foundations.
“Disability itself won’t necessarily cause mental health issues,” concludes Anlia Pretorius, Head of the Disability Rights Unit. “You can change misfortune into fortune. We’ve seen our students end up doing amazing things – like the student with limited mobility who completed his exams by typing on a mobile phone. They are so motivated and passionate about their lives. There’s always the psychological side and the impact will be there, but how this is handled will depend on the individual and how they look at their future."
There are multiple layers to how people with a disability react to their circumstances. But what is equally important, is how society needs to adapt and embrace the psycho-social support to ensure people with disabilities can thrive.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
The right to die
- Beth Amato
Q&A: Professor of Philosophy, Kevin Behrens explains why euthanasia is not simply a matter of life and death.
Physician assisted suicide, or euthanasia, is banned in South Africa. Euthanasia is one of the most contested ethical subjects in the world, shaking our spiritual, political and social values to the core.
What are your thoughts about the “two sides of the story” regarding physician assisted dying? One side feels that under certain conditions, like extreme pain and terminal illness, people should have the right to end their own life. Conversely, others say that knowingly ending a life is an anathema to healthcare.
I am strongly of the opinion that continued life is sometimes more of a harm than dying, that euthanasia and assisted dying are morally justifiable under certain conditions, and that the current South African law is wrong and should be changed to allow for these acts. Everybody ought to have the right to decide on how they die, and it should be up to them to choose a shorter life over an extended life of pain or distress. We have no choice when it comes to being brought into this world, but we should have the choice about whether or not we want to stay in this world.
I therefore take the fairly radical position that it is a person’s right to make a choice to end their life under any circumstance in which they are honestly convinced that this is in their best interests.
This is easiest to justify in cases where patients have a terminal illness and are experiencing intractable physical pain and distress. These clear cases also serve to guide us regarding what is right in some of the more controversial cases, such as if a patient has suffered from major depressive disorder for many years. It is morally irrelevant to only justify euthanasia in terminal illness cases.
What counts morally is that a person is in pain and is distressed, and has come to a reasonable conclusion that the best way to be freed from this pain and distress is by ending their life.
Regarding health professionals participating in euthanasia at the request of patients: I do not see it as a negation of the “do no harm” principle. Harms are relative. We are often forced to do some harm to prevent greater harm. Death is not always the greatest harm that can be done to a person. Sometimes continuing to live is more harmful.
Is euthanasia just another example of how humans attempt to exert domain and control on the so-called uncontrollable and unknown?
If there is anything over which we ought to have dominion or control, it is our own life and death. It is when we interfere with the choices and rights of others that we over-reach. I do think that death is just a natural part of life, and that it is sometimes a blessing for people. Death is not always harm, and we should sometimes welcome and embrace it as something that offers relief for others or even ourselves.
We probably have over-medicalised natural processes, including those at the beginning and the end of life. We have turned the prolonging of life into an absolute moral good, whereas it is not. It is often our own inability to accept the reality and inevitability of death that makes us – especially physicians – blindly believe that it is always best to prolong life whenever it is possible. Such myopia can lead us to make decisions that cause far more harm than good to patients.
If euthanasia is not an option, is the answer high quality palliative care to improve the patient’s quality of life while not treating the cause of suffering?
High quality palliative care, which is meant to alleviate stress and adverse symptoms associated with a serious illness, should be available to everyone who needs it. The fact is this is not the case. Even in wealthy countries very few people have access to good palliation. However, even if it were available to all who need it, it would not put an end to the need for euthanasia. Not even the best palliative medicine can completely free all patients from pain and distress. Many patients continue to experience significant pain even under the care of palliative physicians. Furthermore, the distress patients experience is also psychological. Many patients find being dependent, helpless, incontinent, confused, etc., to be a serious threat to their dignity. Palliative care does not necessarily free patients from these indignities, and may add to them.
Are there any advocacy efforts for dignified dying through euthanasia? How are you involved?
Globally there are many organisations that advocate for euthanasia. In South Africa, probably the most well-known organisation is DignitySA. I am not involved in any euthanasia advocacy groups. I use my classroom as an opportunity to raise awareness about these issues, and I have published one article on assisted dying. I try to provide my students with the intellectual schools and cognitive skills to make their own decisions about moral issues rather than using the classroom to promote my own views.
Professor Kevin Behrens holds a PhD in Philosophy. He is the Director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics at Wits. He answers these euthanasia-related questions in his personal capacity and his views are not necessarily those of the Centre or of the University.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Understanding suicide
- Ufrieda Ho
Suicide risk may start in the womb and studies also connect it to factors including smoking, social media and social inequality.
A few days of feeling down followed by a few more down days can pull many into the dark terrain of despair. But for about 800 000 people a year that despair sinks to the rock bottom of suicide.
World Health Organization (WHO) statistics equate these numbers of those who kill themselves to a life lost to suicide every 40 seconds globally. Even more concerning is that the WHO estimates that, for every suicide, there are 20 attempted suicides.
Young people and students in particular are a high-risk group because of the complex range of personal circumstances and pressures they face during this period of their lives, says Fezile Mdluli, a Wits Institutional Researcher who leads the Wits Fit Minds Project.
Wits students and suicide
The project started in 2018, partly to focus on mental health issues after several suicides amongst students. These incidents quickly became an area of strategic importance for the University, but there just wasn’t enough data.
“We need our own contextually relevant data and statistics and more research in this area,” says Mdluli. “It is the best chance we have to recognise the problems leading to suicide and thoughts of suicide, and to have the relevant university strategies and policies in place that could save a life."
University reality calamity
The university experience can be challenging for many young people, especially those who are the first in their family to attend university.
“Wits has a highly heterogeneous group of students. At least a third of recent student cohorts are first generation university students. They arrive academically capable but the expectations from their families for them to succeed can be overwhelming,” says Mdluli.
At the same time, as they advance in their academic careers, the gulf between these students and their families can widen, heightening the sense of isolation.
Students interviewed in the Fit Minds study have remarked that even the portrayal of universities in sit-coms on TV creates a false image for their families, but it is sometimes the only reference point that parents or grandparents have of university life in a big city. The result is that many students believe that their families feel ill-equipped to emotionally support them or are unable to conceive the problems they face.
Professor Nicole De Wet-Billings, who lectures in Demography and Population Studies, is aware of these pressures through her connection to students Wits. Their narratives and experiences, she says, inspired her to examine death notification forms and hone in on the connection between abortion, self-harm, pregnancy and young mothers as one of her key research areas. Her paper on this is expected to be published later this year.
Big picture triggers
De Wet-Billings says it is the connecting points, rather than the specifics, that are worth pausing at to understand suicide risk among young people. The zoomed-out picture shows multiple nexus points, which hold clues to understanding the complexity and the triggers for suicide. It also allows for an examination of the nature of stress and the effect of society’s stigmas, unhealthy social norms, and how these factors affect the quality of responses and interventions to minimise suicide risk.
“We have to look at suicide and suicide risk through a lens of inequality, through a historical perspective, a gendered perspective and also through understanding current-day pressures and realities that include what society has stigmatised and normalised,” she says.
Stress at university is too easily made a badge of honour – the notion that suffering to achieve is noble and worthy. It can become dangerous when additional personal pressure or a sudden traumatic incident is piled on top of this, says De-Wet Billings. It could be homesickness, a relationship break-up, social media peer pressure, rape or sexual assault, falling pregnant unexpectedly, or losing a loved one. What was a just-manageable pressure spins into the realm of uncontrollable. The student feels singled out and doomed to fail.
“In this age group, things escalate very quickly – pressure turns to withdrawal and silence, then depression, and then self-harm and suicide,” says De Wet-Billings.
She says a better response starts with greater awareness of mental health issues from society, more open conversations, and ultimately empathy and compassion.
“It is not normal for students to stop eating properly, or to only be sleeping for a few hours and to be studying for 17 hours to achieve. It leaves an emotional and physical toll on the body and it causes health risks later in life,” says De Wet-Billings.
Saving students
Resources and services need to be more accessible, relevant and flexible to adapt to personal needs, she adds. Responding better also means an emphasis on teaching, sharing and practising coping mechanisms that include recognising stress and building support networks. Ultimately, she says, it is just being more human and more mindful, recognising that people may carry more burdens that they don’t show.
“We who are in positions of authority, such as lecturers, need to recognise that not everybody starts from the same base. Some students miss classes because they don’t have toiletries to have a shower and they know some people may make fun of them. Some students may be late on an assignment because they had to care for a sick parent or have suffered a sexual assault and can’t tell anyone. It is up to us to be willing to see, even if we can’t fully understand,” she says.
Where self-harm begins
Deeper understanding also calls for broader research perspectives into suicide. This is what recently brought visiting academic Dr Massimiliano Orri from McGill University’s Department of Psychiatry in Canada to Wits. He presented some of his research at Wits in March, delving into possible factors in utero [in the womb] that may determine lifetime suicide risk.
Orri and his colleagues’ work focused on 42 cases and explored possible links between everything from a mother smoking while pregnant to the consequence of a Caesarean section birth over a natural birth, the effect of parents’ education levels, and the age of a mother when she gives birth.
His findings have a caveat, though, because “existing evidence is sparse and contradictory”, but he and his colleagues write that they can show “prenatal and perinatal characteristics are associated with increased suicide risk during the life course, supporting the developmental origin of health and diseases hypothesis for suicide”.
However, Orri says gaps remain. At the same time, the vast unknowns stand as an urgent call to put mental health research higher up on the agenda because knowing more and acting appropriately could save somebody’s life.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Concentrating on ADHD
- Ufrieda Ho
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a long phrase to describe a short attention span. In students, ADHD can severely impact academic performance.
‘Just focus!’ It’s tougher to do than you think if your brain is wired differently to how the mainstream world is calibrated.
For students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), it is a mismatch that means everything they tackle takes that much more effort and time to accomplish. What is more, the double dilemma of being misunderstood, stigmatised and bullied comes with the territory.
Professor Sharon Moonsamy is a speech-language therapist and remedial education consultant and the Acting Head of the School of Human and Community Development at Wits. Moonsamy’s research has looked at the experiences and challenges faced by Wits students diagnosed with ADHD.
Behaviour on the brain
ADHD is a neurological disorder where lower levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine are produced in the prefrontal cortex in the brain, explains Moonsamy. ADHD affects both males and females and, although it is usually diagnosed in children as they start school, it can sometimes go undiagnosed all together or is only picked up later on in life.
Lowered dopamine levels mean that someone with ADHD has compromised impulse control, fewer inhibitions and an impaired ability to concentrate. It comes across as being distracted, seemingly getting bored easily, not being able to sit still, or not being able to complete a task.
“For students, they experience psychosocial difficulties with task perseverance, distractibility, dependency on others in their daily routines, and in their relationships with others. These challenges relate to two of the executive functions: planning and organisation, and attention,” says Moonsamy.
She says ADHD can easily be missed in a university environment because lecturers may associate the condition as something diagnosed in young children, so they are not on the lookout for it in their classes. In addition, students may get lost in the crowd of university life, or those that continue to struggle along are really only just getting by with coping skills that they have relied on for years.
Moonsamy says that what is needed to support and extract the full potential of students with ADHD is the development of better coping skills, improved awareness of ADHD among lecturers and students, and deepening empathy.
“We find often that people with ADHD are highly creative, intelligent and competent, but they often just end up quitting university life because they’re frustrated and they don’t know how to get help,” she says.
Great expectations
Moonsamy points out the weight of expectation on the student with ADHD who arrives at university: “Tagged by parents and lecturers as ‘having potential’, these students are burdened with expectations of success, but they know that focused, sustained and selective attention is a challenge for them. They fail to achieve as expected, which reduces their self-esteem and self-confidence.”
Also, the English words to describe and diagnose the disorder seem alien to some who are not English first-language speakers. As a result, it excludes sufferers who don’t connect with the vocabulary, making it even more difficult for them to express what they are experiencing or to seek help.
Moonsamy thinks sound clinical diagnosis, monitored medication and targeted interventions can benefit many people with ADHD. Coping methods and interventions can include making lists, setting goals, working with smaller chunks of information at a time, verbalising thinking, and using diaries and timers to organise and keep track of tasks.
“Interventions need to include both an understanding of attention skills and how the student can self-regulate thoughts and actions. It is also about breaking down stigmas so that someone can ask for help, even if it’s just extra time to complete an exam or assignment,” she says. “Ultimately there must be safe spaces within the university for students to speak to someone, find support and get the kind of help and understanding that they need.”
Thea’s story
Thea*, a former Wits student with ADHD, could only commit to pursuing a degree in English literature as an older student. She didn’t finish matric and academic under-performance became the label attached to her in her teens.
“I left school, started to work and had a CV with a strong skills-set, but I didn’t have the sense of having accomplished anything because I didn’t have the degree. At one point I started studying for a marketing diploma but I couldn’t pass economics, so I just quit,” says Thea.
Eventually, years later, with the right kind of medication, family support and a deeper personal understanding of her disorder, she started tackling a degree through correspondence. “I had to have a work area that’s completely free of clutter. I listened to music and I had to get into a zone so that I could finish what I was doing in one go, even if it meant sitting at my desk for hours, or working through the night,” says Thea of what it took to focus to finish an assignment.
Even today with a job in marketing, she says she has to make lists – with everything colour-coded and ordered. She keeps a diary of tasks and sets a timer and alarms. When she’s in ‘the zone’ she can forget to drink water, to each lunch or just to stop.
“I’m working hard on the balance bit and I literally have to set a reminder to make time for my relationships or to take a break. It’s about planning everything and finding what works for me and getting the right kind of support,” she say.
Her message for students with ADHD is that it can be done. Students with ADHD need to speak up and to ask for help without fear. For lecturers and society in general, Thea says it is about more awareness and education of the disorder and learning to respond with empathy and humility.
“People with ADHD – those who are diagnosed and those who are not – may not be dropping the ball, failing to deliver or underperforming because they’re stupid. They just need the lecturer, the HR person or whoever to ask the right questions in the right way to understand what’s really going on.”
*Identity withheld.
*Thea was labelled an academic underperformer before appropriate interventions enabled her to fulfil her potential despite ADHD.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Our ageing brains: Concentrating on dementia
- Tamsin Oxford
Strong social networks can go a long way to assist people living with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's.
The passage of time, the genetic lottery and illness can affect an older person’s emotions, moods and behaviours – changing how they engage with others and experience life. Advancing years can cause problems with cognition and memory that can manifest in mood changes that influence their relationships and lives.
Diseases such as Alzheimer’s erode a person’s sense of self-awareness and cognitive ability and put immense pressure on caregivers and partners as they watch the person they knew slowly disappear.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), around 46.8 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, of which about 187 000 are in SA. This number is expected to increase to 250 000 by 2030 making it increasingly important to find ways to help people experiencing dementia.
“As we age, so does our brain, the centre of the body that controls so much of who we are and what we do each day,” explains Dr Ryan Wagner of the MRC/Wits Agincourt Research Unit at Wits.
“Certain parts of our brain shrink in size and this can impact our memory, learning and decision-making. Our ageing brains are also more likely to be affected by conditions such as stroke and dementia.”
Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a number of different conditions that result in decreased cognitive ability, such as Alzheimer’s. Many of these conditions are progressive and often have a drastic effect on a person’s ability to carry out daily activities.
There is still a lot to be learned about what causes dementia, which is essentially damage to brain cells and can be caused by strokes or ‘small strokes’ that are more common in older people. Wagner points out that another condition that affects mood, behaviour and emotions in older people is depression.
“It is common but often under-diagnosed in older people,” he says. “We know that higher levels of depression are seen in people with dementia and after experiencing a stroke, but older people without dementia or stroke experience depression as well. With generally more health issues, a possible reduction in physical function, changing relational dynamics, maybe the loss of a partner or close friends and thoughts of mortality – getting older can be stressful and lead to depression.”
The brain is the epicentre of the individual. It’s the central computer that manages memory, decision-making, mood, movement and speech. Conditions that affect the brain tend to manifest in different ways as they affect different areas. Depression and dementia can develop slowly.
Cognitive impairment can start with forgetfulness – where are the house keys, who is that person?
With dementia, this will progress over time and other brain functions may be affected – I can’t remember how to speak, I’m not sure how to respond. This can lead to changes in mood due to frustration and anger. Often, dementia is accompanied by severe mood swings, aggressive behaviour, and what can seem like illogical decision making. People affected by the illness are frustrated by the limitations of their thought processes and their moods are troubled by confusion, loss and sorrow.
“For many people, experiencing dementia or cognitive decline, it is more important to conduct normal activities at home and in the community than it is to put a label on whether their condition is Parkinson’s or dementia,” explains Professor Stephen Tollman from the MRC/Wits Agincourt Research Unit at Wits.
“We still don’t have a lot of data for the relative rates of various conditions but insights and research will help us to manage treatments and interventions that are more effective. One area that can be plotted with real accuracy is the ways in which social networks change over time as cognition declines. Social networks play an important role and these can shrink as dementia increases.”
The resilience of social networks plays a powerful role in helping people with evolving dementia. A solid and supportive network has a positive effect, especially in areas where medical and healthcare resources are limited and often unavailable. As Tollman points out, “I think we know very little and it’s important we gain a deeper understanding, particularly in the rural context. Older people play a critical role in South Africa and their importance to the youth and future of the country is clear.”
Dementia is a burden felt heavily in rural and poorer areas and the changes in mood that accompany the decline are complex and challenging, but there have been some remarkable shifts in approach and potential management of the condition.
In 2018, Wits Professor Stefan Weiss revealed a ground-breaking nasal spray that could potentially transform the lives of people with Alzheimer’s. The spray, currently undergoing clinical trials, has shown success in slowing down the progression of the disease by targeting the protein aggregation that accompanies it.
“While we still don’t have an effective treatment to reverse or cure Alzheimer’s, there are medications that temporarily improve some of the symptoms,” concludes Wagner. “Globally there’s a huge effort underway to better understand the causes of dementia. The hope is that if we better understand the causes, we can develop effective treatment. But the best we can do right now is to try and prevent it. Eating healthily, getting adequate exercise, quitting smoking and keeping the brain active are the best ways to lower the chances of developing dementia.”
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Whiter workplace wellness?
- Lem Chetty
Mental health is set to become a global crisis by 2030. Creating a caring, nurturing culture in your workplace can save employers and employees a lot of stress.
The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that mental health will be the single largest global crisis we will face by 2030 – and this challenge is only going to be exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Workplaces globally and in South Africa will not escape the repercussions, says Professor Karen Milner, from the Wits School of Human and Community Development, whose research focuses on mental health in the workplace.
“The world of work is rapidly changing and that pace of change has increased exponentially with the advent of the Covid-19. As we work from our dining rooms, home offices and couches, it is hard to believe that just a few weeks ago we were sitting in face-to-face meetings with colleagues – in close physical proximity, able to connect in ways that now seem so simple and straightforward,” she says.
Milner says mental health challenges as a result of the pandemic “are going to manifest in the workplace as well, as we all struggle to adapt to remote working, physically distanced from our colleagues, almost completely reliant on technology-mediated forms of communication”.
It makes sense then that organisations and structures need to change to accommodate agility. “A fundamental consideration, however, is how this structure will impact the mental wellbeing of workers, considering the melting pot of personalities, social dynamics, power, performance and gender beliefs around work,” she says. Milner adds that workplaces will have to introduce ‘specific adaptations’ to ensure employee wellbeing after the pandemic, “but most of the fundamental principles that have been established over decades of research on worker wellbeing, remain pertinent”.
Don’t band-aid toxic culture
One of Milner’s focus areas is employee wellbeing because, she says, psychology should place the wellbeing of human beings first. “So we look at how organisations can help and hinder people’s mental health – and the first point is that the nature of your organisation definitely does affect both physical and mental health and wellness in the workplace.”
While this means to some extent that green spaces, quiet areas, mindfulness pods and the like are important, it also means addressing toxic structures and behaviours in the workplace – such as bullying. “Remember that some mental health issues are formed at the workplace. In the case of bullying, we have to first stop that which contributes to it before introducing measures to address mental wellbeing.”
Her key message is to not “place band-aids on toxic culture”.
“It is always easier to introduce an external programme to foster wellbeing, than to tackle what harm the organisation itself is causing. The organisation must take responsibility and see where the practices and policies it has in place are causing problems and how they can be fixed, before looking at wellbeing at an individual level,” she says.
“Where the work itself is inherently stressful, more individualised interventions are necessary,” says Milner. “For example, providing employees with psycho-social support, opportunity for debriefing and if necessary, referring [them] to an employee assistance programme.”
The most typical way poor mental health manifests in the workplace is through depression, anxiety and burnout, says Milner.
Depression can manifest in different ways in the workplace. “Some signs for colleagues, managers and even the affected employees themselves to look out for include a person’s lack of interest in work and life, exhaustion and unexplained tiredness and high levels of irritability without a real reason,” she says.
For some, it shows up as a headache and backache. People become withdrawn, and there are higher levels of mistakes and accidents.
Pause for support
And just how helpful are those coffee stations and pause areas really?
“Many organisations have wellness programmes in place which encourage employees to lead healthy lifestyles, and provide opportunities for relaxation through mindfulness, meditation, yoga and so on,” says Milner.
“There is certainly some research evidence that such practices can assist in reducing employee stress and improving their wellbeing, but again it is critical to emphasise that the responsibility for employee wellbeing should not rest on the individual employee alone – organisational leaders need to create an environment where employees feel that they matter, that they are cared for, that their work is important and valued and that their skills and abilities are being used effectively,” she says.
Coffee stations and pause areas can then help to reinforce the message that the organisation cares about their staff’s wellbeing. Allowing flexibility for healthy practices in the workplace is also key.
Presenteeism and unworkable woes
There are two aspects to mental wellbeing, explains Milner. One is general mental wellbeing of the healthy population, and the other is mental illness, which is a different concern.
“People with a mental health illness bear a considerable burden of unemployment. If their mental health could be improved, they might be able to work, and if accommodation for their mental illness can be made, their mental health may improve,” she says. “Secondly, for those who are employed but mentally unwell, the costs are extremely high for organisations.”
These costs usually come in the form of absenteeism, where people take time off work because they are ill. However, the concept of “presenteeism” also takes its toll as workers that are unwell – either mentally or physically – come to work, but are not productive. “This has a high rate of productivity loss, too,” says Milner.
Discouraging stigma
The first step in creating a culture of wellness and care in the workplace is to remove the stigma from seeking help. “There must be a culture of trust which will allow people to reach out,” says Milner. The right help can make a person more productive, even in the case of psychiatric illness, which can be helped with medication.
“When there are psychological impacts which require counselling, therapy and sometimes medication, it takes a lot to reach out. Mental health illness creates vulnerability. People believe a diagnosis will be held against them, that they will be viewed as incapable or not strong enough. There is no quick fix for this, but an organisational structure that encourages communication is a good place to start,” she adds.
Beyond Tea and Tissues: Managing Mental Health in the South African Workplace by Karen Milner and Judith Ancer will be published in 2020.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Balancing two worlds
- Portia Cele
PROFILE: Nothing is more empowering than the feeling like you are being heard. Dr Nomfundo Moroe lends an ear and empathy to the Deaf community.
Imagine this: A five-year-old child with perfect hearing whose parents are both hearing impaired is unwittingly positioned between the hearing and the non-hearing worlds. The child communicates with her parents in Sign language and is responsible for translating and talking to the outside hearing world on their behalf.
Such an encounter with a Child of Deaf Adults (CODA) a few years ago ignited the interests of audiologist Dr Nomfundo Moroe, and inspired her research interest in how these children cope with being the mediator between their Deaf parents and a hearing world.
“When working as a junior audiologist for the Department of Health, I interacted with a young girl who used to come to my department to buy batteries for her mother’s hearing aids,” says Moroe. “In one of our engagements, she told me that her parents were Deaf.” Moroe became curious, and started enquiring about the child’s everyday life. “I would ask her about her day-to-day experiences. I learned that she’d have to skip school to accompany her mom to appointments as there was no one else to help translate.”
Long before then, two of Moroe’s undergraduate classmates at Wits made Moroe wonder how Children of Deaf Adults managed to keep a balance between the ‘hearing’ and the ‘Deaf’ worlds. These interactions inspired Moroe on to postgraduate study. In 2013 she published extensively on Children of Deaf Adults being the ears and mouths for their parents, and the delegation of these children to act as interpreters for their families.
As one of eight siblings, Moroe was raised by her mother and late uncle after her father passed away during her first year in high school. “My mother is a teacher and she values education. She named me Nomfundo, which means ‘mother of education’, and my paternal grandmother named me Hlakaniphile, which means ‘the intelligent one’. So you can see that I was born with a mission – to pursue education.”
During her final year of high school in 2001, Moroe would often visit the private practice of the local GP, Dr Mabusela, across the road from her home in Esikhawini, a township in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal.
“Back then, I didn’t have access to a resource like Google to find out what this discipline [audiology] was about. Dr Mabusela gave me a brief background, saying he’s seeing a lot of patients who were Deaf and in need of speech therapy and audiology services, but had no one to refer them to. I can safely say he planted that seed, as I then applied for Speech Pathology and Audiology at Wits.
The intelligent one listens
During the course of her degree, Moroe became a wife and subsequently a mother of two boys. She says she had difficulty balancing these demands. “I was a smart student but that did not come through in my undergraduate training. Therefore, I needed to prove to myself that I was not as incapable as some of my lecturers had said. So I enrolled for a Master’s degree to take back my self-worth and to live up to my name.”
Her research took her deep into the Deaf community as she published on the topics of identity and belonging within the hearing and the Deaf world, and the role of audiologists in these families. Moroe says the Deaf community revealed itself as confident a community as any other.
“People who are Deaf see themselves as a cultural group. They are a community and function well within that community without any challenges. The difficulties begin once stepping out of their own world,” says Moroe. What further creates fractious feelings is that sign language is misconceived as being only for a ‘disabled’ group of people, and hearing people who are capable of learning a manual language aren’t making enough effort to do so. “As the hearing world, we can work to be more accommodating.”
It starts with changing the perception of Deaf people as being disabled. Healthcare professionals sometimes see the hearing loss before they see the person and label the person as ‘Deaf’. They then have sympathetic attitudes, which are problematic, says Moroe. “We come in with a lens of pathology and impairment whereas the hearing impaired choose a social view that ‘although we are a minority, we are a community who embraces our difference’.”
Moroe’s research interests turned from children of Deaf Adults to unacceptable levels of noise in the mining environment, after meeting up with her PhD supervisor, Professor Katijah Khoza-Shangase. She started focusing on occupational noise-induced hearing loss.
Going underground
During her PhD, she found that the noise made by equipment in South African mines far exceeds the legal 85 dBA limit. To put this into perspective, a conversation between two people sitting across from each other at a table tallies at about 45-50 decibels.
“Legislation states that if workers are exposed to high volumes, they should be using hearing protective devices. Not much has been done to help educate workers about the long-term impact of noise,” she says.
The effects of being continuously exposed to noise only become evident a decade or so later. It was these effects on ordinary workers, and how that might make them feel, that piqued Moroe’s interest in this research area. “My argument is that people at work are trying to make a living and feel they don’t have an alternative,” she says.
Moroe went on to publish more than 10 manuscripts on the topic of occupational noise-induced mining loss, earning her PhD by publication in December 2018.
“Going through my journey of study I realised how little exposure and research was done on occupational hearing loss. I am forever trying to come up with ways of how best to address the noise issue in the mine sector.”
Moroe, a fellow of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), whose research is supported by the National Research Foundation, has a vision of opening an occupational health and safety unit, working with occupations where there is excessive noise.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Feelings about fathers
- Refilwe Mabula
The role of the father in the family or, more specifically, his absence, has profound implications for the mental wellbeing of his offspring.
South Africa is reported to have among the highest prevalence of absent fathers in Africa, second only to Namibia. The country’s history of slavery, colonialism, apartheid, forced migration and the migrant labour systems took fathers away from their families, disrupted cultures, traditions, and South African families.
Similarly, Dr Motlalepule Nathane-Taulela, whose PhD in Psychology focussed on father connections, says father absence in South Africa needs to be linked to societal and structural issues.
Nathane-Taulela says that there are variations of father absence in society due to various circumstances and father absence should therefore be referred to as father disconnection.
“Some children know their fathers but have no connection with them. In other instances, paternity was denied when the mother was pregnant. In some cases, there are undisclosed fathers, where the identity of the father is unknown,” says Nathane-Taulela.
Angst of the Offspring
Feelings of rejection, distress and disappointment are common emotions for young people who grow up without their biological fathers. In her research on gender-based violence and absent fathers, Nduna found that “children who grow up with an absent biological father tend to display behavioural problems and often experience more life trauma and distress compared to children who grow up residing with both parents.”
In a context where men are constructed as providers and as heads of families, the absence of a biological father affects the psychological wellbeing of his children – they harbour pain because of the disconnection from their fathers.
Malose Langa, Associate Professor in the Psychology Department, says: “The absence of fathers results in a lot of pain,” This leads some children to take part in “a lot of risk-taking behaviours including experimentation with drinking and smoking.”
This type of behaviour continues until late adulthood and may remain like that. Some children get to meet their fathers. Others never do. In meeting their fathers, some children may be disappointed as things do not turn out the way they would have expected as the father might not have an interest in establishing and maintaining a relationship with his child.
This disappointment can be psychologically distressing.
“When you have been psychologically prepared to expect the presence of a father and it does not happen, that causes a disturbance. You are disappointed, you are stressed and distressed, because you expected the biological father to be the person to give you the emotional, financial, and psychological support that you need,” says Nduna.
Fathering beyond biology
In many African families, children have access to a father figure through ‘social fathers’ – uncles, older brothers and grandfathers. These father figures often assume the duties of the absent biological father, providing children with emotional and financial support and a nurturing relationship. Social fathers may be good role models.
The Statistics South Africa General Household Survey of 2016 shows that 71% of children under the age of 17 live with an adult man in the same household. Of these, 35% of the men are not the children’s biological fathers. These men not only care for the children but may also inculcate valuable life teachings.
“Fatherhood is a socially constructed phenomenon,” says Nduna. Any other adult can assume the role of father and nurture, provide for, and discipline. “We have socially constructed for our children the idea that the presence of a person equates emotional support. Nowhere does it say that another human being, regardless of gender, cannot perform those functions.”
Pursuit of identity
Your identity and knowing your lineage gives you a sense of belonging. Your surname says a lot about your identity and lineage. Usually, children with absent and undisclosed fathers take their mothers’ surnames at birth but often in adolescence search for the identity of their biological father.
“South African families are patriarchal families and as a society we place emphasis on paternal lineage,” says Nathane-Taulela. “When we ask ‘who are you – what is your identity?’, young people will not refer to their mother’s identity. In a patrilineal society, your real identity is your father’s identity.”
The ‘right’ surname
Questions of “true” identity lead children to search for fathers and their ‘right’ surnames. Popular South African shows, Khumbula Ekhaya and Utatakho show how young people embark on journeys to find their fathers in a quest to find the ‘right’ surname – that is, their father’s last name.
In South Africa, paternal surname is associated with the ‘right’ ancestral protection. For traditional and cultural customs, paternal lineage in South Africa is believed to be important for ancestral protection.
“In African contexts, we have this idea that your paternal ancestry is so important that, if it is missing, things might go wrong in your life because you do not have that protection. It causes a lot of distress amongst young people,” says Nduna.
Refilwe Mabula is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Madness, she wrote
- Ufrieda Ho
The feminisation of madness is persistent and pervasive as are forms of Othering across societies.
During a particularly vulnerable global moment, interpretations of madness warrant interrogation.
‘Hysterical’, ‘over-emotional’, ‘delusional’, ‘shrill’, ‘the bridezilla’ – ‘madness’ has always come with loaded synonyms, disdain and more often than not, a distinct feminine association. Pull a thread through history, culture and across disciplines and it becomes clear that ‘madness’ has conveniently been deployed to write off women, diminish them and to pathologise their emotions.
Women as witches
The idea of women as the weaker sex gets an early start in the biblical creation story of Adam and Eve. It’s Eve who goes off script and is tempted by the slinky devil serpent bearing the gift of knowledge in a poisoned apple. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there’s Ophelia, beautiful and doomed to literally drown in her madness.
Outside of fiction, there were the Salem witch trials in the United States in 1692 that ended in the hanging of ‘possessed’ women condemned and cast out as witches. In 1880, hysteria as a clinical condition was described as an affliction unique to women. Here in our own neck of the woods, there was Xhosa prophet Nongqawuse, whose visions and prophecies sparked the Cattle Killings of 1856. She would be dismissed as delusional, as troubled by the wild fantasies of a teenage girl maybe undergoing thwasa (the transition to become a diviner or healer), or unstable and moody with the hormonal cocktails of adolescence.
Little Women
In modern times, ‘madness’ as a gendered weapon is everywhere in politics and media. Donald Trump in 2018 lashed out as his former aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman, calling her ‘wacky and deranged’ and a ‘crazed, crying lowlife’, after she wrote a tell-all book on the US president.
That same year, tennis icon Serena Williams was fined, then booed and ridiculed by detractors including the Twittterati and an Australian cartoonist, for arguing with the umpire during the US Open. Her pushback was seen as irrational, petulant and emotional – code really for going a bit crazy.
(M)Enlightenment
Dr Danai Mupotsa, Senior Lecturer in African Literature at Wits, says the “feminisation of madness is giving minority status to something or showing a deficiency, a lack of something”.
“Madness is a metaphor for the status of someone who is an outsider of normative value or structure,” says Mupotsa. It deserves challenging, and one-way scholars and thinkers can do this is to interrogate how ‘the invention of humanness’ from the Enlightenment comes to be the all-encompassing standard, but is hopelessly narrow and exclusionary, she says.
Adopting a wider range of world views is essential, says Mupotsa. For example, allowing for the understanding that something like thwasa is a gift, not a problem, as well as the inclusion of minorities, be they black, queer or women who are historically under-represented.
“When we do this the single view comes apart and we start to recognise that there are many ways of seeing that things are not this or that; they can be many things at the same time,” she says.
Think different
Mupotsa goes further to say madness can also be a standpoint – it can have agency. Going against the grain holds a key to finding expression, to deepening activism or advocacy, to actually have something to say.
“Many people are neuro-divisive; we have a broad range of how we manage mood, our level of temperament and our affectations.” Neurodiversity is the idea that brain differences are normal, rather than deficits. “We should also be thinking about the structure of our lives that are maddening and the fact that women in particular are constantly juggling multiple roles in life,” she says.
Professor Sumaya Laher, Head of the Psychology Department at Wits, agrees with the need for broader framing and contextualised understanding of how madness is diagnosed, thought about and written about. It needs the inclusion of indigenous knowledge and an Afro-centric framing.
“It is clear that over the years madness has been used as a form of control and power to subjugate women, to suggest that the feminine is emotional and irrational while the masculine is the rational, thinking self. This has also extended beyond gender to race and class and led to modern understandings of pathology,” says Laher. “We need a cultural understanding of what pathology is and how this is shaped by political forces, not just what fits into a traditional diagnostic manual or tool.”
Upending the way things have always been done is a tall task, but it is certainly not new for scholars and researchers, says Professor Pamila Gupta of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER). “History has been largely written by men, and researchers have been aware of this for a very long time and continue to challenge this as the norm,” she says. “The idea that women are the second sex, are irrational, biologically weaker, that they have periods that men have no clue about, is a way of men containing women. It is using madness as diseases, something dirty, taboo – and this becomes a form of othering, distancing and isolating.”
‘Show them what crazy can do’
Gupta draws a parallel with how the world is trying to understand the Covid-19 pandemic. She says the madness of women as other, as a form of disease, is now playing out “through the madness of a race as other”. It is the rise of Sinophobia and anti-Asian sentiment, including targeting “the madness of food habits” of some Chinese people, because the disease is believed to have come from a wet market in China. In turn, reports out of China as the country emerges from the pandemic, tell of incidents of racism and xenophobia targeting black Africans living in China.
Researchers and scholars continue their work because the feminisation of madness persists and pervades, so does othering in all its forms across societies and in a world that fractures easily when it is reactionary, fearful and plunged into uncertainty and anxiety, as it is now in a time of pandemic.
The counter-push is as necessary as ever and it may just show that madness is not the problem after all. Serena Williams’ Dream Crazier Nike advert sums it up: “If they want to call you crazy. Fine. Show them what crazy can do.”
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
How your tribe affects your vibe
- Lem Chetty
We are influenced by those with whom we most closely associate, in terms of our ideologies, political positions and prejudices. Covid-19 exposed who we are.
As a sociological phenomenon, our ’vibe’ – our experiences and ensuing behaviour – starts to develop on the day we are born.
From that day onward, we are socialised by our upbringing – our families and schooling, religious influences, and then further through our education and the media we consume. All of these play a critical part in shaping our outlook, and as we grow into adulthood we are exposed to a variety of ideas – in the workplace, through our colleagues, our friends, our leaders. Even the work environment can contribute to shaping how we see, understand and think of the world.
Shifting tribes
Professor Devan Pillay from the Department of Sociology at Wits says during the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the primary influences of our socialisation has created polarised political and economic views of the lockdown situation.
“This primary influence is class location,” says Pillay. “It affected people’s reactions and behaviour immediately. Especially in South Africa where inequality is vast. Different classes of people and how they view food was a telling factor.”
Rotisserie chicken and pies polarised those in the middle class. For the working classes in townships, this may not have featured as a critical issue, given that the informal shop owner selling hot food on the side of the road had already been unable to do so. But for the average Woolies Food patron, this became a major issue.
“If we look at the historical version of the word ‘tribe’, it has leanings to being locked into a particular situation – a village, or geographical version of family. In that family context, if we are embedded with only our biological families all of our lives, we would view the world in a particular way.”
In a cosmopolitan, modern world, our family is much wider than our loved ones. These families can range from co-workers, to our football club, and our religious context. That ‘tribe’ is always shifting in a modern context.
The contagion of crowds
“We have family chat groups right now while in lockdown. These have become more valuable for people. But not everyone likes the family and not everyone in the family has the same views. Some posts in these groups, you might be appalled by. Some are crazy conspiracy theorists. So, if we stay only within this particular family group, our outlook may be influenced by only these views, which is not ideal,” says Pillay.
This is a microcosm of what happens in larger communities. A case in point is the emergence of extremists and racial fanatics in the US after the election of Donald Trump as president.
“The world is a complex space and there is a lot of information out there. We can’t always emotionally or intellectually process these notions, so we follow those who we respect – this is the nature of dictators and religious fanatics. When people are more able to think rationally and have core education grounding, you might not have this extremist behaviour,” says Pillay.
The ideal, if it existed, would be a frame of reference that is free of prejudices and seeks scientific evidence-based perspectives that opens up our points of view to other perspectives.
“This is a difficult issue for some when they don’t have access to information, education and historical background necessary for avoiding [groupthink]. Then you can be influenced by crazy conspiracy theories, instead of that which is solidly grounded in fact.
‘Groupthink’ trumps diversity
One example is the conspiracy that Covid-19 is spread over 5G cellular networks, or politician Julius Malema’s claims that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan is a racist and represents white monopoly capital. “If you have historical knowledge, you know that Gordhan was a key figure in the anti-apartheid movement. With 5G networks, you must have the ability and access to information that is science-based – including basic resources like data available to Google this – only then, do you have the basic ability to filter this information,” says Pillay.
Inequality can exacerbate groupthink. For instance, people who are on Twitter only and not on other forms of social media, because it is cheaper to access, are more likely to be susceptible to messages from phony religious leaders, self-prophets, even political leaders.
“With the current pandemic, we have been luckier in SA to some extent, than what happened in the US. Leading authorities can make a huge difference in creating awareness and understanding. Here, we have the president and the chief health authority informing the country. In America you had the country’s leader opening up the conspiracy debate. It has led to a health crisis,” says Pillay.
Conspiracy and ideology
Professor Nicky Falkof, a cultural studies scholar in the Media Studies department at Wits University, has been stranded in the UK during the Covid-19 lockdown. “One thing that really struck me is the very different ways in which people have responded to the different stages of the pandemic. It is incredibly linked to ideology,” she says.
She, too, noted how class divided the South African reaction. “It is really interesting to see a lot of middle-class people who are wealthy, split between protesting for rotisserie chicken and, on the other hand, calling the police on their neighbours who walked their dogs illegally. The way they react to their personal freedoms being taken away and this anxious or paranoid self-policing, was definitely filtered through class lenses.”
She adds that the gathering of minds around conspiracy theories was comparable to the explosion of HIV rates a few decades ago. “Initially, there was the theory that white people or Europeans brought Covid-19 over to destroy Africans. We know this is [legitimate] in some ways [wealthy white travellers transmitted the virus], but the danger lies in the way it’s manifested – that [suggests] black people and the poor are not susceptible. Similarly, in other countries, there was the same narrative, including those from hardcore Trump supporters, that China invented this virus, or that it only affects Asian people.”
Falkof says the pandemic also showed how difficult it is to empathise and understand the enormity of the situation if it had not yet affected someone in your space.
“In the UK, people’s anxiety about poverty is being evened out by the health effects and death toll. In SA, people fearing the lockdown and the disease is different. While the death and infection rates are low, people are concerned about loss of business. For the informal sector, this means loss of capacity to feed children due to the lockdown. Fear of the disease is quite low. We haven’t dug mass graves, yet,” she says.
And she says, frames of reference mean that we have not heard enough from the informal sector. “Disturbing always that the loudest voices around are from those who can’t buy wine and walk dogs. Recycling reclaimers who are a significant part of the population and whose livelihood depends on the plastic they collect from suburban houses, aren’t being heard on whether they can eat or not.”
Falkof says this shows how “even a transnational crisis” is filtered through our own life experiences. “We aren’t always capable of thinking in a broader society. What is positive is that there is a collective mindset around solutions, too. The lockdown means we are doing the best for the collective rather than ourselves. This pandemic has given us an opportunity to rethink how society can learn and fix some of these issues.”
She adds, “Globally, the response to Covid-19 has been affected by our ‘tribe’ – a country’s reserves and standing really affects its outcome. In South Africa, despite having fewer reserves, there is hope in how the government has stepped up and taken control.” In other words, a tribe to be proud of.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Traditional answers to mind-body-spirit questions
- Buhle Zuma
Indigenous knowledge is critical in helping people cope with mental health issues that western medicine may not address.
Queue-marshals at taxi ranks are usually a useful source of knowledge when it comes to directing a lost traveller. But when Desiree Malope, a Wits student in Medical Anthropology, travelled to Mamelodi to find the Itsoseng Clinic, the marshals at the Bree taxi rank in Johannesburg couldn’t help her. Malope was saved by remembering that the clinic was located inside the township campus of the University of Pretoria.
The Itsoseng Clinic offers psychological support to the community of Mamelodi. Although it is located on a busy main road, it is largely invisible and unknown. Perhaps this indicates the discomfort people have when it comes to seeking help for mental health issues from formal institutions. In contrast, the homes of traditional healers are well-known landmarks in this township as in many African communities. At the taxi rank, you only need to provide the name of the healer and you will be assisted with relative ease.
Holistic healing
For centuries traditional healers or spiritual healers have treated people for physical and mental conditions. These healers are called by ancestors into the profession. However, the former undergoes ubungoma (divination) training while the latter is spiritually inclined and draws on either African or Christian religions. Acceptance of these healers lies in the richness of indigenous therapies, which promote overall wellbeing and are based on the understanding that a person consists of a mind, body and spirit.
Wits Psychology master’s graduate, Mahlodi Sehoana, says it is believed that persistent physical and mental illness occurs when there is instability between an individual and their surroundings, which may include family, society and the individual’s ancestors.
“The role that the spirit plays in the life of living beings is what makes indigenous health systems unique, providing relevant interventions to users,” says Sehoana.
In the traditional African sense, an illness is described as a spiritual illness if it involves an element linked to the intangible or supernatural environment.
Spirit solutions
A study analysing illness conceptualisation in the African, Hindu and Islamic traditions found that these emphasise that all parts of the self – mind, body and spirit – interact continuously to maintain a harmonious balance in the body. The study, conducted by Professor Sumaya Laher in the Department of Psychology at Wits, found that these traditions all recognise the spiritual dimension and share similarities in how they manage physical, mental, and spiritual conditions.
Sinethemba Makanya, a PhD candidate in Medical Humanities at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wiser), is conducting research into African systems of healing and mental health. Makanya says indigenous methods of therapy offer many ways to understand the human condition.
“For example, the cultural interpretation of a person medically diagnosed with depression may yield a different meaning regarding the spiritual state of the person,” says Makanya.
Clinical psychologist Anele Siswana incorporates both African epistemologies and Western-Euro ways in his practice. He concurs that depression is a state of ‘dis-ease’ and may be a symptom of something that warrants ancestral attention. Diagnosis and treatment is guided by the gifts and methods of the diviner, spiritual healer or sangoma.
Depression could be related to not knowing your real surname, which produces conflict among the ancestors (spirits) and results in behaviour change. Makanya says such matters can only be understood through indigenous therapies and would not be evident through Western diagnostic tools, which work through a dual system that considers only the body and mind.
“The true nature of spiritual illness can only be determined by the diviner through the throwing of bones, which is a combination of natural elements and reading these for a message from ancestors,” says Makanya.
African understanding of mental health
A 2017 study in Bushbuckridge comprising of 27 in-depth interviews and 133 surveys with traditional healers suggests that the healers believed that relying on modern medicine for mental illness is fruitless, as treatments from clinicians would at best only control symptoms but never cure the disorders, which could only be achieved through traditional care.
The study, by the MRC/Wits Agincourt Research Unit, sought to understand the causes of five traditional illnesses known locally as Mavabyi ya nhloko [sickness of the head] and the treatment practices for mental, neurological, and substance abuse disorders.
Other studies have confirmed that common mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and social difficulties were more likely to respond to traditional treatments. However, these studies found that indigenous systems were less successful in treating major illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder – a point that is open to debate, according to Makanya.
Spiritual solutions for millennials
While the Agincourt study says the predictors for seeking traditional care were older age, black race, lower education levels, unemployment, and anxiety or substance abuse issues, Makanya and many others like her don’t fit this mould.
As a spiritual healer with a background in psychology and drama therapy, Makanya runs a practice in Soweto where she sees a significant number of millennials, born between 1981 and 1995, and Generation Z-ers, born between 1996 and 2010. Her patients are young and well-educated.
“They feel that something is not working in the system and that their parents have not fulfilled their role of teaching them about African knowledge systems and beliefs. They are looking for direction and trying to make sense of their world,” she says.
Leading healers and guides, notably Gogo Dineo Ndlanzi of the Institute of Spiritual Healing and the Umkhulu VVO Mkhize of Umsamo Institute, have legions of followers on social media and other public platforms, signalling the resurgence of African belief systems and spirituality.
Laher, who is an advocate of cultural competency amongst healthcare practitioners, argues there is a need for the mainstream texts used in training to begin actively engaging non-Western [traditional] understandings of illness and critically discussing methods to deal with these. This will enhance practitioner skills and ultimately affect the therapeutic experience and outcome for the patient.
“The ground is already shifting to make way for cooperation between the different perspectives,” says Laher.
Main reasons why people use traditional healers:
Less stigma associated with going to traditional healers;
They are accessible;
People understand traditional healing practices; and
Traditional healers are mostly affordable.
Buhle Zuma is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
The Crocodile Rock
- Schalk Mouton
Pay close attention the next time you play a Bach concerto to your pet crocodile. If you look closely, you might just see him tapping his toes to the rhythm.
It is true. Crocodiles react to the complex frequencies heard in music such as classical music. This means that, just like mammals and even fish, they have a hierarchical way of processing sensory stimulus, enabling them to navigate their way through the world they live in.
“Their hierarchical processing has been retained from earlier vertebrates over millions of years,” says Dr Brendon Billings, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Anatomical Sciences. This process follows a conserved approach to evolution and simply put: “If something works in nature, there is no reason to change it.”
Billings researched the underlying neuronal processing which enables crocodiles’ ability to perform complex behaviours, as part of his PhD in anatomical sciences. The idea was to find out what inner workings in the brains of these reptiles can match the complexity in behaviour identified in the wild and in captivity.
“When you look at animals, you ascribe a certain level of intelligence to them, due to the level of complex behaviour they perform, such as communication, the use and manipulation of tools, or playing,” says Billings. “Chimpanzees, for instance, manipulate twigs to fish termites out of the ground, while crows have been shown to outperform non-human primates in behavioural studies.”
Pigeons, for example, will work tremendously hard for a reward during behavioural experiments. Crocodiles, however, don’t do that. Due to their cold-blooded nature, crocodiles are a lot more cryptic in their behaviour than their warm-blooded counterparts as they are more concerned with conserving energy.
When crocodiles are not skulking about in muddy waters, looking for something to snap at, they lie about in the sun, warming their cold-blooded bodies. Their seemingly inactive lifestyle means that they get the short end of the stick when it comes to recognition of their intelligence. However, they have been seen to display complex behaviour, both in the wild and in zoos. For instance, they have been seen to collect twigs on their snouts, tricking birds into thinking the twigs are worms. When the birds come to investigate … snap!
“This behaviour shows a level of complexity. It means they are rationalising that if they perform a certain action, they might get a certain reaction.”
Intelligence is highly dependent on an animal’s sensory system. Billings and colleagues from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, explored crocodiles’ ability to make sense of their environment by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans on crocodiles, while providing them with sensory stimuli, such as sounds and visuals. fMRI measures activity in the brain by assessing the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the brain. The brain requires energy in the form of oxygen to function, the by-product of which is CO2. This ratio of O2/CO2, represented in the form of a heat map, demonstrates in real time areas of activation within the brain. When the crocodiles were stimulated with certain sounds at different frequencies, very specific regions within their brains lit up on the fMRI scans.
“We needed to test both simple sounds – high frequencies and mixed frequencies,” says Billings. “We did not really set out to use classical music, we just needed the mixed frequencies that can be found in classical music, so we used Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4.”
The team’s experiment is unique and has never before been done on a cold-blooded animal. While the members of the German laboratory are experts on doing similar tests on birds, they have never worked with a crocodile.
“Luckily, birds and crocodiles are more closely related than what you would think,” says Billings. “A crocodile is more closely related to a bird, than what it is to a lizard.”
Birds and crocodiles share the same sensory patterns, and the areas where sounds are processed in the brains are localised in the same areas. The experiment did pose some challenges, however, as the right size crocodile had to be found, and the team had to work with extreme care to make sure it stayed comfortable.
“Firstly, you have to make sure that the animal fits in the scanner, so it has to be a small crocodile. Then, you have to keep it comfortable during the session and keep the temperature just right.”
If the crocodile gets too cold, brain activity diminishes and it becomes paralysed. On the other hand, if it is too hot, the animal becomes too active. It needs to be absolutely still in the scanner to avoid false readings. Optimisation of the technique took some time. After a lot of trial and error, the team found what they were looking for.
“We showed that sensory information processed by a crocodile follows a hierarchical sensory processing system. In the case of visual cues, a similar pattern of hierarchical processing was noted, with the information transfer from the retina via the midbrain to reach the forebrain. Once in the forebrain, information was processed from primary visual areas to secondary and tertiary higher order processing, based on specific visual cues,” says Billings.
“This version of information processing has been conserved over millions of years and can be found across vertebrates. However, more studies are needed to pinpoint exactly where in the brain of reptiles complex behaviours reside.”
Schalk Mouton is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Over ruled – How the head trumps the heart
- Ufrieda Ho
Our brain is a complex organ – it keeps us breathing, helps us pull our hands from a fire, and keeps our emotions, fears and dreams in check.
Your work crush flashes you a smile, your heart beats faster and your day is instantly brighter. Your anger at being cut off in traffic earlier is soothed, and the sinking reality of load-shedding and economic junk status lifts a little.
We’re a churn of emotions most days; seemingly ruled by the neurotransmitters firing in our limbic system, as the brain learns to regulate our emotions over time.
Our brain’s executive functioning is mostly housed in the pre-frontal cortex. Executive functions – our control mechanisms – help to put brakes on our emotions, to hold back on our ‘animal impulses’, so that our emotions aren’t acted on so hastily that we are left a train wreck of awkward regret.
Professor Paul Manger of the School of Anatomical Sciences says our brains are comprised of neurons and glia cells. The neurons are specialised cells responsible for transmitting nerve impulses, while glia cells maintain homeostasis, form myelin, and provide support and protection for neurons in the brain. This neural tissue forms the body’s HQ, and while it functions mechanistically, there also appears to be some magic.
“There are neural-based phenomena, such as conscious experiences, that we cannot yet explain mechanistically,” he says.
While we are focused on other things, such as reading a book, our brains keep us breathing and keep blood pumping through our veins. The brain is simultaneously receiving signals from our senses, interpreting the signals and proposing a range of actions based on these signals.
The process of how we decide whether to act on or ignore these ‘options’ is still mysterious, but we know this occurs in our frontal lobes.
Manger says the way our frontal lobes condone or veto the potential actions and responses created by the brain, is based on a combination of our nature and our personal history (how we have been nurtured). This also applies to actions where our unconscious thoughts hold more sway on our desires, urges and behaviours.
“At our most basic, our brains are wired for us to simply survive, to reproduce and then to raise our young. But we are also divided between nature and nurture, which means that our responses to the signals our brains receive are also based on our personal histories, which affect the way our brains generate emotions, and store and recall memories,” says Manger.
While our brain is made up of distinct centres, with distinct functions, it is bound together as one exquisite piece of human machinery. For instance, our emotions emanate from neural activity in our limbic system. Our brains manage our flight or fight responses and produce ‘feel-good’ chemicals such as endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine. And in the case of bad feelings, it’s the rush of cortisol that signals our ‘get away quick’ response.
We also have dreams and cravings, memories and experiences that add to our knowledge bank and hopefully help us develop some wisdom too.
Besharati says our brains develop throughout our lives, shaped by the environment and our experiences, and we develop and display the emotional responses to match.
“The first 1 000 days from conception to when we are two-years-old is a critical period of brain development. During this time we see rapid growth through synaptic blooming and connectivity, and we see similar rapid changes again during adolescence.”
Adolescence is the period of life when hormone fluctuations are intense and peer pressure and risk-taking behaviours are at their peak. This period of our lives is widely misunderstood, and along with it comes remarkable changes in the development of our brain.
After we turn 30, our brains reach a plateau in terms of development. However, brain plasticity remains throughout our lifespan. Leading neuroscientists in the United Kingdom have developed a theory called the Optimism Bias – where we overestimate the likelihood of positive events and downplay the probability of negative ones.
“According to this theory, our moods and feelings are affected by the load of ‘adulting’ in our middle years, as opposed to adolescence and early adulthood where the Optimism Bias is at its peak,” says Besharati.
It is the burden of paying school fees, caring for ageing parents and, in our era of the Covid-19 crisis, envisaging the worst-case scenario, while still working out the week’s dinner menu. Emotions of anxiety, fear and despondency can become our dark shadows. Couple this with sleep deprivation, social isolation, the pressure to perform at work, and trying to match or better people’s curated lives on social media, and it makes for a heavy psychological burden.
The good news though, says Besharati, is that once we pass the 60-year mark the Optimism Bias is renewed.
Ongoing research on the Optimism Bias in humans (in spite of the documented changes during midlife) show our brains may be wired to be optimistic rather than realistic. It keeps us engaged, open to imagining a better future and inspired.
“Our brains are unbelievably plastic,” Besharati says. It is a suppleness that allows for new neural pathways to develop so that we can break unhealthy patterns and develop appropriate coping mechanisms. Ultimately, we can change our minds, change our responses and therefore our feelings, with the appropriate environmental influences and possible interventions.
The mind can be kept agile and fit with exercise, a natural, peaceful environment, strong supportive networks, sleeping enough and choosing a healthier diet. Besharati says mindfulness meditation and visualisation are useful techniques to enhance our interoceptive sensitivity – the practice of accurately reading our internal bodily sensations like breathing or our heartbeat.
“It is natural to want to be in control of our feelings and emotions so that we are not driven just by impulse, but this is something that the brain learns to do as influenced by experiences.” she says.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Teaming-up at home
- Garth Stevens
Our dependence on technology brought on by Covid-19 makes cognitive and emotional demands that, unaddressed, threaten our mental wellbeing.
Although technology has undoubtedly often advanced living conditions throughout history, this is not an inevitable nor necessarily equitable outcome. New forms of alienation will emerge to co-exist with these advancements. We need to be vigilant of the deleterious effects in the unfolding relationship between new technologies and social life.
The move to online, digital, remote work has become commonplace for many, with platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Skype now primary sites for organisational engagement.
But rather than epitomising the flexibility of remote working, increased efficiency or freed-up time for better work-life balance in a 24-hour day, anecdotal reports suggest the opposite outcome for many. We hear reports of ’zoom fatigue’, screen-time saturation, and working harder and longer, but less productively.
Few of us consider the extent of cognitive and sensory overload involved in relying on multiple digital platforms to fulfil our work objectives, particularly as we have moved so rapidly from a face-to-face office environment to a virtual office.
Psychology offers some insights into these new forms of alienation and the mental health conditions that can occur as a result. The extent of cognitive overload, emotional labour, and the lack of a punctuated working day, are key to understanding this new mode of remote working.
Digi-people
Online, we have to attend to multiple voices and faces, sometimes independently of each other as they are disembodied through a muted microphone or shuttered camera. Mindful of the online meeting environment, we continually self-surveil and self-regulate, and we are cognisant and situationally aware of our home environments. These online interactions are usually accompanied by multi-tasking on phones and emails, note-taking, mentally crafting the next email, and planning the next meeting.
Beyond this, we are mentally managing the fact that our new virtual offices are located inside a pre-existing environment – our homes – with multiple others who share that space and who have additional demands of us that vary across gender and age. Similarly, our students must now manage new ways of learning, multiple course demands, and home environments that are sometimes not conducive to learning.
The levels of emotional labour to maintain this degree of psychological integrity are profoundly underestimated. In each of our virtual interactions, we no longer have the luxury of reading body language and non-verbal cues, but we have to be mindful of taking turns to talk, and we have to contend with technological glitches that truncate and distort meaning and communication. We have to do much heavier emotional lifting to grapple with the ways in which human interaction itself is being re-shaped.
40-hour work what?
Finally, we should not forget how digital and remote work may inadvertently be reversing one of the labour movement’s biggest gains – the 40-hour working week. Remote, digital working tends to collapse spatial and temporal [time] boundaries. Mornings, afternoons, evenings, weekdays and weekends flow into each other. And in this moment every aspect of our lockdown lives occurs in the same space. In many instances, the normal punctuation of our daily routines no longer exists and we have to consider the threat of this new form of alienation.
In failing to come to terms with the extent of how radically this historical moment has changed our lives, we risk going to great lengths to try and impose our notions of normality on this new digital regime. We do this in an attempt to maintain a degree of continuity, coherence, mastery and control - even if these are illusory!
We have not yet fully understood the need for new rhythms of work in this moment. We should not simply view this digital environment as a new set of platforms, but rather as an entirely new modus operandi of work, teaching and learning.
At its best, technology has enhanced access, engagement and communication, albeit not always equally. Conversely, it can contribute to the worst of a fractured form of labour and a disembodied humanity inside an impending gigabyte economy.
This moment gives us a window into a future that we will have to be much more deliberate about shaping – a future where technology serves humanity. Whether utopian or dystopian, the truth is probably somewhere in-between.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Can tech save our sanity?
- Delia du Toit
Promising technological and online innovations could be crucial in combating the world’s alarming mental health statistics.
Scan the news in any given week and you’ll likely find at least one headline about the mental health perils of today’s online life: “Smart phones decrease your attention span”, “screen time disrupts sleep”, “social media causes depression”.
It’s tempting to blame rising global depression and anxiety statistics on the concurrent advances in technology, and our reliance on it in our everyday lives, but would you blame a stab wound on the knife?
Adam Pantanowitz, a biomedical engineer and Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, says although we need to recognise the dangers of some technologies and their potential to erode mental health, it’s important to not blame a mere tool for its effects on the user.
“Certainly, several studies have looked at, for example, social media’s negative impact on self-esteem, and such aspects need to be managed. On the other hand, there are several apps available to help manage mental health problems. You can use your smart phone to do a guided meditation, or it can become an avenue for cyber bullying. It’s really important to discern and understand these differences,” says Pantanowitz.
It’s also important to note there is not yet a clear picture of the effects of technology on our lives and mental health. Because technology isn’t evolving at a linear rate, but in exponential proportions, it’s difficult to fully gauge its effect on mental health in long-term studies.
At this stage, for example, largely anecdotal evidence suggests that the use of technology is interfering with the human attention span – specifically, our ability to attend effectively, says Professor Kate Cockcroft, division leader of cognitive neuroscience at the Neuroscience Research Laboratory (NeuRL) in the School of Human and Community Development. “But it’s really difficult to get firm evidence on such topics because of the influence of several [psychological, environmental and other] variables on such studies."
Online cyber-saviours
When good news does make the headlines, however, it’s overwhelmingly promising. In 2017, the Brainternet project, led by Pantanowitz, made headlines worldwide when it streamed brainwaves onto the internet from a portable electroencephalogram (EEG) device worn on a person’s head. Brainternet converts the EEG signals, or brain waves, to an open source live stream in real time. The possibilities of this tech are jaw-dropping.
“It could open up new intervention and treatment avenues for epilepsy, for example, by potentially diagnosing the condition remotely or monitoring brain waves to predict seizures. Or it could become a way to understand a person’s brain and mental state, with the potential to diagnose conditions such as depression much earlier on, before the symptoms become overwhelming,” says Pantanowitz.
Though the tech is in its infancy – Pantanowitz says other imaging modalities would be needed in combination with Brainternet for these applications – its potential in the fields of neuroscience and behavioural science is thrilling.
Pantanowitz is also in the process of co-founding a therapy app, which would allow therapists to interact with patients remotely via text or video calling. The app, called Reach, is still in its early stages, but could be a game-changer for millions who don’t have access to conventional treatment.
Tasneem Hassem, a PhD Psychology candidate at Wits, says that given the lack of mental health resources available in South Africa, and increasing access to the internet, online screening tools can be a useful and necessary first step for the diagnosis and treatment of a mental health illness. In the paper, A systematic review of online depression screening tools for use in the South African context, Hassem and Professor Sumaya Laher evaluate some of the available screening tools and concluded that there is a need for a depression screening tool to be adapted for online usage in South Africa.
E-learning encouragement
Then, there’s the promising potential in the realm of e-learning. Paula Barnard-Ashton, Senior Lecturer in the School of Therapeutic Sciences and Manager of eFundanathi (Learn with Us), the Wits eZone e-learning platform, says her research has shown that online learning can have a positive effect on students’ mental health. “An online learning platform embedded in a curriculum gives students a better understanding of their own progress, as they’re involved in the curriculum instead of just being ‘talked to’ in a class. This makes students feel connected and gives them a sense of security, helping with stress management.” Her research, over six years, also shows that e-learning has a positive effect on lecturer confidence, improving stress management and burnout in the long term.
Ogres online
Of course, if used incorrectly, even ‘good tech’ can go bad. Cockcroft uses the example of tech in the classroom – beneficial when used correctly, distracting when not. “Attention needs to be understood as a limited resource. We don't have unlimited attentional resources [or] a protective mechanism that prevents us from being overwhelmed by the vast amounts of information bombarding our senses. So, we constantly filter and select what to allocate our attentional resources to.”
Cockcroft says the extent to which we can divide our attention and therefore multitask depends largely on two factors: How well versed a person is in each task, and the senses involved. “A learner driver, for example, will find it difficult to focus on anything except the process of driving. But after many hours of practice, the process becomes automatised, using fewer attentional and cognitive resources and enabling us to hold a conversation over Bluetooth. If the sensory input is different, multitasking is also easier – such as driving (vision) while listening to the radio (hearing). But if the complexity of one task changes, for example, the road is unfamiliar, we need to devote more attention to it and subsequent attention to the radio or conversation drops off.”
In the classroom, she says, many students assume they can work on an assignment or paper on their laptop, and simultaneously listen to someone talking. “But if you are dealing with complex verbal information in both instances, this is highly unlikely. Scanning through photos on Instagram (vision) while listening to a lecture (hearing) may have minimal attentional interference, however – even though it's not acceptable behaviour!”
Hassem says online diagnostic tools should be used with caution. “People should avoid using pop-psychology tools. These are often not developed by experts and could provide inaccurate results, causing further distress to a patient. Mental health screening tools developed in a different country should also be used with caution. International depression screening criteria, for example, are heavily focused on the psychological symptoms of depression, while research indicates that South Africans may experience more physical than psychological symptoms of depression.
And, of course, online tools do not (at this stage) allow for a formal diagnosis. It should just be used as a starting point before visiting a qualified mental health practitioner.”
Mind the future
New technology popping up left, right and centre, creates a legitimate risk, says Pantanowitz. “Now, and as time goes on, users will need to become more discerning about the technology they use, what they use it for, and how they use it. Always look for authoritative sources and be responsible when sharing information. Empower others by leaving a bad review on unscientific apps, for example.”
In the long term, fascinating changes could be on the horizon, says Cockcroft. “Repeated use of technology is likely to change how our brains work in the long term. For example, the skill of reading has changed how our brains are set up. We did not have dedicated brain areas for word recognition and other aspects related to reading before humans were literate. Even today, the brains of literate and illiterate people are different. The same is likely to happen with the use of various technologies, and we may become more efficient at using these in the future.”
An African algorithm for mental health
Dr Lucienne Abrahams, Director of the LINK Centre (Learning Information Networking Knowledge), an interdisciplinary academic hub at Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, says one of the key advantages of digital technology, in any sector, is it can be used to provide existing services in ways not previously possible. “In African countries, where many people do not have access to public mental health services, this benefit may simply be access. In the case of mental health screening, or in the case of the treatment of less severe mental health disorders, public health officials and facilities would be able to reach a larger population using digital tools, including social media and other smartphone and online applications.”
But access to technology is a challenge for many population groups, and so is access to information. “While many mental health applications exist, few people would be aware of them and fewer would have access without the direct intervention of public health authorities. Most importantly, literature suggests that digital applications for mental health operating outside of a broader treatment regime with a formalised professional support network are risky, or ineffectual, or both.”
Clearly, more local research is needed. “Very limited research has been done in Africa about the effect of technology on mental health. Public authorities would need to be engaged in long-term research to ensure that the digital technologies and applications that they promote are low-risk and effective.”
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Rock on!
- Shaun Smillie
Music is thought to be one of the ways that our ancient ancestors expressed their emotions – and may well have led to early languages.
At Matjes River cave in the Eastern Cape the discovery of a flat piece of bone, with a hole bored through it, has provided an earpiece into the deep past.
Careful examination suggested the bone was part of a bullroarer, also known as a Goin!goin. The archaeologists believed they had found one of humankind’s oldest musical instruments in South Africa. Bullroarers are almost universal, with a number having been found in Europe, Asia, India, the Americas and in Australia.
The Australian Aboriginal people have been known to use bullroarers in ceremonies and as a form of communication.
“A bullroarer is an oblong object, with a single hole in it, and then you put a string through it and you whirl it above your head, which is quite difficult to do,” explains Professor Sarah Wurz, from the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies. “It makes a whirring sound but a rhythmical one. It is almost like the sound of bees.”
To find out if this piece of bone was in fact a bullroarer, Wurz and her team had to make one themselves. They built a replica from bone. It turned out that their hunch was correct. They started experimenting with all types of bullroarers.
“We have done some experiments with them at Klasies River Mouth and we have found that if you swing a lot of them together they make a very interesting and unearthly sound. If you do it in a cave, the sound is amplified,” says Wurz.
“You might argue, that this is not necessarily music, but it is using sound in a rational way to communicate something, possibly for ritual.”
The moods and emotions of the Stone Age hunter-gatherers who made those bullroarers and other stone tools are not reflected in the archaeological record. However, Wurz thinks music, or the making of sound, is the closest we might get to seeing our ancestors express their emotions.
To understand why and how our ancestors made music, Wurz established the Archaeological Transfrontier Music workgroup.
She and her team are scouring archaeological cave sites like Matjes River and Klasies River looking for the remains of musical instruments. Besides the bullroarers they have found other possible musical implements.
“At Matjes River, for example, we have found what we believe are 9 000-year-old flutes or whistles,” says Wurz. To test if they are in fact musical instruments, the team is in the process of making replicas which it plans to play.
The bullroarers have been dated as 9 000 years old, although Wurz hopes to one day find musical instruments with even older dates.
“I would at least expect to see this at around 100 000 years ago,” says Wurz.
“Where we are excavating at the moment, we find ochre, we find bone tools, we find a whole array of human-like instruments, or implements, so I would really not be surprised to find [musical instruments] this far back. But you have to remember objects don’t preserve as well, when you go that far back.”
Archaeologists from Wits University have found the first examples of art-related objects from 100 000 years ago at Blombos Cave.
The oldest musical instruments so far come from Europe. Here 40 000-year-old bone flutes were excavated in caves in the Swabian Alb region of Germany. The flutes were made from bird bone, mostly vulture and swan.
Music, some believe, has played an important part in humankind’s cognitive evolution. Anthropologist Steven Brown has suggested that before language emerged, our ancestors had a sing-song, rhythmical way of speaking. This he coined as the musilanguage.
The problem Wurz has in her search for musical artefacts is that most do not survive the passage of time. Only bone and rock survive.
Another discipline has provided science with a peek into how humankind was making music in the past. Paintings that show the San people presumably making music have been found in rock shelters in the Eastern Cape.
“We’ve got musical instruments, but we don’t know exactly how old they are,” says Professor David Pearce, Director of the Rock Art Research Institute at Wits. “In the Eastern Cape Drakensberg, where I work, we’ve got several paintings of musical bows.
Musical bows are played by tapping the string with a stick. They are still used by the San today.
The art itself, says Pearce, is closely linked to music. “From the ethnography we know that the art goes very closely with the trance dancers, and those dances involve music in the form of clapping and singing.”
Recently, the Rock Art Research Institute has begun dating rock art sites. In the area where the musical bows were found, some of the art dates back 3 000 years. The Institute wants to date more sites.
Ultimately, says Wurz, the understanding of how hunter-gatherers made music requires us to step away from our own modern-day perceptions.
“So, when you go into this in an academic way, you have to unpack what you mean by music,” says Wurz. “Certainly, music in its origins is very different from our western concept of a concert. We listen to an orchestra or to a band and that’s it. Back then music was something within which everyone partook.”
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
The comfort of the Arts
- Deborah Minors
The arts evoke emotion. How do we harness them for wellbeing?
Tsholofelo Ahithile (father), Lindiwe Dumakude (mother), Sibusiso Dumakude (child patient) and Mike McCallum (Student musician from the Wits School of Music at the Oncology Day Clinic at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre).
Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,” said Mexican poet, Cesar A. Cruz. Equally important is the environment in which the arts are experienced – and there are few places less hospitable to the arts than a hospital.
The introduction of live music at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC) by Wits students was therefore fairly unusual.
This unique cross-disciplinary initiative began in 2015 and brought together patients, carers and nurses in the paediatric and geriatric wards at the hospital with fourth-year Bachelor of Music (BMus) students from Wits.
The Music in Hospitals project aimed to positively change this clinical space and people’s experiences of being in hospital through live music. The project formed part of the BMus Community Music course, integrated into the curriculum as ‘service learning’.
“We want our students to learn how musicians can shift their role from individual musicianship to collaboration and providing a community service,” says Dr Susan Harrop-Allin, Senior Lecturer in Wits Music who pioneered the inclusion of Community Music in the BMus curriculum.
“These performances are carefully planned, sensitive to patients’ and nurses’ needs, with ethical considerations an important component. Students are supervised in the hospital and required to critically reflect on their practice.”
Humanising a hospital
The WDGMC is a referral hospital, meaning patients are critically or terminally ill or require specialised care. An understated and quiet mood prevails in this highly stressful environment, so musical performances by musicians was a decidedly non-medical approach.
“It was so different in a hospital, so unexpected, and it took quite a while for us to get our heads around it. The first few times it was quite strange,” says Dr Harriet Etheredge, an ethicist at the WDGMC.
“And then you start seeing the impact. How unexpected the benefits and such a big difference to morale. It was something to break up the day and the nurses said it made them feel happier.”
Therapy-aware community music
The Music in Hospital project, subsequently published inthe Muziki Journal of Music Research in Africa in 2018, suggested that live music performances may be able to humanise hospital spaces. So profound were the benefits of the project that Michael McCallum, a director of Community of Music Makers South Africa, subsequently initiated a similar project at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
“Engaging in community music can empower patients and elevate morale and wellbeing,” says McCallum. “We say that our work is ‘therapy-aware’ rather than being strictly therapeutic.”
There is a distinction between music therapy (in psychotherapy) and Community Music (in Music Education), says Harrop-Allin. This project is ‘arts in health’, where creative arts practices are used to transform people’s in-hospital experiences.
Arts therapy
Arts therapy per se is a distinct discipline. Drama therapy, for example, enables a person to explore their inner experience actively and experientially.
“The theoretical foundation of drama therapy lies in drama, theatre, psychology, psychotherapy, anthropology play, and interactive and creative processes,” explains Warren Nebe, Clinical Arts Therapies Programme Coordinator in the Wits School of Arts.
“You cannot practise as an arts therapist unless you are a fully registered arts therapist in one of the discipline specific areas,” says Nebe, who is a registered arts therapist in South Africa.
The arts therapies are a combination of disciplines that arose in the 1960s and became distinct professions in the late 1970/80s, says Nebe. In South Africa, arts therapies were incorporated into the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
There are only two such accredited Master of Arts programmes in the country – one in Drama Therapy at Drama for Life (DFL) at Wits and one in Music Therapy at the University of Pretoria. DFL will introduce Dance Therapy in 2021.
Play-ability
Nebe curated a symposium, Meeting South Africa’s Mental Health Crisis: Toward a Transformed Arts Therapies, Applied Arts and Arts Research Response, in May 2019. The symposium explored what role the arts can play in transforming the landscape of self-care and mental health for South Africa.
Refiloe Lepere, a drama therapist at DFL, delivered the keynote address, Playmaking as an ethic of care and anger in the age of mental health care crisis – Postcards: Bodily Preserves.
Nebe says, “All people are creative, all people are born with an innate ability to play. The arts therapy value lies in the relationship between client, therapist and medium. Arts therapies are for everyone, not just artists.”
“Mindfulness means training the mind to stay in the present,” says Draper-Clarke. “Most of our difficulties come from anticipating a future or reminiscing and regretting the past – as if the present isn’t quite good enough.”
Mindfulness is the practice of attuning our minds so that we can more deeply understand how we respond to what we’re exposed to. It invokes the ‘embodied mind’, which recognises the ‘gut feeling’ of warning or the hot flush of anger – messages that come from the ’belly brain’ or ‘heart brain’, as Draper-Clarke calls them.
“The advantage of mindfulness is that you can experience those feelings but not react to them unconsciously. In that millisecond of feeling, you have a choice: you can choose a more skilful response. A lot of mindfulness is about witnessing – that quality of experiencing something without getting carried away by it.”
Mindfulness lends itself naturally to the arts, either practising them or experiencing them. Painting, for example, demands absorption, while poetry unites the conceptual and creative emotional brain to elicit ‘felt’ sense more evocative than prose, says Draper-Clarke.
Draper-Clarke’s current research focuses on compassion and engagement. She asks, “Does mindfulness create a more engaged compassionate society?” Certainly the ‘infodemic’ in which Covid-19 immerses us requires compassion.
Calming the Covid-19 chaos
If despite the pandemic ‘the show must go’ then it has done so in part through the arts online. Catia De Castro, a Wits Journalism student, wrote how “art has been my saving grace during lockdown”.
“Apart from its creation as a coping mechanism, art has also helped those who don’t create it. During the Great Depression of 1929, jazz music helped lift the spirits of Americans,” she writes, citing Studies in Popular Culture, which describes how jazz was used to maintain emotional stability during the Great Depression.
“Personally, the arts have helped me with my anxiety,” says De Castro. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that the arts can ‘heal’ mental health, but it can certainly help someone by offering a sense of escapism and comfort.”
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Save you sanity with sleep
- Beth Amato
Lack of sleep can wreak havoc on your physical health and mental wellbeing – and may have implications for people living with HIV.
Famed writer Virginia Woolf wrote of sleep as “that deplorable curtailment of the joy of life”. This, however, couldn’t be further from the truth. Quality sleep is critical for sound mental health and a strong immune system, likely cornerstones of a joyful life.
Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy
Sleep deprivation is associated with a higher risk of developing depression. One bad night’s sleep may not do it, but if you’re out on the town or working late every night, believing sleep is for the dead and boring, your happiness declines exponentially.
Even acute sleep deprivation in those with common mental illnesses, like bipolar mood disorder or clinical depression, is known to precipitate a manic or depressive phase, says Dr Karine Scheuermaier of the Wits Sleep Laboratory.
“If one does not get enough sleep, acute symptoms include mood alterations, irritability, decreased enthusiasm, and a decreased capacity to learn,” she says. “A good night’s sleep is critical for road and occupational safety. Without sleep, reactions are slowed and on South African roads, where motor vehicle accidents are high, it is almost a civic duty to get enough sleep.”
Sleep acts to free-up ‘space’ in our mental hard drives by deleting unnecessary ‘connections’ that our overactive brains make while we are awake. “A person who regularly sleeps less than six hours a night may ‘feel’ alright, but if tested, would show cognitive impairment and decreased motor performance,” says Scheuermaier.
It is not only diminished mental capacity that is synonymous with sleep deprivation. Poor sleep quality or low sleep duration can also lead to higher blood pressure, a higher risk of developing insulin resistance, diabetes, compromised cardiovascular functioning, auto-immune disorders and a higher sensitivity to pain.
Sleeping like a baby
If there is one great leveller, it is the lack of sleep involved in caring for a young baby. Some parents can’t wait to leap into sometimes draconian sleep training schedules as soon as the baby is old enough, or hire someone, if they’re lucky, to help at night.
“Co-sleeping is an effective way to improve both a baby and mother’s sleep,” says Scheuermaier, but it isn’t widely practised. “In France, there is the idea that you can sleep train a baby from three-months-old, which to some is outrageous. However, it is possible for children to develop circadian rhythms after three months. So, sleep consolidation is possible.” Circadian rhythms refer to the physical, mental, and behavioural changes that follow a daily cycle – such as sleeping when it is dark and being awake when it is light.
To nap or not to nap
The jury is out on the benefits of 40 winks. Taking a long afternoon nap, a cultural cornerstone in southern Europe, may not be the wisest decision. A short power nap (no longer than 20 minutes) is only useful for those who did not get a good night’s sleep the night before, as a short nap has been shown to restore cognitive function. However, it is not necessary with proper sleep hygiene – which means you keep regular sleeping hours each night, take appropriate nutrition during the day, and go to bed and wake up at the same time.
In people who do not have sleep disorders, a long nap reduces the build-up of sleep pressure during the day and therefore will push bedtime later. If the person needs to wake up at the same time the following day, they will then sleep for less time, which may lead them to feel tired during the day and take a nap, which sets up a cycle of poor sleep.
“A longer nap may be more a sign of an underlying sleep disorder, such as sleep apnoea or Periodic Limb Movement Disorder or, more rarely, narcolepsy,” says Scheuermaier. People may not always be aware that they have apnoea, but their partners may notice them gasping for breath while asleep or snoring loudly. In narcolepsy, people spontaneously fall asleep during the day and may have images from dreams appear, although these are termed hypnagognic hallucinations, because the person is aware that the images are not real.
Sleep patterns in people with HIV
The Wits Sleep Laboratory has been doing a longitudinal study in Soweto, looking at sleep patterns in a population living with HIV. “We found that low sleep quality in people living with HIV was associated with pain, depression and higher CD4 counts. This led us to hypothesise that maybe the lower sleep quality observed in people living with HIV, even when treated, may be caused by a chronic immune activation and conversely, that the chronic immune activation may be exacerbated by sleep issues,” says Scheuermaier.
The team is now collecting sleep data on people living with HIV and people who are HIV negative to further explore this hypothesis. Part of this study is being run in Limpopo and has since 2015 followed 850 people living with HIV and 1 100 controls. The other part of this study, in Mpumalanga, is a collaboration with Professor Xavier Gomez-Olive from the Wits School of Public Health and Professor Malcolm von Schantz, from the University of Surrey, UK.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Mental gymnastics
- Delia du Toit
What’s the best thing you can do for your brain today? Move!
This approach isn’t wrong, but it neglects a basic physiological fact: The brain is a muscle, and like any other muscle, it also needs physical exercise to grow. Exercise is so important to brain health that Dr Georgia Torres, Lecturer in the Wits Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (CESSM), goes as far as to say that “no other intervention can do for the brain what exercise does”.
Move to feel groovy
Cardiovascular exercise, says Torres, has been proven to regenerate brain cells in the prefrontal cortex (responsible for personality, decision-making, attention and focus) and hippocampus (critical in the ability to form and retain long-term memories). “Just like a trained muscle becomes bigger with exercise, these brain regions increase in volume with long-term exercise, improving attention and focus. It also has a protective effect against degenerative brain diseases like dementia.”
Long-term research has focused on the benefits over 12- to 20-week periods, but even just one sweat session has been shown to improve focus, attention and reaction times, with the effects lasting up to two hours.
Exercise also immediately improves mood through increased levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and noradrenalin, dubbed the ‘good mood-hormones’. “Using the Hamilton scale of depression, studies have shown that exercise can decrease depressive feelings by 47% in people who aren’t on medication. For those on anti-depressants, the effect is even greater,” says Torres.
The benefits vary with the amount and intensity of exercise, but Torres recommends 150 minutes a week of any exercise that increases the heart rate.
Brain food
Exercise isn’t the only natural way to improve brain health. Dr Sandra Pretorius-Koen, registered dietician, collaborator at CESSM, and a programme manager at INMED SA, which helps vulnerable children, says the food you eat can either help or harm your brain – and your mood. “A poor diet is not only linked to the rise in obesity and lifestyle diseases, but also to depression and other mental health disorders. Diets high in processed and refined foods, especially sugars, are harmful to the brain and can impair the immune system – increasing the risk of depression.
“On the other hand, a diet high in vegetables, fruits, fish (especially oily fish such as sardines or tuna), whole grains, lean meats, nuts and legumes, nourishes the brain and protects it from free radicals, which have been linked to mental disorders.”
In addition, about 95% of serotonin is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, and its production is highly influenced by the billions of ‘good’ bacteria that make up the intestinal microbiome. “Studies have shown that probiotics (which help keep gut bacteria populations healthy) can improve anxiety levels, perception of stress and mental outlook,” says Pretorius-Koen.
A healthy diet is a great starting point, but certain nutritional supplements can give brain health an extra boost, she adds. “Studies suggest that some supplements can improve the management of mental disorders. These include omega-3 fatty acids, S-adenosyl methionine (SAMe), N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), zinc, B vitamins (including folic acid) and vitamin D.”
Fast-tracking exercise in future
Torres is also Chair of the South African chapter of the Exercise is Medicine Initiative, founded by the American College of Sports Medicine. Its Exercise is Medicine on Campus-programme this year awarded Wits a silver level designation for its efforts to create a culture of wellness on campus. The Initiative also aims to make exercise a treatment tool for chronic diseases. “Current research is looking at how exercise could become a mainstream medical, and even pharmacological recommendation, as for example, part of the treatment protocol for high blood pressure,” says Torres.
Unfortunately, the world is not quite there yet. South Africa has many obstacles on the road to this ideal, particularly when it comes to mental health. Dr Catherine Draper, a Senior Researcher at the Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, says while mental health is now treated more intentionally and spoken about more openly, it still carries a lot of stigma in South Africa.
“But exercise is simply not a priority for a very large part of the population. Our research shows that people often don’t have enough time, don’t know where to start, or don’t have access to experts and facilities,” she says. “When you’re struggling to put food on the table, feel unsafe in your daily life, or have mental health issues as a result of economic challenges, exercise is not a priority. Experts must be sensitive to these issues when making recommendations.”
Torres adds that, at least for now, another issue is at play. “For many, I think, exercise just seems like such a simple answer that they don’t (yet) take it seriously enough.”
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Putting a number on mental health costs
- Charlotte Matthews
Mental health costs should be counted in people, not rands and cents.
“The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night,” said Friedrich Nietzsche, one of history’s known depressives.
From depression (termed by Winston Churchill, another sufferer, as the “black dog”) to bipolar mood disorder, anorexia, epilepsy and schizophrenia, the prevalence of mental illness in South Africa is probably widespread and possibly even increasing, but no-one knows exactly what the numbers are.
What is known is that more than 90% of those who need public healthcare for mental illness are not getting it. As South Africa is caught in the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic and government takes the first steps towards implementing a broader health system, National Health Insurance (NHI), it is essential to ensure that the economics of good-quality treatment for mental disorders are properly understood and an affordable, appropriate service is delivered across the country.
Quantifying the problem
The last time the prevalence of mental health and neurological disorders, such as epilepsy, in South Africa was quantified in detail was in the 2002-04 South African Stress and Health Study. This showed SA’s level of anxiety, depression and substance-use disorders was higher than in most other low- to middle-income countries, except for Nigeria and Ukraine, where there was likely to be underreporting. The reasons could have ranged from post-apartheid trauma to what was then the rapid spread of untreated HIV/Aids.
However, the study did not cover more severely disabling illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Dr Lesley Robertson, a Lecturer in the Psychiatry Department at Wits, says there are other sources of data on prevalence of depressive symptoms in South Africa, such as the National Income Dynamics Survey and the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, but there is no data on psychiatric illness.
Obviously, this poses a challenge for the government in trying to set a budget to treat severe mental illness.
The 2016/17 national survey, Mental Health System Costs, Resources and Constraints in SA, commissioned by the Department of Health, showed that the department was spending about five percent of its total public health budget on mental healthcare, which is in line with similar economies. However, there were big disparities between provinces.
The study showed that just over eight percent of those requiring public in- or out-patient care were receiving it. While 86% of spending was on in-patient care, about a quarter of those patients were re-admitted to hospital within three months. This suggests hospital care has limited efficacy on its own. It needs to be supplemented with community-based care, says Robertson.
Dr Paul Stiles, Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy in the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida, US, who visited Wits University on the Fulbright Specialist Roster in March, said the US de-institutionalised mental healthcare in the 1960s and 1970s.
Caring for the mentally ill in their homes and communities is widely regarded as the most successful treatment option, but it is not cheaper than institutionalisation, says Stiles.
The cost of not caring
In South Africa’s most notorious reported case of the de-institutionalisation of mental care, largely aimed at saving costs, over 1 500 people with severe mental illness were transferred from Life Esidimeni hospitals to community-based care in 2015. As a result, almost 150 died.
South Africa’s Mental Health Care Act of 2002 endorses community-based healthcare, but making the transition from institutional care has not been successful, owing to a lack of resources, inequity between provinces and lack of data.
The National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2013-2020 sets out a plan for aligning SA’s healthcare with that of the World Health Organization’s recommendations.
Costs of mental healthcare
The costs of treating poor mental health are not only direct but also indirect, in the financial and emotional burden placed on family members as well as other issues, such as having to draw on police or ambulance services in a crisis, says Stiles.
Professor Jane Goudge, Director of the Centre for Health Policy at Wits, says the costs of caring for the sick at home, not only those with mental illness, can be a huge financial burden on households and the community in general, unless those carers are supported by specialists.
Those who are most violent and aggressive, of whom the majority are men, are usually treated at specialist hospitals. Women with mental illness who are non-violent may end up cared for at home where they are do not receive a similar level of specialist attention.
“For community-based care to work, primary healthcare workers need support from specialists,” says Goudge. “This support needs to be provided at the district level, not from a remote hospital, in order to increase the willingness and capacity of those healthcare workers to treat people with a serious mental illness, including those who are unable to access care in a hospital.”
While the majority of South Africans use public health facilities, 16% use private mental care. However, even for those who are a member of a medical aid scheme, access to mental healthcare is problematic.
According to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, there are 11 mental health conditions covered by the Council for Medical Schemes’ prescribed minimum benefits that medical schemes must provide to their members. But there are only two conditions, bipolar mood disorder and schizophrenia, that are classified as chronic, and what medical aids will pay for these may vary.
Under resourced and under funded
Robertson says the NHI’s goal of delivering universal health coverage should include people with serious mental illness. ‘Serious mental illness’ covers any disorder in people over 18 that causes marked functional impairment, with a higher risk of mortality than in the general population.
“These sufferers will probably be unable to access health, education and employment opportunities, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty and ill-health,” she says. “They need community care, general hospital psychiatric units and psychiatric hospitals.”
But Robertson thinks the current system is under-resourced and underfunded. The public sector has an acute shortage of mental health professionals. The WHO notes 0.4 public sector psychiatrists per 100 000 people in SA but has no figures for other mental health specialists. There is also a dire shortage of specialist nurses.
The department of health has a ‘balanced care’ model for mental illness and a target of 10 beds per 100 000 for psychiatric institutions and 28 beds per 100 000 for general hospital wards. But there has been little progress in achieving these targets.
Goudge says studies have shown that the level of specialist care available varies significantly, both between provinces and areas of SA. In some areas of Gauteng there are primary healthcare nurses who can deal with severe mental illness with specialist support. It is important to document the benefits and costs of this model.
The National Mental Health Alliance Partnership has proposed that the NHI should provide for a District Health Management Office to co-ordinate not only general primary healthcare but also the provision of mental health services, including psychologists and occupational therapists. These professionals would support primary healthcare for those with more complex conditions.
While the US in general does not experience the same shortage of specialists to assist home carers or district nurses that SA faces in rural areas and poor provinces, Stiles says there are some shortages in tribal lands. Some of the solutions used include having psychologists working in those areas licensed to prescribe certain medications and the increasing and successful use of technology – telemedicine – to enable those needing counselling to speak to a therapist by phone.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Is South Africa driving us mad?
- Beth Amato
We live in a state of constant high alert in South Africa. The effect on us is profound but an environment like this also builds resilience.
Although the #ImStaying movement that went viral on social media is mostly a “positive” group focusing on the beauty and the good things in South Africa, an important dilemma underpins the group’s existence.
Why would a reasonable person stay in a country where 58 murders occur each day, femicide is about 2.5 times higher than anywhere else in the world? Where Zuma-era political meddling and corruption crippled the economy and tore apart the social fabric? Where excessive levels of interpersonal violence plague our homes and communities, and where significant inequality and poverty are stubbornly intractable despite democracy’s lofty visions?
Lifetime angst
The psychological toll of the real and perceived problems in this country cuts across race, class and gender lines. The first nationally-representative study to gauge the country’s psyche, the South African Stress and Health Study (SASH), conducted between 2002 and 2004, although still relevant today, revealed that 75% of South Africans experienced at least one traumatic event in their lives and many were exposed to multiple traumas. ‘Lifetime prevalence’ of co-existing psychological disorders (such as anxiety with depression) was high. Findings show the ordinary person’s everyday life was literally driving them to drink, with alcohol and substance use disorders higher than all other psychiatric conditions.
“Most of the patients we see have what we call cumulative trauma,” says the Academic Head of the Wits Department of Psychiatry, Professor Ugasvaree Subramaney. She says women who stay in abusive relationships with men, for example, are constantly reminded of the trauma they have endured, and continue to suffer at the hands of the perpetrator. “Often these are women who rely financially on their partners and who are direct victims of gender inequality – prevalent phenomena in South Africa.”
Subramaney explains there’s no simple answer to the high rates of anxiety and depression in her patients, but the country’s violent past and present, use of firearms, high rates of motor vehicle accidents, and continued structural inequality and poverty all collide in a noxious mix.
“Interpersonal violence is really high in South Africa. I can’t think of a greater trauma than not feeling safe in your home and with the people who are supposed to look after your best interests,” says Subramaney.
The super drivers of violence
Professor Brett Bowman in the Department of Psychology at Wits explains the causes of violence are complex, multiple, and intersecting. Risk factors include social and economic inequality, patriarchal versions of masculinity, lack of social cohesion, alcohol, and firearms.
While many people growing up in harsh poverty and violent contexts do not necessarily resort to crime, socio-economic circumstances have been shown to be important determinants of vulnerability to violent behaviours across the world.
Poverty and inequality
The relationship between poverty and intimate partner violence, for example, has been partly explained by findings that show that men who live in poverty are more likely to take on the masculine persona that reinforces control over women, who in turn become increasingly financially dependent on men. This locks women into fundamentally unequal relationships.
But it is social and economic inequality which proves to be the most obvious driver of violence in this country. In South Africa, “the use of violence is regarded as an attempt to address the experiences of being a ‘half-life’ or part-citizen in a country that occludes [obstructs] economic and social access. Violence then becomes a kind of currency to manage exclusion or seek inclusion,” says Bowman.
Patriarchy
Moreover, poverty is “unbecoming” of a man in this society: “Patriarchy constructs men as breadwinners, providers, physically strong, emotionally resilient, and unconditionally powerful. In the context of South Africa, such roles often lie structurally beyond the grasp of many men. This tension between the ideals of manhood shaped by patriarchy and the structural constraints on fulfilling them appears to provide at least some of the catalytic conditions for addressing conflict violently,” says Bowman.
Trauma by proxy
Professor Gillian Eagle in the Wits Psychology Department says merely hearing or reading about a violent crime is traumatic, and builds up over time, especially in South Africa where something horrific happens daily.
“The majority of South Africans are thus preoccupied with safety, especially at home, which means that mental energy is not used in meaningful and productive ways. The feeling of being under constant threat of attack has serious physical and psychological consequences, such as chronic anxiety,” says Eagle.
She notes that when people travel to places where they are able to safely walk the streets, they suddenly become aware of the angst they carry, and how their level of alertness is abnormal.
“In the latest DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it includes the classification of people who have witnessed trauma or who believe they are at risk of attack. There’s no doubt that ‘vicarious’ trauma is indeed trauma.”
The burden of ‘black tax’
While crime and trauma are obvious causes of national angst, there is a relatively new phenomenon, known colloquially as ‘black tax’, which produces stress and mental illness amongst young black people.
Dr Thobeka Nkomo, Head of the Department of Social Work, explains that the legacy of apartheid plays out strongly in the “black tax” burden, where a person has to share their pay cheque with their extended family, leaving little or nothing for saving or investment.
“Even if a person earns a low salary, or has just graduated and has a new job, they are expected to provide. It’s very stressful, mainly because it’s just expected. People feel they must pay for being born,” says Nkomo.
She says the psychological stress associated with being a single breadwinner has been underestimated by the social work profession, especially in the context of isolation and little social support.
Precarious cultural containment
In a country where people are exposed to multiple traumas, family and community are often seen as buffers. “Our social context, however, is not always a containing space,” explains Eagle.
The idea of a containing space – or containment – is the psychotherapeutic concept where a parent acts as the ‘container’ for a child's rampant emotions. If a child feels contained, and therefore safe, they tend to be healthier adults. But containment expands outwards from the mother or primary caregiver, to the family, the community, and any ‘third space’, such as society. Something like a pandemic, a downgrade, loadshedding, or rising unemployment can threaten the inner sense of safety.
The criminal justice system, for example, often fails victims of crime from the moment they step into the police station, she says. Police officers, overwhelmed themselves, may appear apathetic and indifferent.
Ordinary people and neighbours may exacerbate trauma.
“I spoke to someone who was violently mugged. Her distress wasn’t so much focused on the actual event, but on people’s responses – no-one helped, and some even laughed. It’s a kind of betrayal that no-one cares to intervene on your behalf,” says Eagle.
Understanding these kinds of responses is complex, but Eagle believes the lack of natural support systems plays a part.
“There’s a lot of internal migration in South Africa, with people not staying long enough in one place to build up support systems and a sense of community.”
It doesn’t help either, notes Eagle, that people don’t feel “contained” by the government and by services they expect as citizens. Loadshedding, for example, adds to people’s anguish. “There’s a lot of angst about the failure of the state. Where can people actually feel safe and held?
Yet, South African warmth
While public spaces in other countries are ostensibly safer, Eagle says South Africans are generally warm and resilient people, and many are not out to hurt others.
“It’s important to have perspective – while we hear about crime and violence, which of course are real and relatively prolific, the rate of victimisation, especially in wealthier suburbs, is much lower than in poorer communities. I don’t think the glut of information is always helpful as it often doesn’t provide the bigger picture,” she says.
In psychoanalytic terms, things are never merely good or bad. “To be a resilient and mature person is to grapple with complexity. We are given that opportunity daily,” says Eagle.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
A moment in time
- Curiosity
Wits postgraduate students in Medical Anthropology share the effects of living under lockdown amidst the global Covid-19 pandemic.
The students co-authored How a pandemic shapes the city: Ethnographic voices from South Africa, which was published on the website ‘Medical Anthropology at University College London’ on 11 March 2020.
Anthropology is the study of people, culture, and societies and how these manifest, erupt and collide within socio-economic and political contexts. These vignettes reflect these collisions.
Ethnographic voices from South Africa
Like others globally, we have experienced sudden and severe changes to our world. South Africans found themselves thrust into rigorous, unprecedented social changes within a week of the first reported cases of Covid-19 in the country. Notorious for its inequality, South Africa provides a unique picture of this reshaping. We present eight perspectives of Covid-19 collaboratively but remotely from isolation.
2 April, Tamia
1 462 Covid-19 infections in SA / 1 011 490 globally
“DA calls for military ombudsman to investigate abuse by SANDF members during lockdown.” The unfamiliar silence I have been waking up to each morning is drowned out by laughter and cheers of township residents filming the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers forcing black men to do squats and push-ups in the street as punishment, for crimes unclear. What I see are videos of police and army violence in townships and city centres that are very reminiscent of apartheid. However, what concerns me is that the rationalisation of violence that we see now, under exceptional circumstances, is not new – the government did not need a state of disaster to deploy law enforcement during Marikana, for example. Does the modern state need ‘exceptional circumstances’ to introduce rationalised yet irrational violence upon certain portions of the population?
3 April, Lesedi
1 505 Covid-19 infections in SA / 1 100 000 globally
On Black Twitter, I came across discussions around being black and how living in a black body at a time like this leaves you vulnerable to state power. What is the value of a black body? I began to think how the experience of blackness always comes attached with some type of inequality or injustice. Blackness feels like you are constantly faced with the after-effects of structural violence or an oppressive regime. The health and security systems in South Africa come with a history that has undeniably stained black lived experience. The deployment of the defence force and increased visibility of police on the streets hit a nerve with Black Twitter. What does this really mean for protection services and vulnerable bodies? Is the black narrative and experience of law enforcement ever going to change?
16 March, Elinor
202 Covid-19 infections in SA / 272 000 globally
When President Ramaphosa announced the State of Disaster it was part of a worldwide wave of closures. The next day, we learned that the semester break at Wits was being brought forward and residences would be emptied. The reality of the epidemic had been lurking for weeks, but as an international student living on campus, I felt suddenly and forcibly exposed. For the next few days, as local transmissions of Covid-19 increased, I ran around campus with other international students trying to secure emergency housing. Somehow Wits had taken a deadly pandemic with European hotspots just hours from my family abroad and made it more stressful. Wits made it hell by piling housing insecurity and hostile communications from people in positions of power on top of fears for my family and concern of my own risk of infection. People in power need to understand that the actions they take to enforce physical protections may trigger emotional responses and jeopardise mental wellbeing
3 April, Lucy
1 505 Covid-19 infections in SA / 1 100 000 globally
On 5 March 2020, the first Covid-19 case was announced in South Africa. Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp were flooded with funnies. The #CoronaVirus Challenge encouraged us to craft ad-hoc protection gear out of underwear and tissues. Discussions, debates disputing developments, conspiracy theories, and rumours went viral. Yet reactions were mixed – extreme, irrational panic alongside minimising the virus in jokes and memes. Both preyed on fake news. These reactions suggest a lack of knowledge about this virus, as people tried to make sense of the information from various sources and social media. The Department of Health advised people to pay attention only to figures released by the Minister of Health. These responses raise questions both about the impact of an ‘infodemic’ and the danger of a single story – and who the storyteller is.
28 March, Edna
1 187 Covid-19 infections in SA / 660 700 globally
The lockdown is “necessary to fundamentally disrupt the chain of transmission”. So said President Ramaphosa as he declared a 21-day lockdown in South Africa. Key messages accompanying the decree were “stay home, self-quarantine, and self-isolate”, as was already happing worldwide. The question that rang in my mind was whether social distancing, self-isolation or quarantine were applicable in a South African context where the majority of people live together in overcrowded neighbourhoods. Historically, apartheid segregated people along racial lines and the majority of black South Africans still live in racially segregated, low-income, densely populated and transient townships. On average, seven people cohabitate, including the vulnerable elderly. The government should act fast to create more physical spaces – unused hotels, schools, churches – for use during the pandemic.
21 March, Erma
240 Covid-19 infections in SA / 304 400 globally
As hospital procedures altered to accommodate the pandemic, novel protocols emerged in the emergency unit of a Pretoria hospital. My partner and I found ourselves in a state of diagnostic limbo when our young daughter’s unknown Covid-19 status – due to delayed test results – complicated other medical interventions. This unexpected predicament prompted hospital staff, after much deliberation, to conduct the consultation reluctantly in our car in the hospital parking lot. That stormy night, two doctors swathed head-to-toe in protective gear performed their duty in the back seat of our car. Breathing sighs of relief, they confirmed our daughter’s ailment was nothing more than an ear infection. We see here how Covid-19 has contaminated and disrupted every aspect of social life, forcing us into moments of medical absurdity where the rules are unknown.
3 April, Georgia
1 505 Covid-19 infections in SA / 1 100 000 globally
Silence. I keep reading this word when surroundings are described during the global lockdown. The only sound you can hear are government money printers going Brrrr, according to American anthropologist, Lincoln Keiser. But our surroundings remain silent. When I scroll social media, I observe how people are thirsty for socialising. I wonder if the TikTok videos, posts and challenges are a coping mechanism for society and people’s new lives during Covid-19? Diary entries for the social media cloud? Hearing cars is history as I sit at my window. A pigeon pierces the silence as I cling to my laptop, hoping to return to ‘normal’, whatever normal was. But keeping my eyes and ears shut won’t change the financial markets and the social world. Now I remain fascinated by pigeon sounds when all else is silent. SILENCE, please.
3 April, Dezz
1 505 Covid-19 infections in SA / 1 100 000 globally
Renowned as noisy and busy, Sunnyside Residence looks and feels different since the implementation of the 21-day lockdown. The different noises are reduced since news broke of Covid-19 cases in South Africa. There’s hardly any movement and the streets are ever so empty. Surprisingly, people seem unified by Covid-19. A lot of obedience and respect is being shown and this is pleasantly strange in Sunnyside. There’s many positive responses and collaboration in the fight against Covid-19. Differences in race, age, gender, and even nationality have been put aside and everyone seems to be complying and cooperating with the rules and regulations. This is an unexpected but reassuring response from Sunnyside! We are living through an incredible moment globally. The situation is volatile. Questions from the present are deflected to the future. What will our society look like post-pandemic? We are in constant dialogue with the spaces we find ourselves in and the pandemic with which we live.
Master of Arts student-authors studying Medical Anthropology with Distinguished Professor of Medical Anthropology and Public Health, Lenore Manderson:
Tamia Botes explores narratives of voedvroue (midwives) in “coloured” communities in Joburg.
Lesedi M.S Chocho investigates sustainable production and consumption of high-end fashion in South Africa.
Elinor Bronnvik Engelking explores repatriation of African material objects from German museums.
Lucy Khofi researches women’s experiences of menstruation in an informal settlement.
Georgia Kellow focuses on urban agriculture and environmental anthropology.
Desiree Malope is exploring Kasi (township) perceptions and narratives of mental health.
PhD candidate-authors:
Edna Bosire, in the SA Medical Research Council/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, investigates concurrent interventions for diabetes and poverty at policy and clinic levels.
Erma Cossa, in Anthropology, researches medical anthropology and migration studies.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
How are you really doing? #MOOD
- Zeblon Vilakazi
Life as we know it has changed due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) which has irrevocably altered the way we live, work, behave, think and feel.
In this 10th issue of Curios.ty, we focus on mental health, another veiled enemy, which the World Health Organization predicts will be our greatest challenge by 2030. We explore the mental and emotional effects of a lockdown and the ability of humans to adapt in times of crisis.
Is South Africa driving us mad? And can technology help to save our sanity? How is our mental health affected in the workplace? And how do our emotions evolve? Can music and the arts improve our mental wellbeing? What about exercise and mental gymnastics?
The answers to these questions lie in the following pages, which include expert analysis and commentary on mental health and wellbeing, mental illnesses, and neurosciences broadly, and all the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural, technological and other interpretations thereof.
Whilst we may feel uneasy and uncertain during Covid-19, what about those who are most vulnerable in society – how do they confront insecurity every day? Read about an audiologist’s research into how children of Deaf parents feel, why the mental wellbeing of those living with disabilities is important and how those with absent fathers are adversely affected.
Find out how in the workplace underground noise affects miners, what the potential treatments are for mental health in South Africa and what mental health and wellbeing costs employees, employers and the economy. Finally, we try to better understand Alzheimer's disease, grief, suicide, ADHD and euthanasia.
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed our perspective on life and what matters. It has forced us to reflect on our health and wellbeing, and the way in which we live, learn, work and socialise. It has made us understand our dependence and interdependence on the people around us, and has provided us with an opportunity to reimagine our collective futures.
This pandemic has also galvanised our rapid adaptation to change and fast-tracked innovation and the adoption of new technologies, but it is up to us to determine how this can best be used collectively to benefit humanity.
Witsies are tackling the Covid-19 pandemic on all fronts. Together we will overcome this disease. In the words of President Cyril Ramaphosa: “This epidemic will pass. But it is up to us to determine how long it will last, how damaging it will be, and how long it will take for our economy and our country to recover. It is true that we are facing a grave emergency. But if we act together, if we act now, and if we act decisively, we will overcome it.”
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi is the incumbent Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University and will take the reins from 1 January 2021. He is currently the Vice-Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs and a top nuclear physicist.
Read more in the 10th issue, themed: #Mood how our mental health and wellbeing are impacted by the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and technological interpretations of our world.
Curios.ty 10, #Mood, explores mental health now and in the next decade
- Curiosity
By 2030, mental health will be the single largest global challenge we will face (World Health Organization).
#Mood answers pertinent questions around mental health and wellbeing through expert analysis and commentary on mental illnesses and neurosciences broadly, as well as the socio-economic, political, psychological, legal, ethical, cultural, technological and other interpretations thereof. Wits researchers shed light on ADHD, suicide, depression, grief, Alzheimer’s disease, euthanasia, and other mental health-related matters.
#Mood also makes a critical contribution to Covid-19, the biggest pandemic in our lifetime, which has shaped the mental health and wellbeing for generations to come.
Highlights:
Is South Africa driving us mad? (page 8): We live in a state of constant high alert in South Africa; does an environment like this also build resilience?
Save your sanity with sleep (page 16): Lack of sleep can wreak havoc on your physical health and mental wellbeing; find out if napping matters.
Traditional answers to mind-body-spirit questions (page 32): Indigenous knowledge is critical in helping people cope with mental health issues that western medicine may not address.
How your tribe affects your vibe (page 34): We are influenced by those with whom we associate most closely and the Covid-19 lockdown has exposed us for who we really are. What are the implications?
About Curios.ty
Curiosity is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Curios.ty is available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
How the Wayside Inn became the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
Since Johannesburg’s days as a frontier town, Baragwanath has evolved from a refreshment post for gold miners, to a military and then civilian hospital, to a world-renowned Wits teaching hospital that today is a site for two of South Africa’s three Covid-19 vaccine trials.
John Albert Baragwanath was a Cornish immigrant who came to the Witwatersrand gold fields in the late 1900s. He bought land and set up a refreshment station in what is now Soweto. The location was one day’s journey by ox-wagon from Johannesburg, where the road to Kimberley joined the road from Vereeniging. John’s Wayside Inn became known simply as ‘Baragwanath’s Place’. The Welsh surname translates as ‘bread’ (‘bara’) and ‘wheat’ (‘gwenith’).
The Imperial Military Hospital, Baragwanath
During World War II, the British Empire needed healthcare services for military personnel. In September 1940, the Secretary of State in London asked the South African government to provide facilities for Imperial troops of the Middle East Command.
The British government bought the land from the Corner House Mining Group, which then owned the land which previously housed Baragwanath’s Place. Construction at a cost of £328 000 for a hospital of 1 544 beds began in November 1941. The first patients were admitted in May 1942. Bara treated mostly tuberculosis patients from the Middle East and Far East Command. Field Marshall Jan Smuts (Wits’ first chancellor) officially opened the Imperial Military Hospital, Baragwanath in September.
Academic medicine and apartheid
Meanwhile, in 1941, the Wits medical school had opened its doors to black medical students (although they had to have completed a first degree at the South African Native College, Fort Hare). Still, by 1945, the medical school had enrolled 82 black medical students (46 Indians, 33 blacks, 3 coloureds) and, in 1947, Dr Mary Malahele was the first black female medical school graduate.
In 1948, the National Party came into power in South Africa. Apartheid became law. The Transvaal Provincial Administration bought the hospital for £1million. Bara was resurrected as a civilian hospital with 480 beds and links were immediately forged with the Wits medical school. Patients in the ‘Non-European’ wing of the ‘white’ Johannesburg Hospital were transferred to Baragwanath.
Despite operating in a profoundly unequal society and Baragwanath Hospital being under-resourced and over-crowded, it enabled Wits medical students access to sophisticated technologies and exposed them to diverse pathologies.
Professor Haroon Saloojee, who qualified in the 1970s and is now a Personal Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at Bara, said in an earlier interview: “There is no doubt about it that if you exclude that link [with Wits University], that would make the Bara experience a less exciting and less enticing alternative”. The academic affiliation meant “you had a calibre of clinicians and other people who represented excellence.”
Chris Hani and democracy
In 1985, black students no longer had to obtain ministerial approval to attend ‘white’ universities. The percentage of black medical students at Wits rose from 8.9% to 28.9%. A decade later, the New South Africa was imminent. Chris Hani, a prominent anti-apartheid activist, was murdered on 10 April 1993. His name was attached to Baragwanath Hospital in acknowledgement of his contribution to the struggle.
Today, Bara is the third largest hospital in the world, occupying around 173 acres, providing some 3200 beds and employing 6760 staff. It is the site of Wits University’s Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit (VIDA), which leads two of the country’s three Covid-19 vaccine trials.
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
In the company of criminals
- Schalk Mouton
Column: Using the Covid-19 National State of Disaster to try to govern booze and cigarettes, is the wrong approach.
Dealing with this issue requires the same political will demonstrated against the pandemic.
I was sitting with a bunch of criminals. Hidden safely, in a quiet, dark corner of a restaurant where neither the cops nor the Virus could find us. Sipping an illicit coffee.
Those were dangerous days – shortly after the restaurant blockade had lifted. The restaurant was not yet allowed sit-down patrons. But there we were.
Looking around the table, I carefully took in the faces behind the masks. Bankers, CEOs, lawyers, businessmen. Criminals all of them – and that, admittedly, included me.
As one of the men looked down at the menu, his shoulders sagged. An involuntary sigh filtered through the puppy-dog face masking his mouth.
“I hate choices!” he shouted.
“It’s like when your spellcheck gives you 10 suggestions for the incorrect word you typed! How the COVID am I supposed to know which one to pick?” he cries – completely disconfoculated (don’t blame me – this word was suggested by my spellchecker).
At the time, when two people met randomly in the shopping aisle, conversation turned to how the national lockdown had broken the country, and then, more importantly, how to get hold of booze or cigarettes, banned by the government. Everyone had a plan. Each of us had become an outlaw.
Some started by simply ringing the emergency number listed on the front door of the liquor shop (something I hadn’t done since a morning, long before dawn in Parys, when I was a student more than 20 years ago). Others dipped into their community WhatsApp group, trading whatever commodity they had on hand – like a bag of compost in one case – for a bottle. But as the country’s combined desperation increased, the schemes became more sophisticated.
“Now that my Uber driver doesn’t have any passengers, he delivers booze for the local liquor store,” said one of the men, distractedly reading a Whatsapp over his glasses.
“My contact distributes gin packaged as hand sanitiser,” said the owner of a large upmarket luxury store.
“My neighbour started selling the bottles of alcohol he had in his house, just to make some cash while he was out of a job,” says one of the lawyers. “He became so good at it that large, well-known distributors contacted him to distribute alcohol for them. Now he only sells alcohol by the pallet.”
The elderly friend of the mother-in-law of one group member made a bag of cash by selling off her late husband’s wine collection at more than 10 times the price it would have normally cost per bottle.
The guy with the puppy dog mask looks up – still undecided between the omelette and bacon or the haute cuisine boerie roll. “I brought a case of wine up from Cape Town the other day. I got stopped at the Vaal border, handed over three bottles to the cops, and went on my way – no problem.” The three bottles, it seems, was the going rate.
My own infraction came on a weekend, after being invited to a last-minute braai. I was invited on condition that I brought some beers. I scoured the neighbourhood in vain. Eventually, I ended up at an establishment that was allowed to sell alcohol over weekends, but only to sit-down customers.
“Can I have 12 beers, please?” I asked the barman, as confidently as possible.
“To take away or drink here?” he asked, leaning over the counter – eyeballs burning deeply into my soul.
“Take away,” I took a chance. Better to be honest, I figured.
“Can’t do it,” he said in a voice that would make James Earl Jones cringe, as he turned away, wiping glasses with a white kerchief. Conversation closed.
“Okay,” I said. Less confident. Legs shaking slightly. “I will drink them here.”
Without a further word, the bartender bent down and picked up a cardboard box full of new glasses. One by one, he took the 12 glasses out of the box, polishing each one to a shine. He then proceeded to take 12 of my chosen brand out of the fridge and packed them into the box. “I’m not allowed to do this …” he just let it hang, as he handed over the box, adding a 100% mark-up on the sale.
While the national lockdown was in many ways initially the right thing to do, the decision to ban the sale of cigarettes still remains a mystery to me. The myth that smoking cigarettes could intensify a Covid infection was quickly dispelled, and while the ban on alcohol sales may have kept some hospital beds open during the lockdown, I am still not convinced about the motives behind it.
The problem, as I see it, is that the government tried to use the powers bestowed by the state of disaster legislation to solve two social ills that the country is facing. The first is the pressure that cigarette smoking places on the health system and the second is the myriad problems that come with alcohol abuse.
I am not a smoker and I drink barely more than one beer in six months. But while I am the first to complain when I sit in a restaurant and a person at the table next to me decides to light up, for the couple of months during lockdown when smoking was banned, I fully backed the dudes who raised their rasping voices to be allowed the right to buy a cigarette. Using the lockdown to clamp down on real, serious issues the government has been unable to solve for decades is just wrong. These issues – as well as all of South Africa’s other problems, like public health, pit toilets in schools and the high road accident death toll – should receive the same kind of political will to sort out as government demonstrated in dealing with the Covid pandemic.
After becoming a ‘dry’ country and entering the prohibition era on 19 January 1920, the US banned the sale of alcohol to its citizens. While the intention was to deal with the national problem of alcohol abuse, the unintended consequences are clear today. Restaurants closed down as they were no longer able to make a profit without liquor sales, theatre revenues declined, legal breweries and distilleries closed down, cutting thousands of jobs, while thousands more truck drivers, waiters and other related workers lost their livelihoods.
The state of New York lost 75% of its revenue, which was derived from liquor taxes. In the end, prohibition cost the US a total of $11 billion in lost tax revenue and over $300 million to enforce.
While it’s still early days to judge South Africa’s mini prohibition during lockdown, the parallels are clear. The ban on cigarette sales didn’t stop cigarette trading: It merely drove the industry underground. A South African study published earlier this year showed that 93% of consumers were driven to buy cigarettes from illegal sellers. Many of them, I am sure, made use of the services of the cannabis shop in our neighbourhood. Ironically, this shop was allowed to stay open and actually posted a dodgy-looking guy in a trench coat on the side of the road, flashing packets of cigarettes to passers-by.
An investigation by Carte Blanche exposed that during the 70 days of the cigarette ban, more than R2 billion had been put in the pockets of organised crime syndicates.
With all their problems, alcohol and tobacco sales are large earners for the South African Treasury and banning them actually causes more problems than their ban would solve.
Unlike my friend with his spellchecker, most South Africans quite like the right to make decisions for themselves. Prohibition laws always backfire and usually turn good citizens into criminals. When South Africans want a beer for a braai, chances are that they will be able to find one. And, if all else fails, they can always visit the local copshop, where they are sure to find any brand they like – albeit at a premium.
Schalk Mouton is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Along came a virus…
- Lynn Morris
Column: Professor Lynn Morris reflects on a lifetime of virus hunting, from HIV, through Ebola, to SARS-COV-2.
I have spent the past 25 years doing research towards an HIV vaccine and now we might have one for Covid-19 in less than a year! Of course, we don’t have one yet and vaccine development is notoriously difficult and full of surprises, so we will need to wait and see – but probably not for long.
All indications suggest that a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, is going to be much more feasible compared to HIV. There are currently 11 Covid-19 vaccines in large scale efficacy trials with five already approved for limited use, compared to a pitiful six efficacy trials conducted for HIV – none of which have proven worthy enough for licensure.
Funding fickle as a virus
This warp speed Covid-19 vaccine development happened, in part, because we were able to take advantage of what we learned from HIV. Viruses are simple life forms that use similar mechanisms to hijack and exploit human and animal cells. I have watched with amazement how speedily many of my HIV colleagues have redirected their decades-long HIV vaccine programmes towards studying Covid-19.
This speaks not only to the global urgency to find solutions, but also to the fickle nature of research funding and the under-resourcing of health and science. We have also seen the resurrection of old research programmes on SARS-CoV-1 and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome); both are coronaviruses that caused earlier human epidemics but work was halted when the threats died down. We made the same mistake with Ebola vaccines that sat on the shelf for 10 years before rapid action saved the day. In the aftermath of Covid-19 we need to ask hard questions about how we prioritise funding for the things that pose real threats to our existence, such as new and emerging viral pandemics.
Super-spreading data
The rapid progress in the search for a Covid-19 vaccine has also been enabled by the immediate sharing of data and information. The sequence of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus was published in less than a week of it being discovered and within a month after the first cases of severe pneumonia were described in Wuhan, China.
Scientists around the world quickly used these sequences to slot into their vaccine platforms and to design their own diagnostic tests. The GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) database already has a staggering 100 000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences representing almost half of all viral sequences ever published, including HIV.
There has been a deluge of scientific papers published on Covid-19 in the past eight months, many following a rushed review process or even before scientific peer review. Science is driving policy in real time with new discoveries acted on immediately. This willingness and eagerness to share information has serious downsides as many of the published papers are insubstantial or inconclusive – with some of them having been hastily retracted .
There has been concern that this state of disaster will be exploited for political gain with vaccines being prematurely used – a scenario that was quickly dispelled by a pledge from major vaccine manufacturers that they will not seek licensure until all safety checks are passed.
Vaccines against viruses
I am a volunteer in one of the Covid-19 vaccine trials that is being led by researchers at Wits. I did this not only because I believe in the power of vaccines, but also because I, like everyone else, am at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. But we now know that not everyone who is infected has the same outcome. SARS-CoV-2, like HIV, is an insidious virus (albeit in a different way) causing stealth infections in large numbers of people while having severe and sometimes fatal consequences in others. This state of asymptomatic infection poses significant management challenges for public health officials as it undermines the test and trace approach that is critical to halting transmission.
Unlike SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2 is expected to become endemic – widespread within populations – and will thus continue to circulate for years to come. While we still don’t know the level and durability of immune responses needed for herd immunity, we do know that vaccines are the best way to control and eradicate viruses.
Vaccines work by stimulating our natural immune defences. After my vaccinations (I received two doses), I imagined how this little bit of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the spike protein) was being hunted down by the B cells that conduct surveillance to detect invaders in my body. Once engaged, these cells start the process of making virus-fighting antibodies that take a few weeks to appear.
During this time, I was keeping track of my body’s reaction to the injection by filling in a daily vaccine diary, documenting things such as tenderness, redness, swelling and temperature. But I had nothing more than the equivalent of a small insect bite that quickly resolved. These reactions differ between vaccines and between people. Although there have been a few reports of more significant reactions, none are as bad as the effects of infection with the real virus. Assuming the vaccine works as expected (and that I received the vaccine and not the placebo), the best reaction would be to have antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 that will protect me from Covid-19 infection.
Global viral vigilance
But let us not forget that viruses are masters of disguise. Thankfully, SARS-CoV-2 seems so far to be less adept at changing its cloak than viruses such as HIV. This makes it an easier target for a vaccine. However, SARS-CoV-2 hasn’t faced any real opposition yet since most people are still susceptible. Once immunity builds up either through infection or vaccination, this could change as this virus, like all viruses, will try to get around any efforts to stop it from spreading – so we need to stay alert.
The success of a Covid-19 vaccine will rely on the majority of those at highest risk agreeing to be vaccinated – an effort that is being undermined by those who use fake science and misinformation to cast doubt on vaccines. But most importantly what the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated is that if there is political will and a coordinated and well-funded global effort, vaccine development can proceed exceedingly fast. There is no doubt that new pathogenic viruses will continue to emerge. Let’s build on what we have learned from the Covid-19 pandemic so we can respond more rapidly and effectively to viral threats, including HIV, which still remains one of the world’s biggest health challenges.
Lynn Morris is the incoming Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs at Wits (April 2021), Interim Executive Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Head of the HIV Virology Lab in the Centre for HIV & STIs at the National Health Laboratory Service and a Research Professor at Wits. As a National Research Foundation A-rated scientist, Morris is internationally recognised for her work in understanding the antibody response to HIV. She is one of a handful of the most highly cited scientists in the world. Among many other accolades, she received the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award from Wits in 2014.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Dimming the lights on malaria
- Shaun Smillie
The fight against the disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people in Africa each year could be as simple as changing a light bulb.
Mosquitoes might just be the most annoying little creatures on earth – always buzzing around your head, while you are trying to sleep. But as we all know, these little creatures are still some of the most prolific killers on Earth. Every year, a quarter of a billion people are infected with malaria and of these, 405 000 die from the disease. Although a vaccine exists and malaria is for the most part very treatable, these measures are expensive.
While there are many high-tech and low-tech ways to target the malaria parasite, such as drugs, attempts to sterilise male mosquitoes and the use of mosquito nets to stop mosquitoes from biting people as they sleep, another way to manage the disease could be aided by changing a light bulb.
Lightbulb moment
According to Dr Bernard Coetzee of the Wits Global Change Institute, the malaria carrying Anopheles mosquito most likely uses artificial light as an additional cue when seeking out humans. And they are not alone, other mosquito species responsible for carrying such harmful viruses as the Zika and West Nile virus might be using light to lead them to humans too.
Coetzee is on a mission to try to understand how artificial light in Africa may increase vector disease transmission.
“Light pollution is gaining a foothold in Africa and one of humankind’s oldest known killers might be using this to its advantage,” says Coetzee.
Scientists know mosquitoes use a number of senses, from sniffing out odour, to detecting the carbon dioxide in a person’s breath and possibly light to find their prey.
“Light is probably one of the cues that tells the female mosquito that she can or cannot feed,” explains Professor Lizette Koekemoer, of the Wits Research Institute for Malaria. “But the light by itself is not good enough, because if there is no (human) odour she will go somewhere else.” Koekemoer is a primary collaborator in Coetzee’s research.
Mozzies in the spotlight
The problem is that little is known about mosquitoes and their relationship with artificial light. This is the knowledge gap that Coetzee, with the help of a prestigious research grant, wants to fill.
Coetzee is the winner of the Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant for his work on light pollution. The aim of the grant is to support African-led research that might solve real-world problems on the continent. Coetzee was selected from 217 applications from 26 countries across Africa.
“This research comes from a longstanding interest in light pollution,” says Coetzee. “And one of those extensions, of course, is how light pollution might alter a range of things, especially these disease vectors like mosquitoes.”
Coetzee’s research will be partly based in the laboratory, where he will assess the effect that different kinds and spectra of light have on mosquitoes.
Shining a light on Africa
Some mosquitoes are diurnal, seeking out their prey during the day, while others are nocturnal, operating under completely different circumstances.
“The team will also model and map artificial lights and exemplar areas so that we can work out what sort of lights people are actually using, especially in the rural areas. I haven’t seen anybody in the developing world really quantify who is using what, and how this affects things biologically,” says Coetzee.
As studies overseas have shown, artificial light use varies even from town to town.
“There are some really cool photos from the US, where you can see two different towns. They look different at night, because the kind of light that people are using in those towns is different,” says Coetzee.
If he is correct, and we can understand how artificial light influences mosquito behaviour, it could well become another weapon in the fight against one of the biggest killers in Africa.
“If you can work out what spectrum of light is attracting mosquitoes, then you can make a recommendation for people not to use it,” he says.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Finding security in the unseen
- Shaun Smillie
Messages carried in structured light can secure quantum communications in the future.
Just over the horizon, a scary world awaits. Super-fast quantum computers are on the rise and soon they will be able to crack what were once considered unbreakable man-made encryption algorithms.
In this world, banks won’t be safe as hackers armed with quantum computers will be able to break security codes and clear out bank accounts. Money hidden under mattresses might once again become a preferred way of saving.
“If you had spoken to me five years ago, I would have said well, quantum computers are a little bit of a dream. But that’s not the case anymore,” says Professor Andrew Forbes in the School of Physics at Wits University.
“Late last year, they demonstrated what they call quantum supremacy. That means that the quantum computer solved a problem that would have taken an age on a normal computer.”
In this experiment, Google, using its Sycamore quantum processor, performed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken the world’s top supercomputer 10 000 years.
Quantum computers might not be that powerful yet, but they are becoming more accessible. Wits students have access to the IBM quantum computing network.
“At the moment, students can run very small versions of Shor’s algorithm and break very small encryption procedures, but nothing that people need to worry about,” says Jonathan Pinnell.
In 1994, US mathematician Peter Shor came up with an algorithm for quantum computers that could be a breakthrough in factoring large integers (a number that can be written without a fractional component), which is tricky even for powerful computers.
Quantum computers hold much hope for the world. Their computing power is already helping in understanding chemical simulations and they are being used to improve the software on self-drive cars.
Keeping information safe in this future is going to require quantum technology and that is what Forbes, Pinnell and the rest of the team at Wits are trying to do.
They are working at using structured light to provide communication that is impossible to intercept. Data are transmitted through the use of patterns of light.
To explain how it works, Forbes uses the analogy of how navies once used the raising of flags to communicate between war ships.
“So you can think of these different patterns of light as a very sophisticated form of flag waving. When I send one spiral, it means something specific, when you send two spirals, it means something completely different. Now I can use that light – broken down to the level of structured photons, the most elementary particle of light – to encode a lot of information,” says Forbes.
In July, the team achieved a world first when they shared secure information with 10 participants over a network and used 11 dimensional patterns to pack loads of information into each photon. Previously, this could only be done through one-on-one or peer-to-peer communication.
The network is not limited to 10 participants; many more users can be added. But the beauty of this is that any attempt to eavesdrop or intercept the message will destroy it. This means messages can go viral to a trusted group of individuals, without the fear of someone eavesdropping.
“It is impossible to crack, because as soon as you intercept these lights in the quantum world, the message gets destroyed,” says Forbes.
The Wits team is in a global race to roll out a secure quantum network. In just over a month, they plan to test their network in the field, by sending data over a 300m link.
If that is successful, the next plan is to communicate between the Telkom and Sentech communications towers in Johannesburg. The idea is to one day use 5G towers to build a secure quantum communications network. These cellphone towers, according to Forbes, are all within a 10km radius of each other, which means that they are within line of sight and will be ideal to carry the quantum network.
Beyond that, satellites could be used as a medium to transport the network.
“First, it is 300m, modest baby steps,” says Forbes. “Then it is five kilometres with tower-to-tower.”
One challenge the team is likely to face one day is that, unlike other communication media like radio, the light cannot be amplified. Attempts to amplify the medium would alter the light, causing the message to be destroyed.
Forbes says that once quantum networks have become established, we will not even know they are there if they work well.
“If everything works perfectly, then you won’t see it. It will be as if life carries on like normal, but if it wasn’t there, and these threats were realised then cases of fraud and banking irregularities would skyrocket. It is one of those things where we hope nobody notices.”
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Beating the pandemic through innovative thinking
- Beth Amato
Three Wits postgraduate students demonstrate how their research and innovative ideas contribute to addressing a pandemic.
Scientific breakthroughs are often synonymous with the toughest times in human history. Now, when public mistrust of science abounds thanks to fake news and misinformation, the widespread adoption of new scientific innovations requires something more. Scientists need to make their discovery meaningful, trustworthy and engaging to a wide variety of people.
The Wits PHD Seminar in September 2020 aimed to attract postgraduate students who wanted their research to “speak to as many publics as possible”. The Senate Graduate Studies Committee chose the word ‘pandemic’ for the competition, with the winners selected not only for their accessible presentations, but for their scholarly ingenuity, disciplinary flexibility and responsiveness in the face of global challenges.
“The most important requirement was that students should demonstrate how they could tweak their research for the benefit of literate publics,” says Professor Robert Muponde, Head of Postgraduate Affairs.
Eleven students entered the competition. Here are the top three:
Covid early-warning in waste water
Competition winner, Tamlyn Naidu, a PhD student in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, looked at how early detection techniques in sewage systems could curb Covid-19 infection rates.
Pathogen-based illnesses are mysterious and cunning: transmission can occur between people who experience no symptoms. The likelihood of these people getting tested or visiting a doctor is small, meaning accurate measures of infection cannot be obtained. Even so, direct testing is time-consuming, cumbersome and expensive, and a widely available Covid-19 vaccine a long way off. An interesting solution to early detection and control of transmission is the testing of faecal matter in waste-water treatment plants in South Africa.
Naidu says that infected people shed billions of viral particles in their faecal matter, even while asymptomatic. Her ‘biosensor’ has two parts: one for isolating the genetic material, and the other for identifying this genetic material. Using the biosensor to detect the presence, concentration, type and strain of a biological organism, especially highly contagious pathogens, allows for accuracy of infection statistics and the identification of community hotspots.
Waste water testing has been used to detect both viral and genetic illnesses in the past – the polio virus is the most commonly tracked in sewage plants and, where cholera has been found in hospitals, scientists have tested the broader area’s waste water to see the disease’s spread. Anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, and others are also commonly tested for, and narcotics, hormone and prescription drugs can also be identified.
“The importance of waste-water testing can’t be underestimated. If viral and indeed, genetic diseases are detected, future generations’ health could be saved,” says Naidu.
While the testing of faecal matter in waste water treatment plants has not been implemented on a large scale, the Netherlands analysed sewage to determine the number of people in a particular area who had been infected, with a reported accuracy of every one in 100 000 people.
If implemented properly, Naidu’s biosensor could potentially track a number of different pathogens. However, little research has gone into large-scale production of the equipment, making it an expensive endeavour. “But, in the case of an epidemic or even a global pandemic, these costs would be off-set almost entirely,” she says, adding that the biosensor is also versatile in that it can be used in any size facility. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, for example, countries could have started tracking waste water in airports to determine when the virus entered the country. Indeed, biosensors could be placed in homes and at private facilities.
Covid face masks on ‘nano’ steroids
Zakhele Ndala in the School of Chemistry took second place for redesigning the face mask to deactivate airborne viruses, using nanomaterials.
With mounting evidence indicating that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne, measures such as wearing a face mask to prevent transmission are effective. But Ndala goes a step further: he introduces nanomaterials in face masks to increase their efficacy. Any virus, he notes, would not make it past the mask matrix and would become inactive.
The three components used would perform three functions: Polydopamine nanofibres will act to trap aerosol particles; silver and copper nanoparticles will inactivate the virus; and nanoflowers from the inorganic compound (MoSe2) would be used to immobilise the silver or copper nanoparticles and prevent them from clustering and becoming ineffective.
“Our nanomaterials fabrication lab in the Wits School of Chemistry is fitted with an electrospinning machine. This machine allows us to fabricate nanofibres of different sizes from various polymers,” says Ndala.
The World Health Organization has flagged the risk of self -contamination with the wearing of normal fabric masks. While these masks are better than nothing at all, Ndala’s antimicrobial mask would be able to inactivate a virus or bacteria that it comes into contact with, which is a feature that normal masks do not have.
The antimicrobial masks would ideally be piloted in healthcare facilities where frontline workers are at a higher risk. “Currently, there is a higher cost of production for these special masks compared to the surgical masks worn now, but with several new innovations being developed to make antimicrobial masks cheaper, we’re confident that it could be piloted soon,” says Ndala.
Changing behaviour by Sharpener communication
Leigh Crymble, a PhD student in Wits Business School, took third place for her research into how language, values and decision-making shape a person’s adoption of behaviours to avoid contracting Covid-19.
While non-pharmaceutical interventions, like mask wearing, handwashing and social distancing, are proven to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2, there are many people who do not adopt these behaviours. But science can explain this too: “It is as a result of inherent behavioural biases, coupled with generic, passive communication methods,” says Crymble.
This is where “nudge” theory comes in, and where Crymble’s submission is unique: she wants to enact behavioural change using a framework called Behavioural Linguistics. “This approach proposes the development of personalised communications tailored to multiple language profiles to reduce behavioural friction and encourage increased compliance,” she says.
To delve deeper, a behavioural linguistics model, known as SHARPENER, is highly likely to “nudge” or convince people to do something different. Indeed, SHARPENER was first used for a series of handwashing posters that Crymble developed for the Department of Health.
Crymble’s handwashing posters worked in that there was simple accessible language, the benefits were highlighted, the message was action based, and they called upon community spirit (Ubuntu). The posters used striking visual language, in blue to signify trust, and blue ticks to show that the information was verifiable.
“Making a decision is very intricate, and so our messaging must tap into the various motivations and beliefs guiding decision-making,” she says.
What is Sharperner?
Subliminal: Subconscious cues used such as visual language (colour, imagery)
Herding: Make recipient aware that other people are following the desired action for social proofing
Aversion to loss: Highlight the possibility of losing out on something if the recipient does not act
Reciprocity: Offer the recipient mutual benefit through something tangible (gift, appreciation)
Positive self: Encourage recipient to picture themselves in a favourable way through their action
Expertise: The message-sender should be trustworthy and in some position of authority or credibility
Novelty: Message needs to catch attention with positioning that is new or unusual and relevant
Existing state: The status quo or the default is the easiest option for recipients, reducing need for a decision
Rarity: Include scarcity (time, special offer, limited availability) to drive urgency.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Keeping an eye on the virus from the sky
- Refilwe Mabula
Profile: When Covid-19 hit, 21-year-old Wits engineering student, Xolani Radebe, knew that he wanted to be part of the solution.
The third-year mechanical engineering student says that the drone, with a built-in thermal camera, can detect the body temperature of large groups of people in vast areas such as malls or other busy places.
“High fever has been said to be one of the symptoms of Covid-19. The drone is able to detect if anyone in a large gathering has an above-average temperature and can alert the drone operator,” says Radebe.
“The drone can also save time for those who are screening large groups of people in busy areas. Instead of screening each and every person, the drone can be flown to read the temperature of everyone in that area.”
The drone is a modification of an existing prototype designed by Radebe and his business partner, Tino Kurimwi, with whom he co-founded an aviation company in 2019. Radebe’s love for aviation and his aspiration to build airplane engines sparked his interest in drone development. Designing something that could fly was a step closer to his aviation career, he says.
Elevating expectations
Radebe has not always been a big dreamer. Growing up in a community where most young people are unemployed and were never afforded opportunities to study further, Radebe never imagined pursuing a career as an aircraft engineer.
“It is difficult to have a dream when people around you are not working or even studying further. There is no source of inspiration and this can be discouraging. You look at them and see yourself and wonder if you will turn out like them.”
Fortunately, a high school teacher ignited a flame of hope after Radebe nearly gave up on himself. Radebe says that Mr Ngwenya, his teacher from Letare Secondary School in Soweto, helped unearth his latent potential. A conversation with Ngwenya on the topic of purpose changed Radebe’s negative outlook.
“My high school teachers gave me a sense of purpose and gave meaning to my life. I had lost focus until Mr Ngwenya called me to order in Grade 11. Then I realised that I needed to change my ways and focus,” says Radebe.
Empowered with a vision and purpose, the drone designer began making an effort to achieve academic success. His interest in aviation was piqued after he found out about the field at a career expo.
“I developed a keen interest in aviation when I attended the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) show. I had the opportunity to meet with the chief of staff of the South African Air Force at this show and at the 100 defence countdown.”
After receiving advice from a lecturer at Wits on whether to pursue mechanical or aeronautical engineering, he opted for the latter.
Engineering for societal good
Radebe believes in advancing societal good and finds solving problems using his engineering skills gratifying. His motive in designing the drone was to provide solutions that could aid with some of South Africa’s social ills.
“Drones are solution based. Initially, we wanted to use the drone for crime detection purposes but we decided not to, for our own safety,” says Radebe. “Drones are able to serve multiple purposes. They can be used to search for missing people and to reduce the costs of using airplanes.”
He is proud that his innovation can make a positive impact, despite the costs that come with designing a screening drone. The drone’s thermal camera costs around R5 000 and the components to make the actual drone cost about R16 000 to R18 000, says Radebe. Although costly, he says the drone was not designed to generate revenue but to contribute to the fight against Covid-19.
As someone who has benefited from development programmes, he has a great affinity towards them. He hopes to use his drones for a community development programme to help high school learners who are interested in aviation and engineering.
“Uplifting people in my community is important to me. I want to give others the same opportunities that I have been afforded in life. I would not be pursuing engineering had it not been for the exposure from the youth development programme,” says Radebe, who currently works out of the Transnet Matlafatso Centre at Wits, where he is mentored and nurtured.
Surviving hardships
The charismatic youngster has encountered hurdles that threatened his ambitions and led to a mental breakdown. In his second year at Wits, Radebe failed and had to repeat his modules, which made realising his dreams seem almost impossible.
“It was very hard for me when I failed – to the extent that I suffered a mental breakdown. But knowing that this degree was a stepping stone for me to achieve my ambitions, I had to try again. I was fortunate to receive a lot of support from Mr Kholisile Khumalo, Chairperson of the Youth Development Programme at AAD. He encouraged me not to give up,” says Radebe, who is grateful that he is able to continue his studies thanks to his sponsor, Pioneer Foods.
Radebe, who refers to himself as ‘Gogo’s (granny’s) boy’ says that he endured the pain of failure and repeating his modules because he wanted to make his grandmother proud – she raised him from the age of 11 after his mother passed away. Radebe’s company, Rita Sibanyoni (RS) Aviation honours his grandmother. He hopes that RS Aviation will be the biggest drone company in Africa in future. For Radebe, the sky’s the limit.
Refilwe Mabula is Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Big data: A sword to wield or a knife in the back?
- Liberty Mncube and Imraan Valodia
Competition policy will determine if big data is a tool for inclusion or exclusion.
Do you have a smart phone, wearable fitness device or retail loyalty card? Do you have presence on social media? Do you order food on an online platform? Are you a member of a medical aid scheme? If you have answered “yes” to any of these questions, like most of us, you are generating data. With advances in computational and statistical methods (or algorithms), huge quantities of data can be examined to identify correlations, make predictions, draw inferences and bring together new insights. This is big data.
Big data: A double edged sword
Big data has the ability to save lives. For example, doctors are using big data to determine when premature babies are likely to develop an infection. Big data promises to help solve important societal challenges such as improving education and enhancing government service delivery. In the economic sphere, big data is increasing marketplace efficiency and boosting economic productivity. Its promises do not stop in the present. In the near future, connected and driverless cars may make driving between Johannesburg and Pretoria much safer for all of us.
But the same analytic power that makes it easier to predict the outbreak of a virus, or identify who is likely to have been exposed to Covid-19, also has the capacity to reinforce disadvantages faced by the poor and marginalised, increase the dominance of powerful groups, increase prices and undermine innovation in the economy.
For all of its potential, the complex and opaque algorithms that mine big data can also be used in ways that are socially and economically harmful. How, for example, search algorithms decide what to reveal, what to hide, and what to prioritise has huge implications.
Google goes shopping
A few years ago, the European Commission investigated a complaint in which an algorithm in a search engine made it harder to find rival firms’ products. This conduct denied rivals the chance to compete, and reinforced the power and economic interests of the company that owned the search engine. As a result, consumers faced higher prices and less choice. This was the famous Google Shopping case.
We think of Google’s search engine as a no-cost resource that generates independent and unbiased results. The European Commission was concerned that Google’s algorithms may have given its own comparison-shopping service more prominent treatment than it gave to competitors.
In other words, when an individual searched for a particular consumer product using Google’s search engine, the results gave higher priority to Google’s Shopping service and ranked rivals’ products low down in the search results. Since no one looks beyond the first few pages of a search result, rivals were excluded. The European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominant position as a search engine by giving anti-competitive advantage to Google Shopping, and excluding rivals. There are a number of similar cases being investigated by competition authorities globally.
From a competition point of view, what matters is how algorithms are actually used. One important issue is algorithms that determine prices. Pricing algorithms raise two important issues. First, they may increase the effectiveness of cartel conduct. Second, they may enable price discrimination strategies that lead to higher prices for certain groups of customers.
Cartels – where firms collude to fix prices – are a particular concern for competition authorities. Traditionally, such cartels operated through formal and informal meetings where cartel agreements were reached. In the digital age, it is now possible to design algorithms to fix prices without meetings ever occurring. Algorithms that charge different consumers different prices for the same goods, or raise prices without limit, provoke important competition and moral questions. Is it acceptable and pro-competitive, for example, for an online shopping platform to use your search history to steer you toward purchasing products that have higher prices rather than lower prices?
If competition authorities, policymakers and the public are alert to the risks presented by algorithms and big data, they will be able to take steps to guard against them. This will help ensure that big data can be a tool for economic inclusion, and not exclusion.
There are several reasons to be cautious against assuming that the possession of big data automatically gives firms the ability to exercise market power. First, many types of big data are readily available and replicable. Second, multiple firms can often collect and use the same set of data without creating barriers or strengthening entry barriers and market foreclosure concerns. Third, big data can quickly become obsolete. In general, competition authorities must determine whether big data creates a competitive concern on a case-by-case basis.
On 4 April 2020, the Economist noted, in relation to the Covid-19 crisis, that “the pandemic will have many losers, but it already has one clear winner: big tech”. Online platforms have been largely unaffected by (or have benefited from) lockdown restrictions. In the long term too, it is plausible that the Covid-19 crisis will accelerate the trend toward online shopping.
Without regulation, big data will either be immensely beneficial to individuals and society or profoundly detrimental – or will undoubtedly be a mixture of the two. As we navigate the game-changing terrain of big data, it is vital that competition authorities work to ensure that big data benefits all citizens, whatever their backgrounds.
Liberty Macebo Mncube (left) is an Associate Professor of Economics at the School of Economics and Finance at Wits University and he is also a Managing Director at FTI Consulting. His teaching and research focus on industrial organisation, competition economics and competition policy. Mncube is a Member of President Cyril Ramaphosa's Presidential Economic Advisory Council – appointed 1 October 2019 for 3 years. He is a former Chief Economist of the Competition Commission of South Africa, serving as Chief Economist from January 2014 to February 2019.
Professor Imraan Valodia is Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management. He holds a doctorate in economics and his research interests include inequality, employment, and competition policy. He led the establishment of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits and he is a part-time member of the Competition Tribunal. He advised the Minister of Economic Development on amendments to the Competition Act, legislated in 2019. In 2016, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Valodia to chair the Advisory Panel on the National Minimum Wage, introduced in 2019.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
TikTok/WeChat: US and them
- Charlotte Mathews
Banning popular apps like TikTok and WeChat is about more than a spat between the US and China.
Dedicated users of Chinese-developed social media apps TikTok and WeChat may have been infuriated by US President Donald Trump’s threats to ban their use in the US. But for the rest of the world, it looks like just another US/China trade manoeuvre.
It is not, though. It centres on a number of long-running, pertinent issues that are likely to stay unresolved even after the dust has settled on TikTok and WeChat.
At issue are whether governments can access personal information for control purposes and corporates can do so for profit; how to control the spread of ‘fake news’; whether there needs to be a global internet oversight body; and whether trade protectionism is sweeping the world, post-Covid.
Trump’s threats to ban TikTok (with about 100 million active users in the US) and WeChat (with about 20 million) apparently stem from warnings from the US security establishment that these apps could be used by the Chinese government to collect data on US citizens and launch disinformation campaigns. But the Chinese media believe there is a commercial agenda.
John Stremlau, Honorary Professor in the Department of International Relations at Wits, says it is difficult to understand what Trump intended with this ban, but it was probably partly a pre-election move to put a gloss on his administration’s ‘tough on China’ foreign policy.
Protection of personal data
Stremlau says that the US ban is unlikely to be followed by a similar ban by South Africa, as SA currently has better relations with Beijing than with Washington.
WeChat and TikTok are mining user data for profit, similar to platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google mining data for disinformation – although the Chinese government may be more actively involved than the US.
Professor Imraan Valodia, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at Wits, says one of the main concerns about these developments relates to surveillance and the use of the data that is collected.
“I understand TikTok’s algorithm generates data about users, so the question is who has access to that data and what will it be used for? This is a complex legal matter.”
Trade considerations
According to the Harvard Business Review, the implications of the US ban on TikTok are less to do with accessing US customer data (which is probably available elsewhere, anyway) and more that the threat to ban everyday technologies could spiral out of control and prompt retaliation. This would affect international trade.
Mills Soko, Professor in International Business and Strategy at the Wits Business School, says that the battle for control of TikTok in the US goes beyond social media and spying concerns.
“It is bigger than who owns the popular app. It is essentially about the future of US-China relations, as well as the volatile and unpredictable business environment which companies are forced to navigate as tensions between the two countries intensify.”
He says that the TikTok saga is in some ways a replay of the Trump administration’s campaign against Huawei. Both are proxy fights about a wider battle for global technological supremacy between the world’s two largest economies. Both fights have aroused fears about the possible emergence of a world order characterised by the decoupling of the US and Chinese economies, the rise of economic nationalism and its attendant hostility to foreign investment, and the disruption of global supply chains.
These developments will have adverse consequences for the global economy and companies, Soko warns.
Control of the internet
Stremlau says credible information is essential in complex international relations. Social media’s torrent of mis- and dis-information can be especially harmful in conflict situations.
“Social media is feeding illiberalism and privacy is being infringed. It is absurd for Twitter and Facebook to say that they cannot control what is collected and disseminated on their platforms,” says Stremlau.
“Of course it is possible to exert oversight, but the question is how. Nations will have to devise credible, decent legislation because the alternatives are worse. We will not preserve democracy unless we tackle the issue.”
Stremlau says that the impact of the US-China disputes over technology could be a bifurcation of the internet. This would be negative for the rest of the world, which is increasingly bound together. In the face of current threats such as climate change and Covid-19, the internet can play a vital role in conveying information.
“What is needed is a global body or commission that will manage the internet,” he says. “We already have similar bodies for telecommunications, health (although the WHO needs to be reformed and strengthened) and air travel. It should be an independent, government-sanctioned body.”
Valodia says that the dispute raises questions about the extent to which the state can determine who can operate and what digital applications its citizens are allowed to use.
“The bigger issue here is about the control of different types of technology,” he says. “This ban centres on complex issues around the way different countries use, or do not use, data-gathering systems.
“We can probably expect various reciprocal legal challenges and attempts to ban certain applications and systems,” says Valodia. “The fact is that governments and private corporations are already collecting our data, for example Facebook and Apple, and it is not clear what they use it for.”
He agrees that there is a need for a global architecture of rules for the management of data. An institution like the World Trade Organization would be a good place for this kind of treaty, as it already enforces rules on trade systems.
“However, there are some quite large national and individual rights issues at stake here,” says Valodia. “For example, everyone assumes Facebook is a free service, but our buying habits and our internet habits are being monetised. Do they have the right to do so and who gives them that right? It is a multi-faceted issue.”
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Infection online
- Delia du Toit
Online attacks and phishing surged during Covid-19. Is there a permanent solution to cybercrime?
“Sorry, but your password must contain an uppercase letter, a number, a haiku, a gang sign, a hieroglyph, and the blood of a virgin,” states a meme in circulation for some time. Indeed, few online efforts are as frustrating as setting up and remembering a password. In the internet age, the average person has more passwords than they can remember – 70 to 80, according to password manager NordPass.
It’s no wonder then that instead of picking a complex password, many people opt for something that is easily guessed. Last year, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) analysed passwords belonging to accounts worldwide that had been breached – the most popular passwords included gems like “password”, “111111” and “abc123”. The top hacked password, though, was “123456”, which was supposed to protect over 23 million of the accounts, followed by “123456789” on over seven million accounts. Band names, first names and sports teams were also popular passwords.
Dodgy digital defences
Just as housebreakers look for weak spots in fences to enter a home, online criminals hunt for weak online security to exploit. When they do so, human error is most often to blame. “Most online users are naïve and hardly have time for their security despite the warnings and awareness creation. Simple security hygiene is not observed,” says Dr Uche Mbanaso, visiting scholar at the Wits Learning Information Networking Knowledge (LINK) Centre and executive director of the Centre for Cyberspace Studies (CCS) at Nasarawa State University, Nigeria.
The pandemic created the perfect storm for cyber criminals to take advantage, with Interpol reporting an increase in cyber-attacks targeting small businesses, corporations and governments, says Dr Kiru Pillay, LINK visiting researcher and convenor of the Wits Cybersecurity Professional Practice and Leadership Certificate Programme.
“Data breaches impact both individuals and organisations by releasing personally identifiable information [PII], which can be used to identify an individual, into the public domain or selling it on the dark web. This data is often used for identity theft and making transactions online or, with some additional information, could be used to create new bank accounts or take out loans under a real person’s name.”
For corporations, data breaches can be devastating. Besides the reputational damage, loss of income and costs incurred to contain the breach and increase security, regulators are increasingly seeking to impose fines on corporations after data breaches, says Pillay. Equifax, a US-based credit agency, was fined $700 million after a 2017 data breach.
Combatting cybercrime
Hackers are always ahead of the game, says Mbanaso. “Beating hackers would require operating like them - thinking and acting indiscriminately.” Pillay says that, increasingly, the private sector is stepping up: “The South African Banking Risk Information Centre [SABRIC], for example, is a non-profit formed by the four major banks to assist in combatting organised bank-related crimes.”
And policy is catching up – President Ramaphosa is considering the Cybercrimes Bill, which the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces have already approved. “The Bill will codify numerous existing offences related to cybercrime and will create a variety of new offences,” says Pillay. But user vigilance, such as strong passwords, remain the best individual defence.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Privacy and the dollars in you data
- Tamsin Oxford
The balance between sharing personal data online and how it’s used and by whom is difficult to define and complex to regulate.
If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product’ – a quote attributed to many but that has its origins in the early 1970s in reference to television. Data has always been a commodity, but today it is far more valuable. Yet we continue to give it away for free.
“The data that people share on platforms and with companies is worth a lot of money to those companies,” explains Benjamin Rosman, Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Wits. “Data is powerful and valuable and can be used by organisations to target you with adverts and messaging.”
When Google logs what you’re doing, it learns a lot about you. It can deliver targeted adverts, immediately benefiting companies paying for those adverts. If Amazon uses your data to share tailored recommendations u, Amazon benefits – but who rightfully owns this data?
“Data is supposed to be owned by the individual who creates it, but when you sign up for any platform-as-a-service [PaaS], you agree to certain terms and transfer certain rights and responsibilities,” says Professor Turgay Celik in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits. “You’re shown about 200 pages of terms and conditions and you just agree to it.”
Data protection 101
There are regulations around the control, ownership and protection of personal information. In South Africa, these are defined by the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA. The act regulates the companies and individuals using the data but, despite these rules and protections, complexity persists. For example, how do you protect your data if you don’t know it’s being used?
“You need a good understanding of how the data is collected from you and how the data is exchanged,” says Celik. “You then need to establish what protections are in place for that data and these will vary dependent on how the data is being used. If these protections are breached and you’re informed, then you can take steps to protect it, and yourself.”
There are alternatives to regulation that focus on data security at the granular level, for example, digital signatures that ensure data shared with a platform remain there. Individuals should ensure they are better informed, and consider changing small details, like birth year, to obscure identities.
“You need to understand your rights and be vigilant in terms of whether people who have access to the data are adhering to the agreements you have with them. If data are abused, organisations can be prosecuted, but so few people really understand what their rights are and how their data is protected,” says Emeritus Professor Barry Dwolatzky at the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering, Wits. “If you’re benefitting from the arrangement with the company that has your data, then perhaps you should be happy with handing over your data. There’s a balance between civil liberties, and saying ‘what the heck, let them use my data as I get value from this arrangement’.”
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
What we caught online
- Ufrieda Ho
We need new rules of engagement on social media – even if we don’t know it yet.
It may be the superpower of our time: finding the courage to disable notifications on your social media apps.
Recognising the need to claw back some of the attention we squander on the internet and social media is the first step in being able to navigate with greater success – and less stress – our world of information overload, disinformation, fake news and what some even call an “infopocalyse” and “infodemic”.
“Infopocalyse” may be hyperbole, as the rise of the machine (and code) is far from a write-off for humanity. Someone like Yuval Harari, historian, philosopher and author, would argue anyway that humans are a “post-truth species”, we are by no means freshly arrived to a world where fictions are propped up for power, or propaganda is sharpened until it is a weapon.
A tool, not an agent
Dr Helen Robertson, who teaches an ethics course to master’s students in the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, says there is no turning back the viral impact of social media – “the genie is out of the bottle”. She cautions against sensationalism that social media is in and of itself the problem.
“We need to think about social media as a tool, not necessarily an agent that is value laden. The value, or lack thereof, comes from what humans want do with the technology,” she says.
Robertson says the platforms are designed to be fine-grained. This subtlety – which is also complex – gives technology the scope, scale and speed to spread and entrench certain agendas and values with devastating success.
There are reasons to be concerned, or at least be more vigilant, says Dr Benjamin Rosman of the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Rosman says the “noble” intentions that may have informed the early days of the internet – ideas like universal access, connectivity and an unfiltered free-flow of information – have morphed, and morphed fast and ugly.
Algorithms exploit outrage
“It seemed reasonable in the beginning that platforms like Facebook and Twitter were free in exchange for users having to see a few adverts displayed. But that turned to developers targeting advertising using autonomous algorithms learning from users’ data – things like your Google searches, what we engage with most and how long we remain engaged with content,” says Rosman.
Even that was relatively benign. But, as platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Google have vied for users’ attention and engagement to make profits, Rosman says algorithms have been used to not just tailor and target advertising but also to hold attention and encourage engagement. Achieving this comes down to exploiting emotions, in particular outrage, Rosman says. The algorithms have learnt that people respond most to content when they are outraged. So the algorithm pushes more incendiary content to an outraged person and lights the fire of a vicious cycle.
“The algorithms are designed to keep you on sites for longer, ensuring more engagement and effectively keeping you more addicted and making your attention the commodity,” he says.
Destabilising civilisations
Rosman says as people froth with outrage in their echo chambers and bubbles, the algorithms also starve them of exposure to content that presents rational, opposing views. It is a dangerous blindsiding that deepens polarisation and can ‘destabilise civilisations’. Destabilisation could be skewing voting and political outcomes, creating rifts, breaching privacy rules, introducing harassment in the form of trolling, offering fake news that stands in for decision-making and deepening the erosion of critical thinking.
For Phumlani Nhlanganiso Khoza, founder of Scilinx Research, which is part of the WitsNeuRL Neuroscience Research Laboratory, the social media platforms are not likely to change much, which means users need to get savvier.
“The technology is not going away and it can be a wonderful classroom. The problem is how people react to metrics,” says Khoza.
He adds that there’s a growing mental health burden as people seek the dopamine hit from social media interaction. Dopamine is the chemical transmitter released when we are rewarded or motivated. It is also linked to attention and memory.
“For some people they feel terrible when they don’t get attention on social media and their perceived competing influencer does,” he says.
Saving society
Khoza says people should remember that social media is a cocoon – just one reflection of the world.
The majority of people in the world are not engaged on any of these platforms. He points out that social media is filled with bots; software applications capable of creating fake accounts, fake followers and troll armies.
A way to break free from the feedback loops is to improve foundational learning in society. This would entail teaching that supports deep thinking and problem solving, not methods that are fixed to metrics, memorising or rigid timeframes.
Added to this, Khoza says, there needs to be investment in technology and innovation as well as adaptive, proactive regulation. “Some regulations mean very little. They are not very effective. When even I, as a techie, am not going to read or understand everything that goes into something like a cookies policy that come up on a website, then it’s clear companies are just trying to cover themselves,” he says.
But innovation could help. It could be an app that summarises content on an issue to win back time and be a buffer against triggering content. It could be removing “like” buttons, retweeting and sharing options, follower counters and even possibly a default option that scrubs users’ data and histories from platforms.
Khoza says, ultimately: “Social media is a diet of the mind – choose what you want to consume and accept that sometimes you just have to leave the platform or exit the group.”
It makes for thinking about rules and regulation for new media, says Professor Ufuoma Akpojivi, Head of Media Studies. “We should fact check before we share or respond to something – or at least read the article and comments first. And just like old media has rules and policies about how people are allowed to comment or engage, new media should have the same,” he says.
“The beauty of democracy is that we don’t all need to agree, but some users on platforms like Twitter are not looking for engagement, they are there to shout at others or to police people and they haven’t learnt to agree to disagree.”
Professor Glenda Daniels, a Media Studies lecturer whose latest book Power and Loss in South African Journalism (Wits University Press) has just been launched, says the real damage from social media’s current dominance is deepening divides in society.
Only an estimated eight million South Africans, out of a population of 58 million, have Facebook accounts. That leaves the majority shut out, even if it is from the “binary opposition debates” that Daniels says marks social media interaction.
Unregulated FANGS bite
“In less than 10 years, we’ve gone from about 575 community newspapers to fewer than 200 today – all the advertising, including the communities’ news itself, has gone to Facebook and it’s outrageous that Facebook has gained all of this for free. The FANGS [Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google] make the profits these days. Many are not paying tax and governments, civil society, NGOs and everyone lets it pass – all unregulated – because we are told it’s the way right now, there’s nothing you can do,” says Daniels.
Widening digital divides pushes people further into their corners, says Professor Imraan Valodia, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management. At the most fundamental, he says, are the divides noted by the Future of Work(ers) project at Wits University’s Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. They point out “the exorbitant cost of mobile phones and data, inadequate network coverage and access to electricity, users’ limited literacy, and gender norms that discourage women from using cellphones”.
Along with this, the world is seeing a rise of far-right leaders and populism. “People feel increasingly excluded, so they resort to things like petty nationalism or they target migrants.” Valodia points out that data has become virtual gold, and the monetisation of social media companies has meant a concentration of massive wealth in the hands of a few, adding to imbalance and divisions in society. There are no silver bullets for changing social media into something that does more good than bad, but there is pushback in the form of smarter regulation and a louder call for transparency, he says.
Valodia has most recently been involved in shaping competition regulation policy. It entails building frameworks to ensure that large tech companies are prohibited from mergers and acquisitions that essentially allow them to buy out start-up companies that may become potential competitors. Change and safeguards must also come with old-fashioned social action, he says.
“If we find something unacceptable as a society – like the massive concentration of wealth held by a few – we have to fight to change it. We have to design the rules that make our world more sustainable and equitable.”
We may not be at the point of deleting all our social media apps just yet, but the time has come for new rules of engagement, even if most people don’t realise it yet.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
The blame game: Putting a pandemic on the pangolin
- Shivan Parusnath
Is blaming a threatened species for a global pandemic not an indictment of our environmental conscience?
When the SARS-CoV-2 virus first emerged in the media in late December 2019, warnings of the highly transmissible virus were accompanied by photos and videos of Chinese wet markets, from which the virus was rumoured to have originated. The wet markets showed graphic imagery of animals and animal body parts strewn across unwashed counters, and was immediately met with outrage and widespread condemnation.
In many cases, the videos being shared were not even of Chinese markets, but markets in Indonesia. As research on the issue began in earnest, it emerged that the virus may not even have originated from a wet market. This was just the beginning of the spread of Covid-19 related misinformation and fake news in the media.
Muddled origins
Zoonotic diseases (those passed from animals to humans) have had a long history of impact on human populations. From vector-borne diseases such as West Nile virus and bubonic plague, to diseases that stem from direct contact or the consumption of animals and their by-products, such as Ebola and brucellosis, our purposeful or accidental interactions with animals have caused the loss of millions of human lives.
The largest global pandemic to have ravaged our species in recorded history is the Spanish Flu, which according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, claimed the lives of approximately 50 million people. The origins of this virus when it spread around the world in 1918 was a mystery, and only later did it emerge that the H1N1 virus that was behind the Spanish Flu had an avian [bird] origin, and most likely reached humans through interactions with, or consumption of pigs.
“Most emerging diseases today have animal origins. As many as 75-80% of new diseases come from animals,” says John Frean, Associate Professor in the Wits Institute for Malaria Research and a pathologist in the Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases in the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
“With genetic technology as advanced as it is today, it is possible to compare the genome of a virus found within humans, to viruses sequenced in other organisms to determine where the likeliest origin might be,” explains Professor Lucille Blumberg, Wits Medical School alumna, 2020 honorary Wits honorary doctorate recipient, and Deputy Director at the NICD. It was a simple matter then, to sequence the genome of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus and to find out the likeliest source of the disease. However, despite the technology available to us, there is still room for error and confusion.
Apportioning blame
The first inklings of research identified bats as likely intermediate hosts for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and research papers from previous years that warned of the possibility of coronaviruses spilling over from bats to humans became widely shared across social media. A few months later, new research purported to pinpoint the SARS-CoV-2 virus as having a potential pangolin origin. Quickly, however, this research was realised to be flawed, and acknowledged as an “embarrassing miscommunication” by the scientists involved.
But as with most forms of ‘news’ in the digital age, once it has been put out on the internet, it is very difficult, nigh impossible, to retract. As the blame shifted from animal to animal, what were the potential impact for these species? “Being identified as a reservoir species for a highly communicable virus can afford an animal some protection but can also result in the unnecessary culling and destruction of animals,” says Blumberg.
“When we were doing research in Zimbabwe, there was a call from President Robert Mugabe for pangolins to be brought to the presidential house in Harare.” These offerings were given as a sign of loyalty and respect for the former president, since in Zimbabwean Shona culture, presenting a leader with a gift of a pangolin is a highly honourable act. “This resulted in a widespread pangolin hunt, with people commonly walking around the veld looking for pangolins. This likely affected wild populations significantly over that period, perhaps even causing localised extinctions,” she says.
Knowing the effects that this kind of targeting can have on animal populations, Scholes is wary of the associations that have been made between pangolins and the Covid-19 pandemic, and how this affects them going forward.
“This call from the president likely affected wild populations significantly over that period, perhaps even causing localised extinctions,” she says.
The South African perspective
The consumption of wild animal meat in South Africa does not come close to rivalling the bushmeat trade in other African or Asian countries. However, “it is an economic reality in South Africa that some people do rely on wild animals for food,” says Frean. “Based on our current socioeconomic system, farm-produced food is not readily available everywhere.”
Animals and animal body parts are also commonly consumed in traditional medicine practices in South Africa, although these tend to be far more benign. “There is much less risk from consuming dried-out body parts than fresh animal flesh, simply because pathogens do not typically survive as well on dried out material,” says Frean.
Professor Mbulaheni Simon Nemutandani, Head of the School of Oral Health Sciences at Wits has worked with indigenous traditional healers for over 20 years. “Registered traditional healers take necessary precautions to ensure the safety of the material with which they work. Of course, just as in Western medicine, there are quacks that are not registered and do not follow guidelines. This is where risks might come in,” he says.
The onus is on us
Blumberg cautions against thinking that we have to look to traditional medicine markets or bushmeat for the next zoonotic disease. “Through modern agriculture, we consume animals all the time and contract zoonotic diseases all the time. Antibiotics are widely utilised to try to keep animals disease free, but they aren’t always 100% effective. There are still new diseases emerging all the time from cows, pigs and chickens.”
So as much as humans like to point the blame towards others in the food chain, the onus really is on us to be more cautious and thoughtful about how we interact with the species with whom we share our world.
“The less we encroach on wild habitats and interfere with wild animals, the less chance we have of experiencing these spill overs in the future,” says Blumberg. “A healthy environment means healthy animals, and healthy humans.”
Shivan Parusnathis Multimedia Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
A fleeting green moment in time
- Shaun Smillie
Scientists predict that an Age of Pandemics is imminent unless human beings change their ways.
Hidden in a 78-metre long ice core recovered from a glacier in the Swiss/Italian Alps is the story of how humankind’s worst-ever pandemic improved air quality across medieval Europe.
From this core, a team of scientists were able to reconstruct air quality in Europe over the past 2 000 years. They did this by measuring the concentration of lead in the air.
They found that during the period 1347-1353, when the Black Death (a global epidemic of bubonic plague) killed possibly as many as a third of Europe’s population, lead concentration levels fell drastically.
The mass die-off meant the demand for lead fell. Lead dust that ended up in the air, from medieval smelters, dropped too.
Six-and-a-half centuries later, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has left its mark on the world’s air quality, after it shut down global industrial production and left most of the planet’s population under lockdown.
In the future scientists may use contemporary ice cores, and an array of other tools, to assess the impact that this modern pandemic had on the environment and the human race.
The Covid-19 pandemic is yet to leave us, and there is still so much to be learnt from its global impact. But what we do know so far, is that the virus has had a massive influence on the global climate.
Keep cool to carry on
To prevent an irreversible change in the climate system, according to the International Panel on Climate Change, we have to limit a global temperature increase to 1.5°C.
“For us to prevent a 1.5°C overshoot, we have to cut emissions by about 8% of 2020 levels, and we have to do so for every year for the next decade,” says Associate Professor Vishwas Satgar of the Department of International Relations at Wits University.
“Some people are suggesting that Covid-19 impacts have brought emissions down to between five and eight percent.”
What Covid-19 has also done, however, is provide us with a peek into a bleak imminent epoch, which is being called the Age of the Pandemics.
“We should be looking at these climate sensitive pandemics as something that could happen more frequently in decades to come,” says Associate Professor Jennifer Fitchett in Physical Geography at Wits.
Averting the age of pandemics
The Age of Pandemics is likely to be driven by climate change, deforestation and a growing human population that will in the future come into more and more contact with deadly, still unknown pathogens.
Scientists have already proposed a way for stopping future pandemics. In a paper in the journal Science, scientists called for the introduction of a number of measures to prevent viruses from emerging from tropical forests and jumping species.
These measures include arresting deforestation through improving the lives of people who live in forested areas, introducing better legislation to preserve forests, and curtailing the wildlife trade in bushmeat through better patrolling, to bring an end to wet markets. The authors suggest that measures should be put in place to prevent people from going into forests to prevent human contact with deadly pathogens.
While protecting us from new potential emerging viruses, these measures will in the long term provide better protection for the globe’s fauna and flora.
These efforts are estimated to cost between R363 billion-R495 billion a year to implement. However, this is a drop in the ocean compared to the tens of trillions of dollars that the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have cost globally.
Green economy opportunity
Satgar believes that we need to use the Covid-19 pandemic and its convergence with multiple crises to develop a paradigm that transforms societies to deal with the systemic drivers of these crises.
For instance, many countries in their efforts to rebuild in the aftermath of the pandemic have committed to green deals, where nations will invest in renewable energy sources and commit to reversing climate change.
But while South Africa has introduced stimulus packages to fire up the economy, little or nothing has been said about investing in a green economy. In the short term, the government wants to use tourism to stimulate the economy. However, Satgar points out global tourism is responsible for massive spikes in emissions because of the airline industry.
“It is a difficult one, because tourism certainly has been a very important economic sector for us, and so it is very much the way to kick-start an economy. However, there is also a large concern about the role of tourism and travel in the spread of Covid-19,” says Fitchett, who has studied the effects of tourism and climate change in South Africa.
Professor Bob Scholes of the Wits Global Change Institute says the Covid crisis should be used as an opportunity to change the direction of the economy.
“I do see an alternative narrative, where we have massive injections of stimulus and we can use this stimulus to take us on a track to transform the economy into a green economy.”
While critics may complain that it would take too much to place the economy on such a footing, the pandemic has shown what humankind can do when in a crisis.
“You know when we really get together and finally grasp the nettle, we actually can achieve remarkable things,” says Scholes.
However, the problem with pandemics is that their positive effects on the environment are often fleeting. This is seen in that same Alpine ice core that revealed how the Black Death cleaned up those medieval skies, 650 years ago.
Just a couple of years after the plague swept through Europe, the concentrations of lead were increasing and returning to the levels that they were before the Black Death appeared.
Today, pollution levels are once again on the rise and the gains made are soon to be wiped out.
“If we stay on this trajectory of business as usual, we are going to see the full-blown social and ecological collapse of systems,” warns Satgar.
Is the environment right for a second spike?
While Covid-19 has had an effect on the environment, the inverse is also true. Natural cycles have an impact on the virus and South Africans might see this effect in autumn 2021.
Researchers from Wits’ GCI and the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies have been assessing whether there are any environmental or seasonal components to the Covid-19 outbreak. They believe there most likely are.
The team found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19 disease, might start following a seasonal cycle, where there will be a rise in infections in the winter months.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Teaching in a Covid global village
- Buhle Zuma
It takes a village to raise a child but the global village is shrinking.
The fourth industrial revolution and the global pandemic demand a rethink on how we teach online for those most compromised and the risks associated with this ‘redistributed university’.
It takes a village to raise a child. This African proverb illustrates the community’s collective responsibility for bringing up children, regardless of bloodline or future benefits. The pandemic has brought to the fore the value of African value systems in education.
*Karabo, a visually impaired student, had just started university when South Africa went into lockdown and Wits closed on 17 March 2020. The first-year student was beginning to get to grips with the transition from high school to university, when she found out that her classes would move online. This raised her anxiety levels as she had last worked on a computer in Grade 9 and had low levels of computer literacy.
Fortunately, at Wits help came from all sides as Karabo, her neighbours and family worked collaboratively with the Wits Disability Rights Unit (DRU) to ensure that she could navigate the abrupt change to an online learning environment, which was doubly challenging for someone visually impaired.
Envisioning special needs online
Andrew Sam, an Adaptive Technologist at the DRU, was responsible for walking this journey with Karabo through a ‘village’ that offered support.
“We pretty much got through it, but there were many long hours of work, sometimes frustration, as students had to get used to the new system,” says Sam.
It helped that the DRU started thinking about how Covid-19 would affect students with special needs long before President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the national lockdown.
“We had seen what was happening in other countries and needed to be ready for this eventuality,” says Sam.
By the end of February, the DRU had started moving resources online to enable staff to work remotely. The team had identified guides and free software similar to that in the DRU computer labs that would enable students to work from home.
Lockdown learning liberates the physically impaired
Particular attention was given to ‘print impaired’ students – an inclusive term which includes the visually impaired and those with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia or reading difficulties.
Consideration also had to be given to the hard of hearing and Deaf students who under normal circumstances have access to a Sign Language interpreter or real-time caption transcriber in the classroom.
As online learning is mostly delivered through audio and without an interpreter, hearing impaired students risked exclusion from learning. To overcome this, the DRU overlays lectures with Sign language interpretation using Loom software (a video messaging tool) and various voice-to-text software programmes to provide captions for audio.
The pandemic seems to have been more forgiving for students with mobility issues and other physiological impairments. These students could work from the comfort of their homes and access recorded lessons long after the lecturer had left the virtual classroom.
Nurturing talent for a post-pandemic world
Technology has enabled Wits University to continue with its flagship programme for high school learners. The Targeting Talent Programme (TTP), launched in 2007, primes Grade 10-12 learners from disadvantaged backgrounds for success at university. A major component of the programme is the June/July curriculum, which sees hundreds of academically-talented learners immersed in contact learning on the University’s premises. Rather than suspend the programme due to Covid-19, TTP moved online, with an extended timetable that ran from June to October for the 2020 cohort of 500 learners.
Zena Richards, Director of the Student Equity and Talent Management Unit at Wits which runs the TTP, says learners were given tablets and data so that they could be taught using typical online teaching pedagogy.
“The design took cognisance of the learners’ realities with regard to time available outside of normal school work, living conditions, house chores and care of siblings [and] poor connectivity, etc. The majority of the activities involved asynchronous [flexible] offline learning,” says Richards. Counsellors and Wits senior student mentors offered psychosocial support.
The threat of the ‘redistributed university’
While technology has sustained the academic programme online, there are fears that the pandemic is leading to the redistribution of the power of universities. The concept of the ‘redistributed university’ was central to discussions between academics in Mexico and South Africa in October. It brought to the fore some of the seemingly overlooked threats to universities during this time.
The discussions highlighted that universities do more than teach; they contribute to political and civic culture and promote social justice – a role familiar to many South African institutions. The discussion was jointly hosted by the Mexican Studies Centre at Wits, the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Dr Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, a Postdoctoral Fellow at WiSER, says: “One of the things lost, and which I lament, is that universities in South Africa, historically, have been sites of political contestation and dissent. What we have lost at this moment is the university being a locus of dissent and contestation, and that loss has been important. Political dissent has been redistributed out of the university and that is a threat that we should be cognisant of.”
Participants also raised concerns about the paradox of a technology-driven university: “The university has opened itself and redistributed itself by allowing more voices through digital technologies. At the broader level we may be seeing the redistribution of power towards big tech where the mediation of the university happens now via big tech.
“The university’s power to control its own internal borders is coming under pressure from a far greater source of power and we may be seeing the university retreating in terms of the power it is able to wield in society,” warns Mpofu-Walsh.
Technology might have been seen as an equaliser, but the nature of capital and the desire for profits can possibly undermine this vision and marginalise those with limited financial resources, says Professor Garth Stevens, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. By 2025, online learning platforms are projected to yield US$350 billion per annum, he adds.
Professor Sarah Nuttall, Director of WiSER, asks of the changing role of the university: “What do the university and the knowledge project become without the communal and spirited life provided by the university corridor? What happens to the stakes of the argument, the terms of disagreement, and the capacity to read nuance when exchanges move to the online terrain?”
The technology-infused corridors in the university village may be shrinking under the new normal.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Valour and the virus
- Delia du Toit
Throughout her career, Professor Glenda Gray has focussed on one thing only – saving lives.
This focus has brought her into conflict with government and the science establishment. But using hard data as evidence, she made a massive contribution to overturning disastrous national health policy on HIV. Delia du Toit asked her to reflect on HIV, denialism and the gray in between.
“I hate working from home,” declares Professor Glenda Gray against a neutral palette of grey and cremé in her Cape Town home. “Hate it, hate it.”
It makes sense, as she is used to commanding health conferences, steering teams of researchers, and chairing some of the most respected and effective medical committees in the world. She’s used to getting her hands dirty, working like a “bat out of hell”. Gray’s impatience in saving lives and finding a vaccine for HIV – and lately Covid-19 – turns her into her own worst critic.
As CEO and president of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), chair of the research sub-committee on Health Minister Zweli Mkhize’s team of 50 expert Covid-19 advisors, and Co-Principal Investigator of the National Institutes of Health’s HIV Vaccine Trials Network, which conducts over 80% of candidate HIV vaccine clinical trials globally, Gray has built up an international reputation as one of the best in the world in her field. She was awarded the national Order of Mapungubwe in 2013, and earned a spot on TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. In 2018, she earned her A-rating as a researcher.
But none of this comes without sacrifice. She admits that she has barely slept this past year. “I’m just always behind, there’s so much to do. In the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, I would wake up in the middle of the night, worrying about our country.”
That other pandemic
It’s not the first time she’s felt this way. In the 1990s, at the height of the HIV/Aids pandemic, Gray worked around the clock to help the sick and dying around her. “HIV started emerging in the 80s, while I was doing my clinical training at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto. It exploded in the wards, there was just tremendous death all around us. I spent my weekends with comrades in Soweto organising HIV workshops.”
Her first study was on whether HIV-positive women in developing countries could safely feed their infants formula to avoid transmitting the virus through breast milk, and she presented the paper at an international AIDS meeting. “I had no idea of the controversy it would cause. After I finished my presentation, the first question from an audience member was whether I was on Nestlé’s payroll.
“At the time, health leaders recommended that women in developing countries shouldn’t feed formula, arguing that the risk of death from contaminated water outweighed that of contracting HIV. But I didn’t think white men from the northern hemisphere should make decisions for black, African women. I wanted to give the women the information and let them choose for themselves.”
Later, it turned out that women in Soweto were indeed able to use formula safely and reduce HIV transmission rates.
That incident would set the stage for much of her career – a drive to save lives while fighting convention. “Controversy has dogged me all my life,” she smiles wryly.
She established the Wits Perinatal HIV Research Unit at Bara in 1996, with Professor James McIntyre, and would soon fight a battle on two fronts as Aids denialism reared its ugly head at the highest level.
Former President Thabo Mbeki began courting denialists who said that poverty – not HIV – caused Aids and that antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) were toxic. “It was a public health disaster. The government kept saying it wasn’t Aids but selenium deficiency, while people were dying in the wards. I was angry and frustrated. I wasn’t just a researcher; I was also looking after these people. We knew for a fact that HIV transmission could be averted with drugs, and the government refused to supply them. We had evidence! So many deaths could have been avoided.”
She recalls a “screaming fight” with Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, then Minister of Health, who at the time advocated beetroot, lemon and garlic for curing Aids.
Some estimates have put the death toll of government Aids denialism at 330 000.
But Gray kept fighting the only way she could – through hard data and advocacy, clashing with those in power at every turn. “I never saw myself as a scientist, really. I wanted to alleviate suffering and science was just the vehicle.”
In 2001, Gray assisted the Treatment Action Campaign in taking on the government in court, demanding the distribution of treatment to HIV-positive pregnant women. Soon after, in 2002, Gray and McIntyre received the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award for their efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
At the award ceremony, Mandela said that it was “beyond doubt and argument” that giving drugs to pregnant women is necessary. This award, and Madiba’s support, was critical in the fight against HIV, she says. It made it clear that the government was wrong. Later that year, the court ruled in favour of providing the drugs and finally, her real work could begin. Gray was involved in rolling out ARVs across the country, developing dosing regimens, and studying the effects.
In the spotlight again
But Gray would knock heads with government again. Earlier this year, she criticised aspects of government’s restrictions during the national lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19, saying that parts of the approach were “unscientific”.
“Politics and science are like oil and water,” she says. “But it must be that way, or one of us is doing something wrong. Scientists have an obligation to society and should never have to kowtow or explain government decisions. A healthy, robust scientific community is able to express itself.”
This time, however, Gray and the Minister of Health are fighting the same battle.
“What I can say about Mkhize is that he’s chosen lives over livelihoods. Lockdown has had other ramifications, but I can’t fault government’s caring for the people.”
While Gray has earned recognition for her work from across the world, she feels her proudest moments were where she could translate science into practice. “I’m grateful we could finally give ARVs to pregnant women in Soweto, after we’d promised them for so long that it would work.”
She is still in contact with some of the infants she helped save, who have since gone on to graduate and find jobs. “Reducing human suffering is what it’s all about.”
But she’s determined to help end at least one of the two pandemics, if not both. “I can’t say I’ve had a career highlight yet, because we haven’t developed an HIV yet. But every failure brings us closer to success.”
“For now, I’m sorry for being the poster child for failure,” she says, in all earnestness.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Understanding the infodemic
- Deborah Minors
Covid-19 misinformation, mythology, and fake news has implications for public health.
Did you hear the one about injecting bleach to stave off Covid-19? Perhaps you forwarded that WhatsApp message your uncle shared about drinking ethanol for immunity? No doubt you’ve encountered ‘viral infection by 5G’, ‘dolphins frolicking in Venetian canals’, or know someone who believes the virus was made in a lab.
Along with a lethal virus, the Covid-19 pandemic has unleashed a tsunami of information, misinformation, myths and fake news that the World Health Organization (WHO) calls an “infodemic” – this is an over-abundance of information including deliberate attempts to disseminate wrong information to undermine the public health response and advance alternative agendas. So serious is the infodemic that the first WHO Infodemiology Conference took place in 2020.
‘Mythinformation’ and folklore
In Africa, our own infodemic emerged. “Myths doing their rounds in Africa were the belief that SARS CoV-2 does not affect Africans, which was fuelled when a Cameroonian student who contracted the virus in China responded well to treatment,” says Dr Neelaveni Padayachee, Head of Clinical Pharmacy, who researches pharmaco-vigilance and rational drug use and who delivered a podcast on coronavirus conspiracies and myths.
“Another popular myth was that the virus will not survive in the warm African climate – this has been shown to be untrue – and the myth that spraying alcohol and chlorine all over your body will protect you from the virus.”
These myths emerged from an explosive collision in SA’s socio-political and cultural milieu at the heart of which is the question: who do you trust?
Professor of Sociology David Dickinson says that sometimes misinformation happens simply because people misunderstand something.
“People make a mistake, and it’s common in a complex situation such as the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, references to ‘the Covid-19 bacteria’, when in fact it’s a virus,” he says. In this case there is no malice or intent to misinform, but the public health implications are profound.
Early in SA’s Covid-19 pandemic, Dickinson assembled an impromptu focus group in the townships he frequents for his research, to test the myths that erupted almost immediately.
“In my conversations in the townships I’ve been struck by how early on in the pandemic these beliefs emerged, and how fluid the alternative theories were. Myths are the way that people try to make sense of things – myths like ‘the virus was made in a lab’,” – which, Dickinson points out – is also a myth that emerged during the HIV pandemic.
“Folk theories and lay theories about HIV, which are linked to bodies of knowledge about traditional healing and ‘global control by Bill Gates’ are genuinely held by people. They have constructed it as ‘the truth’ and it’s not a mistake,” he says.
In his book, Myths or theories? Alternative beliefs about HIV and AIDS in South African working class communities (2013), Dickinson writes that folk and lay theories [of HIV/AIDS] are also often highly palatable in that they provide hope and comfort in terms of prevention, cure, and the allocation of blame.
“Covid beats HIV hands down in the area of folk theories operating. However, this happens because science doesn’t have an answer to Covid-19, so then you have license to make up your own.”
“We need to ask: What’s the underlying concern? The 5G beliefs stem from concerns about technology and its perceived threat to job losses or personal freedom, for example”.
Fake news and the kernels of truth
Much maligned but fundamental to taking pandemic parlance to the people, the role of the media cannot be under-estimated. Glenda Daniels, Associate Professor in Media Studies at Wits, says: “Lies travel faster than facts, research has shown. People should find credible news sources where news has been checked,” – although she concedes that within the media sector, fact-checking functions are not at the same level that they used to be, a fact borne out in Wits Journalism’s State of the Newsroom report (2018). Daniels says, “It’s hard for everyone to work out what is fake news and credible sources, but there are huge initiatives in the country and around the world to help the public.”
Lee Mwiti, Chief Editor at Africa Check, a fact checking non-profit in Wits Journalism, says: “Misinformation with the broadest reach is that which has a kernel of truth embedded, rather than that which is fabricated. It is worth remembering that myths are consequential, they have a real impact on people's health, relationships and safety.”
Ina Skosana is the Health and Medicine Editor at The Conversation Africa through which university academics share factual and accurate research with the public. She says myths and misinformation are common in a crisis – as seen during the Ebola outbreak. “Science communication experts identified fear and the speed of social media as contributing factors,” she says.
The post-truth era
“Communication is complex and contextual,” says Leigh Crymble, a doctoral student in Behavioural Economics at Wits Business School, who is researching language, ideology and behaviour in relation to broader social, psychological, and economic structures of society.
“We are now living in what many call the ‘post-truth era’, where critical, active consumption of information is so important. The tricky thing is that we’re used to trusting people close to us, but research is increasingly showing that these are often the people sending us misinformation. Because our immediate behavioural reaction is to trust the sender, we often get caught up in misinformation.”
Crymble says that the key to diffusing fake news is to repeat the facts continually and consistently across platforms in ways that don’t allow for conflicting messages.
Building trust during a pandemic
How do we communicate to save lives during a pandemic? Professor Jennifer Watermeyer is Director of the Health Communication Research Unit at Wits. In her book, Communicating Across Cultures and Languages in the Health Care Setting: Voices of Care (2018), Watermeyer writes that metaphors can be essential and empowering in healthcare communication. They can be tools of cultural brokerage for the “discourse of the unsayable”.
“In the case of the Covid-19 pandemic, metaphors have emerged to explain concepts such as contagion – coronavirus is like ‘glitter’ or a ‘forest fire’. If used correctly and chosen appropriately, metaphors can be useful for explaining difficult concepts,” says Watermeyer.
Metaphors can go wrong, however. “We have seen the dark side of this in the case of HIV/Aids, where there may be confusion around terms such as positive/negative. With Covid-19, battle or violence metaphors have the potential to legitimise authoritarian response and lockdown measures.”
Watermeyer says that simple, time-sensitive, proactive communication that focuses on what is known and not known during a pandemic engenders trust.
Trust comes from what Aviva Tugendhaft calls “deliberative engagement”. Tugendhaft is a Senior Researcher in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics & Decision Science - PRICELESS SA. She and colleagues published research on the modification of a public engagement tool, a board game called CHAT (Choosing All Together).
“When the legitimacy of the decision-making process is questioned, it results in low levels of public trust, even if many measures to address the pandemic are evidence-based,” says Tugendhaft. “Meaningful engagement goes deeper. Tools like CHAT are ‘deliberative’ – they start with a shared knowledge base and empower people to make informed decisions as a group.”
Flattening the infodemic curve requires us to understand the origins of information and extract the kernels of truth. Public health communications must be consistent and accurate. It is only through engaging deliberately with each other and with the facts that we can learn to trust and share the information that keeps us alive.
Digital hygiene
With fake news proving to be a real threat to our health, it’s important for us all to keep our news reliable by practising digital hygiene in the same way we do physical hygiene. Dr Leigh Crymble provides some tips for digital hygiene:
Source: Check to see if the news is also being reported on mainstream sites. If the source is “a friend of a friend”, treat it as a rumour and discard it.
Content quality: Credible news sites are less likely to have typos, spell things incorrectly or use poor grammar. Text in colour, capital letters and the overuse of exclamation marks should also make you suspicious.
Encouraging you to share: Fake news thrives when it’s shared. If the message asks you to forward it to your network, be wary. Remember, fake news can only spread if we spread it.
Report fake news: Fake news about Covid-19 is now a criminal offence in South Africa. If you receive information that you suspect to be fake news, take a screenshot or copy the link and report it to fakenewsalert@dtps.gov.za or WhatsApp 067 966 4015.
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
The Conversation Africa WhatsApp service to help stem misinformation around the virus:
South Africa: +27 76 771 2387
Kenya: +254 741 976111
Ghana: +233 541 946552
Virus wages war on women
- Erna van Wyk
Almost everyone has suffered in some way from the effects of the Covid pandemic – but women have suffered far more.
During pandemics, women are hit hardest and are disproportionately affected in the health, socio-political and economic arenas. The Covid-19 outbreak is no exception. In Gauteng, more women (56%) than men have tested positive for the virus, according to the August 2020 Map of the Month of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO).
The gender bias during pandemics is also visible in other studies, such as the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM). This five-wave-study, looking at five timeframes between February 2020 and April next year, is the largest non-medical Covid-19 research project in South Africa.
“Data from wave 1 show women in South Africa were especially hard hit by the crisis during February. Though women accounted for less than half (47%) of those employed in February, they accounted for two million, or two-thirds (67%), of the three million net job losses that were recorded between February and April,” says Daniela Casale, Associate Professor in the School of Economics and Finance. This unequal economic toll on women is frequently referred to as the ‘she-cession’, in reference to recessions.
The survey shows that while women accounted for two-thirds of job losses, men received two-thirds of the Covid-19 grants (65%).
One of the main reasons for this disparity in job losses is because of the continued concentration of women and men in different parts of the economy, and many of the hardest hit sectors were those that typically employ large numbers of women – tourism and hospitality, retail trade, personal care, and domestic and childcare services. In addition, women were found to have taken on more of the extra childcare work in April.
Women also lost their jobs across the spectrum in low-, semi- and high-skilled employment.
“What has been so devastating about this crisis is that everyone has suffered, but they have not suffered equally. Those who have been the biggest job losers have been at the bottom end of the skills distribution, so we know that most of the jobs lost were by women at the bottom end; women who in February were earning less than R1 500 per month,” says Casale.
Wave 2 of the survey, conducted since June and released in September, provided an opportunity to track how women have fared since the economy started to reopen, and shows women remain well behind men in reaching their pre-Covid employment levels. Women’s employment levels were still down 20% in June against February, while men’s were down 13%.
“A worrying finding is that even though women were over-represented among the job losses, they were under-represented in the income support received in June. Only 41% of the beneficiaries of the Unemployment Insurance Fund [UIF] or the UIF temporary employer/employee relief scheme, and 34% of those who had been paid the new Covid-19 social relief of distress grant, were women,” says Casale.
It is likely that fewer women received the social relief of distress grant because it cannot be disbursed concurrently with another social grant, such as the child support grant.
This means unemployed women are in effect penalised if they are also the main caregivers in families and communities, raising questions about the fairness of SA’s social protection system.
Double burden
“The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to take a fresh look at the burden placed on women to manage responsibilities on a daily basis,” says Odile Mackett, Lecturer in the Wits School of Governance.
Women in paid jobs often still perform unpaid reproductive duties, such as housework and rearing children, in addition to their wage labour, and are estimated to spend up to five more hours a day on unpaid reproductive labour than men. To help women cope, these tasks have increasingly become ‘outsourced’ to people who live outside the household – domestic workers, nannies, and food delivery and take-away services rather than cooking at home.
However, women may then still be left to pay for or ‘manage’ the employees who perform these tasks, according to Mackett. Women’s extended working days have thus become normalised, despite the adverse effects that this has on their progression within the labour market and their general wellbeing.
This is amplified by the findings of the Wave 2 NIDS-CRAM survey, in which twice as many women as men said childcare has negatively affected their ability to work, to work the same hours as before lockdown or to search for work.
“From the evidence we have so far, the pandemic and ongoing lockdown are having a much more severe effect on women and their prospects in the labour market. This threatens to reverse some of the slow gains towards gender equality over the past 25 years in SA,” says Casale.
Tracking the shadow pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the “shadow pandemic” of gender-based harm (GBH). Its extent during Covid-19 and the lockdown will only truly be understood in the years to come from data collected now and when pre- and post-pandemic trends and statistics can be compared.
Wits Journalism Lecturer Dr Nechama Brodie, author of the book Femicide in South Africa, which is based on her doctoral research, conceptualised the Homicide Media Tracker, now in development. The Tracker’s aim is to study violence in South Africa as reported in the media over the past 40 years. The idea is to build a tool that collects and keeps all media reports of homicide that can act as a baseline, including GBH.
“If we want to say that GBH during this pandemic is different, then different to what? Data and information gathered now, during the pandemic, will definitely come into play in future analysis,” says Brodie.
She cautions, however, that the trend has been to view everything, including GBH, through the lens of the pandemic and that to suddenly ignore and discard life before and after the pandemic is problematic – because while the pandemic will change many things, many things will not have changed, such as human nature.
“Violence against women is a societal problem and we cannot study violence without studying the society within which it takes place. As a society we have become good at performative acts of opposition to GBH; we sign petitions, post hashtags, change our social media profile pictures, but we do not actually perform acts that are useful.
“Information and data have value. With the Homicide Media Tracker, I want to build a baseline, because it can eventually become one tool that can be used by others who are studying violence, including femicide and gender-based violence.
“What South Africa did with this lockdown is the most bizarre and unexpected controlled experiment in terms of interpersonal violence, where we removed alcohol for three months. Only in the years to come are we going to see very interesting and probably very scary information about the levers that drive or amplify or minimise interpersonal violence and also violence against women. But at this stage we do not know the true extent of GBH during Covid-19,” says Brodie.
Erna van Wyk is Senior Multimedia Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
When the US sneezes...
- Delia du Toit
Different nations’ responses to the pandemic should serve as a warning to exercise extreme caution in choosing leaders.
As Covid-19 took hold in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and the city was quarantined and locked down, experts the world over fiercely debated the ethics and effectiveness of such measures.
And, as the virus rapidly spread across the world in the following months, different nations and their leaders’ responses ran the gamut – some enforced strict lockdowns, others seemingly ignored the threat, and headlines of dubious decisions ran almost daily.
In Colombia, the days that residents could leave the house depended on their ID number; President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus recommended vodka and saunas as protective measures; while Sweden only began instituting lockdown restrictions in December. US President Donald Trump, at one point, speculated publicly on whether injecting disinfectants could kill the virus, leading some disinfectant manufacturers to promptly issue statements warning against ingesting their products.
South Africa was lauded for its early response to the pandemic and later criticised for some bizarre decisions, such as banning tobacco and alcohol, and widespread corruption that dampened relief efforts.
Narcissism trumps science
It soon became clear that some leaders and countries fared better than others, though the issue is much more complex than mere governance. In broad strokes, those leaders who are egotistical and right-wing, including Trump and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, tended to favour denialism and put the economy before lives – and lead in infections and deaths, says Professor Lawrence Hamilton, National Research Foundation/British Academy Bilateral Research Chair in Political Theory at Wits and Cambridge University.
“Countries and leaders that were organised and empathetic in their approach and followed scientific guidance, such as South Korea, New Zealand and Finland, were able to control the spread of the virus and fake news from the outset,” says Hamilton.
John Stremlau, Honorary Professor of International Relations at Wits, says these dynamics were at play long before the pandemic. “Covid simply accelerated their effects. Trump is out of sync with the traditions of science and serious inquiry, attempting to discredit the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization, and is only interested in himself. Such narcissistic leadership styles were disastrous for managing Covid. These nations became outliers in a time when collective action is the only way to deal intelligently with the problem.”
Indeed, several countries started banning travellers from nations that fared poorly in managing the pandemic. After decades of having one of the most powerful passports in the world, US citizens found themselves barred from much of the world, including the European Union nations, the UK, China, Japan and Australia.
Squabbles dismantle BRICS
At the other end of the spectrum, more open-minded leaders and those that approached the problem with science rather than politics – interestingly, most African countries – were able to solicit support from beyond their borders, says Dr Bob Wekesa, Coordinator of partnerships, research and communications at the African Centre for the Study of the US at Wits.
This, however, did not apply to all the BRICS nations (the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), he adds. “While the BRICS did well through support for member states through the New Development Bank, Brazil’s denialism is perhaps the worst case of pandemic mismanagement in the BRICS and, at the same time, tensions escalated between India and China on their common border. What a time for the two emerging powers to go into a fight!”
Knives out for nationalism
Though these varying reactions will have potentially serious implications for politics and international relations, the ramifications won’t necessarily be due to Covid, says Hamilton. “If and when normality returns, there’s a greater chance of nations returning to the ‘normal’ dictated by their institutional makeup, rather than being completely different. Those with narcissistic leaders with trust deficits will still face those issues. Right-wing leaders like Trump, Bolsonaro and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin are simply not interested in international institutions and have taken the opportunity of Covid to strengthen their nationalistic approach.”
The pandemic did cause image problems for some nations, says Wekesa. “Trump’s behaviour rendered the US elections a referendum on whether the US should maintain its global leadership or sink further into its America-first isolationism.
“China, where the pandemic originated, will struggle to regain its global soft power even though it managed to control the pandemic earlier than most, suggesting that it will be ahead of the curve in terms of economic recovery. This has great implications for the current geopolitical set-up and so-called decline of the West.
“On home soil, corruption will remain a major economic challenge to South Africa.”
Covid has shown how serious the scourge of corruption is, says Hamilton. “If President Cyril Ramaphosa has any chance of getting the ANC and country behind him, he has to find a means of opening the economy and cracking down on corruption.”
One thing is sure, agree the experts: the world needs to start working together to prepare for the next pandemic. In an online lecture at the Wits School of Governance in September, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Naledi Pandor reiterated that a nationalist approach is outrageous.
“We’re one people,” says Stremlau. “The pandemic was and is a defining moment globally, a reminder that real threats require collective action. It will change the global system. In the case of Trump, who came to the job as a reality TV star and failed casino boss, and did not grow into the job and probably cannot do so, and similar leaders, we have to hope that the change of administration brings leaders who can make use of the talent and expertise surrounding them and understand their obligation.”
There are indeed two important lessons here, agrees Hamilton. “First, we must use it to find a roadmap for how we can properly make the health and wellbeing of a state’s population the raison d’être of its government. Second, given that it is no accident that those leaders who have responded worst to this crisis have also been the main sources of countless conspiracy theories and misinformation, we must learn to keep oligarchs away from political power.”
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Pandemic history foretells a dismal future
- Tamsin Oxford
If history has taught the world anything, it’s to ignore the warning signs and carry on catching diseases.
The word “pandemic” is heard just about in every radio and TV advertisement, seen on every news site and heard around dinner tables all over the world. While it has suddenly cropped up as a hot topic among our generation, the history of pandemics is as old as the human species itself – if not older.
Pandemics come from the intermingling of different creatures and animals under different conditions. They are on the move from epidemic to endemic to pandemic – the Greek words of ‘pan’ meaning ‘people’ and ‘demos’ meaning ‘widespread’. And they are not done with the human race.
Past pandemics
“There have been a number of recognised pandemics in recorded history with the oldest recorded just over 7,000 years ago,” says Catherine Burns, Associate Professor of Medical History, Adler Museum of Medicine at Wits. “We have physical, narrative and medically recorded evidence of pandemics that have moved through thousands of years, and the most virulent was smallpox, only eradicated in the 1970s.”
Smallpox has been found in the remains of mummified humans buried in the third century BCE. The disease has cropped up throughout recorded history and its emergence has been directly linked to the movement of human beings. The disease killed 200 million people throughout its lifetime. The first ever vaccine was created to defeat this disease.
The Black Death, one of the most fatal diseases for which there are records going back at least 3 000 years, was known as The Plague, The Pestilence or The Great Mortality. More than 250 million people died from the disease in Eurasia and it wiped out around 30-50% of Europe’s population.
The Plague of Justinian 500 CE, which killed perhaps a tenth of the world’s population, was matched in ferocity by the widely shared view of experts that 500 million people – over 30 percent of the world’s population at the time – became infected with the 1918-19 influenza pandemic known as the Spanish Flu, with at least 50 million global deaths.
Since then, the world has faced the consequences of other influenza strains, waves of cholera and yellow fever, tuberculosis, polio, and then HIV/Aids, SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome], Swine flu, Ebola, MERS [Middle East Respiratory Syndrome] and Covid-19 [Corornavirus Disease 2019].
Migration moves viruses
Pandemics come from human-animal mingling and from human expansion across previously hidden recesses of the globe. Population movement contributes to the spread of infectious diseases. This is further complicated by travel hubs, increased population density, personal hygiene, and comorbidities. From wars to planes to cars to trains – disease moves from the epidemic to the pandemic thanks to the movement of human beings. An epidemic refers to a disease that is actively spreading: whereas endemic is the constant presence of a disease in a specific location. Pandemics, however, have ‘passports’ – they cross borders.
“It is important for us to keep in mind that we have already witnessed several pandemics prior to that caused by SARS-CoV-2. We’re currently in the seventh pandemic of cholera and the third pandemic of plague,” says Professor Adriano G. Duse, Chief Specialist, Chair and Academic Head: Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Wits. “Pandemics are not new. We were warned. The International Health Regulations, introduced in 1969 and modified in 2005, are aimed at preventing the spread of infectious diseases between countries and continents.”
Then, in 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning: “The world is ill-prepared to respond to a severe influenza pandemic or to any similarly global, sustained and threatening public-health emergency.” Its warning was echoed by experts and leaders from around the world – Joshua Lederberg, then president of Rockefeller University, Bill Gates, and leading epidemiologists and virologists who all raised the red pandemic flag long before Covid-19 dominated world headlines. The virus has exposed exactly how unprepared humanity was for its impact and begs the question: how do we prepare for what happens next?
Post-pandemic dystopia
“We’ve a lot of evidence that pressure on resources and the plant and animal kingdoms have made us more vulnerable,” says Burns. “We have closed the spaces, and while we’ve made advances in keeping older people and children alive for longer, we’re doing huge damage to animal and plant ecosystems. We need to find ways of sharing the insights learned by experts across multiple silos and with leaders who can ignite global action on a scale that will impact all our lifestyles.”
To avoid a potentially dystopian future – a society characterised by human misery, disease, and overcrowding – the world has to slow down its voracious devouring of resources and land. It has to find better ways of putting expertise and insight into action so as to resolve the pressure on systems, to reduce protectionism and rather share resources and knowledge.
There is no reliable vaccine for tuberculosis, HIV/Aids is not cured, and the Covid-19 vaccine is not immediately available. So, not only does the world need to pool its knowledge, but it needs to pay attention when a virus emerges to prevent it from becoming a pandemic. Unlike what happened in 2020.
“We cannot take the line that there will be an effective vaccine soon,” says Lenore Manderson, Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology at Wits University. “House arrest is also not a continued way to live. Covid-19, like HIV, tracks the social fault lines of both race and class and underscores unequal care in society. It is a real dilemma.”
A dilemma further complicated by another question raised by experts and, once again, ignored: Are antibiotics the new pandemic? Quite possibly. Antibiotic resistance is a pandemic waiting to happen. Humanity has misused antibiotics so badly that many are now useless. As Covid-19 continues its march across society and economy, now is the time to pay attention to what might come next.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Making sense of the numbers
- Ufrieda Ho
Modelling pandemics might be an imperfect science, but it is the best that we have.
Imperfect-important may be the apt hybrid adjective for mathematical modelling that has taken a dominant role in how the world is trying to make sense of the unknowns of the novel coronavirus, SARS-COV-2, which causes Covid-19.
The strength of mathematical modelling is in tracking and projecting likely scenarios for the progression of the disease. Strong forecasting can help guide policy and decision-making to improve planning and ensure that limited resources are allocated efficiently.
The downside, though, is that any modelling by equations is only as strong as the data and numbers that get crunched. Extrapolation and analysis from projections can vary widely and be misaligned to realities. And
Covid-19 response is high stakes territory, not just in saving lives and limiting damage to economies and livelihoods, but also in how precedents and policies are justified. It deserves deeper scrutiny.
An ecosystem for inference
South Africa’s official modelling has largely been undertaken by the South African Covid-19 Modelling Consortium made up of researchers from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Wits, Cape Town and Stellenbosch universities.
According to the official South African coronavirus portal, in May the country relied on ‘primarily two models’: the National Covid-19 Epi Model and the National Covid-19 Cost Model.
“The Epi Model seeks to capture the transmission dynamics of Covid-19 at a population level over time. This takes into account the disease severity and the treatment pathway that patients may encounter. This feeds into the Cost Model which represents the type, number and price of ingredients to cost responses.”
In May 2020, the consortium forecasted 40 000 deaths and a million infections nationwide by the end of November. By mid-October, the death toll stood at 17 863 and 693 359 recorded positive cases. The May modelling was used by the government to decide on hard lockdowns, including the still contentious bans on alcohol and cigarettes, as well as budgets for the procurement of personal protective equipment, building field hospitals and even importing the services of 217 Cuban doctors at a cost of a reported nearly half a billion rand to shore up the local emergency response.
Widespread corruption has already resulted in ongoing Special Investigation Unit inquiries and the axing of Gauteng Health Minister Bandile Masuku.
On a provincial level, Professor Bruce Mellado, a physicist from the Wits School of Physics and iThemba Labs, has been part of the Gauteng Advisory Council that has informed the provincial response strategy.
Mellado says no model is ‘100% perfect’. He says modelling is set by parameters and is most efficient when there is accurate data and context within a strong ecosystem of epidemiologists, healthcare workers, clinicians, policymakers, data scientists and mathematicians.
“Any data is good, even if it is flawed, so long as you know where the flaws are and this comes from having the input of hundreds of people from different work streams,” says Mellado.
“Our job as modellers is to look at realities objectively and to try to understand the weakness and strength of data and to understand that the on-the-ground realities are complex. We correct, recalibrate, adapt and re-adapt the parameters of the model as we go along.”
Currently Mellado’s model is updated on a monthly basis and he has a core team of 50 people who work on the province’s Covid-19 dashboard.
Data deficiency inhibit projections
For Professor Alex van den Heever, modelling a pandemic with its unknowns and variables has inherent shortcomings – too many to convey much useful information. He believes that projection models in particular are problematic.
“They don’t reflect enough on localised ‘hotspot’ mapping, or contributing factors including dispersion rates, residual susceptible population numbers, herd immunity, glitches in testing, access to testing and delays and errors in testing results,” he says.
Van den Heever, who holds the Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies in the Wits School of Governance, says lack of transparency and ‘fiefdom-like’ control over the data and flow of information should be red flags.
“There just isn’t enough information for coherent projection – assumptions drive the results and there’s not enough evidence to show how interventions impact on a projection itself.
“Because of a failure to present granular information and the fact that information and data are hidden – or only accessible [to] those who sign non-disclosure agreements with government – means there’s limited access to information for empirical analysis.”
Van den Heever warns that when data and information flow is controlled it cannot be tested or challenged, and can be misused to give false legitimacy to government decisions, policies and precedents.
Demilitarising data
Graeme Götz, Director of Research Strategy at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) says making data more accessible and more specific is key to being able to geo-code (use data to pinpoint locations) or to tease out spatial patterns of how coronavirus spreads. A key lesson for a democracy is that information and data “cannot be militarised and removed from the public domain under the guise of protecting privacy – not under these circumstances”, he says.
Götz has been part of the data analytics research work stream in the Office of the Premier. Since March the Observatory has been mapping the pandemic with drilled-down framing that zooms in on specific risks and vulnerabilities. This includes understanding the impact on the elderly and on women, and evaluations of the households most affected by lockdown restrictions. Much of the data has been ward-level information.
Götz says it is specific but anonymous, meaning privacy is protected but allows for targeted and localised responses that could replace blanket hard lockdowns.
Redefining ecosystem responses
“Modelling is fine, but one really has to mine the data to better understand the patterns and draw conclusions from that,” he says.
Modelling and the flow of data has become an area of contestation in the coronavirus response. It can be a distraction from focusing on better strategies and resource allocation, says Professor François Venter, Divisional Director of Ezintsha.
Venter believes modelling in the main has been considered and consistent, although the timing of projections was inaccurate.
“We can’t cherry-pick the parts of data or a model to suit our own narratives. The models aren’t the problem, as much as our reactions to them are,” he says as a caveat.
Venter’s added warning is for greater vigilance. We should not allow the Covid-19 fight to be reduced to pitting sides against each other – including arguments of lives versus livelihoods; to the development of personality cults; or allowing state moralism and hypocrisy to expand off the back of controlled data.
Keeping more eyes on the ball is what will matter most because the virus is not yet done with the world.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
The long haul to partial recovery
- Ufrieda Ho
So-called Covid long-haulers afflicted with 'Long Covid' are showing how long and frustrating the journey to recovery can be.
A bit of make-up, sunshine and the laughter of her grandchildren are gifts of a happy life for Faye Khan. After being hospitalised with Covid-19 and surviving, she says she never takes small joys for granted.
Walking a long road to full recovery makes Khan a so-called “long-hauler” of chronic Covid. For doctors, long-haulers signal a necessary shift to focus on the long-term impacts of the virus. Workplaces too will have to adapt as employees may feel unwell for weeks – even months – after getting back to work.
For Khan, Covid-19 came to her as terror and doom and at one of the lowest points of her life. Khan, who works in Marketing and Communications at Wits, received shattering news of her twin sister’s death at the beginning of July.
“There was a lot of traffic in and out of the house in Koster [in the North West] and I think that’s where I got infected,” she says.
Suspicious symptoms
Back in her Johannesburg home a week later, she started feeling tired then suffered severe diarrhoea and vomiting. Her family doctor thought it might be food poisoning but recommended a Covid-19 test if her symptoms did not improve.
Khan says these symptoms felt different and when she lost her sense of taste and smell, she was convinced it was Covid-19. Covid-19 symptoms at the stage of infection can be as varied as dizziness, coughing and shortness of breath, to confusion, leg pains and rashes, including chilblain like lesions on the toes and fingers, known as ‘Covid toe’.
The subsequent Covid-19 positive result sent Khan to hospital. As a diabetic with hypertension, she was “terrified”.
“My husband had to drop me at the entrance, and they took me to the Covid ward where all the nurses and doctors were in full PPE, you couldn’t see their faces. All around me were very sick people on oxygen. I was convinced I was not going to get out of there. I never slept because I was so scared that I wasn’t going to wake up again, and not being able to see my family was the worst,” she says.
Managing comorbidities
With a shortage of beds Khan was discharged after five days when she was considered to be out of immediate danger. She was given an after-care booklet and instructions to self-isolate.
And so began her long convalescence. Only after six weeks did Khan feel like leaving her home. She says even video chats made her feel low as her self-esteem plummeted and depression set in.
“You just feel tired and sick. Even now I have sores in my mouth from being so dehydrated. I lost so much weight so fast. My doctor said all my organs were affected and my immune system was completely run down so he’s had to change my medication.”
She had to have counselling for the grief of losing her sister and the impact of Covid-19 and was prescribed a temporary course of anti-depressants and sleeping tablets. Mounting medical and dental bills are also a worry.
Doctor as patient
Fatigue and exhaustion after exertion were also the persistent symptoms that affected Professor Emeritus Guy Richards, a Critical Care specialist at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Wits, who contracted Covid-19.
He calls it a hazard of the job, but Richards says his biggest fear materialised when his wife and son were infected.
“My second biggest concern was not knowing the degree of severity that the virus would have on each one of us,” he says, adding that up to 20% of people require hospitalisation and 5% of people will need to be in ICU.
He monitored himself and his family by testing levels of oxygen in their blood and levels of inflammation. His son got better quickly but he and his wife had to start on treatments of dexamethasone, a corticosteroid used for its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant effects.
Richards says: “It is difficult to document long-term symptoms and effects directly linked to Covid-19 because there isn’t something like a blood test you can do.”
Lingering malaise
Long-haulers have reported everything from persistent cough and fatigue to gastro-intestinal problems, racing heartbeats to brain fog and ringing in the ears. When doctors can’t pin-point or treat people effectively, they can feel unsupported and their anxiety worsens. Post-traumatic stress and depression also takes root.
Richards says doctors have to listen more to patients’ individual, and wide-ranging complaints. “Once you’ve ruled out respiratory complications, blood clotting issues and heart complications, then it’s about helping patients adapt and accept that there are some things that they will not be able to do as well as they did before they got ill, and this can be for weeks or months even.”
Richards flags that Covid-19 has helped to bring renewed awareness of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS), which can occur when any patient who has needed treatment in ICU does not return to their former level of physical, mental or cognitive function for months, even years, after being discharged.
Online support groups for Covid long-haulers have sprung up. The South African Facebook group had 13.8K members as of October. It calls itself a platform to “give each other emotional support and any other useful information while in the fight of Covid-19 quarantine”.
A World Health Organization report released in September confirms growing data on lingering symptoms. “There are many case reports from people who do not regain their previous health … and risk factors for persistence of symptoms include high blood pressure, obesity and mental health conditions.”
The report highlighted data from the 2003 SARS (also a coronavirus) outbreak, stating that patients reported “persistent and significant impairment of exercise capacity and health status over 24 months. Health workers who had SARS experienced even more marked adverse impact and 40% of people recovering from SARS felt chronic fatigue symptoms 3.5 years after being diagnosed”.
Richards says it means not dropping the ball on prevention. And the message hasn’t changed: wear your mask, wash and sanitise your hands and keep to social distancing guidelines and well ventilated spaces.”
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Second wave severity: What semi-saved South Africa?
- Beth Amato
South Africa has surprised itself and the world with fewer Covid-19 deaths despite a significantly higher infection rate as predicted.
We may have indeed reached a critical stage of herd immunity thereby thwarting a second spike. The million-dollar question, of course, is why? (See an update on developments at the end of this article.)
“What the official figures show are not a true reflection of the actual number of people who have been infected. We believe that as many as 40% of people in densely populated areas have been infected with the virus. Antibody testing has shown this, and so about 20 million people have had Covid-19 in South Africa – which is more than the 25% we initially modelled.”
Earlier exposure to other coronaviruses
Curiously, the high infection rates did not translate into a high rate of hospitalisation and death. (This is despite the South African Medical Research Council reporting, at the end of August, that there had been 43 000 “excess deaths” over and above the documented Covid-19 related deaths). Many of those infected were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.
“I think that our low death rate, despite high infections, is a result of cross-protective immunity, probably because we’ve built up immunity from exposure to other coronaviruses,” suggests Madhi.
But, he adds, this still does not explain everything. Professor Martin Veller, former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits, agrees that all the reasons for South Africa’s lower number of deaths and hospitalisations are not known, and are multifactorial.
Age matters
“There’s no doubt, for example, that our youthful population meant we’d have different outcomes. The median age in South Africa is 27, which is young. Age matters it seems, despite our high burden of other diseases,” says Veller.
In other words, while those with co-occurring diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity were more susceptible to developing complications when contracting Covid-19, younger people with these illnesses were better off than their older counterparts with the same illnesses. The excess deaths reported at the end of August were mostly people over the age of 60. “We don’t know why age matters, but it does,” says Veller.
He notes that there is also some evidence that temperate climates play a role in flattening the curve of the virus. “In colder climates, like New York and Washington D.C., there was a rapid spike in cases at the beginning of the outbreak. While there is now another infection wave in the US and weather is warmer in September, [the second wave] is ‘flatter’ in warmer places like Arizona and Texas.”
Herd immunity – How long does it last?
Herd immunity refers to a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population has become immune to an infection – whether through previous infections or vaccination – thereby reducing the likelihood of infection for individuals who lack immunity.
Cheryl Cohen, Professor of Epidemiology in the Wits School of Public Health and Head of the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, says the high proportion of people who have been infected with the novel coronavirus have developed antibodies to protect them against further infection – at least for a while. This immunity is certainly one of the factors reducing transmission.
“On a population level it is helpful to understand that the proportion of people who have evidence of previous infection may be assumed to have some level of protection against another infection. But we have no idea how long this immunity lasts,” says Cohen.
But a new study, led by Cohen and known as the PHIRST-C study, may shed some light on the question of immunity. The study aims to find out how many people in individual households in rural and urban South Africa become infected with the novel coronavirus, how asymptomatic people transmit this virus, and how this virus interacts with other pathogens.
Insights into viral re-infection
In the PHIRST-C study: SARS-CoV-2 community burden and transmission in two South African communities, participants will be tested twice weekly until the end of 2020 to determine whether they become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 disease.
Sero-surveys will be used to investigate the presence of antibodies, which are evidence of an immune response to the infection. “The serology results from this study may help answer some outstanding questions related to Covid-19 immunity, for example, the level of antibodies needed to provide protection against re-infection, as well as the rate of asymptomatic infection in South Africa,” says Cohen.
Until we have a better understanding of how herd immunity works with the novel coronavirus, however, measures like mask wearing, hand washing, avoiding large gatherings and social distancing must be adhered to, says Madhi. “There may be a resurgence of infections if we throw caution to the wind, but this resurgence, thankfully, may be less severe.”
In the meantime, Wits scientists are working hard to produce a vaccine. “We’re way up there in terms of being able to produce something viable,” says Madhi. SARS-CoV-2, like many respiratory viruses, is here to stay. “Let’s hope it becomes a seasonal virus with sporadic outbreaks,” he says.
Update
“As of 17 December, SA is engulfed in clearly experiencing a major resurgence. The scale of it is unclear as yet, but preliminary data worryingly suggests it may even be more serious than the first. The pattern is also similar to the first wave, with the Western Cape and Eastern Cape affected, and signs of Gauteng and KZN being affected. This is of huge concern, as everyone is going on holiday to many of the worst affected areas. Remember that forming a ‘pod’, doing anything with other people outdoors, physical distancing, masks and handwashing are your chief defence,” says Professor Francois Venter, Ezintsha.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications
How vaccines save lives
- Beth Amato
The story of how vaccines save lives is important to tell – now more than ever.
Only clean drinking water rivals vaccination in its ability to save lives, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And, although vaccine safety gets more public attention than vaccination effectiveness, independent experts and the WHO have shown that vaccines are far safer than therapeutic medicines.
Vaccines have virtually eliminated devastating and cruel illnesses like polio and pertussis (whooping cough), and serious lower respiratory tract diseases.
Wits University scientists are leaders in paediatric immunisation research, with their studies informing global public health programmes. Wits teams are also leading two crucial Covid-19 vaccine trials in South Africa and Africa.
Dr Michelle Groome, Senior Researcher at the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit (VIDA) at Wits, says that since the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine in Africa, for example, an estimated 135 000 rotavirus hospitalisations and 21 000 deaths have been prevented annually.
Rotavirus causes serious diarrheal symptoms in children. South Africa was the first African country to introduce the rotavirus vaccine into its national immunisation programme in 2009, and since then, diarrhoeal hospitalisation has decreased by 34-57% for children under the age of five.
“Vaccination is the best way to prevent many childhood diseases, increase life expectancy and improve a person’s quality of life. In a low-to-middle income country, like South Africa, the robust immunisation programme is a major achievement. We have seen a decline in deaths from infectious diseases and now rely on high vaccine coverage to prevent outbreaks and disease,” says Groome.
Vaccines better protect babies of mothers from poorer countries
A vaccination against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been found to better protect infants born to women from low-to-middle income countries, such as South Africa, than those in wealthier countries.
Dr Clare Cutland, the Scientific Coordinator at the African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE) consortium, and Professor Shabir Madhi, Executive Director of VIDA and the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits, co-authored a seminal global study on RSV. The paper, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2020, provides evidence that immunising pregnant women could protect their infants from severe RSV, which is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract infection.
While the RSV vaccine will not be administered to pregnant women yet, the global study is pegged to inform WHO policy on the use of this initiative in public immunisation programmes.
Vaccine reinvention for Covid-19
The Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) is part of a global network of researchers, known as the Crown Collaborative, conducting the ‘Crown Coronation’ trial, which aims to determine whether the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine given to healthcare workers reduces Covid-19 symptoms. Dr Sinéad Delany-Moretlwe and Professor Bruce Biccard from the Wits RHI are the national principal investigators.
“In places where the MMR vaccine uptake is high, there seems to be lower incidences of severe Covid-19. This is really exciting for us, because it means we can use an already tested vaccine and safely repurpose it, at a low cost,” said Delany-Moretlwe.
The Oxford Covid-19 vaccine trial, announced in June 2020, is the first clinical trial for the Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa and Africa. The ChAdOx1 nCov-19 vaccine has been described by the WHO as amongst the world’s leading candidates. Moreover, a vaccine developed in Africa is a huge achievement for promoting context-specific treatment, and to generate evidence about how a Covid-19 vaccine will work in low-to-middle income countries.
The Novavax Covid-19 vaccine trial is a partnership between VIDA and Maryland-based bio-technology company, Novavax. The Novavax Covid-19 vaccine, known as NVX-CoV2373 contains a nanoparticle S-protein. The trial will determine whether it protects against the disease in adults aged older than 18 years.
Vaccines and herd immunity
South Africa bucked global Covid-19 trends, with significantly fewer deaths in relation to the number of people likely to have been infected with the virus.
Scientists could not have predicted that about one-third of the population would be infected with the virus nor that the country would have a declining transmission rate. One reason may be herd immunity – which is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, whether through previous infections or vaccination.
Non-pharmaceutical interventions like wearing face masks, social distancing and avoiding crowds played a major role.
“We don’t know, however, if immunity is long lasting. We can’t just say that because one-third of South Africans may have contracted the virus that we have sustainable ‘herd immunity’,” says Madhi. “Our unique situation [lower deaths despite greater numbers of infections] could be explained by many factors. We will always need a vaccine to protect us against a serious illness like Covid-19.”
What is a vaccine?
A vaccine is a biological product that elicits an immune response against a specific bacteria or virus.
The immune response stimulates lymphocytes (white blood cells) in the body to produce antibodies and other inflammatory responses to kill off, inactivate or neutralise the germ when a person is exposed or infected.
The antibody response is generally specific to individual germs, hence the need for different types of vaccines.
Immunisation is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine.
How is a vaccine made?
One way is by using either a weakened or attenuated (reduced) version of the germ, for example oral polio virus, that has limited ability to replicate or cause illness.
Another approach is to use an inactivated version of the targeted vaccine, for example, the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine.
More common approaches include using only a specific target (antigen) of the germ, which can also target the immune response to neutralise the germ. These antigens are sometimes coupled with another chemical compound, an ‘adjuvant’, to enable a more robust immune response.
Newer technologies include using weakened viruses that cause mild or no illness, and that are engineered, or technology that involves directly injecting the genetic material (messenger RNA or DNA) that codes for the antigen.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
CTRL-ALT-DELETE: Re-setting the post-pandemic South Africa
- Charlotte Mathews
The Covid-19 lockdown has had a massive impact on South Africa’s economy, exposing profound weaknesses such as the country’s huge inequality.
However, the pandemic also presents a chance to pause and reflect, and, possibly, launch South Africa on a much more equitable path. How can we take this moment in time, and create a better South Africa for all?
All indications at this point in time are that South Africa’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown is likely to be slow and painful. An estimated two million people lost their jobs in the short term and domestic business confidence and consumer spending is expected to remain subdued for a long time.
In the aftermath of the national lockdown, forced onto the country by the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of neighbourhood restaurants, shops and coffee shops have closed, putting thousands of cooks, waiters and cleaners out of work. Some well-known and established companies such as Comair and Phumelela Gaming and Leisure have filed for business rescue, compounding the massive hit on the economy. In the media industry – a gauge of consumer spending – various media houses have closed their doors, including Associated Media (publishers of Cosmopolitan and House & Leisure), while Media24 has shut down several titles.
SA’s strict lockdown has once again starkly exposed the country’s massive challenge with economic inequality. According to figures (see infobox) cited by Professor Imraan Valodia, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, about 18 million households with an average of five people per household are living on just R2 600 per month, while at the other end of the scale, about seven million households of just two people on average are living on R38 000 per month. Those worst affected by the economic consequences of the lockdown are, once again, those working in the informal sector, foreign workers and women.
The country’s healthcare system looks no better. Dr Adeola Oyenubi, Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance, recently showed how the health of the poor suffered substantially more than that of the rich during Covid-19. Black Africans were more likely to be poor and hungry, and report ill health, than white people.
Oyenubi says a large percentage of the SA population is serviced by the public health sector, with few resources, and a small percentage of the population by the private health sector, with more resources.
“It would be advisable to address this inequity, which is not sustainable. But it is not as simple as that. There are fears that a national health programme would become another Eskom quite quickly, and if that happens, everyone would be worse off. It would only work if the national health programme – such as the proposed National Health Insurance system (NHI) – was efficient.”
Professor Martin Veller, former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, agrees. “I’m strongly in favour of a well-functioning NHI, although I’m critical of some of the current NHI plans,” he says. “If we had had a well-functioning NHI, we would not have seen the level of corruption that became evident, and got worse, in the health system.”
Executing effectively
While South Africa has enormous capacity to execute effectively, the government’s initial Covid-19 response and subsequent events showed that the country is “two worlds in one: a world of leadership, enterprise and world-class response, while at the same time a world of incompetence and corruption”, says Professor Adam Habib, Wits’ former Vice-Chancellor and Principal.
The problem is that execution capacity lies in the private sector while we have ‘idiocy’ in the public sector, says Habib. SA Breweries can distribute alcohol every week to every tavern in SA; Imperial Logistics has massive capacity to deliver; the country’s banking system ranks in the top three or four in the world; and there is significant private sector capacity for testing and tracing for Covid-19 infections.
Adjunct Professor Alex van den Heever in the Wits School of Governance says although the government used private sector capabilities to some extent in dealing with the virus, it did not create joint platforms, and government held on to operational decision making.
Professor William Gumede, Associate Professor in the Wits School of Governance, says: “Covid-19 is a health, financial, social and economic crisis in one, and we need similarly integrated solutions. We have to solve these problems collaboratively.”
Habib agrees: “What is needed is trust in the private sector, but ideological positions stand in the way. Overcoming that is the first challenge.”
Hitting the reset button
Valodia believes South Africa’s economy can evolve and innovate to generate new opportunities for the most vulnerable sectors. However, this would require the right set of policies accompanied by effective combined decision making and actions by government, business and labour.
In the short term, informal sector businesses, even more than formal ones, would benefit from cash transfers, while in the medium to long term, South Africa needs to embrace the informal sector as part of the economy.
“Policies should promote informal business activity, rather than restrict it, as they do currently,” he says.
Valodia says it is possible to get wealthier South Africans to sacrifice some of their short-term interests to help tackle unsustainable levels of inequality. For example, existing laws should be enforced, such as paying domestic workers the legislated minimum wage.
“Another solution is to have rational, rather than emotional, discussion about issues like a wealth tax. A third would be to address the fact that South African CEOs earn disproportionately high salaries, so some wage restraint at that level, either voluntary or legislated, could be considered.”
More systematically, policies that would democratise ownership need to be considered. For example, giving workers a share in the company, or representation on company boards.
Overhaul governance at the top
Van den Heever says the root of the mishandling of the Covid pandemic is that SA’s governing model is based on patronage networks, with political appointees in service, administration and procurement. He thinks the only way to fix this is to change government.
“Putting stable leadership in place is a priority,” says Van den Heever. “SA is more vulnerable when the political system is dysfunctional. Countries with strong political leadership, such as France and Germany, fared better in dealing with the pandemic than those with weaker systems and fractured governments, such as Italy, the UK and the US.”
Politically, we have to change our governance system for Parliament and state institutions to one that is, among other things, based on merit, common sense, accountability and partnerships, says Gumede.
“Covid-19 could be the catalyst for fundamental political change,” he says.
Some of the country’s middle class has slipped back into poverty and that will make them more critical of government, and more willing to engage politically. They are likely to demand more transparency in the granting of government jobs and tenders, and this is already evident in the outcry over the Personal Protective Equipment tenders. There are probably going to be more public protests. People may start to vote more discerningly, instead of voting for parties out of long-held loyalty or for race-based reasons.
The recent Constitutional Court judgment giving Parliament two years to reform to allow independent candidates to contest elections is a narrow change, but it will give South Africans more voting options in future and may be the start of bigger changes. “Under SA’s current closed-list system, politicians cannot be held accountable, and lack of trust in the legislature helps to explain the rise of public protests and youth inertia towards voting,” says Gumede.
“Whatever new electoral system SA moves towards must be simple to understand, easy to administer and must allow voters to elect candidates directly.”
Habib says strong leadership is crucial for SA’s recovery.
“Our president has demonstrated flashes of leadership brilliance, and then he disappears. He has shown management, but not leadership. What we expect from the president is to take the various interventions and weave them into a narrative that inspires and galvanises the nation to act.”
Habib believes the president and Cabinet should be openly challenging the more populist interpretations of social justice that seem to prevail in both the opposition and ruling parties. “The executive leadership and stewardship of this pandemic must involve a politically educative and consciousness-raising element as much as it would entail management and execution of decisions.”
He says that while the president has talked about a social compact, it does not need to happen in a convention centre. “Social pacts can evolve in the actual practise of small day-to-day multisectoral partnerships in the heat of a crisis.”
But whatever happens to the country politically, socially and economically in the future, Veller believes SA should be focusing its combined attention on being prepared for any new health crisis.
“Another pandemic may strike, and South Africa should have plans to manage it. This needs political and bureaucratic management.”
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
How national identity affects infection outcome
- Lem Chetty
Could a country’s collective psychology determine the outcomes of a pandemic? A global cohort of researchers believes so.
It is surreal to think how a microscopic virus has disrupted life as we know it, globally, and forever. During early lockdowns worldwide, we watched a science-fiction movie we never thought could materialise come to life, from Wuhan to Rome, Sydney to Johannesburg. No one was untouched. It was mindboggling and even virologists were astounded at times.
By October 2020, more than 20 million people globally had been infected with the new coronavirus and over one million have died.1 The Covid-19 pandemic represents one of the greatest health crises of the past 100 years.
A pertinent question to ask is what helped us as a global society to minimise the pandemic’s effects and reduce the rate of death? Face masks and young populations, some might argue. But a global team of nearly 230 experts found another unlikely answer in a group paper, International Collaboration on the social & moral psychology of COVID-19. The answer is national identity.
Positive national identity matters
The research brought together scholars from around the world to examine “psychological factors underlying the attitudes and behavioural intentions related to Covid-19,” explains Dr Sahba Besharati, Senior Lecturer in cognitive neuroscience at Wits.
The international team, led by Professor Jay van Bavel from New York University, focused on a wide range of factors such as beliefs in conspiracy theories, cooperation, risk perception, social belonging, intellectual humility, national identification, collective narcissism, moral identity, political ideology, self-esteem and cognitive reflection.
The lofty goal was to generate a massive multi-national sample that could serve as a public database for the scientific community. “It is a huge dataset which will be used for years to come. The sample currently includes 44 000 citizens in 67 countries,” Besharati says.
The international team investigated why people adopted public health behaviours (such as wearing masks and screening) and endorsed public policy interventions (like closing bars and restaurants) during the early stages of the pandemic, among other research questions. “The results showed that those who identified more strongly with their nation showed greater support for public health policies and adopted these public health behaviours,” says Besharati.
The paper defines “national identification” as the personal significance that being part of a nation holds for an individual. This national identity has been found to play an important role in motivating people to make costly contributions that benefit other members of their country – taxes, for example. The researchers found that harnessing this national identity could help promote “collective efforts to combat the pandemic within one’s country”.
Van Bavel found that Covid-19 revealed that during a pandemic there may be “healthy” elements of national identity (which can also have negative connotations such as xenophobia). “Citizens who identified more strongly with their nation reported greater support for critical public health measures. Our results provide robust evidence that national identification is a reliable predictor of all three forms of public health support measured in our survey: self-reported spatial distancing, physical hygiene and policy support,” he wrote.
Besharati says the results showed, at an international level at least, that people felt as if they were working together for a global good. “If there’s anything that this pandemic has done, it has reminded us of our interconnectedness. We can’t just look at anything from our small point on the planet any longer.”
Allowing ourselves to complain but comply with rules like border closures, travel bans, alcohol prohibition and more, showed how much we valued the health of our country’s citizens.
Managing the pandemic gave politicians a mechanism to foster togetherness, as the study found that “political leaders and public health officials often foster a sense that ‘we are in this together’ and [that we] can manage the crisis through collective action”.
The research also revealed that in the US, for instance, threats to strong national identity can lead to lower support for public health initiatives.
I am an African?
The insights into South Africans, who remain a fractured society still recovering from past trauma and having varying levels of gees (spirit, enthusiasm), will be interesting. While the Wits research team in the School of Human and Community Development contributed to the findings, these are yet to be analysed at a local level. “We have the unique problem now of an overload of data,” says Besharati.
Anecdotally though, despite the perception of South Africa’s difficult national identification problems, we did come together. “We are not too sure what the long-term impact will be, but we know it was a collective experience, even though it was not easy. We had an early lockdown, the peak was much later, kids were not at school, and the social restrictions all became exhausting,” says Besharati.
“South Africans do generally have a negativity bias when it comes to our nation and nation-building, from my personal perspective at least. We tend to be jaded. But the pandemic showed us that so many of our problems exist in many other countries. Despite these problems, when we do need to come together, we can do it.”
More on this research:
South African researchers from Wits University who contributed to the 67-country study on social and moral psychology include: data lead, Dr Michael Pitman, Senior Lecturer in Psychology; ethics leads, Jennifer Watermeyer, Associate Professor Speech Pathology and Audiology and Director of the Wits Health Communication Research Unit; Kate Cockcroft, Professor of Psychology; Enid Schutte, Lecturer in Psychology; and Dr Shona Fraser in Psychology and at Tara Hospital.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
How Covid-19 enabled a reset in the world
- Zeblon Vilakazi
Editorial: The Covid-19 pandemic has gone viral and has severely impacted on how we interact, conduct our business, teach and learn.
Some disruption has been positive as we realise the importance of human connectedness, scientific research, and the changing nature of work. But it has also demonstrated the digital divides experienced worldwide and the dangerous reality of misinformation through social media and some public figures.
This eleventh issue of Curios.ty is themed #VIRAL. We examine how the virus that stopped the world enabled an opportunity for a reset of sorts, both in South Africa and globally (pages 8 to 11). As we gathered en masse online on Teams, Zoom, and Whatsapp platforms, our ways of social and professional interaction shifted completely. The feature on page 36 suggests that we need new rules of engagement on social media, while the stories on pages 40 to 45 reveal uncomfortable insights about who owns our data and its use.
Living online for so long revealed opinions and attitudes that both shocked and surprised. Could a country’s collective psychology determine the outcomes of a pandemic? Wits scientists and their international peers have begun fascinating preliminary research on how national identity affects infection outcome (page 6). We see how different countries’ responses to the pandemic offer cautionary tales about the choices societies make (page 22).
Right now at least three Covid-19 vaccine candidates show promise. We explain how vaccines save lives and share the significant, global contributions that Wits scientists have made to vaccinology in general (page 12). We investigate why the Covid-19 infections in South Africa defied modelling predictions (page 18), but are cognisant of those for whom Covid-19 infection was a lethal reality (page 16). We consider what pandemics of the past can tell us about outbreaks in the future (page 20).
The elephant in the room is the pangolin unwittingly suspected of causing the pandemic (page 34), but Homo sapiens have always played a part. The persistence of pandemics since the middle ages reveals our role – with concomitant impact on the environment (page 32). And despite the lockdown not really delivering frolicking dolphins to a suddenly crystal clear Venice (read how to spot fake news and how to understand the infodemic on page 26), both people and planet remain under threat from future pandemics. Humankind must change this trajectory.
As much as the pandemic has devastated public health, economies and people (and women in particular – see page 24) globally, it has also galvanised incredible innovations. Read on pages 46 to 49 how Wits student research in drone technology, waste water analyses, nanotechnology ‘super masks’, and behavioural linguistics could challenge Covid-19 from various angles. Similarly, innovations with light bulbs to help reduce malaria, and how messages carried in structured light could secure quantum communications in future (pages 50 to 53) suggest light at the end of the Covid tunnel.
In early November, the World Health Organization Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “We might be tired of Covid-19. But it is not tired of us.” As December descends on an exhausted South Africa, now is not the time for complacency. By taking personal responsibility for our health and through the tireless and committed research by Wits scientists featured here, as well as those unseen and unsung, we’re in good hands.
Read more in the 11th issue, themed: #Viral. Inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, content relates to both the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as the socio-economic, political, and environmental ramifications.
Curios.ty 11 (#Viral): Covid-19 - An opportunity for a global reset
- Wits Communications
The pandemic demands a relook of how we connect with each other and the world.
The 11th issue of Wits University’s research magazine,Curios.ty, themed: #Viral, is available online now: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/. (To republish articles, see guidelines below).
The Covid-19 pandemic has gone viral and has severely impacted on how we interact, conduct our business, teach and learn. Some disruption has been positive as we realise the importance of human connectedness, scientific research, and the changing nature of work. But it has also demonstrated the digital divides experienced worldwide and the dangerous reality of misinformation through social media and some public figures.
Our research in #Viral features how the pandemic presents an opportunity for a global reset, while demanding that we relook how we connect with each other and our world.
In this issue:
CTRL-ALT-DELETE: Resetting the post-pandemic South Africa (Page 8): The pandemic presents a chance to pause and reflect, and, possibly, launch South Africa on a much more equitable path.
How vaccines save lives (Page 12): The story of how vaccines save lives is important to tell – now more than ever.
Virus wages war on women (Page 24): Almost everyone has suffered in some way from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic – but women have suffered far more, threatening some of the gains made in gender equality in a democratic South Africa.
Understanding the infodemic (Page 26): Misinformation, mythology, and fake news have collided to produce staggering quantities of Covid-19-related information, the misrepresentation of which has implications for public health.
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Weekend theatrics so the show could go on
- Deborah Minors
The solution was to convert the school hall of the McAuley House convent, The Nunnery, into a theatre – over one weekend.
Although public productions were previously mounted in the Great Hall, Wits drama and music students lacked a bespoke ‘laboratory’ in which to practise their craft. John van Zyl and Aart de Villiers (1931-1999), Wits staff who became founding members of the University’s drama department, approached Herbert Prins in the Wits School of Architecture to help design a new theatre space.
In 1975, Prins sought out Malcolm Purkey, an English honours student at Wits, and together they designed and built the theatre, for which Vice-Chancellor Guerino Renzo Bozzoli (1968–1977) had reluctantly made around R3 000 available.
“Herbert Prins was charged with the responsibility of creating a theatre for the newly emerging School of Dramatic Art and [the University] wasn’t ready to build The Wits Theatre proper for some years,” says Purkey. “So Herbert scouted about and located the possible place to build it, and he knew that I’d been involved in building the Box Theatre before that, and so he found me, and together we designed the space very unusually and creatively. And then we set to work to build it.”
The solution to converting a hall into a theatre was to fashion narrow galleries on two sides with seats at the entrance. This would create a foyer. Removable seats on the hall’s existing stage created a ‘theatre-in-the-round’ formation – where the audience surrounds the stage. The proximity brings the actors and audience into the same space, fostering a more intimate audience experience.
“Malcolm and I met on a Saturday morning and stood in Ameshoff Street and, as men came by, we accosted them and asked whether they were looking for work. We put together a gang of workers, all unqualified, and started erecting what I believe is still in place, at The Nunnery,” Prins recalled in an article he wrote for the Heritage Portal in November 2015. “Thanks to Malcolm and the off-the-street labour that were paid by the day, and those who were generous enough to donate materials, we built The Nunnery on Saturday and Sunday.”
Prins (1928-2020) became Head of the Department of Architecture at Wits and a celebrated architect who received the University’s Gold Medal in 2019.
Purkey recalls ‘the golden days’ of theatre: “After we built The Nunnery, it became a preferred space for anyone who wanted to make unusual theatre – Barney Simon used it for certain productions in the most innovative way, the Junction Avenue Theatre Company, under my direction, had the world premiere of The Fantastical History of a Useless Man there – a very successful production that used the extraordinary structure of The Nunnery to its fullest advantage.”
Purkey became Head of the School of Dramatic Art at Wits, where he lectured from 1983 to 2004. He then joined the Market Theatre and its Foundation as creative director. He is presently also the Dean of AFDA Joburg, the School for the Creative Economy.
The Nunnery has endured for some 50 years, incubating student theatre performance, music and dramatic arts as well as public productions. In 1983, the Wits Theatre Complex, opposite The Nunnery, was established. Today, as Wits approaches its centenary in 2022, The Nunnery is contained within the precinct housing the refurbished Department of Digital Arts and the new Chris Seabrooke Music Hall.
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Make South Africa great again!
- Schalk Mouton
Column: We don’t just have the ability to turn South Africa around, we have a responsibility to do so.
It is a stunningly clear winter night. The stars in the sky shine brightly. Our cheeks glow red from the cold. Our breaths punctuate the night with stabs of frozen vapour as we exhale. We are a group of friends who have come together for one of the deepest of South African traditions – a braai.
We are braaiing on the coldest night of the year, not to celebrate a special occasion or to perform some kind of weird ritual. It is not even that we feel eccentric. No, we are braaiing because we have to. We have no power. The latest round of loadshedding has caught us off guard. Not even one of the most reliable inventions to come out of South Africa in the past 10 years, the Eskom se Push app, was able to predict the level of disintegration at the power producer this time.
At least the beer is ice cold. Not that we particularly feel the need to be drinking a beer on a freezing night. It is just that our water has been cut off for the past three days. Various excuses have been put forward by the municipality, relating to the power cuts, frozen rivers, Covid-induced company retrenchments and the previous government. None of them makes sense. Because of a lack of water and our latest round of panic shopping before the previous lockdown announcement, the only thing we have in surplus is beer. So, in our house, for the past three months, beer goes with everything – and, in fact is used for anything.
Inevitably, as it happens at every social gathering in South Africa these days, the conversation turns to emigration.
“So, what’s your escape plan?” asks Jason. The icicle hanging from his nose slowly starting to drip as he bends over the fire to turn the tjoppies.
It is not a question of “if”, it is a question of “when”, and “where to?”.
I inhale deeply. The start of my complicated answer. But before I even utter my first word, my wife shouts from the kitchen – where she is washing the salad leaves with a Windhoek draught – “Schalk, don’t be so negative!” The glare in her eyes blinding me more than the 1 000 lumen headlamp on her head.
I sigh. A deep, resigned sigh.
As the tjoppies sizzle, I fall into deep thought. My mind blocks out the conversation and the constant droning of the neighbours’ diesel generator. I realise that the problems discussed around our braai are ‘first world problems’. We are the fortunate ones. Yes, privileged. A lot of South Africans never have electricity to warm their houses or cook their food. And a lot of people don’t have running water in their houses. They, unlike us, don’t have many options to change their lives – or the responsibility to change the country.
South Africans, I fear, have to a large degree lost hope. We are in desperate need of a good news story. For the past decade, we’ve been hearing nothing but bad news. Crime, poverty, never-ending corruption. Politicians playing the blame game. Children drowning in pit toilets at schools, loadshedding and water cuts, failing state-owned enterprises, a lagging economy and inexcusably high youth unemployment, and inequality. Just the tip of the iceberg.
I am in the privileged position that when I am in a need of a therapy top-up, I can pick up the phone and call some of the brightest psychologists on the continent, at Wits. I grab my phone from the 12-year-old who is probably using it to hack into the State Security Agency’s database, and start to go through my contact list. My search takes a bit longer, for the numbers that I am looking for are listed under ‘P’, not under ‘S’, where I have been searching.
South Africa at the moment is a toxic environment. South Africans – not just me – are probably all suffering from some kind of condition that is spelt with a silent “B”, such as depression. Or even worse, some kind of post traumatic, or continuous traumatic stress. Each of us is paying the cost to live in this beautiful country. The core problem, it seems, is politics.
In the context of the country, a psychologist explains, politicians probably take the role of the parents, and we all know how disappointed we are when our parents get things wrong. To change our collective state of mind to what we felt in the mid-1990s when everybody was ready to work together, we need to change our whole environment.
Changing the country’s narrative is not as easy as attending a mass ‘family meeting’ or having another World Cup victory. To put a smile back on our faces at the next braai, there needs to be some actual changes to the country.
For the past 20 years, I have believed and advocated that every single problem in South Africa can be fixed. The schooling system, the hospitals, crime, lagging infrastructure projects such as the digitalisation of the broadcast spectrum, Kusile and Medupi power stations and the second phase of the Katze dam water scheme, can be all be fixed if there is a little bit of political will behind these projects. Covid showed us that.
The moment our politicians actually ‘engaged their minds’ and decided the country must be shut down for three months, it happened without a problem. The military was mobilised, policy, regulations and even new laws were made and policed, and the public largely complied. Nothing the government has ever touched has been as effective as the Covid lockdowns. Not even the current vaccine roll-out.
Professor Alex van den Heever, from the School of Governance, believes that the whole Lego box that is South African politics should be upended, and carefully put back together.
“Patronage politics has to be effectively outlawed,” he says.
Patronage politics has destroyed democratic South Africa. Members of Parliament get put into parliament by being on a party list, and then work only to hold on to their jobs, not to serve the public. Corruption is so deeply rooted, that the ‘good’ politicians and public servants – and no, that is not an oxymoron – have to hide their work from their bosses – the ministers – in fear of having their projects captured. The money allocated to replace the pit toilet at the school where a six-year-old suffered the most awful death imaginable, never reached the school.
“By definition, you have to be corrupt to be in a position of power,” says Alex. My conversation with him makes me leave the braai immediately to pack my bag.
South Africans are becoming fatalistic because they feel that they can’t do anything to change their situation. Those that can do so emigrate. We not only lose their skills, we also lose loved ones.
But all is not lost, says Alex. “You can still go on to national television and criticise the president. You can’t do that in Russia or Turkey.”
To turn things around – and we still can – we need to know what the problem is and not keep quiet about it. We all need to work together to change the country for the better. The media, the judiciary, civil servants and, especially, you and me.
Rather than purchase a ticket to Canada, get involved in something that makes a positive difference, search for comfort in your close communities and, most importantly, speak up –especially those of us who are in positions to do so, or have a proximity to those in power. We live in a beautiful country with so much to offer. We owe it to ourselves – and more importantly – to those who really don’t have the ability to change things – as the dude with the kuif said – Make South Africa Great Again!
Schalk Mouton is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Can philanthropy grow Africa?
- Bhekinkosi Moyo
Despite the fact the philanthropy is pervasive – benefactors and beneficiaries abound – relatively little is known about its practice in an African context.
Philanthropy takes various forms, with the two main ones: philanthropy at the local level practised by the community or its high net worth individuals (HNWIs); and institutional philanthropy in the form of foundations.
The former is practised by members of a community mostly in a horizontal manner. They give to each other ‘in kind’ – they donate goods, time and networks, and they rally in times of difficulty. They also give cash. We have seen this happening during the Covid-19 pandemic, where communities forged in solidarity had a positive impact on psychosocial wellbeing, among others.
This kind of localised philanthropy helps to ensure that communities survive from one hardship to the next, but it is limited to individual geographies and does not always address the root cause of a problem.
Community vs institutional giving
Community giving is more often seen as charity; gestures between people in times of need. Although this can be viewed as palliative giving and not curative in nature, charity or community giving has a huge role to play in Africa’s development. A charitable gesture such as helping a girl child from a village attend school has the potential for a significant impact down the line – by enabling the girl to navigate her own way in the world, to lift her out of a patriarchal system, and to empower her economically. That girl has the potential to become a leader herself who may in turn impact on the lives of other girls in her community.
The number of HNWIs in Africa has increased over the past decade. These individuals are able to give both to and beyond their communities, and many of them have their own foundations through which they donate. The deeper pockets and systems that they have established mean that there is transformative potential to address the root causes of problems and have a lasting impact.
Large-scale philanthropic aid, such as HNWIs and international donor foundations, are seen as transformative and developmental in nature. This type of philanthropy can address power relations, social justice and policy issues – and is arguably still lacking in Africa. There are more and more funds coming into Africa but poverty and inequality are not decreasing and violence is in fact increasing.
Seeking solutions to systemic issues
Asserting the real impact of philanthropy requires more attention and reflection, especially by philanthropies themselves. We need to scrutinise how philanthropy is being implemented and explore what areas need support and for how long. Frequently, philanthropy is based on project funding, because most funders prefer this. While projects have their place, we need to talk about how to achieve sustainable, long-term funding to resolve systemic problems.
In deciding on the areas that need philanthropic attention, I believe that the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an important framework. In fact, philanthropy has long supported many challenges embodied in the SDGs, particularly issues of poverty and hunger, education, inequality and governance – all of which are contained in the 17 SDGs. But the actual priority will depend on each country’s specific needs.
In South Africa, there are several specific areas that I believe we need to identify as urgent, including women empowerment, inequality, gender-based violence and unemployment. Globally, we need to rally collectively around issues of climate change and the environment, because those are likely to be our most pressing challenges in the future.
African growth prospects
Education has an important role to play in ensuring that philanthropic efforts contribute to Africa’s growth. We cannot have philanthropy without education – the biggest philanthropic organisations in the world, such as Carnegie, the Ford Foundation and Kellogg in the US, and closer to home, the likes of the Dangote and Motsepe Foundations, all have their roots in industry and the private sector.
Knowledge and education lead to a strong private sector, which is the source of financial resources for philanthropy.
Secondly, we need to develop leaders who will run their corporations from a philanthropic perspective. These are individuals who emerge from higher education institutions driven by the values of social justice and transformation. As educators, we need to develop in them an understanding of social justice and ethics and how these can and should be embedded in the work that they do.
Whether it is private giving or large-scale project funding, philanthropy has a crucial role to play in the growth of the continent. To be truly effective, philanthropy must look deeper into root causes to ensure lasting social justice in Africa.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Repurposing drugs to treat dangerous diseases
- Didi Mmatladi
In drug repurposing new uses are identified for a drug outside of its original scope of indication, resulting in more effective treatment.
Imagine going to the doctor to get medical help and you’re told, “Sorry, there is too little known about your condition, I cannot treat you for it now, but hopefully, there will be a drug developed for it soon.”
If the doctor does not know what to do, who does? And how soon could a drug developed for your condition be available? The process of developing drugs is extensive and rigorous. It takes on average 10 years from the ‘initial discovery’ of drugs, to their approval for use and ultimate availability through prescription or over the counter.
New solutions from known drugs
There is an urgent need for more efficient and solutions-driven systems to identify alternate treatments when existing drugs are not available. Drug repurposing (or repositioning) is a cost-efficient approach that eliminates the lengthy timeframes of conventional drug development, thus giving patients treatment sooner.
Professor Yahya Choonara, Director and Principal Researcher at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) research unit, defines drug repurposing as the process through which new uses for a drug are identified outside that drug’s original scope of indication (or the re-profiling of drug molecules).
“This approach is increasingly explored by drug discovery research teams as it provides benefits over conventional ways of searching for a new ‘active pharmaceutical ingredient’,” says Choonara. “Drug repurposing may reduce the risks that are associated with the process of conventional drug discovery and development, as existing knowledge on candidate drugs can be further developed more quickly and enhanced.”
Repurposing of drugs means that drug developers employ ‘de-risked compounds’, which makes the ‘re-purposable’ drug candidate easier to develop further. Because the re-purposable drug has already gone through multiple rigorous regulatory stages for approval, drug repurposing scientists can adopt more systematic processes to identify alternative prospects for its use. This alone fast-tracks the gap between identifying drugs with desirable effects, and getting them on the shelves in pharmacies.
Decades and dollars inhibit drug delivery
Researching and developing new drugs is expensive. Pharmaceutical companies risk financial losses if their drug discovery and development programmes fail, or the drugs require further development to secure the necessary approvals. It is the end-customer who will likely have to pay higher prices for these drugs.
Despite extensive advancements in scientific medical technologies and highly mechanised manufacturing capabilities, research suggests that the cost of developing new drugs is still high at an estimated average cost of $1.3 billion in 2020.
Repurposed drugs accounted for 43% of drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in the first quarter of 2020, studies found. This form of drug development has seen the pharmaceutical industry’s annual revenue grow by an estimated 25-40% (2020), showing that it can become a feasible and standard consideration in the drug development process.
Diseases are growing globally, highlighting the urgent need for pharmaceutical research innovation that will help meet the demand for ‘new’ and effective drugs, while balancing this with the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to produce these efficiently and timeously.
Disrupting cancer drug resistance
There is a great need to explore drug repurposing in treating patients with cancer in South Africa, says Dr Ekene Emmanuel Nweke, Associate Researcher in the Wits Department of Surgery, who recently contributed a book chapter, Drug sensitivity and drug repurposing platform for cancer precision medicine. Increasingly, cancer patients are developing drug resistance to dedicated cancer medications already on the market. Although some developed countries have seen improved five-year survival rates in most cancers, mainly because of early detection and advanced treatment options, certain cancers such as pancreatic cancer are still problematic to treat due to their highly resistant nature.
“The whole point of trying to develop cancer precision medicine is to ensure that we have tailored treatments for patients. Drug resistance in patients is a huge issue when it comes to cancer treatment. By repurposing drugs and screening these drugs specifically to the patient’s needs, we hope to avoid resistance and improve the patient’s outcome,” says Nweke.
Choonara stresses that the efficiency of drug repurposing requires a combination of access to molecular data, appropriate bio-analytical expertise to enable robust insights, and expertise and experimental set-up for pharmaceutical formulation, validation and clinical development.
Finding the right combinations of ‘de-risked compounds’ to repurpose drugs for multiple diseases requires both scientific and clinical collaboration, a multidisciplinary approach often adopted by the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits.
“Drug repurposing can strengthen healthcare systems by making available a wider variety of therapeutic interventions and promotes a multidisciplinary effort among healthcare professions to get such pharmaceutical products to the market,” says Choonara.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
What the world needs now
- Ufrieda Ho
As the world looks to COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland in 2021, it’s clear that the time for sitting on the side-lines is over.
The what-next in tackling the climate crisis faces a new reckoning that focuses less on calibrating trade-offs but more on shoring up transdisciplinary enquiry and systemic transformation. It’s diving deeper into how systems work to find where solutions may lie and nailing one’s colours to the mast, because mass mobilisation and active citizenship is going to matter as the planet burns hotter.
The late Professor Bob Scholes* (1958-2021), former Director of the Global Change Institute at Wits, said trade-offs are often poorly conceptualised. By treating particular interventions as if they were independent of one another, solutions to curb increasing temperatures globally get missed.
Systems not silos
“Systems theory looks at how things are connected to one another. It recognises that solutions to different parts of the challenge do not necessarily have to be in opposition to each other. In understanding the interactions, you can work out where the sweet spot might lie,” he said.
Getting to grips with systems means looking at the whole in all its complexity. It’s not about seeing a win in one area as an inevitable loss somewhere else.
As an example, Scholes pointed to the debate that continues to cast the protection of nature and the avoidance of dangerous climate change as competing interests. He said both challenges are crucial, and each comes with the backing of international frameworks and agreements.
This may lend weight when it comes to getting high-level buy-in and commitment, and in shaping and enforcing policy, collective action and more meaningful dialogue – but there are blind spots when different agendas are pursued in silos. Inadvertently it can become a doomed battle for a top spot on a priority list, when there shouldn’t have been a competition to begin with.
Swings and roundabouts
“It’s not a case of either being focused on the coming of a sixth mass extinction or believing that climate change is so important that we don’t have to worry about biodiversity. Once we understand both issues better, we can sift out the solutions that are not about climate positive or biodiversity negative but can achieve objectives on both sides,” he said.
Practically put, Scholes said, it translates to measures like protecting existing tree resources instead of planting new trees in places where they don’t belong, for instance. Or it’s about improving photovoltaic and energy storage technology that pays attention to the cradle-to-grave footprint of the new technologies as well as those that they replace.
Political scientist Professor Vishwas Satgar in the Department of International Relations says that the next wave of tackling climate change must match practical measures with personal and collective commitment.
Nature’s bill of rights
For Satgar, who was part of drawing up the South African Climate Justice Charter launched in August 2020, the Charter embodies commitment, actions and hope. The Charter looks at the climate change crisis with renewed verve and has contemporary framing. It is based in science but recognises that a relationship with nature is also inherently human and therefore something spiritual and social too. “We are socio-ecological beings,” he says.
Among its broad ideals, the Charter holds that slavish adherence to perpetual growth and development as measures of progress or models for wellbeing fail to serve the world. It also calls for a strengthening of democracy, transformation, redistribution, and a commitment to ideals that mirror South Africa’s Bill of Rights and looks to address society’s deep inequalities.
“Mass-based movement is how we shift society and how we can start translating things into policy. Acting now is also how we cushion society for the climate shocks that are still to come,” he says.
Lock-ins, smoke and. mirrors
Satgar warns that trade-offs in framing a response to the climate crisis are a distraction and prop up false dualities. Using the ‘climate shock’ of the Western Cape’s Day Zero drought as an example, Satgar says that the focus points became dangerously narrow: it was either trained on the economic fallout; the politics of disaster management strategies; or the noise of climate change denialism that wrote-off the worst drought in generations simply as part of cyclical weather patterns.
These issues are more interconnected. Zooming out can offer this perspective and give insight into the underpinning challenges that run through all these separate challenges – the so-called ‘lock-ins’ – he says.
South Africa’s key ‘lock-in’ is reliance on a highly carbon-intensive, coal-based economy. With this century-old dependency has come entrenched vested interest in extractive industries and the big money, corporate power, and politics that has helped prop it up, Satgar says.
Add to this, he says, is a government that has a ‘lack of ambition’ when it comes to everything from carbon tax targets to carbon tax enforcement for corporate polluters, and adequate responses when social and climate realities collide.
There is a continued failure to respond to the disproportionate social impact of climate shocks, such as floods and droughts, when those who have the lightest carbon footprint are hit the hardest. “If we are to solve the problem of carbon emissions, we do have to displace these lock-ins,” says Satgar.
Mass action and mindful living
Emeritus Professor Jacklyn Cock in the School of Social Sciences says that the time for deep transformation is up against a ticking clock. “We need ‘just transition’ from coal that involves a massive redistribution of power and resources and a new relationship to nature. Nature has been treated as a sink for our waste products and a store of resources for profit,” she says.
Cock says that it starts with “living more mindfully, consuming less and conserving more” but this must extend to actual membership of the organisations and campaigns, including the Climate Justice Charter Movement, which is about growing solidarity and social bonds, and translating this into mass action.
She says counter-power will come through alliances and intergenerational cohesion; building networks between the likes of environmental activists, academia, faith-based organisations, labour and grassroots communities. The alliances must be strengthened so that the 2021 follow-up to Paris COP21 in Glasgow this November is not another trade-off.
COP26 is the next annual United Nations climate change conference. COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and the summit will be attended by the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – a treaty that came into force in 1994.
The ambitious UN meeting in 2015 ticked off as a success that it got 196 nations at the time to sign a legally binding treaty on climate change. The long-term target was to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C by the latest timeframe of mid-century. But it did not go far enough to halt or limit the burning of fossil fuels, leaving the world now short of meeting the target.
It means there’s work to be done and personal responsibility to commit to collective action as a solution. “Find an entry point, whatever it is – there are many good organisations that need your membership – and get involved,” says Cock.
Her point really is that sitting on the sidelines is not going to cut it because the climate crisis stands to make losers of us all.
* Professor Bob Scholes died on 28 April 2021 while on a hike in Namibia, just two months after the interview for this story. He was 63. A world-renowned scientist, Scholes was a stalwart of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and authored the Third, Fourth and Fifth IPCC Assessment Reports.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Social media regulation: Can we trust the tech giants?
- Ufuoma Akpojivi
Some scholars consider these ‘liberating technologies’ because they empower citizens to speak back to power and hold leaders accountable.
In postcolonial African countries, the impact of this liberating technology is evident from the Arab Spring, to #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall, and OccupyGhana and Nigeria, when citizens have leveraged technologies to challenge inherent colonial and postcolonial issues.
Yet despite these benefits, concerns have been raised about the use of these liberating technologies for perpetuating online abuse through trolling, spreading misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, and for manipulating elections – as observed in Kenya and Nigeria by Cambridge Analytica.
These concerns are legitimate and worrying due to the consequences on citizens and threats to nation states. For instance, Thierry Henry, a former footballer and coach, recently announced that he will be quitting social media due to online abuse and that he will only consider re-joining when social media is regulated with the ‘same vigour and ferocity that copyright infringements are’.
Similarly, earlier this year, the world watched with shock how supporters of former US President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the November presidential election results. The former president himself was accused of inciting this incident through his posts on social media. These issues raise the question of how best to regulate these technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Regulation vs freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is considered a universal human right and it is covered in most international treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human Rights. Nation states are appraised based on their abilities to protect this inalienable human right.
However, this does not confer absolute [negative] freedom on every individual. Some philosophers argue that freedom is essential in any society because truth can only be derived from tolerance of different views. Furthermore, the democratic process is enriched as citizens can make an informed decision due to the market of ideas.
Conversely, they state that freedom of speech should only be regulated when national interests or security is at stake, bringing about the idea of positive freedom – which calls for some restraint or intervention – potentially from the state, since freedom is not absolute.
Weaponised communications
The idea of regulation as a restriction has always met with resistance and continues to generate complex debates. Nevertheless, regulation is needed to promote fair rules of engagement and check excesses from both the tech giants and the public. The state cannot always be trusted to equitably regulate the media or social media due to vested interests, for example, using regulation as a tool to curtail and suppress critical views and opposition.
Nation states including Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Cameroon have politicised and weaponised the internet to achieve their own objectives. Likewise, attempts by states to formulate social media legislation as happened in Uganda and Nigeria, have raised serious concerns over the end goal of such bills.
In the capitalist’s environment in which these technologies operate, tech giants cannot be trusted to effectively regulate platform content as they are either slow to take necessary action, or take excessive or disproportionate actions and/or responses, which threaten the very basis of freedom that such platforms are supposed to promote.
For instance, the recent banning of former president Donald Trump by social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram) raises the question of who makes these decisions and if these decisions are in the public interest.
The rules of engagement
Is the decision to ban an individual from using these technologies or limiting/restricting news sharing by tech giants the solution? To address this problem a more robust approach is needed at both the governance and individual levels.
Firstly, the governance of tech giants and their content should not be left to corporate organisations. The telecommunication regulatory bodies of nation states should engage with tech giants to identify mechanisms that will help flag hateful, mis/disinformation and the like on these platforms.
This should go beyond reviewing regulatory decisions already made, and include the involvement in content moderation, formation, expansion, and empowerment of oversight across all platforms. Expanding the oversight board and their powers to content moderation and regulation will help address the bureaucratic imperative, highlight the complex framework and rules with which they work and build a structure that is transparent to all.
Secondly, there is need for rules of engagement on social media platforms. Just as in mainstream media, which has frameworks that govern engagement, there should be rules to which individuals who subscribe to social media adhere.
Ufuoma Akpojivi is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Media Studies at Wits. He holds a PhD in Communications Studies from the University of Leeds, UK. His research interests are in the areas of media policy, democratisation, citizenship, new media, and activism and he has authored many academic articles in these areas. He is the recipient of the Wits Friedel Sellschop Research Award, amongst others, and many teaching awards.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Another brick in the pay wall
- Andile Ndlovu
The media industry in South Africa has been sputtering along for several years. How do we prevent it from totally collapsing?
It is inherently human to cling to hope in times of great destruction and indisposition. We turn to it when we are met with bleak prognoses on a myriad of issues. In this country, politicians even turn to optimism when governance proves wearisome, imploring us to pray for deliverance.
We tell ourselves – and each other – that we will return to what we had before. Yet, what recent times have taught us is that the ‘new normal’ or ‘going back to normal’ is a mistaken belief.
Many industries are learning this the hard way. Journalism, and specifically South Africa’s beleaguered press, has been battered almost beyond recognition in recent years – only for Covid-19 to arrive and accelerate the pre-existing structural declines in the industry.
Like an unserviced car, the engine has been sputtering for a while and the industry has been too ponderous in countering the challenges posed. In the past decade or so, journalism has been disrupted, even devastated, but it can never be allowed to die.
A strong ‘Fourth Estate’, as the media industry is often referred to, is crucial to a country’s democracy. Without it, whether at community or national level, malfeasance thrives. Quality journalism is how a democracy is kept alive.
An industry in trouble
According to Bureau of Circulations data for the fourth quarter of 2020, circulation numbers for daily newspapers in this country are down by 40%, on average, over one year. A substantial drop in circulation numbers and advertising spend has forced the closure of many titles, while others have had to migrate to digital-only formats to cling to life.
Caxton and CTP Publishers & Printers closed its magazine division, while 38-year-old Associated Media Publishing ceased operations less than three months into the country’s lockdown. There have been retrenchments across the board – including at Arena Holdings, Media24, Independent Newspapers, Primedia and even the SABC. Many media houses, at least in their current form, are facing an existential threat.
Added to dropping circulation figures, the South African media is also facing a credibility crisis, as several media houses and journalists have been ‘captured’ and swayed into publishing propaganda for various political actors.
Wits Journalism’s Professor Franz Kruger, who helms the annual State of the Newsroom Report, says that “along with news organisations around the world, the SA print media have been scrambling for solutions” such as experimenting with paywalls.
“It has been difficult, though, and real innovation may well come from a completely unexpected direction, from outside the traditional media houses who often struggle to be agile enough to respond to a crisis of this magnitude,” says Kruger.
It is clear that more – if not all – news publishers will be left with little option but to move towards subscription models and make even less content freely available. But to attract and retain subscribers requires consistently thorough, engaging and relevant content for readers – not to mention, affordable.
If publications and broadcasters are forced to find creative ways to sell content, doing so is made even tougher during times of severe economic hardship. Paying for content is suddenly seen as a luxury many people can do without. They would rather seek news and content that’s free, which leads to the proliferation of ‘fake news’ – further damaging the standing of journalists and journalism in the eyes of the public.
Press Ombudsman Pippa Green is quoted in the State of the Newsroom Report as saying that the “effects of the cutbacks can be seen in many of the complaints that come before the Press Council, itself affected by the economic malaise”.
She adds that “in some cases, they reflect a scramble to publish, lack of verification, inconsistent attempts to allow a right of reply, and in some cases a lack of editorial oversight.”
The need for committed, well-trained, honourable and talented journalists (who come from demographically transformed newsrooms) will always be in demand. The challenge is, how do we produce them?
Sustainable alternative
The sustainable alternative, according to Dr Bob Wekesa, Coordinator of Research, Partnerships and Communications at the African Centre for the Study of the United States at Wits University, is for news organisations to work with journalism schools in such a way that the schools respond to newsroom training and skills needs – both at the degree or diploma training levels – for career-entry journalists – and continuing training for mid-career and senior journalists.
But if the future is already here and digital, surely the next question is, in a country where internet penetration sits at less than 60% of the population, how to get trustworthy news to as big a pool of readers as possible.
“On the regulatory front, the government ought to step in to compel social media platforms to report their profits here in South Africa,” says Wekesa. “This will help level the advertisement ecology with benefits for South African news organisations”.
Government must ensure internet costs drop significantly. Spectrum allocation has been a talking point for a while now, as it is seen to be the main stumbling block in lowering data prices in the country. A breakthrough on this issue would lead to a drop in the subscription rates that news organisations offer to audiences, believes Wekesa.
“News organisations also have to be creative in audience targeting. For instance, some audiences access content via their phones and this is often short pieces of information while others prefer using computers often for longer pieces.”
The only way to assuage doubts about the reliability of the industry is to continue to produce thorough, informative and inspiring work – the type that exposed and impeded corrupt practices such as state capture. But how to do this with limited resources is the unanswered question.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Healing South Africa’s public health headache
- Lem Chetty
Academia binds the public and private healthcare sectors in the move towards universal healthcare
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It is ironic that the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the passing of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill in South Africa, because the pandemic was a reminder that access to healthcare is indeed a universal collaboration.
There are parallels, too, between the universal healthcare offering the NHI proposes, and the roll-out of the country’s vaccination programme. Perhaps the latter is a microcosm of how this mammoth task will materialise. What is evident is that both scenarios will come to fruition – because they have to.
In a true democracy, the management of and access to the Covid-19 vaccination and treatment should play out exactly as the NHI should – equitably, and made possible through omni-channels. In other words, the NHI can only work if the private and public sector come together – and academia might be the tie that binds the two.
Academia binds public-private healthcare collaboration
Universities continue to be an integral part of the fight against Covid-19, and they also have a critical role to play in the NHI. Professor Emeritus Martin Veller, former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits, says: “Firstly, universal healthcare in South Africa is absolutely needed. From the Covid-19 pandemic, what we have seen is that the academic health sector is poised to become a significant facilitator – if not the facilitator – of the healthcare delivery system. Particularly, to implement the necessary changes in healthcare, to then make universal healthcare possible in this country.”
Veller says that the Faculty was deeply involved in drafting seminal work on NHI, the Presidential Health Compact. Titled South African Government: Strengthening the South African health system towards an integrated and unified health system, the Presidential Health Compact was published on 25 July 2019.
The document stemmed from the Presidential Health Summit in October 2018, which, President Cyril Ramaphosa writes, set out to “diagnose and propose solutions to end the identified crises in the health system that are hampering our progress towards creating a unified, people-centred and responsive health system that leaves no one behind”.
The Compact that followed is an agreement consented to by government and key stakeholders – academics and researchers, health and allied health professionals, labour, business, community, statutory councils, traditional health practitioners, and public health entities.
Veller, representing not only Wits and the Faculty, but also as Chair of the Committee of Medical Deans in the country, says the team delved into a study to highlight the problems in the public health sector. This participation showed that “we are committed to universal healthcare and recognise that very significant numbers of patients in our country do not have access to a strong healthcare system”.
Faculty takes the lead
Many academics within the Faculty are advising government and partners on the development, management and monitoring of the NHI, “with the ultimate aim of getting the country’s health system out of the doldrums. But there are also other faculties at Wits doing the same, for example, in commerce, law and management, definitely in science, in one way or another”, says Veller.
“Much of what we do is in the research and knowledge-generation space, especially around the issues in the health system and later, in implementation. The Faculty also addresses gaps in the system. Finally, being the largest health sciences faculty in the country, we have committed to increasing training numbers, so that our graduates will assist in the universal access to healthcare.”
People solve people problems
The management of human resources – people – in the healthcare system is paramount to the NHI succeeding and operating well. The combination of unemployed graduates and a shortage of healthcare workers, makes the answers seem simple, but often they are not. Wits has come up with a working solution.
Dan Mosia, Chief Commercial Officer at the Wits Health Consortium (WHC), says the Wits team, in partnership with other universities, created a pipeline of doctors to fill staffing gaps, including in KwaZulu-Natal where oncology care was a challenge because of a shortage of trained healthcare workers.
“The Wits Health Consortium is a wholly-owned entity of Wits University, with strategic objectives around the Faculty of Health Sciences. We are deliberate about how best we can assist the Faculty to unlock business opportunities and increase income streams for the University,” he says.
Unlocking opportunities for Wits which also help the NHI work well is part of its mandate. The consortium aligned with six other universities with medical schools to come up with a response to what the National Department of Health needed as a test case in the placement of unemployed healthcare professionals where they were needed.
“It worked,” says Mosia. “There was a backlog in the department of placing healthcare professionals in a number of provinces. We were able to assist. For instance, in KZN [where we were able] to attract oncologists and regain the confidence of both patients and doctors that the public service can work. It was imperative that we paid healthcare workers timeously, so that they could come back and do the work, and in turn, patients who attend public hospitals were treated by private oncologists.”
This is the basis of the NHI – the use of private care skills in the public sector by professionals trained in public institutions.
“The mechanism to get the skills right has worked, even in rural areas. In Mpumalanga, people in some rural areas could access specialist healthcare for the very first time,” he says.
“Our country needs a solution and the solution has been identified as NHI. Universal healthcare is a fundamental need, a matter of life and death, so the NHI has to work – but in a sustainable manner. Academic institutions are well-placed to work with both the public and private sectors. Our role is to continue to bring the two sectors together, and to find models that can be implemented without compromising either of the sectors.”
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Engineering empathy
- Deborah Minors
In search of ways to help his father recover from injuries suffered in a motorbike accident, Nabeel Vandayar enrolled at Wits to study medicine.
He soon switched to biomedical engineering after realising that this field holds promising solutions to his father’s speech and mobility challenges.
The field of biomedical engineering would be poorer if Nabeel Vandayar, 26, had pursued his boyhood passion for cricket rather than medicine.
The promising Gauteng Schools batsman matriculated from Jeppe Boys High – where he “took far too many extra subjects!” – and enrolled at Wits in 2013 for the MBBCh degree.
“The reason I chose medicine was personal,” says Vandayar – his father had been left partially disabled after a motorbike accident in 2011.
More than medicine
“By the end of my first year of medicine, my father had made a significant recovery after months of rehabilitation, but I realised then that medicine can only do so much,” says Vandayar. “There’s certain things that medicine cannot do. My Dad still couldn’t ride his bike, for example, and medicine couldn’t give him the quality of life he enjoyed before the accident.”
Vandayar finished first-year medicine and then switched to the School of Electrical and Information Engineering to study biomedical engineering.
“Biomed is probably the most challenging undergraduate degree at Wits because the courses you study are so different. You could start off the day with physiology and anatomy with the medical students, by lunch time you have created software to interface with an electric circuit, and that afternoon you have done complex mathematics in signals and systems.” says Vandayar.
“The interesting thing is that these different courses build skills which, when combined, contribute to a biomedical solution in the real world. Biomed is not just about solving a problem, it’s about changing lives.”
3 idiots and an epiphany
In his final year of biomedical engineering, Vandayar was awarded a bursary by Health Tech, a subsidiary of IT service management company, Altron. While doing vacation work as a data analyst, he was exposed to machine learning for the first time and its potential to be applied to an individual.
Machine learning is the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience, and by the use of data. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence (AI).
Vandayar came up with a predictive model to establish if a patient will become diabetic, based on the patient’s medical aid claims history.
There’s an Indian movie called 3 Idiots, Vandayar says, which is a satirical film about “a mechanical engineer, like my brother, who designs a vacuum device to help a mother deliver her baby during a difficult birth – kind of like MacGyver”.
That movie, along with the many TEDx Talks on AI that Vandayar watched at the time, showed him the potential for AI to solve medical problems.
Inspired AI
Vandayar’s fourth year information engineering research project was a low-cost hand gesture recognition system. Its design and use enables people with certain movement disabilities – such as the inability to type due to decreased finger dexterity – to use a computer by performing other gestures that they can do comfortably.
“Disability has different ranges,” says Vandayar. “For example, my Dad can’t type on a computer as well as he used to. So I created a customisable system that enables people with specific disabilities to perform movements that they are able to perform.”
Vandayar presented this research at the SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA conference (Southern African Universities Power and Engineering/Robotics and Mechatronics/Pattern Recognition Association of SA), with co-author and fellow Witsie, Timothy McBride. Their research was published in 2019.
“My motivation for all this comes back to my Dad. He had suffered head injuries during his accident, which resulted in a tendency to stutter in stressful situations – for example, when meeting new people or speaking on the phone. This inability to speak fluently is very inhibiting compared to how he used to speak.”
Recognising Vandayar’s motivation “to solve problems using engineering and empathy”, Nixon recommended a joint supervision with Dr Victor de Andrade, Senior Lecturer in the Audiology Division, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, in the School of Human and Community Development at Wits.
Superman and a stutter
“Autonomy and self-sufficiency is something people take for granted until they lose it,” says Vandayar, and references the actor Christopher Reeve who played Superman in the film adaptation of the comic book superhero. In 1995, Reeve was thrown from a horse and broke his neck. The injury paralysed him from the shoulders down. Superman, ironically, was confined to a wheelchair and used a mechanical ventilator for the rest of his life.
“My Dad is my superhero,” says Vandayar. “He dropped out of varsity to become a taxi driver, he opened bottle stores, he was a successful businessman. After the accident, he was doing stuff on the computer, and he always asked me for help, or got me to speak for him on a call because of his stutter. Even though I was always happy to help, the best way to help was to give him a way to do these things on his own.”
Vandayar’s master’s research focuses on providing a ‘speech filter’ for stuttered speech that delivers a fluent voice to a listener.
The idea is to apply machine learning algorithms to an audio recording of a person’s voice to detect if a stutter is occurring. If it is, the next word is predicted based on the context of the sentence up until that point, and passed to a programme called Tacotron (developed by Google). Tacotron generates audio of what the person is trying to say. The corrected audio is then transmitted to the listener and sounds more coherent because it does not include the stutter.
“Tacotron not only takes written text and converts it to speech but makes speech sound like the original person. You give Tacotron a sample of what you sound like and it can then generate sentences you give it using your voice,” says Vandayar. “The amazing Stephen Hawking could possibly have given lectures in his original voice if Tacotron had been connected to his computer."
Vandayar acknowledges that it would be ambitious for his master’s research to actually solve a stutter. “My research is about taking the building blocks that exist, putting them together in a new way, and hopefully coming up with a solution that reduces the anxiety that a stutterer experiences, by recreating their speech in a way that makes it easier for others to understand them.”
His aim is to enable some humanity, autonomy and less anxiety for the stutterer by making the listener understand the person who is stuttering. “Instead of giving the person who stutters an additional technology crutch to adapt to, such as delayed auditory feedback, why not get the technology to do the heavy lifting so that the person can just speak freely and be understood?“
Open source solutions
Vandayar now works as a data engineer at a financial services tech company, where he is establishing a healthcare division.
He’s also co-founded an open source research group, comprising of doctors, nurses, biomed engineers and non-technical stakeholders in the African healthcare space, to encourage research collaboration and innovation.
“People don’t work on these technologies unless they have a vested interest – as I do – and I think this needs to change. Right now what I’m most passionate about is improving public health using AI,” he says.
Indeed, engineering with empathy.
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Enabling engagement
- Tamsin Oxford
Breaking down the perceptual barriers between students and people living with disabilities.
The world was designed by the able-bodied. The stairs, the complex architecture, the office spaces and the access points – these simple things that are taken for granted by the able-bodied instantly sideline those living with disabilities. The office worker in a wheelchair who can’t reach the second floor or the sight impaired person who can’t easily navigate beautiful, yet complex, architecture, for instance.
These moments and structures add unnecessary complexity to lives that are just as dynamic and capable as those who are able-bodied. To change these moments and to shift perceptions, there is a need to break down the walls of perception that people have about those living with disabilities, so that the world adopts a more inclusive approach to people, disability and environments. This is the vision of the Wits People for Awareness of Disability Issues (PADI) programme.
People for awareness of disability issues
Designed to transform perceptions, PADI connects disabled people to able-bodied students in a six-month collaborative relationship, effectively breaking down the barriers that limit engagement, understanding and friendship.
“To create an inclusive society, disability shouldn’t be discussed in isolation as a standalone topic – it’s not, it is as woven into the fabric of society as being able-bodied,” says Dr Victor de Andrade from the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Wits. “People with disabilities are often compartmentalised and it has become important to overcome this trope and to make disability as much a central part of human discussions and experiences."
The PADI programme, developed by Sandy Heyman in 1987, is focused on getting people involved, in integrating the different aspects of people rather than compartmentalising them. The programme encourages students to interact with disability, not just in the academic sense, but by engaging with disabled people on a daily basis.
“Our entire profession is geared towards lessening disability,” says Ronel Roos, Associate Professor, Department of Physiotherapy at Wits. “It is extremely important that our students understand the different components that can result in disability and yet many of them may not have had contact with someone with a disability before coming to university. What PADI does is connect students with disabled representatives so that they become aware of the different components of disability and how they can contribute to the lives of their patients and clients."
Humanising disability
At the start of their first year, students are paired with PADI representatives who have various disabilities like cerebral palsy or a learning or sight disability. This exposure gives students the opportunity to learn more about disability and how it impacts on a person’s life. The programme puts a human face onto the idea of ‘disability’ and transforms how people see and interact with disabled individuals.
“PADI gives students practical knowledge and experience, weaning out those who cannot engage with people with disabilities,” says Dr Dhanashree Pillay, Senior Lecturer, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Wits. “I’ve seen such value from this programme. At the end of six months the shifts in perception and understanding are extraordinary. Many of the paired students and representatives become lifelong friends as the students stop seeing disabled people as different, but as people.
The interaction between the student and PADI representative breaks down barriers, opens up lines of communication and removes many of the naïve perceptions that people have about those who experience disabilities. These are not physical walls that separate the abled from the disabled, they are simply part of who these people are.
“Disabled people have agency, they are not just the receivers of services and they can contribute just like anyone else,” says De Andrade. “They are not just the receivers of benevolence; they are essential to the fabric of society. This is why this programme, and others like it, are so important. They change the thinking around disability and help people transform society to be more inclusive and more relevant for all human beings.”
Digital Operating Systems for eHealth (DOSe)
Technology has opened so many doors in the world, it’s no surprise that it’s playing a fundamental role in shifting the boundaries of disability, and empowering those with disabilities.
Rubina Shaikh, Division of Pharmacy Practice, developed a mobile application for the visually impaired using intelligent technology and innovative thinking. The solution assists with medication identification and administration, helping those who are visually impaired to safely self-administer medications.
The solution not only helps them to maintain control over their drug regimen and avoid dosage errors, but it also provides them with information on the medication itself such as expiry dates and side effects. It helps people to gain essential control over their lives, giving them back a sense of independence and improving their decision-making when it comes to medical care.
It is another example of looking beyond the boundaries of disability and recognising that, with the right tools and support, those who are visually impaired can easily manage their own lives without limitations.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Sense and sensuality in people with disabilities
- Ufrieda Ho
Wits researchers are creating the space and support for people with disabilities to talk about sex.
Even though sex is a basic human need (even a human right in the Netherlands), it can be one of the overlooked needs for people living with disabilities.
Talking openly about sex, sexuality, sexual desire and sexual identity, as well as navigating sexual relations and reproductive rights and contraception, is awkward enough for many people. Add to this the burden of South Africa’s hangover of a Calvinistic apartheid past where the Immorality Act policed sexual relations. On top of this is the harsh reality of being a person living with a disability in an ableist world. There are even more complexities, and experiences of exclusion, when the person with a disability is queer identified, and/or gender non-conforming, or transgender.
“It amounts to a feeling like having a double discrimination – there’s already stigma attached to disability and then if someone identifies as gay too, it’s an added stigma and people also ignore that you have sexual needs or that you also fall in love,” says audiologist Dr Victor de Andrade in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology.
Let’s talk about it …
Sometimes just starting a conversation can move mountains and shatter taboos – even about sex. De Andrade says that in 2015, at a seminar he arranged titled Double Discrimination, a conversation ensued about addressing the needs of the disabled community and thinking through solutions.
In 2017, De Andrade and colleague Dr Joanne Neille, also from the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Dr Haley McEwen and (the late) Dr Paul Chappell from the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, and others, began to gather data, through a series of conversations and engagements, to better understand what people living with disabilities need to enjoy the right to live their lives as sexual beings.
The project team also included members of the Wits Disability Rights Unit, the GALA Queer Archives, and individual activists to create a team with adequate expertise to address this very important, yet complex, issue.
The researchers cast the net wide – deliberately, to be as inclusive and unfiltered as possible in their approach. Neille says: “Historically, research into disability has relied on proxy accounts or has excluded persons with cognitive or communicative disabilities, resulting in a biased understanding of lived experience. For this reason, we included a wide variety of participants with different sexual identities, disabilities, cultural and linguistic backgrounds.”
As a result, resources for information about sex have been largely confined to speaking to friends, picking up something from the odd magazine articles that they came across, the variability of internet content, and pornography, she says.
Getting past the gatekeepers
De Andrade says they found that in residential care homes for people with disabilities, sexual relations and intimacy became formalised arrangements – like having to schedule access to designated intimacy rooms and relying on third parties to arrange contraceptives, where such possibilities did exist.
Along with a dearth of information and resources, was also a censure or judgement. “We found that there are many gatekeepers to people living with disabilities’ sex lives, and their abilities to access information about sex, sexual health, and relationships, such as parents, teachers, and other caregivers,” McEwen says.
“Participants suggested that they could get information about how not to get pregnant or how not to get HIV, but there was nothing about negotiating relationships or consent, and sometimes there was punishment involved or a punitive attitude when the person was trying to find out more."
The research project takes the bold step to place and keep the agenda on the table. What has made the difference in particular is the team’s action research approach. It involves deep engagement, reflexivity and letting participants shape the concept and design and outcomes of the research. This has enabled the data gathered since 2017 to be stronger, more nuanced and complex. In turn, the insights seem richer and more valuable.
The trio will publish their findings and research in the coming months, accompanied by a corresponding online guide for caregivers to ensure that more people have access to the kinds of information that participants in the study required.
“We’re not saying this guide will solve all the problems, but often people just feel directionless and this is a step in the right direction,” De Andrade says.
Using the research findings to change lives, and the approach to reshaping teaching, is transformative. As McEwen says: “This research project was not about developing fancy theory or building our academic careers – there is a social justice imperative because these are huge forms of exclusion that affect all people.”
Safe spaces
Gender-based violence and sexual harassment affects everyone, but when you’re a person living with a disability, getting help and being heard can be such an overwhelming challenge that staying silent seems to be the better option.
The Wits Centre for Deaf Studies has been working to fight stigma and invisibility of people living with disabilities, particularly when it comes to accessing help at a police station. One of the Centre’s initiatives has been to team up with state-run rape crisis centres in a campaign to push for the National Prosecuting Authority to address the lack of accessible services for people with disabilities.
“The system does not acknowledge the needs of the victim and is inaccessible to Deaf victims or anyone who does not fall into the mainstream,” says Professor Claudine Storbeck, Director of the Centre.
Through the Centre’s Safe Spaces programme, Storbeck says that they are also working to develop vocabulary to help Deaf children and teenagers to have the correct signs to ask and express about their bodies, about sex and sexuality. It is the foundation for understanding concepts about “sex as power, rights, privilege”.
Importantly, Storbeck says that the able-list view of parachuting in to sort out something for the person living with a disability needs upending.
“The aim should be to create platforms so that these issues don’t stay low priorities. But once these platforms are in place, people with disabilities are very effective in self-representing. They know exactly what they need,” she says.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Think big to heal South African society
- Beth Amato
The ructions caused by the pandemic are an opportunity to reconsider core values and spending priorities to address our social ills.
Words are insufficient to capture the economic and social tragedies in South Africa. Fifteen million people in this country (of the almost 60 million) have little or no income, says Lee-Anne Bruce, Head of Communications at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at Wits University. And while short-term social care measures brought about by Covid-19 were ‘pro-poor’, the money has never been enough and its distribution bungled.
In June 2020, 37% of people ran out of money for food. Seventy percent of adults live below the Upper Bound Poverty Line of R1 268 per person per month.
In this neck of the woods, we prefer to bail out a failed national airline carrier rather than feed people.
Reduced social assistance a slap in the face
“The special caregiver grants, which especially supported women and children, were brought to an end in October 2020. At the same time, government announced a bailout for South African Airways that would have covered another three months’ worth of these grant payments. And now, the most recent budget has actually cut social grant funding by more than 2%,” says Bruce.
Over 18 million people – including older people, people living with disabilities and people living in poverty caring for children – depend on monthly grants. “Though the majority of these grants fall well below the food poverty line and the amounts are not nearly enough to support families, let alone lift them out of poverty, studies have shown that the child support grant in particular has an important role to play in food security and improving children’s health and education.”
This basic lack of security has real effects: during the lockdown period, domestic violence against women and children increased (although it was already unacceptably high) and other long-lasting social ills such as alcohol and drug abuse, inequality and xenophobia were exacerbated.
Continuing connectivity
Professor Shireen Hassim from the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), says that inequality and poverty, exacerbated by Covid-19, is everybody’s problem. “We are intrinsically interrelated. It is not in the common interest to have people who are ill, starving and desperate.”
Ordinary people stepped up to mitigate a total humanitarian crisis in South Africa in 2020, notes Hassim. For example, the community action networks (CAN) networks, which provided food and basic supplies to hundreds of thousands of people across the country, were a vital response and can be applauded for their speed and innovation. These locally-organised networks show that people do in fact care about each other.
Of course, the scale of our current crisis is too large for government to act upon alone. Such a monolithic entity is not as agile as local responsiveness. “But community voluntary activities can be unsustainable too. What we need is to turn those solidaristic impulses into arguments for effective public services to be delivered by the state, using taxes more efficiently to ensure that people can live in dignity,” says Hassim. “The generosity of community initiatives in the pandemic shows that people can be persuaded to support redirecting expenditure.”
Migrant health and vaccine nationalism
Despite ordinary people’s shows of solidarity with those most affected by the pandemic, there remain vulnerable people, especially migrants and foreign nationals.
“Migrants have been scapegoated and harassed for a long time, but now they are essentially invisible in the eyes of South Africa’s public health system dealing with an unprecedented crisis,” says Associate Professor Jo Vearey from the African Centre for Migration and Society at Wits.
Despite the significant amount of data to help government make better decisions about migrant health, migration is not meaningfully considered in the health response, says Vearey – and she doesn’t think this will improve any time soon.
“For the most part of the last year, we’ve seen more securitisation, right-wing sentiments and so-called ‘vaccine apartheid’. We know that this is about keeping people out and throwing inclusivity out of the window.”
So how do we advocate inclusivity?
Prioritising people over profit
“I think the opening question is: what kind of society do we want now?” says Hassim. “The government must absolutely reorganise its priorities and look at ways to make better use of the budget, seriously reconsidering the merit of directing scarce resources to rescue South African Airways for example. Our budget must proceed from the premise that poor people are important too.”
In these extraordinarily difficult and fiscally constrained times, government has to make tough choices, says Dr Hannah Dawson, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP) at Wits.
“It’s not a simple matter and choices are not black and white. On the one hand, people are criticising the government for its lack of meaningful social support in these times, and on the other, it is believed that austerity and social spending cuts are the only way out of this economic mire,” says Dawson.
But there could be a workable and creative solution.
Income grant and a gig economy
Dawson poses the question: Since we’ve had a very high unemployment rate since the mid-70s, and since the world has seen the proliferation of the ‘gig’ economy, how can we build an inclusive society when jobs are increasingly unavailable and precarious?
“We’re never going to have full employment and so we have to think about other options. We have to start by asking what a meaningful life looks like for people outside of wage employment and how this can be best supported.”
Dawson, Hassim and Bruce agree that basic income support for people aged 18-59 years old is needed and it is in the common interest to have this. “This would at least provide young people in particular with more resources to engage in a life of their choosing and making. They need this to get out of the cycle of constant volatility and uncertainty,” says Dawson.
Young people are hustling as best they can to get by in South Africa. They do this by working brief stints at places like internet cafes, beauty salons, sidewalk spazas and call centres. Consistent income support is needed to address not only persistent unemployment, but the volatility of the gig economy.
The basic income grant should be made available to every single person (citizen and non-citizen) regardless of whether that person has an income. According to Black Sash, the veteran human rights organisation advocating for social justice in South Africa, and Bruce, this confers the dignity of equal status to everyone, eliminates the need for any means test or other qualification, reduces the risk of corruption and immediately ends abject poverty. “It creates the incentive for a rapid injection of expenditure into the economy as people acquire the ability to buy food and other necessities,” according to Black Sash.
Universal basic income
Black Sash says that in the urgent short term, the basic income grant could be given to those who are unemployed. In the longer term, it will provide a template for a universal basic income grant.
The proposal for the grant
Implement permanent social assistance for those aged 18-59 valued at the upper-bound poverty line, now R1 227 a month. Caregivers who receive the child support grant must qualify for this grant.
Make the Covid-19 grant increases of R250 a month permanent for all social grants.
Ensure the above provisions apply to refugees, permanent residents, asylum seekers and migrant workers with special permits.
Work towards a universal basic income
The ructions caused by the pandemic should not be put to waste. It is an opportunity to reconsider both core values and spending priorities. “Another world is not only possible,” says Arundhati Roy author of God of Small Things, “she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
How the brain solves problems
- Delia du Toit
The connections among areas of our brain and how they interact is what counts when trying to find solutions to problems.
In trying to think of an introduction for this article it occurred to me that had I been inside an MRI, the screen would have showed several brain regions lighting up like Times Square as my mind was attempting to solve the problem.
First, the prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia and thalamus would recognise that the blank page meant that there was a problem that needed to be solved. The thought that the editor might not favour this first-person account in a science article would send the limbic system, the primal part of the brain where emotions are processed, into overdrive. The amygdala, that little almond-shaped nugget at the base of the brain, would look like a Christmas tree as anxiety ticked up.
Finally, as words started filling the screen, the prefrontal cortex behind the forehead would flicker and flash. The hippocampus would access memories of previous similar articles, the information-gathering process and even school-level English classes decades ago, to help the process along. And all this activity would happen at once.
“You would use many different brain regions to solve a problem, especially a novel or difficult one. The idea of processes being localised in one or two parts of the brain has been replaced with newer evidence that it is the connections among brain areas and their interaction that is important in cognitive processes. Some areas may be more activated with certain problems – a visual problem would activate the visual cortices, for example.
“All this activity takes place as electrochemical signals. The signals form within neurons, pass along the branch-like axons and jump from one neuron to the next across gaps called synapses, with the help of neurotransmitter chemicals. The pattern, size, shape and number of these signals, what they communicate with, and the region of the brain in which they happen, determine what they achieve.”
Although problem solving is a metacognitive - ‘thinking about thinking’ - process, that does not make it solely the domain of the highly evolved human prefrontal cortex, adds Dr Sahba Besharati, Division Leader of social-affective neuroscience at NeuRL.
“This is the most recently evolved part of the human brain, but problem solving does not happen in isolation – it’s immersed in a social context that influences how we interpret information. Your background, gender, religion or emotions, among other factors, all influence how you interpret a problem. This means that it would involve other brain areas like the limbic system, one of the oldest brain systems housed deep within the cortex,” says Besharati.
“Problem-solving abilities are not a human peculiarity. Some animals are even better than us at solving certain problems, but we all share basic problem-solving skills – if there’s danger, leave; if you’re hungry, find food.”
None of this would be possible without memory either, says Cockcroft. “Without it, we would forget what it is that we are trying to solve and we wouldn't be able to use past experiences to help us solve it.”
And memory is, again, linked to emotion. “We use this information to increase the likelihood of positive results when solving new problems,” she says.
Improving your skills
It has been proven time and again that just about any brain process can be improved – including problem-solving abilities. “Brain plasticity is a real thing – the brain can reorganise itself with targeted intervention,” says Besharati. “Rehabilitation from neurological injury is a dynamic process and an ever-improving science that has allowed us to understand how the brain can change and adapt in response to the environment. Studies have also shown that simple memorisation exercises can assist tremendously in retaining cognitive skills in old age.”
Of course, all these processes depend on your brain recognising that there’s a problem to be dealt with in the first place – if you don’t realise you’re spending money foolishly, you can’t improve your finances. “Recognition of a problem can happen at both a conscious and unconscious level. Stroke patients who are not aware of their motor paralysis, for example, deludedly don’t believe that they are paralysed and will sometimes not engage in rehabilitation. But their delusions often spontaneously recover, suggesting recognition at an unconscious level and that, over time, the brain can restore function.”
If all else fails, there might be some value to the adage ‘sleep on it’, says Cockcroft. “Sleep is believed to assist memory consolidation – changing memories from a fragile state in which they can easily be damaged to a permanent state. In doing so, they become stored in different brain regions and new neural connections are formed that may assist problem solving. On waking, you may have formed associations between information that you didn’t think of previously. This seems to be most effective within three hours of learning new information – perhaps we should institute compulsory naps for students after lectures!”
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Photographing ghosts in space
- Shaun Smillie
Photographing a black hole in space, 55 million light years from Earth, seems an impossible task but scientists went to unprecedented lengths to achieve this.
Black holes are probably some of the most mysterious, scary and fascinating phenomena in space. These dark lords of the cosmos have the power to give birth to or destroy stars – or even prevent them from forming. Being invisible, they pose a challenge to find, and an even bigger challenge to photograph.
A multinational team of 300 scientists put their minds together to find their way around the problem: how do you photograph an object that is 55 million light years away, that you are not even able to see?
The team included Wits Professor Roger Deane, South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)/National Research Foundation Chair in Radio Astronomy in the School of Physics and Wits/SARAO postdoctoral fellow, Dr Iniyan Natarajan – the only two scientists from Africa that were part of the collaboration.
Black holes are regions of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape from them – even light. The gravity is so strong because large amounts of matter is squeezed into a tiny space, creating an extremely dense body. This can happen when a star is dying, or is found at the dense centre of a galaxy.
Mathematical mysteries
As the gravity is so strong, black holes emit no light. They have been mathematical mysteries since Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity. According to this theory, a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole.
Black holes remained mere mathematical theories until the early 1970s. Then, several researchers independent of each other, identified the first black hole called Cygnus X-1, that is located about 6 070 light years from Earth.
Over the past three decades it has become clear that black holes are not some fantastical interesting, exotic thought, but they actually influence the growth of our galaxies dramatically.
“If a black hole gets all violent and angry, it can shut off all star formation in its galaxy. But it can also trigger some star formation,” says Deane.
Research has shown that there is a clear correlation between the mass of a central black hole and the speed at which stars and gas move around within the galaxy.
As black holes cannot be seen, scientists study the behaviour of objects – such as stars – around them to locate them. Each galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its centre. The one in our galaxy – the Milky Way – has a black hole called Sagittarius A*. It has a mass equal to about four million suns and could fit a few billion earths in its space.
In their attempt to capture the first ever image of a black hole, the group of scientists that collaborated to form the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) focused their attention on a black hole, called M87*. This black hole sits in a galaxy about 55 million light years from Earth.
The team selected it because of its enormous mass and its relative proximity on cosmic scales. This combination gives it one of the largest black hole shadow sizes in the sky. M87* is 300 million times more massive than the first black hole discovered, Cygnus X-1. It is also 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun, and roughly the same size as our solar system.
Telescope as big as Earth
The sheer size of M87* demanded an imaging system that has never been seen before. The team virtually connected an array of eight telescopes, situated at very dry sites around the earth, to create the EHT.
The telescopes were able to synchronise their recorded data and exploit the rotation of the Earth. By stitching together the data streams caught by the telescopes, the EHT formed a virtual telescope that could be equated to the size of Earth.
“The sharpness of the images [that] a network of antennas can make is determined by two things, how far apart they are, and the wavelength of light they are tuned to. So while the Square Kilometre Array in the Karoo will make images of similar sharpness to the Hubble Space Telescope, the EHT sees details 1 000 times finer by placing antennas across the globe and capturing light waves barely one millimetre in size,” says Deane.
The synchronisation of the telescopes had to be so precise that atomic clocks were used. Each telescope produced about 350 terabytes of data per day, which was then fed into specialised supercomputers to synthesise the data streams. EHT members then used the data to reconstruct the image with purpose-built algorithms.
“The resulting EHT achieved mind-boggling resolution. It would be the equivalent of the ability to read a newspaper in Cairo, while sitting in Johannesburg,” says Deane.
In creating the actual image of M87*, the scientists decided to focus not on the black hole itself, but on capturing its shadow. They did this by imaging the halo-like ring of hot material that encircles M87* as light is bent around it or disappears into it.
“The problem is that the shadow feature or the deficit of light caused by M87* is so small against the sky it is basically like trying to photograph a doughnut on the moon.”
Making history
On 10 April 2019, the EHT collaboration released the first ever image of M87*. The image shows a large dark spot in the centre of a ring of light. It could be said that the image captured is 55 million years old – almost as old as the oldest dinosaurs – as that is the time that it would have taken the light to travel to Earth, for us to witness it.
In March this year, the EHT team went a step further, and announced that they had once again taken an image of M87*, this time catching the black hole as it appears in polarised light.
This image will help to understand how magnetic fields behave around black holes and help explain the mysterious jets associated with these galactic objects.
For Deane, studying black holes is just one of many projects that he is involved in that examines the bigger picture of the evolution of galaxies.
One day these mystery objects might even assist in humankind’s great quest to find life in the universe.
“The radiation from a black hole could break down any complex life, and that may give us a sense of where best to look,” says Deane.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Mathematics solutions to boost tourism numbers
- Refilwe Mabula
Numbers in tourism translate into revenue for the sector. Mathematicians are now number-crunching creatively to solve tourism challenges.
South Africa has a healthy tourism industry that contributes significantly to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), but the Covid-19 pandemic has had dire financial consequences for the sector and led to substantial job losses. The travel ban imposed in March 2020 as part of the government’s lockdown measures led to a massive decline in tourism activities.
International and interprovincial travel was prohibited to curb the spread of the virus, which adversely affected the tourism sector’s revenue. Statistics South Africa says that the tourism sector contributed R130.1 billion to GDP and 4.5% of total employment in 2018. Due to the pandemic, the number of tourists plunged from 10.2 million in 2019 to 2.8 million in 2020. Although travel restrictions have started to ease in 2021, the sector is battling to recover.
It may seem an unlikely solution, but a group of maths wizards are using their skills to tackle South Africa’s tourism challenges.
The wizards convened in February 2021 at the annual Mathematics in Industry Group (MISG) hosted by the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Wits. The MISG is a five-day workshop where leading applied mathematicians and graduate students work collaboratively with representatives from industry on research problems.
This year, four problems were submitted of which two related to the problems affecting the tourism sector.
Specialised packages for domestic tourism
As the lockdown levels eased towards the end of 2020, the Minister of Tourism Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane re-opened tourism activities in a quest to save jobs and to restore economic activity. But foreign travel was still curtailed and domestic tourism uptake has been low.
Dr Precious Shabalala from the University of Mpumalanga submitted the problem of low domestic tourism in Mpumalanga, which relies on tourists from other provinces.
The MISG group members, Mathew Aibinu, Keegan Anderson, Kesaobaka Moipolai, Beaullah Mugwangwavari, Zachary Njuguna and Patrick Tchepmo investigated how customised packages of tourism products and services could be used to attract the domestic market.
Using eight industries that support the tourism sector as variables, the group took a generalist approach to solve the problem of encouraging domestic tourism and creating value for money.
“We asked the question: What would encourage a local person to be a domestic tourist? This question is more specifically aimed at touring within their own province rather than visiting another province,” said the group members. However, the solution could be applicable to other provinces, which is why the group took a generalist approach.
The group made use of mathematical modelling to build affordable customised packages that could revive the tourism sector and contribute to economic growth. They modelled the package cost function using the number of tourists as the only independent variable. The solution was to offer packages to smaller groups of three to four people, and to cater for locals who do not need accommodation.
SA tourism climate index
Several factors contribute to tourism numbers and activities, one of which is climate. Tourism is seasonal and peaks during warmer weather and declines in colder conditions. Tourists consider climate when choosing their destinations.
To simplify the decision for tourists, the MISG group attempted to classify destinations using climate. The problem-solvers, with participants from South Africa and India, were tasked with developing a southern African Tourism Climate Index to assist the tourism sector with marketing and tourists with choosing their destinations.
The development of a climate index in SA will “allow the tourism sector to effectively market for the optimal tourist-climate seasons, to adapt to ensure comfortable and pleasant climactic conditions for tourists, and to develop tourist routes to maximise periods of optimal climate for specific attractions and activities,” says Professor Jennifer Fitchett from the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciences. Fitchett, whose research interests include the analyses of the impacts of climate change on tourism, submitted the tourism and climate problem for MISG 2021 to solve.
Study groups modified the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) used in Europe to suit South African weather conditions. The team used five climate indices – maximum temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, and wind speed – as the inputs to estimate the values of the Tourism Climate Index for South Africa. The study group recommended additional specific tourism indices such as the Holiday Climate Index, Beach Climate Index and Camping Climate Index for South Africa.
“Research on tourism and climate change is heavily reliant on indices to quantify the role that climate plays in determining the suitability of a destination for tourism and tourists’ enjoyment of their stay at a given location,” says Fitchett.
A locally developed TCI is important given the uniqueness of our climate.
Professor Emeritus David Mason, a celebrated academic in the field of applied mathematics and founder of the MISG in South Africa, says that the MISG has been effective.
“It has introduced new problems for teaching and research. It has had an impact in industries, for example the sugar industry. Sometimes representatives from the sugar industry present our results at conferences. In the mining industry, we have worked on problems related to safety and mines.”
Refilwe Mabula is Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Love in the boardroom
- Beth Amato
Can love be the central guiding value in big business and in complex decisions?
The executive team of a corporation went away on a strategic retreat. Bonding around a late-night fire, they talked about the company they wanted to create – caring, inclusive, compassionate, fair, transparent … A young male executive asked, “Aren’t we just talking about love?” The company now operates in a culture of love and research reveals love in the smallest of big corporate places.
Could love alter the course of late capitalism, which has revealed exploitation, degradation of the environment, and the entrenchment of poverty and inequality?
This is what Julie Courtnage, part-time Lecturer in the Wits Business School and Wits Mining Institute aims to answer through her research: Small Stories of Love and Sustainability in the Boardroom. She interviewed directors and board members of big companies, with the purpose of investigating the lived experiences of love, or not, in business.
“The research so far shows that love is indeed present in big companies and that it acts as a challenging and useful decision support frame,” says Courtnage.
Ordinarily, love is a nebulous concept to define – and even more so in the workplace, where love and business seem an oxymoron. How is it clearly articulated?
“When a company operates in a culture of love, relationships come first. It takes a lot of time to learn to be vulnerable with one another and to find a purpose beyond making money,” says Courtnage. “Essentially, caring and love for self, others, and the world is paramount. Love goes beyond purpose and passion: you can pursue these without love and be ruthless and damaging, so there is a triangle of love, purpose and passion, to deliver ‘good work for good’. Every interviewee linked love to the driver behind high-performing people and teams.”
The love criterion
Decisions made in love, she notes, consider the effects on financial value, shareholders, other stakeholders, the environment, a specific operating team, or product offerings.
If using love as a starting point for anything in business is obviously beneficial, then why isn’t it done more? Responses to Courtnage’s question included that the habits of capitalism are entrenched and difficult to change. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are often solely graded on financial performance.
“There is a lot of indoctrination in the masculine competitive and combative mindset, which holds ‘love’, ‘teamwork and connection’ and ‘vulnerability’ as weak,” she says.
Interestingly, the preliminary findings show that companies using love as the core of their business are doing well financially. “Obviously, instilling love as a company’s central value is a process, as it is so different to what we’ve always been told about being a man and making money,” says Courtnage.
Never too late to love
We’ve already desecrated so much of the earth, and so much of the human spirit through the capitalist market and profit system, so how could love as the Holy Grail in business begin to untangle this mess?
“It is never too late to make changes, [but] if we make the changes from a place of expectations about specific outcomes, we will be disappointed. Everything is connected and so we cannot predict with any certainty what the outcomes might be. But we know that running the linear economy on the current rules has failed most people and the environment … If we now shift the paradigm to love, we will definitely have a different perspective on the problems, and the possible solutions,” she says.
In the wake of the pandemic, it became apparent that common health and wellbeing can, with political will and societal buy-in, trump business as usual. As an example, business competitors joined forces to produce technical equipment.
“The most important thing that love brings is an openness to others – to hearing what is important to them, to considering this in business decisions, and creating something that takes all sources of value – people, the environment and money – into consideration. Love fundamentally reconnects us with what it means to be human.”
Having been in the sustainability space for 30 years, and seeing how little has changed, Courtnage thinks that speaking out openly and vociferously about love in business as an alternative is, perhaps, the vibrantly shocking wake-up call that may just provide us with the necessary energy, drive and perspective to solve some of the problems that fear, lack, and exclusion have produced.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Zoom in. Team up. The new era of therapy
- Tamsin Oxford
Can online platforms help therapists and tutors transform teaching and care beyond the pandemic?
The Covid-19 pandemic transformed the world. It shoved organisations into a digital space, it thrust students and tutors into online learning, and it shifted global goalposts on everything from therapy to care to business.
Tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams became the de facto meeting standard as the world leveraged connectivity and technology to stay in business, online and engaged. Over the past year, these tools and their usage have evolved and mushroomed. They have become more than just the sum of the connectivity parts, providing people with access to services and solutions that they never had in the past. From speech-language therapists to individuals discovering their potential working from home, these new platforms are opening doors and creating opportunities, but they have come with their fair share of complexities.
Change leads to opportunity
“This is a novel and exciting period for speech language therapists,” says Dr Joanne Neille, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. “Online wasn’t something we really engaged with prior to Covid-19 and we needed to embrace these platforms quite suddenly and make significant adjustments. We’ve made some significant achievements, but there are challenges that [we] continue to encounter, and some ethical dilemmas.”
For Neille, online teaching and supervision have opened many doors, specifically with regards to training, teaching, and providing students with fresh skills sets that equip them to work in different contexts. It has improved students’ and lecturers’ abilities to approach teaching and learning from a global perspective, and given them more access to conferences and continuous professional development (CPD) events that previously may have been too expensive or out of reach.
Jennifer Watermeyer, Associate Professor and Director of the Health Communication Research Unit, agrees: “The American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) had an online conference together with our local South African Speech Language Hearing Association (SASLHA) in November 2020, with local and international speakers and input that normally wouldn’t happen without huge funding and costs. This has opened up other opportunities for learning and CPD that were not necessarily that easily accessible or affordable in the past.”
Currently, students in the Speech Pathology department are learning about cleft palate care on an international online course that is immediately accessible and that does not require the department to hunt for local lecturers at cost.
Virtual therapy
Online teaching and training have handed local students a global perspective on a virtual and accessible plate. It has also allowed for therapists to potentially engage with, and treat, people who previously couldn’t access therapy due to distance, time and logistical limitations.
“Being able to offer therapy face-to-face online has broadened the scope for enlarging [the] practice as we can target anybody, anywhere in Africa,” says Watermeyer. “We have a well-established speech therapy and audiology profession in South Africa, but in other countries skilled professionals are few and far between. Now we can easily connect with patients and colleagues across the continent.”
Neille agrees: “We can access greater numbers of clients for remote interventions, potentially moving beyond the borders of South Africa to countries that have limited access to speech language therapy services. Two of our biggest challenges are accessing people in remote areas due to logistical challenges and the shortage of skilled therapists – with only 3 266 registered speech therapists to a population of 60 million, you can see that there aren’t enough therapists to service the needs of the people.”
People in urban settings have greater access to services while those in remote areas have to travel long distances, sometimes up to a day, for a 45-minute session. This is where the real value of online therapy emerges. Patients can log in, connect and undertake therapy without travel or extensive costs. But there are limitations.
People with neurological impairments, those who aren’t confident using technology, or who have limited data or poor connectivity are at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to online therapy. Their experiences can be challenging, and these limitations impact on the one factor that makes this therapy so valuable – the connection with people.
“Relationships are key to our profession and with online it isn’t always possible to read people, or target issues remotely,” says Neille. “We have to engage with patients to help them become more confident with the technology before we can even begin to think about offering a language intervention service.”
In addition to engaging with the technology, there is the need to consider the therapy environment as a whole. When patients attend sessions, the tools and equipment needed to support the therapy are on site, while in the online environment these often have to be sourced by patients and carers. In addition, there is the risk that the therapist will engage more with the carer than with the patient if the latter has cognitive impairment.
“Assisting with materials and technology is one side of the coin, but we have found that there is a risk of the carer becoming too involved in the therapy, or clients not setting up their sessions in the right setting, like on the bed or sofa, for example,” says Watermeyer. “If the line is bad or there is poor connectivity, or if there is excessive background noise – all these factors negatively impact on a session.”
There is a lot that still has to be overcome to turn online into as engaging and capable a tool as face-to-face. Captioning, carer engagement, assisted therapy, connectivity – these are evolving in the online environment. Yet patients in complex situations and with challenging disabilities still struggle to receive the right levels of care. Certainly, online has opened the door, but to truly realise the full capabilities of online therapy and training a lot more needs to be done to ensure that online shines as brightly as it should.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Getting serious about gaming
- Shivan Parusnath
Games from the Game Design programme at the Wits School of Digital Arts tell important stories, and allow for solutions to many real-world problems.
Play is a concept as old as work. Many species, including ours, play often during childhood. The games played serve as a vehicle for lessons needed later in life, such as hunting or defending themselves.
In today’s world, gaming is perhaps the most popular form of play. However, it is generally seen less as lesson learning and more of an escapist pastime – delving into worlds or systems that differ drastically from the one in which we live.
Educational games are not new, but they tend to be veneers of the promise of fun pasted over a conventional learning system. These veneers tend to be thin, and are seen through by the intended audience who quickly realise they are being duped into learning something.
“Just sprinkling game design on top of learning content doesn’t make it a game – it is still a multiple choice test if you take away all the effects and visuals,” says Henrike Lode, who heads up the Serious Games course offered as part of the game design degree in the Wits School of Arts - Digital Arts.
Serious games are those that have a narrative that is educational or informative without compromising on the quality and enjoyment of the gameplay itself. Importantly, games of this nature can bring empathy to other human experiences – helping people understand what it’s like to be someone else, by exploring themes such as sexual identity, language and privilege.
Making teaching fun
“I struggled with education and authority in high school. It killed my love for learning, because it was about authority, and not about the excitement of finding out more,” says Lode. This drew her to the idea of making games that offer education through playful interaction. “Gaming can transform education with joy,” says Lode.
Many of Lode’s students were drawn to game design for the same reason: learning through games is more effective than traditional teaching methods. Alice Seremane, a 2019 alumnus of Wits game design, chose to take this course because of her challenges with traditional teaching methods for complex subjects like physics.
“Schooling is not something that people typically describe as enjoyable – but if you can incorporate fun into teaching, where the person is unconsciously learning, you can expose learners to more information without them even realising it,” says Seremane.
“I found physics very challenging in school and there were many concepts I just couldn’t grasp – but seeing physical models and demonstrations made it so much easier.” This made her think that if physics could be explained in a more fun and practical way, it would be so much more accessible and easier to understand.
Seremane designed a game called Time’s Up!, in which players use a variety of electrical components such as electric wires, batteries, resistors and switches to create a closed circuit with a specific set of components and requirements.
Levashan Pillay, a 2020 alumnus of game design at Wits, found a gateway into gaming through difficulties with traditional learning at school. “I found that my maths skills improved dramatically when I started playing on an educational gaming console in my spare time,” says Pillay.
“Aside from the fun that you experience when playing an educational game, there is a real sense of feedback and accomplishment when you get something right, and that is missing in traditional learning systems.” Pillay’s game Code Wiz centres around teaching the player the logic of programming which can be transferred and used in any form of programming language.
Breaking taboo barriers
Serious games can extend beyond just learning content in a different way. They can also be used to explore complex or taboo issues that may otherwise be difficult to broach in casual conversation.
Janharm Labuschagne, a 2019 alumnus, developed a game called birthright which explores the topics of gender and racial privilege.
“I learnt so much about social context when I arrived at Wits, and it was important to me as a white Afrikaans person to explore and learn more about the concept of privilege,” says Labuschagne.
“This can be a difficult concept to talk about, but hopefully my game allows for this concept to be explored through play.” In birthright, players start the game with a roll of the dice that determines their race and gender.
Each identity has different rules for how they play the game and move across the board – and so players experience the game differently. There are some barriers or paths that are more difficult to cross depending on the identity you have been given.
When the rules are in your favour you may not notice the injustices in the system, but you might find the game frustrating when the rules are holding you back. “My hope is that serious games can lead to a higher level of consciousness and awareness in our society,” says Labuschagne. “There are a lot of difficult conversations we need to have about topics that may be abstract to some, and games can make these concepts feel tangible.”
Diverse perspectives
Game design is still a relatively new field to be taught at university level in Africa, with Wits being the first university on the continent to introduce it into its curriculum. Since its inception in 2012, Wits has produced many award-winning industry experts who have gone on to work at leading international game design houses. In that relatively short period of time, the game design field seems to be transforming.
“There are a lot more females and people of colour in game design since the degree was first offered at Wits,” says Seremane. “Perceptions of what it means to be a game designer are changing, and with a more diverse group of game designers out there, we can experience different stories from unique perspectives.”
Although the games designed within the game design programme are not released to the public, the new Digital Arts building has incorporated a ‘playtest’ area, where the Wits student body and members of the public can get a chance to play the games.
Games alone aren’t enough to provide solutions to education, discussion of taboo topics, or achieving true empathy. “Discussion after playing a serious game is key to the experience,” says Lode.
In that way, these games may serve as sparks to further thought and discussion on problems we face in our society and how we can overcome them. But we have to be the ones to work on them, to keep the fire for learning, for debate, for empathy burning when the game is over, and perhaps in that way we can arrive at the solutions we need. Game on.
Shivan Parusnath is Senior Multimedia Communications Officer for Wits University and Curios.ty Pictures Editor.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
What adds up when teaching maths?
- Buhle Zuma
To help close the maths gap in South Africa, Wits experts believe the focus should lie on the teacher.
Less than a third of learners registered for the national senior certificate have core mathematics as a subject, which spells disaster for an economy in dire need of mathematics, science and technology skills.
In 2018, only 43% of the 629 141 candidates who registered for the national senior certificate had core mathematics as a subject. This dropped to 28% out of 788 717 the following year. In 2020, only 32% of the 725 034 candidates opted for core mathematics.
How do we fix this?
Experts from the Wits School of Education are firm in their belief that part of the solution lies in improving what happens in Grades 8 and 9 – the first two years of high school.
“These are critical grades that lay the foundation for concepts required for learners to understand maths in senior classes,” says Craig Pournara, Associate Professor of Mathematics Education and Director of the Wits Maths Connect Secondary (WMCS) project, which focuses on research and development in secondary mathematics education.
In many schools these earlier grades are taught by less experienced or less qualified mathematics teachers, as schools allocate the more experienced teachers to the further education and training (FET) Grades 10 to 12. “This is why it is critical for interventions to focus on the lower grades,” says Adler.
Adler and Pournara had many years of researching and working with schools in Gauteng before the WMCS project began in 2010. Together with teams of doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows, the project has focused on supporting mathematics teachers, and particularly those teaching Grades 8 and 9, through an integrated research and development initiative.
The Transition Maths 1 (TM1) course, the most successful component of the project’s work to date, is designed to deepen teachers’ mathematical knowledge and to improve their teaching practice so that there is greater learner participation and ultimately better results. The course focuses on algebra, functions, geometry and trigonometry. More than 150 teachers from about 80 schools across Gauteng have completed this course.
Monitoring is the key to success
“We tested the learners of these teachers and compared their performance with that of learners whose teachers had not done the course. The results show statistically significant gains for the learners of the teachers who completed the course,” says Pournara. “This shows the potential of this course to make a difference, not just to teachers’ knowledge but to their teaching and to their learners’ attainment.”
Demelda Pillay, Head of the Maths Department at Palmridge Extension 6 Secondary School in Katlehong, a township south-east of Johannesburg, completed TM1 in 2016. The course helped her to find different ways to improve learners’ conceptions of maths. “In maths, we rarely focus on the ‘why’ and yet it is so essential to learners and to their appreciation of maths application in everyday life,” she says.
Closing the maths teaching-learning gap
Understanding teacher knowledge, and how this can be enhanced through a professional development programme, is just one of the factors that contribute to the success of the project. A project of this nature depends on support from the stakeholders such as participating schools, the provincial education department and outside funders.
Time pressure is one of the biggest challenges in solving the maths teaching and learning crisis. “The curriculum is overloaded. Teachers don’t get to spend enough time on key concepts,” Pournara says. “There is always pressure to move onto the next section. Many learners have large gaps in their mathematics knowledge, but time is typically not allocated to deal with these backlogs.”
Time is also critical for teachers’ professional development. They need time to attend courses like the TM1 course and then they need to set aside more time to consolidate their learning from the course. The impact of the TM1 on teachers’ knowledge and their learners’ results is substantially linked to the additional time that teachers put in after the course.
Lack of time challenges the widespread adoption of the model. And time in school has been significantly eroded in the Covid-19 context.
“There are no quick answers to mathematics education problems, even more so now,” says Adler. WMCS, like many other projects, has had to adapt over the past two years. Aspects of the course, while ideally run in real time, over time, and face to face, have been reproduced in materials by Pournara and the WMCS team, and made widely available for teachers.
Did you know?
The WMCS project has developed online resources for learners and teachers of Grade 8 to 10 mathematics.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Pay the taxman his dues
- Charlotte Mathews
A wealth tax could make a significant contribution to alleviating South Africa’s ailing fiscal situation.
For as long as most people can remember, the word that has tripped off the tongue of government ministers most often is probably ‘jobs’. Job creation, skills development, addressing extreme income inequality – together these make up the Holy Grail. Yet they can only be found in economic growth.
Instead, for the past decade South Africa’s GDP growth has been well below government’s stated target of 6%, which is needed to dent unemployment. Unemployment has worsened dramatically as a result of the economic fall-out from Covid-19.
Over the years, government’s finances have deteriorated to a point where it is unable to meaningfully spend on social services or play a central role in infrastructure development, which is essential to economic growth. Government debt is now at 80.3% of GDP, and debt service costs are around 20.9% of gross tax revenue.
There’s a range of possible solutions, all of which have both positive and negative consequences. The National Budget presented in February proposed cutting government spending, while embarking on a programme of infrastructure investment in partnership with the private sector.
Fiscal dilemma
Michael Sachs, Adjunct Professor in the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits University, says that the crisis cannot be resolved solely by fiscal consolidation. The path of consolidation that the government is proposing to follow is so extreme that it is neither feasible nor desirable. An attempt at large fiscal adjustment is likely to impose unsustainable social pressures and choke off the recovery, imposing a second blow to livelihoods on top of the Covid-19 catastrophe.
Without action to restore the regulatory, policy and institutional weaknesses that have debilitated the public sector, an infrastructure investment strategy is unlikely to succeed, says Sachs. But it will take time and effort to make these reforms.
In the short term, the inertia blocking a resumption of growth can only be overcome with private investment in the lead, he says.
“First, the resolution of the fiscal crisis depends on faster economic growth, which will need to be led by private investment. Fiscal consolidation is necessary but debt will not stabilise without growth. Second, even if growth accelerates, the current structure of the public economy will have to change. This is likely to entail increased levels of taxation and reductions in public consumption.”
More taxes
One of the proposed solutions to raising more tax revenue has been raised by Aroop Chatterjee, a Research Manager at Wits University’s Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, together with colleagues Léo Czajka and Amory Gethin. They propose a wealth tax, and in a joint paper discuss the various choices for designing it (including whether it is once-off, annual, or some other recurring period), each of which has its design benefits and disadvantages.
They estimate that a progressive wealth tax, using conservative assumptions, levied on the richest 1% of South Africa’s population (about 350 000 people, who have net wealth of over R3.8 million) could raise revenue equivalent to between 1.5% and 3.5% of GDP. That is roughly two-thirds of what is raised from corporate income taxes or about 40% of what is raised from VAT.
“Depending on the extent of evasion, we estimate that a moderate wealth tax (with rates ranging from 3% to 7%) could raise about R70 billion to R160 billion.”
Specifically, it could start at a rate of between 1% and 3% of assets in the lowest band, rising to 3-7% in the middle band, and 3-9% in the top band. Those individuals with wealth below the first threshold would be exempted.
“We believe that the tax should cover the top 1% of wealth owners, whose wealth mostly consists of tenant-occupied housing, pension assets, and bonds and stock. This ensures that they could easily find sufficient liquidities to pay the tax. Also notice that our proposal only taxes excess wealth above the threshold that we propose: this limits the well-known incentive to ‘bunch’ below the threshold,” they say.
Critics of the proposed wealth tax have suggested that it would be complex to administer, beyond the current capacity of the South African Revenue Service, and prone to avoidance.
But Chatterjee says any administrative costs should be weighed against potential benefits – and in this case, the potential revenue is significant enough to warrant investment, if needed, in beefing up the capacity to administer.
“In terms of current capacity, SARS is already well placed. Crucial to administering any tax, especially for anti-avoidance, is the development of third-party reporting systems. SARS already receives third-party reporting from banks and financial services firms for current taxes. Only the information requested would need to be adjusted,” says Chatterjee.
“To improve this system, SARS is currently developing a Third Party Data Platform to accommodate bulk submissions of Third Party Data for certain types of taxes on the new Direct Data Flow channels. So collecting information on financial assets, which account for two-thirds of wealth, seems eminently practical.”
Chatterjee argues that all personal taxes suffer from tax avoidance, including the current personal income tax and other capital income taxes (for example, offshoring applies equally to income taxes as it would to a wealth tax).
“To reduce avoidance for personal and, especially, capital income taxes, the information and systems needed for a wealth tax will also help to reduce avoidance on other taxes.”
How quickly a wealth tax could be implemented only depends on the level of political and financial support to implement these systems, says Chatterjee.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Building a better city
- Shaun Smillie
A ‘world class African City’ begins and ends with history and geography.
Segregation began the process of the dislocation of Johannesburg. This was formalised and enforced by apartheid legislation in 1948, and followed by the demolition of places like Sophiatown. By the 1950s, Soweto absorbed those forcibly removed people who had once enjoyed the benefits of living close to jobs and services, but who were now over 20km from the City.
“You had concentric circles made up of skin colour – Indians are allowed to live closer, then coloureds, then blacks. All locked into townships and barred off from the City,” says Professor David Everatt, the former Head of the Wits School of Governance. “And apartheid engineers ensured that highways, industrial plants and the like further emphasised the boundary between ‘white’ city spaces and black townships.”
Nearly three decades on, apartheid is history, but it still scars the urban landscape and looms large in the psyche of South Africa’s largest city. Its legacy is seen everywhere and is felt in the pockets of the poor.
“It is ‘hardcreted’ into the physical landscape of every South African town and city,” says Everatt.
Black workers still have to travel long distances from far-off townships to their places of work. It is also seen in the living conditions of new migrant families forced to get by in cramped, partitioned-off rooms occupied by multiple households, as they seek their fortune in the City of Gold.
City-saving geography
To dismantle this legacy is no easy task, but it can be done, experts believe. It needs dedication and some careful planning. One of the biggest challenges facing the City in its efforts to address inequality is simple geography.
Johannesburg lies in the smallest province, in which is crammed a quarter of the country’s population – and growing. In 2017, it was estimated that 547 people a day relocated to Gauteng from other provinces.
This is why Patricia Theron, a PhD candidate in the Wits School of Architecture and Planning, believes that Johannesburg cannot be considered in isolation from the other cities in Gauteng when it comes to creating equality for all its citizens.
"You can't develop one area alone and you can't consider the cities as competitors, but rather take a province-wide approach that is economically inclusive and holistic,” says Theron.
Mobilities and inclusive economies
There are efforts to work across these metropolitan boundaries and to address, in particular, integration of transport modes and high transport costs. The Integrated Public Transport Network Plan is a long-term strategy that aims to reform public transport across the three adjacent metropolitan municipalities bordering Johannesburg. An important part of the plan is fare policies.
But to introduce such plans and improve the lives of all Johannesburg’s citizens requires a strong inclusive economy that is not centred only in hubs like Sandton and the City’s northern suburbs. An effort is needed to boost township economies that have already been established but haven’t necessarily been recognised and encouraged.
Just like in the rest of Africa, the informal economy in Johannesburg has exploded in recent years.
The World Resources Institute released a report in 2018, titled: Including the Excluded: Supporting informal workers for more equal and productive cities in the Global South, that found that 76% of the workforce in Africa was in the informal sector, compared to the global average of 44%.
Policies and regulations, says Theron, need to better enable the daily operations and innovation in the informal sector – either to assist these businesses to become formalised if they want to, or to help in creating better opportunities and supporting collaborative networks. Regulations of these businesses could improve quality control, while formalisation enables the expansion of the tax net, she added.
“There has to be a mechanism for transforming the way the economy operates so that we are able to invest in different sets of skills bases that exist in townships,” says Everatt. “Create the jobs where the people are, rather than making them pay to get to jobs.”
A nod to the city nodes, but …
Over the decades, local government has introduced initiatives to try to speed up the transformation of the economy and stamp out racial inequality. Last year, the metropolitan government launched its nodal review, where the Department of Development Planning began a process of reviewing the ‘boundaries and controls of the urban nodes’ within the City. This followed the approval of the Spatial Development Framework 2040 for Johannesburg and the City’s Nodal Review.
“This identifies the best located areas in the City, where land is still reasonably affordable, and is best located in terms of access to jobs and services. And it plans to intensify in those nodes, … some of them adjoin middle class areas so there is resistance [including] threatened legal action by residents’ associations,” says Professor Philip Harrison, the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning in the Wits School of Architecture and Planning. “But you are not going to change the City, unless you do that.”
Problematic boundaries
Changing the City requires transcending short-term politics and planning deep into the future. The problem, however, is the nature of local politics. Governments run on three-year budget cycles, says Everatt. Many of the long-term plans for the City were based on an assumption that the ANC would be in power 20 to 30 years from now. When the DA-led alliance took over the City, initiatives such as the Corridors of Freedom were downgraded. For these long-term plans to work, they need limited goals that survive political regime changes.
“If you want to change this, you have got to have the courage to make investments in infrastructure that should have a 50 to 80 year window,” says Everatt.
Built to last?
A problem facing urban planners now is the Covid-19 pandemic. Funding has dried up. This means that, for the time being, Johannesburg will continue to be the most unequal large city in the world. It is a city still gouged by racial lines. The new divide is between north and south.
To the south are the poor blacks who, as during apartheid, are gathered on the periphery of the City, this time around places like Orange Farm. Meanwhile, north of the city ‘white flight’ has moved into the endless new developments of townhouses and cluster homes.
The irony, Everatt points out, is that studies show that both racial groups take the same amount of time to commute to work, albeit from opposite poles of the province and the City.
“The apartheid spatial design has incredible powers of endurance – it has barely shifted an iota. The middle and the upper classes have been fine and have integrated in suburbia, but life in the townships is becoming harder and harder.”
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
No place for politics in bricks and mortar
- Charlotte Mathews
South Africa’s infrastructure seems to be falling apart at the seams. What needs to be done to save the country from further deterioration?
Intermittent electricity and water supply, potholes in the roads, lengthy waits at hospitals, sewage in rivers, weeds along railway tracks … there’s no need to tell the South African government that infrastructure is badly in need of renewal. High-level plans were drawn up years ago, and subsequently refined. But some practical steps could be taken immediately to kickstart action.
The big picture
The National Planning Commission, which is responsible for implementing South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) 2030, has identified various priorities in key infrastructure sectors.
In energy, it is to explore gas, diversify the energy mix and suppliers, improve municipal electricity distribution, address electricity pricing and consider ‘the timing and/or desirability of’ new nuclear energy and a petrol refinery.
In water, it is to establish a National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency, reduce demand in urban areas by at least 15%, better manage agricultural demand and investigate water use and desalination.
In transport, the priorities are to devise a workable urban transit solution, strengthen freight corridors, provide long-distance commuter transport options, and improve rural mobility.
In ICT, the priorities are to drive public and private investment in networks, establish a common carrier network and implement open access policies to encourage the sharing of parts of the fibre network.
Since Covid-19 devastated the economy, government has put another plan in place, the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP), which is also guided by the NDP, but has a particular focus on creating jobs, mainly through a major infrastructure programme.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his State of the Nation address in February, said that the current project pipeline for the ERRP was R340 billion, for network industries such as energy, water, transport and telecommunications, and work was underway to finalise project finance.
Energy
Professor Rod Crompton, Director of the Energy Leadership Centre at Wits Business School, says that the biggest problem facing power generation is Eskom’s debt of about R488 billion that it is unable to service, of which about R350 billion is guaranteed by government. “Either taxpayers or electricity customers, or a combination, will have to pay Eskom’s debt,” he says.
The second problem facing SA’s power sector is frequent loadshedding, which could be addressed by accelerating delayed projects under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Programme (REIPPP) and allowing more small-scale power generation. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy recently made announcements to partially do this.
“The most immediate practical step would be for the policy makers to allow market forces to help solve the electricity crisis,” Crompton says.
Water
Mike Muller, Adjunct Professor in the Wits School of Governance, says problems in the past have highlighted the need to have unified, disciplined and accountable management to develop major water infrastructure and ensure that it is properly funded.
Although the country’s rainfall has always been variable and unpredictable, reliable supplies could be provided to urban and industrial water users – and irrigation farmers – if storage and transmission infrastructure is built with enough capacity to cope with regular dry periods and is properly managed.
The recently-proposed National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency is responsible for building new infrastructure and managing the dams and transmission currently being operated by the Department of Water and Sanitation, as well as specialist services like acid mine water treatment. But it is not able to address issues at the municipal level, other than as an adviser.
Muller emphasises that the underlying problems in local water supply and sanitation services for domestic and commercial purposes in different parts of the country were often not the same.
“There’s no single prescription. Each municipality must understand and address its own particular circumstances. The critical challenge is usually not to build new infrastructure but to build the capacity to operate and maintain what they have and plan its systematic upgrading as and when needed.”
Telecommunications
Covid-19 underlined the big digital divide in SA, with its ‘digital haves’ and ‘digital have-nots’, particularly the gap between urban and rural access, says Professor Barry Dwolatzky of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JSCE) at Wits University.
He says once connectivity is addressed, it will have massive economic benefits for the country and will solve other issues, like the shortage of IT skills and reluctance to adopt new technology. Connectivity roll-out should be made a top infrastructure priority.
There is an excellent precedent for this. In the 1990s Eskom led a massive household electrification programme (in which Wits University was involved) which connected about 1 000 households a day to the grid, and changed the country. Data connectivity is far easier to do, since wireless can be used for the ‘last mile’.
“Wits has a lot of capacity to support such a programme, both in technical and economic advice,” Dwolatzky says.
But it cannot be left to the private sector, he adds. Mobile networks are driven by profit, not development. They make a lot more money from rolling out 5G to Clifton than bringing low-cost broadband to Lusikisiki, which is where government (specifically the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies) needs to step in.
“Connectivity supports education and government services and benefits citizens in many ways – it should be a no-brainer,” he adds.
Transport
Dr Ron Watermeyer, Visiting Adjunct Professor at the School of Construction Economics and Management at Wits University, says government needs to fundamentally change the procurement system.
SA has two examples of successful project delivery: the REIPPP, and the completion of SIPs 14. This was number 14 in a series of 18 Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) which have been identified as key drivers of economic growth and social development in the country. SIPs 14 was managed by Wits University and focused on developing higher education infrastructure. The first intake of new students took place within 28 months of the political decision being made to provide two new universities. What differentiated those projects was the quality of procurement and client delivery management.
Delivering a successful infrastructure project (that fulfils its purpose and remains within time and budget constraints), whether in transport or any other sector, depends on taking a strategic, rather than administrative approach to procurement, Watermeyer says.
Administrative procurement is usually the task of the finance department and is more appropriate for obtaining general goods and services for internal consumption. Strategic procurement is needed when dealing with the specific environment of the construction industry, where every project involves different combinations of funders, clients, site conditions, materials, technologies and risks.
The law and policy of public procurement needs to be revised, he says. It is over-complex, fragmented and inconsistent, with an emphasis on box-ticking, which makes it vulnerable to fraud. The regulatory framework for public-private partnerships also needs review, since it has attracted unacceptably low levels of private sector investment in public infrastructure.
“Capacity building needs to begin with accounting officers in all organs of state, who must put in place an effective system for infrastructure management and delivery,” says Watermeyer.
Health
The failure of infrastructure delivery in health is illustrated by two recent examples, says Professor Alex van den Heever, Adjunct Professor in the Wits School of Governance.
The first is the fire in the Gauteng Health Department’s building a few years ago, in which firemen were trapped and died, because the building was unsafe. The budget for maintenance of that building was under the control of the Department of Infrastructure Development, not the Department of Health, so it had not been spent appropriately.
The second example is that despite R1 billion having been spent to upgrade the Department of Health’s Civitas building in Pretoria, it had to move out 10 years later because the building was decreed unsafe and unhealthy.
The problem, at the national, provincial and municipal level, is twofold, Van den Heever says: incompetent project administration and corruption.
“Project planning needs to move away from short-term thinking, which results in standalone projects, to longer-term, integrated planning,” says Van den Heever. “There has to be a centralised process at each level of government, involving a mixture of skills, to identify infrastructure needs and take accountability for projects through to completion.”
The immediate practical step to ensuring better infrastructure project delivery would be to de-politicise government bureaucracy, says Van den Heever. “Ministers should have no say over civil service appointments, which should be made on the basis of qualifications and competence.”
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Reinventing higher education
- Beth Amato
We need to rethink higher education by asking what kind of society we want to create.
When the University of the Cape of Good Hope (now UNISA) was established as an examining body in 1873, it was modelled in the image of the University of London, and shaped by the views and desires of the Philosophical Society of South Africa.
The Society’s objective was to “promote original research and record its results, especially as concerned with the Natural History, Physical Condition, Geography, Statistics, Industrial Resources, Languages and Traditions of South Africa.”
New ‘knowledge architectures’
Fast- forward 148 years to a country altered by immense political and social feats. No longer are lecturers and students, with their drapery and austerity, advertisements for a Rembrandt painting. Education is theoretically open to all, profound questions have been asked about the colonial-era content and format of the academy, technology has infiltrated every aspect of life, reshaping the relationship between institutions and communities, and the Covid-19 pandemic has destroyed and renewed social, political and economic pacts.
How can higher education remain relevant and impactful in an era that requires deliberate and urgent efforts to address the unprecedented upheaval caused by humankind? Professor Ruksana Osman, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic, explains that the pandemic has allowed the academy to pause, reflect and propose new knowledge architectures.
“The pandemic underscored the important role of universities in conducting research, developing vaccines and potential treatments, influencing policy decisions, documenting the disease, adapting pedagogies for remote teaching and learning, and producing personal protective equipment … It brought to light the capabilities of the academy to create quality knowledge while saving lives,” she says.
Solutions from the Global South
The Consortium for Advanced Research Training (CARTA), an initiative led by the Wits School of Public Health and the African Population Health and Research Centre, aims to build a vibrant African academy to lead and implement multidisciplinary research that improves public and population health.
“Our goal is to ensure that we have an interdisciplinary, Afro-centric research community responding to regional health challenges,” says Professor Jude Igumbor, Public Health Specialist and the Focal Person for CARTA at Wits.
Igumbor notes that while African countries bear a disproportionate burden of infectious and noncommunicable diseases, less than one percent of the world’s research is produced in Africa, while investment in the capacity to do health research in African universities has been inadequate.
CARTA, which runs a doctoral training programme, comprises eight African universities, four African research centres and northern partners. These cross-disciplinary and continent-wide initiatives are building research capacity. Igumbor adds that “contextually-focused research conducted by CARTA fellows provides evidence-based information to guide policies and decisions aimed at addressing current disease burdens and future epidemics in Africa”.
Osman says that tackling local and global challenges requires a multiplicity of voices, methods, and framings. It must forge inclusive communities of scholars across the world. She adds that environmental and financial stability are key too, upheld by agile and visionary leadership.
A (re)-imagined community in a thriving city
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Vice-Chancellor of Wits University, believes that resilient and robust universities are those that drive multidisciplinary collaborations, nurture budding communities of research practice across Africa, and reconstitute their images to speak to their immediate environment.
Wits University in particular has the opportunity to inform and reform the cityscape. “The University is not far removed from the grime and precarity of Joburg’s city centre and can capitalize on the many dynamic opportunities in the space – this is unique in this country. UCT is located in the wealthier suburbs, for example. We can’t be passive occupants of the inner-city. In other parts of the world, such as New York and London, the university campuses seamlessly flow into the city. Columbia University in New York is interesting because it is located in Harlem, an area that was historically precarious and crime-ridden,” says Vilakazi.
Wits University’s Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Braamfontein is an example of the relationship the University has with its local context. Not only is the Precinct’s work responding to changing work and social realities, but it promotes entrepreneurship and relevant applied research. Importantly, unemployed youth are incubated and equipped with digital skills.
The University is intimately involved, through the Reimagining Braamfontein programme led by award-winning social entrepreneur Taffy Adler, with changing the south-western part of Braamfontein where the university and the urban merge. “We have between 40 000 and 50 000 young people living in the area. We must therefore make the most of this opportunity, partner with organisations and government entities that develop residential communities for students and staff, promote commercial activity, and nurture invention and innovation in the area,” he says.
Understanding student realities
Universities were traditionally set up for those ‘gentlemen’ who could afford the cost of higher education. It was seen as a privilege. But in a country plagued by historical exclusion, and inequality and poverty, university is seen by many young people as an essential path to escaping social and economic distress.
“The traditional university funding model – that of students being able to pay – is misaligned with our real-life context. In fact, we have many more ‘non-traditional’ students enrolling. These are women, older people, mothers, poor students and poor rural students,” says Jerome September, the Dean of Student Affairs at Wits University.
The government-funded National Students' Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has stepped in to help poor students, but September says that universities in South Africa must focus on ensuring that students in the so-called ‘missing middle’ category are not excluded – these are students not ‘poor enough’ to qualify for NSFAS aid but not wealthy enough to afford university fees.
“We need to make funding available for these academically-deserving students and we need to find innovative ways to do this, whether it is with a low-interest government loan scheme, or through other means,” says September, adding that higher education should be seen as a public and social good.
“When there is an educated population, there is a higher economic growth rate and a more peaceful society. In order to reinvent and fix higher education we need to ask ourselves what kind of society we want … if we want to have a democratic, safe, educated society, then we need to prioritise higher education.”
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Wits.For Good. solutions inspire hope
- Professor Zeblon Vilakazi
Editorial: From solutions to the structural, political, and socioeconomic challenges in South Africa, to those ‘moonshot moments’ that advance society for good.
It’s been more than a year since the Covid-19 pandemic irrevocably changed the way we live, work, and play but challenges persist in South Africa. Yet the current situation also presents opportunities, and now is the time to galvanise our collective strengths towards addressing multiple challenges. That is why this issue of Curios.ty is themed #Solutions.
Our first feature story (pg. 8) interrogates both infrastructural frustrations around energy, water, roads and buildings and – importantly – presents research-based suggestions of how to overcome these. Our second feature, on how our economic reality adversely affects vulnerable South Africans, is a sobering indictment of the complicated interplay of politics, economics and people (pg. 30). Solutions proposed by Wits researchers are backed by translational research that drives life-affirming and empowering policies.
Wits scholars suggest we consider the kind of society we want to create and envisage new ‘knowledge architectures’ from the Global South (pg. 6). As a key player in higher education in Africa (and, increasingly, globally), we would be remiss not to continue interrogating our role and relevance. How can higher education remain relevant for good?
In the classrooms, Wits educators are advancing mathematics education (pg. 25), while mathematics postgraduate students are number-crunching creatively to boost a tourism sector decimated by travel restrictions.
Wits is inexorably part of the history and fabric of Johannesburg and as we approach our centenary in 2022, our urban architects suggest how the City’s spatial geography can be reconceived for inclusivity and development (pg. 12).
Yet cities and classrooms globally are now mostly remote and online, and Wits scholars explore if online platforms can help therapists and tutors transform care and teaching beyond the pandemic (pg. 20). In the Digital Arts sandpit online, academics get serious about gaming, with game design that creates empathy by exploring themes such as sexual identity and privilege (pg. 18), even as we’re cognisant that insidious forces exist online that threaten democracy and demand vigilance (pgs. 42, 44).
Empathy and understanding are critical to advancing society for good. This means care and concern for the environment while making tough decisions (pg. 46), and considering people with disabilities and how they are required to negotiate their intimate and lived realities (pg. 34). In the boardroom, Wits academics explore the abstraction but no-brainer that love should drive strategy and the ‘bottom line’ (pg. 22).
With South Africa reduced again in June 2021 to a level 4 lockdown to limit transmission of Covid-19, revisiting our values provides pause for thought. The stories in this issue make courageous efforts to address both unprecedented and persistent problems – a ‘wealth tax’ to end poverty (pg. 14), philanthropy to advance Africa (pg. 50), and the complexities of a National Health Insurance (pg. 40).
But I’m encouraged by astounding evidence of ‘moonshot moments’ – Witsies are advancing science itself and photographing black holes in outer space (pg. 26), devising biomedical engineering devices to enable understanding of those who stutter (pg. 36), reimagining the way vaccines and lifesaving drugs could be delivered in future (pg. 48), and thinking deeply about how our brains solve problems (pg.28).
These solutions are grounded in the values that characterise Wits University – on the edge of research excellence and exceptional academic standards, and a commitment to societal good in Africa and beyond.
Read more in the 12th issue, themed: #Solutions. We explore #WitsForGood solutions to the structural, political and socioeconomic challenges that persist in South Africa, and we are encouraged by astounding ‘moonshot moments’ where Witsies are advancing science, health, engineering, technology and innovation.
Curios.ty 12 (#Solutions): Advancing society for good
- Wits Communications
Our cutting-edge research offers #Solutions to some of the most challenging problems facing society today.
The 12th issue of Wits University’s research magazine, Curios.ty, themed: #Solutions, is available online now: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/. (To republish articles, see guidelines below).
Structural, political and socioeconomic challenges persist in South Africa. Yet the current situation also presents opportunities, and now is the time to galvanise our collective strengths towards finding #Solutions grounded in the values that Wits University exemplifies – research excellence, the commitment to social justice, and creating new knowledge that advances the public good. #WitsForGood
The stories in #Solutions offer novel research-based suggestions to addressing multiple challenges, as well as astounding ‘moonshot moments’ that advance science and give us hope and inspiration for the future.
In this issue:
No place for politics in bricks and mortar (Page 8): Energy, water, roads and buildings … South Africa’s infrastructure seems to be falling apart at the seams. How do we save the country from further deterioration?
Photographing ghosts in space (Page 26): Set with the virtually impossible task of photographing a black hole in space, 55 million light years from Earth, a group of scientists went to unprecedented lengths to overcome this challenge.
Sense and sensuality in people with disabilities (Page 34): Researchers are creating space and support for people with disabilities to talk about sex.
What the world needs now (Page 46): As the world looks to COP26 in November 2021, it’s clear that the time for sitting on the side-lines is over – and so is thinking that ill-conceptualised tradeoffs and compromises are going to cut it.
About Curios.ty
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Curios.ty is available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
Contact Wits Communications should you require more information or visit our media section for more on our experts and latest media releases.
The University of the Witwatersrand adheres to the regulations of theProtection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). In accordance with POPIA, we commit to keeping your personal information safe. Should you wish to unsubscribe from our mailing list, please emailwits.news@wits.ac.za.
It’s complicated … but let’s talk about #Gender
- Wits Communications
Read the 13th issue of Curios.ty, themed: #Gender. We feature research across the gender spectrum that aims to ensure a more equitable and tolerant society.
At Wits University, which celebrates 100 years of research excellence in 2022, we proudly advance knowledge that is responsive to a new generation – a world where non-binary and gender fluidity are increasingly prevalent, and people claim their unique identity as complex individuals who live and love across a spectrum.
In this issue of Curiosity, we feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health:
Beyond the binary (Page 8): “We need to see transgender people in our courts, at the police station, in the clinics, that is how we start to change society”.
The politics of a woman’s body (Page 12): The backsliding of women’s rights happening right now should be the clarion call that gender rights are still everybody’s business.
[Warning: Content in this article might be potentially disturbing] The knife between her thighs (Page 14): Female genital mutilation – the under-researched killer that is increasing at an alarming rate in South Africa.
Know your gender language: A South African lexicon of terms (Page 30-31): Qhawekhazi (isiXhosa); Ya sa tsotelleng bong (Sesotho); Basha (Swahili); Uthingo (isiZulu); Tshelabong (Setswana).
Being queer in Africa (Page 32): “In pre-colonial times, being queer (in Africa) was acceptable. We have queer ancestors all over the continent. That history has been demonised, erased and further oppressed by religion”.
About Curios. ty
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Curios.ty is available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
ContactWits Communicationsshould you require more information or visit our media sectionfor more on our experts and latest media releases.
To live and love across a spectrum
- Professor Lynn Morris
EDITORIAL: The way we choose to identify ourselves provokes questions and demands interrogation to ensure a more equitable and tolerant society.
Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Wits University.
This 13th issue ofCurios.ty is themed ‘Gender’. It features research across faculties and disciplines at Wits that relate to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health. Non-binary and gender fluidity are increasingly prevalent as people claim their unique identity as complex individuals who live and love across a spectrum.
Language locates us in time and place and our two feature stories provide an historical-geographical overview of Being Queer in Africa – and the profound personal, social and legal impact. In Beyond the Binary, we challenge (through research) the misconception that people are either male or female, and how we might transcend and transform transphobia.
There’s no escaping the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide in SA and our stories on female genital mutilation, lesbian hate killings, and the politicisation of women’s bodies are horrifying and discomforting. Big Data and analytics can help detect and prevent gender-based violence – if the inherent biases in Artificial Intelligence are adjusted (AI traditionally defaults to the white male). Our stories on performing masculinity – as black, gay, and male – in SA and at Wits, suggest that toxic masculinity and patriarchy persist, and provide direction on how we might begin to change the narrative.
Alongside these dire but necessary stories are chronicles of inspiration and courage – read how our Female Academic Leadership Fellows (FALF) with the guidance of our formidable Chancellor, Dr Judy Dlamini, confront and overcome challenges in academia, while Wits female scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, voice the clarion call to advance women in science.
Throughout our adult lives, we seek solutions to issues around our sexual health, yet sex talk remains taboo, to the detriment of public health. Similarly, in the geriatric phase of life people remain sexual beings, but ignorance and silence on sexuality in the elderly can be lethal.
Read our Gender in Sport story for what it takes to be an athlete competing at the highest levels in the 21st Century and how male and female cricketers differ, and why this matters. On a lighter note, read how our companions in the animal kingdom indicate and celebrate their sexuality and diversity (it may surprise you!) and pop culture representations of monsters and gender a’ la Corpse Bride.
At Wits University, which celebrates 100 years of research excellence in 2022, we proudly advance knowledge that is responsive to a new generation and embrace the LGBTQIA+ spectrum of identities and sexualities ready to confront the inherent challenges. Whether lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, intersex, or asexual, the way we choose to identify ourselves in the 21st Century provokes questions and demands interrogation to ensure a more equitable and tolerant society. Join us.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
STEM - not all are equal
- Buhle Zuma
Structures need to be put in place at higher education institutions to give women their rightful opportunities.
Structures need to be put in place at higher education institutions to give women their rightful opportunities in the world of science, technology and engineering.
While the number of women pursuing higher education has increased over the years, gender equity in the science, engineering, technology and mathematics fields is far from reality.
At Wits University, female students comprise more than 55% of the student population, with a significant number in the STEM-related fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
The number of female and male students are nearly equal in the Wits Faculty of Science. However, the number of females in the Faculty of Health Sciences exceeds that of men, according to the Business Information Systems Unit. Health Sciences includes therapeutic sciences such as nursing that traditionally attracts female students, which might account for the bulge.
Balancing the numbers in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment is proving harder to achieve. In 2016, of the 4 719 students enrolled in the Faculty, 2 355 were female. In 2021 this figure sits at 4 822 males and 2 858 females.
Familiar choices
A recent study by the African Academy of Sciences found that a number of factors, reinforcing at various levels, including the individual, family, societal and work environment, contribute to whether a woman finds a STEM career appealing, and determines her success in these fields.
These findings are corroborated by the work of Vanishree Pillay, whose PhD focused on the bicultural life experiences and career orientation of South African Indian women engineers, who found that family played an important role in a woman’s choices. Her study focused on South African-Indian female engineers and sought to understand their experiences.
“Family support was a major contributor to their aspirations of becoming engineers. Particularly interesting were the responses received from some participants when asked what motivated their career choice. They nominated their fathers as the motivation that steered their choice of profession,” says Pillay.
Hope Sikhosana, a Master’s in Social Work student, also found that family was a significant source of support for female students in computer sciences, another field where only 18% of undergraduate computer science degrees are held by women.
While families may be changing how girls are socialised, female students still have a myriad of challenges to navigate. The workplace has been identified as a serious obstacle to the lack of progress for women.
Entrenched inequality
Women scientists tend to work primarily in academic and government institutions, while more male scientists are found in the private sector “with better pay and opportunities”, the African Academy of Science report found.
Women are often concentrated in the lower echelons of responsibility and have limited leadership opportunities, says the report. In academia, for example, female scientists are often lecturers and assistant researchers, and few are professors. Women are rarely research directors or principal investigators in major studies.
A US study, Women’s Reasons for Leaving the Engineering Field, also raised alarm about the flight of female engineers to the finance industry. Reasons included unfair working conditions, pay gaps and industry attitudes.
To remedy this, female academics have called for structured and well-resourced mentorship programmes. Dr Jenika Gobind, a Senior Lecturer at the Wits Business School who specialises in gender, believes that universities have a major role to play in changing the experiences of women in STEM industries.
“When we put the curriculum together for STEM-related qualifications, we go for hardcore content and we don’t deal with the people-relations component, and it’s that people-relations component that will tackle aspects like gender, diversity and all the elements about which women still complain.”
Pillay shares this view: “Higher education institutions need to look at how they inculcate gender and diversity within the curriculum, which should ideally be incorporated from first year to graduation. We are behind, as the STEM workplace culture is learnt and highly gendered, taking away credible women.”
In an address on International Women’s Day, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the former UN’s Women's Executive Director, who also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Wits, said: “Incentives will be needed to recruit and retain female workers, like expanded maternity benefits for women that also support their re-entry into work, adoption of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, and direct representation at decision-making levels.”
Buhle Zuma is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Beyond the binary
- Ufrieda Ho
The gender binary has reached its expiry date but it still hasn’t been consigned to society’s dustbin.
While most of the world is moving towards a gender-neutral world, the fall of gender binaries – the idea that only two sexes, namely ‘male’ and ‘female’ exist – is late to the party – mostly because pigeonholes have for the longest time been the more convenient way to order things in society.
But the coming of a more expansive way of thinking about gender is on the horizon. The push is now to create environments and systems that support a gender-diverse world that is adaptive and flexible.
Professor Kevin Behrens, Director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, says that the traditional beliefs that someone can only ever be male or female is driven by a mix of ignorance, conservatism and rigid ideologies and belief systems. It is also much easier to simply sweep any conception that falls out of the gender binary mould under the carpet.
“It feels like the ‘T’ and the ‘I’ in the acronym ‘LGBTQI’ have lagged behind for decades, even though it has in recent years started to blip on broader society’s radar,” says Behrens.
In this well-known acronym, the ‘T’ represents ‘transgender’, while the ‘I’ stands for ‘intersex’ people. While it is a common belief that people are either born as a ‘boy’ or a ‘girl’, Behrens dispels this idea as a myth.
“It scares people to think that a baby can be something other than male or female, even though the number of babies born with ambiguous sex is a lot more common than people realise – it’s just that it’s something that has been hidden,” he says.
Behrens has over the past four years been giving an ethics-based lecture to third-year medical students. The lecture is designed to sensitise students to gender identity, transgender surgery and therapies, and to help young healthcare professionals ask different questions when considering medical intervention. It also seeks to help healthcare professionals offer different choices and support for parents, when it comes to children born as intersex persons.
Behrens says that medical students are an easy audience to reach. It is broader society that also needs to understand and recognise the damage caused by entrenched gender binaries.
“You can typically present evidence to medical students and they get it. But with broader society, evidence and facts don’t necessarily change ideology. What does help is to try to understand people’s fears and questions, and what lies at the heart of their silence or discomfort,” he says.
Not a disorder
Internationally-renowned endocrinologist Professor Roy Shires says that the momentum of change in the demise of the gender binary system means that “we are seeing the tip of the iceberg of transgender people”.
“It is, of course, not like there’s suddenly more transgender people, but now more people are finding access and personal courage to come forward for the likes of hormone therapies, surgeries and counselling support.”
Shires says that the demand for therapies and services to the transgender community currently outstrips availability in SA. The waiting list for these types of services at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital’s clinic where he works has exploded in recent years but they have been unable to take on more patients.
Shires believes that people should be aware of the range and fluidity of gender identities, and come to grips with the fact that gender and gender identities are not fixed.
Many are not cases that need medical intervention – they are not disorders. On the other hand, there are variations of sexual development that the public should know about, because in these cases medical intervention can help improve someone’s quality of life, he says.
For example, there is growing evidence that suggests that particularly with babies born with ambiguous sex, there is no urgency to medically intervene.
“Knowing more means that doctors and parents don’t need to be pressured to make their child fit into a gender box at birth,” he says.
“Underpinning everything is gender identity, and what that person feels is right for them in their head is what is most important. This is what we want to help them achieve, while managing their expectations,” he says.
But it is just as important for society to come to terms with these realities, and be more mindful of transgender and intersex people.
“This should be a moment for a willingness to deepen understanding and to build tolerance and diversity – not for people to retreat to their corners or to feel like they forever have to tread on eggshells around each other,” says Behrens.
Shires agrees: “We can’t always be in someone else’s shoes, but what we owe to each other is to listen.”
These lessons are a personal lived experience for Dudu*, a 30-year old transwoman who started undergoing hormone therapy through the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute’s (WRHI) Key Populations Programme at the beginning of 2020.
“I came to this late because you don’t know where to go for information or help. But I’m not just thinking about me, I’m thinking of the trans and intersex children and teenagers who are killing themselves because they don’t know what’s going on in their bodies and they have no one to talk to,” she says.
Dudu lives in the Vaal and there are no clinics close to her home where she can access therapy and services. She says that nurses at her local clinic dehumanise her and discriminate against patients like her.
“They will ask why I’m wearing a dress or say ‘why do you want to make yourself a woman?’, and they will do this so that everyone in the clinic can hear and everyone is looking at me,” she says.
For Dudu, a safe space like the WRHI facilities helps, but it can also be isolating. She says: “I want to go to a clinic where I’m with everybody else – not just other transgender people, sex workers and people who use drugs. We need to see transgender people in our courts, at the police station, in the clinics, that is how we start to change society; we can’t hide.”
But mainstreaming transgender and intersex genders goes much deeper than having the public understand them. It is about pushing medical aids to change their policies and funding; encouraging schools to have gender-neutral bathrooms and greater privacy for children; challenging the medical fraternity to adapt to trans children’s needs, and raising questions about policy and the laws that have not kept pace.
For Shelley*, a Joburg mother of a transgender male who is now 17 years old, high school was especially hard for her child. However, it helped being able to bring trusted friends and family into their family circle, and building parent and children support groups and networks, as well as becoming an activist.
At two-years old, her child, a biological female, simply said no more girls’ clothes; no more pink everything.
“We were fine with that. But it took us years to fully understand what L* was trying to tell us,” she says, stressing the importance of listening and finding ways to let go of expectations or putting things down to ‘it’s a phase’.
Getting rid of the binary code
The South African government has only this spring announced that it will no longer be using a gender marker of male or female in the 13-digit ID numbers (the four numbers after a birthdate). The Department of Home Affairs acknowledged the current system is “binary in nature … which is unfair, exclusionary and unconstitutional”.
Mutondi Mulaudzi, a Lecturer at UNISA and a PhD candidate in the Wits School of Law, is looking into the scope within SA’s legal framework to go ‘beyond the binary’. A change in the binary gender markers of the 13-digit ID is a significant victory that will create momentum, she says.
However, for Mulaudzi, SA cannot rest at this triumph or think that pieces of legislation while progressive, such as the Alteration of Sex Description Act of 2003, are adequate in a 2021 world. She says that the Act is patchy in the way it is applied in different cases. It has allowed, for example, a transgender woman to be regarded as a man and be incarcerated in a men’s prison.
“The problem is that if we keep things at the level of policy frameworks but don’t pull this through to the law then we will always have weaknesses, including a system that is medicalised rather than based on self-identification,” she says.
“It also means that we never take into account the socioeconomic realities of people who rely on stretched public hospitals that do not easily offer gender-reaffirming surgery and exclude people who identify outside of the binary, but do not wish to undertake gender-reaffirming surgery,” she adds.
Mulaudzi’s argument is that although legal solutions are not a catch-all fix, clear, strong laws help move all of society in the same direction. This includes unlearning that gender binaries are the norm. This involves asking different questions about what props up the systems and structures in society – like who funds research, who benefits, and who gets left behind. She reminds us that the practise of racialising medical treatment remains an issue and that there were certain mental health conditions ascribed only to women not so long ago.
“By reviewing the existing legal framework and by investigating alternative ones that are more inclusive of all gender identities, we can develop a human rights framework that protects gender-diverse people and that structures legislation that is inclusive and understanding of the different genders and processes of self-identification,” she says of the journey that still lies ahead to finally consign the gender binary to the bin of obsolescence.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
The politics of a woman’s body
- Ufrieda Ho
The backsliding of women’s rights happening right now should be the clarion call that gender rights are still everybody’s business.
Afghanistan seems a million miles away, so does Texas in the USA. But in early spring, events in those two places struck a chilling chord for women everywhere. It was a stark reminder of just how quickly the backsliding of rights happens in a world where women’s bodies remain fair game.
The return of the Taliban to rule comes with the terror of its track record against women. Its interpretation of Sharia law has included keeping girls from attending school, prohibiting women from being in public without a male guardian, banning nail polish and demanding the public floggings for women considered to have transgressed certain laws.
In Texas this September the state passed into law limits to abortion care after six weeks of pregnancy, when many women are not even aware that they may be pregnant. It extended this with a diabolical so-called ‘bounty clause’. It allows citizens to sue those who assist in any way in the provision of an abortion and rewards them by covering their legal costs and offering a $10 000 ‘incentive’.
These are just two examples that reflect how it has always been a situation of two steps forward and one step back when it comes to women’s bodies as the sites upon which others’ decisions are played out.
Lenore Manderson, a medical anthropologist and Distinguished Professor in the School of Public Health, highlights the contradictions that women face on an everyday basis.
Theory vs practice
“There’s tension that is played out on women's bodies and a consistent tension of women having to try to claim a right for an equal voice,” she says.
For example, SA has a liberal abortion policy compared to other African countries, yet it is not easy for women to access abortions, or even contraception. “In practice, many young, unmarried women don’t feel that they have the authority to ask for contraceptives at a public clinic, and feel judged when seeking an abortion,” Manderson says.
“Women don't have anything like a strong voice in any arena. And that includes in the corporate world, the political world, and educational institutions. The irony is that women in South Africa aren't invisible as they are in some societies, but they are nevertheless consistently pushed to the side.”
There is rhetoric, and paradoxes, that mean patriarchy impacts on women’s lives not just as systemic and structural fixtures in society. There are also hundreds of micro-aggressions directed at women, which are sometimes not immediately recognisable, and sometimes not even exacted by men, which keep women on the back foot.
For example, it is often female healthcare workers who choose ‘cruelty over caring’ for their women patients and clients. It could be shaming a teenager for having sex before marriage or judging a sex worker for asking for lubricants or berating a mother whose child’s illness has not been managed in a way regarded as appropriate. Such judgemental attitudes impact negatively on women’s healthcare choices, their access to information and their health-seeking behaviours.
Added to this are the pressures that women experience of being poorly paid, working in often appalling conditions with few prospects of advancement or improvement, and juggling work with their own personal burdens. All of this is framed within a society that fails women by only paying lip service to being tough on gender-based violence; that does not rectify the skewered burden of household division of labour; or that allows the imbalance of child-rearing responsibilities still to be placed squarely on women’s shoulders.
“Women – and LGBTQIA+ people – are subject to a range of put-downs, inequalities and exclusions that need to be challenged in order to protect people’s rights,” says Manderson.
One powerful tool to challenge these inequalities lies with artists. As creatives, they smash boxes and use the abstract as deliberate power.
Creative engagement
The Wits Art Museum (WAM) will dedicate its 10-year anniversary in 2022 to women artists’ solo exhibitions. The focus on women artists is a statement about using art to start conversations, to go to tension points and to touch raw nerves.
Julia Charlton, Senior Curator at the Museum, says: “There are artists who are very consciously using their identities, their bodies and their modes to engage specifically around issues [like the political and the personal of women’s bodies]. But there’s a kind of space in the exhibition platform between what the artists think they're doing and why and how they’re doing their art; and what the audience sees in the end. It creates a conversation and engagement that is open to interpretation.”
One reaction could be to understand the bodily risk to Zanele Muholi in making photographs of herself and queer and transgender people in her series Faces and Phases. Another could be engaging with Penny Siopis’s Pinky Pinky series to recognise the dread of being a teenage girl in a world that regulates women’s bodies; that uses and rapes women’s bodies and dismisses the trauma. It may be to appreciate bead work made by unknown female master bead workers, but to ask the critical questions about anonymity, agency and the lack of access for many women crafters and artists.
Fiona Rankin-Smith, Special Projects Curator, who will curate the WAM’s exhibitions with Kutlwano Mokgojwa, the African Art Collections Curator, says that in tallying up the gender split for solo exhibitions over the years, it did come as something of a reckoning that male artists have dominated.
“It wasn’t unexpected because the reality is that we come from a very male-dominated space, historically,” she says.
Self-care and self-love
For Dr Danai Mupotsa, a Senior Lecturer in African Literature with research interests that include feminist and queer theory, being deliberate is personal accountability, authority, presence, clarity of purpose and also healing. It is what is appropriate in a “hyper-capitalist, time-invasive world that has constructed secularism to be anti-black, anti-female, that limits people’s routes to seek justice and separates thinking from feeling,” she says.
These entrenched societal constructs allow for boundaries to be crossed more easily, to cause trauma, but also to escape consequence.
“Often, we experience a feminist consciousness when our boundaries come into contact with something that makes us feel a sense of harm, and this animates as consciousness of something wrong in the world. But because girls and women are taught to be polite, to comply, to not make a fuss, you learn the habit of becoming complicit in your boundaries constantly being crossed,” she says.
Her call is to enlarge the role and prominence of self-care and self-love.
“Freedoms need to be less capitalist – they need to be less use-based and they need to be less violent.”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
The knife between her thighs
- Shaun Smillie
Female Genital Mutilation - South African researchers and medical practitioners are increasingly seeing it in its most extreme forms.
Warning: content might be potentially disturbing
Female genital mutilation is the surgical removal of a girl’s external genitalia for religious or cultural reasons to prevent intercourse and to enhance status. This extreme form of gender violence is increasing in South Africa.
Dr Marise Subrayan could do nothing to save the newborn baby at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Coronationville, Johannesburg. The baby she was helping to deliver had become trapped in vaginal scar tissue and suffocated to death. The mother’s family had refused a caesarean section, citing religious reasons.
“And it is not just babies, I have had a woman die on the table,” says Subrayan. That woman bled to death.
The killer that day is under-researched and hides behind religious dogma. It is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and South African researchers and medical practitioners are increasingly seeing it in its most extreme forms.
Subrayan saw FGM victims during her residency at the Hospital, and her experiences prompted her to examine this form of abuse in a Master of Medicine dissertation through the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Wits in 2019.
“What was strange is that I found that there was no research on Female Genital Mutilation in South Africa,” says Subrayan.
A silent violence
She focused her research on the doctors who were coming across FGM, through exploring their knowledge, awareness and attitudes towards this extreme form of gender violence. What came out in Subrayan’s study was that the majority of those who answered the anonymous questionnaire had come across FGM and had difficulty in dealing with patients who had experienced the trauma.
Subrayan discovered that South African doctors are seeing some of the worst forms of FGM. It is being performed in some north-east African migrant communities.
“What we are seeing is Type 3 Female Genital Mutilation or infibulation. This is where they don't just cut out areas of the clitoris or the vaginal lips, they also sew it shut,” says Subrayan. This is to prevent intercourse, and it begins when the girl is still a young child.
“Sometimes they don’t even have a memory of this event,” says Subrayan. Bones are sometimes broken during the ritual. Infibulation causes other complications such as infection and severe pain. “Sometimes even wearing underwear is extremely painful for them.” There is also severe psychological trauma.
Status by scalpel
FGM persists across Africa because of the social status it affords women, explains Professor Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala from the Wits School of Public Health.
“FGM – a century-long tradition – is a social norm, meaning that in societies where cutting is the norm, being cut gives women social status and more social support among women and the community. In these societies, girls have more and better marriage opportunities and thus a better chance of bearing children,” he explains.
“Furthermore, for young girls, it is usually undertaken as a cultural or a religious practice, a coming-of-age ritual, or one that sanctifies a girl’s purity or makes her more attractive to a potential husband – hence the persistence of the practice from generation to generation.”
Saving sexuality
Across the globe, countries are seeing a rise in reported FGM incidents because of migration and the practices of certain migrant communities.
In some countries, like the UK and the USA, guidelines have been developed to assist medical personnel when they are presented with a FGM patient. These guidelines include notifying the police.
Subrayan says no such guidelines exist in SA, and medical personnel have to rely on other guidelines.
Dr Loveth Obiora, who holds a Hillel Friedland Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Physiotherapy at Wits, has studied FGM, but in other African countries. Like Subrayan, Obiora found that little research has been conducted on FGM in SA, despite increasing reports of women arriving in South African hospitals showing signs of genital mutilation.
“The World Health Organization does not recognise South Africa as being a location where female genital mutilation is undertaken,” says Obiora. But, unlike SA, many other African countries have introduced programmes and measures to prevent FGM.
“In countries like Nigeria and Kenya, these programmes have been successful and have resulted in declines in incidences of FGM. The success of these programmes can be attributed to the involvement of traditional and community leaders, because the programmes work towards educating communities and moving them away from rituals that involve genital mutilation,” adds Obiora.
SA is far behind the rest of Africa in addressing FMG. But before preventative programmes can be put in place, Obiora and Subrayan agree that FMG must be recognised as a growing problem in the country and that more research is needed to fully understand the extent of the problem.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Finding Nemo’s sexual identity
- Shivan Parusnath
As a species, we are only starting to scratch the surface of our understanding of gender, sex, and identity.
Reversing stereotypical gender roles
The term “fathering instinct” does not have quite the same ring as “mothering instinct” because of our antiquated notion of women as primary caregivers. In contemporary human society, these stereotypical gender roles are falling away. After the birth of a child (and perhaps with the exception of breastfeeding) there is no reason that a father cannot be the primary carer.
The African Jacana – a bird well known for its large feet that allow it to walk on lily pads and live a waterborne life, epitomises a successful gender role-reversal. “Female African Jacanas are 60% larger than males and have a harem of up to five different males that they mate with each season,” explains Wits ornithologist Dr Chevonne Reynolds from the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES).
“The males then go on to incubate the eggs and care for the chicks after hatching, while the female moves on to mate with the next male in her harem. The males of the species even have special adaptations to their wings that allow them to carry their chicks around with them.”
This strategy of the philandering female and the hard-working father teaches us that the labels and the roles that we assign to males and females may be just that – labels. Evolution simply favours what works.
The real reason why Nemo’s dad was so desperate to find him
While humans, the self-proclaimed highest form of intelligence on planet Earth, struggle to accept the notion of gender fluidity, many animals such as frogs and fish have been successfully doing so for ages, and without any notable transphobia to boot.
Clownfish, the popular aquarium fish, and star of the Pixar Studios movie “Finding Nemo”, engage when required, in a process called sequential hermaphroditism. The social structure of a group of Clownfish consists of a large dominant female and a smaller, dominant male. The remainder of the group is made up of small, sexually immature males (in fact, all clownfish are born male). If the dominant female dies, the dominant male will change sex and take her place at the top of the pack.
This “sex change” is a result of hormonal changes that cause the testes to dissolve and ovaries to form. The new female leader of the group will then seek out another male to become her partner. This unique sexual system may have evolved because of the close relationship that clownfish have with sea anemones – they tend to not venture far from home, and so a male becoming a female may be a safer strategy than roaming for a new mate. This may have been Nemo’s dad’s real inspiration to find his son – so “he” could become a “she” and mate with Nemo.
Virgin birth
Finding a sexual partner can be challenging. At least, we, as humans have dating apps to help us when times get tough. But what do animals do if they don’t come across a sexual partner within their lifetime?
Since passing on genes to the next generation is perhaps the central driving force of most lifeforms – many species have evolved a creative way to ensure that their seed is spread. Females of certain species of insects, reptiles and fish amongst other animals are capable of reproducing parthenogenically – essentially fertilising their own eggs in order to create offspring.
“Unlike mammals, whose embryos start off as female (the default sex), the embryos of some reptiles and birds start off as males by default,” explains Wits herpetologist Professor Graham Alexander from the School of APES. “In the case of Komodo Dragons, there have been females in zoos that have never met a male of their species but have laid eggs that resulted in normal healthy babies.”
Interestingly, the babies are not exactly clones since their genetic make-up is the results of some chromosomal remixing – instead of half from a mom and half from a dad as in typical sexual reproduction. And since the babies produced this way are male – it would allow a single female Komodo Dragon to reproduce with her offspring and populate an island all by herself.
‘Sneaky Fuckers’
Dominance is a key factor in the rights to mate in the animal kingdom. “Superior” males may be those that are larger, more colourful, or more prominently ornamented. But it does not always mean that they possess superior genes – the outward appearance may simply be due to environmental factors during development such as better access to food as a juvenile.
But if luck is not on the side of smaller males, there are alternative mating strategies. Subordinate males of many species take on the appearance of a female, allowing them to get closer to females while avoiding the usual conflict with the alpha male.
“These sneaky fuckers get in with the females and do their business without the dominant males even noticing,” explains Alexander. The term “sneaky fuckers” was actually the preferred scientific lexicon for this strategy for a period, believed to be coined by renowned British biologist Tim Clutton-Brock. Today though, they are referred to using the more politically correct term ‘sneaker males’.
“An example of this from the insect world are horned dung beetles, where the males with large horns guard the tunnel of a female beetle with which they are reproducing,” says Wits entomologist Professor Marcus Byrne from the School of APES. “While no other males can get close to the female without getting into a fight, the less ornamented, ‘sneaker males’ dig a side tunnel to the female, where they do not appear to pose a threat to the guarding male. They then surreptitiously mate with the female while the ‘superior’ male is guarding the front door.”
Shivan Parusnathis Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Levelling the playing fields
- Ufrieda Ho
The competitive sporting world is playing catch-up with the realities of gender in modern society.
When the German gymnastics team arrived at the Tokyo Olympics with arms and legs covered in unitards, it earned more attention than the team’s performance. It was the same when the Norwegian women’s beach volleyball team ditched their bikini bottoms for fitted shorts at the Euro 2021 Games and got fined for ‘improper clothing’.
The defiance of the two teams were statements; a triumph of female athletes pushing back on the world’s biggest sports stages, protesting, and importantly, finding support beyond the sporting world to drive home the fight for gender parity, equal rights, women’s freedom of choice over their bodies and the long-overdue respect and recognition of athletic professionalism for women in sports.
“Each step forward is a triumph in raising awareness, and in keeping gender issues a priority,” says Dr Corlia Brandt, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physiotherapy. But, she says, these are also moments to reflect on just how much work society as a whole still needs to undertake. One of the biggest gaps is found in research data on women in sports, and research that comes out of SA in particular.
Starting from scratch
“We really have been starting from scratch. There are no statistics to go on that give you a base from which to start. What is available is based on men’s profiles even though of course, women athletes have such different needs,” Brandt says.
A key area of focus that is overlooked, for example, is the changes in the pelvic area after childbirth. The dearth of research hinders the return of women athletes to professional sport after having a child.
Training and assistance to return to peak performance is not specific or targeted and this can affect women’s longevity in competitive sports. Add to this the limited support and understanding of shifting pressures for young mothers who are sometimes forced to hold down fulltime jobs because professional careers in sports are not a reality for many female athletes.
Brandt also focuses on inclusivity in sports, including support and the rights of transgender athletes to compete fairly. This extends to understanding the need for medical and psychological support and the reality that transgender people remain easy targets for discrimination and victimisation.
Moving goal posts
“Sporting codes and rules are changed regularly, but if there isn’t research, new data and evidence emerging, we won’t be able to push as hard or fast to bring about transformation,” she says. For example, the International Olympics Committee admitted this year that its guidelines for transgender athletes are ‘not fit for purpose’ and are only expected to be released in early 2022 – three years behind schedule.
It means ensuring that the voices of those on the margins are heard, Brandt says. It is essential for visibility and representivity.
Jon Patricios, Professor of Sport and Exercise Medicine, agrees that there is a need for more diverse voices in the room, more platforms for open, focused discussions, and for more robust science.
Patricios says that it is clear that society’s agenda must move towards greater inclusion and tolerance while promoting diversity. At the same time, competitive sport finds itself at odds with this because it is binary by design. Sport separates ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ and celebrates the exceptional that stands above the average person, he says.
“Sports participation is different because it’s about rules and regulations. Either you qualify or you don’t; either you compete in the men’s or the women’s divisions; either you are a junior, senior or a veteran; either you’re a heavyweight fighter or a featherweight fighter, and so on,” he says.
About fairness and safety
Aligning sport with societal shifts must therefore take a nuanced but directed approach. It must also still fulfil competitive fairness and safety requirements, especially in collision sports.
In rugby for instance, the World Rugby Federation released transgender guidelines to disallow transgender women to play in women’s rugby. Transgender men are allowed to play men’s rugby ‘on confirmation of physical ability’. Transgender men may not compete in women’s rugby ‘after the process of sex reassignment (that includes testosterone supplementation) has begun’, the current rules state.
Guidelines need to evolve in response to whether they are successful and also where they fail. “Sports’ regulatory bodies are making decisions on transgender athletes without adequate scientific support,” says Patricios.
“Managing fairness in a competitive sporting environment is different from how it applies in a general societal context.”
It is a huge step forward to ensure that evidence and research become the backbone of professionalising the women’s divisions and to give female players equal status. Researcher and physiotherapist Jolandi Jacobs, who heads the Division, says for many young women having a career in sport was a limited choice even just a decade or so ago.
“Many of us had to choose careers that would mean you could support yourself financially instead,” she says, having played professional cricket throughout her teens.
Jacobs believes that the professionalism of female sport is changing rapidly with the push for research laying new foundations. Until now, the data and evidence have been borrowed from research on male players, but she says that there are obvious requirements to understand female cricket players’ different needs and therefore strengths and limits for peak performance, injury prevention and rehabilitation.
“Fast bowling is one of the most complex movements in sport because you run, jump, twist, land and deliver the ball. The action causes fast bowlers to be particularly injury-prone, but the bowling action is different for male and female cricket players,” says Jacobs.
Male players have a more linear approach to bowling where everything lines up and they use momentum to deliver the bowling action. Females have a more rotational approach with less linear momentum.
“So, male fast bowlers tend to have more lower back injuries and female fast bowlers tend to have more shoulder injuries,” she says.
The women’s division of the Research Hub is beating a path for the next generation of female cricket players.
“We want to be able to conduct research that also looks at adolescent girls and to understand their pathways through sports, whether or not they become elite athletes – it’s understanding not just injury prevention, but the psychological aspects of the game and pressures on athletes who are also thinking about salaries, families and work-life balance,” she concludes.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
A woman’s work is never done
- Charlotte Matthews
The work that women do in households is largely overlooked, yet it is critical for a well-functioning society.
While the issue of disparities in earnings between men and women is attracting considerable academic research and media attention, a quieter injustice is going largely unnoticed. That injustice is the amount of essential work in the economy that women are doing for no payment whatsoever.
In 2000 and again in 2010, Stats SA conducted a survey on time use to see how different South Africans spend their time. The 2010 study found that women spent 2.2 times more time on average than men on household maintenance activities (housework, shopping) that are not valued in the System of National Accounts for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) purposes (non-SNA work). The amount of time dedicated to this activity was even higher for married women. In caring for other members of the family, which is another non-SNA activity, women spent more than three times as much time as men.
Various studies have highlighted the gender disparity in sharing home responsibilities during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
“This work is largely overlooked and undervalued, certainly in mainstream economic theory and policy, and yet it is absolutely vital to the reproduction of labour for the paid economy and to the survival of any well-functioning society,” says Professor Daniela Casale of the School of Economics and Finance.
Malerato Mosiane, Chief Director of Labour Statistics at Stats SA, says that the organisation was planning to conduct this survey every four years, starting from 2016, but this did not happen due to budgetary constraints. Currently, there are no plans to repeat it. However, the UN and ILO are investigating alternative ways to get time-use statistics more cost-effectively.
Pricing the priceless
Professor Imraan Valodia, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, says that the approach of mainstream economics is only to value something which has a price. If there is no trade in that item – such as home care – it will not be included in measures like GDP.
He believes that it is important to account for this sector because if no value is put on it, it will continue to be ignored in policy decision-making. At present, if National Treasury has money to spend, it is more likely to invest it in the physical or infrastructure sector, rather than the social or unpaid labour sector. As a result, gender bias in the economy is reinforced.
Unfortunately, Stats SA’s time-use surveys had no discernible effect on government policy. This underscores the importance of promoting gender economics as a field of study. As a result, the Faculty is planning to launch a postgraduate programme that will focus on the economics of gender.
“Firstly, by studying the economics of gender, it creates more transparency in the economy,” says Valodia. “Looking at time use forces us to think about the economy in a more complete way. Secondly, placing this burden of unpaid work on women is a huge cost on the economy and is not the most efficient allocation of resources.”
Towards a female basic income grant
There are various ways to value this work. For example, by using median earnings in an economy or the cost of employing someone to do it. In all these calculations there would be gender bias as well, since women generally earn less than men. Broadly, it is estimated that the value of this unpaid work could add 25-50% to current estimates of GDP.
Casale says that overlooking this feature of the economy could have negative outcomes. For example, it could stymie attempts to bring more women into employment because of the frequent argument of ‘who will look after the kids?’. Cuts in social spending, particularly on health, education and childcare support, would increase the burden on women.
“As long as women remain the primary caregivers in society, inequalities in employment, pay and access to resources will persist,” she says.
Professor Uma Kollamparambil, Head of the School of Economics and Finance, says: “Black female-headed households are among the poorest in SA. This underscores the need for a means-tested female basic income grant that would account for the unpaid care work that a woman undertakes in her household. There is evidence that state transfers to a female member benefit the household more than similar transfers to a male member.”
A means-tested female basic income grant would address multiple issues, including mitigating the growing inequality in the subjective wellbeing of women in SA, helping to combat gender-based violence as well as contributing in the long run to address issues such as teenage pregnancy.
“Establishing this through empirical evidence, however, calls for investment in data collection by Stats SA,” concludes Kollamparambil.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Parenting in the city
- Leanne Rencke
Building cities for women will make them more inclusive for all groups.
A local Facebook group that boasts over 390 000 active members, empowers (mostly) women by encouraging them to share the deals that they encounter while shopping, so that everyone can benefit by taking advantage of the bargains and setting up their own shopping stockpile at home.
Interestingly, a post to the group – which doesn’t feature a savings deal – still hit the mark with a lot of women: an announcement that one of the members had discovered a shopping centre’s ‘Baby Care Lounge’. This is a private space where moms can breast or bottle feed, it provides access to complementary nappies and other care items, as well as bottle warmers, a microwave and kettle.
If this doesn’t sound like a big deal, consider that some commentators on this post indicated that they would be willing to travel far from their communities to access this kind of service while shopping with children – especially during the festive season.
Parker is mapping the spatial footprint of mothers and fathers in Gauteng. It is a fascinating study because it literally tracks how people move across the City, and then interrogates their reasons for doing so.
This study and its predecessor Mothers in the City (2017), were inspired by a research colleague’s experience, a new mother who was already interested in how the activities of motherhood intersect with the urban environment.
“She was inspired by her own life,” Parker explains, “describing how one day her child was sick at home, so she couldn't work at home, and she couldn't work in the office, so she found herself working in her car. I think she thought, well, if I’m in a relatively privileged position, how are other mothers dealing with the activities of parenthood in the urban environment?”
The project developed into something all-consuming, with research based on interviews with 25 mothers across Johannesburg, looking at different demographics, locations and personal circumstances, finances and employment.
With this data, the researchers mapped the spatial footprint of mothers, revealing that some women were travelling huge distances across the City to access their needs, while others were keeping a very small footprint.
“We found that the values that mothers had about what they wanted for their lives and what they wanted for their children’s lives were really the driving force behind the decisions that they were making,” says Parker.
For example, if education is a priority, mothers are prepared to travel further to access it, or make other kinds of arrangements, or compromise where necessary, to fill that desire.
A city’s gender dynamics
This study has led to a follow-up, which Parker is completing as a series of journal articles, in partnership with Professor Margo Rubin, Senior Researcher at the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning at Wits.
“We wanted to really try to understand more about how parents saw themselves and what was important to them. And then, how did that filter through into the decisions that they made and how they juggled the constraints of both the urban environment and the challenges of parenting,” says Parker. “We also wanted to try and understand a little bit more about the differences between mothers and fathers.”
The team looked at five neighbourhoods across Gauteng, specifically selected to obtain a sense of their spatial dynamics, their location in terms of proximity to amenities, economic opportunities and transport, as well as variances in population groups and economic conditions.
Ten to 12 parent groups were interviewed to participate in the study in Denver, Mamelodi, Edenvale, Lenasia and Bertrams. The study started with focus groups and conversations about the challenges of parenting and living in Gauteng. From there, eight to 10 people were selected in each area and given a smartphone featuring an app that could track their mobility patterns for two weeks. An informal support group, via WhatsApp, was set up.
People were encouraged to share their reflections and experiences of parenting and moving around the City through the groups, and participated by sending photos, videos and voice notes. After two weeks, the research was concluded with an in-depth interview.
“We were expecting to find gender dynamics, but we were quite surprised at how deeply entrenched some of the heteronormative gender roles were,” says Parker. “There were definitely both mothers and fathers who were struggling within the confines of the gender constructs that were emerging in these families and households, and it cut both ways.”
The daily grind cuts both ways
For instance, because Lenasia is quite far from the Johannesburg CBD and other economic centres, more of the fathers were doing the travelling and mothers were less likely to have access to a car or a driver's licence. Fathers might take the kids to school or do a little bit of the shopping.
In the Denver informal settlement, some of the fathers were living on their own. The research team found that the expectations around gender roles put them at quite a disadvantage.
“For example, one father had two wives and families in KwaZulu-Natal, and when he lost his job, his wives told him that they weren't interested in him coming home unless he was bringing money. He was deeply hurt by the fact that his only role was the money he brought to the family,” says Parker.
Internationally, much attention is being placed on making cities more inclusive. Parker believes that the more we target vulnerable groups in our approach to designing and building cities, the more inclusive the City will become.
“It is certainly not about making urban environments that only work for women,” she says. “It is the fact that when we think about designing for women it often means that we are being more inclusive.”
A classic scenario shows that a woman with a pram has the same sort of mobility and access needs when compared to a person in a wheelchair.
“If we can make cities more inclusive for women, then they will be inclusive for many other groups as well, and they will be better cities.”
Find more of Parker’s work on the Gauteng City-Region Observatory website at gcro.ac.za, including the 2017 study: Spatial footprints of mothers in Johannesburg.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Older people do bonk
- Beth Amato
The notion that people older than 50 neither desire nor engage in sexual intercourse is a misnomer that demands further research, particularly in Africa.
Many of us express a strong aversion to imagining our parents having sex. It’s an awkward thought that must be dismissed as quickly as possible. Why do we feel so uncomfortable thinking about grannies and grandpas enjoying some time beneath the sheets? We express disbelief that men over 50, for example, can have erections or that women past reproductive age are erotic beings, beyond fetishising them as predatory ‘cougars’.
This discomfort has deep-seated roots, with implications for gender and sexual diversity and more importantly for public health.
Sexual silence
Catherine Burns, Associate Professor of Medical History and Ethnography at Wits University, explains that gender and sexuality theory on ageing populations is sparse – globally, and particularly in southern Africa. This dearth reflects the ignorance and taboos around sexuality in older people.
“Sylvia Tamale [African feminist, scholar and lawyer] was one of the first theorists to expand our notion of what sexuality means in this region, across age categories and ethnicities, drawing especially from the Global South,” says Burns.
In Burns’ own historical work, Sex Lessons from the Past, she reveals that there were many ways in which people expressed themselves sexually that were appreciated and valued. Fertility and childbearing were not the only ways sex was socially acceptable. Burns points out that Tamale’s recent research also shows that communities across Africa contain ‘multiple sexualities’, and that this is key to carrying out meaningful research on gender and sexuality today.
“We must see beauty across a life spectrum. Ageism sees older people as undesirable. Mostly, we must transcend our notions of what it means to be a sexual being, otherwise we could fall into the trap of binary and split thinking,” she adds.
Much of the research around sexuality in SA has focused on younger people. A lot of this research focuses on sexual and reproductive health, and the risks associated with sex, including the transmission of HIV/Aids.
Dangerous liaisons
However, studies emanating from a rural community in Mpumalanga show that people older than 50 were contracting as well as transmitting HIV, were not using protective measures like condoms, and had multiple partners. But preventative HIV and Aids messaging was either absent or inappropriate for an older group.
“At first we thought that older people had lived with HIV for a long time, but we soon discovered that they were contracting it later in life. This surprised us as there was a dearth of evidence on HIV acquisition and transmission in older people. Our study is one of the first to delve into these matters,” says Kabudula.
Rewriting the geriatric sex script
In 2010, a cohort of 1 360 adults over 40 were tested for HIV. Five years later, 33 people who tested negative in 2010, tested positive in 2015. The rate for women was double that of men.
“Essentially we have to go back to the drawing board in terms of the prevention messages and campaigns we have. We can’t just transplant the messaging we have for younger people,” notes Kahn.
Kahn says that older people acquiring HIV and Aids in rural communities has consequences for the caregiving of younger and other older people. Younger people often leave the rural areas in search of work, and older women in particular step into primary caregiving roles.
“It’s a matter of priority to ensure that we don’t ignore the older age groups. We have found that older people are more likely to test at home with self-testing kits than at clinics. This is something that could be incorporated into awareness campaigns and interventions for older people,” she says.
Burns notes that older people have been excluded from a lot of clinical research, and this is why the study at the Wits Rural Campus is so important.
In her book Researching and theorizing sexualities, Tamale says that we cannot make homogenised assumptions about African sexualities. Indeed, the idea that older people can’t have sex is among other common and restrictive stereotypes with negative consequences, including misconceptions such as:
Human beings engage in sex for reproductive purposes only,
He is a man and therefore desires only female sexual partners,
She wears a religious veil and is therefore sexually submissive, and
She is menopausal and is therefore asexual.
Older people’s sexual dreams and fears should be less shrouded in shame, mirth and silence. Leave ageism behind with all the other ‘isms’.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Monetising Pride
- Andile Ndlovu
Responsibility and representation: Where does the buck stop for brands and business sales targeting the LGBTQIA+ community?
October was Pride Month in SA and, as has become the norm, brands and establishments went out of their way to lure buyers and to cash-in on the festivities. Despite the absence of a Pride parade for the second year running due to pandemic restrictions, businesses still launched pop-up events welcoming queer patrons. In Johannesburg, particularly, establishments including Liquid Blue in Melville, the Shakers Bar in Maboneng, and Boulevard Lifestyle Lounge in Midrand were sites for much revelry.
However, subsequent conversations swiftly switched to the lack of or the need for increased safety around these spaces. Criminals have been targeting unsuspecting queer revellers outside these establishments for their valuables. Indeed, a voice clip purported to be between two such criminals trading secrets on how to rob queer revellers of their smartphones in and around Durban, was circulated on social media in an effort to encourage more vigilance. Questions have rightly been asked as to whether businesses truly care or simply see this community as a market ripe for the picking.
Of the myriad of stereotypes about the LGBTQIA+ community in this country, one that has snowballed in recent years pertains to the spending power of queer people.
The myth of the pink purse
The concept of the ‘pink economy’ or ‘pink money’, which describes the purchasing power of the LGBTQIA+ community, has grown significantly in recent years as acceptance (slowly) grows across societies. The upshot is twofold: firstly, there’s an increasingly visible and powerful yet relatively untapped market for brands to target, but there is also the peddling of a perception that queer people are gaudy high-earners with vast disposable income in a country where the majority of the population cannot make ends meet.
A 2019 survey measuring the attitudes of non-LGBTQIA+ Americans to exposure of LGBTQIA+ people and images in the media by Procter & Gamble and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found that companies benefit from including LGBTQIA+ people in advertisements, with the vast majority of non-LGBTQIA+ consumers looking favourably upon companies that do so.
Brands in the pink
Hence the exploitation of this audience by brands – with some embarrassing or harmful effects. From former US President Donald Trump’s grossly queerphobic administration selling “Make America Great Again” hats printed in Pride colours, toymaker LEGO’s Everyone is Awesome campaign in which it produced an LGBTQIA+ LEGO set to celebrate diversity, to local jeweller Galaxy & Co. launching a limited-edition tote bag to support the Triangle Project (a Cape Town-based organisation that challenges homophobia, transphobia and intersexphobia, while appreciating sexual, gender and bodily diversity), and even The Body Shop urging its shoppers to sign a petition supporting the Equality Act in the US – there have been some hits and misses.
The commercialisation of Pride Month, opportunistic or otherwise, is no longer the objective of just a handful of brands. There is a sense that it is not only a way of realising a sales boom, but also earning a positive brand image, thereby increasing brand loyalty. Research shows that consumers are likelier to support brands that they perceive to be in their corner.
Whose pride is it anyway?
According to Dr Katlego Disemelo, Associate Lecturer in Media Studies at Wits, whose Master’s dissertation titled Black Men as Pink Consumers? A Critical Reading of Race, Sexuality and the Construction of the Pink Economy in South African Queer Consumer Media, and whose doctoral research was on drag queen pageantry and performances of gender in Johannesburg, it is almost impossible to “examine or discuss any brand in terms of authenticity” in this context
“A more salient aspect to this discussion is a critical awareness of the fact that the very notion of a ‘pink economy’, which was pioneered in the Global North in the early 90s, is much more of a marketing ideal than a tangible, sociological, and/or economic phenomenon,” says Disemelo.
“Arguing from a specifically contextual point of view, South Africa’s economy and socioeconomic structures are far too fragmented and fluctuating to accommodate a ‘neat’ application of this Western term in the South African context.”
In a country like SA where the marginalisation of women and queer people persists, there remains a need for brands and agencies to take more responsibility for raising awareness around equal rights, and for changing societal misperceptions about sexual minorities by committing to purposeful marketing, instead of just cashing in on the queer. Consumers are exceedingly perceptive (not to mention diverse in how they identify) and will take their monies elsewhere when they sense that they are being exploited.
“The branding and commoditisation of various Pride marches, events, and social movements remains problematic and exclusionary,” adds Disemelo. “The transnational branding of ‘Pride’ is inevitably connected to the erasure and underrepresentation of black and other queer communities of colour. This then begs the analytical question: Whose pride are we speaking about? Who is represented and who gets to shout at the tops of their voices (or buy branded commodities) in the name of ‘Pride’?”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Fractured histories
- Tamsin Oxford
Coloured women find their centre beyond the whisper and gossip.
Krotoa, the first matriarch of the Cape
The story of the coloured women’s dispossession in South Africa circles back to Krotoa, the first matriarch of the Cape. Krotoa was a Khoi translator and mediator for the Dutch in the 1650s when they began their colonial conquest of the Cape.
Krotoa was not only a domestic worker, but an interpreter and a mediator – a woman so trusted that she helped make peace when war was breaking out. She was only 16 when she negotiated peace between the warring factions of the ‘Hollander and Hottentots’ in the 1600s.
Hers is a powerful and impactful lineage that came to a sad, marginalised end when her intelligence, gifts and forceful nature should have given her a rich future. Krotoa was a powerful woman whose history was lost by time and colonialism.
Dr Darlene Miller, a Senior Lecturer in the Wits School of Governance, is currently conducting research that traces Krotoa’s lineage. Through her research, Miller contends that the loss of this lineage – and that of other Khoi or coloured women – is a situation affecting many South Africans who are classified as coloured. This loss of lineage has implications for coloured women’s leadership, and the unique experiences that come with being a woman of Khoi descent.
An eviscerated history
“The first difficulty is that you don’t exist,” says Miller. “When you don’t have an active past, you exist in the present without it, and the truth is that the past is a gift. It is an ancestral river that has been eviscerated by the historic actions of others.”
This is a scenario that many other cultures in South Africa cannot imagine. Yet exploring an archive as a coloured woman means being surrounded by rows and shelves of books that trace the lineages and histories of white families while the microfiche films of coloured births and deaths have been erased.
“I can’t even find a record that my grandmother existed,” says Miller. “There is no lineage, record or lists of birth and deaths, a very common experience for coloured people. We don’t find ourselves in the archives because our ancestors struggled to acknowledge our existence. We were the dirty little secrets stuck onto a part of the farm where we could not be seen and recognised as the child of the patriarch who sired us. We were a whisper and a gossip, our history erased.”
Biographical impoverishment
When a person doesn’t have a written or verbal record of their lineage – this link to the land through their history – then they lose out on the spiritual and symbolic connections to their past. For Miller, many black South Africans still have some connection to the land and many can trace back to their ancestral homes and lineages. However, being a descendent of the Khoi is a complete dispossession – mixed race parentage with no history on either side.
“It is defined as umbilical ontology, where coloured women end their days without the knowledge of their lineage in a sort of biographical impoverished existence,” says Miller. “Your life is writ small. If you have the awareness of this loss, then this tends to express itself in learned cultural habits like alcoholism and substance abuse. This is a far way to fall for a culture that’s highly articulate and intelligent. Many of the Khoi were poly linguistic with immense talent, and the removal of their history means that many people of this descent are having to make do with a montage made from the fragments of the past.”
Lost leadership legacy
For Miller, it is critical that coloured women reclaim who they are so that they can fulfil their leadership potential. The value of this can be seen in the powerful confidence of strong African women leaders – self-possessed and self-confident, they are comfortable within themselves and their histories, not concerned about the criticisms they receive. This, Miller feels, is a gift taken away from coloured women and one that requires that they take a different route to achieve that sense of self-possession and ancestral purpose.
“Coloured women need to acknowledge their pasts and their lineages and traditions, this will give them the stories that they need to dig deeply into their histories and build their cultural traditions,” says Miller. “This can be done by listening to the stories, African storytellers, and realising that your past is a powerful route to confidence and understanding.”
Miller believes that coloured women are amazing and captivating storytellers. “Somewhere in your psyche is a story,” she says. “We would do this in the past around the fire when the moon was rising, capturing the rhythms of life within the stories. We need to recapture our history by finding the storyteller within, and then reconstructing the damage of our lineage.”
In most cases in the past, these women ended up as marginalised and incarcerated, especially the powerful and beautiful ones. “Avoiding tragedy is difficult. But ultimately, coloured women now sit at the cusp of change, where they can leave behind the strictures of European lineages and stories, and find their own within the fractured histories that still exist. And, in finding these, find the centre of themselves.”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Being queer in Africa
- Beth Amato
Despite a history of openness to queerness in pre-colonial times, Africa is now largely unwelcoming to LGBTQIA+ people.
In halls at undisclosed locations in Zambia, you might think that you were on the set of Pose, a drama series based on drag ball subculture among black and Latino LGBTQIA+ people in New York City in the ‘80s. In these halls, difference and repressed expression are celebrated and encouraged. Zambia’s queer community, in their ball gowns and under those moving twinkly squares of a disco ball, take centre stage. There is lively catwalk commentary and the outside world, with its terrible risks and dangers, is quiet.
In Zambia it is illegal to be gay. Policies are deeply rooted in heteropatriarchal and religious values and beliefs. “Zambia is undoubtedly and irrefutably a Christian country. In that country, homosexuality and anything other than a binary definition of sex and gender is an anathema to Christianity,” says Efemia Chela, a Master’s student in the Governing Intimacies Project at Wits University. Chela is trying to understand what it is like to be queer in Zambia, and how sex and gender are constructed in Zambia’s broader imagination. Her research is the first on lesbian, bisexual, queer and non-binary people in Zambia.
Africa Check published findings by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Gay, Trans, Intersex Association (ILGA), which showed that 31 out of the 54 UN member states in Africa criminalised consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults in private. Meanwhile, same-sex marriage is only legal in SA.
ILGA’s 2020 State Sponsored Homophobia report reveals that in Egypt, for example, “even though there are no laws explicitly criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts, other laws are used in practise to arrest, prosecute and convict people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.” Hence, this is de facto criminalisation.
In states where Sharia law is applied (such as Mauritania, Somalia, Nigeria and South Sudan) being gay is punishable by death.
Indeed, while many countries do not directly criminalise transgender and gender-diverse people, many do so indirectly through indecency laws, the criminalisation of same-sex relationships, and impersonation laws. It is almost impossible in Africa to change gender markers on legal documents, although this may be changing in the near future.
Only three states – SA, Mauritius and Angola – explicitly condemn discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Despite this, there is no guarantee that people across the queer spectrum live safely and openly.
Why is it so challenging to be queer in Africa when research shows that there is a rich queer history on the continent.
“In pre-colonial times, being queer was acceptable. We have queer ancestors all over the continent. That history has been demonised, erased and further supressed by religion,” says Boniswa*, a 28-year old who identifies as queer.
She explains that her great-grandmothers had words for being gender non-conforming. Indeed, those who transcended gender binaries were considered spiritual healers because they embodied masculine and feminine qualities.
"We have queer ancestors all over the world"
Catherine Burns, an Associate Professor in Medical History and Ethnography at Wits University, notes that gender and sexual diversity in Africa has been around for many generations. “Indeed, the Modjadji monarchs or the rain queens of the Balobedu in Limpopo, South Africa, are not supposed to marry, but have many ‘wives’, although they are not spouses in the typical sense. Moreover, while Modjadji procreated with male suitors selected by her clan, she was not required to remain in exclusive relations with them,” she explains.
Burns says that the ‘self’ was never strictly seen in binary and gender specific terms. Fluidity, play and the embracing of a multi-faceted ‘self’ strengthened bonds and aided community cohesion. “We need to start taking all intimate experiences seriously. We need to ‘open’ up our language to give space to gender fluidity and difference,” adds Boniswa.
Fast-forward to 2021, and being queer in Africa is complex, gritty and granular. Entangled with a validating queer ‘ancestry’, as Boniswa puts it, is tangible and intangible discrimination. On the most horrific end of the spectrum, there are hate crimes, where lesbian and trans people in particular are at huge risk of violence and death. It is worse for poor, black queer people.
“Already there are so many odds stacked against you when you identify as queer. Your families and churches may have shunned you. Then you live in poverty-stricken circumstances in highly unequal societies. In 2020, when lockdown began, we had to go beyond our role as queer memory archivists and help people who were starving, out of work and isolated with no support structures. The stories made us weep,” says Keval Harie, Director of the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) Queer Archive at Wits University.
While there are stories of hardship, pain, rejection and discrimination, there are many ways in which heteronormativity and patriarchy are challenged. Indeed the GALA Queer Archive showcases stories of change, especially through storytelling, history, education, advocacy and art.
“There isn’t this universal and monolithic queer-lived experience in Africa,” says Boniswa.
For her, more ‘liberal’ spaces like Braamfontein have been surprisingly unwelcoming. She recalls how the waiters in a pizza restaurant refused to serve her and her girlfriend after they saw them holding hands. When she came out as queer, Boniswa’s heterosexual female friends shunned her. She has to argue with those who think she is ‘anti-man’, because she challenges dominant monomyths.
“No matter the huge risk to them, queer people find ways to subvert authority and express themselves wholeheartedly,” says Chela. A thriving drag ball and Pride subculture in Zambia extends to an active supportive community. There are ‘chosen family’ gatherings, underground Pride events and closed Facebook and WhatsApp groups. Important information is shared, such as which mental health workers, medical doctors and state officials are queer friendly.
Boniswa deeply admires the work of queer artist and activist Zanele Muholi. In Muholi’s recent work, exhibited at the Tate Modern in 2020, the artist’s photographs give voice and agency to the lesbians, gender non-conformists and trans men depicted in the work. The exhibition is a prosaic take on the everyday reality of those believed to be ‘threatening, un-sacred and tragic’. Muholi aimed to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of SA “for the world to know of our existence, resistance and persistence”.
“While I can’t say whether being queer will ever be formally acknowledged and decriminalised in Africa, there are many pockets of people who express themselves in the ways that they can, and establish robust social networks, no matter how marginalised and despised they are,” says Chela.
*Boniswa prefers to use only her first name in this article. She is a member of the Wits Community.
Safe Zones
The Safe Zones @ Wits programme strives to erase prejudice, while providing a support system for the LGBTQIA+ community at Wits University. Through education, advocacy and awareness-raising, the programme contributes to a campus climate that is safe and accepting.
University members are asked to consider becoming a Safe Zone ally. After members have completed training, a badge and sticker can be displayed indicating a Safe Zone. Ultimately, an ally is defined as an individual who supports and honours diversity, challenges acts of prejudice against LGBTQIA+ people and is willing to explore and understand these forms of bias at the individual and institutional levels.
The Pocket Queerpedia 2021, made available by the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education, is an illustrated glossary of LGBTQIA+ terms. The book came into being after activists realised how LGBTQIA+ terms were not commonly understood. “Why are some terms used in different ways by different people? What is the difference between a transgender and a gay person? Can a person be transgender AND gay? What does the word queer mean, and why should I care if I do not share any of these experiences?” are questions asked by participants in the making of the book. The full version is available at: https://www.tshisimani.org.za.
The GALA Queer Archive (GALA) is a catalyst for the production, preservation and dissemination of information about the history, culture and contemporary experiences of LGBTQIA+ people in SA. As an archive founded on the principles of social justice and human rights, GALA works toward a greater awareness about the lives of LGBTQIA+ people as a means to an inclusive society. GALA's primary focus is to preserve and nurture LGBTQIA+ narratives, as well as promote social equality, inclusive education and youth development.
Read more in the 13thissue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Same-sexuality past and present
- Shaun Smillie
The notion that homosexuality is ‘unAfrican’ is totally false. People have engaged in same-sex relationships for centuries.
There is a misconception that same-sex relationships and gender fluidity is new to Africa and that it is an evil practice that sneaked in with colonialism. But the notion that homosexuality is ‘unAfrican’ is totally false, says Keval Harie, Director of the GALA Queer Archive, who stresses that gender fluidity stretches way back to the indigenous peoples of Africa.
Evidence of this can be seen in San paintings, says Harie, and there are hints of same-sex liaisons on ancient Egyptian tombs. Across the Mediterranean, it was the ancient Greeks who first documented same-sex relationships. It was only when the Roman Empire began transitioning to Christianity that same-sexuality became taboo.
Today religion is still often a force against gay rights. “When it comes to Christianity, you still feel that stigma,” says Dr Nolwazi Mkhwanazi, a medical anthropologist formerly from the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research. She adds that religious leaders often fuel homophobic and anti-queer sentiment.
Times have changed considerably since the Roman era and worldwide in the 21st Century there is increasingly recognition of the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community – legally, at least.
Same-sex legalities in the 21st Century
In September 2021, another country joined the revolution that began two decades ago – Switzerland voted overwhelmingly in a referendum in favour of allowing same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children. Weeks earlier, the Mexican state of Sonora had approved same-sex marriages. Switzerland’s inclusion brings to 29 the number of countries where same-sex marriages are now legal.
This global list began gathering momentum in April 2001 when a lesbian and three gay couples exchanged vows in an Amsterdam City Hall on the day that the Netherlands legalised same-sex marriages. And while SA was fifth on the list to ratify same-sex marriages, the country was the first in the world to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in SA’s new democratic Constitution, on 8 May 1996.
Legal but persecuted
The revolution may be forging ahead, but resistance to gay rights persists. In March 2021 the Vatican ruled that priests would not be allowed to bless same-sex unions. And even in SA – the shining example of LGBTQIA+ rights on the continent – there is a dark side of gay hate crimes and a growing number of killings. In 2021 there have been 16 known LGBTQIA+ murders, and most have been black lesbians and transsexuals.
Harie calls the killings an illegal failure of the criminal justice system where killers often walk free to commit crimes again. “It particularly fails those who don't have access to resources, who can't really afford lawyers, but have to rely on the state for justice,” says Harie.
A national task team set up by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to coordinate the various government offices and private organisations to deal with these hate crimes has fallen by the wayside, according to Harie.
Mkhwanazi concurs – time and time again she sees gay hate crimes get bogged down in the courts. “And I don’t know what it is – is it corruption? The patriarchal society in which we live? It needs to be looked at, because as people we should all be treated the same.”
Future fluidity
Hari says, “We need leaders to speak out. Things have changed remarkably from where we were 25 years ago, but the hard work still remains. We need to be engaging with communities who are still very deeply conservative and we need to engage with religious leaders to tell them to stop spreading hate.”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
An illegal failure of our criminal justice system
- Beth Amato
Hate crimes such as the so-called “corrective rape” of lesbians and trans women is a black mark against SA’s constitutional democracy.
In 2021, there were 16 known LGBTQIA+ murders in South Africa. This was mostly against black lesbians and those who identify as transsexual. This is in a country with a rock solid and clear Constitution: no matter your sex or gender, you are protected from discrimination and have equal rights.
“It particularly fails those who don’t have access to resources and who can’t really afford lawyers. Therefore, they have to rely on the state for justice,” says Harie.
Wits Journalism Lecturer, Dr Nechama Brodie who authored a book on femicide in South Africa spanning 40 years, explains that the growth in hate crimes was experienced by all members of the LGBTQIA+ community, with transgender individuals experiencing higher levels of violence, as a group, than lesbians or gay men.
The state has a poor record of dealing with hate crimes. “Hate crimes against queer people get throttled by the overburdened court system,” says Dr Nolwazi Mkhwanazi, a medical anthropologist formerly with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research.
Added to this, a national task team set up by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to coordinate the various government offices and private organisations to deal with hate crimes, has fallen by the wayside.
“I don’t know what it is – is it corruption? The patriarchal society in which we live? It needs to be looked at because as people we should all be treated the same,” says Mkhwanazi.
‘Jackrolling’ and ‘Blackwash’
Indeed, homophobia is entrenched and sexual violence a popular weapon, notes Brodie. “Jackrolling”, for example, "involves men targeting black lesbian women to ‘teach them how to be proper women’.
Jackrolling became curative [with] corrective rape [and] the underlying belief that women would somehow be cured from their homosexuality.” Jackrolling is a term that has been around since the 1980s, suggesting its long and prevailing history.
Their article, titled “We are a collective, a lot of us together, standing up”: South African black lesbian women’s activism against discourses of blackwashing homophobia, refers to the “blackwashing of homophobia".
“Blackwashing homophobia” is a concept explored by Adjunct Associate Professor Melanie Judge at the University of Cape Town, in her work Blackwashing Homophobia: Violence and the Politics of Sexuality, Gender and Race (Concepts for Critical Psychology) (2018).
Pinheiro and Harvey (2019) in their Agendaarticle reference Judge as part of a much broader theoretical framework. They write that blackwashing refuses to acknowledge the structural inequalities that persist and perpetuates colonial and white supremacist tropes of black people as inherently violent.
Pinheiro and Harvey explain in their paper that intersectionality theory provides the tools to examine oppression and power, in order to “explore possible counter-discourses that disrupt master narratives of black lesbian womanhood/s”.
Drawing on various sources for their article, Pinheiro and Harvey write that lesbian women must not be seen as singular and unidimensional. “Critically, constructions of rape as ‘corrective’ serve only to remove agency from the target of the crime, bolstering mythical discourses of homosexuality as ‘unnatural’… In many ways, these discursive mechanisms are problematic; primarily because they normalise violence and hatred as acceptable parts of identifying as a lesbian in township spaces,” according to the article.
Drag Queens and creative defiance
In their Agenda article, Pinheiro and Harvey demonstrate the complexity of queer lives through the example of the Rainbow Girls – a documentary photographic project by Julia Gunther. Some of Gunther’s work shows the Miss Lesbian competition in Khayelitsha township, Cape Town. The photographs and narratives from the contestants reveal unflinching defiance and the women’s refusal to accept the repressive attitudes that marginalise them.
The GALA Queer Archive based at Wits University houses a remarkable permanent photographic collection, entitled Kewpie: Daughter of District Six. This too shows the diversity, fluidity and multiplicity of the life of famous District Six drag queen, Kewpie.
Harie says, “Most of the photographs in the collection were taken by Kewpie and friends, and show Kewpie’s extensive social life and social circle, both in District Six and further afield. The photographs depict the carefully crafted public personas of the drag queens, and also their private ‘off-duty’ lives.”
Pinheiro (2019) argues in the Agenda article that these kinds of subversive acts of creativity and boldness “allude to the fullness of queer people’s identities; they are constructed as plural, intricate and dynamic, with possibilities for pleasure, joy, freedom, power, resilience and agency”.
This Curios.ty story was updated online on 8 June 2022 to accurately credit both the authors who co-wrote a research article that was extensively referenced in the Curios.ty story and published in the journal Agenda on 21 June 2019: Gabriela Pinheiro & Clare Harvey (2019) “We are a collective, a lot of us together, standing up”: South African black lesbian women’s activism against discourses of blackwashing homophobia, Agenda, 33:2, 97-112. Wits Communications acknowledges Gabriela Pinheiro as the first author of this article, co-written with her Master’s supervisor, Dr Clare Harvey, and apologises for the misattribution and incomplete referencing.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
A heart for the queer and gay
- Brigitte Read
Dr Ahmed Badat spends his life focusing on improving LGBTQIA+ mental health training for medical students.
It was a comment during a talk on transgender mental health while doing his community service that hit a nerve for Dr Ahmed Badat. Addressing a room full of medical professionals, a very experienced senior clinician made an aside remark about the need to preserve heterosexual relationships. The comment stirred anger in Badat and made him realise that something needed to change.
Research shows that there is still a high prevalence of homophobia among medical doctors. Many still believe sexuality is a choice or that conversion therapy is appropriate. Badat had witnessed discrimination towards queer patients in the healthcare setting, yet notes that in his own six years of undergraduate training, he only had one lecture about LGBTQIA+ communities, which was related to health.
“Going through med school, I realised that healthcare for the LGBTQIA+ community is not a priority in terms of medical education, and that’s not necessarily as a result of discrimination. It is six years and medicine is vast and there is much to cover, but also historically medicine is rooted in a very heteronormative space. For example, we’re not taught to ask patients their pronouns as part of the formal training.”
Caring for LGBTQIA+ patients
As a result, Badat’s research for his MMed in Psychiatry is focused on assessing final year medical students’ preparedness for caring for LGBTQIA+ patients with mental illness. Part of his hypothesis is that the LGBTQIA+ population is a minority population and individuals are therefore subject to distinct stressors which may negatively affect their mental health. There is a large body of research which highlights the increased prevalence of depression, anxiety, suicidality and substance-use disorders amongst the queer population.
Badat’s research, currently in the data collection phase, assesses medical professionals’ ability to provide care for LGBTQIA+ patients, looking at clinical awareness, attitudinal awareness and basic knowledge. Badat also evaluates knowledge about the specific mental healthcare needs of LGBTQIA+ populations and if students feel prepared to provide adequate mental healthcare to LGBTQIA+ patients after completing their psychiatry rotation.
“My aim is to identify areas for improvement in the care for LGBTQIA+ patients so that undergraduate medical education can be adjusted to adequately prepare future doctors and improve the quality of mental healthcare received by queer people,” explains Badat. “This is all long-term work, that will require buy-in from many different parties, but I’m hoping to get the ball rolling and that this creates an opening for improvement in medical education on LGBTQIA+ issues.”
Drawn to people’s narratives
An ardent TV series fan, Badat was initially inspired to go into medicine after watching Grey’s Anatomy. Now he particularly enjoys podcasts and documentaries in the true crime genre, and this curiosity about people’s motivations and narratives is what drew him to psychiatry. He is a massive fan of Survivor, admitting to becoming quite invested in analysing the contestants’ personalities and strategies. He is also a die-hard Harry Potter devotee, His favourite character is the intelligent and steadfast Hermione – he believes that she is the true hero of the series – and his Hogwarts house is Ravenclaw, which fittingly embodies wisdom, wit and academic learning.
Badat currently works as a Registrar at the Tara Psychiatric Hospital where he serves patients with severe personality pathology. He acknowledges that he has found this rotation to be the most stimulating and rewarding so far. Coincidentally, he works in the same ward wherein which he completed his psychiatry rotation as a final year student and where he became convinced that psychiatry was the path he wanted to follow. His Registrar at that time was Dr Sanushka Moodley and in a poetic full circle, she is now his research supervisor.
“As my Registrar, she was a role model in terms of who I wanted to be - nurturing, willing to teach, so kind, but she also delivered such a high standard of care and compassion for her patients. And hopefully I can give the medical students here now a similar experience.”
When people have greater understanding, there is also a chance that they will have greater empathy.
(Badat also acknowledges the support and mentorship that he has received so far from Dr Laila Paruk and the Wits Head of Psychiatry, Professor Ugasvaree Subramaney.
Moodley was his first guest on a podcast he created called Purple Couch: A Psychiatry Podcast. The podcast series is intended to serve as a study aid for medical students and junior doctors. Featuring a different mental healthcare practitioner in each episode, the show aims to provide information specifically related to the South African context.
Badat admits that if he wasn’t a doctor, he would probably be a teacher. This seems fitting as his research is aimed at improving undergraduate medical training to better prepare clinicians to understand the unique challenges of the LGBTQIA+ communities, and to ultimately lead to better care for all.
“Education has been shown to reduce prejudice. When people have greater understanding, there is a chance that they will have greater empathy.”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Let’s talk about sex (and health), please
- Lem Chetty
Changes in sexual functioning are a side effect of many physical and mental illnesses, however, across genders, sexual health and behaviour are not addressed.
“I recall a patient consultation that lasted all of 16 seconds,” says Deidre Pretorius, a PhD candidate in the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute. Pretorius’ research, published in the journal Sexual Medicine, looks at sexual history-taking for risk behaviour in primary care.
Her research found that when healthcare practitioners talk to patients about their sexual history and health, it can contribute towards improving health outcomes in primary care but, due to factors such as high patient volume, a lack of empathy and shying away from these topics, these discussions don’t happen often enough.
“We live in a country with high numbers of people living with HIV and Aids, which implies that a comprehensive sexual history must be taken when patients are treated. This doesn’t happen.”
Pretorius filmed 151 routine consultations with patients with diabetic or hypertensive conditions, yet found only five consultations in which sex was discussed. “Conversations were paternalistic and lacked privacy, warmth and respect,” Pretorius writes in the journal.
Both chronic conditions, diabetes and hypertension have neurological and vascular effects which in turn affect sexual health. “Not only was sexual history not taken, but patients living with sexual dysfunction were missed. If patients understand how disease and medication contribute to their sexual wellbeing, this may have changed their perceptions of the illness and adherence patterns,” she says.
Barriers of inequality
The study focused largely on women – about two-thirds of the interviewees. But Pretorius says that studies also show experiences of discrimination towards queer individuals when seeking healthcare which has resulted in barriers and inequality in the access of healthcare. “When members of the LGBTQIA+ community see doctors, we find that the doctors and nurses tend to giggle and not take the patient seriously.”
Pretorius says that one interviewee lied about having hypertension so that she could be a part of the study into sexual health, as she was experiencing problems with her partner who is a transgender female. “That is how serious it is on the ground. I wonder how much of this is about lack of education?” asks Pretorius.
As a social worker for 40 years, working with families, Pretorius says that the topic of sex comes up often in consults – in the context of gender-based violence, marital concerns or coercion to expand couples’ sexual repertoire, amongst others. She recalls working in an oncology unit with a couple where the wife was coming to the end of her chemotherapy after a mastectomy. “I found the husband holding his head in the waiting room. He said that he was not coping, his blood pressure was not good. Up to that point the medical discussions with the couple were clinical. But he eventually shared that they were having intimacy issues because in 50 years of marriage, he would sleep holding on to her breast. Due to the illness, they had to adjust their way of life. Both were feeling rejected. So, if doctors are willing to talk about sexual functioning along with illness, it would make a huge difference to people.”
Pretorius says that the side effects of medication and sexual health are not often discussed. “I had a patient with epilepsy whose medication caused a lack of libido. The doctor who prescribed it never explained it. I saw her and her husband when they were already contemplating divorce.”
Antidepressants – especially those used in the public sector – can affect libido while common mental illnesses like major depression result in a general lack of energy and may lower libido. “People just don’t enjoy anything anymore, including desire. The conundrum is that treating depression with common antidepressant medications can cause sexual issues like anorgasmia and erectile dysfunction,” says Rowe.
Bipolar disorders also affect sexual functioning. “When people are in a depressed frame of mind, they would experience a lack of libido, but when they are in a manic state, they become disinhibited, taking sexual risks and later regretting them. Libido increases and so does a loss of self-control. But to control the behaviour, mood stabilisers, antidepressants and antipsychotics can have sexual side effects, so it is a difficult balance to find,” says Rowe.
Other mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or schizophrenia affect sexual functioning in other ways, like social isolation. “In the case of PTSD, sexual trauma can have a huge impact on sexual desire and health.”
Despite this, Rowe agrees that in the public sector particularly, screening for sexual side effects is not prioritised in the mental health sector. “Patients would be seeing nursing sisters and GPs, because there are just not enough psychiatrists. Also, as an impact of time and patient volumes, in my experience, sexual history and psychosexual history is not taken from patients.”
Let’s talk about sex
Patients tend to find it difficult to talk about sexual issues, because of their own views and judgement, especially when the conversation is between an elder caregiver and a younger patient. “People are scared to discuss sexual health and this should not be the case. We should be able to feel comfortable and speak openly, especially because relationship history and sexual history can reveal abuse or trauma,” says Rowe. In an ideal world, treating ailments like chronic pelvic pain would start with an assessment of sexual behaviour rather than treatment options.
Having worked outside the country, Rowe says that the South African medical fraternity needs to evolve its thinking around gender. “For instance, gender-neutral bathrooms and preferred pronouns for patients are not a consideration, although they are the norm elsewhere. Healthcare workers seem not to be sure of how to handle transgender patients, like nurses not wanting to place a transgender woman in the female ward for fear of safety.
SA has “a long way to go in a world where transgender people make healthcare workers nervous”. Changing attitudes begins with education, and this should start with medical and nursing schools.
Pretorius adds that sexual health is a rights-based issue. “In a country where diabetes is so prevalent, we should consider helping patients, perhaps with medication to treat virility. But doctors don’t talk about it.”
Women experiencing menopause and vaginal atrophy cannot access medication in the public sector and it is too expensive for them to buy themselves. “We have to think about the implications of not talking about sexual behaviour and functioning. It is devastating, and if untreated, can create a greater cost down the healthcare line. There’s a lot of judgement. I’ve had doctors who said it isn’t a priority. We don’t train our doctors to do this either. We know psychotherapy can help.”
But there is good news. “Healthcare workers are realising that we cannot ignore this any longer. Curricula are being updated. We can’t be talking about the smells of discharge, excrement, etc. with our doctors but not sex. It is a natural experience to have sexual needs, even with a chronic illness.”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Mobilising big data and AI to fight GBVF
- Tamsin Oxford
Gender-based violence and femicide is a pandemic more insidious and endemic than a virus – how technology can help combat and prevent it.
President Cyril Ramaphosa described gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) as the “second major pandemic we face in South Africa today”, and with good reason. SA has one of the highest incidences of femicide and rape in the world, and the lockdowns only made things worse – more than 120 000 victims were reported in the first three weeks of the first lockdown in 2020.
According to Stats SA, almost 50% of assaults are committed by a friend, partner, relative or household member, and one in five partnered women have experienced physical violence. This finding led the President to launch the GBVF Response Fund (GBVF-RF) early in 2021. For Wits University Chancellor, Dr Judy Dlamini, who also chairs the GBVF-RF, the starting point for addressing this problem lies in understanding how big it is and how impactful this crisis is, which is why she has engaged in a project to mobilise big data and artificial intelligence (AI) against GBVF.
Impartial intelligence
“We have a serious national crisis that predates Covid-19 and we need to find ways of combatting GBV with the sole aim of eradicating it,” she says. “To ensure that there are the right policies in place to address this problem, and to allocate responses in the right places at the right time, you need accurate data, accurate data analysis, and AI without bias.”
One of the challenges facing the project from the outset was the need to create an AI platform and data analysis toolkit that was free from the inherent biases found in AI. There are numerous examples of how AI platforms – Microsoft, Amazon – have favoured the white male, and this is a bias that cannot be allowed when it comes to overcoming the complexities of GBVF.
“The starting point is to get the correct data which requires conducting participatory research in affected communities, as this data can be effectively analysed to find the right solutions,” says Dlamini.
“The goal is to develop an intersectional lens that can look at those social identities that tend to be ignored and the different contexts for different communities, so that any solution developed will truly address the issues.”
Dlamini says that the challenge is to work out the representivity in teams of developers, what data is being used and how the algorithm is developed. Only 22% of professionals in AI are women, and they usually hold low-level roles. Women are 20% less likely to own a smartphone or have access to the internet, according to the Global Gender Gap Report, 2018. “So, when using AI to address social ills, we first have to address inherent bias.”
GenderXSecure is a parody site for gender safety insurance. This parody site speculates on the existence of a subscription service that offers one less exposure to GBV by endowing the member with privileges that would make them less vulnerable. They review the options for the different packages one could take out and lastly, they do a risk assessment calculator to help them find their best cover. The questions asked by the website are supported by screenshots of GBV stats."
Subverting patriarchy
For Dlamini, the patriarchal system is so entrenched in all communities for various reasons that it will take deliberate and consistent effort and support across the board to defeat GBVF and gender inequality in general, in this lifetime. With the right data and analysis, she believes that it is possible to predict and prevent GBVF, and that the right data can influence policy, the appropriate interventions and resource allocation.
“We can use the data to see what it’s telling us about a specific community and how many intervention areas and types of intervention are required, such as at police stations and other support services,” she says.
“We can use the data to look at the causes underlying GBVF and how we can address those, and find ways of creating social cohesion and better conversations around gender equality and different sexual orientations. If we get it right, it can inform so many aspects that can change the paradigm of how women are viewed and how we can change this toxic system that doesn’t serve anyone.”
It’s early stages for this initiative and collaboration across sectors, academic disciplines, civil society and government holds the key to finding a sustainable solution.
Mapping gender safety on the ground
Another project that focuses on the GBVF conversation, but on a more granular level, is the Digital SUPERPOWER! Lab in collaboration with Fak’ugesi Labs. Creative technologist Ling Tan from Umbrellium, and Dr Tegan Bristow, Principal Researcher for the Fak’ugesi Festival and Senior Lecturer at Wits, are developing an app specifically targeted at womxn and the LGBTQIA+ communities in Bulawayo, Johannesburg and London.
“This is a citizen-led data project on a small scale, led by a community,” explains Bristow. “The point is to understand how different rights organisations and people interested in gender safety in these three cities can use a piece of technology on a mobile phone to answer specific questions around gender safety. Ultimately, it’s about putting a tool into the hands of communities and citizens that allows them to geospatially map issues around gender safety in their communities.”
The tool asks the questions that governments may not be answering by logging where and how people are experiencing problems. While the app is still in the prototype phase, it is built to work around very specific questions. Bristow and Tan are working with a group of femme-identifying individuals, including those who are transgender.
People in each group across the three cities use the app by screen tapping to share insights, while concealing the app in their pockets so as not to put the person at further risk of attack or theft. They share their impressions of security within specific areas across the metrics of ‘very good’ to ‘very bad’. They can stop at a place and take a photo and write a note, enter their answer on a scale of one to five, or tap on their phone – one tap indicates ‘not feeling safe’ while five taps is a healing location. The information is logged according to location and situation.
“The insights offer an overview of how people are managing safety and advocates for improvements around gender safety,” says Bristow. “The app considers a lot of data and takes the nuanced detail into account that can help organisations by providing insights that can make tangible change for GBV.”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Monstrous males/femme fatales
- Leanne Rencken
Gender portrayals in animated films have come a long way, which is important, as animation can be a tool for positive social change.
Her favourite response to the question, and the most surprising she received from this year’s cohort, was randomly, Ed, Edd n Eddy, because, as the student who nominated the cartoon series elaborated, “it showed the hustle, like how important it is to make money, how to adapt, and how to become an entrepreneur”.
This was an option and an interpretation that Wittstock hadn’t yet considered, but which goes to show, whether it is an emotional, cultural or educational connection, animation as a medium is certainly effective, and way more than the sum of its intricately illustrated parts.
“Every student could come up with an animation that profoundly impacted on the way they perceive the world,” she says. “It is something that pop culture does. It is so all-encompassing that we get influenced by it daily, and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.”
Pop invasion
With the proliferation of viewing devices and streaming platforms, it is easy for both adults and children to be bombarded by ‘invasive’ pop culture messaging that dictates gender stereotypes as the norm. We don’t question these messages enough – especially when it comes to animation, as this is likely the first medium with which children typically engage.
“We’re passive consumers, and we don’t really think about the meaning and ideology behind the films that young children are watching. I would love for them to see shows that promote inclusivity and equality within genders, rather than shows that promote othering and exclusivity,” adds Wittstock.
Wittstock focuses much of her academic energy on animation. It is the reason why she recently published a chapter in the book Gender, Supernatural Beings, and the Liminality of Death: Monstrous Males/Fatal Females.
The chapter she submitted is titled The Animated Dead: Reimagining the Beautiful Corpse in Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, and is based on a portion of her Master’s thesis, as well as some of the material that she has developed with her colleagues in the Department.
She is obviously delighted to have her work featured in this international collection of essays, and experienced the writing process as a cathartic distraction from Covid-19. “I feel like I achieved something in a really difficult time,” she explains. “Something that I thought was worthy and needed to be discussed.”
Gender evolution
When it comes to gender and the portrayal of the female in animated film, Wittstock has much to say. She believes that within a Westernised context, representations of gender have come far since the early years of animation, particularly when it comes to heteronormative ideas of gender.
“Each wave of feminism has brought with it a great change in society, and these shifts in gender ideologies have bled into popular culture, and subsequently animated film,” she explains.
“If we look at the evolution of Disney’s princesses you can see a massive shift in gender representation. The pathetic and feeble portrayal of Snow White in Disney’s first feature length animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has been radically overthrown in their more recent animated offerings, and can be seen explicitly through protagonists, Anna and Elsa (Frozen), Moana (Moana) and Raya (Ray and the Last Dragon).”
Pixar has had a similar journey of growth, although that studio is providing new guidance on masculinity and manhood within a post-feminist world.
“I think fondly here of the 2001 film Monsters, Inc.,” says Wittstock. “Sully the Monster is represented as a paternal figure whose masculine presence is loving, kind, emotional and protective.”
Wittstock cautions that there is still much to be reimagined and envisioned regarding gender.
“Although there have been great leaps in representation, I believe that as we continue to develop and practise our ideas surrounding gender identity, we will begin to see even more changes in our films. Gender binaries are being questioned, and I hope that the future of animation allows spaces for positive queer identities, and for feminine identities to be redefined in spaces that have previously been destructive or exclusionary.”
In her contribution to the book, Wittstock shows how animation enables these ventures into new feminine figures within the horror genre.
“Emily from Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is not simply a site of the monstrous, nor is she fully released from the objectification of the beautiful corpse. She is a subtle rendering of both, subconsciously navigating and commenting on previous feminine horror tropes. As a result, Burton refreshingly offers a powerful, alternate female horror figure, whose agency lies within ambiguity, subversion and humour of the macabre.”
But does Burton’s ‘refreshing’ nuanced take on Emily’s character make him a feminist ally?
“Yes and no. Women in horror are still incredibly objectified and undervalued, but through my argument I show how an animated character could potentially break through these problematic genre codes and conventions in a way that is unseen in other genres or film formats. I wanted my research to show the power of animation as a tool for positive social change that is often ignored or patronised due to it mistakenly being labelled as childish or naive. For me, Emily is a truly unique character and this marks a moment of change within the horror genre.”
Wittstock’s passion for her research extends to how we discuss gender in SA – a country with one of the highest femicide rates in the world.
“We need to constantly reflect on how we are navigating gender and the ideologies that we are circulating. It is represented in different spaces, in different ways, at different times - we need to question gender everywhere. Our students don't have to agree with us, or what we’re saying, but they need to be able to back up their beliefs. They need to be able to provide evidence, they need to have opinions and a voice that is both reasonable and reasoned.”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
'Real' men lift others up and don't put them down
- Andile Ndlovu
Men cannot be left on the periphery of conversations about gender-based violence and abuse.
Imagine a society in which victims or minorities are offered financial assistance to escape violent partners? This happens in Australia, where one woman is killed by a partner every nine days. The government is offering women who are abused by their partners around R54 000 for expenses that they might incur from uprooting their lives and leaving their abusive partners.
The focus, curiously, is not about the harmful behaviours of perpetrators, but about what to do with the victims, who are typically mothers.
Despite the proliferation – and positive impact – of social movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up, which aim to empower victims of sexual abuse and sexual harassment, it still feels as though conversations around gender inequality, sexuality, sexual abuse and sexual harassment only occur because of the leadership of minorities – including women and queer people.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, toxic masculinity refers to ideas about the way men should behave that are seen as harmful.
Toxic masculinity thrives when men do not hold themselves and each other accountable for their actions. Even in the media, men have been able to avoid taking responsibility for their actions because they have been portrayed as financial providers, too busy and ambitious to notice that they are shut-off, emotionally-unintelligent figures.
A dire state of affairs
It is almost as if we do not exist in a society where gender inequality is pervasive. The World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Report estimates that it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.
The Covid-19 pandemic appears to not only have worsened the economic disparity between men and women, but it has also contributed to family violence and meant that women who experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of a current or former partner could not leave.
In SA the situation is thought to be even more dire. Just days into the country’s lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19, the government revealed a concerning spike in the number of gender-based violence cases. This included the brutal murder of 28-year-old Tshegofatso Pule, prompting President Cyril Ramaphosa to refer to “a war being waged against the women and children of our country”.
He told Curios.ty that critical diversity literacy, which was initiated by the Director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, Professor Melissa Steyn, “can aid men in the University to reflect on their positionality as male, masculine and privileged” and how it affects others. Essentially, it explores how men can move from being complicit in causing harm to unlearning toxic habits.
“As heterosexual men we need to realise that we are not only gendered a certain way, but we are also racialised, (dis)abled, classed, aged and afforded citizenship in a certain way,” says Vanyoro.
“We can be sure that our inaction in other areas of identity like gender and sexuality sensitivity, enforced other systems that also affect us – such as racism, ableism, classism, ageism and nationalism. Nothing exists in isolation and any form of oppression produces and enforces another. We need to remember that.”
Negotiating manhood and masculinity
In his 2020 book, Becoming Men, Associate Professor in the Wits Department of Psychology, Malose Langa tells the story of 32 boys from the Alexandra township whom he followed over a dozen years as they negotiated manhood and masculinity.
“[The subjects] were aware of a hierarchy of masculinities in which alignment with some positions rather than others allows for social status and positive self-esteem… On the whole, the findings revealed the considerable internal and external struggles that boys experience in adopting both popular and unpopular masculine positions,” writes Langa.
A further finding was that all the boys, irrespective of ‘type’, were united in their antagonism towards ‘gay masculinity’, accusing gay boys of letting males down in a variety of ways.
“It was evident in all the interviews that gay masculinity occupies a very low status in the hierarchy of masculinities.”
Clearly, heterosexual men, especially, have been complicit in various forms of hate and a failure to encourage the unlearning of such traits will only serve to perpetuate toxic masculinity in our society.
As former US President Barack Obama said two years ago at a conference for his My Brother’s Keeper initiative: “The notion that somehow defining yourself as a man is dependent on [whether you are able to] put somebody else down… able to dominate… that is an old view. If you’re confident about your strength, you don’t need to show me by putting somebody else down. Show me by lifting somebody else up.”
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Performing masculinity in Men’s Res
- Deborah Minors
Q&A with Moeketsi Gordon Koahela on his research into masculinity and male university students.
Moeketsi Gordon Koahela earned a Master’s in Sociology from Wits in November 2021. His research explores how masculinity is rendered among male university students at Wits’ all-male Men’s Hall of Residence (Men’s Res). Koahela – black, male, homosexual – shares his lived experience and findings.
What does it mean to be a man in the 21st Century?
In my opinion it’s about holding a mirror to myself as someone assigned the ‘male’ gender at birth because of the genitalia with which I was born and reflecting on the unearned power that comes with that.
From early childhood we learn our power to dominate women and to see LGBTQIA+ men as ‘weak’. My research suggests a persistence of patriarchal, sexist and homophobic ideals of being a man accompanied by risk-taking behaviours associated with manhood – drinking, smoking, multiple sexual encounters strictly with ‘females’ – and these markers are constantly reinforced.
However, there were also positive attributes at Men’s Res, exemplified through the ‘big brother’ programme aimed at senior students mentoring first-year students where privacy enabled the necessary emotional vulnerability.
Is this comparable to being black, male and homosexual?
My notion of a 21st Century man is very much in conflict with the views expressed by the men with whom I spoke – being a gay man is unfortunately still seen to be wanting to be a woman and weak.
What is abundantly clear is that masculinity across races, classes, ethnicities and sexualities is violent – through the eroticism of young children and infanticide, to femicide, ‘corrective rape’, femphobia and internalised homophobia. It is also violent towards heteronormative men themselves who largely enact violence, motivated by the system of patriarchy making them believe that they are superior.
Being gay at the residence means being seen through the lens of a caricature who is always eroticising other men. I found myself in constant negotiation with my identity and movements. Other LGBTQIA+ men who I interviewed spoke of the constant battle to ‘perform maleness’ to avoid being shunned.
How do South African men understand masculinity?
The majority of South African men hold binary and patriarchal understandings of masculinity, even some who attended liberal institutions like Wits.
The men I interviewed were South African nationals across race, ethnic, class and sexual lines. ‘Masculinity’ heavily relied on the idea of providing for your family. Notably, some men referred to their fathers (present or absent), by reflecting on how fathers influenced their notions of manhood, which were characterised by having money and providing for family.
Manhood was also understood through the lens of enacting physical aggression and doing ‘manly’ work. According to one male interviewee studying mining engineering, drilling underground is an exclusively male task because of men’s biological wiring deeming them ‘fit’ for the task, whereas he perceived that a woman drilling underground would damage her biological reproductive organs.
How do you define masculinity?
My definition of masculinity is a constant reflection on the benefits that I enjoy because of being born with male genitalia, and ways I use these unearned benefits from patriarchy.
I constantly have to remind myself to check where I might be complicit in unconscious bias against women and other trans/non-binary/gender-fluid identities and bodies, because being a black gay man does not, in any way, absolve me from patriarchy.
Locating myself as a black homosexual man in society allows me to reflect on both the threat of oppression due to my skin colour and the privilege afforded by being a gay male but presenting as straight. When I walk to the Joburg MTN taxi rank, I will not be cat-called or sexually harassed because I am not feminine presenting. I understand that if I want to get home safely, then I negotiate my identity by acting ‘more masculine’ through body movements, my voice and clothes.
How do we change the narrative?
I am often worried about the use of language especially regarding GBV (gender-based violence) in our country. Often you hear ‘real men don’t kill women’ or ‘real men wear pink’ to raise awareness on GBV issues, but I think that we have set the bar substantially low for boys and men by praising them for not groping or sexually harassing women. It should be the norm not to do that. We like to give accolades to things that should be normalised as part of one’s upbringing, like respect and vulnerability. Language is another powerful platform that we cannot take for granted.
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Philanthropy’s feminist future
- Brigitte Read
Could a growing understanding of the role of women in African philanthropy spark the evolution of the charitable giving sector?
Most of us associate the term ‘philanthropist’ with someone sitting comfortably on the Forbes list – someone who is ultra-rich, and usually male. However, a philanthropist is technically a person who donates ‘time, talent and treasure’ to help make life better for other people.
However, generosity is not an elitist act. Women in Africa have been doing the work of everyday philanthropy for the benefit of their communities for generations. They have been providing the daily support and safety nets that their communities need, and the work is embedded in their daily lives.
“We retain the title of philanthropy for the people who have their names on the Forbes List and plaques on buildings. It’s not a term that we use in Africa, it’s not ours,” says Halima Mahomed, Associate Researcher at the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI) and TrustAfrica Senior Fellow on African Philanthropy. “Here, we talk about help, giving, solidarity, we talk about charity and stokvels. And outside of the Forbes List, in everyday philanthropy, it is the women who dominate.”
In a recent women’s month webinar on the feminisation of philanthropy hosted by CAPSI in the Wits Business School, Mahomed spoke of three related aspects to women in philanthropy that could be influencing the sector. There is the philanthropy of women, there are the women working professionally in the aid and philanthropy field, and there is an emerging feminist approach to philanthropy, where women’s agency, power and voice come into play.
“What we’re seeing now is an exciting feminist lens to philanthropy. It is changing our understanding of how the issues we address influence and impact on women.”
A woman’s touch
Where traditional philanthropy often reinforces power imbalances, the feminist approach actively challenges inherent power dynamics, attempts to address the consequences of male dominance, supports women’s rights, and helps women claim agency. Yet, practically, at the grassroots community level, many challenges remain for how women can access support.
“Thirty years ago, it was easier for women’s organisations to access aid. The policy environment was more conducive,” says Dr Rose Gawaya who graduated with her PhD from the Wits School of Governance in July 2021. “Now, the criteria are more stringent and many do not qualify.”
Her research looked at women’s organisations in South Africa and Uganda that are the beneficiaries of aid, and found that women’s organisations largely remain on the margins of grant-making, struggling to engage competitively in the fast-evolving donor environment.
Driven by passion
“Usually, these projects are started by women who are motivated by passion,” says Gawaya. “They are not technocrats and don’t always have the skills to manage the details.”
She says that their weak operational systems and governance challenges make it more difficult to access aid. “Internally, these organisations have to continually improve, communicate better, market themselves more, and understand the rules if they are to benefit from donor support.”
Research such as Gawaya’s that critically evaluates the values embedded in aid structures and the power that influences access and the utilisation of aid is making a valuable contribution to the understanding of gender dynamics in aid and charitable giving in Africa.
“Any study of the sphere is so influenced by the world view of who is doing the study and what kinds of narratives emerge,” says Mahomed. “Narrative matters. For too long we have adopted the western, male, patriarchal narrative and it has not been appropriate for our context.”
Mahomed says that we are seeing a shift in the narrative on the continent as some of the emerging knowledge builders are centring African narratives. “There’s an emerging space of documented knowledge on African philanthropy and so much potential to do interesting work,” she says.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Towards gender parity in academic leadership
- Refilwe Mabula
Eight female fellows of the Female Academic Leadership (FALF) Programme at Wits share their experiences of breaking the glass ceiling.
An initiative of Dr Judy Dlamini, a leading businesswoman and Wits’ first female Chancellor, the FALF programme aims to ensure that more black women occupy leadership positions in academia.
A staunch advocate of female leadership, Dlamini believes in developing women to assume leadership roles in society. “Empowering women starts with a quality education,” says Dlamini in the Wits Review. “Women must be able to achieve their full potential and assume leadership positions in the future.”
But it has not been easy and challenges remain. For example, outut of 26 higher education institutions in SA, only six have female Vice-Chancellors.
Taking up space
One of the youngest fellows, 28 year-old Mohlalakoma Therecia Ngwako, a Control Systems Engineer and an Associate Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, says that as a young woman working in a male-dominated field, she at times experiences imposter syndrome, and doubts her abilities. She says that given her age and gender, she over-stretches herself to prove her competency.
“I have found myself working extremely hard, sometimes to my own detriment, to prove myself – not only to myself but also to other people, including the students that I lecture,” she says.
Dr Veronica Ntsiea, Head of the Department of Physiotherapy at Wits, echoes Ngwako’s sentiments. She also encountered gender stereotyping when she began serving on various committees and structures. “I had to deal with feelings of being patronised and having to always prove that I had the knowledge, and that my ideas also deserve consideration.” But the experience has made Ntsiea more confident and assertive so that her opinions are heard as an academic, and are not based on her gender.
FALF Fellows (top l-r) Ann George, Dineo Mapanya, Jillian Gardner, and (bottom l-r) Mohlalakoma Ngwako, Thama Duba and Veronica Ntsia
Subverting the status quo
Women constantly have to ‘fit in’ to what was traditionally known as a male-dominated sector. Lungie Maseko, a Lecturer in the School of Construction Economics and Management, wants to change this archaic narrative by contributing to the gender and racial transformation of academic leadership in her field.
“Again and again, women are made to feel uncomfortable and are made to accept that this is a male-dominated industry – so they conform, even when they do not agree. The South African construction industry continues with all forms of gender discrimination, sexism and patriarchy, and this has somehow spilled over within the academic sphere of construction,” says Maseko, who is vocal about challenging and changing the status quo.
“As a woman, I am willing to rise up and say I will not ‘fit in’ to this male-dominated organisational culture.” She says that she and her female colleagues “will start our own culture”.
Dr Jillian Gardner, a Senior Lecturer in the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, says that she pursued a PhD in Philosophy to show that women can succeed in the field, because “the idea of reasoning and means-end rationality and thinking is usually associated with men”.
“I need to show that we can sit around this table (the philosophy field) because this is one of those disciplines where you don’t see many women,” says Gardner.
Gender transformation should be part of correcting historical ills, says Dr Thama Duba, a Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Duba says that such redress will ensure that gender disparities are addressed to achieve equity, while tackling gender discrimination.
Forging a path for future female leaders
Despite the challenges that she has experienced, Ntsiea says that she is encouraged by Dlamini, Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng (Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Cape Town), Professor Puleng LenkaBula (Vice-Chancellor and Principal, UNISA) and others “who continue to make the path much easier for female academics to be recognised as intellectuals and not just appointees for transformation purposes”.
Mentorship plays an important role in nurturing future leaders. Dr Dineo Mpanya, a nuclear physician and Lecturer in Internal Medicine, says that to develop the pipeline for aspiring academics and emerging researchers, female academics need to create networks with each other and empower young scholars.
“I seek to model female achievement. It is vital to have role models that exemplify the possibilities for others like me. I have been fortunate to have been exposed to several role models across the University, some of whom have taken the time to guide me on my career path,” she says.
George, who joined the Faculty in 2016 as part of the Diversifying the Academy Programme, says that role-modelling has made an invaluable contribution to her advancement in academia, which is why she believes in the vision and mission of the FALF programme. “Being exposed to successful female academic role models reinforces the potential for the fellows to realise their goals.”
Similarly, Khambule aspires to “motivate and mentor young academics to be the best that they can be”, and particularly those in her field.
Refilwe Mabula is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health
We’re not your victims
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COLUMN: Srila Roy says that feminists in the Global South are fighting the battle on two fronts, making a history of their own.
Countries in the Global South have long robust histories of feminist resistance and agency, not least in moments of national liberation and decolonisation. And yet, these locales are more commonly known for staggering and endemic rates of gender-based violence (GBV).
There is a pervasive tendency – among policymakers, the media and even academics and researchers – to ignore the agency of women and cast them, instead, as helpless victims of backward and ‘primitive’ cultures and societies.
The Global South even provides the targets of and the moral reasons for specific kinds of humanitarian intervention. Think for instance of the ways in which international NGOs focus on ‘saving’ women and children in countries like SA. Many are even led by women who identify as feminist. In other words, the Global South has served less as a site of feminist struggle in its own right than with the making of feminist subjects elsewhere.
Considerable energy has gone into debunking these assumptions — that feminism originates in the West and spreads to the rest of the world, and that the non-West is, in turn, populated by victims who enable white, Western women to pose as saviours.
Battle on two fronts
We now have stories of being a feminist in very many places in the world, in struggle with very many patriarchies. What is perhaps unique to feminists in ‘our’ parts of the world is that we have to struggle on at least two fronts: we have to speak back to local patriarchs who tend to dismiss our struggles as derived from Western ones and secondly, we have to disrupt the hierarchies and assumptions of white Western feminisms.
We have to constantly stress that we too are making history, to establish ourselves as subjects worthy of national citizenship and belonging, on the one hand, and as agents, on the other. And yet, the loudest feminist voices continue to belong to white feminists in the North.
Part of the problem of the continuing dominance of Western feminism is not only the exclusion of other feminist voices and histories, but also their inevitable flattening into one singular and homogenous mass. So, when ‘we’ in the Global South speak, it is as if we speak in one voice, thereby erasing the considerable differences and even inequalities that exist within ‘our’ feminisms.
Taking the lead
In recent years, we have not only seen the expansion of gender and sexual rights struggles in countries like India and SA, but we have also witnessed a more intersectional turn. For instance, in India, Muslim women emerged central to the nationwide protests against the right-wing Hindu nationalist government which took place at the end of 2019. In SA, women – black and queer – expanded the remit of the “Fallist” student movements of 2015-16, beyond the issue of higher education alone, by making sexism, sexual violence and heteropatriarchy central to a decolonial agenda.
I lead a project called Governing Intimacies – located in the School of Social Sciences (with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) – which is precisely trying to map some of the complexities of feminist struggles in the Global South. By specifically placing southern Africa in conversation with India, the project has been able to reveal the surprising resonances and dissonances in our contexts.
As part of the project, I have co-edited a volume of essays on the MeToo movement in India and SA as a way of thinking more intersectionally, comparatively and transnationally about questions of GBV and cultures of resistance. Such a lens undercuts the hegemony of the North while offering a different way forward, from a genuine feminist theorising of and from the south. This book, then, is also part of the project’s wider goal to build theory in the south on the south, which is feminist in orientation and spirit. It contributes to shaping future research and teaching, but also builds public memory of feminist resistance and reinvigorates our commitments to gender just futures.
Srila Roy is Associate Professor of Sociology and Head of Development Studies at Wits. She wrote Remembering Revolution: Gender, Violence and Subjectivity in India’s Naxalbari Movement, is editor of New South Asian Feminisms and co-edited New Subaltern Politics: Reconceptualising Hegemony and Resistance in Contemporary India. Her book on feminist and queer politics in India is scheduled for publication in 2022. Roy is the 2022 Hunt-Simes Visiting Chair of Sexuality Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, and was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
SA’s first black female doctor was a Witsie
- Deborah Minors
When apartheid became law in 1948, a black woman from Limpopo had already achieved a series of firsts …
Mary Susan Makobatjatji Malahlela (pictured alongside) was born in Polokwane (then Pietersburg) on 2 May 1916. Her parents, Thadeus Chweu and Susan Mautswane Malahlela, fled the village after they refused to kill the twin boys born after Mary – the BaPedi tribe traditionally considered twins a curse.
The eldest daughter attended the Methodist Primary School in the former Roodepoort West Location, where her father was the principal. She completed the Native Primary Lower Teachers Course at the Kilnerton Institution in 1933 and then enrolled at the Lovedale Institution for the Junior Certificate Examination at UNISA. In 1936, she registered for the Medical Aid Course and her pre-medical course at Fort Hare University, which at the time was the only programme available to black people interested in practising medicine.
In 1941, Malahlela made history as the first beneficiary of the Native Trust Fund. This scholarship for academic achievement enabled her to enrol to study medicine at Wits. On 21 June 1947, she took the Hippocratic Oath at the graduation ceremony where she became the first black woman in SA to qualify as a medical doctor. She completed her internship at McCords Hospital in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, and remained there as a doctor until 1949.
Dr Malahlela married Wallie Tamsanqa Xakana in 1948 and the couple had two daughters and a son. The family lived in Kliptown, Soweto, where Malahlela established her first surgery, on Beacon Road, followed by a second at Cross Roads in Mofolo South. She had to close her Kliptown practice due to the Group Areas Act’s forced removals, which relocated Roodepoort West families to Dobsonville.
Malahlela dedicated 34 years in service to her community. She was the first black doctor at the Heinsbeek Community Clinic in Dobsonville and a member of the first Baragwanath Medical Advisory Board. She was chairperson of the first Roodepoort Bantu School Board in 1970 and served on the Fort Hare University Council. She was a founding member of the YWCA, the Women’s Peace Movement and the Balebowa Women’s League.
On 8 May 1981, Malahlela collapsed while attending to a patient at the rural Oppenheimer Witkoppen Clinic where she volunteered. She passed away the same day at Parklane Hospital. She was 65.
The South African Presidency awarded Malahlela the Order of Baobab (silver), posthumously, for her “excellent contribution in the provision of medical services to the oppressed majority of South Africans during the apartheid era”.
Malahlela was memorialised at Wits in 2015 in a plaque erected by the University to redress historical discrimination against black alumni. In 1992, just 37 9 women enrolled in the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences, constituting 11.3% of total enrolments. Now in 2021, women make up 27.4% of enrolments with 1 955 women registered in the Faculty.
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 13th issue, themed: #Gender. We feature research across disciplines that relates to gender, feminism, masculinity, sex, sexual identity and sexual health.
Curios.ty 14 (#Wits100): A century of doing good
- Wits Communications
Wits' research magazine celebrates 100 years of changing the world for good.
The 14th issue of Wits University’s research magazine, Curios.ty, themed: #Wits100, is available online now: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/. (To republish articles, see guidelines below).
In this special issue to mark Wits University’s centenary year, we look back over a 100 years during which Wits University, and Witsies, have undoubtedly changed the world for good, be it through research and innovation, teaching and learning, or civic action.
In a series of firsts, Wits developed and tested the first radar signals in South Africa in 1939 and was the first South African university to transmit data securely through light. Wits was also the first university to own a nuclear accelerator and a computer in South Africa, to confer the first PhD in isiZulu, and to successfully execute a living donor liver transplant from an HIV+ mother to her HIV- child.
In this issue we also look to the next 100 years, showcase Wits’ world-class scientists and, importantly, a new generation of early career researchers actively advancing society for good.
“Today, we are confronted with a myriad of complex planetary problems including global change and inequality, erratic energy supply, crime, the lack of governance and ethics, and the threat of a number of communicable and non-communicable diseases and pandemics. It is at Wits where we can bring the best intellectual talent and resources to bear, across disciplines, institutions, sectors and geographic boundaries, to find solutions to these challenges, some of which are still unknown,” writes Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University.
Highlights:
Meet the science superheroes whose research has saved countlesslives(page 10): Five Wits scientists weigh in on the University’s proud legacy of public health activism and why standing up for social justice in an unequal world remains their fight.
Mapping African genetic diversity for better health (page 14): The contribution of the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience to the field of human genomics is rewriting history on the African continent.
Thirty years of the lab in the bush (page 18): Agincourt in Mpumalanga is one of the longest-running research centres of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa with sophisticated infrastructure to track and understand health and wellbeing over the life course.
Wits Digital Dome to light up the sky (page 32): It is the end of an era for the Wits Planetarium, although reimagining it as a Digital Dome promises to be literally out of this world.
Facing climate change head-on (page 34): Climate change took nearly a century to become mainstream science. Wits is taking the lead in facing up to the challenge.
About Curios.ty
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Curios.ty is available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
Contact Wits Communications should you require more information or visit our media section for more on our experts and latest media releases.
Stay curious – there’s a whole new world coming in 2122
- Professor Lynn Morris
Editorial: The stories in Curios.ty 14: #Wits100 showcase the University’s sustained participation, influence and impact in the lab, the classroom, and society.
Wits University celebrates its centenary in 2022 and although Wits today differs from a century ago, our raison d'être and values remain consistent: Our purpose is to impact society positively through creating and advancing global knowledge, and to foster graduates to be leaders with integrity. We value excellence, our people, and innovation.
Issue 14 ofCurios.ty, themed #Wits100, gives a snapshot of some of the research giants and innovations that preceded us, that shaped the world today, and which will impact on the next century.
The Featured Researchers on the cover and page 6 showcase a handful of Wits’ world-class scientists and, importantly, a new generation of early career researchers – read the profile of a young forensic anthropologist (page 42).
Wits occupies a significant space in the South African higher education sector, a space as tumultuous as it is dynamic. In the story on page 8, Vice-Chancellors and others envisage the sector in the next century. Our first feature (page 10) showcases some Wits science superheroes whose research and activism has saved lives. Further evidence of such impact can be found in public health research over 30 years at Wits’ Rural Campus (page 18). Read about Wits’ other contributions ‘beyond the ivory tower’ (page 46) and the emergence of entrepreneurial innovation (page 44).
Wits is known as much for its political protest as for its academic excellence. Over 100 years, Wits has been at the forefront of speaking truth to power. The Politics of Protest story (page 22) gives a perspective on the practice of this democratic right, while the column (page 24) by eminent sociologists suggests how a Perceptions of Wits study in 1984 demands interrogation in a post-pandemic, climactic crisis world in 2022.
The evolution of science and research practice is our second feature (page 28) and unravels how we do what we do best and how it’s changed since the 20th Century. We explore Wits’ significant contribution to the field of genetics since we helped sequence the human genome (page 14), tackle the origins of life and death (page 16), confront climate change (page 34), and dig deep for the origins of humanity (page 36). We look up to reimagine the night sky from a state-of-the-art Digital Dome (page 32) and consider what dung beetles can teach us about navigation (page 38). Bibliophiles will enjoy the compilation of social sciences research published as books (page 40).
Wits University is as much a part of Johannesburg as gold mining. The Braamfontein campus is an anchor in the City’s cultural precinct and home to the Wits Art Museum, which at a decade old reveals African stories – untold and emerging – through art (page 26).
The stories in Curios.ty #Wits100 showcase the University’s sustained participation, influence and impact in the laboratory, the academy, and society. Our focus in future is on developing excellent (post)graduates who advance society, conducting world-class research and fostering innovation, and leveraging our location in the City to lead from the Global South.
We invite you to celebrate our centenary with us and, above all else, stay curious. There’s a whole new world coming in 2122 – and Wits University will have made its mark.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
100 Years of changing the world. For Good
- Professor Zeblon Vilakazi
Guest Editorial: Wits remains a beacon of hope in society. We continue to strive for excellence in all that we do and use our knowledge for the good of society.
Wits University, and Witsies, have undoubtedly changed the world for good over the past 100 years, be it through research and innovation, teaching and learning, or civic action, as reflected in the following pages in Curiosity 14: #Wits100.
Witsies took to the streets to oppose apartheid and other atrocities, resulting in campus raids, violence, imprisonment and even death for people like David Webster. Fast-forward to the 21st Century and Witsies continue to demand access to higher education, and to engage in civic activities whether it be insisting for the treatment of HIV/Aids, speaking out against xenophobia, or advocating for measures to mitigate climate change.
Teaching and learning at Wits started in 1922 in response to a need from industry and the City. Fast-forward to 2022, and Wits’ response to the coronavirus pandemic can be felt at the local and global levels through its innovative research (including vaccine development), blended teaching and learning programmes, community initiatives, and social activism.
Today, we are confronted with a myriad of complex planetary problems including global change and inequality, erratic energy supply and crime, lack of governance and ethics, the intersection of communicable and non-communicable diseases, pandemics, and so on. It is at Wits where we can bring the best intellectual talent and resources to bear, across disciplines, institutions, sectors and geographic boundaries, to find solutions to these challenges, some of which are still unknown.
We can continue to make a positive impact on society from our locale in the Global South if we remain true to our values – search for and stand up for the truth, hold those in power to account, act with integrity, entrench proper governance systems, guard our academic freedom and institutional autonomy, tolerate differences of opinion, and stand up for democracy, justice, equality, and freedom.
We must continue to promote freedom of enquiry and the search for knowledge and truth, foster a culturally diverse, intellectually stimulating and harmonious environment within which there is vigorous critical exchange and communication, and encourage freedom of speech and public debate through facilitating dialogue and interaction between different parties, with the goal of increasing mutual respect and trust, amongst others.
Wits remains a beacon of hope in society – a national treasure that has developed with the City of Johannesburg and industry, an institution that will continue to impact society for good, for the next 100 years. We must continue to strive for excellence in all that we do and use our knowledge for the advancement of our community, city, country, continent, and the globe. For Good.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
How higher education can help heal us all
- Beth Amato
“We live in the most unequal country in the world. We can help bridge the divide and we don’t have any time to waste.” – Dr Judy Dlamini.
The higher education sector, with universities a part of this larger “edusystem”, is fundamental to creating and contributing to societies that are equipped for the 21st Century. Beth Amato asks academic experts and vice-chancellors how they envisage higher education in the next 100 years.
When Professor Yunus Ballim became the first Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the new Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley, Northern Cape, in 2014, he had to contend with the reality of creating a relevant tertiary institution in a saturated market, with deep polarities and divisions threatening to unravel the delicate threads of culture and society.
Ballim knew when establishing the university that the way we think about higher education had to change completely. “For me, it’s about allowing students from a variety of backgrounds to contribute to scholarship meaningfully, and to feel unashamed of the knowledge that they bring and the ways in which they think about and process information,” says Ballim, who remains an Emeritus Professor at Wits University.
Ballim’s approach speaks to the ‘why’ of higher education. In the 21st Century post-pandemic world, information is readymade and pressing global and local challenges need solutions immediately. But a university’s role is also to see the bigger picture – to stoke the fires of critical thinking and ways of knowing and inspire the application of humanity’s best gifts across disciplines.
Functional facilities and individual focus
To facilitate this philosophy, Ballim says that competent classroom teaching and functional learning facilities are critical. “Universities need to ensure that every single student’s educational development is realised. This extends to all features of their university experience, including their interaction with administrative and operational functions.”
One of Ballim’s first tasks was to ban academic development programmes. “We cannot blame students for failing. They fail in part because of our inability to teach them properly. For me, it’s not about English language competence. Let’s look behind that all. We want to increase knowledge and spur action. Therefore, academics must learn to read a particular student’s work and allow that student to feel comfortable in sharing ideas. If you don’t know that a student has six words for ‘uncle’, then you cannot teach that student anthropology, for example,” he says.
Ballim is critical of decolonising the university curriculum. “It’s possible to be racist and right-wing in any language and culture. Poverty hurts, no matter the country in which you live. Both Shakespeare and Plaatje have relevance to readers everywhere. Rather, we need to decolonise the mind. There are so many ways of knowing. Why shouldn’t we read Camus in Tswana? Why aren’t Russians reading Plaatje? It’s about both and not either/or.”
Lifelong learning and flexibility
Professor Diane Grayson, Senior Director: Academic Affairs at Wits, says, “For me, it’s about flexibility. We need to accommodate students coming from diverse life circumstances.”
Indeed, in the 20th Century in South Africa, the majority of university students were young undergraduates studying full time. But Grayson says that this is an old-fashioned model of higher education and a declining trend globally.
Many students who attend university today are older than just-out-of-high-school, and they must earn an income. Many are caregivers of older parents or young children, yet these students want to earn qualifications or change their career paths. “Higher education should embrace lifelong learning in a diverse student body. One of the ways that lifelong learning is realised is through ‘stackable micro-credentials’, allowing students to receive their qualification in a flexible, stackable way,” says Grayson.
More maths for an AI future
Just as teaching and learning pedagogy has evolved, so too should subject matter. Professor Loyiso Nongxa, former Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal (2003-2013) and a mathematician, is passionate about ensuring that students have the mathematical capability to respond to the ruptures brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“The mathematics that we are teaching is insufficient to deal with the scope of what’s to come. Mathematical sciences must be prioritised in universities, schools, and even crèches,” he says.
Nongxa is involved in various projects to ensure that maths education is relevant and responsive to local and global challenges.
“We are looking at developing a maths-based Master’s programme looking at artificial intelligence in the financial sector. We are also seeing how maths can be deployed to promote inclusion and equity, such as in banking services.”
Professor Ruksana Osman, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at Wits – and UNESCO Research Chair in Teacher Education for Diversity and Development – is responsible for the broad coordination of the academic project across all divisions of the University, and she oversees the University’s online and blended-learning academic strategy.
“The contours of higher education locally and globally show clearly that lifelong learning and the flexibility in learning are going to be important if we want to serve a digital nation. It means that we need to start decoupling learning from the place of learning and in this way open up opportunities for more equitable approaches to accessing education globally and locally,” says Osman.
Global North, Global South, one world
No stranger to issues around inclusivity and equity, Professor Adam Habib served as the Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal from 2013 to 2020, during the tumultuous #FeesMustFall era of student protests. Now Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, Habib believes that collaboration between institutions in the Global North and the Global South is the path towards addressing both structural inequalities in higher education and in society. He speaks of “clusters of excellence” co-run by universities across the world.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic pushed online learning forward, Habib says that there is no doubt that we need to have as many face-to-face, in-person experiences as possible. “Learning does not only happen in the classroom, virtual or in-person. Students learn from the social interactions that universities facilitate.”
“We envision cross-continental teaching and learning on the grounds that this could assist in stemming the ‘brain drain’ and enable scientific and technological capacity to remain on the African continent,” says Habib.
He refers to two major game-changers in the higher education space: the announcement by the African Union and the European Union of an AU-EU Innovation Agenda, and the initiative between the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities.
“These announcements highlight that we’re in this together. That we’re interconnected. That what affects me, affects you. Now we can develop institutional capacity and build human capability across the world to address transnational capacity. These developments show that it is possible to develop equitable partnerships in an unequal world,” he says.
Enduring partnership
“Collaboration is going to be very important for higher education. And it can’t be a once-off phenomenon,” says Dr Judy Dlamini, Wits University’s Chancellor. She refers to the exemplary collaboration of the private and public sectors in ensuring equitable technological access for students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Laptops were donated and data were zero-rated.
“We live in the most unequal country in the world. We can help bridge the divide and we don’t have any time to waste. Inequality breeds instability, and if we don’t work together, the July 2021 riots that devastated South Africa will look like a child’s picnic,” she says.
Dlamini draws on the example of the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, the first private teaching hospital in the country. “We had to address the critical shortage of medical sub-specialists in South Africa and the public sector was too constrained to do this on its own. Wits, along with a generous donation from Sir Donald Gordon, responded to this crisis in a world-class manner,” she says.
“We need to show that higher education is relevant and there is nothing better to highlight this phenomenon than the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Braamfontein,” adds Dlamini.
This “digital innovation ecosystem” encourages entrepreneurship and grows the skills necessary for succeeding in the digital economy. Tshimologong is a Wits entity that facilitates collaborations between academia, corporates, government and entrepreneurs in the digital sphere. “It is up to all of us to make higher education count in the next 100 years,” says Dlamini.
Innovation and anticipatory consciousness
The higher education sector – and universities in particular – provide a platform for innovation, new knowledge creation, high-level and scarce skills development, and the incubation and exchange of ideas. Universities are also treasure troves of knowledge that need to be protected, valued, guarded and strengthened.
Osman says, “Research-intensive universities will also have to learn to make optimum use of resources and develop an anticipatory consciousness rather than a reactive one. The 2020 global pandemic has taught us first-hand about the need to be able to anticipate challenges so that we are not blindsided when such challenges hit universities and society.”
A future for good
Certainly, innovation underpins Wits’ role in higher education in its next century. Innovation is fundamental to the Wits 2033 Strategic Plan, the implementation of which Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal since April 2021, will lead.
“It’s crucial for Wits’ development and growth that we continue to develop local and global partnerships that cement the University’s position as a leader in innovation,” says Vilakazi.
“Universities enjoy longevity in society – akin to libraries and museums. They are institutions that usually outlast multiple generations. Research-intensive universities like Wits have a role to play in society as a catalyst for change. Looking ahead, these universities should strive to create new knowledge and apply this knowledge for the benefit of society.”
Beth Amato is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Academic and science activism saves lives
- Ufrieda Ho
Meet the Wits’ science superheroes whose research has saved lives.
Five Wits scientists weigh in on the University’s proud legacy of public health activism and why standing up for social justice in an unequal world remains their fight – as it should be for those who follow.
When academic life intersects with activism in the name of public good – and the certain reality that sitting on the fence itself becomes injury – something mighty happens. It is also what is needed more in the world in 2022.
A rich crop of public health scientists, researchers and doctors, many of them Witsies, have chosen to take a stand, and in so doing, to become household names. They are in the public eye not only because they can communicate their science and weigh in with expert input but because they choose to engage, and to draw a line in the sand.
Their mission is centred on educating, raising awareness for good, and deepening the media's and public's understanding of public health issues. They do so fully aware that sticking their necks out in the public arena can come with criticism, trolling, and populist attacks. They know too that populism divides, and when science and evidence-based research remain muted, it allows misinformation and disinformation to drown out informed choice.
Hofman, who trained as a paediatrician, came to public health advocacy fighting for children and families, and has not lost sight of their vulnerability, particularly in the area of nutrition. Referring to one of PRICELESS’s key areas of work: researching and advocating for reducing and limiting added sugar in beverages, she explains the Unit’s impact. By pushing for limits on sugar in beverages, PRICELESS has helped to achieve breakthrough in policy reform in South Africa in recent years.
It is an intervention that helps reduce risks for obesity, especially in children, which in turn can curb the staggering upward climb of diabetes and high blood pressure in the country, which is a drain on an already meagre public health purse.
Bitter-sweet research funding
But taking on the sugar industry – “the new tobacco”, as she calls it, comes with a corporate fight that can be brutal. “You must be a bit thick-skinned; learn how to work with the media and be flexible. You must also be confident that you are conducting top notch science.
“Soon after I started this work, I was named and shamed in the press and called a ‘sugar Nazi’ by the Free Market Foundation – now, I wear that badge with pride. I am also reminded that this could be worse. For example, colleagues in Mexico got death threats for going against industry. But for me there is also the strength that we can draw on which comes with belonging to an authoritative global community of researchers,” says Hofman.
She also takes a stand against accepting corporate funding for the South African Medical Research Council's PRICELESS Unit and is wary of corporate white-washing and hijacking as she says that “there can be huge interference in research”.
“Research funding is one area wherein which universities need to be increasingly vigilant. Wits should be wary of entering into partnerships and funding agreements that can potentially compromise research,” she says.
Wits as an institution has equal responsibility to be accountable and to create environments in which academics can find and use their independent voices and do so knowing that, when it counts, they will have the backing of their institution, she adds.
Professor Shabir Madhi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, says that vigorous debate should be encouraged at universities but there is an equal imperative that these debates have impact and inclusion beyond a university setting.
“Universities are heterogeneous, including in terms of thought, which is healthy. So, it’s not that a university necessarily needs to take a position on every issue, but individuals within a university, in their individual capacity, can promote a specific agenda, have debates, and bring these to the public,” he says.
Madhi has in recent years been at the forefront of guiding public understanding of the fast-changing story of the Covid-19 pandemic, its waves, vaccines, and the mandates and protocols around measures for personal protection. This terrain has been fraught with division, disinformation, fear and anxiety.
Towards trustworthy science communications
Together with colleagues from Wits, other universities and public health interest organisations, Madhi has led the Scientists’ Collective, which has jointly authored articles on Covid-19 that have been published for maximum access through the mainstream media.
He has also used social media to directly communicate on public health crises. In March 2022 he organised a protest at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, calling out hospital and provincial health mismanagement. Incompetence and inefficiencies led to patients going without food for days and severely disrupted the essential service of biological waste removal.
Madhi stridently calls out government’s failings and missteps, because leveraging his insider’s insight, academic authority and his platform advances the fight for good.
“You don’t just make a noise because you want to make a noise; you make a noise if things are going wrong. It’s always about promoting science so that the public can trust the science, rather than trying to become an apologist for the government,” he explains. “We must be a society that speaks up when government tries to sell a narrative. For example, government’s narrative that things will be much better with the National Health Insurance is a case in point. If they don’t fix the healthcare system, that narrative is just disingenuous.”
In pursuit of purposeful activism
Madhi, whose health activism was honed when he was a medical student at Wits in the 1980s as part of the United Democratic Front, says that more attention should be paid to develop today’s students to become critically aware, and to fight for social justice beyond the issues that affect them directly or personally.
“Activism evolves over time and what is lacking now is activism for purpose. At a student level, we should be equipping people to become more critical in thought, so that hopefully they become the voices of reason in the future.”
Speaking truth to power
Being exposed as a junior doctor to segregated hospitals in the apartheid era revealed injustices from which Professor Glenda Gray could not look away. She signed up to work with the Detainees’ Parents Support Committee, helping with medical examinations and the medical documentation of abuses of detainees.
“Even as I was training as a doctor and specialising, I was involved in health activism around the desegregation of hospitals and the health workers’ rights movement,” says Gray, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the South African Medical Research Council.
Gray encourages young doctors to actively join progressive health associations. “It’s very important to find these networks because you work as a collective,” she explains, emphasising that activism is as much about grassroots relevance as it is about networks and strong leadership.
At the time that Gray became a paediatrician, the HIV crisis was beginning to take its toll. It directed her career and activism towards fighting AIDS denialism, research on HIV vaccines, and for the landmark rights for women in public health facilities to access the anti-HIV drug nevirapine to stop the mother-to-child HIV transmission in 2003.
She has been outspoken on the rise of malnutrition cases as a direct result of lockdown restrictions during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic. It put her in the crosshairs of bureaucrats more concerned with the image of the Department of Health rather than the unfolding public health concern. Gray stood her ground. The research and scientific evidence were her key weapons, and “the collective”, she says.
Gray’s colleagues and the University were unequivocal in standing with Gray when she raised the alarm.
“Of course, it’s a horrible thing to happen when it’s happening, and you wish that everything would just go back to normal. But I realised that if I apologised then I would be selling out everyone who comes after me,” she elaborates. “I also do an exercise to ‘walk myself down’ from the worst-case scenario and then I get to a place when I realise that the worst thing that can happen to me is not going to be ‘the worst thing’.”
Whistle-blowers and those who criticise goliaths of states and corporates, need better holistic support and protection, she acknowledges.
Find your fight
For Professor Helen Rees, Founder and Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (WRHI) and Board Chairperson at the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), there is no separation between health activism and the fight for equity and human rights.
Having written the Women’s Health Policy for the African National Congress before the 1994 elections, Rees founded the WRHI to undertake the research to inform that policy. Applying those principles, the Institute has grown from five people to over 2 000 staff, the majority of whom are women. Over the years, the WRHI has focused on emerging public health priorities, moving from sexual and reproductive health, to HIV, vaccine-preventable diseases and most recently, to climate change and health.
“I was a doctor activist before I was a clinician researcher,” she says. It is this kind of unequivocal purpose that has guided the WRHI to be an Institute that focuses on research to develop new technologies and to inform health programmes and policy, locally and globally.
Rees is no stranger to finding herself defending evidence-based decisions – particularly those made by the regulatory authority – from the criticism of groups that don’t like what the science is proving. She has learnt to stand her ground and to push back even harder. “You pause when challenged, reflect on your mandate, and respond with the science, and what is best for public health,” she adds.
She has also fine-tuned strategies for fighting back over the years. “Sometimes it’s better not to engage directly with the arguments of those who hold opposing views, for example on vaccines or on regulatory decisions, but instead to work out you own messages and repeat them over and over again, with language tailored to different audiences.”
The female factor
Professor Laetitia Rispel says that to strengthen the activist-academic’s armour to stay the course for health activism requires conscious effort to build networks and to respect the importance of self-care. You need support and you need to be personally grounded. This makes blind spots more obvious and develops the skills to navigate a world of trade-offs and unfair compromise more deftly.
“Trust in your own power to make a difference, find your voice to speak truth to power,” says Rispel.
As a young health professional graduate at the Red Cross Hospital in the 1980s, Rispel says that her eyes were opened to the depth of social injustice under apartheid and in particular, the gendered oppression in the healthcare system.
“I started to understand the multiple layers of oppression experienced especially by black nurses,” she says.
“Public health systems are largely gender-blind in their responsiveness, the quality of care, and what options and say women actually have in their healthcare,” she says.
The fight continues and for the legion of Wits activist-academics, the point is to never give up.
As the world pulls apart even more in 2022 and the widening chasm claims more of society’s most vulnerable, this is exactly the moment to resist despair. Hope must turn to purpose and purpose into action for change, for good.
Ufrieda Ho is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Mapping African genetic diversity for better health
- Delia du Toit
The contribution of the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience to the field of human genomics is rewriting history on the African continent.
When the Human Genome Project finished in 2003, scientists had the ability, for the first time, to read nature’s complete genetic blueprint for building a human being. And now, it’s becoming clear that one single reference genome is inadequate – humans, after eons of evolution in different environments, are simply too diverse. This is especially the case on the African continent, and the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB) at Wits has taken massive strides to illuminate African genomes since its founding in 2014.
Genetics is the scientific study of genes and heredity – of how certain qualities or traits are passed from parents to offspring because of changes in DNA sequence. Genomics is the study of all an individual’s genes (the genome), including scientific research into complex diseases such as heart disease, asthma, diabetes and cancer, because these diseases are typically caused more by a combination of genetic and environmental factors than by individual genes.
DNA, data and Africa
In 2017, the SBIMB led the publication of the pilot study of the first African government-funded Human Genome Project of 24 whole human genomes, involving the efforts of scientists in seven South African institutions.
In 2020, under the banner of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa Consortium, researchers from the Institute were lead authors in a study involving the analysis of whole genome sequences of 426 African individuals, depicted in African beads and featured on the cover of the journal Nature. The study identified marks of natural selection in several genes associated with viral immunity, DNA repair and metabolism, demonstrating adaptation to new geographies, diets and pathogens.
“The central premise of the research at the SBIMB is to create a better understanding of African genetic diversity and how that impacts on health or drug response,” says Professor Michèle Ramsay, Director of the SBIMB. “Africa is so diverse in terms of genetics, climate and culture that you can’t think of the populations on the continent as one group of people.”
Ramsay has been involved in the Human Genome Project since its start in the 1990s. “It’s incredible that, over the span of a few decades, we’ve moved from not having a genome sequence to now having a reference human genome, access to so much data, and the ability to immediately identify DNA sequences and where they come from on the genome map. When I started my career, we had to build those maps to understand where the DNA sequences were that we were working on. We’ve come so far.”
Diversity in disease
“We’re rewriting history, as it were,” says Dr Ananyo Choudhury, who in 2021 published the largest genetic study involving Bantu-language speaking South Africans, including 5 000 people from all the major language groups. “Until now it was considered that all South African populations are more or less genetically equivalent. But we found several differences that are significant in terms of disease susceptibility and drug response and contributed to the country’s history by showing how groups of people migrated and interacted with other populations.”
Impactful as this work is, it’s still in its infancy in many ways, says Professor Scott Hazelhurst, whose work at the SBIMB focuses on building computational capacity as well as pharmacogenomics – particularly how genes impact drug efficacy and safety. “The Institute’s work in Africa is clinically significant, as most drugs are developed in European populations for Europeans. When these drugs are then deployed here, there are potential issues because of the differences in the genetic diversity between African populations and other world populations. We’ve been spending the last three years cataloguing that diversity and giving some insight into potential drug effects.”
Towards precision medicine
Hazelhurst says that to get the complete picture, we need the “sequencing of every human being in Africa, and on the planet. Only then will we have precision medicine that considers individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person.”
Though this is, at least for now, a castle in the sky, it makes it clear why more data, more capacity, more funding and more expertise is critical, says Ramsay. “The models for analysing genomes are so complex so there are still very few people on the continent who can analyse the data. We’re not near critical mass yet when it comes to developing this expertise.”
However, study by study, things are changing. The SBIMB currently has 17 PhD students and eight postdoctoral fellows. Many of these students are nested in the Africa Wits-INDEPTH partnership for genomics studies in Africans. Though the partnership is now in its tenth year and the grant is coming to an end, its projects and related research will continue – using data and stored samples on around 12 000 people in four African countries. “Possibly the most rewarding part of our jobs is to oversee the development of future leaders in the field. Many of these younger researchers are already growing their own research programmes,” says Ramsay.
And the future looks bright. The Institute recently received funding to study at least 1 000 whole human genomes from under-investigated African populations. Another project is using machine learning to extract new information from data collected from several projects over the past 20 years and to analyse it to provide health planning and treatment insights into multi-morbidity in populations in South Africa and Kenya.
Yet another study will look at the effect of genetic variants in African individuals and develop algorithms to predict where a person falls on a spectrum of risk for a particular disease. The SBIMB also has active cancer genomics and pharmacogenomics programmes. Its scientists work collaboratively with researchers locally, regionally and globally, across a range of disciplines.
The Institute today has data and stored samples on over 17 000 Africans and 200 whole African genomes – taking up close to two petabytes of storage. “All those samples in the biobank means we are building resources for the future, too. Mining the data for interesting findings will form the basis for future generations of study,” concludes Ramsay.
Delia du Toit is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Death makes us alive
- Delia du Toit
Without death, there would be no life – this might sound like ancient mysticism, but Wits scientists are proving it.
Why do we die? You’ve asked this before. We all have. It is a question that has plagued humankind since the birth of our species – and an issue that few people would even consider tackling.
“This is one of life’s most fundamental questions,” says Professor Pierre Durand of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits. “Why do we have to die? Is it inevitable? What would happen if we were immortal?”
Durand and his team are trying to connect these philosophical questions with empirical biological evidence, in an attempt to contribute to the field of naturalised metaphysics, a philosophical worldview which holds that nature is in fact all that exists.
Durand’s book, The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death examines this question and its possible answers through the lens of the coevolution hypothesis.
“When you start thinking about why death exists, you automatically start to ask what life is because life and death are obviously linked,” he says.
In essence, living beings harbour potential death programmes (versions of death mechanisms that are heritable) and the question of why an organism would actively kill itself is a challenge to evolutionists.
Durand argues that life and death coevolved. “The evolution of more complex cellular life depended on the coadaptation between traits that promote life and those that promote death,” says Durand.
“Without death, we wouldn’t see life the way we do, and we probably wouldn’t have evolved beyond the very simplest life forms.”
The coevolution hypothesis
The coevolution hypothesis is one of five major hypotheses attempting to explain the evolutionary origins of heritable forms of death – each with varying degrees of empirical support (the hypotheses being Durand’s coevolution hypothesis and the “addiction”, “immunology”, “non-adaptive/mal-adaptive” and “original sin” hypotheses).
Says Durand: “The emergence of life in the ‘original sin’ hypothesis posits that because of the emergence of life we are forever connected to programmes for death. Life and death programmes are mechanistically linked. These genetic programmes for death seem to be extremely ancient, but we don’t know when they first emerged.”
By comparing the genomes of modern organisms, La found that some of the proteins involved in death today trace back to the very beginning of life.
“This shows that many of the programmes for death may be as old as life itself and emerged very soon after life emerged.”
Evidence for one hypothesis does not prove another wrong, he adds. It’s possible that the evolution of some cells proves one hypothesis, others prove another, and yet others show traits of more than one hypothesis.
“We don’t know,” says Durand. “We will never have an absolute answer because the scientific method used is inductive reasoning – we don’t have access to those very first organisms, so we study today’s organisms and try to trace components of the available genomes as far back as possible. In this field, one hardly ever gets deductive proof, only inductive support for the hypothesis.”
Still, a clearer picture is emerging, with every new study adding a clue. Some of them close one loop but open another that require scientists to conceptualise new questions.
The philosophy of death
For Durand, the work is satisfying a curiosity that he has had since his childhood. “Even as a child I can remember being interested in these questions, but I didn’t know how to ask the questions or even if this field existed. Very few people work on the philosophy of death worldwide.”
Durand has won a fellowship to work with eminent philosopher Grant Ramsey at the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven in Belgium, where he will dedicate a year of research time to the philosophy of death.
Though the field is small, the work is significant – some of it is being conducted by emerging researchers such as La, Karen Houlston (PhD candidate) and Jaganmoy Jodder (postdoctoral research fellow) under Durand’s guidance.
“Every student and postdoctoral researcher who has worked in my lab has contributed something significant. They all have an insatiable curiosity and I’m inspired to be working with them. As a team, our interests are two-fold: understanding the evolution of death and developing a general philosophical and metaphysical framework that explains it. It’s a tremendous claim to say that we’re getting some of the answers, but I believe that we are.”
So why do we and other organisms die? “In a metaphysical sense, death is a necessary feature of living systems. Death is a necessity for the sustainability of life. For life to take hold, to evolve, and for us to experience the spectrum of life from the mundane to the truly profound, death must exist. That, at least, is what we’re trying to understand, and it seems to be the answer.”
Associate Professor Kevin Behrens, Director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics at Wits brings a bioethical eye to the philosophy of life and death:
“Without death there would be no life”. If this is true, it follows that we cannot value our life if we do not, also, value our death. One ethical implication of this, is that modern medicine ought to give much more attention to preparing practitioners to deal with death and the dying, and needs to let go of the notion that prolonging life at all costs is always best. Our medical expertise has led to people living longer and healthier lives than ever. However, it has also medicalised dying, with many people coming to the end of their lives in institutions, separated from the people and things that make their lives most meaningful. As American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher Atul Gawande puts it in Being Mortal, “the waning days of our lives are given over to treatments that addle our brains and sap our bodies for a sliver’s chance of benefit.” The oldest ethical principle of the practice of medicine is “first do no harm”. Practitioners need to learn that death is not failure – it is natural. A good, dignified death, when the time for life to end has come is often far less harmful than pursuing every possible treatment, however unlikely they are to be of benefit.
Delia du Toit is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Thirty years of the lab in the bush
- Beth Amato
Agincourt, one of the longest-running research centres of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, tracks health and wellbeing over the life course.
Agincourt (or Matsavana) is a town in the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality in the province of Mpumalanga in South Africa. Agincourt lies 100km north of the border of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and 90km east of the border with Mozambique. To the west of Agincourt lies the Kruger National Park.
The Agincourt Research Centre, then focusing on the inhabitants of 20 villages in Bushbuckridge, was a microcosm of the woefully neglected health and socioeconomic systems in rural areas during apartheid, and the town had no reliable population information upon which to base rational decision-making.
Driven by this urgency, Professors Kathleen Kahn and Stephen Tollman moved to implement a population platform suited to both observational and interventional research and development.
Taking inspiration from Pholela, a pioneering community-oriented primary healthcare initiative in rural KwaZulu-Natal, and platforms used in vaccine trials in Bangladesh and Senegal, the Agincourt Research Centre was developed to monitor and respond to the changes experienced by South Africa’s rural communities.
Today, Agincourt is one of the longest-running research centres of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, with sophisticated infrastructure to track and understand health and wellbeing over the life course – and promote better outcomes and improved health systems through trials and policy evaluation.
It is a unique study hub attracting global and multidisciplinary scholars and researchers.
Urban-rural blend trends
“The Agincourt Research Centre is a living, dynamic, ever-changing environment,” says Tollman.
In the late 1990s, Agincourt transitioned from designing and testing decentralised health systems to a full-on population-based research platform conducting work relevant to other transitioning rural communities in southern and sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2004, the Agincourt Health and Population Unit was officially recognised as a South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Wits University research unit, with the new title, the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt). Now in 2022, the research centre covers 31 villages and some 120 000 people in 20 000 households.
“What makes the Agincourt Research Centre so interesting is the rapidly changing profile of a ‘transitioning’ society. It is reflected in mortality, morbidity, and risk data, and the intersection of infectious illnesses and non-communicable conditions like heart disease and diabetes. So, coupled with increased life expectancy thanks to the uptake of antiretroviral medication for HIV, for example, there is a high prevalence of other chronic conditions,” says Tollman.
Since 2004, Agincourt researchers have put emphasis on the “why?” of the rapid rise of non-communicable conditions (NCDs), and the reality of a younger population experiencing age-related afflictions, such as stroke, and neurological diseases.
“While specifics will differ by context and environment, the profound economic, social, lifestyle and behavioural changes that we are all experiencing are key determinants of an unfolding health and population transition – a phenomenon across the continent but with extreme intensity in South Africa, particularly rural South Africa,” says Kahn.
Internal migration impacts health
Professor Imraan Valodia, Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, says that we tend to believe that Johannesburg is a smaller-scale version of the “real” SA, but indeed, “the Agincourt area shows this fascinating phenomenon of the blurring of ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ lines, where it’s impossible to classify the area as having characteristics on which to devise coherent health, social and economic policies”. While the sustainability of urban corridors is critical, the lived reality of many South Africans suggests a remaking, reordering and mixing of village and city life.
“Migrant labour now involves large numbers of women. Transport patterns have changed. Digitisation is proceeding apace,” adds Tollman. But poverty and inequality remain deeply ingrained “driving health transitions that we don’t fully grasp”.
Internal migration (people moving within national borders in search of work, but returning to a rural home periodically) is a dominant feature of the South African economy. The impact of this migration on health is poorly understood.
Agincourt migration researcher, Dr Carren Ginsburg, who is an investigator on the Migrant Health Follow-Up Study, says that the study aims to understand how migration and urbanisation change risk factors for health conditions, and whether migration creates barriers to accessing treatment and has an impact on the continuity of healthcare.
“We are finding important differences in health and socioeconomic outcomes between migrants and rural residents, and between men and women. For example, women migrants display high blood pressure in contrast to residents who remain in the Agincourt study area, and migrants are less inclined to use health services in destinations when compared to those who have not moved,” says Ginsburg.
The work of the migration research group has highlighted the need for innovative healthcare strategies to ensure better and consistent care for mobile people.
Poverty, poor health and climate change
The Agincourt Research Centre, says environmental researcher Professor Wayne Twine, is ideal to host multidisciplinary teams of scientists to better understand the nuanced and complex factors impacting on the high prevalence of multiple chronic illnesses in the study population. This includes the effects of climate change, and the intersection of poverty, poor health and ecological degradation.
“We’ve seen that with widespread unemployment and the weakening of local governing authorities, that the culturally and economically important marula trees are being harvested for fire and fuelwood. While Bushbuckridge has electricity infrastructure, people resort to using these sacred trees (prized for their fruit) to cook and work because of money constraints. This also has health implications, especially for women, who are responsible for household labour. They breathe in smoke and are at risk of several respiratory diseases,” says Twine.
The researchers are seeing the living impacts of climate change, with droughts affecting household vegetable patches grown as supplementary food supply.
“We need climate-resilient food systems and an awareness of managing natural resources. But this cannot occur in isolation. People are aware of what the consequences are of cutting down trees, and so we must critically engage with what drives people’s daily decisions and work out policy from there. Climate change cuts across everything,” he adds.
People-led public health
Top-down research methods rarely work in contexts like Agincourt, and for structural health changes to occur, community participation in identifying issues is critical.
Denny Mabetha and Maria van der Merwe are involved with the Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action research project (VAPAR) at Agincourt. In many developing and transitioning societies, functioning civil registration and vital statistics systems are incomplete or absent, leading to poor social planning and policy implementation. Thus, family-based caregivers, through the verbal autopsy interview process, can provide much-needed information about the event of death, as well as the circumstances leading up to it.
“Our VAPAR project reveals the effectiveness of participatory action research in communities. We don’t surmise the challenges that they face; people identify their concerns and priorities, and we work from there,” says Mabetha.
Defining the deceased
The participants identified lack of safe drinking water; alcohol and drug abuse; and difficulty adhering to medical treatment regimens as priorities.
“It thus allowed us to forge partnerships between service providers and service users, such as the Departments of Health and Social Development, sanitation initiatives and the affected communities. We encourage working together to improve our interventions,” says Mabetha.
Van der Merwe notes that the skills development of community health workers, especially in terms of improving and sustaining tuberculosis and HIV treatment, was a direct result of the community identifying gaps in healthcare. “We have supported, trained and built capacity of the community health workers and their standing within the health system and the community. This is a key component of the theory of change. They are, therefore, better used and respected in the formal health system,” she says.
Based on the positive experience of VAPAR’s contributions, and at the request of district management, the Agincourt Research Centre systematically trained and supported several hundred community health workers serving Bushbuckridge.
Understand cognition and mental health
Dr Ryan Wagner has looked at the longitudinal trends in Agincourt and found that certain mental and neurological health conditions were likely to become more prevalent in the coming years, but hard to measure, and thus were a barrier to implementing health interventions.
By undertaking rigorous innovative, population-based research, including neuroimaging with Wits Professor Victor Mngomezulu, as well as blood assays, they are for the first time in a rural South African context able to establish a baseline and to identify cognitive trajectories.
“This is enabling us to examine potential determinants and outcomes across the life course. For example, we are seeing an association between formal education and cognition. Formal education is likely a protective factor against diseases like dementia later in life,” says Wagner, something that is expected to be an important factor in an area with historically poor educational opportunity and attainment.
What makes a good life?
Tollman and Kahn explain that the initial motivation to set up the Agincourt Research Centre was the pure neglect of rural South African populations. “We have continued to ask the question, over the last 30 years, ‘How do you build flourishing societies in a context where jobs are few, migrant labour is deeply embedded, but where aspirations and the desire to live a life of meaning is evident?’ In this way, Agincourt has been forward-thinking in its establishment of a contextually sensitive and responsive rural research and development ‘lab’ to tackle complex problems,” says Tollman.
Twine says that Agincourt is a critical contributor to the first “African knowledge synthesis centre”, namely the Wits Rural Knowledge Hub, which aims to “make sense of the noise of all the data out there”.
He adds: “We are bringing together our longitudinal data sets, and different types of knowing and experiencing the world, to generate new understandings and new knowledge to tackle development challenges.”
Future-focused rural research
Tshegofatso Seabi is a PhD candidate and Programme Manager in the Agincourt Research Centre. Her research interests are obesity, adolescent health, behaviour change, rural health and policy. She says that she has gained an enormous amount of knowledge and experience working at Agincourt, and that this has greatly improved her career trajectory.
“Young researchers are included in everything. I have been involved in the grant writing process. I see the impact that our research has on the community. It has been so exciting to work with many people from different backgrounds. Training traditional healers in using personal protective equipment was one of the highlights of 2021.”
Beth Amato is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
The politics of protest
- Ufrieda Ho
Protests are a hallmark of Wits’ history and have contributed to the University’s legacy of social activism, democracy and constitutionality.
Always uncomfortable, often traumatic, protests are about speaking truth to power – and they are a South African human right. Ufrieda Ho asked Professor Noor Nieftagodien, Head of the History Workshop at Wits, for his reflections.
The year that Wits came into being in 1922 was a wild one by all accounts. Protests and mineworkers striking, coupled with underlying race-based jobs wars on the mines, exploded into the Rand Rebellion. Just months later, Wits was granted full university status in a young city full of unquiet energy and contestation. So over its 100 years, Wits has had a knotted history of protest, resistance and contention tied to capital versus labour, racial division, as well as the poisoned treasures of the extractive industries and the making and re-making of a city of gold.
Nieftagodien recounts some of these impactful historical events in Wits’ history, and offers insights into what comes next in safeguarding the right to protest, nurturing activism, the need for deeper reckoning regarding the growing securitisation of campus, and the impact of how a time of isolation, clickivism and social media noise reframes the questions of how a university of the future reimagines its role outside the academy.
The rise of student activism
Picking up from the tumult of strikes of the 1920s, Nieftagodien says that the mineworkers’ strikes in the 1920s took place in an era of anti-fascist struggles, mirroring the groundswell across Europe from around the mid-1930s to the 1950s. Added to this push against oppressive regimes came the rise of the Nationalist Party in 1948. It would shape a response from Wits to defend its autonomy and remain an ‘open’ university, even though black students were a small minority on campus.
From the mid-1960s, more radical voices were heard in the ranks of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), who were concerned about the complicity of universities in supporting apartheid. By the late 1960s there was growing dissatisfaction that the predominantly white NUSAS would not or could not prioritise a more radical response to fighting racist structures within the University and the country. Black students, led by Steve Biko, left NUSAS to establish the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO), which inaugurated the formation of the Black Consciousness Movement, Nieftagodien says. The NUSAS-SASO split would be crucial in shaping political resistance.
Black consciousness
“The importance of the decision to split was confirmed by the 1970s. The SASO grew significantly, not only at the former white universities but also at black universities, giving rise to the stronghold of black consciousness at the University of Durban-Westville and the University of the Western Cape,” says Nieftagodien.
University-based activism would fill the gap in the struggle in the 1970s when organisations, including the SASO, were banned. Nieftagodien says that the emergence of the Azanian Student Organisation (AZASO), although regarded as the successor to SASO, had by the early 1980s adopted non-racialism and support for the Freedom Charter. This marked a convergence again between black and white students, with AZASO and NUSAS forging a strong alliance, he explains.
A climate of disquiet
The political climate in the aftermath of the Soweto Uprising in 1976 into the 1980s would see Wits, particularly students, supported by some academics, take a strong stand against the apartheid regime – but it would mean ratcheting up police brutality and violence. Police stormed campuses and harassed and beat up students. Nieftagodien says that it forced the English-speaking universities to take a more public stand against apartheid.
This was also a moment that marked an era of stronger off-campus activism aligned to trade union organisations that were not banned at the time. Fighting for workers’ rights would be a crucial layer of pushback in the broader fight to end apartheid.
Wits and dissenting voices
Fast forward to the democratic era and protests have not strayed far from workers’ rights, including the in-sourcing of workers at Wits. Protests have extended to struggles to transform university curricula; to decisively address gender-based violence and rape culture; to reform fee structures, to address historical debt; to protest against xenophobia; to demand treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS; and to acknowledge the unequal burdens on mostly black students without financial means and support. It would make the #FeesMustFall movement of 2015/2016 another critical turning point in the history of Wits and South Africa.
Alongside student-led protests, some academics and staff took a public stance during the protests.
“We were able to mobilise several hundred academics across the country to sign a letter demanding that the national government increase subsidies to support the project of ensuring the viability of public universities,” says Nieftagodien.
Post-pandemic securitisation
Nieftagodien is concerned that since #FeesMustFall, Wits has become increasingly securitised. The 2020-2022 Covid-19 lockdown years added to campus life growing quiet. Nieftagodien’s opinion is that what should emerge from this period is a reinvigoration of campuses as spaces not just for learning, research and scholarship, but to be “spaces of critical thinking and of independence that allows – at the right moment – the environment for academics, students and administrators to take a stand in support of the good of the public.”
Witsies with the edge
Jerome September, the Dean of Student Affairs, points out that Wits is not unique in terms of protest but he says that it is an important legacy that Wits activists over the decades have been at the forefront of speaking truth to power, shifting national priorities and sounding wake-up calls for society.
One such activist is Emeritus Professor in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Barry Dwolatzky, who turned 70 this year. He says that his activism was shaped from the moment he stepped onto campus in 1971. Dwolatzky, who is currently working on his memoir, pulls an intergenerational thread through protests at Wits. He says: “We still sit with the big issues that reached a peak in 2015 and 2016 with #FeesMustFall, that haven’t gone away. At the same time those issues were not dissimilar to the questions that we were asking in the 60s and 70s about what shape education should take – how could it be significant and meaningful, who would it include and who would be left behind?”
Having shared 51 years of Wits’ 100-year journey, he says the ‘what next?’ chapters are to be written by a new generation of activists. “My role is to tell my story, to reinforce the need for community mobilisation and to keep asking better questions, but it’s not to tell young people what to do – they know what they want and the resolutions that they are willing to fight for,” he says.
September believes that it would be a failure if students left Wits without recognising that activism, protest and active citizenship are components of democracy and democracy building. This could be in raising awareness of climate change, better public healthcare for all, or protesting against state capture and corruption.
“If we are to develop young people to be future leaders of organisations across all sectors, then they must be able to have to deal with activism, to deal with differences of opinion and with strong expressions of these opinions, and be able to make sense of where they fit in the broader debates and issues being raised.”
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Wits at a time of national crisis: Then and now
- Professors Jacklyn Cock and Eddie Webster
South African universities should revisit their multiple publics and explore what a public university in southern Africa today should be.
In 1986, Wits initiated the Perspectives of Wits (POW) project to explore township communities’ perceptions of the University. Professors Jacklyn Cock and Eddie Webster suggest that we revisit how Wits is perceived in the 21st Century in the context of climate change and persistent inequality.
As the number of black students increased at Wits University in the 1980s, township struggles spread onto the campus and management came under increasing grassroots pressure to implement change within the University. In response, social scientists in the Faculty of Humanities, with the financial support of the University’s Research Office, undertook an extensive survey of the perception of Wits among organisations in Gauteng townships, as well as of international academics, students and staff at Wits, and even had a meeting with the then-banned African National Congress (ANC) in Lusaka.
The outcome of this Wits-initiated research project, Perspectives of Wits, published at the height of apartheid in 1986, revealed a disconnect between township communities’ perceptions of Wits, and the image that the Wits administration had been attempting to convey of the University as a progressive opponent of apartheid.
The POW survey revealed that a large proportion of the community members surveyed thought that Wits served mainly white, corporate interests. The report recommended widespread further transformation of the University.
Knowledge for whom, for what, by whom?
Nearly 40 years later, with University leadership, staff and students increasingly representative of South Africa’s demography, Wits has clearly made significant progress towards what the late anti-apartheid cleric Reverend Beyers Naudé called for at the time, “securing a democratic, educational future for all in South Africa”.
However, we must ask whether the University’s responses to the multiple crises we face today are not reproducing a similar disconnect between the University and the growing number of students struggling to pay their fees, amidst the impoverished and hungry masses eking out an existence in the sprawling informal settlements in Gauteng.
Do we need another survey to establish whose interests and needs we are serving? This survey needs to be framed by three crucial questions: Knowledge for whom? Knowledge for what? And knowledge by whom?
Mind the mines
These questions are of relevance because of our long-standing relationship with the mining industry.
Indeed, our origins go back to the South African School of Mines, established in Kimberley in 1896. At the time of the POW survey, the Chamber of Mines – and Anglo-American in particular – remained our largest private donor. Of course, there have been occasions in our history when the Chamber felt that it was not receiving a satisfactory return on its investment in the University. An example was the attempt by the asbestos industry to suppress the findings in the 1950s by the Wits Pneumoconiosis Unit of a link between asbestos and cancer – the hidden disease of mesothelioma. On balance, however, it can rightly be claimed that Wits has served mining capital well over the years.
Today, extractivism – the process of extracting natural resources from the Earth to sell on the world market – particularly of coal, is under attack because of its relationship to the crises of climate change and deepening inequality. As in the past, there are a variety of responses to these crises amongst Wits’ diverse constituencies. The establishment of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies and the recent appointment by Wits of a Pro-Vice Chancellor on Climate, Sustainability and Inequality is an exciting response that places Wits at the forefront of two central national challenges: climate change and the persistence of our position as the most unequal country in the world in terms of income and wealth.
These high levels of inequality have been sustained, and in some cases have deepened in the post-apartheid era. Will our researchers help promote a shift in the dominant view of coal as a source of energy, jobs and foreign exchange, to the view that coal is a driver of inequality and environmental damage? Will we help promote a democratic “just transition” from coal, which includes the lived experience of people in coal-affected communities? In the present cacophony of voices addressing the question of a just transition, we hope that these marginalised voices will be heard.
Commodifying knowledge
Much has changed over the past four decades as Wits and universities globally have been restructured according to a market logic. This means that knowledge is largely valued in terms of its capacity to be commodified. As universities have been defunded by the state, funds have been sought through raising student fees, the provision of short and online vocational courses, trusts and foundations, and endowments from wealthy alumni.
One of Wits’ biggest mistakes, which it has since rectified, was to try to cut costs by outsourcing its service staff to avoid paying benefits. Furthermore, over time, the balance of power has shifted from academics to the administration as a form of academic managerialism triumphed and Senate was in danger of being side-lined. The Senate is accountable to the Council for regulating all teaching, learning, research and academic functions of the University and all other functions delegated or assigned to it by the Council.
The Australian academic Jill Blackmore suggests that this market logic “results in epistemic injustice … it ignores the social and material conditions of knowledge production – the social relations of collegiality and collaboration, the emotional labour of teaching and researching” that is “dangerous for democracies”.
As Wits proudly celebrates a century of independent critical thought, maybe we need to revisit our external stakeholders to see how they perceive us in the face of the multiple crises of increasing inequality, casualisation of labour and ecological devastation?
Indeed, is it not time for all South African universities to revisit their multiple publics and explore with them what a public university in southern Africa in the 21st Century could – and should – become?
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Telling African stories through art
- Beth Amato
The Wits Art Museum covers 3 000 m2, housing more than 12 000 artworks, of which 5 551 comprise the Standard Bank African Art Collection.
The Wits Art Museum, a decade old in 2022, houses a world-class African art collection and is an architectural embodiment of the city that it inhabits and sentinel of African art stories, both untold and emerging.
On the corner of Jan Smuts Avenue and Jorissen Street in Braamfontein there once stood a post-apocalyptic site: a grotty petrol station adorned in rusty barbed wire. Above this towered the University Corner building, which housed a curious revolving restaurant in disrepair. But in 2009 this changed with the rejuvenation of University Corner and the breaking of ground where the Wits Art Museum (WAM) would be established.
Collection, location, and vision
“The location of WAM is particularly significant,” says the Museum’s Senior Curator, Julia Charlton, who has journeyed with WAM in its various iterations since 1997. “One of our main reasons for existence was to show ‘academic citizenship’. We needed to be accessible to the public, through our location, free entrance and presentation.”
In the 1990s, WAM’s extensive collection was bursting at the seams in what was then the Gertrude Posel Gallery, housed in Senate House (now Solomon Mahlangu House) at Wits University. The Gallery was difficult to access and its location was ill-suited to meet the contemporary needs that its remarkable collection deserved. But with the help of generous individual donations and a commitment shown to WAM by its donors and University leadership over the years, WAM has secured its appropriate and rightful place along one of Johannesburg’s key cultural arcs.
“The fact that we are here today is quite remarkable,” says Charlton. Wits was undertaking five major capital projects at the same time, which was unprecedented. “We had to pull in a lot of money to make this a sustainable site. But the urgent need to house the African art collections properly resonated powerfully with the benefactors, who shared the vision of transforming a shabby corner of Johannesburg into an excellent art museum and combining art and education in concrete form.”
Charlton commends the visionary leadership of former Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Belinda Bozzoli, and former Vice-Chancellor Professor Loyiso Nongxa, who believed in the establishment of WAM as a prolific contribution to arts and culture at large.
Charlton recalls a particularly special moment when Nongxa opened an exhibition at the Wits Galleries in Senate House in 2001. Nongxa saw, for the first time, items that he recognised as part of his cultural heritage in the Eastern Cape, admitted into the great canons of art. “The fact that these artefacts were deemed art – collected, curated, and cared for – moved him a great deal,” explains Charlton.
The Wits Art Museum has four storerooms covering 3 000 m2, housing more than 12 000 artworks, of which 5 551 comprise the Standard Bank African Art Collection. The Museum’s holdings now include the Schlesinger Collection, the Gerard Sekoto Collection, the Robert Hodgins Print Archive and the Walter Battiss Collection. Another major component is the Wits Museum of Ethnology Collection, a closed collection officially transferred from the University’s Anthropology Department in 2001. Several substantial research archives have been donated to WAM. Among these are the Neil Goedhals collection, the Judith Mason Archive, and the Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts.
Books as art and artists' books
In 2019, WAM opened the Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts (the Centre), the namesake of generous benefactor, Jack Ginsberg. His collection of ‘artists books’ and books on the subject procured over 50 years were once pitched for by a prestigious New York Museum, but Ginsberg was firm in his choice to house them at WAM and to grow this artistic sub-field in Africa. Wits is Ginsberg’s alma mater, and this was a strong reason for his important collection being placed there.
“Book art, and indeed the Centre, is a living, growing field. There are many differing definitions of what makes an artist’s book. We embrace the Duchampian approach: If an artist considers something an artwork then it’s an artwork,” says Ginsberg.
At the Centre, visitors will be treated to Pippa Skotnes’ book sculpted horse and an incredible display of Sue Williamson’s objects collected in the aftermath of the forced removals in District Six. The Centre has an acquisitions budget that enables it to keep up with developments in the field and hosts four major exhibitions a year.
The Centre is the largest book arts centre in the southern hemisphere. In Wits’ centenary year, the Centre is exhibiting most of world-renowned artist and Wits alumnus William Kentridge’s artists books and art monographs, and this is significant: “I think that the number of Kentridge’s art monographs are approaching [Andy] Warhol’s,” says Ginsberg.
‘Artedemic’ citizenship
At WAM, academic citizenship extends to teaching, research and public engagement and WAM’s Education Curator, Kamal Naran, says that the Museum has been a rich resource for young children, students, researchers and the general public. “We have tried to be relevant and it has been such a joy to arrange tours and educational activities for people across all disciplines. For example, we had architectural students engaging in a recent exhibition for the explicit purpose of developing their critical thinking skills.”
Charlton explains that the disparate components of WAM form a rich, vast and varied collection of artworks and a unique resource.
Redefining art
Wits University’s Art History syllabus changed rapidly in the 1980s to include the study of African artists and artworks, particularly what is now described as classical/historical African art, says Charlton. Until then, what constituted “art” and “art history” was taught as a linear progression from “Ancient Egyptian through Greek and Roman towards the Renaissance and beyond, to the Impressionists and Surrealists and ending somewhere around Pop Art.” However, Wits soon became known for its African art specialisation, which then influenced the growth of the collection.
Kutlwano Mokgojwa, Curator of the African art collection at WAM, says that for a long time, the West has dominated the idea of African art expression. Mokgojwa says that the Museum's collection, exhibition, teaching, publication and research efforts have tried to subvert this ill-fitting notion of “African art”.
Wits academics have, through the African art collection, contested the idea that the continent only has (a narrow) artistic expression. Wits Professor Anitra Nettleton drove this contestation at WAM and within the University. She showed how varied African art was, says Mokgojwa. Although this is not reflected as prolifically in the writings of Western art history, “these are part of our cultural heritage and they can't be dismissed as craft. Since Nettleton’s work has been completed, we have added to the art historical canon by taking the time to research and find these incredible artworks.” In this way, WAM has made and continues to make a seminal contribution to the continent’s cultural and artistic narrative.
Mokgojwa believes that WAM’s attention to detail in its dizzying complexity and variation of African art has enabled artists and creatives of African descent to reclaim their narratives. “We are living in an incredible age; we are telling our stories from our perspectives and disseminating them to the world.”
Beth Amato is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
The evolution of science and research practice
- Charlotte Mathews
How has science and research practice at Wits has evolved over a century?
The world is changing faster than ever. There is a massive demand from society worldwide to find answers to local and international challenges, and planetary problems too. With universities at the centre of knowledge generation, it is only natural for people to look to these institutions for solutions to climate change, geopolitical instability, inequality and economic challenges globally. However, due to the way in which universities were established traditionally, with research conducted in discipline “silos”, it has been difficult for higher education institutions to serve up the solutions to complex societal challenges.
“Problems are evolving fast – they are becoming ‘harder’ and more ‘real-world’,” says Professor Andrew Forbes of the Wits School of Physics. “There is a demand from our funders, predominately the public, to address pressing problems as well as create new knowledge.”
South African citizens indirectly fund public universities through paying taxes, a portion of which the government uses to subsidise public universities. Most research-intensive universities also require third-stream funding and donor support to produce quality research.
Since Wits started as a mining school 100 years ago, the focus has always been on enabling discovery research, applied research and innovative research, in collaboration with the public and private sectors, industry and civil society at times.
Innovative and collaborative for impact
“Research at Wits is world-class and excellent,” says Professor Barry Dwolatzky, Director of the new Wits Innovation Centre. “The gap that I see is the conversion of research into ‘innovation’. Far too much of our excellent research ends in the publication of an academic article or the awarding of a higher degree. We need to go the next step in taking that research output into society as a product, service or new policy. The biggest obstacle in doing this is mindset.”
“In the 21st Century research environment, disciplines cannot solve the world’s problems in isolation, so there is a growing emphasis on multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches to global problems,” says Professor Ruksana Osman, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic and UNESCO Research Chair in Teacher Education for Diversity and Development.
Berger’s team collaborates with almost every other faculty in the University. For instance, they support PhD students in zoology, archaeology, geography, palaeosciences, geology, architecture and planning, anatomy and several medical disciplines.
“The study of the past in humans should engage almost every human endeavour,” says Berger, who has been with Wits for 32 years.
“In my early career, I had a conversation with a then-deputy vice-chancellor, who told me: ‘you have a terrific research background, but you need more single-author papers, because that is how you will be judged’.”
Twenty-five years later, Berger says it is not uncommon to write papers with dozens of authors from across the world.
“Science has emerged, not as a conceptual idea of a lone genius, but one where great advances are achieved collaboratively.”
Berger has become world-famous for sharing his work, and that of his team on social media platforms, inviting scientists from all over the world to collaborate and share their knowledge, and making available the fossils that his team discovered to researchers worldwide. This has also made him extremely unpopular with some global peers who have a more “traditional” approach to science.
“I am an enormous proponent of ‘open collaboration’ and ‘open access’,” says Berger. “That means one, opening it to other scientists, which is a major mission of mine, and two, to the general public, to people who are interested in, and who are funding the science.”
From stem to steam
There are numerous other examples of highly successful cross-disciplinary collaborations at Wits.
Forbes says that because he has been allowed creative rein at Wits, his own work has expanded beyond physics to encompass groups in chemistry, engineering, health and even art. Cross-disciplinary research demands and reflects a move from focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to incorporating the arts (STEAM).
“My structured light group is now working closely with Arts Research Africa under Professor Christo Doherty in the Wits School of Arts to explore art-science innovation, through an artist-in-residence programme. The idea is to change perspectives in the route to innovation. There are not many institutions in South Africa where this is possible and we are excited as to where this might lead. This is what makes Wits special – it is always evolving in perspective and scope, to create and enhance research.”
In the last five of the 15 years that Doherty has been at Wits, he says that the changing relationship between different creative arts and research – initiating interdisciplinary research between the creative arts and “hard” sciences – has been a major step forward for the University. Previously, most creative arts programmes ended at the Master’s level.
Recently, PhD or research programmes in creative arts subjects have become possible, with students often applying an understanding of arts practices, such as materiality, embodiment or performance, to other fields of investigation.
Drawing from a diverse toolbox
Not only has the nature of research changed. “The toolkit is also evolving fast,” says Forbes. “It is now very sophisticated and embeds intelligence beyond that of just the researcher. Thinking and doing ‘the same as before’ is unlikely to make a real impact.”
Osman says that research in the 21st Century is characterised by several defining features. In the context of the wide availability of (big) data and (open) knowledge, the emphasis is on synthesis rather than collection and curation. This suggests that researchers nowadays must have a strong sense of what knowledge counts, and why.
This has resulted in research work on meta-analyses and systematic reviews. Some of Osman’s work has focused on a meta-analysis of educational policy studies and a meta-analysis of educational scholarship in higher education. She says that there is far less emphasis on discrete [separate] methodological expertise and more on researchers having a diverse toolbox of methodologies upon which to draw.
Professor Cathi Albertyn, South African Research Chair in Equality, Law and Social Justice, says that the most obvious change since the 1980s was the move from books to computers: researchers no longer have to sit in libraries but can research from their offices. This has also made it quicker to do research – “although, as it has become faster, something has been lost: time to engage and reflect”.
The second obvious change, linked to that development, is that media-savvy researchers can disseminate their research more easily, she says.
Dwolatzky, who graduated with a PhD in Electrical Engineering at Wits in 1979, says: “The most remarkable change that I see when I compare research at Wits in the 1970s to the way it is undertaken now, is that now there is a large ‘support environment’ that surrounds research. Research in the 2020s at Wits is far more formally managed. Students are under pressure to make progress and work to a timeline and supervisors are under pressure to ensure that they meet these deadlines. Research productivity is measured and discussed.”
Focused research matters more
It is not just the nature of research that has changed. It is also the focus.
“Research is more socially connected and linked to big social questions than ever before,” says Valodia. “For example, in my areas of speciality, we’ve embarked on big projects on climate change, unemployment and social policy. I think that research is correctly becoming more relevant to the big questions that societies face, and that trend is likely to continue.”
This is also true in other areas, which traditionally have not seen much scope for interdisciplinary work.
Albertyn says that there is far greater diversification in methods and collaboration in law research than before. “It was unusual when I started for people to do interviews or social research and understand how the law worked in action. In those days, legal research mainly focused on legislation and cases. Today, it is more interdisciplinary, working with anthropologists or historians to bring different perspectives. Lawyers are also moving beyond traditional legal methodology and are not just reading texts but also interviewing people on how law works in practice.”
In the Wits School of Arts (WSOA), a postgraduate programme, Drama for Life, combines various arts disciplines and techniques to bring an understanding of audience and imaginative engagement to address social issues, such as the effects of HIV/Aids and Covid-19 on youth and marginalised communities.
Next generation researchers
The changing face of research at Wits has already made an impact on the world, as well as a difference in terms of attracting interest in the University. David Francis, Deputy Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) at Wits and one of the “next generation” of academics, says that the Centre has seen more widespread interest in how to address the problems of inequality.
“We have seen enthusiasm from other academics, policymakers and activists for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding inequality. That helps to inform our research agenda and it means that there is an audience who is interested,” says Francis.
The SCIS was set up by Valodia as a multidisciplinary research hub to encourage research and policy changes to help address inequality.
“There is a real enthusiasm for research and a depth of ability among young economists,” says Francis, adding that the SCIS is launching new PhD fellowship and Master’s courses and that these are attracting high-calibre applicants. “This is probably because the issues that the Centre is tackling are seen as highly relevant, so we are attracting engaged scholars.”
Albertyn has also seen a difference in the School of Law.
“In recent years, a career in academic law has become far more acceptable to graduates than it was in the 1990s to early 2000s, when the lure of higher salaries in the commercial world or the status of being a professional held greater appeal.”
As research becomes more complex, mentoring the next generation of researchers becomes increasingly important. However, developing the next generation of academics will not happen automatically, says Osman. It must be done in a targeted way, such as through the Future Professor Programme. This is a flagship programme of the Department of Higher Education and Training to develop academic excellence and leadership in university scholarship and so develop the South African professoriate in future.
“We have programmes to develop early career academics, linking them with mentors, and ensuring that they work in big teams to develop the necessary skills sets,” says Osman.
Dwolatzky predicts that, in future, IT systems will be used increasingly to monitor and streamline the research process. “In terms of the content of the research done, I’m hoping that in the future there will be a much stronger relationship between research and impact. I define this as ‘innovation’.”
Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, concludes: “In terms of the Research and Innovation agenda, it is important that the research is responsive and relevant locally and globally – and that includes local communities –, that research is done at the highest academic standards, that we insist on excellence and that we ensure academics set the agenda without political interference.”
Charlotte Mathews is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
The Wits Digital Dome to light up the sky
- Ufrieda Ho
It’s the end of an era as Wits Planetarium is reimagined as a ‘out of this world’ digital dome.
It’s a good day at the Wits Planetarium when the soundtrack Vangelis, the Greek musician, syncs perfectly with the moving projection of a cluster of stars rising from the rim of the dome, while the room darkens, on cue, to a shade of deep-space black.
“I still get a kick out of it every time,” says Planetarium Supervisor Constant Volschenk, who has played “conductor” hundreds of times at the Planetarium since 1997. He has overseen an orchestra of gears, dials, knobs and switches that have made planetarium live shows pop for thousands of people who have over the years craned their necks into the cushioned headrests and willingly fallen under the spell of the story of the night sky.
“We can have 400 school learners at a show. When you get through to even one child who leaves in total amazement, then my job is done,” says Volschenk.
Planetarium projection
In the days before the Covid-19 lockdown, the Planetarium welcomed about 60 000 people every year. It’s been a popular city fixture since it opened its doors in October 1960. It was in 1956 when the then Johannesburg City Council decided that a planetarium would be the perfect hurrah for a City that was turning 70 years old. Wits donated the land, cementing a city-university partnership, and welcomed a unique asset to the campus.
Zeiss, the manufacturer of the star projectors in Germany was not able to manufacture a new projector in time that year. “That’s when the Hamburg Planetarium offered their projector for sale. Part of the arrangement was for the star projector – which was built in 1930 – to be taken to Copenhagen so that it could be upgraded to become the Zeiss MKIII that we now have,” says Volschenk. He adds that the distinct pale avocado dome along Yale Road was designed specifically to optimise the projection from this Zeiss MKIII projector.
Man on the moon in Yale Road
Over the years there have been dozens of live and pre-recorded shows that have ranged from ancient Egyptian astronomy to exploring major celestial events like solar and lunar eclipses. The Planetarium has also been the venue for numerous launches and talks. Volschenk remembers the time that it was turned into a giant beach to re-launch a holiday club scheme for Sun City.
“Following the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Planetarium was one of the first places in South Africa where people got to watch the recordings of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the lunar surface. The tapes were flown in from London and someone fetched them directly from the pilots and brought them here. It was such a big event that people were lined up all the way to De Korte Street waiting to get in, and there was no charge,” reminisces Volschenk.
These are the kind of historical highlights that have put the Planetarium’s star projector at the heart of the City’s heritage. But now it’s time for the grand ol’ dame projector herself to slip into memory. The Zeiss MKIII will be pensioned off in 2022 to make room for a rebuild project that will give Wits and the public a research, educational and entertainment resource aligned with 21st Century demands.
Visual lab puts stars in our eyes
Professor Roger Deane, Director of the Wits Centre for Astrophysics and the Square Kilometre Array Chair in Radio Astronomy, says that the multi-million rand digital upgrade will transform the familiar dome into a high-tech, fully immersive, multi-sensory, multi-dimensional resource. He likens it to an IMAX theatre experience – but better.
“For many researchers across many fields, we feel as if we are basically drowning in data, which is coupled with the challenge of datasets becoming more complex and more multi-dimensional. A resource like this Wits Digital Dome is a way of honing a more intuitive understanding of big data,” explains Deane.
The technology will be a boon to science and research, while it will also hit the sweet spot for entertaining and educating a modern-day public. As an example, Deane imagines that it could be three-dimensional shows made from drone footage swooping through the world’s largest radio telescope, the SKA. An immersive experience of the SKA, which is built in an inaccessible part of the Karoo, inspires collective pride in this significant South African scientific endeavour in a site that most people will never get to visit.
“We could also visualise what the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is measuring as particles are smashed together. It’s why we view the Digital Dome as a visualisation laboratory that will have countless applications and opportunities for collaborations, including creating local content for showcasing a wide range of academic disciplines, from lightning research to multi-layered biodiversity data, as well as advancements in the digital arts,” he says.
It could also serve as an additional medium to highlight some of the Wits Arts Museum’s 15 000 works of art for instance, or as a virtual walkthrough of the world-renowned active archaeological dig sites that Wits has been excavating and studying.
Beyond Wits, it could present visualisation and immersive experiences for a community of researchers to better understand ocean conditions, to study climate science, or to virtually explore underground mines towards improving strategies to reduce mining accidents or to limit environmental damage.
“The emphasis on multi- and trans-disciplinary research and applications is critical to give the new Digital Dome continued relevance, access for those from disadvantaged communities in particular, and for it to justify the big spend,” adds Deane.
He says that the Wits Council has already committed about a fifth of the funds (around R20 million) of all three stages required, meaning that the construction can kick off in 2022, Wits’ centenary year. A major donor is also interested in funding the first phase of the project.
The building project will incorporate a revamp of the Planetarium, within an upgraded precinct, and will include a partnership with Wits Sport on revitalising joint facilities and surrounding structures. The new facilities will be used both for viewing sports matches and to host exhibitions and other events. Given that it is a multi-use precinct, it will ensure broad, University-wide use as well as greater public patronage and access.
This project is also about giving attention to this wonderful, green precinct at the north end of campus that is perhaps sometimes underappreciated.
“I’m an astronomer focused on research and postgraduate training. However, I believe that as academics, we have broader roles and responsibilities in society. In this project we are furthering the interests of Wits, as well as promoting science engagement and education with the public, and what that means for the City and for community building,” explains Deane.
He promises that the Zeiss MKIII will “go to a good home” as she is moved out of the Planetarium. She deserves it – after all, it is this projector that started everything 62 years ago, with each planetarium show urging another person to reach a little further, to touch the stars.
Ufrieda Ho is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Facing climate change head-on
- Shaun Smillie
Climate change took nearly a century to become mainstream science. Wits is taking the lead in facing up to the challenge.
While climate change is now accepted as being humankind’s – and the planet’s – greatest threat, it took science nearly a century to come to this realisation and to convince the world of this fact.
Climate change started out as a theory in the early 1900s when scientists started to speculate that the burning of coal and oil could trigger a process of global warming.
The hard science to prove the theory would only come 50 years later when one scientist started seeing evidence of change in the atmosphere.
In 1958, Charles Keeling at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii started taking measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. For the next 50 years, Keeling would continue his measurements, noting the continuing rise of CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
It would be 30 years after that when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) came into being, with the intention of providing governments at all levels with scientific information to inform climate policies.
World wakes up to climate change
Gradually climate change science came to be accepted into the mainstream.
“By the late 1990s, early 2000s, the majority of the world’s nations had accepted the evidence of human-induced global warming,” says Francois Engelbrecht, Professor of Climatology at Wits’ Global Change Institute (GCI).
In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol signed in Japan committed countries to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This was replaced by the Paris Agreement in 2015 that aimed to raise finances to assist countries in fighting the effects of climate change.
Now, 65 years after Keeling first began recording increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere, there is growing evidence of climate change happening around the world.
“The level of global warming that we’ve reached today in 2022, when compared to the pre-industrial temperature of the early 1800s, is about 1.2 degrees Celsius. If we look at different parts of the world, there are many regions that are warming up faster than this global average,” says Engelbrecht.
South Africa is one of these regions, with the Highveld experiencing a rise in temperature of two degrees Celsius when compared to pre-industrial times. With this rise will come extreme weather events, droughts and heat waves.
At Wits’ GCI, efforts are being made to predict the effects that climate change will have on the African continent.
At the forefront of this research is Lengau, a super computer that generates detailed projections of climate change in Africa. The name Lengau is a nod to the computer’s speed, as it means cheetah in Setswana. Lengau’s predictions for the near future makes for frightening reading.
South Africa’s ‘tipping points’
Four future climate events – or tipping points – have been identified and they are on a scale never seen before in the historic record. Alarmingly, they could happen in the next ten to 20 years.
The first of these is a day zero drought hitting Gauteng, devastating the economy and triggering an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
The second tipping point is the complete collapse of the South African maize crop and cattle industry, brought on by long-lasting droughts.
A third tipping point scenario is killer heat waves that we might even experience within the decade, which could kill thousands of people.
The fourth catastrophe could come from the sea in the form of category four or five tropical cyclones barrelling down the Mozambique Channel.
“What the Institute’s climate modelling tells us is that because of the warming of the waters in the Mozambique Channel, for the first time it is possible that a tropical cyclone of category four or five intensity can make landfall as far south as Maputo or maybe even as far south as Richards Bay,” says Engelbrecht.
A category four cyclone would make landfall with sustained winds of 200km an hour. It could dump 500mm to 1 000mm of rain in a day or two and be accompanied by a killer storm surge.
To better understand these devastating weather events, work at the Institute continues to better define and understand the models.
“The problem is that many South Africans don't know what the future possibly holds. We need to talk about these risks because we are totally unprepared for any of these four tipping points,” says Engelbrecht.
Mainstreaming climate change
Wits University has put climate change and sustainability front and centre by appointing a Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality, to coordinate University-wide efforts to research, adapt and mitigate climate change at the University.
“We don’t see climate change as something that can just be focused on in one part of the University,” says Professor Imraan Valodia, the Pro Vice Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality. “We wanted to mainstream it throughout the University, so the position was created to coordinate efforts and integrate different parts of the University and add value.”
The Office will focus on five task areas, including transdisciplinary research; teaching, with specialised training in climate change and sustainability in an integrated way; looking at the University’s internal operations and reducing its climate footprint; advocacy; and policy support.
“One example of how we are mainstreaming climate change in our teaching is through the course on climate that we teach all first years at University as part of the Gateway to Success Programme, initiated by my colleagues,” says Valodia. “We want our students to be key agents of change as they are the ones who are going to have to change the world and who have to confront tough economic issues in the process. We cannot have an energy and climate transition without dealing with the deep social issues around climate change at the same time.”
As part of its next strategic plan, the University is also actively looking at ways to reduce energy and water consumption, develop cleaner, more cost-effective and efficient energy systems, grow organic food gardens, make buildings greener, develop better waste management strategies, and make the campus greener.
Shaun Smillie is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Digging for the truth of humanity
- Shaun Smillie
Wits researchers have over the past century changed, and challenged, the way we think about the evolution of humanity and our ancestors.
In the Cradle of Humankind, a group of scientists waited for the moment when they would know if they had struck pay dirt. The wait was for the first of 20 cores to come to the surface courtesy of a diesel-powered drilling rig.
That pay dirt, if all worked out, would be a core of tufa-freshwater carbonate rock that contains the fossilised remains of plants. Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of ambient temperature water. It would allow a peek into what the environment and climate was like in this corner of the Cradle about 200 000 years ago.
“We will first see what is preserved, then get an age sequence of the unit and after that we look at the carbon and oxygen isotopes,” explains geologist Dr Tebogo Makhubela, the Principal Investigator at what is known as the Lefika la Noka tufa site. “This will give us an indication of vegetation type, the temperature, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the time, and rain levels.”
Birth of a species
Two hundred thousand years ago is a period in which palaeoanthropologists are starting to take a serious interest. This is the date range when it is thought that one of the latest additions to the evolutionary tree, Homo naledi, was wandering the Cradle.
“This will be the only nearly continuous environmental record for the interior of South Africa that exists,” says Wits palaeoanthropologist, Professor Lee Berger.
The search for Homo naledi and the world in which she lived is the continuation of a tradition of research that Wits has led for close on 100 years. In that time, there have been groundbreaking discoveries that have turned the understanding of our origins on its head.
Back in 1925, Wits Professor Raymond Dart revealed to the world the Taung child. Often referred to as the most significant palaeoanthropological find of the 20th Century, the fossilised skull would eventually prove that Africa was the birthplace of the human species.
Both the nature of research and the face of those who lead it has changed dramatically at Wits since Dart’s days. Innovative technologies are adding to our understanding of the past and a younger generation of academics have been given the chance to take charge of world-renowned dig sites.
Dr Keneiloe Molopyane is amongst this new generation of scientists, and she is the Principal Investigator at Gladysvale, which is situated close to the new Lefika la Noka tufa site. But Gladysvale is worlds away from those early dig sites when palaeoanthropologists like Dart, sporting stiff collars and ties, went about their business working on their own.
On the hill overlooking Gladysvale is a transmitter hooked up to provide high speed internet connectivity – part of a new ethos where everything is geared towards mobility. The infrastructure can be broken down and moved elsewhere quickly, and mobile labs allow for on-site analysis.
“It has definitely become more multidisciplinary,” says Molopyane. “We need geologists, palaeoanthropologists and everyone to work together on modern dig sites.”
But just as 200 000 years ago is the new hunting ground for a mystery relative, there is another period in distant human history that has Wits scientists scratching their heads, and on a quest to find out more.
Jewels, tools and graffiti
Something started happening to humans around 120 000 years ago. It was during this time that they began expressing themselves through art, wearing jewellery and using new hunting technologies. Evidence for this change has been found in cave sites, many of which hug the South African coastline, including the Blombos Cave, Klipdrift Shelter, Pinnacle Point, Sibudu Cave, Klasies River Caves and Border Cave.
In 2018, what is believed to be the earliest evidence of a human “drawing” was revealed by Professor Christopher Henshilwood, who holds the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation South African Research Chair in the Origins of Modern Human Behaviour at Wits and is the Director of the Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour at the University of Bergen in Norway.
The drawing was a series of red criss-crossed lines of ochre on a piece of grindstone found at Blombos Cave in the southern Cape in South Africa. The artefact was dated to between 70 000 and 100 000 years old. Besides this early art, archaeologists at Blombos and other sites have found shell beads covered in ochre and sophisticated leaf-shaped stone spear points.
“We can see that this period was key to human brain development, and it is probably associated with syntactic language,” says Henshilwood.
Trying to figure out what caused that spark deep in the Middle Stone Age means drawing on new disciplines and technology.
“Part of our group are psychologists,” says Henshilwood. “We are working on functional magnetic resonance imaging that records areas of your brain that light up as you do certain things, such as making a stone tool. This helps us to trace how human brains might have been organised in the past.”
Together with several world-first discoveries – such as the discovery by Professor Lyn Wadley and her team of the first grass bedding that people used 200 000 years ago, and the first evidence of early human beings cooking and eating starch 120 000 years ago, by Professor Sarah Wurz and her team – Wits researchers have revolutionised the way we think and contributed to knowledge of our ancestors.
Why did we live here?
Jerome Reynard, Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at Wits, is another new generation scientist. He is trying to figure out why humans took to living in the highlands that border what is now Lesotho and the Eastern Cape some 20 000 years ago, at the height of the Glacial Maximum. Conditions then would have been brutal. Temperatures were well below freezing and what is now the mountain kingdom would have been dotted with mini glaciers.
“Why they would have lived in the highlands when there were warmer conditions just down the mountains below, is a mystery,” says Reynard.
He plans to dig at a site called Strathalan, near Nqanqarhu (Maclear) where he hopes to solve the mystery and work out how people survived in such hostile conditions.
“So how do people adapt to those environments? Did they adapt by, for example, increasing social networks? Or did they become more isolated?” he asks.
A bright future for the past
Back at the Lefika la Noka tufa site, in the Cradle, the shout went out. The drillers had found something. Makhubela laid out the core on a wrap of heavy-duty plastic. It exposed a core of tufa, drilled from about four metres deep. This newly unearthed time-capsule could begin to unravel a new chapter in the century-long search into human origins that began when Dart described the Taung skull in 1925, and then spent the next three decades defending his discovery against a world opinion with preconceived ideas on how human evolution worked.
Since Dart’s days, Wits has continued to populate the evolutionary family tree with new discoveries such as Australopithecus sediba and Little Foot, and has challenged notions, ideas and long-held traditions and misconceptions that have advanced our understanding of the origins of humankind.
This, believes Berger, will continue.
“The future lies in building strong and dynamic science with scientists, explorers and technicians,” he says. “This future looks brighter than ever with this new generation of discoverers, who are curious about the world, and who are making a plethora of discoveries.”
Shaun Smillie is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Navigating life through the eyes of a gogga
- Pontsho Pilane
Curiosity about dung beetles could lead us into our future.
One day, 30 years ago, Wits entomologist Professor Marcus Byrne was standing in the African bushveld, curiously observing a dung beetle doing a little dance on a ball of dung. Then it set off, rolling the ball in a perfectly straight line into the distance.
The insect’s dance fascinated Byrne, who immediately started asking questions: What is the purpose of the dung beetle’s dance? How do dung beetles orientate themselves? How do they navigate and roll their ball in a perfectly straight line?
Byrne’s curiosity led to a 30-year study of this insect and changed not only what we know about these insects and how they navigate their world, but also led to new insights on how we can teach robots to navigate. It has attracted the attention of the US military, and led to a book, written by Byrne and Helen Lunn about human’s fascination with these insects over thousands of years, and their role in our changing lives.
“It turns out that the dung beetle’s ‘dance’ – standing on top of the ball of dung and spinning – is an orientation and navigation behaviour to determine the fastest and most efficient way to leave the dung pile to avoid a competitor’s hijacking of the ball of dung,” says Byrne.
“Dung beetles have almost no memory. Because elephant droppings are never at the same place, dung beetles don’t need to remember how to travel to and from a specific spot. However, they do need to know how to navigate to find their way around the bush.”
The beetles, it was found, use celestial cues – among others – for orientation. In other words, they scan the sky for orientation cues. The dung beetle’s built-in navigation system is the key to its ability to roll balls of dung with precision during the day and night, even under the gruelling African sun.
Further experiments conducted inside the Wits Planetarium reveal that they can navigate using the Milky Way – making them the first species known to do so.
“We were able to prove that some species of dung beetles don’t just orientate, they do truly navigate. Orientation just means you're able to move in a straight line or move with intent. Whereas navigation means you're able to move between two known places on the surface of the planet,” Byrne explains.
Using an insect’s brain to develop robotics
Byrne and a team of scientists from Sweden, Germany, Australia and South Africa have since 2013 meticulously observed and run experiments on certain species of dung beetles with the hopes of using their discoveries about the beetles’ brains – which are smaller than a grain of rice – in real-life applications in robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
A large part of the team’s research has looked at what they've called a “dung beetle compass”. They started off with experiments that looked at how dung beetles use the sun to navigate. They then went on to understand how the insects used polarised light as a navigational aid, then the moon and even the wind.
“The dung beetles’ ability to use directional sensors to achieve navigational precision opens possibilities for us to understand how their minuscule brains are able to handle large amounts of information, which allow them to go in a certain direction,” says Byrne.
In theory, the discoveries and understanding of dung beetles’ brains could help scientists build robots that are autonomous and don’t need a pilot or map to drive them through unknown terrain.
“Roboticists are interested in understanding dung beetles’ simple directional cues and their ability to use the sun, moon, stars, wind, and polarised lights to feed the same algorithm into robots to increase their efficiency,” Byrne says.
Thousands of years of fascination
Globally, there are around 6 000 species of dung beetles and Africa is home to about 2 000 of them, with more than 800 of those species in SA. But only 10% of these animals roll the dung into a ball – often across the hot African continent.
Dung beetles have fascinated humans for thousands of years. As described in Byrne’s book, Dance of the Dung Beetles: Their role in our changing world, these night-soil collectors of the planet have been worshipped as gods, worn as jewellery and painted by artists.
More practically, they saved Hawaii from ecological blight and rescued Australia from plagues of flies. They fertilise soil, cleanse pastures, steer by the stars, and have a unique relationship with the African elephant. Now, they will also influence the way we train robots.
While humans may admire dung beetles, our own advancements and actions threaten their existence. Last year, Byrne and his team found that light pollution - from the myriad manmade light sources - makes it difficult for dung beetles to find their way. Large amounts of unnatural light cause the night sky to glow unnaturally bright, leaving only the brightest stars visible.
“Given the level of light pollution in the modern world, we wondered how ‘sky glow’ in the night skies of our cities would affect the ability of dung beetles to orientate themselves.”
The experiments showed the presence of unnatural light makes it impossible for the dung beetles to use the stars for orientation and navigation like they typically would.
Beyond the discoveries and exciting future possibilities, Byrne says that this body of work is curiosity at its highest form.
“The core of being human is to ask questions and to be curious about the world around us. Curiosity is part of what we are as humans. Curiosity allows us to question the world around us, without having to justify it in any other way other than to satisfy our curiosity,” he says.
Pontsho Pilane is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Research by the books
- Shanthini Naidoo
Books based on research by Wits authors create a rare recording of history that tracks changes over time.
Research is a central steppingstone of an individual’s academic journey, but it should also be viewed holistically, says Dr Nechama Brodie of the Wits Centre for Journalism. Brodie’s doctoral research at Wits, which resulted in the book Femicide in South Africa, included creating a dataset that is available to other researchers and policymakers.
“What we learn through undertaking research is that a dissertation or thesis is necessary for completing a syllabus for academic purposes, but academic research also answers questions, or parts of a question,” says Brodie. “When you combine this answer with those that came before yours, and which will come after, you start to answer bigger questions and contribute to a larger body of research. This is the interesting and meaningful nature of the research.”
Women writing wrongs
The dataset upon which Brodie’s research was based includes 400 murders linked to 3 200 unique media articles on femicide. Apart from her own publications, Brodie’s data has supported the work of activists, organisations and government institutions tackling gender-based violence.
It shows that when the research supports criminology studies, science, medicine, history – or encourages timely discussions – it becomes a vehicle for societal change.
Similarly, the publication of Women in Solitary: Inside the female resistance to apartheid, which stems from my Master’s in Journalism and Media Studies, highlights the narratives of female activists who were imprisoned with Winnie Mandela in 1969.
Fast-forward to 2022 and the research has brought an important piece of South African history back to life over 50 years later. The work was launched in London on International Women’s Day on 8 March 2022, where anti-apartheid activists and living legends Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin, Rita Ndzanga, Shanthivathie Naidoo, and Nondwe Mankahla were celebrated in praise-song.
Socially impactful scholarly stories
The Witwatersrand University Press (Wits Press) is the oldest university press in South Africa and was the first university press in the country to publish local scholarly material. Its first publication, The national resources of South Africa, was written by Economics Professor RA Lehfeldt, who spoke out against the inequities of the migrant labour system in mining.
Telling Wits stories not only spans 100 years, but an array of subjects. Among Wits Press’ bestselling titles are Dr John Kani’s globally acclaimed play, Nothing but the truth, which tells the story of exile and shaped narratives during apartheid.
A similarly well-regarded tome is Dance of the dung beetles: Their role in our changing world, by Wits Professor Marcus Byrne and Dr Helen Lunn, which is now the topic of a TED talk and audio book.
Veronica Klipp, publisher at Wits Press says: “Our research is of interest to academics and readers around the world. In 2021, we sold books in 31 countries and our books were downloaded in 185 countries. Black and female writers are a priority.”
The focus on African languages led to the compilation of the English-isiZulu Dictionary by Clement Doke and BW Vilakazi in 1948, says Klipp, which has been expanded and revised many times since it was first published. It is still in print and is being digitised.
“This publication is considered the foundational dictionary in the isiZulu language and one of the most important books published by Wits Press in the last 100 years,” explains Klipp, adding that scholarly works, such as Man's anatomy: A study in dissection, by the late Professor Phillip V Tobias, has also been frequently republished.
Boys to men
“The key is taking local research and trying to get it out into the wider world. A good recent example is Becoming Men by Malose Langa, which was reprinted three times in two years. We also license content from international publishers in the case of established intellectuals, such as Professor Achille Mbembe [Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research – WiSER] and Professor Isabel Hofmeyr [African Literature], for the local market.”
Dr Malose Langa, Associate Professor in Psychology whose PhD evolved into a publication, followed 32 boys from Alexandra township over 12 years during which time they negotiated manhood and masculinity.
“My key interest was about the psychology of manhood and I did not expect a book out of it,” says Langa. “But the impact means that I’ve received thousands of phone calls from across the country about how to make change in townships and among young men. While the research is complete, I continue to keep relationships with the men in the book and these will likely continue lifelong. So, this has made its contribution in knowledge-production, facilitating conversations. Hopefully, this way, we can make some change.”
Intergenerational story transmission
Dr Khwezi Mkhize, Senior Lecturer in African Literature and protégé of the late Professor Bhekizizwe Peterson, is co-editing Foundational African writers, about four prolific writers born in South Africa in 1919 – Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Cyril Lincoln Nyembezi, and Es’kia Mphahlele.
“Before he passed on in 2021, Professor Peterson was the main driving force behind this project. This is something that he never shared with us – and I never asked him why – when he asked me to come on board as a co-editor,” recalls Mkhize.
“Knowingly or not, it was an intergenerational conversation between Professor Peterson, co-writer, Prof. Makhosazana Xaba (WiSER), me and the subjects of our book. We are in an interesting moment in a particularly complicated time. There’s a lot to think about what’s happened in the last century. One cannot have done enough,” he explains.
In putting pen to paper, academics and researchers reflect Wits’ enduring values of research excellence, public engagement and social justice over 100 years. As Klipp says, books based on research “create a rare recording of history that tracks the changes through time”.
Shanthini Naidoo is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Identifying faces to recognise humanity
- Leanne Rencken
The development of the Wits Face Database: An African database of high-resolution facial photographs.
Dr Nicholas Bacci has got a lot going on, which is the way he likes it. His Twitter profile describes him as a forensic anthropologist, anatomist, husband, beard grower and boring human being. Almost everything about that description is true.
A Lecturer in the School of Anatomical Sciences at Wits, bearded Bacci has two main research paths that demand most of his time. Simply put, these are his “facial identity work” and his investigations into lightning fatalities and bone trauma, both of which are equally fascinating. Then there is the constant stream of “what ifs” and ideas that he jots down in his little black book, because there is just so much that he would like to do, but so little time.
In a conversation that never strays far from his work, Bacci describes himself as obsessive, passionate, curious and determined and anyone who has encountered him will agree that this is the more accurate portrayal. Not a boring bone in sight.
The title of the paper, published in 2021, refers to the collection of 6 220 facial photographs of 622 matching individuals in five different views, as well as corresponding CCTV footage of 334 individuals recorded under different realistic conditions
Mapping faces for identification
Why has he focused on creating this database? Until now, most databases have been developed in Europe, the US or China, and so many databases end up being biased towards white and Asian males. This results in several facial recognition algorithms training on databases that don’t serve specific populations at all, with oftentimes detrimental consequences.
However, it’s important to be clear: Bacci is concerned with facial identification and not facial recognition, and there is a significant difference between the two. “There is a very common misunderstanding where the two are confused: grouping the automated systems, and the psychological process of facial recognition with facial identification, which is meant to be a forensic application,” he explains.
Facing off against crime
A very manual application, human-based facial identification is an emerging field with its origins in facial mapping. Many people are surprised by when Bacci explains that he is not working on facial recognition or developing machine learning algorithms, but that he is rather creating a system that is more inclusive than any system currently available but which he also hopes will help law enforcement with suspect prosecution and missing person identification.
“It’s more of a reactive measure,” he explains. “If there’s surveillance footage of a potential crime, it can help with associating a suspect to a criminal scenario that was under surveillance, or if there are images or a body we cannot identify due to various reasons, it can possibly help with missing person identification.”
He adds: “This research is literally just scratching the surface. We have so much data that I think it’s very short-sighted if we don’t investigate using the data to address crime.”
If he is awarded the Thuthuka grant, Bacci plans to expand his database, increase the number of male subjects and add female faces to his photographic pool. In addition, he will be able to support the onboarding of a PhD candidate to help to process the information as well as build a mobile photographic unit, to allow for more efficiency and uniformity in the gathering of this data.
From lockdowns to load shedding, it’s been a difficult and protracted experience trying to put this database together – especially considering that it is a manual process. Each face in the database is scored against an accepted list of criteria and the comparisons are made through the scores generated for these criteria, rather than by putting two faces together side by side and looking for similarities and differences. Part of this database work is studying these faces and coming up with more relevant and detailed criteria for comparison and having those criteria reviewed, tested and accepted.
Lightning bolts to the bone
If that’s not enough, Bacci keeps a standard blue cooler box in his office – not for after-work drinks, but for the bones that he picks up from the butcher to further his other field of study. With help from Wits electrical engineers, he generates lightning under controlled conditions to see how skeletal remains react.
Through this multidisciplinary work, he and his colleagues have been able to determine that lightning strikes affect bone in a very particular way. They are now able to identify lightning-related deaths in skeletal remains, where previously this could only be done by way of markers left on the skin and the soft tissues of recent deaths.
At its core, the work Bacci is doing is making connections – whether it’s between faces, or between lightning and bone, or critically, between different disciplines. It is something at which he is good at and much of the success that he has achieved can be attributed to his collaborative approach both within and beyond the University.
He connects the dots that others sometimes cannot see and at heart wants to solve some key real-world problems through his innovative research.
Leanne Rencken is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Business for good
- Charlotte Matthews
Wits is exploring the opportunities created by social enterprises that focus on addressing local, regional and global challenges.
The stereotype of the greedy, exploitative capitalist, who has been around since the Industrial Revolution, is being turned on its head by a new breed of “social entrepreneur”.
A social enterprise is a business, not a charity organisation. However, its first objective is to fulfil a social need, rather than satisfy an indulgence. It may make a profit, but it can also be supported by grants. It is characterised by innovation, a sense of purpose and a business-like approach.
In South Africa, there is a vast need for services associated with health and education, but government resources and private sector donations are inadequate to meet it. This is where the opportunity lies.
Professor Boris Urban of the Wits Business School (WBS), who launched social entrepreneurship at the School, says that understanding the social entrepreneurship landscape is difficult, since South Africa does not have a single consolidated legal structure for social enterprises and there is no comprehensive database on social enterprises registered and available in the country. Despite these hurdles, scholarly and practitioner interests in social entrepreneurship is growing and it has emerged as a distinct field of study.
Social enterprises and jobs
In 2016 and 2017, the Gordon Institute of Business Science gathered data from 453 survey respondents to find out more about social enterprises in the country. Amongst its findings was that these organisations largely focus on developing skills and literacy, and working with disadvantaged groups, including youth, women and particular communities. Only about one-fifth made a profit or a surplus and those that did, tended to reinvest it.
While these enterprises remain modest in scale, they do provide an opportunity for unemployed youth to empower themselves and those around them. Recognising this, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition is developing a Social Economy Policy to strengthen the sector.
“It is estimated that if social economy jobs increased by an achievable 2% every year, it could add 250 000 jobs to the economy by 2030,” said the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Nomalungelo Gina at a meeting in 2020.
Innovative and entrepreneurial
Urban’s work at the WBS has highlighted how social entrepreneurs in South Africa attempt to create systemic changes and sustainable improvements by being innovative and entrepreneurial.
A good example of a social entrepreneur is WBS alumna, Elena Gaffurini, who founded DEV Consulting in Mozambique. While studying at the WBS, the University invited her to become involved with establishing Startup Nations South Africa. She also managed the southern African region as project manager for the Africa Engagement portfolio of the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association. In 2015 she became a World Economic Forum Global Shaper – a network of inspiring young people under the age of 30, working together to address local, regional and global challenges.
Now DEV Consulting is helping entrepreneurs to address the need for food security and nutrition in Africa. Its activities include designing projects to scout, train, incubate and accelerate local, socially relevant business solutions, and attract resources. In addition, the firm has been supporting international non-profit organisations to develop a social-business arm to improve their financial sustainability.
Choosing business models
Gaffurini says that the social enterprise model is relevant everywhere, but in lower income countries the gaps are more obvious, so social enterprises may have a larger base of users or consumers. In developed countries, a social enterprise may prove its value through its customer proximity, pricing strategy or other aspects.
“Social entrepreneurs face the same challenges as traditional enterprises. In many developing countries, they may face the additional challenge that they try to compete in donor-funded sectors, where a significant portion of funding may be directed towards NGOs that are by law tax-exempt,” she says.
Most countries lack legislation for social enterprises, so these entrepreneurs must choose whether they follow the same laws as private sector firms or operate as non-profit firms. “However, operating as a non-profit may hinder their ability to attract capital,” she explains. “It is really up to the social entrepreneur to develop a viable business model, to prove the concept by finding customers, and then to develop a prototype.”
The WBS is currently focusing on several research themes that drive PhD topics, start-ups, social ventures and curricula for courses. These include institutional forces in emerging economies and their impact on social entrepreneurs, the scalability of social enterprises in South Africa and food and energy security through innovative social enterprise development.
“WBS students, after having been exposed to social entrepreneurship courses in the Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship and the MBA, have moved into incubation, providing business support services and financial advice, to ensure the investment readiness of innovative social enterprises,” Urban says.
“Through courses and practical research projects, WBS students are fostering strong networks between various ecosystem actors including academic institutions, industry sector clusters, government and corporates, to nurture the capabilities of social enterprises.”
In 2018, the Centre for African Philanthropy and Social Investment was established at the WBS. The Centre has entrenched pan-African ties in academic, funding and NGO spheres, has collaborated on student projects and has also delivered executive education programmes. The Centre has also been involved in numerous other initiatives with impact, such as the Philanthropy Secretariat in Liberia, the Rwanda Philanthropy Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals Platforms in countries such as Ghana, Kenya and Zambia.
Charlotte Matthews is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Beyond the Ivory Tower
- Ufrieda Ho
Four Wits units demonstrate how translational research can respond to the needs of a world outside the academy.
When research, science, and academic output translate into positive public impact, it can change lives for the better and elevate a university’s role to one of direct societal benefit.
The Wits Roy McAlpine Burns Unit based at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital is one of the University’s specialised centres that represents hope for thousands of burn victims who have limited access to expert burn care treatment in the public sector.
The unit is 32 years old this year and in September 2021 welcomed a generous donation of R70 million from the Roy McAlpine Charitable Foundation. This injection means that the unit can be upgraded and expanded.
A burning issue
Director of the Unit, Professor Adelin Muganza, says that the upgraded facility will support deeper research into the care for severe burns and will grow the Unit’s international reputation as a centre of excellence. It also continues to demonstrate the potential that can come from strong partnerships. The Unit operates within the government-run hospital and also relies on private donor funds.
According to Muganza, one of the true learnings from the Unit is about gaining deeper insight into the communities that it serves and the lives of the close to 1 000 patients that come through the doors annually.
“Between 60% and 65% of our patients are burnt accidentally, which is a direct result of using candles or primus stoves. Between 25% and 27% of patients are burnt as a result of violence, often gender-based violence. About 1% are made up of patients who have tried to commit suicide. We are also seeing an increase in electrical burns coming from illegal electricity connections,” he says.
For Muganza these insights are a reflection of the dire societal pressures in the country. The data, he says, should therefore be used to improve prevention programmes and to advocate for shaking up policies and regulations.
“We have got a different epidemiology in the country, which means that we can do better at prevention. We have had good success stories, like putting pressure on government to regulate the importing of sub-standard primus stoves that were exploding, and which resulted in around 25% of the accidental burns that we were seeing,” he explains.
Towards legal equity
A deeper acknowledgement of the lived reality of the vulnerable for whom a meaningful response is critical is also what grounds the work of the Wits Law Clinic.
Now in operation for over 40 years, the Clinic is accredited as a legal practice and is part of the compulsory experiential training for final year law students, in the form of Practical Legal Studies.
Its mission is to ensure better access to legal advice and legal recourse as an essential part of building a more inclusive and equitable society. These gaps of access were starkly clear during the hard Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 – even as people were forced to distance socially and stay home, hundreds were in need of legal advice for job dismissals, evictions, family court matters, and fair debt management.
At the time, the Director of the Clinic, Daven Dass said that they realised that they had to find a way to stay open but still comply with hard lockdown rules. They devised a questionnaire system for plaintiffs to complete documents and to leave with campus security, which the Clinic collected and then followed up telephonically. In five months, the Clinic received over 800 questionnaires.
Dass said: “The need was huge. Our phenomenal staff and students at the Wits Law Clinic continue to do the work they do, epitomising the spirit of Ubuntu and the value of being the change they want to see in the world.”
Also in the Wits School of Law, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) has been at the forefront of using the law to promote human rights and to challenge unjust power systems in the country and the region.
The Centre was formed in 1978 and played a pivotal role in pushing back against the National Party during apartheid. Today it focuses on five key areas: business and human rights; civil and political justice; environmental justice; gender justice and home; and land and rural democracy. Together they make up the social justice values towards building a better world.
Water justice
These values dovetail current pressing issues that demand solutions to the deepening climate crisis. The Claude Leon Foundation Water Stewardship Programme tackles this head on. This Wits centenary initiative includes two research chairs for a transdisciplinary approach to water stewardship and postgraduate water research, worth R15.7 million.
The programme recognises that social inequality means that the climate crisis disproportionately burdens the poor. In a highly unequal country, this means that food and water security, and access to sufficient, safe and affordable water, risks perpetuating poverty, if water management remains feeble, inept and ineffective.
The Programme focuses on innovative water security solutions for the most vulnerable, and postgraduate science and research to push for improved legislative and policy reform and accountability.
These are just some of Wits’ many programmes and initiatives that together ground academic pursuit in the values that contribute to making the world a better place for more people.
Ufrieda Ho is a freelance writer.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
The best job in the world
- Schalk Mouton
Column: Telling the stories of Wits’ research and academics might hopefully light a fire in the mind of the world’s next Einstein.
I was sitting in traffic, driving to work, trying my best to drown out the white noise of the talk radio host having an in-depth discussion on “where missing socks go”. In an attempt to get my mind out of the missing sock drawer, I took a virtual journey of my life, and where I have ended up. While I used to have an exciting career as a journalist, it hit me that for the first time ever, I really love what I do.
Sitting in that car, I was actually looking forward to getting to work, and I asked myself, “Why do I love what I am doing?”
It didn’t take me long to answer that question.
“I get to be fascinated every day!”
I get to see, learn and write about the really incredible ways in which the world works, and get to interact with – and learn from – some of the brightest people on the planet while doing so.
For instance, one day I get to walk in the veld in the Cradle of Humankind with Professor Lee Berger – a world leader in palaeoanthropology, while he casually points out the boulder that I am leaning against is a 250 000 year old petrified tree stump, and the shard of rock I had ignorantly stepped on was a stone tool that was probably discarded by my great, great, great grandmother, some hundreds of thousands years ago.
From there, we walk to Gladysvale, the site recently reopened by one of the bright new stars in the field of palaeoanthropology, where I see a surge of emotions well through Dr Keneiloe Molopyane, as she realises she may have made her first hominid find.
The next day, I might find myself in the Structured Light Laboratory of Professor Andrew Forbes – a world leader in photonics and quantum physics – where one of his students is manipulating a microscopic element within a human cell, using, as a tweezer, a powerful beam of light.
From there, I might step into the office of one of our world-class geologists, such as Professors Roger Gibson and Lewis Ashwal for a scheduled 15-minute interview on meteors. Three hours later, I emerge, fascinated by how intricately connected the inner workings of our planet – and solar system – are, in order to sustain life on Earth.
After each of these interactions, I almost always ask, “Why didn’t they teach me about this during my undergrad studies?”
I must admit that growing up I was probably one of the most disinterested teenagers ever. I had no special interests, except for playing rugby, writing and reading adventure novels. My fascination with science and how the world works didn’t come naturally – and especially not from the first three years of struggling through physics and chemistry 101.
Bored to death attempting calculations on mole values and vectors, I had no idea where I was going and what I was doing. I had no idea that what my lecturers were trying to teach me was merely the language of science, and, like learning any language it could open up new, fascinating worlds. If I had known, I could have ended up working alongside Roger Deane (another world leader in astrophysics), as part of the team that took the first picture of a black hole, instead of taking pictures at a primary school rugby game as a cub sports reporter – the job I resorted to after my failed attempt at getting a BSc 30 years ago. Roger is intent on transforming the ageing Planetarium into a world-class Digital Dome by the way.
My eyes were first opened to the world of science when I was invited to a science journalism workshop, about 20 years ago. Here I had a conversation with a scientist who worked on the Square Kilometre Array project. Completely ignorant, I asked him what a black hole actually was, and as he explained it to me, I was completely hooked. It stirred a fascination about how our world and the things in it work, and I realised that I wanted to know more.
My fascination with science and research grew, and I was lucky enough to be employed in what I believe is one of the best jobs in the world – writing about Wits and its researchers, and learning fascinating things about our world every day.
However, this job also comes with a responsibility. That responsibility is to share the University’s science and research, and my fascination, with the rest of the world – hoping that it might light a fire in some bright young mind that could turn out to be South Africa’s next Nobel Prize winner. I share this responsibility with every person who works in a higher education institution in this country.
Ours is a country in desperate need of hope for a brighter future. Our children grow up in a world where they are told that there are no jobs, that unemployment and crime are out of control, and that climate change is going to make life unbearable – if not life threatening – for them. This is in an environment of political uncertainty, cloaked in the darkness of regular load shedding, which will more than likely be with us for the next 10 years.
A couple of weeks ago, one of my colleagues called a news editor at the public broadcaster to invite a reporter to a globally important science news announcement, in which Wits was a major player. The editor replied that due to all the problems in South Africa they could not afford to send a reporter to cover the event as it was deemed too academic and of no consequence to the average South African.
What the news editor failed to see was the importance of the hope, fascination and the spark that the story could ignite in a young bright mind. The editor who declined the invitation later called the Wits Communications team, after seeing the global scope and importance of the story, to request an interview.
Our children are in a desperate search for hope. By lighting a little spark in a young person’s mind, it might just be the spark lighting the next generation’s Einstein.
Our researchers and scientists also have the responsibility to set the record straight in a world dominated by social media and fake news, by communicating our findings and expertise. This was especially highlighted during the Covid-19 saga, where mistruths were spread from all quarters – including government departments. Were it not for scientists – notably from Wits – speaking up during the pandemic, many of our national Covid-19 responses would have been even further misplaced than they were, and could have cost a lot more lives.
As staff members, academics and students at Wits University, we work and live in a privileged environment. It is our responsibility to share that privilege and knowledge to empower those around us – not just to sell hope.
Our knowledge has the power to change lives, and to create a better life for all, and we owe it to the public to share that knowledge with enthusiasm and honesty.
Scientists and scholars at research-intensive universities can no longer think that their job is done once they have published their work in an academic journal. Most of their research was paid for and is therefore owned by taxpayers, who have a right to know where their money went.
Researchers have an obligation to share their work in every way that they can, whether it is through lectures, social or traditional media, or informal talks and presentations.
That is why Curios.ty is such an important vehicle. This magazine was established to share Wits’ research, work and values in a way that makes research accessible to everyone, with the hope that it can inspire and inform – and perhaps even have the power to influence the policies that will lead to a brighter future for all.
Schalk Mouton is a Senior Communications Officer at Wits University.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
A philosophy for good. A University for good
- Tiisang Monatisa
There is something significantly common in the way in which all good things are good.
Almost a century since Wits awarded its first doctoral degree, the University in July 2022 awarded its first PhD published in isiZulu to Dr Dumisani Ephraim Khumalo for his thesis, titled Ucwaningo olunzulu ngesu lokusetshenziswa kwesathaya emculweni kaMaskandi nomthelela ekuphilisaneni kwabantu, an African Indigenous Knowledge Systems cross-disciplinary study of ethnomusicology, sociolinguistics and heritage studies.
Amongst the first doctoral qualifications that Wits University conferred 92 years ago was a DPhil to Professor Otto Christian Jensen, on 5 April 1930, for his thesis titled The Unity of Good.
Jensen served as the Acting Head of the Philosophy Department at Wits in 1930 and had a successful academic career during which he published in internationally respected journals. His works comprise four journal articles on metaethics (1934, 1936, 1942, and 1966), two monographs on applied logic (1954 and 1957) and one journal article on aesthetics (1953). Meta ethics is an area of Philosophy that explores the nature of ethical terms and concepts and the underlying assumptions and commitments behind moral theories.
Unfortunately, no copy of Jensen’s DPhil exists for interrogation today. The Unity of Good manuscript was likely destroyed in the 1931 fire that gutted Central Block, the University’s first building, which housed the library on the top floor.
“The idea of the unity of the good often refers to ideas about the nature of value discussed by Plato and Aristotle, two philosophers from the ancient Mediterranean, whose work European and Islamic philosophers have taken as foundational to their traditions,” says Wits Professor of Philosophy, Lucy Allais. “The thesis of the unity of the good holds that there is something significantly common in the way in which all good things are good, and that the good is the ultimate reason for all our undertakings. It is difficult to state the idea further without going deep into Plato’s scholarship.
Despite the loss of The Unity of Good manuscript, Jensen’s The Nature of Legal Argument was published in 1957 and this work remains available in Wits’ libraries. Sixty-five years later, this research on applied logic and legal argumentation continues to be cited across disciplines, including in law, philosophy, psychology, and computer science.
Wits still has philosophers working on topics in moral philosophy from the Platonic tradition, as well as other traditions, including African approaches to value. Wits also offers a Master’s degree in Applied Ethics for Professionals (which does not require a background in philosophy), for those who want to think about foundational questions related to value, right and wrong, and how we should live our lives.
Sources:
Molatelo Pampa, Records Management Coordinator, Central Records Office, Wits University
Professor Lucy Allais, Department of Philosophy, Wits University
David Martens, retired from the Wits Philosophy Department
Tiisang Monatisa is a Communications Officer at Wits University.
This article first appeared in Curiosity, a research magazine produced by Wits Communications and the Research Office. Read more in the 14th issue, themed: #Wits100 where we celebrate a century of research excellence that has shaped today and look forward to how our next-generation researchers will impact the next 100 years.
Sellschop’s neutrinos and an elusive energy
- Beth Amato
These ghost particles have travelled light years to where we are and are proof that humans are essentially stardust and sunlight.
Neutrinos are sometimes referred to as ghost particles because they’re tiny, massless, and have no electric charge. They’re famously difficult to detect, but during the years they’ve been studied, they have answered fundamental physics questions.
In a deep underground mine in South Africa in 1965, one Professor Friedel Sellschop, who had, at the age of 26 founded the Nuclear Physics Research Unit at Wits University in 1956, observed that elusive neutrino particles occurred in nature. This was a major development and a step beyond where they had previously only been found: as man-made particles emanating from a nuclear reactor.
‘Like some watcher of the skies’
Sellschop’s makeshift nuclear lab had been blasted out of rock three kilometres deep down the mine, and it is here that he could isolate the impossibly vague signal emanating from a neutrino. In this moment, it is said that he quoted Keats’ ode to Homer: “‘Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/when a new planet swims into his ken’.”
Sellschop then devoted himself to the development of diamond physics. Diamonds, he said, were the Earth’s most profound messengers, answering questions about the Universe’s origins.
Furthermore, his work contributed to the potential use of diamonds in tech material, resulting in nine registered patent applications.
Schonland to iTemba
The eminent professor was greatly admired by the world’s physicists for conducting pioneering experiments with little to no resources. Indeed, his laboratory in basic and applied nuclear physics was nothing short of world-class. The Wits Nuclear Physics Research Unit became the Schonland Research Institute for Nuclear Sciences and after its incorporation into the National Research Foundation in 2004, is now operated by iThemba Labs.
Sellschop’s positions at Wits included Dean of the Faculty of Science and later Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research from 1984 to 1996, after which he retired.
Now in the 21st century, Wits University bestows the Friedel Sellschop Awards annually to recognise and encourage young researchers. The awards are underwritten by a research grant made available by the University’s Research and Innovation Committee to qualifying researchers.
Sellschop was a true scientist until his death in 2002. Even while retired he was in search of the next earth-shattering discovery. Sleep was an inconvenience; if he was tired, he’d jump into a cold pool and then, fully awake, he’d continue to work. Scientific discovery is ongoing and Sellschop’s contribution was one of its fundamental universal building blocks.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
A country worth fighting for
- Schalk Mouton
Column: South Africa is a country on the ropes. Its critical infrastructure, including its energy supply, is crippled. Do we still have some fight left?
My chakras are misaligned, my aura is waning, and my meridians are all clogged up. I am so drained of energy, that even my reiki therapist refuses to take my calls.
Waking up in the morning, the house is in darkness. The solar battery has run out after working overtime the previous two days when the electricity failed to come on after loadshedding. Getting up, I knock my head on the cupboard and trip over the cat – a cliché, but even clichés have a way of worming their way into brutal reality. In the kitchen, I sit down for a moment while coming to grips with the fact that I have to start my day without coffee – as far as I am concerned, the only scientifically-proven natural remedy for restoring an intermittently fading aura.
On my way to work, I risk my life on multiple occasions trying to cross intersections where the traffic lights are either out, or blinking red. Not that they matter, because if you do actually stop at a traffic light in Joburg, you run the risk of someone driving into you from behind.
At work, I climb the seven storeys of stairs – twice – as I forget my cellphone’s power bank in the car. Finally, I stumble into the office, sit down at my desk, stare at the dark screen of my computer. As I shake the last few grinds out of my coffee container, I once again call my reiki therapist … ‘The number you have dialled…’.
A dark hot pot
Yup. We are all here, living the same life, drowning in the same dark lake. And the lake just seems to get deeper. Whenever you feel you should be touching ground, the ground shifts, putting you right back in the deep water. It’s like a dream from which we never seem to awaken. We are the frogs in the pot of boiling water.
In the last few weeks, the wheels have really started to come off where energy is concerned. Yes, the whole world is in an energy crisis; a catch-22 situation where, while we all need to produce more energy to cater for growing populations, we need to transition to untested ‘cleaner’ energies to make sure we fight climate change. However, in South Africa, it feels as if that pot is just becoming unbearably hot.
Thinking about getting out of this cauldron reminded me of a conversation with my friend, Ant, at a braai over the holidays. Ant is one of many who in the last couple of years packed up and left to live ‘abroad’. A year or two ago, Ant emigrated to Zimbabwe. Yes. Emigrated. To Zimbabwe.
Of all the people sitting around the dinner table that night, Ant was the only one who looked refreshed, with a smile on his face. The rest of us – all South Africans – looked frayed, battered, and as if we couldn’t wait for dessert to be served so that we could get home before loadshedding trapped us in darkness.
Zim-semigration
When Ant decided to emigrate to Zimbabwe, he was the joke of the town. Nobody thought he was serious. Even the Zimbabwean Home Affairs Department didn’t know what to make of him, as nobody emigrates to Zimbabwe. Ever. Ant’s emigration application took almost a full year, as Zimbabwean Home Affairs had to custom design and print his application forms, as such things didn’t exist.
These days, Ant could not be happier. Living in Harare suits him. He runs his family guest house as well as a travel business, and generally lives a carefree life.
About 12 years ago, when a group of our friends joined Ant on a trip to Mana Pools on the banks of the Zambezi river, we unknowingly had a glimpse into our future. Our trip took us through Harare, where we stayed over at Ant’s sister. At the time, it struck us as extremely funny that households in Harare did not have either electricity or water for much of the day, and families had to plan their days around times when they had these luxuries to do the necessary cooking, bathing the children, and to read their books – things that require electricity. Imagine that! Today, Ant says, that is part of history. People in Harare have no such problems anymore.
People power in a frontier town
Like most other residents in Harare, Ant supercharged his house with enough solar panels and batteries to power-up Koeberg power station, and still have electricity to spare. While Zimbabwe is something of a frontier town where not much works, residents band together and have found ways around most of their challenges. If you know the right channels and are willing to pay the right price, you can get anything you could ever want.
Every now and then, at a certain public parking space in Harare, a container truck arrives from South Africa. As it starts to unload, residents flock to pick up their orders, which may include anything from luxury watches, cricket bats or other sports equipment for the kids, to groceries, flat-screen televisions, garden furniture, and, yes, you guessed it, full solar systems. With their arms full of loot, they return home and everything is hunky-dory.
The reason that Ant and most of his new countrymen are so happy-go lucky is that they have given up hope. The citizens of Zimbabwe have learnt to rely on themselves, and nobody else. They have given up hope that their currency would recover (most of them have plenty of US Dollars – the currency in Zimbabwe – but they can’t get the money out of the country). They have given up hope that they will have a regular supply of water or electricity, that they will have any form of a functioning law enforcement agency, or any sort of government service. What they have, they have built, bought, managed, or arranged themselves. They are content with life as it is and have very few hopes and wishes that anything will change.
We in South Africa, on the other hand, still cling to some hope that things might miraculously improve. We have been watching our little pot simmering for decades, hoping in vain that things don’t boil over. In the first quarter of 2023, it seems, where energy supply in the country is concerned, things have come to the boil and South Africa’s electricity supply – like so many other critical infrastructural services – has broken down beyond repair.
Perhaps, to keep some semblance of sanity, we as South Africans should take a leaf out of the book of Ant and his fellow Zimbabweans, and give up hope. If we don’t care about not getting government services, then we won't have anything to worry about. If we look after ourselves, our families, and our neighbours, we can wangle our way through life without grandiose hopes of growing the economy, living in a country that is respected in the international community, having a currency that holds some value in the world, and being able to build a happy prosperous life for our children and their children in the country that we all love.
Taking matters into our own hands in this way, however, means that we are giving up hope. And by giving up hope, we admit that there is nothing in this country still worth fighting for. It is a sad state of affairs indeed.
But South Africans have shown that we refuse to just lie down and take things for granted. In 2019, we managed to reduce the heat in our little pot down to a simmer, when we all took to the streets to get rid of the main instigators of state capture. The question is, is there still enough fight in us for our country reeling with battle fatigue?
If you ask me, I say: “Hell yes! There is!”
Schalk Mouton is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Column: Ensuring a just energy transition is complex
- Imraan Valodia and Julia Taylor
Focusing on the dynamics in the electricity sector, Professor Imraan Valodia outlines the challenges South Africa is facing and what can be done.
An energy transition involves shifting away from coal-powered electricity generation, as well as the use of other fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which we rely on for transport and various industrial processes.
South Africa’s electricity crisis is reaching its peak in the context of a warming climate, which necessitates urgent decarbonisation of the economy. We also face high levels of unemployment, inequality, and poverty. These challenges are all significant and require careful policy and action to ensure that in addressing the prior concerns, the latter are not exacerbated. At the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) we are researching these issues to recommend appropriate policy responses.
A just energy transition is required to balance the social and economic issues with the environmental imperative to decarbonise. Energy provisioning is fundamental to a successful economy, shaping it in many ways, and making an energy transition inherently political.
The role of the state is therefore important to navigate the transition. In line with most other countries, our energy system is largely centralised, with Eskom key to the generation, transmission, and distribution systems. From a generation perspective, the system is regionally concentrated in the Mpumalanga province, which is responsible for about 60% of total generation capacity.
Energy poverty
The problems in the energy system are, however, not restricted only to issues of generation and loadshedding. A just energy transition must also address energy poverty, which is a problem for many South Africans. Energy poverty is defined as a lack of access to or the inability to afford energy, and is calculated by assessing the proportion of household income spent on energy.
Although 84.7% of South Africans can access the national grid, there are many people who cannot afford electricity tariffs, which have increased dramatically over the past few years (Stats SA, 2019). Research in 2021 shows that the rate of energy poverty in South Africa was 58%, which has significant impacts on health and well-being, as well as limiting income generating activities.
Thus, addressing the crisis in all its complexity involves regulation that governs the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity and other forms of energy, and how energy is priced and consumed by all South African businesses and households. The shifting regulatory system will have implications for access to electricity and the Free Basic Electricity framework may need to be revised to ensure comprehensive coverage for impoverished populations.
Equitable energy geography
There is also a complex set of spatial issues, since the shift to renewable energy means a decentralisation of generation from Mpumalanga, to the solar and wind energy hotspots in the country, specifically the Northern Cape and the Western Cape, which are more efficient for solar and wind generation.
Decentralisation of generation impacts the transmission of electricity via the national grid because the grid has been built to deliver electricity from Mpumalanga to the rest of the country. The grid is not easily able to deliver electricity in the opposite direction. This is the reason for the announcement in December 2022 that the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme Bid Window 6 was only able to proceed with six projects, despite many more being eligible.
The lower uptake of projects in Bid Window 6 is also due to the expansion of private generation on the grid, which has occurred since the lifting of the cap of 100MW in 2021, but the failure to plan for grid capacity upgrading now constrains the system. This type of failure in planning does not bode well for the energy transition. The privatisation of electricity generation requires an overhaul of policy and regulations to ensure that energy poverty is not exacerbated.
The coalface of job losses
The decarbonisation of the electricity sector will involve the decommissioning of coal power stations and will result in the loss of jobs and livelihoods associated with the coal value chain. Data from 2019 suggest that the number of people employed in the coal value chain is over 120 000. While the development of renewable energy power plants will create jobs, these jobs will be in different locations, require different skills, and will be largely in construction, which usually means temporary employment. While planning has started on supporting workers, too often informal workers, who are likely to be women, are not factored into these plans. Therefore, there is an urgent need for action to support those who will lose their livelihoods in the form of social services, economic diversification, and social protection.
More broadly, the energy transition could have the effect of fundamentally changing South Africa’s industrial structure, with major implications for the nature of the country’s mining and industrial sector. Our economy is currently based on the use of cheap, coal-based electricity in mining and downstream industries, such as the chemical and metal industry. As the global economy shifts to non-carbon energy, the demand for certain minerals, such as platinum, is likely to increase significantly. It is imperative that researchers and policy-makers start to understand what these changes are likely to be, and for our regulatory system to be adapted to ensure that the transition is indeed just.
Professor Imraan Valodia is Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality and Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) at Wits. The SCIS is a multidisciplinary cross-country initiative for research and policy-change to promote greater equality in the Global South. A Professor of Economics, Valodia’s research interests include inequality, climate justice, competition policy, employment, the informal economy, gender and economic policy, and industrial development. He is recognised nationally and internationally for his research expertise in economic development. Valodia is a member of the Presidential Economics Advisory Council and the Competition Tribunal.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Africa is getting hotter
- Marcia Zali
Continued extreme heat exposure is affecting the health of vulnerable groups in communities.
With extreme heat conditions increasing because of climate change, Wits scientists have been amongst the experts who have been sounding the alarm on the sometimes deadly impact of heat exposure on humans.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), health is one of the areas on which increasing temperatures in Africa will impact. Mortality and morbidity (death and disease) will increase with further global warming of above two degrees Celsius, which will also increase the distribution of vector-borne diseases, mostly in west, east and southern Africa. Vector-borne diseases are infections transmitted by the bite of infected arthropod species, such as mosquitoes and ticks.
High-risk humans
While the impact of the high ambient temperatures has, over the years, been highlighted as an environmental crisis, there has also been growing concern over how human lives have been affected by the hot weather conditions.
Although all humans living in regions in Africa have experienced heat waves, some have had life-threatening reactions that are suspected to have been triggered or exacerbated by the heat. These vulnerable groups include those on chronic medication, people with cardiovascular disease, pregnant women, the elderly, infants, people with disabilities, and outdoor workers.
Research Professor at the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI), Matthew Chersich, says that scientists have observed concerning summer heat that has been rising over the years, particularly in low-to-mid-latitude regions, places with humidity-enhanced heat stress, and regions that experienced extreme dry heat with temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius or more.
Human beings operate in a specific thermal niche, Chersich says, with a set of physiological thresholds – or hard biophysiological limits – that correspond to thermal comfort, heat stress, organ system compromise, and death.
“Deadly heat arises when conditions of air temperature and humidity surpass the physiological threshold for human adaptability. Core body temperatures can reach lethal levels under sustained periods of apparent temperatures of 35°C or more,” explains Chersich.
The hardest hit by heat
Due to these temperatures, excess deaths and hospitalisations have increased over the years, with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) reporting that while African statistics in heat emergencies are scarce, and only eight out of the 196 events that were reported globally came from the continent.
South Africa officially reported 11 deaths related to severe heat but researchers studying excess deaths through temperature correlations found very high mortality burden associated with warmer weather.
“Excess deaths during extreme heat events occur predominantly in older individuals and are mostly related to the cardiac and respiratory systems,” says Chersich. “Higher temperatures, especially marked heat fluxes, increase asthma, pneumonia episodes and pneumonia-related mortality, and may compound the impact of air pollution.”
Less severe heat-exposure outcomes – such as lethargy, headaches, rashes, and cramps – negatively affect children in school and play environments. Under extreme heat conditions, hospitalisations and trauma centre visits increase for fluid replacement, renal failure, urinary tract infections, septicaemia, general heat stroke, as well as unintentional injuries.
A hot topic for awareness
Dr Albert Manyuchi in the Global Change Institute (GCI) at Wits explains that while communities had been experiencing extreme heat conditions, and the health effects obvious in relation to diseases, the effects of heatwaves are poorly understood. Yet, despite poor understanding of the effects of heatwaves, communities have found ways to manage in those conditions.
“In Agincourt, where we assessed the current knowledge of heat health effects on human health, we found that community perceptions on heat impacts on health were mainly related to illnesses and diseases, with no understanding of mortality risk,” says Manyuchi. “We also found that although healthcare workers were aware of how to manage the health-related effects from the heat, more awareness campaigns that encompass the full range of heat-health impacts are needed to reduce vulnerability, morbidity and mortality,” he added.
Agincourt [Matsavana] and Acornhoek [Khenhuk] are towns in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, and home to the Wits Rural Campus where more than 30 surrounding villages and 21 000 households comprising some 120 000 individuals have participated in public health and health transitions research since the late 1980s.
Dearth of heat-health data
A study by Manyuchi and Chersich, et al, in 2022, on extreme heat events, high ambient temperatures and human morbidity and mortality in Africa, found that there is an urgent need to develop heat-health plans and to implement interventions in Africa.
Manyuchi says their systematic review found gaps in early warning systems and that community communication needs to be more accessible and the language understandable.
“Africa is not prepared to adequately deal with the rising temperatures that we are going to face in the future. The weaknesses in health systems mean they are not able to respond to climate-related crises adequately. Observation systems need to be in place and consistent capturing of data needs to be done,” says Manyuchi.
Plan for heat waves
Chersich says that although strides are slowly being made to prioritise health in addressing climate change, many underlying health and social systems need to change. Furthermore, the rapid rate at which weather systems are changing has also contributed to the lack of preparedness in African countries.
According to him, a more targeted approach, where a package of selected interventions is implemented, may be a more effective option than trying to improve the overall health system, and more attractive for policy makers and funding agencies.
“Preparing for heat waves is an important first step. This involves creating national or regional early warning and information systems, heat wave plans and guidelines, and raising public awareness through campaigns,” says Chersich.
“Key actions from the health sector include providing dedicated public cooling shelters, securing the availability of clean water and simple water purification systems in low-income settings, surveillance of heat-related diseases, outreach to vulnerable populations, and extended hours for public pools or other water bodies.”
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Educating science student-teachers about energy
- Shoks Mnisi Mzolo
How good is a science curriculum that’s insulated from working scientists or that ignores climate change and sustainable development?
Energy is one concept important to Bachelor of Education (BEd) graduates who go on to teach in the sciences. Curiously, despite its position as a link between Physics and Chemistry, interdisciplinary science education remains rare in the classroom. Furthermore, teachers are under pressure to finish the curriculum on time, leaving little or no room to do other things, nor shine a spotlight on energy, for instance.
Relevance
“The course must be relevant to the daily life of each student. Relevance is the first step,” says Physics Education Senior Lecturer, Dr Emmanuel Mushayikwa, in response to how the Wits School of Education prepares BEd students for their future role as teachers of the subject.
“We have two target components – content and methodology. With the latter, we teach them how to teach. My argument, even for the content component, is that you must make it relevant to the daily life of the student-teachers for it to make sense and be very well understood.”
While discussing relevance, Mushayikwa refers to the dynamics of greenhouse gases being taught in the context of Chemistry. He was encouraged by the response that the content component elicited from his students, because it was presented in a manner that proved relevant. Likewise, energy as a topic is taught from a point of relevance.
“Discussing energy more could help us find some answers and solutions to our crises, such as energy insecurity,” he explains, then zooms in on a recent example from the lecture hall, namely a joint lecture that he and the late Honorary Professor John Bradley, who had been involved in chemistry education, delivered in April 2022. The joint lecture focused on the theme of energy from both the physics and chemistry perspectives.
“Students liked the fact that the topic of energy was introduced together with Physics and Chemistry. When we talk about electro-magnetic radiation, that’s energy. In Chemistry, they look at things such as chemical reaction, chemical change – that’s energy. Turning on the stove gives you an intersection of physics and energy – and it happens in the kitchen every day. Every learner would know this. It’s all about relevance.”
Curricula constraints
“Despite energy’s central importance to both Chemistry and Physical Sciences, there is little or no encouragement to interdisciplinary and systems thinking,” notes Professor Peter Moodie, a Visiting Lecturer in the Wits School of Education who is involved in science and technology education curriculum development.
“The concept of energy gets attention in the [high] school Physical Sciences curriculum, but separately and differently in the Physics half and the Chemistry half,” he explains. The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) is South Africa’s official curriculum for all school-going learners.
“We are looking for ways to introduce our students to systems thinking, and unifying ideas – such as energy – that cut across disciplines. For example, we have presented them with an interdisciplinary approach to electricity by treating voltaic cells and circuit behaviour as one topic.”
A further example of how the WSoE is transcending the silo tradition and pursuing novel, innovative ways of teaching and learning is by presenting circuits and cells as a physics-chemical system.
Rethinking science education
In the era of renewable energies, Moodie worries that the dearth of skills could continue to stalk South Africa. He advocates a paradigm shift on the part of both educators and BEd students, towards systems thinking. He encourages urgent national attention to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal number seven, which calls for affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030.
“Clean energy systems help us deal with climate change, so the challenge for a science educator is to introduce the physics and chemistry of new technologies such as fuel cells using green hydrogen, battery storage, photovoltaics, and wind turbines, for example,” says Moodie. “The curriculum should reflect the realities of practical science and scientists.”
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Overcoming energy poverty
- Leanne Rencken
Researchers are developing innovative solutions to counter the energy poverty that impacts teaching and learning.
In South Africa, with just under 90% of the population connected to the energy grid, there is no typical energy divide, explains Raees Dangor, a PhD candidate in the Wits School of Electrical and Information Engineering (Wits EIE). Rather, what we are experiencing when the national grid fails us, is universal energy poverty. That’s because it affects us all, from the suburbs to the CBDs to the townships, to our university campuses. The moment you are loadshed and you don’t have electricity to meet your basic needs, you are in a state of energy poverty.
The real inequality becomes apparent when we look at the 1% or 2% of the population who can afford to plug into alternative sources of energy to keep the lights on.
“Those who have the means to buy an alternative-to-grid supply, such as photovoltaic [solar], or a generator, can sustain themselves. But that is very costly. So, if we look at access to alternative-to-grid supplies, then I would say there’s a clear energy divide, because only the elite and the rich can actually afford to have that,” says Dangor.
The online learning poverty index
It's this energy divide that’s captured Dangor’s attention and motivated him to design his PhD around a tool he built to measure students’ access to online learning. This tool, the Online Learning Poverty Index, considers energy poverty, the energy divide, the digital divide, and the learning environment.
As a founder and former business development manager at Peco Power, Dangor has been privy to several solutions introduced to address inequalities when it comes to online learning. Some of them he’s been directly involved with, such as the Wits Energy Access Project which, in 2021, supplied five solar systems to students in need. What concerns him is that these solutions only ever address part of the problem, and he’s hoping the tool he has devised will help provide a more in-depth and holistic overview.
Energy and digital divides
“Simply having an Eskom connection, or using the rate of electrification, is a very crude and simplistic manner to really measure and understand a person’s electricity access,” he explains. “When we transitioned to emergency remote teaching at Wits at the onset of Covid-19, everyone had to work online and from home. Our poor and under-privileged students were really affected by the energy divide, but also the digital divide. The electricity they do have doesn’t work that well, they don’t have laptops and computers or internet access in the rural areas, and so several schemes were launched to try and close the divide.”
The schemes he refers to include the University’s partnership with network providers to supply students with 30GB of mobile data, the availability of loan devices, as well as Covid-19 related National Students' Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances, amongst others.
Dangor’s PhD, titled A Multidimensional Approach to Online Learning Poverty, looks at the suitability of schemes such as these, which while helpful, are not comprehensive or universal enough to apply to everyone – especially considering our current situation, which has only gotten worse since Covid-19. It was the pandemic which ultimately acted as the catalyst for us all to consider learning and working from home solutions.
Post-Covid blended learning
Dangor explains: “The South African energy crisis has worsened. Stage 8 loadshedding is on the cards and there is the threat of a national blackout. This compounds the challenges of working from home. Many students still do not own digital devices, nor do they have reliable internet access at home. At the same time, blended learning is a prevalent trend at Universities, meaning that a significant amount of higher education content will be delivered through online channels. It’s inevitable that many students will be forced to work for extended hours at the University given their challenges at home. The University is obligated to make provisions. Those who are unable to spend extended hours at the University need to also be considered. A deep understanding of online poverty is thus essential for the successful implementation of blended learning and, in the long term, the achievement of universal access to higher education.”
And this is exactly what Dangor hopes to achieve. Based on the Alkire-Foster method used for measuring poverty and wellbeing, Dangor has tailored his tool to investigate South Africa’s access to online learning and uses it to make enquiries around three dimensions of poverty, namely digital, energy, and learning environment.
The digital dimension enquires about a student’s access to devices such as computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones and the availability of an internet connection.
The energy dimension counts the number of utility grid connections – typically 98% of students have one – and the number of alternative-to-grid connections, which only around 1% of students have.
The learning environment checks the students dwelling type which may be formal or informal. However, knowing that the students polled are attending an urban institution, data is skewed towards ‘formal’. It is only when Dangor drills down to these students’ access to a workspace that the data gets interesting. Even though most students live in formal households, a lot of them don’t have a dedicated workspace.
“Looking at all these aspects, and using my tool to measure them, allows me to understand where we need to make provisions and who specifically is suffering the most, because that’s where we need to start, that’s our target,” he says.
Once Dangor’s tool can generate a view of what resources people really need to overcome online learning poverty, he can share this valuable data. Those providing solutions can then create interventions that make a real difference.
This application is not limited to tertiary-education students; it can be used by corporates, and those in the banking sector, engaging in work-from-home strategies, and in rural environments where children are being on-boarded into the online learning space.
Power bricks and fibre sharing
One of the interventions Dangor is keen on seeing being put into practice is the combined potential of Peco Power’s power brick used in conjunction with the Fibre Before the Fibre project.
The power brick is an off-grid technology that incorporates a battery and inverter. The battery can be charged from any source, including solar or the grid, but it’s true value lies in the fact that the ‘plug and play’ solution can be expanded with the simple addition of more bricks to generate more power, for home use, or even better, en masse to power a community or school.
Couple that with the Fibre Before Fibre Project and you’ve got a power bundled with connectivity solution.
The Fibre Before Fibre Project is being developed by Dr Mitchell Cox in the Wits Optical Communication Lab. It is an ingenious method of sharing internet access using long-range wireless optical communication technology between those who have it (such as fibre to the home in affluent areas) and those who don’t, but who perhaps live just across a road or valley in the city. The project, which originated at Wits and has acquired international university partners, is currently being piloted.
Both ventures were developed by teams at the Wits EIE. On their own, each of these projects is impressive, but their potential to change lives when used in conjunction with Dangor’s tool is where the real brilliance lies.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
On ant(eater) patrol
- Leanne Rencken
PROFILE: Living to find innovative ways to solve tough challenges, Dr Wendy Panaino digs deep into the lives of pangolins.
This quote struck me as pertinent, not just in the context of the pangolins she’s been researching for seven years, but in relation to Panaino as well. Her energy is incredibly dynamic, and this vibrancy comes across so clearly in our conversation, even though we’re chatting online.
With the pangolins, it’s the minutiae that fascinates her, and she’s in her element talking about these complex creatures – their physiology and how they function – although she’s not as expansive when it comes to figuring out the source of her own energy.
“Physically and physiologically, it shouldn’t make sense. I should not have the energy levels I have, given how little I sleep and what I eat,” she says with a huge smile.
“I think it’s life’s natural high,” she clarifies, and when you get to know her, even just a little, this makes so much sense.
Animal energy
Panaino's had to tap into this ‘natural high’ a lot over the years because of the demanding nature of her hyper-focused work with the elusive and endangered mammal.
As an ecology, environment, and conservation master’s candidate looking for a project to base her dissertation on, she stepped into a research programme looking to understand more about pangolins at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in 2015, and she’s been there ever since.
Panaino upgraded her master’s to a PhD in 2017, continuing to pursue the pangolin project, as well as critical questions around climate change. She was awarded her PhD in 2021, and publishing her peer-reviewed work on pangolins in 2022, as well as a study on inter-species teamwork between Cape foxes and striped polecats in the southern Kalahari.
Her paper on pangolins asks if seasonal dietary shifts by Temminck’s pangolins compensate for winter resource scarcity in a semi-arid environment.
To answer the question, she literally spent days and nights – depending on the season, the rainfall, and other factors – tracking seven specific pangolins over a period of two years of field work.
If you’re wondering when she slept, the answer is she didn’t get much sleep at all. Pangolins are typically nocturnal so most of the research was done at night. This involved tracking them through the transmitters attached to their backs, going to great lengths to collect their faecal matter, and then much later, downloading information from the miniature temperature data loggers which were implanted and had to be removed to access the recordings.
Pangolin poop is Kalahari Gold
Describing the research process, she says: “In the evenings, I would pick a pangolin and go and wait outside the burrow, sitting as quietly as possible, barely breathing in the cold and the dark because they’re super shy. If there’s any disturbance, they won’t come out. You depend on your ears to know when they’ve emerged, and then you follow them around on foot.”
Sometimes this would be for a couple of hours, sometimes an entire night. As she explains, she was totally on their schedule, not just when they were foraging, but when they were pooping as well. The faecal matter she collected came to be known by the research crew as Kalahari Gold, because it was so valuable to the research, and so difficult to come by.
Over the study period, Panaino witnessed what coping strategies pangolins need to employ during a cold winter following a hot, dry summer season, as well as how they operate during a winter following an abnormally wet summer season, how these extremes affect the choices they make about diet, whether to move around at night, or unusually, during the day, and the impact this has on their body temperature and energy.
Balancing mammal-environment energy
As both a scientist and a problem-solver, Panaino believes whole-heartedly in the power of conservation. On the one hand, she admits that things are not looking good for pangolins, but on the other hand, she says: “There are ways for the environment to buffer the effect of climate change. If you have a completely denuded, overgrazed area, are animals in those areas likely to die quicker or sooner than in areas where things are healthier, more balanced, and where there’s lots of grass growth and insects? We still have a long way to go, but this is the kind of prediction we are moving towards: If you have a balanced, healthy ecosystem, things are likely to be more resilient, and there’s potential for the ecosystem to do better.”
After her PhD, Panaino has focused on work that encompasses entire ecosystems. She has been involved as a project manager with a climate change research initiative called KEEP (the Kalahari Endangered Ecosystem Project), an umbrella programme under the Tswalu Foundation that oversees several projects at Tswalu, looking at how different species behave and respond within the ecosystem.
While she is still affiliated to KEEP, she’s moved into a research consultancy role at Tswalu, about which she is very enthusiastic. Working with Professor Andrea Fuller in the Wits School of Physiology, Panaino recently appointed a master’s student to continue working with the pangolins, having designed a research study to look into the purpose of the pangolin. “We’ve never quantified their role,” Panaino says, “and it would be enormously beneficial to do so.”
A pangolin’s purpose
We know they are driven by their need for energy, and to reproduce, but Panaino still wants to find out what the purpose of the pangolin is within the environment. She wants answers to questions like how much soil they turn over in a year and what their impact is on insect colonies, but she’d also like to be able to do more to better inform law enforcement regarding the illegal pangolin trade.
“In court cases, a judge might ask what kind of punishment should be given to the perpetrators who are illegally trading animals. We want to be able to say, well, this is what role they play in the environment, and so removing them will have specific consequences. Hopefully this will allow court systems to improve their law enforcement and hand out more effective sentences.” she says.
“I like to have challenges, and to find innovative ways to solve them. Life happens and as a scientist you have to be open to adapt and evolve and develop. I actually don’t mind when things don’t go according to plan, it opens up room to change things and get creative. This is the exciting part!”
Pangolin Fact Box
As part of her PhD, Panaino calculated that each pangolin consumes around 5.6 million ants and termites per year. The study occurred during a particularly dry time, and with the rains during consecutive years, they ate even more. In conjunction with other ant-eating animals in the Kalahari (aardvarks and aardwolves, for example), pangolins play a huge role in regulating insect populations.
Pangolins do not actively seek free-standing water and meet their water needs from their prey.
Pangolins in the Kalahari are extremely fussy eaters, preying predominantly on two ant genera and one termite genus.
Although typically nocturnal, pangolins can shift their 24-hour activity to become diurnal under certain environmental conditions.
The pangolin navigation system is a total mystery – they forage throughout the night in zig zags, going from bush to bush. However, when it is time to go back to the burrow, they often go back in a straight line. Remarkably, this means they are not following a scent trail left behind that night.
Despite only walking on their two hind legs, pangolins can travel huge distances. One pangolin that was part of the Tswalu research study moved close to 40km – measured as a straight line within 10 days (although this was likely fewer days). Given that they don’t typically walk in straight lines, that total distance would have been much greater.
Pangolins are mostly covered in keratin scales and play host to various mite and tick species, demonstrating even more their value to the ecosystems.
In the Kalahari, pangolins tend to give birth to one pup per year in September. Elsewhere across their distribution, their breeding season does not seem to be so strictly defined.
Pangolin mothers never show their pups what to eat since they are rarely (if ever) seen foraging together. That means that the pup knows exactly which insects to go for purely by instinct.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
‘Clean Coal’ could be a game-changer for SA
- Schalk Mouton
Q&A: Coal has a bad reputation, but ‘clean coal’ holds various potential opportunities, says Professor Samson Bada.
Bada is Head of Clean Coal Technology Research in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering.
Is there such a thing as ‘clean coal’?
The term is used to describe the use of coal with minimum to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Other gaseous emissions to be considered under the umbrella of ‘clean coal’ include Sulphur oxides (SOx), originating from the burning of sulphur-rich minerals found in coal, and Nitrogen oxides (NOx), the result of the combination of the nitrogen in air when it is exposed to oxygen at high temperatures. Other forms of emissions when combusting coal include fine fly ash (known as particulates).
What are the clean coal technologies?
Clean coal technologies (CCT) refer to proven technologies that cut across the whole coal value chain, from the mining gate to utilisation, with the purpose of reducing emissions and solid waste.
Within the power generation sector, some of the CCTs include carbon capture storage and utilisation, circulating fluidised bed, co-firing biomass/refuse derived fuel, and high efficiency low emission (HELE) technologies. These technologies aim to minimise the environmental impact of existing and planned coal-fired power plants. In fact, certain proven new technologies can now offer 100% emission reduction and the emissions, if captured, can now produce important marketable products.
How is clean coal different from ‘normal’ coal?
There is increasing evidence that the ‘raw, normal or run of mine (ROM)’ coal can be of inestimable value for non-energy applications, namely to produce advanced lightweight high-value high-tech materials such as activated carbon, carbon fibre, building composites, and electrode materials for batteries and supercapacitors (energy storage). When co-fired with biomass, the resulting pellets provide valuable ‘clean, low emission’ sources for power generation feedstocks. All these products are being investigated by Clean Coal Technology Research at Wits University.
What is the future of clean coal?
Renewable sources of energy are intermittent and therefore unreliable; they have a remarkably low energy density, and without fossil fuel, there would be no renewable hardware technology.
The future of coal is great. There are clean, coal-fired power technologies that could be retrofitted to current and old power stations. In addition, HELE plants and new smaller (modular) HELE independent power producer (IPP) coal-fired power units could be introduced in key areas of need. In short, coal is an extremely precious natural product and technology exists to use it cleanly.
Coal’s future extends beyond the production of electricity, namely, as the main driver of the circular economy. Advanced materials such as carbon fibre and carbon foam are expected to replace conventional raw materials such as steel, cement, and glass in the circular economy. Carbon fibres, coal-activated carbon, nanotubes and nanocarbons are future materials that are expected to be used widely in aerospace, electric vehicles, robotics and energy storage and they are an improvement on lithium-ion batteries. Furthermore, they can store natural gas and hydrogen. A company called X-MAT, in Florida, USA, has just developed the very first 18650 lithium-ion battery using coal and resin-based technology instead of graphite.
Why is it so hard to wean SA off coal?
Coal is the backbone of this country’s economy and will continue to be the driving force behind the social and economic development of modern South Africa. The dependence on coal, both here and globally, is more than in power generation; it produces almost everything we use in our daily lives. Steel and its alloys are used in the manufacturing of cars, trucks, rail, shipbuilding, and machineries. Steelmaking accounts for 190 000 jobs in South Africa. For every 1 000 tonnes of steel produced domestically, R9.2 million is added to the GDP, three jobs are produced directly and another three indirectly.
What role does coal play in the renewable space?
Coal is essential in producing renewable energies. The production of a single wind turbine needs coal and other fossil fuels for the manufacture of the steel, the steel towers and the concrete supporting the towers. In the production of solar panels, quartz is used because of its purity compared to sand.
Fossil fuel is required in the mining and processing of quartz and for the high temperatures required to process the quartz to glass. Coal is also the carbon source for the electrode material in the batteries used to store renewable energy, and provides the pitch, used as a binder for the manufacture of high anodes for aluminium smelting in the ‘Hall–Héroult process’ [the major industrial process for smelting aluminium], which produces the solar panel frame.
To replace 100% of the country’s current coal-fired power plants in due course with renewables will require decades of planning, a new environment, and new intra- and inter-country transmission lines and a reliable form of baseload power for back-ups. Coal is a luxury which we in South Africa cannot do without.
Schalk Mouton is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Skills for a green world
- Beth Amato
South Africa needs to reskill and upskill in the face of changing technology and shifting workplaces.
The Northern Cape is home to some of southern Africa’s largest renewable energy projects. One such project boasts 184 000 solar modules – enough to power about 162 000 homes. The land potential is being tapped but the surrounding communities remain mired in poverty and inequality.
“There is still high unemployment in the communities these renewable projects are situated in, no matter the growth and possibility that the green industry holds,” says Dr Presha Ramsarup, Director of the Centre for Researching Education and Labour (REAL) at Wits, whose research focuses on skills development for a sustainable and just world.
A just transition holds environmental sustainability, decent work, social inclusion, and poverty eradication as central tenets, but Ramsarup has found a disconnect between the quest to reduce carbon emissions and the urgency to create an equitable world.
“The skills and training needed to ensure this are unclear and contested in South Africa. Skills are often imported. Many short-term job opportunities created are not linked to meaningful social inclusion, job fulfilment, or lifelong learning. ‘Skills’ are always tagged on at the end rather than integrated with industrial and technical planning,” says Ramsarup.
‘Skills system’
The South African National Energy Association (SANEA) launched the South African Energy Skills Roadmap in January 2023. REAL partnered with SANEA to ensure that skills planning is central to climate adaptation and mitigation measures.
“Education and training have been reactive, leading with what the technology requires. This has created a fragmented landscape of interventions with no coherent planning for skills. We need to think about a ‘skills system’ that responds to communities’ real-life and changing concerns,” says Ramsarup, adding that the least is known about intermediate-level technical skills.
The renewables technologies training offered at technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges is often short course based and infrequently acknowledges the social context of these technologies. This ultimately provides an isolated solution when a multidimensional lens is required.
Data dearth
One reason for the fragmented response is the limited mechanisms to aggregate data. REAL’s Dr Nicola Jenkin analysed job ads as part of her contribution to the Roadmap.
“We are told that green energy will provide thousands of jobs, but we don’t have any information to confirm this. We have no clear idea how many people are employed in the renewable energy sector; we don’t know how many people are studying renewable energy,” says Jenkin.
Her ad analysis revealed that the energy sector requires highly technical and professional skills – likely linked to the influx of independent power producers and new technologies. But there doesn’t seem to be clear learning pathways for young people. Ramsarup says that even entry-level jobs require skills planning but data on reskilling or retraining needs is also limited. Jenkin notes that “once construction is complete, plants need operational skills. We would like to see how a construction worker can retrain to continue working in the field, for example.”
Multi-pronged approach
Dr Rod Crompton, Director of the African Energy Leadership Centre at Wits, says employment opportunities lie in the construction of renewable energy infrastructure. Currently the photovoltaic and battery sectors are booming to meet industrial and residential demand.
“Are educational institutions equipping people with the skills to do this? For conventional energy there are adequate learning programmes – although there is a shortage of particularly higher skilled artisans, like coded welders. New programmes are needed for the new interdisciplinary skills necessary for sector coupling.”
Aside from educational institutions stepping up, government needs to come on board, too. “We are seeing that industry, not government, is leading the change to a just transition,” says Jenkin.
The Departments of Mineral Resources and Energy, Basic Education, and Higher Education and Training need to be critical players.
Ramsarup concludes: “We need a multi-pronged approach. One of these prongs is reskilling and upskilling in the face of changing technology and shifting workplaces.”
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Can Wits go off the grid?
- Shoks Mnisi Mzolo
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero is the next big thing on the global agenda, but academics agree it’s not feasible in the medium term on campus.
Wits’ drive to reduce carbon emissions began in earnest in 2016 when the University implemented its Energy Efficiency Programme. The Programme, allocated around a tenth of the University’s utilities annual expenditure and, began with several pilot projects, including replacing fluorescent light bulbs with more energy-efficient and cost-effective options.
Jason Huang, Planning and Development Manager at Wits, explains that the University has had to overcome a range of difficulties, from limited financial resources to constraints of usable space (such as rooftops), and an old property portfolio. But now, seven years later, Wits is poised to adopt an overall sustainability policy and strategy.
“We have demonstrated project results and we have the support of management to continue the implementation of these types of initiatives,” explains Huang, referring to aspects of the Energy Efficiency Programme. “We’ve rolled out rooftop photovoltaic systems, converted hot water systems in all our large residences to more efficient gas and renewable technologies, and are switching to LED lighting.”
Diversifying energy sources
While going off the Eskom grid or becoming a net zero University is a tall order, Wits has begun introducing alternative energy sources to not only gradually reduce reliance on Eskom but to also ensure that the University’s operations are sustainable, explains Huang.
Although the benefits of solar power, one of the alternatives being introduced at the University, are obvious, blind spots remain. David Dorrell, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering, suggests that solar power self-sufficiency “needs careful calculation and it is expensive. This [solar power] probably needs commercial partners and finance. Like all universities, the funding pockets are not that deep.”
Dorrell notes that some investigation is required to determine whether sufficient space exists for independent photovoltaic (PV) generation, which refers to the mechanism to convert sunlight into electrical energy. “Battery storage is also needed,” he says. “Though one of the advantages of commercial premises like a university – rather than domestic premises – is that energy tends to be used more in the day, when PV is generating, whereas for domestic applications, it tends to be more in the evening.”
Lightning the loadshedding load
Although Wits’ energy efficiency efforts are not a response to loadshedding specifically, they are well timed, as light at the end of the tunnel seems unlikely. “I fear that the loadshedding will continue and become the norm, and get worse,” remarks Dorrell, who traces the collapse of the power system to government mismanagement and failure to follow through on new generation policy.
Wits University already has generators for loadshedding, but Dorrell favours a mix of energy sources: electricity from the national grid, solar power, and diesel. Although diesel, used by commercial premises (including university campuses, government buildings, office parks and the like), is expensive, it could be used as peak-load supply, to augment solar power, for instance, and not just as loadshedding back-up, he adds.
Galvanising Witsies towards net zero
While Huang is satisfied with the technological successes of Wits’ Energy Efficiency Programme, he would like to see the Wits community playing more of a role too. “As much as we have rolled out renewables and more efficient technologies, and continue to work towards reducing our load, we need to get people to consume energy responsibly,” he says.
In this regard, the University is accelerating awareness and education campaigns and the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Inequality and Sustainability, will roll out the Wits 2023-2030 Sustainability Strategy. Within this context, Wits University – and Witsies themselves – are poised to advance a just transition to an equitable, net zero carbon economy for the city, region, continent, and globally by 2050, in line with international protocols.
Top tips to survive loadshedding at home
General
Switch off the lights when they’re not needed.
Only boil the water that you need, or keep excess hot water in a good, insulated flask for tea/coffee or baby bottles.
Switch off appliances if not is use, e.g., TVs, computers.
Switch lights to LED or get rechargeable globes.
Install a good geyser blanket to reduce heat loss.
Geysers can also be switched on 1-2 hours before you need to shower (this only really works if a household doesn’t need hot water throughout the day).
Switch to lower-flow showerheads to reduce hot water consumption.
If you have mixer taps at home, use the cold-water side only unless you need hot water. By turning on the ‘warm’ or ‘hot’ setting, you are pulling water from the geyser into the water pipes and losing this heat.
Dress for the weather instead of using aircon/heaters/fans. Heat and cooling accounts for most of a typical household's electricity bill.
In winter, minimise the small holes/slits/windows where cold air can come in (windows, bottom slit on doors).
Fridge
Fill a few two-litre bottles with water and freeze them. When the power goes off, place some in your fridge and limit opening and closing the door. Keep the remaining frozen bottles in the deep freeze and only take them out once the others are down to about 25% ice. Rotate with more frozen ones if experiencing prolonged power outages.
Don’t linger with fridge/freezer doors open for too long. This makes the chilled air escape and/or lets warmer air in. As a result, it takes more electricity for the fridge/freezer to reach the desired temperature.
Cooking
Invest in the South African solution, the Wonderbag. This non-electric heat insulated bag works as a slow cooker and continues cooking for up to eight hours.
A braai can save the day. Stock up on charcoal or wood.
Invest in a gas hob, the prices are increasing with demand.
Cell phone
Keep your power bank charged and only use it when the power is off.
Put your phone on low power mode to preserve battery life when expecting prolonged power outages.
A phone charger in your car is a lifesaver!
Other solutions
Invest in an inverter system, or generator. Even the most basic system will give you a few hours of the minimum: lights, chargers, TV, and maybe a fan.
A solar geyser, or a solar shower bag, kept full and in the sun, does a good job.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Finding facts in a lightning bolt
- Shaun Smillie and Schalk Mouton
Lightning research will answer several questions about this lesser-known force of nature.
A sudden death out in the veld might have gone unnoticed by science if it hadn’t been for the witnesses who saw it happen.
What they saw was a giraffe struck by lightning. And not long afterwards that giraffe’s skeleton ended up at Wits University, and it was here that a group of scientists got an idea.
The researchers then wanted to see if they could replicate the patterning through lab-simulated lightning strikes.
Pig bones were taken to Wits’ lightning lab and struck with artificially created lightning bolts. Then, the test had to be replicated on human bones, but because human cadavers could not be transported to the JLRL, the researchers had to take the lightning to the anatomy lab at Wits.
High impulse currents of up to 10 000 amps were shot through the human skeletons and the same tell-tale micro patterning appeared that had first been observed on the giraffe. This research was published in the journal Forensic Science International.
Those unique marks left on bones by lightning could be a big help to pathologists in future. Often lightning strikes leave classic ‘whodunnit’ cases, where a body is found in an open field with no apparent cause of death.
In South Africa it is not even known how many people actually die because of a lightning strike, although the estimates lie between 100 and 140 people per year. Farmers face a similar conundrum when livestock are found dead with no apparent cause of death. Dr Hugh Hunt, Head of the JLRL and co-author of the article, believes their research could also help in challenging dubious livestock insurance claims.
Flash-in-the pan myths
Studying fatal lightning strikes is just part of the research in which the JLRL has been involved – there are myths to be debunked too. For example, the myth that claims that if we could capture a lightning bolt, it would power a city for a year. Regrettably, lightning doesn’t work like that.
“You really can’t [power a city], it’s not enough energy. Even if you take the majority of the electrical energy in the world’s entire atmosphere, it just doesn’t come close to what we use to run cities and industry,” says Hunt, adding that a lightning strike is more like a bomb going off.
Research at the JLRI focuses more on saving property and lives through a better understanding of lightning.
Hunt says, “We don’t know enough about how exactly to predict where lightning is going to strike. We know that if you have a thatch house, we put up a big, tall, metal rod next to it, and that is more likely to be struck than your thatch house. But that’s still quite a rough model. For instance, we don’t know whether it is better to use a copper rod, or an aluminium rod.”
The JLRL’s work will become increasingly important as climate change could cause more lightning strikes in the decades to come. “There is a fair bit of evidence to show that things are definitely changing. It does generally look like lightning activity is increasing, but is it increasing with the same sort of intensity? With the same amount of current?” asks Hunt.
Bolts from the blue in Brixton
To answer some of these questions, Hunt and his team have turned the 237m high Sentech Tower in Brixton, Johannesburg, into a laboratory. The tower receives at least 40 to 50 lightning strikes per year. With an average of 15 lightning strikes per square kilometre per year, Johannesburg is one of the most lightning-struck built-up environments on Earth, and thus regarded as the perfect place to study lightning.
“This is where we get into the physics of what is happening in a single lightning strike and get back to our intention to better protect people and assets,” concludes Hunt.
Shaun Smillie is a freelance writer.
Schalk Mouton is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control
A planet called 'Home'
- Shaun Smillie and Schalk Mouton
Our home planet Earth is unique, not only in its position in space but in the way it manages energy to create a comfortable spot for us to inhabit.
Our planet Earth is our perfect home, the only one we have. But it was not always hospitable. In the beginning, just after what is known as the ‘Big Bang’ about 4,6 billion years ago, our planet was a raging mass of hot chemicals. There were no atmosphere, no oceans, and no life. This blob of a protoplanet comprised various bits of accumulated leftovers from the birth of our sun.
Planet pizza
Professor Gillian Drennan, Head of the School of Geosciences at Wits, explains what happened next: “These leftover particles were pulled together and collided with one another under the influence of gravity. That was 4,6 billion years ago and if someone had caught a glimpse of this new protoplanet back then, it would have appeared as a big three-dimensional pizza. Imagine a ball of pizza with pepperoni, onion and tomato equally distributed throughout. That is what the early Earth was like – a complete mishmash of ingredients.”
As collisions continued and the protoplanet (a large body of matter in orbit around the sun) grew, it heated up. It became so hot that it began partially to melt, explains Drennan.
“As it melted it began to differentiate or separate into different layers of increasing density towards the centre of the Earth. Melting allowed various volatiles in the accreted [accumulated] particles to escape, giving rise to the development of an atmosphere and even the oceans.” Volatiles are the group of chemical elements and chemical compounds that can be readily vaporised.
“It is also thought that the oceans might even have resulted from the accretion of some comets,” adds Drennan.
The Goldilocks Zone
For Earth to sustain life, several things had to emerge from this hot globule to make it the only planet in our Universe where life exists (as far as we know at the moment).
Firstly, our planet’s position in our solar system had to be just right. Our planet would not be what it is today if it wasn’t for our sun, believed to be a third or fourth generation star.
The Earth is perfectly positioned from the sun to support life, in what is often referred to as the ‘Goldilocks zone’, a habitable band where water remains liquid.
Secondly, our planet is still in the process of cooling down from its original cataclysmic formation and the heat produced by radioactive elements in its interior. The most efficient way for this to happen is convection, says Professor Roger Gibson in the School of Geosciences.
This convection occurs in Earth’s mantle where the rocks are so hot that they are molten and able to flow and even melt. As the upwelling mantle nears Earth’s surface, it starts to flow laterally, splitting apart the thin, cold crust above it. Hot magma rises along these giant cracks and cools down, forming new crust. And if hot magma is rising to the surface somewhere, in other places, cold crust is sinking back down into the mantle.
This conveyor-belt of crust formation and destruction shifts the continental fragments across the planet on which we live, causing them not only to break apart or collide, but physically to move into different latitudes over timespans of tens of millions of years, thus driving significant climatic shifts.
Magnetic protective umbrella
The next ingredient in the process to create a liveable environment was for the planet to form a protective umbrella to shield us from objects from space. This is the magnetic field that is believed to have developed around 3,5 billion years ago.
“Our magnetic field protects us from cosmic rays and from high energy particles associated with coronal mass ejections, those high energy particles that come out of the sun and get deflected around the Earth,” says Professor Susan Webb in the School of Geosciences, who studies Earth’s earliest magnetic field.
“Earth happens to have a large liquid core and the rotation rate is such that, between the rotation of the planet and the chemical and thermal buoyancy, we get a dynamo action, which is basically turning mechanical energy into electromagnetic energy that generates a magnetic field,” explains Webb.
Other planets in our solar system lack a magnetic field. Venus, for instance, is rotating too slowly, while Mars is so small that scientists think its core has mostly frozen and doesn’t have enough liquid iron to generate a magnetic field.
Protection from our magnetic field is thought to have been important for evolution, as plants, animals and humans on Earth are protected from genetic damage from these high energy particles.
Magnetic minerals preserved in rocks provide evidence of the strength of the magnetic field in the past and how it, along with the positions of the continents, has changed over time. With rocks as old as 3,5 billion years and as the home to one of Earth’s earliest recognisable continents, South Africa is a rich laboratory in which to study these secular changes, says Gibson.
“Fluctuations in the magnetic field could in the future help explain how life emerged on Earth,” says Webb.
The Great Oxidation Event
Another important role of this magnetic field is that it prevents the Earth’s atmosphere from being stripped away.
Our atmosphere is believed to have formed after the planet cooled down and grew large enough to trap gasses around it, through gravitational force. Other gasses, such as hydrogen sulphide, methane, and carbon dioxide, were spewed into the atmosphere through volcanoes. It took about half a billion years for Earth’s surface to cool down and solidify enough for water to collect on it.
The early atmosphere was highly reducing and anaerobic microbes such as archaebacteria (such as methanogens, or sulphur-reducing bacteria) persisted until the advent of cyanobacteria, which flourished around 2,5 billion years ago. This resulted in oxygenic photosynthesis and oxygenation of our atmosphere for the first time.
“This global phenomenon is known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE),” says Professor Pierre M. Durand in the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute. “The build-up of free oxygen in the atmosphere created suitable environments for eukaryotes [cells with a nucleus] or even complex multicellular life to evolve later in Earth's history. However, this phenomenon may have led to the extinction of various anaerobic [without oxygen] microorganisms at that time.”
The planet’s atmosphere gives us the environment in which we can live and breathe. It is also important as a temperature regulator and one gas plays a lifesaving role: Carbon dioxide (CO2) has a bad rap because of the role it plays in climate change, but it is needed to trap heat.
“The heat that gets trapped does not get reflected back into the atmosphere when the sun goes to sleep, and therefore keeps our planet at a habitable temperature for 24 hours a day,” says Scholes.
Motion of the ocean
A global average mean temperature of between 16 and 18 degrees Celsius must be maintained, and weather worldwide plays its part in maintaining habitability on Earth. Helping drive these systems are oceanic currents.
“Ocean currents play a very important role in maintaining patterns of rainfall distribution as well as overall temperature on the land,” says Scholes.
Different forms of life have also emerged to play a role in weather. Vegetation type is linked to rainfall distribution. Keeping ‘the blue planet’, Earth, alive relies on a dance of different parts, where each must work in harmony, even when climate change threatens. But it’s not always a smooth ride and the best way to describe this, explains Scholes, is to compare these working parts to an orchestra:
“You’ve got some things that are constantly going on in the background, like you may always have a singular violin being played. And then every so often you might get a perturbation [disturbance] to the global planet. These are the cymbals coming in; this is something like a big riff, like a tsunami.”
Shaun Smillie is a freelance writer.
Schalk Mouton is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
The psychology of energy
- Lem Chetty
Wits researchers shed light on alternative energies and how to leverage them when we’re depleted and in the dark.
On a Monday work morning in South Africa, the conversations over coffee are not just about the countrywide energy crisis, but the physical and mental crises we are all experiencing as a result. Taxpayers are suffering a form of ‘loadshedding fatigue’, which manifests in disrupted sleep patterns – a case in point: ‘how to turn off a beeping alarm alert’ is a top FAQ on a major security company’s website, while managing ‘heat waves and mosquitoes while powerless’ dominates Google questions. Along with working around inverter capacity, traffic chaos, and the pressure of planning meals and cooking, we need an energy shift to deal with the dearth of electrical energy.
The science behind alternative energy (not the green kind)
South Africans (and other nations experiencing similar challenges) are in desperate need of life hacks to manage our personal energy. Tapping in to our own reserves may be a solution.
Dr Sahba Besharati, a neuropsychologist in the School of Human and Community Development at Wits says, “We know there are electrical frequencies in the brain. These can be picked up by an electroencephalogram [EEG] and they do change in wavelength at times. For example, these frequencies in the brain are different during sleep and during mindfulness practices.”
A different energy emanates from the brain as a result of chemical reactions. Think of the times you’ve felt love or happiness in the company of another person. That warm, fuzzy feeling is a chemical reaction, or a type of energy exchange, between people and some animals.
“There is a neurobiological aspect, which has to do with the increase in the hormone oxytocin, not just in romantic situations but between parents and babies, while breastfeeding, or during pregnancy, and sometimes with friends, when we feel effective touch or stroking, and interacting with our pets,” she says.
Biologically, the ‘energy’ – or chemical – comes from the pituitary gland in the brain. Scientifically, this helps facilitate attachments to other people (and pets), Besharati explains. Interestingly, oxytocin is available in some countries as a nasal spray! “Neuroscientists are testing to see if it can be used to help with postpartum depression, for instance,” she says.
Put a positive charge on your energy
Dr Lucy Draper-Clarke, who holds a PhD in Mindfulness and Education, says her research at Wits focuses on how to help people “develop daily, life-enhancing, contemplative practices” and focus their energy to helping others. This work bridges first-person experience with neuroscience research and offers ancient practices to meet modern demands.
Perhaps the reaction to a dead smartphone battery in the morning is not to search frantically for a power source, but to use the time to fire up your own energy. “If you start your morning with a fragmented, distracted mind, going from a cell phone call to an email, to social media, you will experience mental exhaustion. Whereas if you meditate every morning, there’s a better chance of your focusing on one thing and getting through that task more effectively. Research also tells us that multitasking is a misnomer – you use twice as much energy shifting between the tasks than if you focused on one at a time,” says Draper-Clarke.
A researcher-practitioner and facilitator of mindfulness meditation, yoga, and expressive movement through dance, Draper-Clarke says, “Closer to home, African practices such as dance and drumming cultivate energy through movement, stamping and dancing. Traditional healers can dance all night without tiring. The music and the drumbeat coming into the body helps them harness energy.”
“Conversely, Buddhist traditions work more with silence, stillness, and solitude, and understand that ‘energy follows focus’. A meditation practice helps us to work with energy, to cultivate and direct it to help others. In Qigong, the meridian lines that connect all the organs in the body have links to disease, dis-ease or illness. Acupuncture moves energy along these meridian lines. So there are effective ways to shift energy, we just must find what works best for us.”
Complaining about things we can do nothing about exhausts us and has no positive impact on the situation. Draper-Clarke says, “Our feelings are transferred to others; we impact those around us.” For example, when an angry person walks into a room, she says our neuroception picks up danger. The angry person is potentially dangerous. It shows up as a quiver down your spine, an awareness.
But the same goes for compassion. People are easily able to identify compassionate people and when they do, they feel safer and more open. We know that when people are emotionally regulated, their brain works better. So, my suggestion is to refocus our energy towards cultivating awareness and kindness, versus fear, in difficult times.”
Science tells us that the possibility to shift our energy exists within us all.
‘Musicking’ and energy
If you’ve ever stood too close to a speaker at a musical event, you can attest to ‘feeling’ the energy that sound waves generate.
Dr Susan Harrop-Allin, Senior Lecturer in Community Music at Wits, says, “Sound waves, like light, are a form of energy, so music can be considered as a form of energy that we experience in a sensory way.”
She subscribes to the theory of Christopher Small who coined the verb ‘musicking’, which emphasises music as human action. It encompasses all musical activity, from composing, to performing, to listening and singing in your mind. Through ‘musicking’ anyone can access the energy of music, through various forms of participation. Perceptions that you must be talented to produce music are incorrect. Neuropsychology and musical psychology tell us that your brain is hardwired to do ‘musicking’ of any kind.
“In experience one is energised by music, and collaborative music-making creates a special kind of energy between its participants. There is a useful term called ‘musical flow’ that describes what musicians feel when they’re in synchronisation with each other; when musical challenge and achievement are matched. There’s a timelessness about it, for example, when a choir or instrumental ensemble creates overtones – those sounds are produced through intense musical co-operation and listening to each other. We hear notes ‘above’ the melodies we’re singing, but which (magically) nobody is actually playing or singing.”
In South Africa music is a commonality, especially in our strong choral tradition in churches, singing and dancing for social occasions and rituals. “Musicking is integrated into our society, and not separate from it,” she says.
Draper-Clarke’s research concurs: “Music and community can support us and shift locked energy, even trauma. We do this through stamping, dancing, any rhythmic movement.”
To access musical energy, Harrop-Allin says it is often more satisfying to make music with a group, rather than individually, whether it’s through performing, creating, or listening.
“There is an immediate engagement with many parts of the brain; it just lights up. Listening is not passive, it’s participatory, with tapping with the beat and singing or hearing a song in your head.
Music has the unique ability to be heard and replicated in your brain. Hence, all human beings have musical potential. And music isn’t only the purview of the ‘talented’ but embedded in our experiences of being human.”
While she admits that music often does require ‘energy’ to be created or heard, sometimes the opportunity to go backwards can help … perhaps in a battery-operated or wind-up wireless radio.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
The energy it takes to navigate an abled-bodied world
- Marcia Zali
The implementation of universal design and access could improve the lives of people living with disabilities.
In its preamble, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises the need to promote and protect the human rights of all people with disabilities, and for the international community to cooperate to improve the lives of persons with disabilities globally, particularly in developing countries. In South Africa, universal design and access will improve the lives of the 20% of the population living with disabilities.
Since 1986, the Wits Disability Rights Unit (DRU) has been working to overcome the educational and accessibility barriers facing students with visual, hearing, physical, learning, and psychological disabilities, and chronic illnesses.
“Universal access means providing access to services for all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialised design. Universal design is the design of buildings, products, or environments to make them accessible to most people, regardless of age, disability, background, or any other factors,” says Head of the DRU, Dr Anlia Pretorius.
Everyday life demands much energy
With the world generally designed to meet the needs of ‘able-bodied’ people, everyday activities such as communicating, accessing buildings and public transport, reading and writing, require a lot more energy and effort by people with disabilities than ‘able-bodied’ people. However, Subhashini Ellan, the Academic and Facilities Access Coordinator at DRU, says the amount of energy required by people with disabilities to execute tasks is not easy to quantify.
“The energy expended by people with disabilities is difficult to quantify because of the variances in the types of disabilities and impairments, a person's body strength and abilities, as well as the accessibility of the spaces and built environment encountered,” explains Ellan.
“Wheelchair users may need to take longer routes to access buildings, often with no clear directions or accessible lifts or ramp access. This may cause additional fatigue leading to reduced functioning after exertion. Blind people require reading material to be converted to an accessible format, software screen readers or braille print and this may take more time and energy to read due to the various complexities of the formats,” adds Andrew Sam, the Adaptive Technologist at the DRU.
Audiologist and Senior Lecturer in the Wits Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Dr Victor de Andrade says that basic communication requires a lot of energy for people with communication impairments such as hearing loss, deafness, and hearing impairment.
In an ongoing study into how Deaf people access healthcare at hospitals, de Andrade says that the research reveals that a lot of energy in the form of planning and preparation is required for Deaf people to access healthcare.
“Going to a doctor’s appointment requires a lot of energy in terms of getting somebody to go with them to serve as an interpreter or as an extra set of ears, because they may not be able to hear everything that the doctor communicates to them,” he says.
The effort and difficulty to communicate also affects the families of people with hearing loss, deafness, and hearing impairment. Family members, too, have to use a lot of their time and energy to make the lives of their loved ones less strenuous as they try to manoeuvre in an ‘able-bodied’ world.
Enabling resources exist
The good news is that the technology and research in to finding ways to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities has become more advanced, reducing the amount of energy and effort it takes to function.
Assistive devices such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, FM systems (special wireless systems that help people hear better in a noisy environment), and DM systems, which use digital signals to transmit sound from a microphone (speaker) to the receiver (individual with hearing loss), are some of the tools that can be used to improve communication and hearing for people with hearing impairment or loss.
“If somebody has had a stroke, there may be opportunities for speech-language therapy, as well as redirected communicative energy in the form of alternative and augmentative communication technology. If somebody cannot talk, there are alternative ways of communicating, but even that requires energy,” says de Andrade.
Resources at the DRU include accessible study material for students with visual and print impairment (the difficulty or inability to read printed material due to a perceptual, physical or visual disability), human support through sign language interpreting, real-time captioning for Deaf and hearing-impaired students, as well as the provision of computer centres equipped with state-of-the-art assistive technologies.
“DRU staff are specialists in their field and provide advanced technological and psychosocial support and training to students. We have pushed for the use of accessible learning environments such as ulwazi [the Wits Learning Management System] to ensure that students with various disabilities are supported, Universal Design for Learning resources for academics, ramps, handrails and tactile paving, disabled access online maps and signage, and disability-accessible parking spaces,” says Pretorius.
In addition, the Wits transport service has made available two buses that can accommodate wheelchair users. Students with disabilities are also accommodated as close as possible to where their lectures take place. Those who need extra time and other concessions are assisted with screening assessments and motivations to their faculties to grant the necessary concessions.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Killing cancer with cryoablation
- Deborah Minors
Freeze, fry, microwave, or obliterated – treating early cancer which can progress to advanced life-threatening cancer with cryoablation.
When 75-year-old Kennethy ‘Kenny’ Siphayi went for a check-up after surgery to treat an enlarged prostate, he didn’t expect to have a renal cell carcinoma uncovered in his left kidney. Carcinoma is a cancer arising in the tissue of the skin or any of the internal organs.
Kenny’s urologist referred him to Dr Charles Sanyika, Head of Interventional Radiology at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC). Interventional radiologists diagnose and treat a range of conditions by inserting instruments – catheters, wires, needles, probes – from outside the body using imaging technology such as X-rays, CT scans and ultrasounds.
Sanyika was preparing to pilot a pioneering technology called cryoablation – a first in southern Africa for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma.
“Cryoablation is a treatment that had not been available in the country previously for patients with early renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer,” explains Sanyika. “It’s a minimally invasive intervention where we insert a needle [probe] into the cancer mass and create very low temperatures, between minus 20 and minus 40 degrees Celsius, which result in cell death.”
Cold-shouldering cancer
Ablation is the removal or destruction of a body part or tissue by freezing or by radiofrequency, heat, hormones, drugs, or surgery. In Kenny’s case of cryoablation – from the Greek ‘cryo’ meaning cold – extremely cold temperatures are achieved by use of flow dynamics of the argon gas (a non-corrosive gas) to freeze and kill malignant cells in his kidney.
Kenny recalls his urologist’s explanation of the procedure, about which Kenny was understandably originally quite anxious: “I must be honest with you, I was very, very worried, because from the experience of the first operation [prostrate] … they put in a needle…it was a little bit sore, so when he told me of this kidney operation, I was a little bit worried,” said the Soweto resident and father of four.
Despite Kenny’s initial reservations, it transpired that he was an ideal candidate. “Tumour ablation, more specifically percutaneous cryoablation, has emerged as an alternative to surgery in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and particularly for early-stage renal cell cancer tumours, that is, localised and smaller than 4cm,” says Eleanor Joubert, a Senior Field Clinical Specialist at Boston Scientific, a biotech firm that manufactures medical devices used in interventional medical specialties, including in Kenny’s procedure.
Sanyika elaborates: “Cryoablation enables treating early kidney cancer without the patient going under the knife. We used the ICEfx Cryoablation System, a gas cylinder, and a needle – this does the freezing. With surgery, there is removal of part of or the whole kidney, but cryoablation is minimally invasive and zaps just the tumour and a bit of the kidney around it.”
Freeze, fry, microwave
Although Kenny’s was among the first cases of cryoablation locally to treat renal cell carcinoma, the procedure is being used internationally to successfully treat several benign or malignant tumours in the lung, prostate, breast, and the musculoskeletal system, as well as in the management of pain. The safety, efficacy and the ability to visualise the ice formation on radiographic imaging enables the use of cryoablation in many different treatment sites within the body.
Dr John Cantrell, an interventional radiologist at the WDGMC who participated in Kenny’s procedure, explains that cryoablation is just one way to eliminate a tumour.
“There are various ways to kill the tumour without cutting it out – you can inject chemotherapy into it, you can inject alcohol into it, you can inject radioactive beads into it.”
The nature of the tumour dictates how oncologists will attack it and radiation oncologists can shape the radiation field to correspond to the shape of the tumour. Cantrell says that to freeze or heat a tumour, doctors need some overlap between the edge of the tumour and the healthy tissue surrounding it.
“The advantage of cryoablation is that it preserves the collagen architecture of the adjacent organs, so you can still get your margin and kill the tumour cells, but you’re not going to make a big hole in the chest wall, for example, as you would for the heating.”
Today Kenny is alive and thriving. He reports that, aside from a bit of post-operative blood where the probes were inserted, his recovery had been comfortable, the procedure mostly painless, and he was discharged the same day.
“In the past, when you have cancer, it was one way: You would think that no, I’m going to die. But today it’s different. The country has improved a lot, doctors have improved a lot – that [they] can kill that tumour that’s now cancerous in your body and you still manage to live! I’d advise whoever has a problem of this kind should not be unhappy. They mustn’t worry that much because there’s a solution for it.”
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Energy in the body
- Delia du Toit
How does the body convert food to fuel? How much do we need? And will running really help with weight loss?
You have more of it on Saturdays than on Mondays, it seems to evaporate just before any planned gym session, and kids on aeroplanes have a seemingly endless supply of it. Energy sustains life and, despite what you may think when you’re drained at the end of a workday, our bodies are remarkable engines that continually produce, use, and manage this resource.
But the body is a complicated machine and it’s not quite as straightforward as ‘food in, energy out’. Although it can extract and use glucose from all macronutrients, the body prefers to use carbohydrates for energy, says Dr Thanujj Kisten, Lecturer in nutrition, exercise and energetics in the School of Physiology.
“All the macronutrients can be a source of energy, and fat actually contains the most energy. But fats and proteins take much longer to break down, so the body prefers carbohydrates. The brain cannot directly use fat as an energy source, and protein is used as a last resort because it has more important jobs as a catalyst for chemical reactions. Unfortunately, the diet industry has created this misconception that all carbohydrates are bad. Simple carbs such as refined sugar are indeed processed very quickly, leading to a large spike in energy and then a crash. But complex carbs such as brown rice are broken down more slowly, resulting in a gradual and sustained release of energy.”
But even when carbs aren’t available, the body will continue to function by converting fat and protein to use as energy. “This process takes longer, which is why people on keto diets [a popular low carb/high fat weight loss diet] will often feel lethargic,” says Kisten.
When you eat also plays a role in energy levels throughout the day, he adds. “Not eating breakfast, for example, could cause lethargy [fatigue] as your body has no immediately available fuel. Research shows that having five smaller meals per day, instead of three big meals, provides more sustained energy throughout the day.”
Energy expenditure
Even when you spend the entire day watching television from your couch, your body uses around 8 700 kilojoules per day to keep you alive. The brain uses the biggest chunk of this number compared to any other organ, says Norris. “Then, functional systems such as the cardiovascular and digestive systems take their cut, maintenance systems that repair or create cells further reduce available energy, and the immune system uses some energy to prevent disease – and much more when fighting an infection.
Any unused energy is then stored as body fat to be used when extra fuel is needed.”
Activity, of course, alters energy expenditure. A five-kilometre run, for example, burns between 1 300 to 1 500 kilojoules in a person of average height and weight. So, if physical activity burns energy, why do experts recommend exercise to increase energy levels?
“In the short term, exercise uses energy, and you may feel fatigued afterwards,” says Kisten. “But in the long term, exercise teaches the body to use energy more efficiently. Over time, it starts using less energy to conduct normal daily activities, leaving you feeling more energetic. This effect can take anywhere from two weeks to two months to occur, depending on the type of exercise and the frequency.”
Finding balance
There is no one-size-fits-all energy template, says Kisten. “A professional athlete will have much higher energy needs than someone who works a desk job. The heavier you are, the more energy your body requires to move. This is one of the reasons why an obese person might fatigue faster than someone of a healthy weight. Conversely, someone who is underweight will not have enough fuel and will also suffer from fatigue.”
Your energy needs will depend on your health and wellness goal, and there are many nuances and considerations. According to a Wits Sport and Health (WiSH) webinar, energy availability in athletes can be affected by a number of health factors – some normal, such as female hormones regulating the menstrual cycle, others problematic, such as iron deficiency or psychological challenges. “And newer research shows that even weight loss is not as straightforward as once believed”, says Norris.
“Any diet that creates a kilojoule deficit will eventually result in weight loss, though some are healthier than others in the long term. But we are now realising that a kilojoule deficit creates a biological stress response. The body recognises something is not right when weight loss occurs, and it activates stress hormones to slow metabolism, while brain centres associated with addiction fire up to increase appetite. Eventually, you will lose weight, but your body tries to fight you along the way.”
“On a global scale, obesity is now a bigger problem than hunger – and it will be for a long time,” says Norris. In one cohort study of three generations, the increased risk of cardiovascular disease persisted in the grandchildren of obese individuals.
“Whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, a meat-eater or live off simple carbs, supply is no longer the world’s biggest problem. Now, it’s about socioeconomics: Can you afford healthy food and are you getting the nutrients you need? Our work in Soweto shows that around 20 to 36% of adults are anaemic, meaning they don’t have enough iron to produce blood cells. Today, the challenge is not having more, but finding balance.”
How accurate is the paleo diet?
The premise of one of today’s most popular diets, the paleo diet, is that modern eating habits are so far removed from those of our ancestors that our bodies couldn’t keep up, resulting in health ailments and weight problems. It cuts out anything ‘processed’ – even some crops produced by modern agriculture such as cereal grains and legumes.
How accurate is this? In a nutshell, it’s not, says Dr Christine Steininger, Project Director of Genus: DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences. “Even our ancestors ate processed food. Later, Homo sapiens used fire, a processing method, to make food more palatable and to kill microbes. And as our diets evolved, our gut evolved.
Our ancestors in South Africa, the most common of which was Australopithecus africanus, between 4-1.9 million years ago, ate more like chimps, she says. “They ate what was in their immediate environment, such as fruits, nuts, and insects. Early Homo habilis, between 2.4-1.6 million years ago, started using tools to eat mammal remains such as bone marrow, likely scavenging it, and the extra protein increased their brain size. Then Homo erectus, our earliest known upright ancestors, were possibly migrating hunters and the additional protein made them taller and stronger. Diet played an important role in evolution.”
Journey of sugar through the body
Whether fat, protein, or carbohydrate, the body breaks food down to the same energy component: glucose – the main sugar found in the blood. But glucose is actually quite toxic, says Norris, so the body must constantly balance glucose demands, use, and excess. To do this, the pancreas adjusts levels of the hormone insulin, which ‘pushes’ glucose out of circulation and into muscles and fat cells.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Woodlands and forests con-tree-versial
- Deryn Graham
A tree is not just a tree. It is also fuel, paper, furniture, livelihood, and industry.
It is a living organism rooted in an ecosystem of fauna, flora, environment, climate, and humanity.Deryn Graham asked an environmental ecologist, an environmental lawyer, a social ecologist, and an accountant what happens when conflicting priorities collide and potentially compromise trees, woodland, and forests.
Fuelwood subsidises Eskom
“The use of fuelwood as a main source of energy in rural communities is relieving Eskom of an enormous additional amount of pressure on the national grid.”
Fuelwood is wood that is harvested from forestlands and combusted directly for useable heat.
Even as the country endures the single longest period of consecutive days of loadshedding, and as people look for alternative power sources for their homes, many would consider the use of fuelwood as a highly undesirable practice. This is based on concerns around environmental sustainability and human health, especially that of women who bear the brunt of the cooking responsibilities.
However, using a very conservative estimate based on the use of fuelwood for the cooking of only one meal per day, and excluding boiling water, for example, for bathing, Twine contests that the use of fuelwood is sparing the national grid approximately 543 MW at peak use and 210 GWh per year. This equates to a saving of approximately R200 million per year in energy generating costs for Eskom.
Despite the successful roll out of electrification in many rural communities across the country, the cost for indigent households of switching on appliances, especially energy-intensive stoves, is prohibitive, and so the use of fuelwood persists.
At best, the harvesting of wood from communal land is managed by local chiefs, and is restricted to dead wood [dry, brittle, dead tree branches] only, but in many areas, the deadwood is depleted, and people resort to foraging from live wood sources.
“If the alternative is drawing more energy from Eskom’s coal powered units, we are in any case using up valuable natural resources. Damned if we use fuelwood and damned if we revert to mains electricity, which similarly depends on the burning of fossil fuels,” says Twine.
While burning fuelwood is not desirable, Twine believes that it will remain an important part of the energy mix in South Africa for probably the next 20 years.
“The challenges and solutions are complex,” he says. “In acknowledging the reality of the costs and availability of electricity for poor rural communities, we must work towards ensuring that programmes aimed at empowering communities to use the resources which natural ecosystems provide to these households more sustainably, are supported and expanded.”
Not seeing the wood(land) for the trees
In 2019, a German/Dutch-funded study led by Jean-Francois Bastin and Thomas Crowther of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, claimed that there were huge benefits in tree planting projects across the globe, including on large tracts of land in Africa.
However, many large tracts of land in Africa are not historically woodland in the first place. A woodland is an area covered in trees. Woodland is distinct from a forest, which has a largely closed canopy forged from the branches and foliage of trees interlocking overhead.
Tree planting programmes were recommended following the Bastin/Crowther study and several African countries, desperate for funding, listened – even going as far as to introduce alien species. For example, in Madagascar, restoration often involves planting eucalyptus trees, which are non-indigenous. In 2019, Ethiopia embarked on a project to plant 20 billion trees by the end of 2022, with potentially disastrous effects on water supplies and land availability for agriculture.
While erroneous on many levels, this study at least served to mobilise African scientists into very vocal opposition, and to work together to formulate a regional plan for Africa’s own response to climate change. This response included a Wits University-led Future Ecosystems for Africa study, launched in 2022. Funded by the Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation, the study seeks regional solutions for regional challenges.
“The methods and results of the [Bastin/Crowther] study were both incorrect and misleading and therefore potentially dangerous for the continent. Africa has many different ecosystems and to suggest that tree planting is the panacea for global warming is irresponsible. The science is wrong and even if we covered the entire continent in trees, the amount of carbon cited in the Bastin study will never be captured,” says Professor Sally Archibald, an ecologist in the Wits School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES). “As African scientists, we must mobilise to make our voices heard in situations where global policies/science undermine what our own research is showing us.”
Such mobilisation and rebutting scientific inaccuracy is already evident from Nicola Stevens, a Wits alumna and affiliate based at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, who is part of a team working on novel, constructive ideas to manage African ecosystems, in particular the African savanna. Together with Ghanaian Mohammed Armani, Stevens mobilised a community of African ecologists to provide an evidence base for identifying climate mitigation actions that are appropriate for African ecosystems.
This is the first time that such an evidence base has been produced, and it has already provided inputs to the African Group of Negotiators at the climate COP27 meeting held in November 2022. Suggestions include recognising that not disturbing Africa’s carbon rich soil is an imperative.
“It is important to plough and cultivate in areas that can support agricultural activity and to preserve grasslands whose soil carbon has a vital role to play in the fight against global warming,” says Archibald.
The need to manage grazing systems and balance stock levels as part of soil management measures was part of the findings. Included in the recommendations were ensuring that mangroves and tropical forests – which capture significant levels of carbon – are not destroyed, as well as ensuring proper fire management programmes in forested areas.
The REDD+ Programme benefits landowners in Africa when they do not cut down trees. REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, while the plus signifies the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
However, there is no REDD+ programme equivalent to compensate for preserving grassland, which traps carbon in its soil. Biodiversity offset legislation needs to be drafted to protect all our important ecosystems.
Properly managed, our African forests, savanna and other environments can greatly assist in mitigating the problem of carbon emissions – to which Africa, as a continent, has contributed the least. Most importantly, this can be achieved without disrupting the natural balance of our rich biodiversity systems.
Save the trees, harness hydro, and feed the nation
In 2010, the World Economic Forum defined energy poverty as the lack of access to sustainable modern energy services and products. Energy poverty results from a lack of adequate, affordable, reliable, quality, safe and environmentally sound energy services to support development. There are various solutions aimed at addressing energy poverty in Africa, but not all solutions are sustainable for individual countries, the continent, or the planet.
Tracy-Lynn Field, Professor of Law at Wits, holds the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship. She says, “Solving the energy needs of a country and ensuring environmental protection should not be a mutually exclusive exercise. It requires critical thinking to find answers to both issues.” Clearly, it’s a delicate calibration to combat energy poverty whilst preserving natural resources.
Field, whose research areas include environmental law, human rights, mining law, climate change law and water law, recently collaborated with Dr Jonathan Muledi, Associate Professor at the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to study public and private liability for deforestation, forest degradation, and biodiversity loss in the DRC.
The DRC hosts Africa’s largest expanse of tropical rainforest (and the world’s second largest after Brazil), making it a critical part of the climate change equation. Although the rate of deforestation in the DRC has not been as rapid as in Brazil, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported that the pace of deforestation has increased significantly, largely due to extensive land clearance for agricultural development to meet the food demands of an ever-growing population.
Understanding the economic value of the forest resource and its ecosystem and the amount of carbon storage it represents, as well as the drivers of deforestation, are important considerations in a liability discussion. Direct drivers include unregulated artisanal logging for wood fuel, charcoal production, building and construction; forest clearing for subsistence and commercial agriculture; commercial logging for export; and artisanal and commercial mining.
The DRC has also recently opened bids for oil and gas concessions in forested areas. Indirectly, poor governance and corruption also play a significant role in abetting the unsustainable use of the DRC’s forest resources.
“There are a number of international and national laws that could be used to protect the forests of the DRC in a manner that allows for the DRC populace and future generations to continue to benefit from the country’s forest resources. But these laws are likely to have little effect unless the elephant in the room – the DRC’s low rate of access to modern energy services – is addressed,” says Field.
The most obvious alternatives to wood fuel and charcoal production would be to harness the DRC’s massive hydropower potential, which would allow the country to meet domestic energy demand and have additional capacity to export to other African countries, including South Africa. But the Grand Inga scheme, which would potentially see the generation of 40 000 megawatts of power, has been beset by funding and contractual issues for many years.
“Wood fuel from the DRC’s primary forests is not a renewable resource. Water is. Addressing energy poverty in the DRC by developing sustainable hydropower and non-hydropower renewable energy is imperative if the global community is serious about protecting the forests of the DRC,” says Field.
Fifty years ago, as a 22-year-old, Professor Kurt Sartorius undertook the same trip to Brazil, which left him almost broken. So why again now, and why did Professor Wayne Van Zijl think it might be a good idea to join Sartorius and his son, Benn?
“We wanted to raise awareness of the impact on climate change of the extensive deforestation of the Amazon rainforest,” says Sartorius. “But our objective was a little more focused than simply the message around the damage that is being done by both commercial enterprises and local subsistence farmers. Most of us with any level of awareness already know what is happening to vast tracts of immensely ecologically sensitive areas of our planet.”
The destruction of the Brazilian rainforest is two-fold: Firstly, from commercial enterprises, and secondly from the slash-and-burn land clearance by locals to make room for subsistence cultivation. As the large multinationals clear more and more land, so the subsistence activities move further inland and the two leapfrog each other, encroaching ever further into the deep forest. The Amazon rainforest ecosystem is critical for the entire planet’s weather patterns and so its preservation and better management is vital.
In the context of their work as accountants, Sartorius and Van Zijl are trying to bring about change in the business and investment world, by introducing reporting protocols and standards that take into consideration climate change mitigation and off-set measures that large corporations are beginning to integrate into their business practices. Are extractors of Brazilian wood and minerals re-investing in community development? Are they assisting with the transition to smarter farming methods and education that improves local knowledge and farming practices?
The bottom line is that for Sartorius and Van Zijl, the corporate reports of companies cannot be about the financial bottom line only and must take into consideration companies’ social and environmental assets, liabilities, generation, and consumption. Companies that are looking at more environmentally friendly ways of mining, and which are spending money on remediating and repairing damage caused by their extraction methods, will show less profit, but ultimately should be more attractive to investors.
“We cannot reward companies based solely on enormous profits.” says Van Zijl. “Sustainability reporting must be accelerated, and this is what we were trying to bring to the sector’s attention. As accountants, we also have a role to play in mitigating the impact of climate change by providing environmental information for investors and society to hold companies accountable for their commercial activities”.
Responsible investing requires setting reporting standards that can be used to assess the overall ‘value’ of a company, not just value to its shareholders, but its value to society and to the planet.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Building sustainable cities
- Buhle Zuma
Long-term economic and social side-effects need to be considered when thinking about our cities’ energy solutions.
It is estimated that 55% of the world’s population resides in cities and that cities are directly responsible for around two-thirds of global energy consumption.
The influx of people to cities has increased since industrialisation as people seek better economic opportunities and a better quality of life.
Economic heart of darkness
Johannesburg, the economic heart of South Africa, has a population of approximately five million people and the number of residents increases by around five people every day, according to the City’s Integrated Development Plan Review (2018/2019).
As the main contributor to the country’s GDP and a lever of socioeconomic development, energy security is critical for this economic hub. However, the ongoing and escalating electricity cuts have proved disruptive to productivity, and there have been heightened demands for the City to provide solutions to the energy crisis.
At a city level, there seems to be a vacuum in providing leadership or driving access and supply to alternative energy that could relieve Johannesburg of its dependence on the failing national power supplier.
To ensure operational stability, Big Business has responded by either installing diesel powered generators or harnessing solar energy for a continued supply of electricity during power cuts. Data released by the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO) at Wits University also show an upward trend in households using alternative sources of energy.
“The more affluent sectors of society are able to protect themselves against water and electricity interruptions,” says Christina Culwick Fatti, Senior Researcher at the GCRO and a PhD candidate.
However, this development does not bode well for low-income households, as every cent of reduced revenue deprives the municipality of money to provide services.
According to Culwick Fatti, the existing financial model for municipalities is set up so that high-end users who pay on time regularly cross-subsidise the poor.
“If the higher [income] users are generating their own electricity, then money is not going back to the municipality,” she says.
Off-grid cities
The social and climate change implications of the rich seceding from state-provided infrastructure networks is the focus of a research project called Off-Grid Cities, co-funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the GCRO.
The core objective of the project is to explore how elite infrastructure transitions need to be integrated into debates and practices towards producing environmentally sustainable and socially just cities.
For Culwick Fatti, the grid is a useful way to manage the distribution of electricity. Furthermore, the City and municipalities should play a leading role in managing the energy crisis to avoid a fragmented society – those accessing the national grid, and those seeking to reduce their reliance on it – especially considering the role of cities in driving economic development.
While households are slowly driving the uptake of alternative systems, the mass movement to sustainable and environmentally friendly energy hinges on government creating an enabling environment.
“We need to re-imagine what Johannesburg, or any other city in South Africa, should look like in 10, 20 or 30 years to 2050,” he says.
This includes a blend of transport modes powered by biofuels, green hydrogen, and electric vehicles to add to existing interventions such as the Gautrain and the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system, which aim to ease commuter congestion in the City.
Transport accounts for significant levels of direct energy consumption in the City. The process of producing fuel and operating vehicles results in carbon emissions, so energy efficient cities need to place this at the centre of discussions on the just energy transition.
“Green buildings that require less heating in winter and less cooling in summer will need to be common practice rather than a ‘nice to have’, as per prevailing practice,” says Irurah.
The added spin-off will be reduced noise and air pollution resulting in improved public health.
Irurah says cities need to push the debate from mitigation to climate change adaptation and think about how to cope with climate change threats such as water scarcity, heat waves, and food supply disruptions which will severely impair infrastructure performance and human productivity.
The long-term transition to climate-resilient and lower-carbon economy cities and societies is already underway and the core issue we must address is whether the transition will be inclusive or exclusionary. Inclusionary transitioning means long term sustainability while the exclusionary trend that we’re currently on does not.
Electrical energy for cleaner cities
Wits University is inextricably bound to the City of Johannesburg in which it was established a century ago. As a key stakeholder in the City, the University has a responsibility to contribute positively to the City-Region in which it operates. Wits researchers are exploring how buses – a key transport mode for thousands of Johannesburg commuters – can be made more efficient and less pollutant.
While loadshedding is wreaking havoc, it’s not the only energy-related crisis at play. Scenes of broken-down buses on the side of the road, notably at peak hours, frequently play out in parts of South Africa. Breakdowns, due to problems with internal combustion engines, render transport services unreliable. From an economic perspective, such delays can drive productivity lower and add to input costs.
“The key factor is that the engine has too many parts and several things can go wrong. The fewer the components, the better, and the electric bus has a lot fewer of them,” explains Dr Lesedi Masisi, Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, whose research interests include electrical energy conversion, renewable energy, and the electrification of transportation.
In 2019, Lesedi began researching how to electrify the University’s diesel buses. “The three factors motivating our research are reliability, scale – as buses are bulk transport – and, thirdly, pollution. Combustion engines release significant amounts of greenhouse gases, whereas electrified buses are a step in the right direction towards cleaner cities,” he says.
However, there remains much to be done before Wits moves to entirely electric buses. “Our study has identified ‘range anxiety’, in other words, how far can the bus drive before requiring a recharge?” Masisi says, noting that the engine of diesel buses at best only makes use of 25 to 27% of the energy towards the wheels, with the rest guzzled by the heat under the process of conversion. Conversely, emission-free electric buses use above 85% of the electrical energy from the battery.
For a complete picture though, one must compare the well-to-wheel efficiency analysis of both the traditional bus and the electric bus. “Even if you have found solutions to other problems – from range anxiety to skills set shortage – electricity supply reliability is still a big concern in the country,” says Masisi.
Buhle Zuma is Senior Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Bridging the energy gap with AI
- Shaun Smillie
Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) can help catapult South Africa’s energy distribution into the future.
Across the globe a new generation of energy production plants is coming online that is smarter and more efficient, thanks to Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technology.
With smart devices, sensors, and 4IR tech, these new power utilities are enabling consumers and producers to interact in real time resulting in better resource management.
Bundled in this technology is AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), real time big data, robotics and machine learning, which enable the energy sector to do stuff it was unable to do just a few short years ago.
Robots, microchips, predictions
In China, robots now monitor coal power stations, going into places considered too dangerous for humans. 4IR technology has enabled countries like Germany, China, Australia, the Netherlands, and Japan to introduce systems that allow computer chips installed in households to control their energy grids and distribution via the internet. This tech is also helping humans peer into the future and make better decisions.
“Certain types of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can be used to predict the usage and generation of power. You can predict what is going to happen in one, two or three-hours’ time,” says Professor Bruce Mellado, a physicist in the Wits School of Physics and iThemba LABS. “The use of AI could even help in optimising the efficiency of loadshedding.”
Machine learning is being used to better forecast solar radiation and allow solar plants to optimise productivity. While this new technology is available, its use and promotion are not uniform across the world. This was shown in a recent study by Wits PhD candidate, Nadya Bhagwan, and Dr Mary Evans, both from the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at Wits.
4IR tech application in South Africa, Germany, China
The two researchers assessed the use of 4IR technology amongst 26 energy companies in South Africa, Germany, and China. Nine of these companies were Chinese, with five based in South Africa and four in China. Eight of the other firms were German and nine South African.
The study, published in the May 2022 issue of the Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, investigated what renewable energy companies understood by 4IR and their use of these technologies.
All the companies told the researchers that 4IR was important and they ranked real time big data as the most important to the global energy grid. Most of the companies were using 4IR technologies to collect and access plant data remotely using drones or the IoT. This was then analysed using various data management systems.
This fed into the development of drones, fast and more reliable mobile networks, and the creation of huge data storage facilities in the cloud.
The 4IR technologies recognised by South African firms all related to the collection, access, and analysis of real time big data. The least important 4IR technologies, according to the companies surveyed, were robotics and machine-human integration.
Most of the technologies used originated from the US, Europe and China, and the research also showed that South Africa was lagging in the use and adoption of these new technologies, just as China surges ahead.
“So, what emerged – and I found this not only through the survey but in subsequent interviews with companies in China, Germany, and South Africa – is that there is a push and strategic thrust in China to promote the use of 4IR technology and to develop these technologies themselves within a time frame,” explains Bhagwan, lead author of the research paper.
SA insights from 4IR in China
Bhagwan believes that if South Africa looked at how China was using 4IR, it would provide a smarter electrical grid that was more efficient.
She added that in the next five to 10 years, China will be way ahead of other countries, while South Africa has been pulled back by political uncertainty arising from the stranglehold of the state-controlled energy sector.
“This technology is not cheap, and it is not easily accessible and if you are going to take the risk, there must be some guaranteed benefit for you and your company for that investment,” says Evans.
With South Africa’s energy crisis, independent power producers believe that there is no political will to support them.
“Energy companies are saying, ‘we can do it – assist us by providing us with incentives and we can produce this energy, and we can invest in these technologies’. But there’s no way they’re going to do that without better, clearer direction in terms of how we are going to benefit and what the role of the state will be,” adds Bhagwan.
Most of these local independent energy producers are providing electricity to smaller communities and not into the grid. With some investment, and the use of 4IR technology, Evans believes that South Africa could follow the path led by Germany and China and see positive changes to South Africa’s energy sector.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Your 8 quirky energy questions answered
- Curiosity
From Star Wars to hot curry to Einstein – we’ve got you covered.
1. Can Star Wars’ lightsaber actually work?
Sorry to burst your sci-fi monster-slaying fantasy bubble, but the science doesn’t add up. There are two fundamental issues with the fictional energy sword used in Star Wars:
The first is that light never stops; it’s always moving at the speed of light. A lightsaber suggests that the light leaves the source and then abruptly comes to a stop at the end of the lightsaber.
The second issue is that science-fiction imagines that the laser light is very powerful. In fact, lasers are highly inefficient, maybe converting 10% of electrical power into light. So, for a high-power laser, you need even more power at the source – a small power station, in fact (and we know we can’t rely on Eskom). Now imagine the lightsaber in your hand, but with a cable connecting it to a very big power supply – not terribly awe-inspiring.
There are some tricks to try and get around these issues, such as using more efficient sources of laser light and using interference to make the light seem to disappear at the desired end of the lightsaber, but, so far, no one has made a working lightsaber. – Distinguished Professor Andrew Forbes, Structured Light Lab, answers questions 1 and 2.
2. Is levitation possible?
We can’t promise that you’ll rise and float in the air from your own sheer will without physical support, but levitation is possible using very mature technology. You need a force pushing upwards to balance gravity pulling downwards. In fun arcades this is done by strong fans pushing air upwards. Another way to do this is with magnetism, and in fact you can buy toys that levitate magnets over magnets. On an industrial scale, the Japanese were the first to levitate trains – this removes friction so that the trains can go faster. Sir Michael Berry won an Ig Nobel prize for levitating a frog, and famously concluded his fun paper by promising one day to levitate himself!
3. Why do you get hot if your body temperature is 36°C but the air temperature is 30°C?
The normal core body temperature range can vary between individuals and can also be influenced by age, activity, and time of day. It generally ranges from 36.1°C to 37.2 °C.
Your skin is much cooler than your core body temperature because your skin is continually exchanging heat with your surroundings. We are continuously generating metabolic heat and we need to dissipate that heat to ensure that our core body temperature does not increase above 37°C.
When the air temperature is 30°C, the temperature gradient between your core and your skin is smaller, so convection and radiation aren’t enough to dissipate heat as fast as it is generated. Your skin has specialised receptors which can detect changes in skin temperature.
When the air temperature reaches 30°C these thermoreceptors in the skin send signals to the brain and give you a feeling of being hot. To compensate, you need to sweat (which removes heat through evaporation), fan yourself (forced convection), or have a cold drink. ‘Feeling hot’ is your body’s warning signal to tell you to do one of these things. This warning system is controlled by the hypothalamus in the brain, which measures the temperature of the blood in your core. If you are outdoors, then the air temperature is not the major factor influencing your heat gain – it is solar radiation. – Associate Professor Lois Harden, School of Physiology, answers questions 3 to 6.
4. Where does the heat in hot drinks go?
The heat from a hot drink will go directly to your core, the central part of your body.
5. Why does drinking hot drinks cool you down?
We all know someone who swears by drinking a hot beverage on a hot day, claiming it will cool them down – and the science agrees. Drinking a hot drink when it’s warm outside can cool you down, as long as you are not already sweating. That's because drinking hot beverages triggers your body's sweat response, without raising your core temperature too much. The sweat then cools on the surface of your skin which in turn reduces the feeling that you're too warm.
If you drink a hot drink, it does result in a lower amount of heat stored inside your body, provided that the additional sweat that’s produced when you drink the hot drink can evaporate. However, on a very hot and humid day, if you’re wearing a lot of clothing, or if you’re perspiring so much that it starts to drip on the ground and doesn’t evaporate from the skin’s surface, then drinking a hot drink is not helpful. Drinking a hot drink also causes peripheral vasodilation (widening of the blood vessels), which leads to an increase in blood flow to the skin. So as long as you are in a cool environment, you will increase dry heat loss too, but only for a short time.
6. What causes our physical responses to eating hot curry?
Most of us know the excruciating pain and bodily reaction to eating a super-hot curry – the runny nose, fiery tongue, and tears down your cheeks. That is your body reacting to capsaicin, the active ingredient in chilli peppers, that triggers receptors in the epidermal tissue that normally respond to heat, tricking the nervous system into thinking you're overheating. In response you will experience both the sensations and the physical reactions of heat, including vasodilation, sweating, and reddening or flushing of the face or neck.
7. Is teleportation possible?
Keen to skip Joburg road-rage and traffic congestion and simply teleport to your next destination? Teleportation is possible! In fact, it’s already being done! But there are some nuances …
Teleportation makes use of a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, where you have a pair of particles – photons, electrons, or atoms – that are sitting at the two separate ends of your teleportation ‘journey’. Let’s say one is in Pretoria and the other is in Johannesburg. The particles are always interconnected in some sense, much like a pair of coins that land on the same side whenever they are flipped and observed. Einstein called this ‘spooky action at a distance’.
Surprisingly, if we mix one of the entangled particles, say the one in Pretoria, with another that is imprinted with a message (auxiliary particle), we can transfer the information to the other entangled twin, located in Johannesburg. But the restriction is that the particle that had the original message (auxiliary particle) must be destroyed in the process such as to violate the no-cloning theorem in quantum mechanics.
Put simply, information is transferred between two locations by destroying the original messaging while it reappears (transferred in a quantum way) elsewhere. And this is driven by spooky action at a distance (entanglement). So, to teleport, you must do so within the rules of quantum mechanics, otherwise it doesn’t work! – Dr Isaac Nape, School of Physics.
‘Beam me up, Scotty’?
It was Star Trek that let us imagine that we could simply step into a machine, say “Beam me up, Scotty!” and we’d instantaneously be in another location. However, teleporting is exchanging information between different media. So, is it possible? Realistically, we would have to ‘interact’ you with a superposition of ‘building blocks’ entangled over a distance. Provided nothing disturbed any of these fragile channels, you would be ‘re-assembled’ from new building blocks. If anything disturbed any entanglement, some of you simply wouldn’t make it through and, thanks to the no-cloning rule, the ‘you’ that was there before would be a jumbled-up mess, so you couldn’t go back. On the up-side, if it was successful, there would be no moral quandary. – Dr Bereneice Sephton, Wits Structured Light Lab.
8. What is E=mc2 and what does it mean?
E=mc2 is the mathematical equation that describes Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity. It is probably one of the most famous equations in the world. However, while most people know the equation itself, very few people actually know what it means. In the equation, “E” stands for energy, “m” stands for mass and “c” stands for the speed of light. So, the equation reads that energy is equal to mass times the square of the speed of light. In simple terms the equation means that energy can be transformed into mass and mass can be transformed into energy. This means that even the tiniest objects hold a massive amount of energy. For instance, if you can turn the mass of all the atoms in a paperclip into pure energy, that paperclip would yield 18 kilotons of TNT – about the same amount of energy in the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in WW11 – Professor Bruce Mellado, School of Physics.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
The red flags in green hydrogen
- Ufrieda Ho
Scientists can do better to take industry and government-driven hype out of green hydrogen so that its actual potential can be realised.
Green hydrogen’s outsized promise to meet the world’s decarbonisation agenda, while being a reliable fuel that keeps Big Industry’s growth targets on track, is dazzling. But experts caution that the dazzle is distraction and questions need to be asked about how much of green hydrogen’s promise is oversell, and how much is actual potential.
Hydrogen is a gas that has no colour, odour, or taste. It is a very simple element because its atom has only one proton in its nucleus. Green hydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity.
A gap for green
South Africa, like many other countries, has joined the green hydrogen rush, pinning hopes on this being a so-called “big frontier”, as President Cyril Ramaphosa called it, for a just energy transition. Ramaphosa said at that Green Hydrogen Summit in November 2022 that green hydrogen has “huge growth and investment potential as demand for green hydrogen products around the world increases.”
For green hydrogen to deliver on its promise means it must significantly help meet the world’s recognised target to reduce carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, and to be at net zero by 2050. This is what scientists say is needed if the planet is to have a chance to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
To date, the route to curbing carbon emissions has centred on renewable energies such as solar and wind. But key challenges persist around scale, intermittent supply, and long-term energy storage. These shortcomings have opened a gap for green hydrogen.
A dirty rainbow
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, with green hydrogen promising to be clean burning, more efficiently stored, and transportable. Add to this a mighty push from oil and gas monopolies (which still control all grades of hydrogen production) and green hydrogen has been elevated to a star role to stave off the climate catastrophe. But there are catches.
Hydrogen production is only considered “green” when it is produced through water electrolysis from electricity that’s fuelled from renewable sources – such as wind and solar. Hydrogen production follows a rainbow of grades with green hydrogen at one end, and grey and black hydrogen, which is produced from burning fossil fuels, at the other “dirty” end. This means that green hydrogen production is contingent on a solid renewable energy framework that has surplus supply.
Dr Bruce Young is a Senior Lecturer in the African Energy Leadership Centre at Wits Business School and has worked in the petro-chemical business for decades. Young says that green hydrogen has been too hastily cast as the “saviour to our energy woes – a Swiss army knife of energy transition, which can be used for so many things”. He is doubtful that the green hydrogen hype matches its touted potential for all these applications. There are often better alternatives for many of these applications, particularly the direct use of renewable electricity.
Volume leaks, storage limitations
Green hydrogen’s limitations, Young outlines, are that the current production volume is “very small”, with most hydrogen produced being of the carbon-intensive grey and black hydrogen variety.
Green hydrogen also needs conversion to higher energy density products, such as ammonia, so it can be stored and transported over long distances, and to be cost effective – Young says that mega green hydrogen production plants have capital costs in the billions of dollars, and protracted timeframes over decades.
In addition, there is hydrogen leakage to contend with. Hydrogen, being the smallest molecule, is prone to leakage and in the atmosphere, it acts as an indirect greenhouse gas, adding to global warming.
“Green hydrogen technology has no meaningful installed capacity and will take decades to scale up, to refine, and to make it efficient at a multi-gigawatt scale. Currently, the first gigawatt scale pioneering project planned in Saudi Arabia will begin production only in 2026 and it will inevitably have its own start-up issues, as is inherent in pioneering plants.”
Burial and blue hydrogen
Young says that the oil industry is proposing the use of blue hydrogen as an interim measure. This involves burying the carbon dioxide produced by grey hydrogen production underground, using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
“Bold forecasts have been made about CCS technology in the past, which have not materialised, and it is costly with only a small number of projects in operation worldwide,” says Young.
More pertinent, Young says the renewed attention on green hydrogen should raise questions of who stands to gain from a green hydrogen boom, taking into consideration the consequences of clouded decision-making and poor investment choices for energy transition plans – South Africa’s included.
“The oil and gas industry has a strong vested interest in promoting green hydrogen to try and ensure their survival. Using hydrogen as a fuel fits with the oil companies’ current business model – they control the fuel production, supply and the wholesale and retail distribution of hydrogen fuel,” Young says.
Commodifying energy
The benefits of green hydrogen, in real terms, come down to appropriate applications. It’s a good choice for nitrogenous fertiliser production, hydrogenation and desulphurisation, for example, but not for domestic heating, jet fuels, or running cars, for which better alternatives exist.
“Energy, in most of its forms, is a centrally controlled commodity produced by a handful of companies and regulated by governments for which energy access is a powerful political tool. Renewable energy disrupts that paradigm by democratising energy access, threatening major sources of revenue and political power. Major corporations and governments share an incentive to either prevent that shift or steer it in a direction that favours their vested interests. And, in the current environment of social media, the tools for influencing public opinion are more potent than ever before,” Stacey says.
Renewable energy required
In November 2022, the South African government announced a R300-billion investment pipeline as part of the country’s Green Hydrogen National Programme. Ramaphosa said then that South Africa could produce up to 13 million tonnes of green hydrogen and derivatives by 2050 but would need 300 gigawatts of renewable energy. According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), as of 2021, renewable energy contribution to installed capacity in the country stood at 5.7 gigawatts and contributed to 6.6% of the country’s total energy mix.
Even the pioneering plant in Saudi Arabia (which bills itself as what will be the largest plant to produce green hydrogen in the world) expects at full operation to produce 600 tonnes of carbon-free hydrogen a day. In a year that would be just over 200 000 tonnes. To get to Ramaphosa’s 13 million tonnes, at its expected output rate in 2026, would take this mega plant around 60 years to achieve.
For Stacey this “overhyping and over-investment in hydrogen” also has the effect of co-opting research capacity into hydrogen and away from other renewable energy innovations, including on recycling technologies to ensure renewable energy equipment doesn’t end up in landfills at the end of its life.
Research redirection risks
“There is a risk of academia becoming an extension of government and corporate interests, rather than a balance against them. Scientists are incentivised to obtain funding and to get their work published and cited, and that means playing along rather than ringing alarm bells,” says Stacey.
The big numbers quoted need more unpacking, and it also means that South Africa’s credit from concessional loans for the just energy transition plan cannot be squandered.
“In the best-case scenario, South Africa uses the money to move more swiftly to neat, elegant solutions, like widespread rooftop solar and a good basket of energies that may be high on capital investment but are low on operating costs,” says Stacey.
In his worst-case scenario, more people remain without access to electricity in South Africa and generational debt sets in.
“It comes down to making good sensible choices where we match the supply of energy to its demand and we ensure that no one gets left behind,” Stacey says.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Clean, safe, controversial
- Beth Amato
Nuclear energy has had a bad rap, but in South Africa’s current energy conundrum, its importance in the mix is clear.
The catastrophic accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine in the mid-1980s, popularised in a recent television series, made nuclear energy a controversial subject. The magnitude of the potential destruction of nuclear energy, should human error or a reactor breakdown occur, is uncomfortable to comprehend. The images of mass evacuation, severe injuries, and lingering radioactivity are burnished in the popular imagination.
Nuclear energy is a form of energy released from interactions of neutron with fissionable heavy to produce energy with other unstable fission products in a controlled nuclear power reactor.
A major environmental concern related to fission nuclear power is the creation of radioactive wastes and its storage, which might cause health effects to exposed individuals.
Safety techniques have, however, been mostly addressed by the International Atomic Energy Agency through newer generation reactors. Reactors are the devices that control nuclear fission to release nuclear energy.
In South Africa, low-level radioactive nuclear waste is safely disposed of in a desolate area of the Northern Cape. However, in this country, public mistrust of nuclear energy ‘deals’ persists.
In bed with the reds?
Honorary Professor of International Relations, John Stremlau, is wary of the Russian influence on South Africa’s nuclear sector. “My main problem with nuclear, aside from the weapon development focus during the apartheid regime, was the constitutional challenge that Zuma’s dodgy deal with Putin (Rosatom) posed. This deal was agreed for R1 trillion without financial vetting.” Rosatom is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that specialises in nuclear energy, nuclear non-energy goods and high-tech products.
In addition, a visit from Russia’s foreign minister to South Africa, where “cooperation in nuclear energy was a prominent item on the bilateral agenda”, casts a nefarious light on nuclear energy, notes Stremlau.
Misguided politics and poor infrastructure aside, nuclear energy has been unfairly cast as the poor cousin in the energy mix family, particularly in South Africa. So says Professor Iyabo Usman who leads the Nuclear Structure Research Group (NSRG) in the School of Physics. She asserts that nuclear’s potential to help fix South Africa’s electricity crisis is significant.
“Nuclear energy generation in South Africa is through Koeberg’s two-unit reactor nuclear power plant. This supplies Eskom with about 5% of its yearly electricity generation. There is potential for so much more in South Africa and across the continent,” says Usman.
Nuclear setbacks
Koeberg is the only nuclear power station in Africa and has been in operation since 1984, with a planned operating life set at 40 years. But work to extend Koeberg’s life until around the year 2045 has stalled. The most fundamental elements – the steam generators – have not been replaced, causing significant delays.
The Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) was South African-owned technology commissioned in the early 2000s. This would have been tremendously useful in supplying electricity, but bizarrely, work on the PBMR also stalled in 2012 owing to lack of funding. “The Integrated Resource Plan explicitly states that modular reactors would add a further 2 500 megawatts to the grid. Therefore, work must start now in resurrecting this technology, considering that building up nuclear capacity takes a lot of time,” says Usman, who asserts that everything depends on how quickly the government responds.
South Africa remains wedded to coal
It’s not surprising that the upgrade of Koeberg is beset with issues, embedded in the broader context of Eskom’s relentless reliance on ageing coal fleets, which currently supply most of the country’s electricity. In 2022, the country had 200 days of loadshedding, profoundly affecting society and the economy.
“We’re in a good position to have a broader energy mix. Nuclear power – being a clean and efficient energy source – is a critical part of this diverse mix. Indeed, nuclear energy can aid economic growth across all sectors. But the current shortfalls owing to Eskom’s over-reliance on coal means loadshedding will continue indefinitely,” says Usman.
She explains that there is nothing wrong with nuclear energy generation but worries about the faltering infrastructure that inhibits efficient transmission and distribution. “It’s a wider problem of corruption, mismanagement, sabotage, and lack of maintenance of the electricity grid itself. Yes, we have the ability to generate extra nuclear power, but we are at the whims of a bigger energy system, sadly. In addition, we are losing vital skill as scientists are leaving for greener pastures, particularly to the United Arab Emirates.”
Nuclear for SA’s just transition
Eskom has advocated for the expansion of nuclear energy to assist South Africa to achieve its climate change goals that were set by the Paris Agreement. At the 2022 COP26 climate summit, the US agreed to give South Africa $8.5 billion to enable us to shift to a low-carbon economy. “Nuclear energy is important to achieve many of the Sustainable Development Goals. One of these goals is affordable and clean energy,” notes Usman.
Small modular reactors could be the ticket. Usman explains that small-scale modular nuclear power projects, that include land and marine water-cooled reactors, are a more suitable alternative to large power stations like Koeberg. “Using small modular reactors, we can without a doubt transition to a low-carbon economy. Furthermore, they are cost effective, don’t need a lot of space, and can be built in three years. The resultant nuclear supply can add to the energy mix, reduce loadshedding and ultimately, boost our economy,” says Usman.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Rolling blackouts: Light at the end of the tunnel?
- Ufrieda Ho
SA’s could create a new model for many countries facing power shortages but it could also lead to more muddling in the dark.
South Africans by now all know that the state power utility, Eskom, is in a dizzying death spiral and that the country looks set for more years of power cuts. But rock bottom is about as good a place as any to start finding a way for SA to crawl out of this mess.
The reality and outrage around Stage 6 rolling blackouts have come with sober reckoning of how South Africa ended up in the deadening abyss of a power crisis, now veering towards collapse.
Reckoning continues after a summer of the worst loadshedding in the country to date, and as more of the web of state capture – as set out in the Zondo Commission’s report – reveals the extent of corruption, looting, and sabotage at the state-owned power utility.
Power in the ‘90s
There have also been years of systematic stripping of technical and management capacity, while none of the appropriate skills transfer and development necessary for continuity and growth at the utility was done.
Analysts have tracked this slide at Eskom as far back as Thabo Mbeki’s presidency in the late 1990s. The ANC’s priority of politicking, rather than governing competently, compromised the development and strategic investment needed to ensure a robust and durable energy generation plan.
The bleak picture of Eskom’s slide to rot leaves the country’s ‘what next?’ in terms of power supply looking like more of the same loadshedding nightmare, and with it the devastating impacts on the economy and people’s day-to-day lives. At some point, a plan of action needs to kick in.
State of emergency, incentives, penalties
That ‘some point’, says Professor Rod Crompton, should have arrived by 2022 already. Crompton, who is Visiting Adjunct Professor in the Wits Business School’s African Energy Leadership Centre\ and a long-serving non-executive member of the Eskom board, says declaring a state of emergency is a first step.
“It’s a short-term measure of an ‘all hands-on deck’ approach in which all citizens are involved in dealing with the electricity crisis,” says Crompton.
He says thousands of small solar power stations – from those in private homes and small businesses, to commercial and industrial enterprises – should be supplying surplus power to the grid to lessen the burden of loadshedding. “This can be further ramped up through tax incentives and reviving electricity substitution initiatives that have gone quiet,” he says.
One such initiative is the liquid petroleum gas (LPG) programme, which the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) announced in April 2021.
The programme was meant to transform the sector to allow for more small, black-owned enterprises to enter the LPG supply chain, and looked to target increased household LPG use for cooking and heating.
“A rapid introduction of tax incentives and VAT exemptions for all kinds of power-generating equipment, from tiny to industrial scale, would be a big help. The DMRE’s initiatives could have also seen VAT exemptions on gas cookers and cylinders,” says Crompton.
Another measure is for decisive action to be taken against electricity theft and non-payment of services. Things such as tip-off hotlines, reward schemes, and swift convictions and penalties for perpetrators could help.
Shedding light long-term
The longer term strategy to claw out of the electricity pit, however, requires a different kind of action. Crompton explains that while Eskom has a so-called ‘nine-point plan’ targeted at its generation facilities, its maintenance budget and technical and management competences are depleted.
“Some parts have to be ordered two years in advance of a planned maintenance shutdown, which requires detailed mechanical and financial planning – all difficult to do as unplanned maintenance has to be carried out as breakdowns happen,” he says.
Ultimately, state control and ownership at all levels of government must be removed from power infrastructure. However, this is easier said than done given the broken body politic in South Africa.
“The more government gets out of the way and allows the market to operate, the sooner we will see an end to loadshedding and a return to reliable supply,” says Crompton. “However, markets require rules and policing too, and the skills in government to draft such rules are few and far between. There’s also political antagonism from some quarters towards such a dispensation. The fact is skills exist outside of government and there are many willing to help. If only government would accept the help that it needs.”
The wake-up calls from the loadshedding crisis of this summer are as follows:
Remove political interference
Remove state control of strategic infrastructure
End reliance on large, centralised power generation
Invest in appropriate technologies sooner
Skills development and deployment of the right people to do the job
Shore-up accountability, transparency, and clearer communication to the public.
New designs on power
Eskom, which Crompton say is in “a death spiral”, can’t recover because it’s now an expensive relic. It is still in the process of being unbundled into three separate entities, which has been on the cards for years. In 2017, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) laid a complaint with the Competition Commission challenging Eskom’s monopoly in the electricity market and called for a separation of Eskom’s management and control of the grid from its generating activities.
Professor Imraan Valodia, Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality, says South Africa must look to creating a flexible model for power generation. “We no longer need a big monopoly for power generation like Eskom. The technology and price of renewables are dropping fast; there are also all sorts of new entrants into the markets, but we have to open up the system so they can be part of the model,” he says.
‘Electricomplexity’ – Who gains, who loses?
Valodia believes there needs to be a different design of state regulation and control. “The power distribution system is not something that you want in private sector hands, because you want the state to make sure that the grid is producing and pushing electricity to those who need it, so that should be owned by the public. But it needs to be a model that allows for different types of power generation to become part of the energy mix easily.”
He adds that there’s also a need for the rapid scaling up of renewable energies; advancing research and development into overcoming existing challenges like ensuring reliable, long-term storage of energy from renewables; decentralising power generation; and improving integration of systems.
This, crucially, has to extend to reckoning with the fuller impact of how generation and consumption of energy impacts the environment and the most vulnerable in society. Control and access to electricity and energy still comes down to the divides between the haves and the have-nots, locally and globally, says Valodia.
“In South Africa we have had very cheap energy for years, but it is because we have never counted the cost to the environment, to emissions and global warming, and to people’s health,” says Valodia.
“There’s also the ongoing debate between the Global North and the Global South of why countries in the north, which are the world’s biggest polluters, don’t want countries in Africa to invest in fossil fuel industries, even though they have happily been using oil and gas for generations,” he says, emphasising the complexity of the story of electricity – which is also about who stands to gain and who are the losers.
Opportunities in crises
For Willie Cronje, Professor in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, there are opportunities that will come from walking away from Eskom. “As it is, Eskom will never be able to catch up on the political folly that led to lost decades of missed maintenance and strategic investment,” he says. “Eskom ran up a deficit over the years and now too much damage has been done. But this crisis creates new demands and new opportunities, for those who are providing solar power panels or inverters, for instance, so this is a new growth industry.”
Cronje’s research focuses on smarter micro-grids. These are what he calls ‘stackable systems’ that start with individual rooftop solar, connect to become neighbourhood systems and then become city-wide grids. They’re small but flexible.
He echoes Crompton’s and Valodia’s sentiments that the time of centralised power is over. “Mega level energy generation means things can become mega mess-ups,” he says. Cronje points out that South Africa’s loadshedding – ostensibly a way to manage electricity distribution to avert a total power breakdown in the country – has made the country a high profile “case to watch”. Many other countries also face looming energy crises, exacerbated by the knock-on effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
“Worldwide, electricity infrastructure has been ageing, so the shortages of energy are being felt across the globe. So, in a strange way, South Africa is ahead of the curve, and we are starting to see people coming to South Africa to see how we deal with this crisis,” says Cronje.
It’s another reason why our ‘what next?’ must be light at the end of the tunnel and not more muddling in the dark.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
The first to fuel the fire
- Chanté Schatz
The first fuel that enabled human beings to land on the moon was harnessed right here in Africa.
The first to fuel the fire
The history of fire is something of a smokescreen, as researchers have not been able to pinpoint the exact period in which it was first used. Nevertheless, its enduring power dating from millions of years ago has not gone unnoticed in the crevices of the Earth’s surface.
“The earliest evidence of fire in the literature is 1.6 million years ago and is recorded in a site in Kenya in the Turkana basin, although this is controversial, because not everybody accepts that date,” says Professor Francis Thackeray, a palaeoanthropologist in the Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) at Wits University.
Brain and burnt bones
One of the earliest discoveries of the use of controlled fire was made in the 1970s. That’s when palaeontologist Charles ‘Bob’ Brain excavated burnt bones in deposits thought to be about one million years old inside the Swartkrans cave located in the Cradle of Humankind, northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Brain was very meticulous. He studied bones that had been blackened and after chemical analysis found that the temperature of the fire was in the order of 700 degrees Celsius. You don’t get this kind of temperature from grass fires. A veld fire can be quick and burns at a relatively low temperature of about 200 degrees,” says Thackeray.
The presence and distribution of these burnt bones recovered from Member 3 in the cave was claimed to be the earliest direct evidence for use of fire by hominids on record.
Flame-grilled fruits
Fire in prehistory was discovered in various cave systems in southern Africa including the Wonderwerk Cave in the Northern Cape, Klasies River in the Eastern Cape, as well as the Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal.
Professor Lyn Wadley in the ESI found the earliest example of fire used for cooking at the Border Cave, which was first occupied at least 227 000 years ago, although its earlier occupation has not yet been dated.
“Right from the beginning of human occupation in Border Cave, people were lighting fires and cooking meat. From about 170 000 years ago, people in Border Cave were also collecting edible Hypoxis rhizomes [underground stems of a genus of flowering plants] that were transported to the cave for cooking and sharing,” says Wadley. “This is the earliest known evidence anywhere of the cooking of plants, but of course the practice may have been earlier.”
Today, Homo sapiens is the only species that has been able fully to master fire. As Thackeray explains: “Without the controlled use of fire, it would not be possible to power a rocket. Without a rocket, it would not be possible to go to the moon. So, in a sense, the first small technological that led to the giant leap of lunar exploration, began here in South Africa.”
Chanté Schatz is Multimedia Communications Officer for Wits University.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Energising and futureproofing our world
- Lynn Morris
Editorial: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but for South Africans it feels like we are upending this fundamental law of physics.
The energy crisis in our country is devastating – we live in a state of energy poverty that threatens to destroy our economy and increase the levels of suffering and inequality. I am fortunate enough to live in a household that could afford a rooftop solar power system.
Remarkably, during the day, we generate more power than we need, and I have become acutely aware of how many kilowatts each appliance uses. It has been a revelation and incredibly empowering to join the rapidly growing adopters of renewable energy.
But the energy crisis is not just a South African problem. Globally, we are in a catch-22 situation. We need to produce more and more energy to cater for the 9.7 billion people it’s estimated will be living on our planet in 2050. Currently most countries rely on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas that produce carbon emissions and contribute to climate change. But unless we reduce emissions to zero by 2050, there won’t be much of a planet to inhabit. So this is urgent – we need to transition to more sustainable energy systems that make use of solar, wind, and hydropower to mitigate the impacts of climate change. This will require significant investment and new innovative technologies.
At Wits University, we are always working to understand, evolve and solve the problems of our times with research that is locally relevant but that will make an impact on a global scale.
This issue of Curios.ty has a wonderful mix of stories on the theme #ENERGY in all its various forms. Read about the development of PeCo grids, a modular system that can supply electricity to households and schools in rural areas using solar power and batteries that look like big Lego blocks.
There are discussion papers on the pros and cons of green hydrogen and nuclear energy. Researchers at Wits are finding innovative ways to use coal optimally and minimise its impact on the environment by significantly reducing emissions.
Fire is a powerful source of energy that has shaped human history. South African palaeoscientists pioneered research into the first controlled use of fire – which remains a major energy source for many South Africans.
There is a fascinating article on how robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to tackle our energy crisis, while a tool developed by a PhD candidate can measure students’ access to online learning. This tool, the Online Learning Poverty Index, considers energy poverty, the energy divide, the digital divide, and the learning environment, all of which can help with decision-making.
In this issue, you can learn how many ants a pangolin needs to eat to generate enough energy to survive. There is an inspiring article on two Wits academics who paddled over 1 000km down one of the Amazon River’s largest tributaries to raise awareness of climate change.
But we need to do much more. We need to invest in GreenTech and use our collective expertise, wisdom, and passion to do research with impact. We need to green our campuses, which guzzles vast amounts of energy supporting laboratories and data centres.
At Wits currently, there are plans to install solar panels on every available rooftop, introduce electric buses, and build recycling plants. We need to create awareness among staff and students about energy conservation. We need to become energised about energy. Being energised fuels the creative process and propels innovation.
Professor Lynn Morris is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Wits University.
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Curios.ty 15 (#Energy): Igniting innovation
- Curiosity
Wits' research magazine focuses on how our researchers are powering up their creativity and expertise to find sustainable energy solutions.
The 15th issue of Wits University’s research magazine,Curios.ty, themed: #Energy, is available online now: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/. (To republish articles, see guidelines below).
With a global energy crisis looming – to reduce our emission by 2050 or there won’t be much of a planet left – our researchers are keenly aware of the urgency to find sustainable solutions. Through their research, we investigate the energy and the digital divides, and showcase a pioneering invention that uses Lego-inspired blocks to power up impoverished communities.
We explore our untapped reservoirs of physical and mental energy, and navigate the nuclear, coal, and green hydrogen debates. Read about lightning, fire, woodland and forests as fuel, and how many ants a pangolin must eat to generate enough energy to survive. We also witness the transformation of learning itself and dive into the role of robots, AI, and machine learning in combating the energy crisis.
Highlights:
Rolling blackouts: light at the end of the tunnel (page8): Can South Africa create a new model for many countries facing power shortages, or are we left to muddle in the dark?
Bridging the energy gap with AI (page 20): Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) can help catapult South Africa’s energy distribution into the future.
Killing cancer with cryoablation (page 32): Advances in non-invasive interventional oncology mean that early cancer, that can progress to advanced life-threatening cancer, can now be frozen, burnt, microwaved, or otherwise obliterated.
The energy it takes to navigate an ‘able-bodied’ world (page34): The implementation of universal design and access could improve the lives of people with disabilities.
Clean coal’ – the unrecognised game-changing opportunity for South Africa (page 45): Coal has a bad reputation, but ‘clean coal’ holds various potential opportunities.
About Curios.ty
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Curios.ty is available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
Contact Wits Communications should you require more information or visit our media section for more on our experts and latest media releases.
How to spend $8.5bn correctly to energise and green SA
- Andrew Lawrence
Dr Andrew Lawrence explores how funding received from the Just Energy Transition Partnership can most benefit South Africa.
The Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP)’s $8.5 billion (R152 billion) sounds like a lot, but it’s a fraction of what is needed to get South Africa firmly on the path to a more sustainable energy and climate-resilient system. To meet its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) alone requires four times this amount per year for the next 15 years.
The ‘build back better’ conundrum
The best policies lay the groundwork to ‘build back better’ politically (via transparent and participatory implementation), economically (avoiding financial risk and debt), socially (ending energy poverty and social marginalisation), and ecologically (reducing emissions and other harmful impacts). These are not inevitable trade-offs, but rather different facets of the same sustainability strategy that can maximise decent job growth. When trust in government is at an all-time low, the political facet becomes all the more important.
Current plans address some of these goals better than others. Rapid decommission of aging, malfunctioning coal generation infrastructure now enjoys broad consensus. This is (hard-earned) progress; as recently as 2020, some were still arguing that – unlike coal, supposedly – wind and solar “cannot be relied on to produce electricity whenever it is needed” (ignoring the question of storage, about which, more below).
Since then, the price the country has paid for not transitioning to renewable sources sooner and more decisively has been more than 2 000 hours of loadshedding, costing the economy hundreds of billions of Rands. Both as a means of generation, and as a nexus of unaccountable corruption, coal can no longer ‘be relied on’ by South Africans needing secure and affordable electricity.
Refitting tariffs and infrastructure
Most of the JETP spending ($7.6 billion) is for electricity infrastructure, which might make sense, but how it is built and who will finance and own it remain open questions.
The Zuma government’s decision to jettison its proposed Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT), which placed an obligation on Eskom to purchase the output from qualifying renewable energy generators at pre-determined prices, was opaque and never convincingly argued. Had the REFIT remained, it may well have more than paid for itself in terms of avoided loadshedding, cheaper electricity, and increased capacity, compared to the actual Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP) implementation.
Diversify to empower people
Twenty-nine municipal Feed-in Tariffs, though modest, show what’s already possible. More ambitiously, progressive tariffs could promote cooperative, municipal- or community-owned infrastructure, thereby providing a major incentive to maximise small-scale generation and so also renewable energy employment, while helping to strengthen the grid.
Progressive tariffs could also help to finally achieve 100% electricity access for rural areas and informal settlements; targeting these and other low-income households generally achieves the biggest welfare gains, with each Rand spent on a distributed energy subsidy yielding more than a Rand in economic benefit. Diversifying sources also helps reduce retail electricity prices, provided policies are designed transparently with meaningful public input.
Promote biogas
Budgeting $700m for ‘green’ hydrogen is more debatable. Sceptics rightly question how ‘green’ this hydrogen ends up being, since the temptation and practice is to blend it with fossil-fuel derived sources. Supporters tout its capacity to “decarbonise highly polluting and hard-to-abate sectors, such as cement, steel, and glass”.
But a closer look at the actual deals signed at COP27 shows that the overwhelming focus is on mining: Anglo’s H2 Valley/Mining Trucks, and to a lesser extent, an ArcelorMittal direct reduced iron (DRI) plant. Most of this output will likely be for exported rather than for local use, and mostly of ore (including coal) rather than higher value-added manufacturing.
Rather than hydrogen, or (even worse) off-shore gas drilling, which endangers coastal economies and ecologies, better options include gravity-based storage, as well as promoting SA’s nascent biogas industry, with a 2.5 gigawatt potential capacity that would be cost-competitive with true green hydrogen, create thousands of jobs, reduce fertiliser needs, waste removal and landfill costs, and provide a more secure source of methane for peaking plants.
Electrify SA’s minibus taxis
Regarding the $200m for electric vehicles (EVs), much of the potential benefit depends on how this is spent. Apart from in-sourcing as much of the EV value chain as possible, there are opportunities for improving the local transport landscape, while using EVs as another grid storage solution.
Electrification of SA’s minibus taxi fleet (the mode of transport for two thirds of SA households) together with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) infrastructure, costing about this amount, would achieve these goals by providing more than five gigawatt hours of storage capacity, almost twice the current capacity of all of South Africa’s pumped storage (which should also be expanded). The older replaced taxis could be used for under-served rural areas.
Green credit policies for big dollar debts
Critics of the JETP observe correctly that most of the funding ($5.3 billion) is in dollar-denominated loans with increasingly steep interest rates, not grants. Since the Rand predictably depreciates against the dollar, such loans end up costing much more.
South Africa already has the eighth highest balance sheet exposure to the dollar (due to its reserves to short-term external debt ratio, and to relatively large foreign holdings of local debt) – this is a major concern. Far better would be to adopt allocative green credit policies (including reserve requirement adjustments, Special Drawing Rights, and allocative credit policies) that leverage local financial market actors to pursue more ambitious goals, like ‘in-sourcing’ the whole value chain of major renewable energy components – photo voltaic manufacture, wind turbines, and batteries – for more sustained employment and export growth.
Dr Andrew Lawrence is a Visiting Research Scholar in the Wits School of Governance. He has written extensively on energy and climate politics, comparative and global political economy, and worker and employer collective action, with recent articles in Competition and Change, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, and Review of International Political Economy. His books include South Africa's Energy Transition (Palgrave, 2020) and Employer and Worker Collective Action (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Read more in the 15th issue, themed: #Energy. We explore energy research into finding solutions for SA's energy crisis, illuminate energy needs of people with disabilities, address the energy and digital divide in an unequal society, and investigate the origins of fire control.
Doobee or not doobee?
- Chanté Schatz
Unravelling Shakespeare's Green Quill: Professor Francis Thackeray's quest for cannabis connection.
Besides his fancy language and famous plays, a fascinating study first published in the South African Journal for Science (SAJS) suggests world-renowned playwright William Shakespeare might have had some knowledge of a mysterious plant called cannabis. The Bard's deep insights into the human condition have fuelled countless debates about the source of his inspiration.
Leading this captivating research was a South African palaeoanthropologist and an Honorary Research Associate of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, Professor Francis Thackeray. His regular academic journey took an unexpected turn when he delved into Shakespearean studies, a keen sideline interest.
Armed with an insatiable curiosity and 154 sonnets, Thackeray set out to explore Shakespeare's works.
"I decided in 1999 to read all his poetry, starting from the first one to the very last. It was when I reached Sonnet 76 that I had my Eureka moment," said Thackeray.
The catalyst for the palaeoanthropologist's pursuit was found in lines 3-6 of the Sonnet:
"Why with the time do I not glance aside/
To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?/
Why write I still all one, ever the same/
And keep invention in a noted weed".
"He expresses a preference for a 'noted weed', turning away from 'compounds strange'. This can be interpreted to mean not only literary compounds but also strange drugs," said Thackeray.
Thackeray then set out to test a few early 17th Century clay pipes found at the Bard's home in Stratford-upon-Avon in England and which he borrowed from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Thackeray investigated this topic at a forensic lab owned by the South African Police Service. The team included Thackeray, archaeologist Professor Nicholas van der Merwe from the University of Cape Town, and Inspector Thomas van der Merwe.
They used a scientific technique called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) to examine the bowls and stems of old pipes that had been dug up from different places around Stratford-upon-Avon.
"Interestingly, eight out of 24 pipes that we tested had signatures suggestive of cannabis. The chemical analysis pointed to the possibility that it was smoked as a kind of Indian tobacco or 'weed' from India," said Thackeray.
“Astonishingly, evidence of Peruvian cocaine (a “strange drug”) was found in two pipes, although neither came from Shakespeare's property."
The results do not definitively prove that Shakespeare used cannabis, but they do add a new layer of intrigue to his life and creative process.
Some critics contend that ascribing Shakespeare's extraordinary brilliance to cannabis oversimplifies the nature of his artistic mastery. Additionally, they argue that the absence of definitive evidence of the presence of cannabis in pipes linked directly to Shakespeare himself makes the connection between his genius and use of cannabis even more tenuous.
Thackeray himself remains cautious about drawing definitive conclusions. He acknowledges that while the evidence is compelling, it's crucial to approach the topic with critical analysis and avoid romanticising the potential link between Shakespeare and cannabis.
"I was amazed by the degree of interest in this project. I have great respect for the academics who specialise in the study of Shakespeare’s work. We were extremely cautious in the research paper we published in the SAJS," said Thackeray, adding that despite the criticism, the theory remained strong based on the GCMS findings combined with literary analysis.
Thackeray’s study has sparked a renewed interest in exploring the connection between historical figures and their potential use of mind-altering substances.
The debate will undoubtedly continue, but one thing remains certain: the allure of Shakespeare's works and the mysteries surrounding his life will continue to captivate minds and confound students for generations to come.
Chanté Schatz is Multimedia Communications Officer.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Put a pill in it!
- Schalk Mouton
Column: When it comes to health, we have grown into a society that is looking for a quick fix, rather than treating our lives holistically.
August 2022. I am lying in bed. Suffering from cold night sweats, blinding headaches and extreme exhaustion. I am so tired that even opening my eyes is an effort. I have been sleeping for two days continuously, not even waking up to eat. The SMS with the test results just confirmed what I already knew. COVID.
Through heavy eyelids I see a moving shadow. Sounds of drawers opening. Movement in the bathroom. The opening of packaging. Footsteps. Louder and louder. Closer.
“Open your mouth.” It is my wife. I respond. Obediently. No will or energy to do otherwise.
A huge syringe is stuck into my mouth. The plunger goes down and my mouth is filled with a gush of reddish brown, metallic gunk. Utterly defenceless, I have no other option but to swallow.
I feel the thick, dirty brown muck as it enters, making its way down my oesophagus, and into my stomach. It courses through my body, doing … nothing. I open one of my eyes, look up at my wife questioningly. I hear a voice croak “ … Whaaat …?” and realise it’s my own.
“Ivermectin,” my wife says. Smiling. Lovingly, as always. “Horse medicine!”
Gambling with horse medicine
A couple of weeks before I fell victim to the dreaded disease, a family member managed to sucker us into “investing” in two “Covid survival packs”. It contained various supplements, paraphernalia that you’d never use and the dreaded horse medicine. We reluctantly bought it, but for some reason, this survival pack was the drug of choice we reached for when Covid struck. There was no other option.
Even the prescription that my brother, a doctor, sent me was gathering virtual dust, unopened, in my inbox. Granted, though, the horse medicine survival kit cost us something like R120, while the heap of tablets in my brother’s prescription would probably have cost thousands more, likely with exactly the same effect on my recovery from Covid.
Two weeks later, I was out of bed. I was still weak, but feeling better. Other than the one shot of Ivermectin, I had taken no other medicine. I just slept for two weeks solidly. Luckily the horse medicine had no noticeable side effects, other than the fact that I occasionally feel like the odd gallop around the house, and every now and then an involuntary whinny escapes from my mouth. I did notice, with interest, however, that when my wife also later got sick with Covid, there was not the slightest consideration given to the horse medicine in her Covid survival pack to help her get better.
Growing up, I had a relaxed relationship with drugs. I got treated for just about any illness or injury with exactly the same medication by my GP. Whether I broke my leg, needed my appendix removed or had a common flu, the diagnosis from my GP was always that it was a “kiem in die lug” (a bug in the air), and I left the doctor’s rooms with a yellow pill packet filled with Tetrex antibiotics and Kantrexil for stomach cramps.
Drug naïveté
When it comes to any kind of recreational type of drug, I lived a completely sheltered life. The closest I came to taking any drugs was smoking a cigarette when I was in standard 8 (Grade 10). I immediately felt so sick that I vomited, and never touched a cigarette again. I couldn’t stand the taste of alcohol until varsity (and then, like everybody else, started to try and make up for all the drinks I missed). My first encounter with “real” drugs was at the OppieKoppie music festival one year, when I was offered a Daggakoekie – which I declined.
The next time I came across any form of drugs was one night walking down Long Street in Cape Town with my wife. A smartly dressed dude approached me and asked “Do you want some Charlie?”.
“Who the hell is Charlie?” I asked. My wife chuckled. I whinnied.
I have absolutely no medical training. The closest I am to being a doctor is the fact that my wife is working on her PhD in financial journalism and my brother and father are both doctors, so I probably don’t have any right to say this. However, I do believe that we too often reach for a packet of pills as a quick fix for something that could, and should, be treated in a more holistic way, such as a change of lifestyle or diet, or just taking care of ourselves and each other.
To be clear. I have nothing against conventional medicine. The work that the people in health sciences are doing with medicine is incredible, fascinating and lifesaving. There are many cases when medication or surgical treatment is the only option, but in most cases in daily life, small changes in our lifestyles can cure many more health issues that we think.
There's a pill for that
For instance, after coming home from a holiday in the Eastern Cape with my brother, braaiing every night, drinking vuil Coke and just overindulging in general, I came home with a terribly sore foot. It was one of the most excruciating pains I had ever experienced, so I went to a doctor. It was gout. The doctor gave me an injection and the pain receded almost immediately.
My brother prescribed chronic medication that I was to take daily, probably for the rest of my life. The pain from gout scared the life out of me, so, I took the pills daily for over two years. That was until my wife changed our diet – and no, it was not to a diet of oats and barley! Very soon after, I realised that I no longer needed the gout medication. Now, I very rarely experience gout attacks, and if I do, it is very mild and often goes away quickly.
My point is that we have become too dependent on drugs. There is a drug for everything, and it is too easy to reach for the pill bottle. Whether it is obesity, smoking or a condition like gout, we too often reach for the pill bottle. Children get put on medication to treat things like depression and ADHD as quick fixes, rather than the doctor spending time and energy to find the root cause, and to fix it holistically. And again, yes, while I do understand that there are cases where medication is the only option, I believe we often treat things symptomatically.
I had Covid again earlier this year. While we generally make a point of getting our flu jabs and Covid booster, this year we were busy and missed them. Before I knew it, I was knocked out, in bed. This time around, however, there was no horse medicine, and I declined my brother’s prescription. I just stayed in bed, and rested it out. It took me more than a frustrating month to recover properly, and I am determined not to get it again. So, next year, you’ll see me at the front of the Covid and flu vaccine lines, getting my jab. But now, it is time for a gallop.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Seeing through the cigarette tax smokescreen
- Alex van den Heever
The high taxes on tobacco are counterproductive in decreasing smoking. It only benefits the illegal cigarette trade – and its political masters.
Selling addictive substances as a commercial activity is always a winner. Demand is locked in, even if prices rise. Alcohol, narcotics, money, sex, gambling, and, of course, nicotine are where money grows on trees for suppliers.
Addictions, however, become particularly harmful where they interfere with a person’s ability to pursue their normal daily activities – for instance, where family relationships, employment and social interactions are harmed. Physical harm can also result from addictive practices including smoking, the use of narcotics and excessive alcohol consumption. In the case of narcotics and alcohol abuse, harm can extend to non-users through acts of violence and direct and indirectly related criminality.
Social controls have consequently been introduced for very dangerous substances where there are clear risks to individuals and society – many with only limited success. Over time these controls have included blanket prohibitions, the criminalisation of the sale and distribution of certain products, stringent licensing conditions, the supervision of transactions and so called “sin” taxes or excise taxes.
Such approaches have, however, been notoriously unsuccessful in controlling trade, distribution or consumption, and have typically succeeded only in driving these activities underground. Due to their very nature and the sustained demand for addictive substances, poorly designed control measures merely lead to the growth of well-funded criminal syndicates some in collaboration with corrupt elements within the state.
While many addictive substances are extremely harmful, at a social level smoking falls into a category of harm that is sufficiently mild to avoid more stringent and weighty control, yet sufficiently harmful to attract a degree of regulation.
Any form of product control where a natural and sustained market exists, however, brings with it opportunities for corruption and patronage, with the risk that public health measures will be rendered futile.
If the price is right
A largely successful public interest lobby has existed in South Africa to reduce demand through the implementation of a consumption tax on cigarettes, in the form of a 40% ad valorem tax on top of VAT. Consequently, over 50% of the price of a legally traded packet of cigarettes goes to SARS. What might have been more effective is a specific tax with a fixed Rand value, rather than using the percentage levy. This means that legitimate manufacturers can, therefore, offset any drop in demand due to the ad valorem tax through price manipulation. Tobacco brands targeting price-sensitive (low income) segments of the market are discounted, with high prices reserved for the less price sensitive (high-income) smokers.
Manufacturer strategies aside, smokers remain impervious to price fluctuations – precisely because the product is addictive.
While there does appear to be some correlation between the effects on demand and tax increases on cigarettes in South Africa, there is, however, no studies to show the impact that non-financial penalties such as legislation around target marketing and smoking in public places, have had.
A flourishing illicit trade
Further confounding the picture is the growth of the illicit trade in cigarettes. Illegal manufacturers simply do not charge the excise tax, giving them a significant price advantage over legal manufacturers. Not surprisingly, the higher the prevailing tax, the greater their price advantage.
Within South Africa there is also an apparent linkage between these illicit actors and parts of the political establishment with the result that investigations into illicit markets by, among others, the South African Revenue Services (SARS) appear to have been suppressed.
The question now arises whether the calls for further public health interventions by government to control smoking have their origins in a legitimate concern for public health or are driven by players in the illicit market working through their political principals.
The apparent demand-related effects of the various anti-smoking measures are also unclear as no data is available on the illicit trade. It is entirely plausible, therefore, that when the illicit trade is considered, overall demand for tobacco products is increasing and not decreasing.
During COVID-19, the prohibition on the trade of cigarettes appeared to have no impact on demand whatsoever, with illegal trade filling the void left by the enforced withdrawal from the market of legal manufacturers. The fiscus consequently lost millions in tax revenue, with zero public health gains.
Political patronage
South Africa was the only country in the world that regarded this prohibition as an appropriate response to the pandemic. It appeared to many that the move in fact had very little to do with COVID-19, and a lot to do with political patronage in the illicit market.
The emergence of an illicit cigarette market with established links with government officials is, however, a predictable outcome of the very high excise taxes and VAT, coupled with an unwavering demand for an addictive substance.
Exorbitant tax levels eventually become self-defeating, as illicit actors derive significant financial advantage from learning how to beat the system – including through corrupt relationships with the state.
The more punitive the tax, the greater the incentive to circumvent it. The greater the incentive, the more likely that corruptible state officials will be drawn into the picture.
As a result, the public health imperative becomes a smokescreen (pun intended) for the true motive – which is to divert demand away from taxed cigarettes to untaxed cigarettes, despite serious adverse implications for both public health and government revenue.
A new model to manage tobacco is needed
In conclusion, a more coherent model for regulating the tobacco industry is clearly called for. One that speaks to inter-related objectives – such as tax revenue maximisation and public health benefits.
First, taxes could be reduced to a level that would allow for the maximisation of tax revenue without creating incentives for a persistent illicit market. A more moderate excise tax may yield better results in the reduction of smoking by being set high enough to disincentivise smoking in lower income groups and children, while generating an acceptable tax revenue but undermining what is an entrenched illicit market.
Second, public health interventions should be diversified at the same time as being acknowledged for their inherent limitations. This includes the regulation of marketing, smoking in public spaces and measures to avoid the adoption of smoking by children.
However, ultimately, it is arguable that in relation to smoking and the consumption of tobacco products, non-tax related measures are more likely to prove successful than excise levies in the achievement of public health objectives.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
From ancient apothecary to modern medicine
- Mariette van der Walt
How our early ancestors shaped our medicine use today. Throughout history, humanity has used nature's pharmacy for healing.
Throughout history, humanity has used nature's pharmacy for healing. In exploring nature as a source of shelter and food, early humans fortuitously discovered the therapeutic properties of plants, with many of today's drugs having their roots in ancient knowledge.
Ancient survival guidebook
Adaptive memory, the ability to remember important information needed for survival, played an essential role in this process of discovery. After experimenting with various plants, our ancestors were able to remember which ones worked for their ailments and where to find them, giving them a remarkable edge in the game of survival. With each triumphant discovery of a plant with healing properties, their memory eagerly catalogued the plant's powers, creating a survival guidebook that would be passed down through the ages, forming the ultimate foundation for the development of modern medicine.
One crucial plant discovery included the African yellow star (Hypoxis angustifolia). Widely distributed throughout southern Africa, it is also found in abundance around the Sterkfontein Cave, one of the important archaeological sites in the country. It is likely that our hominid ancestors in South Africa were the first to discover the nutritional and medicinal properties of the African yellow star.
The herbaceous plants feature pretty, yellow flowers, sickle-shaped leaves and bulbous rhizomes that are good to eat once cooked. Wits University studies have shown that it was cooked and consumed as far back as 170 000 years ago.
"It has small rhizomes with white flesh that is more edible than the bitter, orange flesh of rhizomes from the better known medicinal Hypoxis species which is incorrectly called African Potato. The part of the plant used for medicine is not a potato, which is a tuber, but a corm," says Dr Christine Sievers, an Archaeobotanist in the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies.
“Plant remains are rarely well-preserved and there is no direct evidence that people living around 170 000 years ago were aware of the medicinal properties of species such as Hypoxis hemerocallidea. There is, however, widespread evidence of animal self-medication. This is likely to be shared evolutionary behaviour and suggests that people had knowledge of the healing power of plants at least during the Middle Stone Age (280 000 to about 50 000 years ago), and very likely much earlier in our evolution,” she says.
Don’t let the bed bugs bite
Once the healing properties of plants were discovered, early humans were extremely resourceful.
With the discovery of the medicinal properties of plants came the realisation they could be used to keep pesky bugs away, evidenced by insect-repelling plants found in 77 000-year-old preserved bedding from a cave in South Africa. Today, communities continue to rely on many plants, including the Hypoxis species, for traditional medicine, treating various ailments.
Safeguarding the future of indigenous medicinal plants
Scientists have recently delved into the use of ancient medicinal plants, collaborating with local communities to unveil their biochemical properties and potential applications. This interdisciplinary approach blends traditional knowledge with modern scientific techniques, opening exciting drug discovery and development avenues. However, the rising popularity and commercialisation of traditional medicine has led to the overexploitation and depletion of certain species.
Alarming statistics from the South African Health Review report indicate that out of 2 062 plant species used for traditional medicine, approximately 32% have been recorded in traditional medicine markets, with 4% currently under threat. Unsustainable harvesting practices, habitat destruction, and the impacts of climate change further compound conservation issues, putting many medicinal plant species at risk of endangerment or even extinction.
We need to safeguard not only the plants themselves but also the ecosystems that nurture them, the habitats that harbour them, and the cultural landscapes that shape our understanding and practices of healing. Recognising the historical, spiritual, and ecological significance of these environments is essential for preserving the integrity and resilience of traditional medicine systems.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Sucking the venom out of the bite
- Shaun Smillie
Treating snake bite victims remains antiquated – hopefully a new way of creating antivenom can lead to a better solution.
The fight against snakebites relies on a century old method that involves horses as a source for the treatment of the toxins. And while this technology is effective, it has done little to stem the estimated 138 000 deaths a year globally, most of whom are the poor who can't afford the treatment or make the journey to medical centres where the antivenom is kept.
Besides the fatalities, hundreds of thousands of snakebite victims every year are left seriously maimed through the loss of limbs or eyes. In 2017, the World Health Organization officially recognised venomous snakebite as a neglected tropical disease, but to save more lives, health professionals believe antivenom needs to become cheaper, safer and easier to access.
The answer could be in a new generation of antivenom serum that involves isolating monoclonal antibodies. It is a process that has proven success when it was used to develop the first Covid-19 therapeutics.
Horses for courses
Here in South Africa, Dr Constantinos Kurt Wibmer is working on developing this new antivenom in his lab based at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Sandringham, Johannesburg. The horses which are used in the current manufacture of antivenom, that has changed little since the late 19th Century, are kept not far away.
“We are essentially using animal blood as a medicine. We basically immunise animals with snake venom and repeat the process, so you get better and better antibodies,” says Wibmer, who holds a joint appointment as a researcher in the Wits’ Faculty of Health Sciences.
According to the African Snakebite Institute, the process takes up to nine months as only small quantities of snake venom are injected into the horse, which is not harmed, allowing the animal to build immunity. In the next step, the serum is removed from the horse’s blood and purified. In South Africa, a polyvalent antivenom is manufactured in which the venom of ten common South African venomous snakes, including the puff adder, Gaboon adder, rinkhals, green mamba, Jameson’s mamba, black mamba, cape cobra, forest cobra, snouted cobra and Mozambique spitting cobra, is used.
South Africa has a reputation for producing high quality snakebite serum, but recently there have been shortages that have been blamed on the increase in power outages.
“The problem with these antivenoms is that it is a very impure medicine. From batch to batch it is different, it is not like a drug made in a lab,” explains Wibmer.
The hunt for super B cells is on
The discovery of this new antivenom still involves horses – for now. Among the horse’s blood B cells are what Wibmer refers to as “super B cells”, for which he is on the hunt.. These are the immune cells responsible for making extremely cross-reactive antibodies.
“You find individual B cells that make spectacular antibodies so essentially we take the DNA out of those cells, clone it into a lab construct, and then we can reproduce those antibodies in the lab,” says Wibmer.
The ultimate aim is to create an antivenom that is temperature stable, that will not need to be stored in a refrigerator and can be taken into the field. Aside from the storage issue, another problem with antivenom is the cost. When snake bite victims are treated, they often need several vials of antivenom, which, in South Africa, can cost as much as R100 000. Should Wibmer’s new antivenom be successful, it could be stored anywhere, and would require just a single vial.
“We are looking forward to the next generation of antivenoms that are broader, safer, and generally applicable to whole general or even whole families of snakes,” explains Wibmer.
When treatment is worse than the cause
Another disadvantage of antivenoms currently on the market is their serious side effects that for some people can be as deadly as the snakebite. Wits herpetologist Professor Graham Alexander discovered this while conducting field research a number of years ago near Heidelberg in Gauteng.
Alexander, from the School of Animal, Plant and Environment Sciences was handling a puff adder when it bit him on the leg. He was rushed to the nearby Heidelberg clinic where he was given antivenom.
“Within 30 seconds I went into complete anaphylaxis,” he recalls. Alexander’s heart stopped and he had to be resuscitated. He was fortunately able to make a full recovery. However, if Alexander, who makes a living by researching venomous snakes was bitten again, doctors would be forced to treat him symptomatically and not give him antivenom.
“It means I have to think twice when handling seriously venomous snakes like black mambas,” says Alexander.
Wibmer’s new antivenom may be heaven-sent for people like Alexander, who have adverse reactions to the serum proteins that can act as immunogens. The new antivenom treatment will not have side effects such as Alexander’s allergic reaction.
“I really think in the next couple of years we are going to see some major developments,” says Wibmer whose new technology might help save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who for so long have been neglected.
“Snakebite is not a reportable cause of death in South Africa, so who knows how many people could be saved by a new way of treating them?” says Alexander.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Printing 3D patches to heal wounds
- Marcia Zali
New biotechnical treatments can fast-track recovery from traumatic injuries.
WADDP researcher and Lecturer in Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Dr Poornima Ramburrun and her colleagues are looking into ways of combining the use of conventional treatment methods, such as anti-inflammatories and painkillers with biotechnological innovations like implants and 3D printable material to heal wounds.
“Tissue regeneration and wound healing is such a complex process; we have to combine all these systems to improve tissue regeneration. We can’t only focus on one element because all of these mechanisms come into play,” says Ramburrun. “Conventional drugs like anti-inflammatories, paracetamol and antibiotics remain critical in the healing process and are not likely to be replaced anytime soon.”
Combined treatments
As an example of how a combination of drugs and bioactive compounds can work together to become an effective tissue regeneration treatment, Rambarrun referred to one of her studies, which focuses on tissue regeneration of the peripheral nerve. In this study, she uses a bioactive growth factor that helps little nerves to sprout, combined with diclofenac sodium – a typical anti-inflammatory and pain medication – and an antioxidant to protect the newly regenerated tissues from any further injury or inflammation.
“We are trying to reduce the dosage of medication that patients need to take by sending the drugs directly to the site where they are needed,” says Ramburrun. “We know that the drugs are reaching the tissues that really need it and we are also using a much smaller quantity through the implant, because it will be implanted at the required site.”
PhD student at the WADDP, Kate Da Silva, focuses on healing internal trauma to the liver caused by stabbings, gunshots, or car accidents. Instead of using the general approach of treating the entire organ, Da Silva focuses on the exact location of the wound in the liver.
3D printing
“We use an injectable, 3D printed biodegradable material that will be absorbed by the body once healing is complete,” says Da Silva, adding that the aim is to only treat patients who suffered recent, acute trauma to the liver.
“By using this treatment plan, we can cause the tissues to regenerate back to their original state while reducing the amount of medication patients need to take during recovery. We are using the body’s own regenerative hormones as a drug to cause native regeneration in the liver.”
Sameera Khatib, a Master’s student in Pharmacy at the WAADP, like Ramburrun, also focuses on the peripheral nerve – aiming to create an artificial ‘bridge’ of the nerve when injury occurs. This conduit helps the nerves to heal themselves. “My research tries to expedite that regenerative step by making a conduit at the place of injury, which will trick your body into thinking that there is structural support and will begin the regenerative process,” says Khatib.
The goal for both Rumburrun and Da Silva is that they are able to commercialise their research so that patients can benefit from treatment that ultimately improves the healing process, reduces side-effects, and further aids adherence to treatment.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Motivational messaging for medicine
- Magdel Louw
Behavioural Linguistics is a new advanced area in healthcare that's especially critical to medication compliance and adherence.
In today’s world, where self-care is such a burning issue, and we are encouraged to take better care of our own bodies and minds, we often need a nudge in the right direction to find ways to help us make better medical and health decisions.
As these decisions are not always easy, and, especially where we need to take daily regimens of a variety of drugs, we often opt for the easy way out, not taking our medication at all, where the benefits of taking it should be obvious.
Leigh Crymble is a doctoral student in Behavioural Economics at the Wits Business School. Her research focus is on how we make the decisions that affect our daily lives.
“My research is all about how we make decisions. What makes us choose one thing over another? And how can language play a role in influencing these behaviours? At the core of my research is how the link between behavioural economics, psychology and linguistics can play an important role in shaping our decision making.”
This fascinating field of study boils down to how information is delivered to us through language and communication. Many other elements come into play too, such as what the message is, when it is sent and who the messenger is. “They all play a significant role in whether the person receiving the message both engages with the information and acts on it.”
Behavioural Science in message framing is regularly tested and used globally, from getting people to eat better and exercise more, to saving money for retirement and taking out certain insurance products. “Post-pandemic, we saw the importance of taking a behavioural approach to health: starting with washing our hands, through to mask-wearing and then getting our vaccines,” Crymble points out.
Enter Behavioural Linguistics, a new advanced area in healthcare that’s especially critical to medication compliance and adherence and which alleviates the need for preachy, know-it-all messaging that triggers our naturally rebellious behaviour.
Good behavioural messaging boosts medication adherence
Conservative estimates put the cost of people not taking their prescribed medicine, how and when they should, at more than $300 billion every year. Someone is considered “non-adherent” when they take less than 80% of medication prescribed to them, for example for diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol.
And the implications are huge. People who don’t manage their health conditions compromise themselves financially and their quality of life. In putting strain on healthcare resources, the broader economy is affected too.
“One of the biggest behavioural blocks for people is the disconnect between the present and the future version of themselves – known as the ‘present bias’. Research on neuroimaging of the brain goes as far as suggesting we perceive a future version of ourselves in the same way as we think of a stranger. This makes it difficult for us to act in ways that are in our best future interests, especially if the action impacts us in the ‘now’, such as experiencing negative side effects,” Crymble explains.
A nudge in a nutshell
Fortunately, behavioural science research shows that a way to improve medication adherence is to deliver the right nudge to the right patient, at the right time and in the right way.
Professors Richard Thaler, Nobel Prize laureate, and Cass Sunstein, American economist, support this very concept in Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness: “A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not”.
Part of Crymble’s PhD using behavioural linguistic theory was to develop a new communications framework to test how messages can be more effective across various industries. Right now, they are applying this specifically to test medication adherence messaging.
Their research helps patients develop better health awareness and education in today’s technical, often intimidating, world. All people need is a small, friendly push, or “nudge” and so they are finding ways to encourage patients to take their medication in the right dose at the right time, and to make sure patients prioritise doctor appointments and health checks and collect and fulfil repeat medication scripts on time, she says.
“Interestingly, these patterns of behaviour apply across demographics and often transcend languages, genders, ages, cultures, and other variable factors. This is particularly helpful in a country as diverse as South Africa, where there are large numbers of people needing life-saving chronic medication.”
Messages are tested across multiple communication platforms including SMS, in-app notifications (for patients with smartphones), print material and direct mailers - sent both to the patients themselves and to healthcare professionals. “A first in the country, we are also working with an innovative new company which prints ‘nudgey’ messages directly onto pill packs which are personalised to the individual patient,” she highlights.
“In the end, crafting content in ways that are intrinsically linked to how people think and act means you are more likely to ultimately persuade them, which is crucial in helping to increase medication adherence,” Crymble says.
“However, this discipline is heavily rooted in ethical action. People have full freedom of choice in what they decide to do and nothing is coerced, forced, banned, or used for ill-intent. Instead, the choice architecture we rely on is set up in ways to help nudge people in the direction that is in their best interests: to help reduce morbidity and mortality as a result of medicine non-adherence.”
The test for what really works
Crymble explains that five principles were developed for this research to test effectiveness and gain insight into the close link between language, decision-making and behaviour:
Incentives that motivate an individual to do something. Whether intrinsic (motivated internally by our sense of personal satisfaction) or extrinsic (motivated through getting a reward). Incentives are very effective in encouraging behavioural change. For example, testing the difference between receiving a free item or discount, and recognition messaging for being “a health superhero”.
The messenger effect for when we send messages through someone who is trusted, it boosts credibility and makes the message more persuasive. For medication adherence, this can be a doctor or pharmacist. They’re even testing pre-loaded messages from the patient (to themselves!) as well as messages from loved ones.
Social proofing as we are social beings heavily influenced by what those around us do and say, and often do what others do to fit in and ‘follow the herd’. Are patients more likely to fill scripts and take their medication correctly when told that “others like them” or “most South Africans” are doing this preferred behaviour?
Framing because how a message is positioned and structured, matters. You can highlight either the positive (gain) or negative (loss) aspects of the same decision. This is the difference between using a gain-frame message like “those who take their diabetes medication correctly can add five years to their life”, versus the loss-frame message of “those who don’t take their diabetes medication correctly can lose five years of their life”.
Timely reminders and cues which are simple methods to getting someone to act on time. This is a powerful tool for motivation and behavioural change. Language like “your medication is packed and ready”, “your meds are waiting for you” and “reserved for you” helps increase medication adherence.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Down the rabbit hole to bring back some words
- Deborah Minors
Profile: Dr Eva Kowalska argues that drugs and addiction are not synonymous, as her research of drug literature and opioid biographies reveals.
You wouldn’t expect to find a Polish person with a PhD in Drug Literature in the Wits Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. But that’s where Dr Eva Kowalska teaches first-year students English and academic literacy. Evidently, as is often the case with recreational drugs, things are not always what they seem.
Kowalska is part of a multidisciplinary team in the Academic Development Unit (ADU), a role which is quite divorced from her research. “We don't really get to teach much of what our research is about, but we're allowed to pursue it in our own time,” says the 38-year-old Linden resident, whose thesis, in the English Department, was titled High Without Respite: A Study of Drug Literature.
The ‘drug idiom’
“The focus of the PHD was the idea that drug texts are a kind of genre within themselves,” explains Kowalska. “The idea is that across contexts, they have enough in common with each other in terms of style, in terms of how substance use, or even addiction, opens boundaries and affects style or form in literature. So the idea was to trace a history of those things.”
She’s in search of a “drug idiom” – an idiom being a phrase which cannot be understood simply by looking at the meaning of the individual words in the phrase – as is the case with the thesis title “high without respite”. This is a line from the work of Charles Baudelaire, the 19th Century French poet who experimented with hashish and alcohol and one of the writers that Kowalska studied in her PhD.
Another author under her gaze is Hunter S. Thompson, whose novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1971) was turned into a film in 1998, starring Johnny Depp. Kowalska also delves into the writing of Tom Wolfe, author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, about the counterculture Beat generation in the 1960s. They were amongst the troupe of Merry Pranksters experimenting with psychedelics, whom Timothy Leary urged to “turn on, tune in, drop out”. Similarly, Kowalska read the writing of Irvine Welsh, author of the heroin-fuelled Trainspotting, which became a celluloid cult classic in the 1990s. These counter-cultural shifts from psychedelics to opioids emerge in literary style and form.
Spiralling, repetitive … looping
Across centuries and geographies, drug literature is created within “a specific social and sub-cultural setting.” In the early 1990s, South Africa was an explosive socio-political and cultural milieu on the cusp of democracy. It’s also the decade that Kowalska immigrated here as a child. The maelstrom of the Rainbow Nation in the New South Africa set the (modern) scene for her later research interest in drug literature.
Kowalska says that the first real drug novel is Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium Eater. He was a Romantic poet in the 1800s who was drinking laudanum – a tincture of opium dissolved in a spirit.
“[His writing] is very dense and of its time but I would argue that all writing about addiction follows that form. It’s very inward-looking, it’s very looping and repetitive,” says Kowalska of De Quincey, whom she calls “the Godfather of the opiate novel”.
This stream-of-consciousness writing is also an important part of modernism, she says, and “modernism in literature is a lot about isolation, and the stream-of-consciousness and the inward gaze, and formal innovations in terms of writing.”
Modernism, war and pieces
Fast-forward to the 20th Century, however, and the cultural context is vastly different. This era featured World Wars, flower-power, free love, Vietnam, apartheid, as well as tech and medical innovations.
Kowalska says that many problems around substance abuse have a lot to do with people returning from those conflicts addicted to drugs. Morphine, for example, is a powerful painkiller and a very good thing to have in a war situation, given that it’s small, easily stored and consumed, and palliative. “A lot of people came back addicted from the wars. Modernist writing is not separate from this,” says Kowalska.
At the same time, there were two very important inventions: the portable typewriter and the invention of the hypodermic needle. “With these two inventions, things happen BANG BANG BANG – much faster and harder than the slow, laborious handwriting.”
Unlike the Godfather of the opiate novel slow-sipping and immersed in his tincture, “the immediate hit of injecting morphine or heroin is an entirely different experience and it’s much more modern.” And the depiction of addiction in drug literature is a lot darker.
When words go awry
Kowalska’s study of the “opiate biography” is that part of drug literature that has to do with opiate addiction. Unlike the psychedelics, which are “fun”, Kowalska says “the heroin stuff is quite heavy, it’s not a happy space and it can be quite dark.”
Kowalska cites the Godfather, De Quincey, followed by the advent of morphine and heroin, which inspired William Burrough’s Junky and Alexander Trocchi’s Cain’s Book. And what these opioid biographies have in common is the writing style; immersive, spiralling, but beautifully written texts that become a kind of interplay between addiction and writing.
“[Writing and opioids] are both compulsions that these people have to play out, over and over. They start off exploring addiction, but they really end up exploring a liminal space,” says Kowalska. “It's both explicitly an exploration of addiction but also very much an exploration of writing.”
Kowalska reckons that’s why, as a society, we find addiction so troubling. She says when people get addicted, “they go away from language, they go away from communication”, yet the opioid biographers were trying to reconcile the two.
“I think addiction is when people get stuck on that boundary and they have to go over for some reason. They can’t quite reconcile it and that obviously becomes problematic.”
Eva, adolescence, and boundaries
The pervasion of addiction in drug literature begs the question: what’s the point? Kowalska’s PhD research questioned what draws these texts together? “I think it’s the drugs,” she says. And she doesn’t deny a personal earlier exploration of the usefulness of drugs.
“As a younger person I had a healthy interest in experimentation. One dabbles in this and that growing up, and I think that’s healthy. One should consider what one does and not necessarily just say no.”
However, this wasn’t the attitude of a draconian principal at Kowalska’s high school in Randburg in the ‘90s. Kowalska recalls the principal was “This ‘just say no’ religious anti-drugs crusader [who] would make us do little pee-in-a-cup drug tests. Just any mention of drugs was terrible, which is such a limited world view and so at odds when working with young people.”
At that time, an adolescent Kowalska was expanding her mind listening to ‘60s music – the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen – many of whose lyrics referenced the counterculture and Beat writers.
“There was an intertextuality that became emergent to me,” she says. “When you start reading biographies, it makes you aware of interconnections between things and of broader cultures and sub-cultures around them. Where do those boundaries go?”
In defence of excess
Kowalska’s research suggests that boundaries are fluid, and that excess is inspirational – at least in drug literature. The same can be said for society generally. Ever since the ancient Greeks’ Bacchanalia wine orgies, people have had a predilection to push boundaries and explore universal consciousness.
“In society we sometimes need these excesses, these carnivals or these shamanistic practices or these binges, to release things and re-establish order, and I think the same is true individually,” says Kowalska.
“It’s part of fully developing theory of mind, part of growing up, which is why young people tend to experiment more than older ones. One of the final things you have to ‘put right’ is that sort of boundary for yourself. And some people like to play with that boundary, and that I think is recreational drug use.”
Talismans, spells, and incantations
As much as some people might not like it, drugs are an important part of culture and artistic practice, and have been for the longest time, Kowalska says. “Shamanistic practices all over the world often have to do with the ceremonial use of some sort of substance to see things, or to commune with the past, or the dream world.”
Drugs not only facilitate these visions but relate to literature too, since they are often about interpreting a dream world, or narrating a spiritual journey.
“Even though they weren’t written literatures, they had a storytelling element,” says Kowalska, adding that magic spells, for instance, are “a few words, an incantation, and there’s either a talisman or there’s a substance, a potion, or a leaf.”
“That’s what drug literature does; it becomes that talisman. It almost becomes a sub-cultural object ‘to be seen reading’. They become symbolic in their own right.”
Drug (im)morality
Kowalska doesn’t vilify drug literature writers for their use of drugs. “It’s difficult to say that any substance has a moral value – there’s no such thing – they’re just things. It’s what people do with them,” she says, adding that, illegality aside, the laws around drugs and substances are not fixed. For example, marijuana is legal now for some types of use, which it wasn’t when she was growing up.
“Cigarettes are still legal and they’re horribly addictive. Drugs like nicotine and alcohol are taxed and are freely available, so the rules are arbitrary,” she says. “People tend to moralise substance use. Contemporary society is probably not familiar with recreational drug use; society tends to treat drugs and addiction as synonymous and they’re not.”
Drugs, like guns, are devoid of intrinsic moral value, she asserts. “I suppose literature also doesn’t have a moral value – it just is. I’m a firm believer in art for art’s sake. It only has to answer to itself as far as I’m concerned, so if the text is worthwhile, well, then to me it’s worth it.”
Down the rabbit hole …
Kowalska shares an introduction written by William Burroughs for a book of poems by Alexander Trocchi: “Perhaps writers are actually readers from hidden books. These books are carefully concealed and surrounded by deadly snares. It’s a dangerous expedition to find these books and bring back a few words.”
Kowalska concludes: “Isn’t that to some extent what this is? Going beyond to bring back a few words? Down the rabbit hole to bring back a few words for themselves and the rest of us?”
And what a whorl of worldly words there are.
Deborah Minors is Senior Communications Officer at Wits University.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Mosquitoes on birth control
- Beth Amato
Eradicating malaria in SA is a national policy goal, but is easier said than done. But sterile insect technique could take the bite out of mosquitoes.
In a north eastern corner of KwaZulu-Natal, the community of Jozini is at the centre of a groundbreaking trial to eradicate malaria. The innovation, known as the sterile insect technique (SIT), is essentially male mosquito birth control.
These exclusively lab-reared male mosquitoes are sterilised before being released in infested areas. Male mosquitoes (referred to as “non-biters”) do not carry malaria and so when they mate with native female mosquitoes in malaria-infested areas, only “non-diseased” offspring are produced. This drastically reduces the resident mosquito population size.
When a human contracts malaria, the body takes a hard knock. Usually, about 10-15 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito, a person will experience symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting and severe headaches which can result in seizures, susceptibility to bacterial infection, cognitive impairment and even death. If not treated, people can experience recurrences of the disease or act as carriers of the deadly malaria parasite.
A recent study notes that despite exposure to malaria assisting in the build-up of immunity against the disease, not seeking treatment is dangerous. “The resultant chronic yet silent infection not only helps perpetuate malaria transmission but, over time, also contributes to serious health and developmental impairments,” the study reports.
Introducing the SIT
The SIT is a biological vector control technique based on the release of many laboratory-reared sterile insects in significantly higher numbers compared to the natural population. The technology has been applied successfully in agriculture, such as in the control of the screwworm.
SIT for mosquitoes was conceived in 2010 to supplement existing malaria prevention techniques which include oral prophylaxis and indoor residual spraying (IRS). The former is only helpful once the diseased mosquito has bitten (and some of the pills have concerning side effects, including psychological). Malaria parasites may develop resistance to these drugs. Meanwhile, other mosquitoes have built resistance to the IRS insecticides.
While IRA targets indoor feeding and resting mosquitoes, in South Africa, it has been less efficient in controlling Anopheles arabiensis, a mosquito species that sometimes feeds and rests outside, contributing to outdoor transmission. This is the most significant challenge in malaria-affected provinces.
Dr Givemore Munhenga, Principal Medical Scientist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and a Senior Researcher at the Wits Research Institute for Malaria (WRIM), says that the SIT might be a game changer in addressing these challenges. SIT is highly effective in suppressing and eventually eliminating mosquito populations regardless of their biting and resting behaviour, or insecticide resistance status.
The technique requires community buy-in in order for people to understand the process and its implications. In some cases, locals believed that the treated male mosquitoes represented a threat to their health, but as Muhenga explains, “As only female mosquitoes bite their host, the release of non-biting sterilised males will have no negative effects on people in the area.”
In order to dispel concerns about this potentially controversial public health intervention, intensive community dialogue and public engagement processes were undertaken in Jozini before the technology was piloted.
Finally, in 2022, sterile male mosquitoes were released into the field site, the first time in such a large area targeting an African malaria vector. Already, there are positive signs of a mosquito population reduction.
“The ultimate goal of the SIT project is to establish mass-rearing capabilities so that a good number of sterile male mosquitoes can support the efforts to eliminate malaria,” explains Munhenga. The next phase of the SIT project, funding permitting, is to test its suitability and affordability as a public health initiative.
A changing climate portends treatment and prevention complications
As mosquitoes thrive in warmer environments, hotter temperatures generate more breeding grounds. Floods and droughts work in the mosquitoes’ favour as they breed in temporary pools when it rains and in permanent bodies of water in dryer periods.
“There are major repercussions when someone is infected with malaria. If a breadwinner, for example, becomes ill, then the family suffers. Often this is in a context where there is already widespread poverty. Yes, there have been gains on the treatment front, but it is expensive and follow up treatments are often not completed,” says Koekemoer.
She notes that malaria reduction and elimination research takes between five and 10 years. “We see that once we have identified drugs and screened the compounds, the parasites develop resistance very quickly.” This challenging task has been made easier by the combined expertise of multiple units from the University of Cape Town, the University of Pretoria, the NICD and Wits.
Koekemoer says that elimination is an ambitious goal. This is because transmission is complex, involving 40 parasitic mosquito species behaving very differently.
Global Health Priority Boxes to determine which vector-control drugs would work
COVID-19 highlighted the critical importance of pandemic preparedness and a robust response to current and emerging public health threats. As crises breed innovation, new tools can rapidly be developed, particularly when barriers to collaboration are removed.
One such tool, the Medicines for Malaria Venture Global Health Priority Box, has a collection of compounds acting against pathogens and vectors. Scientists can access this at no cost and build on each other’s work. The box provides scientists with confirmed starting points to further advance the development of treatments and insecticides to tackle drug resistance and communicable diseases.
The WRIM’s Dr Ashley Burke, Ayesha Aswat, Nelius Venter and Erica Erlank are screening the Global Health Priority Box as part of a collaboration with the University of Pretoria.
The components of the box include 80 compounds with confirmed activity against drug-resistant malaria, 80 compounds donated by the Bristol-Myers Squibb compound library for screening against neglected and zoonotic diseases, and 80 compounds tested for activity against various vector species from the Innovative Vector Control Consortium. The plate can be used to screen and develop compounds for vector control and transmission blocking medicines.
The World Health Organization has certified 38 countries malaria-free.
In southern Africa, South Africa and eight other countries have made malaria elimination a policy goal.
While scientists have many hurdles to jump over, the WRIM is committed to developing new and innovative methods which can be implemented in the field.
Malaria – a history
The World Health Organization describes malaria as an ancient disease. Indeed, there are inscriptions on bones, tortoise shells and bronzeware in China, dating back more than 3500 years.
“The circular nature of transmission of the parasite, from human to mosquito and back to human, the ability of the parasites to form resistance to treatments and of the mosquitoes to form resistance to insecticides, and the complex lifecycle of the parasites makes malaria a tough disease to eliminate.”
South Africa has a long history (about 120 years) of malaria control activities. This has led to a drastic reduction in malaria cases. Nevertheless, the country is still prone to epidemics: the 1999/2000 outbreak resulted in about 65 000 cases in malaria season. Before this, the cases were totalling around 11 000.
More on this research
Known as the Sterile Insect Technique for Malaria Mosquitoes in a South African Setting, the initiative is a multiple and global stakeholder initiative coordinated and operated under the auspices of the Nuclear Technologies in Medicine and the Biosciences Initiative.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
The antibiotic bully in your beef
- Shaun Smillie
The use of antibiotics in livestock threatens public health, the environment, and food security. Researchers explore plants as an alternative.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs where bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat. It’s a growing threat that’s on the radar of the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2019, 1.27 million people worldwide died from AMR, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while another five million deaths associated with AMR were caused, in part, by antibiotics fed to livestock that end up on the tables of consumers across the globe.
AMR is set to claim even more lives in the future – by 2050, ten million fatalities annually are forecast, a figure higher than the 8.4 million deaths from cancer that occur every year. As AMR takes hold, common diseases that include respiratory tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases, and urinary tract illness will become untreatable.
Furthermore, the WHO estimates that, by 2030, AMR will force up to 24 million people into extreme poverty and has warned that lifesaving medical procedures would become riskier, and food systems increasingly precarious.
Potentially fatal priority pathogens
To combat this plague, governments and health organisations have embarked on an ‘arms race’ to develop new antibiotics to fight antibiotic-resistant ‘priority pathogens.’ In 2017, the WHO published a list of these priority pathogens, which were given the acronym ESKAPE. They include Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species. These are the pathogens that represent the greatest threat to humans and whose rise is in part linked to the practice of using antibiotics in food production.
Associate Professor Eliton Chivandi, Associate Professor Kennedy H. Erlwanger, and Dr Michael Madziva are researchers in the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Laboratory in the Wits School of Physiology. They explain that low doses of antibiotics are given to livestock to suppress the growth of microbiota that use up nutrients meant for the animal. The problem with this practice is that these synthetic antibiotics are the same, or similar, to those used in humans.
“Research has shown an explicit relationship between antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance in veterinary science,” says Chivandi. The use of these antibiotics has been found to cause kidney, liver and pancreatic toxicity in both livestock and in the humans that consumed those animal products.
“Some of the antibiotics also cause allergic reactions, immuno-suppression and reproductive failure,” adds Madziva. As more and more antibiotics are used in livestock and make their way into livestock products like eggs and meat, the greater the negative impact on consumer health.
Furthermore, the continued use of antibiotics to promote growth in livestock increases the chances of the transfer of antibiotic resistant genes to humans, which will further exacerbate the challenge to public health in the future.
“Additionally, and most important, the antibiotics expelled in livestock waste contaminate the physical environment leading to even further development of antibiotic resistance in the environment,” says Erlwanger.
However, there is potentially a safer alternative that these researchers are exploring: Phytochemicals. And humans have known about them for millennia.
Fighting AMR with phytochemicals
Phytochemicals are what plants use to protect themselves not only from browsing animals, but also from bacteria, protozoa, and viruses. They are known as metabolites and examples of these are tannins in tea, and flavonoids, a group of natural substances found in fruit and vegetables. Flavonoids are known for their anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties.
For centuries humans have known that some phytochemicals have medicinal properties. A well-known example is salicin which, for at least 2400 years, has been used to treat headaches. Salicin is found in the bark of the white willow tree and the compound is known for its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.
By the end of the 19th century, salicin was being synthetically produced and used in the manufacture of aspirin. It is only recently, however, that science has been studying purified phytochemicals to determine the efficacy and possible toxicity of the compounds. While much of the work on phytochemicals is still in the research phase, increasingly they are being seen as a safer alternative to antibiotics as growth promoters.
“In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the use of phytochemicals, nutraceuticals and other dietary products to support health and wellness and to treat illnesses,” says Erlwanger. Examples of these include coumarins, flavones, isoflavones and tannins, which are being used in food supplements to promote health.
But the trio believe that more research is needed not only to evaluate the efficacy of phytochemicals but also to determine their safety when it comes to the health of consumers and farmed animals. Then comes the task of getting the agricultural industry to accept the use of phytochemicals. This can be done through educational campaigns and more research.
“The clarion call by consumers of livestock and poultry derived foods is to replace synthetic antibiotics with natural products that mimic the biological effects of synthetic antibiotics,” concludes Chivandi.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Antibiotics: Too much of a good thing?
- Deryn Graham
The complicated doctor-patient dynamic requires managing expectations to protect both drug efficacy and public health.
If your doctor prescribes a broad-spectrum antibiotic for your bacterial infection, there’s a good chance that it will hit the mark and make you feel better within a matter of days. Or not. It’s more likely you had a viral infection – a common cold, for example – and your body would rid itself of the virus. Antibiotic medication is just the doctor’s way of pacifying you.
We have a complex relationship with our doctors in South Africa. At the affluent end of the market, our medical aid pays in part or in full for both a consultation and the prescription with which you leave the doctor’s rooms, so the pain we feel is not necessarily financial.
At the other end of the scale of the doctor/patient relationship in South Africa is the person who lives far from any primary healthcare facility, takes public transport to a clinic, and stands (or sits, if they’re lucky) in a queue for many hours before they finally get to see a doctor. After going through all this, on top of feeling ill, they probably have as high an expectation of receiving treatment in the form of drugs as does the private patient – and so the doctor dispenses an antibiotic.
Doctor anticipation, patient expectation
Lenore Manderson, Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology in the Wits School of Public Health contends that this is not a medical strategy to cure the patient but to keep their life on track. “Getting sick adds to the many insurmountable socioeconomic challenges that poor South Africans face every day,” she says.
According to Dr Duane Blaauw, Senior Researcher in the Wits Centre for Health Policy, surveys show that patients assume that doctors who prescribe medication are more qualified and more knowledgeable than those who send you away with instructions to rest and drink lots of fluids. And the more medication these doctors prescribe, the more their stock rises with patients.
As far as our belief in the medical profession goes, ironically, the doctor who spends a little more time with the patient to explain the difference between a viral and a bacterial infection, and which treatment goes with what, is more knowledgeable (though of course not necessarily more qualified) than the one who dispenses somewhat injudiciously.
“It’s the tension between patient expectation and doctor anticipation of that expectation, which results in many cases of over prescribing,” says Blaauw. “For example, when a doctor sees a child and is faced with parental anxiety, they may write a script, even if it’s unnecessary.”
The consequences of over-prescribing medication – that is, prescribing without any medical evidence that a drug treats the symptoms or cause of infection – is that drugs become ineffective. They are rendered antimicrobial resistant.
Antimicrobial resistance
Muhammed Vally is a Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy at Wits. He says that overcrowding and poor infection control in hospitals exacerbate the spread of infection. When the first, second, and third lines of attack against infection – via antibiotics – have been knocked out due to overuse, patients may be left vulnerable from virulent infections that do not respond to available drugs. That’s when we start to see deaths because of antimicrobial resistance.
“If doctors tested for certain conditions, they would find that antibiotics are not required, but they don’t send samples to labs because of costs and the risk of overburdening the system. However, the flip side of that is that prescribing antibiotics unnecessarily is also costly to the public health system,” says Vally.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as occurring when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
The WHO has declared AMR one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.
Manderson says, “Pathogens are always mutating and therefore different variants of a virus, bacteria, or fungus become resistant to certain drugs. We need to protect our drugs against overuse, because before long there will be nothing left in the doctors’ arsenal with which to treat genuine cases.”
‘Antibiotic guardians’
It’s all about the judicious use of antibiotics. For some infections, an antibiotic is absolutely the right thing to prevent complications. Manderson cites the prevalence of untreated urinary tract infections (UTIs), especially in the elderly, as an example. If the elderly lose their capacity to respond to antibiotics, UTIs can lead to much more serious symptoms, and then there is nothing left with which to treat the UTI,” she says.
The Federation of Infectious Diseases Societies of Southern Africa supports the South African Antimicrobial Stewardship programme.
A collaboration between the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the programme invites both human and animal healthcare professionals to pledge to become ‘antibiotic guardians’ committed to improving antibiotic prescription, to protecting patients from harm caused by unnecessary antibiotic use, and to combat antibiotic resistance.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Blocking the opioid pipeline
- Beth Amato
Treating opioid addiction is a painful, time consuming and often frustrating process. New medication can help solve this problem.
The drug nyaope has ravaged poorer communities in South Africa, with youth among the overwhelming majority caught in this opioid dragon's talons.
Nyaope is a highly psychologically and physiologically addictive drug, which makes it an enormously difficult habit to kick, once addicted. Severe illnesses (including collapsed and infected veins, damaged heart valves and the effects of diseases transmitted when using) and death are common.
Nyaope, also known as pinch, sugars or whoonga, is made of low-grade ('black tar') heroin, marijuana and antiretrovirals. Often, dangerous substances such as rat poison and pool cleaner are cut in. It can be snorted, smoked or taken through "bluetoothing", where one addict shares their blood with another through a minor blood transfusion. One hit can cost as little as R20 and is enough to get you hooked. Its high lasts between 6 and 24 hours and if not ingested again, withdrawal symptoms include vomiting and body aches.
Opioid use disorder
Part of the reason that so many struggle to escape nyaope's grip is that medical treatment for rehab is expensive, and therapeutics are cumbersome to administer and maintain. One of the current treatment drugs, Suboxone, is taken twice a day until the physical addiction is managed. An addict may claw their health back only through a long-term and multipronged approach.
"With the current treatment options available, people living with opioid use disorder (OUD) have to take treatment drugs at frequent intervals, with which patients find difficult to comply. Furthermore, current drugs used to treat opioid addiction only last six hours. Even then, only 50 to 60% of the drug treatment is bioavailable to the patient," says Sarjan Patel, a Master's student at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP).
The drug treatment is available in tablet, intravenous drip (IV) and implant form. While the range of options has improved, and with that better compliance, a long-term option is desperately needed.
Without buprenorphine and suboxone (the main treatment options), a patient has intense cravings and unfortunately, the chance of relapse is extraordinarily high.
A cheaper, quicker treatment
Patel has worked over the past 18 months under the supervision of Professor Yahya Choonara and Dr Mershen Govender to produce a targeted, sustained-release drug delivery system for OUD. He notes that the effective treatment of OUD requires a combination of drugs, which the delivery mechanism can offer.
Patel explains that the drugs to treat OUD (which are few and far between) compete to bind to the opioid receptors in the patient’s body and block the release of dopamine, which ignites feelings of pleasure. Even if an addict takes a hit of opioids, it won't find "space" and is unable to bind on receptors and so it loses its effect. "It is an amazing 'blocking' system and one administration is equivalent to 14 tablets”.
With the new treatment, the patient will only need a weekly dose. "We hope that this will reduce costs and become a long-term treatment for OUD," says Patel.
Urgent need for opioid substitution therapy in SA
Opioid use disorders, including heroin, which is widely available in South Africa, account for 70% of the global burden of drug-related disease and disproportionately affect the poor. In addition, there is the concern around the link between injecting heroin, hepatitis C virus and HIV and the impact this has on communities and healthcare systems.
Consequently, the inclusion of opioid substitution therapy (OST) in the 2018-2022 National Drug Master Plan is a welcome development. Before this, there was a dearth of treatment options and the high cost of methadone, a common OST treatment drug, remains an issue. The Sultan Bahu Centre in the Western Cape, which opened its doors as a pilot site for OST in 2015, was the first of its kind. Others have been established since, but too few to beat the pernicious opioid beast.
This is why Patel's Master's research at the WADDP is so important. "What’s really notable is that the delivery system in development is flexible enough to deliver other drug treatments. We are testing it for OUD, but there is a lot more potential to deliver life-saving treatment drugs in a cost-effective and longer acting way,” says Patel.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Hooked on games and the silver screen
- Leanne Rencken
What is it about TV and film that’s so compelling that we can’t resist immersing ourselves in celluloid?
Binge-watching series? Obsessed with Netflix’s latest blockbuster? Human beings have ardently consumed TV and film for decades, and it’s the storytelling behind the medium that gets us hooked. Remember Scheherazade? The character and storyteller in the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the One Thousand and One Nights, in which the sultan takes a new wife each night and has her executed the next morning.
Scheherazade survives by telling the Sultan stories every night. Her early adoption of the cliffhanger – a plot device in which a part of the story ends unresolved in a shocking or suspenseful way – saved her life.
The same thing that kept the sultan entranced is what keeps us glued to our screens today; how the narrative of shows is crafted, and its delivery are as important as the plot. Similar rules apply, whether we’re watching TV and film, or playing a video game.
Connection and escapism
But there’s more to our screen addiction than good storytelling. Lecturer in the Film and Television Department at Wits, Jurgen Meekel, speaks about the duality of connection and escapism, and how the medium offers both. People can either watch the news via a plethora of 24-hour current affairs channels or use film and TV services to escape reality.
This was especially true during the Covid-19 lockdown; Nielsen reported early in the pandemic that “home-bound consumers led to a 60% increase in the amount of video content watched globally”.
Kieran Reid, Head of Wits Digital Arts, expands on the notion of reality and escapism and how games allow for a semblance of control. He says, “Our goals in life are really complicated and not so clear cut; you have no idea if you have the right tools to do what you need to do, whereas a game gives you a clear way of engaging and a core set of rules, and those rules are the correct rules to help you achieve your goal.”
In addition, Reid explains that people keep playing games because they are competitive. “Whether you are playing against yourself or an opponent, there’s a sense of achievement in success, which is rewarding.”
Whether they are games that can be played socially with several people, or that are played solo on a mobile device, success in these games is a compelling reason to keep coming back to them.
“As a department, we are very interested in understanding play and facilitating interactions, so the students are constantly designing ways in which people will engage with their product, and obviously, in some ways, that’s about manipulating them to stay longer, to enjoy themselves, and to make sure the interactions lead to more interactions, so that they keep coming back,” says Reid.
More media that mirrors
Unlike gaming, when it comes to film and television, the appeal of the win does not apply. However, social media has brought in an added dynamic to our compulsion to watch a show or series. ‘Discovering’ new content from the ever-expanding pool, before it trends, and making good recommendations translates to solid social currency, whose reward is the potential to give someone influencer status. In this example, both the influencer and the influenced become keen followers of a particular programme.
“There’s a huge difference in the way we consume broadcast media and games today, but also how we make film and TV. The audience has become more versed with the creation of media, they’ve become experts, so the creators have had to develop more intelligent stories, deepen their characters, and include multiple narrative arcs, which I think is most interesting,” says Meekel.
He also notes the democratisation of the media, with more representation of audiences and their lives in programming. This has led to streaming services clamouring to create and broadcast ‘local’ content. Ideally this will lead to more opportunities for students in his department.
How we watch and play
But it's not just the amount, or types of content that have increased – how we watch has also changed dramatically. Since its launch in South Africa in 1976, television has had mass appeal. Now, with 72% of the South African population connected to the internet, streaming media is easier than ever. Despite the high cost of data, Google reports that YouTube ads, and by extension YouTube content, reached over 42% of the South African population in 2023.
Streaming services including Netflix understand the appeal of Scheherazade style story telling in pulling in viewers. Pilots are no longer the hook for television series and for this reason, streaming platforms prefer the series dump, enabling us to become addicted to our favourite (or favourite hate) characters, which research shows is by around episode three or four, and binge watch until we’ve had our fix.
More on this research
BLNK is a screening series where directors, writers and producers come to show work and discuss it with students. BLNK facilitates Film and TV Department Cinema screenings, which are occasionally open to the public. For details, email pervaiz.khan@wits.ac.za.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Beating the ʻpharmaceutical arms race’ in sports
- Simnikiwe Xabanisa
Drugs in sport is eroding the public credibility of many sports heroes’ superhuman performances. Can trust be restored?
The scepticism with which the recent slew of field and track world records was greeted revealed the broken trust between athletes and their public.
In the last few elite Diamond League athletics meetings, the women’s 1 500m and 5 000m times, and the men’s 3 000m steeplechase and two-mile milestones, have all been smashed.
But praise for Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, who broke both the women’s records, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma, who won the 3 000m steeplechase, and Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s two-mile achievements was lacklustre, considering these were essentially superhuman feats.
Kipyegon broke her records in successive weeks while Girma and Ingebrigtsen’s marks were established after 19 and 25 years respectively, the Norwegian running two back-to-back sub-four-minute miles en route to his record.
Renowned South African sports scientist Ross Tucker spoke for everyone on his podcast – The Real Science of Sport – speculating that the new records were the result of more than just the advances in sports science and shoe technology.
Tour de farce?
Ever since Marco Pantani, Jan Ullrich, Lance Armstrong and others turned the Tour de France into a pharmaceutical arms race on wheels, the sporting public has struggled to believe in the authenticity of these jaw-dropping achievements.
The suspicion is a pity, because past performances by Girma, Kipyegon and Ingebrigtsen suggested that they each had the capacity to break records. Former Lions’ team doctor and Wits University sport and exercise medicine physician, Professor Jon Patricios says that given athletics’ doping history our sense of disbelief is to be expected.
“It’s a real issue and Ross is right to ask the question,” Patricios explains. “What he’s doing is comparing trends, and when they skyrocket, you’re entitled to be cynical. Athletes will argue that training techniques have improved but who knows? Once you see trends like these, our cynicism is not misplaced.”
Ever since marathon runner Thomas Hicks nearly died from a cocktail of brandy and strychnine he’d taken in the hope of enhancing his performance in 1904, administrators and athletes have been locked in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse over the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
School boys on ‘Roids”
Today, questions are still being asked. “It’s reasonable to ask if the cheats are still getting one up on the authorities,” says Patricios. “At high levels, including in rugby, where there’s regular and random testing in and out of competition, the testing protocols are quite tight,” he says.
“But I fear that in less high-profile sports, at amateur and school level, we’re losing the battle. We can see this for example from the numbers that are coming through from tournaments like rugby’s Craven Week, where there were 10 positive tests last year. This is astronomically high and can be attributed to the lack of randomised testing and regulations of minors and the need for parental consent. I have no doubt that the use is more prevalent than we think.”
Patricios’ concerns around the use of performance-enhancing drugs at school rugby level are supported by the revelation in a BBC article three years ago that 21 youngsters in South Africa tested positive for steroids between 2014 and 2018.
One especially notorious case was that of former Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies) student, Salmon van Huyssteen, who was handed a two-year ban after it was found that he was administered a Nandrolone injection by his mother in 2012.
In the stampede to create test tube Springboks from a school system that borders on professional in its competitiveness (a number of coaches have left the professional ranks to coach at school level because it is more lucrative), the health risks of taking these drugs are all but ignored.
“Steroids affect many systems in the body. Blood pressure, changes to the heart, sugar and cholesterol levels, potential infertility, damage to the liver and kidneys, as well as psychological damage. Almost every aspect of the user’s physiology can be adversely affected,” says Patricios.
It doesn’t help that drug bans in South Africa have only the “nuisance value” of speed humps on a racetrack. Van Huyssteen, for instance, made his return on the Blue Bulls’ under-19 bench the day after his ban expired.
Former Springbok wing Aphiwe Dyantyi, who was banned in 2019 after testing positive for a bodybuilder’s cocktail of three banned drugs, Metandienone, Methyltestosterone and LGD-4033, was similarly greeted on his return from his four-year hiatus when his new contract with the Sharks was announced.
Dyantyi’s ban only officially ended on August 13, but the deal was all but done a year ago.
The prevailing public sentiment was to hail the return of an all-conquering hero because of Dyanti’s exciting talent and because he always denied knowingly taking the drugs.
However, to cynics, Dyantyi had an improbable rise from not even playing first team rugby at school to Springbok status and being voted World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year in 2018. His lack of physicality at school hinted to the fact he would have needed help to reach his 90kg weight at the time of his ban.
The doping scourge has even implicated the Kenyans, whose incredible distance running exploits were always put down to living and training at high altitude, hard work and ugali, their staple version of mealie pap.
In 2022, no fewer than 45 Kenyan athletes were sanctioned for the use of Erythropoietin (EPO), which increases red blood cell production. When you think about it, living at altitude, which also elevates your red blood cell count because of the thinner air, is great cover for EPO.
Biotech for the win
The cat-and-mouse game between authorities and athletes is being fought along technological lines, with the establishment’s greatest strides being the introduction in 2009 of the biological passport – a baseline snapshot of an athlete’s physiological make-up which is used as a point of reference should there be deviation in future in biological markers.
“But remember that technology isn’t one-sided,” warns Patricios. “It doesn’t just favour the testers. Those who would use science to cheat also have technology at their disposal.”
A great example of the sophistication the authorities are up against was legendary American distance runner Alberto Salazars, when he was head coach of the Nike Oregon Project, which gave the world Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, among others.
Salazar, who won the New York, Boston and Comrades marathons – was given a four-year ban in 2019 for trafficking testosterone, administering athletes prohibited IV infusions and encouraging them to take prescription medication such as the thyroid hormone whose side effects include enhanced performance.
All we can do is marvel as sporting records are broken and hope that they have not been fuelled by performance improving drugs.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Turning green grass into gold
- Ufrieda Ho
Academia can help show how the cannabis industry can be a thriving sector in the country.
A re-start for the Wits Cannabis Research Initiative this year is an opportunity to sharpen this academic focus on a plant and industry that holds wide-ranging promise, but which needs an appropriate framework and clearer direction for its potential to be realised.
The research initiative got its start in January 2020 when a diverse collective of Wits researchers and academics came together to build stronger interdisciplinary research on cannabis. This emerged against the backdrop of a Constitutional Court ruling in 2018 decriminalising the use of cannabis for private use by adults. The ruling signalled a post-prohibition era in step with a global shift in attitudes to cannabis, but it also heralds unchartered waters for regulation and momentum has now stalled.
The ambitions of the group were also abruptly snuffed out with the Covid-19 lockdown starting in March 2020. Professor Imhotep Alagidede, in the Wits Business School, says the work of the group continued but in more separate streams. In 2023 though, he says, the Wits Cannabis Research Initiative is regrouping and reorganising in the hope of becoming a fully-fledged research unit.
Red tape smothers growing green
Academic backing and collaborative endeavour, he says, are essential because the legislative barriers and licensing red tape to work with cannabis are significant. Wits University currently has a Schedule 7 licence that allows for growing the plant, to conduct research on it, and for the creation of products and compounds focused on drug development. As at June 2023, there were only around 93 licences granted by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), which oversees licensing when cannabis compounds are used in health products. Alagidede says private individuals trying to secure licences face prohibitively expensive costs associated with meeting the legal and security requirements set down for licensing approval. Individuals also need to have established physical facilities even before licensing approval.
The research group’s members were part of the conceptualisation phase of South Africa’s National Cannabis Master Plan that was released in 2021. The plan’s key focus is on integrating small growers into formal cannabis value chains and addresses licensing, technical and financial support. According to the master plan, the formal cannabis industry could be worth R28 billion and has the potential to create up to 25 000 jobs.
“Beyond finding the best plants to farm in the different regions in South Africa we want to create new businesses. High unemployment rates mean we need to think about alternative ways of creating jobs and, by my own analysis, the sector has close to 250 different products associated with it – from applications in the industrial and construction industry, such as hempcrete, ropes and thread products, to fashion and medical applications,” Alagidede says.
The next steps for the industry, he says, should include pushing for policy outlines to be relevant and specific for South Africa. He says they cannot be imported “copy and pastes” from North American legislation and need to be focused on lowering barriers to entry and creating enabling spaces for entrepreneurs here.
Curative cannabis
For Tanya Augustine, cell biologist and Associate Professor in the School of Anatomical Sciences, the therapeutic benefits of Cannabis sativa remain under-researched. This despite the fact, she says, that humans have cultivated the plant for thousands of years especially for cordage and textile manufacture. She adds: "The psychotropic effects of Cannabis sativa [how it affects a person's mental state] associated with religious rituals and medical applications were recorded as early as 5 000 years ago in ancient Chinese texts.”
Augustine was a key lead of the research initiative in the years before the 2018 court ruling. She highlights the importance of understanding the compounds in cannabis as the plant is impacted by a range of conditions, including climate change, modes of harvesting extraction and drug delivery. For her, researching these complex variables is necessary to develop breakthrough drug therapies, and then to understand biological responses to such drugs. It’s also a boon for standardisation, which in turn is how small growers, who have always supplied the illicit market, can become more reliable suppliers, and carve out a bigger stake in any new cannabis value chain, she says.
“Legislation and policy frameworks can be tricky because there is no consistency. So that’s why we need to make it easier, especially administratively, to do more research. It’s also how science can better impact small scale cannabis growers, who should also be connected with those in the commercial space. We need to act fast enough so South Africa can have a foot in the door of global markets, but we can’t rush to commercialisation without the correct foundation in place either,” she says.
Decriminalisation disempowers
Prioritising inclusivity in this potential new economic sector is critical for Katrina Lehmann-Grube who is a researcher in the Wits Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. Before joining Wits, Lehmann-Grube worked at the Institute for Economic Justice where her research involved looking at inclusive development for the South African cannabis industry. She says the industry could look to models such as tiered licensing for small-scale growers and setting appropriate thresholds for maximum tetrahydrocannabinol levels for hemp classification that would protect small-scale growers.
“You want barriers to entry to be low enough that traditional growers can enter the markets and benefit. You don't want to exclude the most marginal – who have been criminalised by the system before – and only make it a source of accumulation for the elite, which is essentially what we're doing now,” says Lehmann-Grube. She points out that decriminalisation has resulted in “the bottom completely dropping out of the market.” Traditional growers’ prices for cannabis have fallen sharply, which has meant decriminalisation has had the opposite effect of economically empowering those on the margins. Also, as a newly legalised industry, the cannabis industry doesn’t have the benefit of advocacy and awareness that comes with long-established union, trade associations and civil society organisation support.
Lehmann-Grube adds that mindsets need to change too, because the route to decriminalisation in South Africa came through the narrow, and therefore limiting, channel of private rights of adults to use cannabis.
“The pathway to decriminalisation through the privacy route was premised on the freedom for private use but should have been focused on more holistic approaches to social and economic justice,” she says.
Engineering efficient crop cultivation
It means making more equitable room for multiple actors, those who have always been on the bottom rung but come from generations of growers, as well as the likes of emerging entrepreneurs who do not have access to capital. Two Wits Master’s students who fall into this category of entrepreneurs are Constant Beckerling, a chemical engineer, and Anlo van Wyk, a mechatronic engineer. Their multi award-winning designs of automated closed loop hydroponic cannabis cultivation systems with LED lighting led them to set up their company, AgriSmart Engineering, in March 2020.
By 2022 they had built and designed a facility and had 255 commercial prototypes of the LED technology on three different cannabis farms in the country. Their continued success in innovative solutions has seen them work with several commercial partners in southern Africa.
Beckerling says: “When you talk about cannabis in the pharmaceutical industry, it means that you need to have a very close reproducibility of the crop outcome. The only way to ensure this consistency in crop outcome is to monitor and standardise your production inputs very closely.”
This is where their engineering advantage of technology and science helps fine-tune cultivators’ reproducibility of output needs by controlling every aspect of growing conditions, from light, to temperature, soil composition, and pest and disease control.
They have also seen the potential of being able to use their grow solutions from the vast range of cultivation options – from small scale open fields to hybrid models to sophisticated grow houses. The key for anyone growing commercially at whatever scale, techniques, illicitly or legally, they believe, is to be efficient and to engineer for appropriate problem solving.
Van Wyk says South Africa must maximise its regional advantages, which include high solar availability, arable land, and competitive labour rates, to develop new technologies and pioneer industry models that can set standards and be innovative in a nascent industry. He says: “We aim to develop technologies that are affordable and therefore accessible to more clients, and that will help South African products compete on a global stage that is growing all the time.”
Beckerling says that while their technology is focused on cannabis, it has at its heart engineering for efficient crop cultivation of virtually any kind. It’s about the future of growing crops by being energy efficient, minimising carbon footprints, striving for climate resilience which results in the quality on which people want to spend their rands.
“This has been our objective since we got started – it’s all or nothing,” says Beckerling. What’s coming for the cannabis industry could be huge and South Africa cannot be caught napping.
“It’s just a matter of time before South Africa wakes up and decides to take this really seriously,” he says.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Your drug questions answered
- Curiosity
From alcohol to cocaine, caffeine to cough syrup, Wits experts shed light on legal and not-so-legal drugs of choice.
Why is alcohol socially acceptable but not cannabis?
One is legal and the other isn’t! Any drug in excess, including alcohol, is dangerous. More people are addicted to tobacco, nicotine, and alcohol, than to other drugs. Alcohol users are much more likely to develop dependence and build tolerance, making alcohol a major drug of addiction.
What makes Coca-Cola addictive? What happens to your body when you drink Coca-Cola?
Coca-Cola's addictive qualities can be attributed to its high sugar content which triggers dopamine in the brain, creating a temporary sense of happiness and satisfaction. Caffeine provides the stimulating effect. This and other similar drinks’ excessive sugar content is a major cause of obesity, which is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some cancers.
This is dependent on several factors including body weight, genetics, chronic health conditions (including medication) and the amount regularly consumed. Possible effects include insomnia, dehydration, gastric irritation, heart palpitations, tremors, nervousness and anxiety (including panic attacks). Two to three cups of coffee a day (200-300mg of caffeine) is regarded as moderate use unlikely to cause harm. Positive effects have also been ascribed to coffee due to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of some of its other 1 000 constituents apart from caffeine. These include a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, liver disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke, heart failure and colon cancer.
Studies show that dopamine release in the brain is the specific neuropharmacological mechanism underlying the addictive potential of both caffeine and sugar and is also caused by other drugs of dependence, including amphetamines and cocaine.
Cough syrup and Bioplus are two different types of medications, and their potential for addiction and side effects can vary significantly.
Cough syrups can be classified into those containing codeine or other opioids, and those without opioids. Cough syrups that contain opioids like codeine have a higher potential for addiction. Opioids are pain relievers and can cause feelings of euphoria, leading to their abuse. Prolonged use of these syrups can result in physical dependence, tolerance (needing more of the drug to achieve the same effect), and addiction. Over-the-counter cough syrups that do not contain opioids are generally not considered addictive.
Bioplus is a brand of energy supplement that typically contains caffeine whose potential side effects are answered in question 3.
What are the side effects of the long-term use of painkillers?
The long-term use of painkillers, especially opioids, can lead to several adverse effects, including tolerance, physical dependence, and withdrawal symptoms when stopped. Chronic use can lead to constipation, nausea, drowsiness, and impaired cognitive function. Additionally, opioids can depress respiratory function, posing a risk of overdose. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may lead to gastrointestinal issues like ulcers and bleeding, as well as kidney problems. Paracetamol, in high doses, can cause liver damage. It's crucial to use painkillers under medical supervision and explore alternative pain management strategies for long-term relief.
How does addiction actually work? Is it a psychological or physiological response, or a combination of both?
More than 60% of individuals who experience early life trauma, including fear are considered to be at risk of developing an addiction to a substance. Fear impacts on the development of a normal stress response system and consequently dysregulates brain circuits.
The circuits involved in addiction are the:
amygdala and hippocampus affected by fear,
nucleus accumbens and the ventral pallidum which respond to rewards that increase dopamine,
anterior cingulate gyrus and prefrontal cortex, responsible for cognitive control, downregulate control of the orbito-frontal cortex, and
Orbito-frontal cortex evaluates the value of rewards and the decision to use a substance is given.
Where does cocaine come from? And how does it work?
Cocaine is found in the leaves of the Erythroxylum coca plant and is indigenous to South America, Mexico, Indonesia, and the West Indies. Its use has been documented as early as the 1400s and remnants of coca leaves have been found in the remains of Peruvian mummies.
In 1860, an active ingredient of the coca leaf he called cocaine was isolated by Albert Niemann whose colleague went on to develop its chemical formula. The two were credited with finding the effect of cocaine on mucous membranes although Peruvian surgeon Moréno y Maïz subsequently conducted the first animal studies. In 1884 Carl Koller demonstrated the benefits of cocaine as an anaesthetic, sparking worldwide interest in the drug. William Halsted and Richard Hall later developed the nerve and regional blocking techniques of cocaine.
Cocaine gained popularity among the medical fraternity for its clinical benefits, but this rapidly changed when it became a drug with potential for social abuse.
Cocaine’s dopaminergic action affects the brain’s reward systems. High levels of dopamine produce intense feelings of energy and alertness inducing further cravings as well as increased tolerance levels. This can become dangerous and can lead to addiction and overdose. Furthermore, cocaine’s rapid absorption, delivery to the brain, short half-life, intense central and peripheral neural stimulation all contribute to its abuse potential.
Medical cocaine administered in a controlled environment has reduced risks of adverse effects whereas unregulated recreational cocaine use is potentially highly dangerous. Cocaine is a scheduled drug and as per the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, drugs used for medicinal purposes should not be used for “satisfaction or relief of a habit or craving for the substance used or for any other such substance, except where the substance is administered or used in a hospital or similar institution maintained wholly or partly by the Government or a provincial government or approved for such purpose by the Minister”.
Is it better to vape rather than to smoke cigarettes?
Both cigarette smoke extract and e-cigarette extract inhibit neutrophil function. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that act as your immune system’s first line of defence. It’s important to note that this occurs whether or not the vaping liquid contains nicotine. Neutrophils also produce cell free DNA by exostosis in the form of NETS – Neutrophil extracellular traps. While this property is inhibited by cigarette smoke extract it is not by e-cigarette extract. These August 2023 study findings indicate that, while e-cigarettes may be less harmful than traditional cigarettes in some respects, they are still harmful and their use has the potential to result in pulmonary (lung) infection.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Getting into that natural study rhythm
- Ntando Hoza
Q&A: Academic stress and pressure can lead students to use unhealthy choices such as medication cocktails, energy drinks and supplements.
How can students improve focus and concentration without resorting to drugs or substances?
Start with an appropriate study environment that is preferably quiet and free from distractions. Establishing a study routine or timetable is crucial.
Regarding actual studying, there are many different individual styles and techniques. Students should identify what works best for them, whether it's visual, auditory, or another technique.
In general, breaking up study material into smaller, manageable sections or tasks helps improve focus. One useful study method is the Pomodoro Technique, which involves studying for a concentrated period, followed by a short break. Periods should be timed, and after completing several cycles, breaks can be extended.
Breaking up the workload and adhering to a schedule is also useful in reducing the feeling of being overwhelmed, which creates unnecessary stress.
Sleep right, sleep tight
Sleep is incredibly important for maintaining energy, focus, and concentration. Students should ensure that they get seven to eight hours per night after studying, and before an exam. Practising good sleep hygiene is recommended to establish a good sleep pattern, including maintaining a calming bedtime routine, turning off electronics at least an hour before bed, and engaging in wind-down activities before going to sleep.
Get moving
In addition to rest, exercise and physical activity are also important. Regular breaks should incorporate exercise or a sport, which not only benefits mood but also contributes to brain health. Physical activity helps with the stress of academic work and enhances focus and concentration.
Hobbies and maintaining social connections that help students relax and unwind are also beneficial.
How can students increase their energy levels and maintain mental alertness throughout the day?
Physical activity, hydration (drinking enough water), and sleep!
Are mindfulness techniques or relaxation exercises an alternative to medication?
Yes, practising stress management techniques, such as mindfulness, deep breathing exercises and meditation can be extremely helpful.
What coping mechanisms or strategies can students incorporate daily to cope with academia?
Students should prioritise what is important. Creating a schedule that accommodates academic obligations, rest, relaxation, as well as a healthy social life is necessary for a well-balanced life.
Ntando Hoza is Communications Intern for Wits University.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Cheers to SA’s most pervasive drug
- Shoks Mnisi Mzolo
Alcohol is so ubiquitous and its marketing so pernicious that there’s a tendency to underestimate its impact on public health. So, why do we drink?
Cool and hip youngsters glowing with good health and living the high life grace a billboard at Johannesburg’s Maponya Mall. The thirst-inducing billboard extols some recently introduced ‘extra smooth’ beer. Of the 28 billboards with prime locations along a 10-minute drive on the M1, five sell beer, whiskey, and brandy. Further, about 10 alcohol adverts per hour are beamed to SA households during primetime TV, united in their silence on its toxicity and other harms.
Dangerous daily sundowners
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and that any beverage containing alcohol, regardless of its price and quality exposes drinkers to cancer.
Drinking alcohol daily is toxic and considered a public health red flag. Broadly, tolerable maximum units equate to 10-14 per week. For context, the 750ml bottle of wine (with 14% alcohol by volume) equals 10.5 units of alcohol, while a 440ml beer can (5% alcohol by volume) totals 2.2 units. Thus, the ceiling – to keep harm minimal – is somewhere around a dozen cans of beer or a bottle of wine per week. Expect a dizzying 35 units from a 750ml bottle of brandy. But nobody walks around with a calculator to keep track of units taken. Alcohol is the most pervasive drug in South Africa – and its abuse is alarmingly clear.
Mpinganjira blames this scourge, in part, on easy access. The sight of intoxicated people and fights breaking out on weekends at taverns, pubs and clubs is common. This underscores Mpinganjira’s assertion that alcohol consumption impairs judgment and triggers an invincibility complex.
“Drinking opens a lot of problems. As with any drug, it is hard to self-regulate. The ground is fertile in South Africa because of the country’s socio-economics set-up,” Mpinganjira says, adding history and socialisation.
Alcoholic infants
The contrast between communities hardest hit by alcohol abuse and the buoyant youth on the Maponya billboard is stark. In the Western Cape at wine farms, the ‘dop’ system of part payment of wages to workers (including pregnant women) in wine, prevailed until it was outlawed in 2003.
As a result of the ‘dop’ system, the Western Cape is the world capital for foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which took root in colonial times. It is a condition that condemns unborn children to stunted physical and mental growth. “Regardless of what the law says now, people are unable to just abandon drinking – it’s a behavioural issue,” says Dr Joel Francis, an epidemiologist in the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care in the School of Clinical Medicine, who advocates that direct interventions extend to neonatal care and that alcohol intake be discouraged during pregnancy.
Labels and mixed messages
While advertising bans and explicit warnings printed on cigarette packs make the dangers of smoking clear, government is ambivalent about alcohol-induced harm, argues Mpinganjira. “We’ve got to stop looking at alcohol consumption in isolation because its effects are extensive. There’s a link to the health side, to the economic side, to societal development,” she says.
Aggravating the ambiguity are those messages that incorrectly but loudly claim that there are health benefits to moderate alcohol intake. Francis, who advocates appropriate labelling of alcoholic drinks, says, “Messaging with alcohol abuse is conflicting. This is a huge industry. It’s an oligopoly of seven companies pushing for aggressive marketing. We are in a place where commercial determinants lead to a conflict of messages.”
Big Liquor vs promulgation
Another source of conflicting messages is the stop-start-stop Liquor Amendment Bill, approved by Cabinet for public comment in 2016, now stuck in the pipeline. In the meantime, East London’s Enyobeni tavern tragedy in June 2022 – where 17 of the 21 youths who died were reportedly underage – demonstrates the urgency for stronger legislation.
Liquor is big business. It sustains jobs in every community, from taverns to high-end clubs. The alcohol industry even has its own Association for Alcohol Responsibility and Education (AWARE) “for promoting the responsible use of alcohol”, according to www.AWARE.org.
AWARE claims to support “sober pregnancies” to staunch FASD and to fight “binge drinking”, which targets people aged 25 to 34. While acknowledging studies that suggest excessive alcohol indulgence affects people as young as 15-years-old, the industry continues to invest billions in sports sponsorships and mints a fortune in government taxes.
Drinking during lockdown
Although promulgation on its own will be no panacea for alcohol-induced social ills, regulation could arguably tame some bad habits. A study by Dr Witness Mapanga, a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre of Excellence in Human Development, found that despite alcohol sale bans during lockdown in 2020, not only did many people polled find access to the bottle, but a third of those who drank “were classified as having a drinking problem that could be hazardous or harmful” and nearly a fifth “had severe alcohol use disorder during the Covid-19 lockdowns”.
Mapanga reckons that short-term gains should not hurt long-term public health. “Surely reduced consumption will lead to a decrease in sales and that could mean job losses. The question that the industry should ask itself though is: what’s ideal? Are suppressed sales and better health outcomes less important than better sales and poor national health? When people drink and smoke excessively, outcomes include several problems,” he says. “Does the industry want healthy and fit customers or a damaged society?”
A damaged society suffers multimorbidity (the presence of two or more long-term health conditions). Professor Xavier Gómez-Olivé, Associate Director at Agincourt, says alcohol use is associated with multimorbidity among adults. The risk of multimorbidity increases with age, and liquor compounds exposure to unprotected sex, multiple partners, and other forms of irresponsible behaviour.
In rural areas, drinking alcohol increases the chances of multimorbidity by 5% (if HIV is included) and by 6% if HIV is excluded. This is according to a Wits study that involved 10 000 participants in South Africa, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Kenya. The study found that, of the urban communities polled, the highest level of intake was in Soweto where about 71% of males polled drank.
Raising the bar for public health
One of the most effective ways to fight alcohol abuse should involve outlets for messaging and should focus on the youth – but not neglect the broader population, asserts Gómez-Olivé.
“People know about car accidents, STIs and multimorbidity, yet they still drink heavily. Others drink to get drunk. Let’s find out why people drink so much. There’s a lot of poverty and inequality here. In villages without structure, there seems to be higher consumption levels. As we saw with lockdown, forbidding or banning sales doesn’t stop consumption. South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. That brings us to a lot of problematic social issues or family matters.”
Mapanga wants the subject probed further. “We need more research to establish why things are the way they are, to search for interventions. Let us understand the impact of drinking and smoking on adults.”
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Inside the mushroom bubble
- Beth Amato
Psychedelics: Are they the magic bullet some claim for the treatment of conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder?
The colourful, spiralling land where people can supposedly hear colours, taste shapes and confront the traumas of their past seems to have captured the world's imagination. Psychedelic drug acolytes have been known to spend their life savings travelling to these Dali-esque cure-all mindscapes from the earthly comfort of their luxury accommodation in the Amazon jungle. In fairness, the quest to slay hungry psychic ghosts and finally get to grips with the human condition is understandable and, perhaps, necessary.
Psychedelics, which alter the state of consciousness bringing purported mental and emotional benefits, include ayahuasca, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), San Pedro (mescaline), toad venom, MDMA (Ecstasy), peyote, and ketamine and indeed are part of post-capitalism's lexicon. Now, you too can get rich off psychedelic stocks because hallucinogenic start-ups are (ahem), mushrooming.
Before hallucinogens hit the mainstream, making appearances in swanky sweat lodges from Sao Paolo to Swellendam, they had been used for thousands of years for ritual, medicinal, cultural and trade purposes in indigenous societies. This raises many concerns, chief among which include the economic exploitation of indigenous knowledge and resources, and of course, the overall safety and oversight of the psychedelic industry.
So promising are psychedelics’ treatment of complex post-traumatic stress disorder and intractable depression, that Australia became the first country to allow doctors to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin to patients. Many developed countries have embraced the zeitgeist, with several US states such as Colorado and Oregon making psychedelic use legal.
Whatever happened to the war on drugs?
Ironically, it is these countries that were staunch proponents of the so-called "war on drugs" that pushed psychedelic and traditional healing medicines to the margins. But the Global North is very good at spotting and exploiting monetary opportunities. Cue health entrepreneurs with immense wealth to set the wheels of production in motion. Eventually, pharmaceutical companies will be able to sell their psychedelics (heavily marketed as the ultimate medical magic bullet) back to the people who have been custodians of these products and systems for generations.
In South Africa, mind-altering substances and rituals were regulated by draconian colonial laws.
Cannabis, which can have psychoactive components, has a long history of indigenous use in South Africa. The practice of using cannabis to induce a trance-like state in 'rituals of rapture' has been embedded in Khoisan culture for over 600 years. Notably, cannabis performed a critical role in the pre-colonial exchange economy until the British sought to outlaw it. They believed that cannabis caused mental instability, insanity, crime and delinquent behaviour. The government under Jan Smuts officially prohibited cannabis in 1922.
Professor Catherine Burns, a medical and health historian, and the Educational Developer at the Wits Health Sciences Teaching and Learning Office, says that historically, people have always used the fruits of the land, particularly in the northern parts of the country. "People have used plants to aid in childbirth, to connect with ancestors, to suppress hunger, assist with aches and pains, and alleviate nausea," she says.
Burns notes that many South Africans continue to use a variety of healing modalities, despite the dominance of the western medical model in hospitals and clinics, and the fact that so-called alternative medicines have been marginalised. Nevertheless, she still laments the split between ethno-pharmacology and chemical pharmacology. The latter is deemed robust and has a strong tradition in South Africa with its range of clinical trials and its leadership at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Dr Sinethemba Makanya, a Lecturer of Medical Humanities in the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care at Wits University, explains that while there is no specific name for psychedelics in African traditional medicine, substances are used to bring one closer to spiritual guides. Makanya, who is also an inyanga, calls it dream medicine. "We ingest it so we open ourselves up to receive messages. We want our ancestors to show us the path," she explains.
These plant medicines hold a central place in many cultures in which people and plants are mostly seen to have a reciprocal relationship rather than one of extraction, expedience, and exploitation of the one by the other.
Bio-piracy and cultural appropriation
Hoodia, a well-known appetite suppressant cultivated initially by the Khoisan, was the subject of a landmark "bio-piracy" case. When the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) patented 'P57', derived from the Hoodia cactus, and granted development rights to UK pharmaceutical firm Phytopharm, the San community was not informed but ultimately won the legal case and is now part of a 'benefit-sharing' agreement with the CSIR.
This case highlights issues of cultural appropriation relevant to the use of indigenous hallucinogens, and the brazen profiting from ancient healing practices.
"It's tricky territory," says Makanya. "What does compensation mean? And what makes it meaningful?" She believes that we need to consider using others' practices as tools to incorporate into one's repertoire. "It is the energy you approach it with. We can't have a purist notion of healing … It's about incorporating different therapies into the canon of your work."
Makanya is concerned with issues of access and the continuation of systemic injustice in the healthcare system. "I came to San Pedro and psilocybin through well-connected people and with access to technology. It was from a privileged place. If these medicines are indeed important for healing, then we need to make them available to everyone," she says.
Safety first
Makanya explains that there are strict guidelines for taking traditional African dream medicines. Clients must perform cleansing rituals to prepare the body mentally and physically. "I think this kind of oversight is really important, because we are talking about people's psychological wellbeing."
In Australia, they have experienced some pushback due to the psychedelic hype outpacing safety and ethical considerations.
Psychedelics are still illegal in South Africa and are classified as Schedule 7 drugs, along with heroin. Meanwhile, adults are allowed to possess, use and grow cannabis for their own personal consumption. This was a landmark Constitutional Court ruling, and while beset with flaws in its application, it has inspired South African advocates to push for legalising psychedelics.
The burden of mental illness means wider treatment options should be available.
Burns says that we must guard against believing psilocybin, for example, is a silver bullet to treat mental health issues. This reductionist view doesn't account for the range of ways and combinations of modalities often required in a treatment plan.
Nevertheless, the available treatment options for mental illness could be expanded. A paper by the South African Medical Research Council Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit shows that more than a quarter of South Africans suffer from probable depression and anxiety. This is significantly higher than in other countries. Sadly, only a quarter of those with mental illness seek treatment.
“With our high burden of disease, the time is now to consider broadening treatment modalities”, says Burns.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
The daily drugs in our diet
- Leanne Rencken
“We need to create an environment for people where the healthy choice is the easier choice.”
Earlier this year, community WhatsApp groups and social media lit up with parents desperately looking for a fix. Under pressure from their social media savvy children who’d landed on YouTube viral content, it seemed consumers would do and pay anything to score some Prime, splurging upwards of R400 for 500ml of the American energy drink, and parents were left scrambling.
If you weren’t part of the Prime frenzy, think about the over-inflated prices people were prepared to pay for cigarettes and pouch tobacco during the most stringent Covid-19 lockdowns, and about the brewing of hazardous homemade concoctions to bootleg or top-up the booze cabinet.
It seems we are all prepared, in one way or another, to go the extra mile for ‘our daily drugs’ – those seemingly benign items we consume regularly without thinking too much about their impact on our health. And these daily drugs including caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and ultra-processed foods are readily available, aggressively marketed, promoted by influencers, and glamourised in the media.
She says that, although it hasn’t always been the case, these days we’re shopping for convenience foods; ready-to-eat that doesn’t require any preparation but which “can be very harmful”. The excess fat, sugar and salt contained in these foods has resulted in a sharp increase in NCDs like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers.
Commercial determinants of health
One of the reasons we like to eat so much of these foods is because the additives with which they are filled make them taste good. Big industries have developed around these products to make them more competitive in the marketplace – think about the cartoon characters, games, and movies affiliated with children’s food. This is what’s known as a ‘commercial determinant of health’. “We don’t even know what we’re eating. A big part of the problem is that it’s all hidden,” says Goldstein.
Children’s cereals are a clear example. They are filled with sugar, so kids are tempted to eat them, which results in a sweet tooth, potentially leading to obesity. Historically, sugar was considered a condiment and used sparingly. Today, however (although some of it still exists in its most familiar form), ingredients like ‘corn sugar’ and ‘glucose’ on packaging are not recognisable to us as sugar. These are added to food in huge quantities and labelled using terminology with which we’re unfamiliar.
Legislating labelling
This is where food labelling becomes important. The South African Department of Health is on the threshold of introducing policy that will see a big change in food packaging requiring labels to be a certain size, and if the product contains more than the recommended amount of sugar, fat and salt, or non-nutrient sweeteners, the label needs to be placed on the front of the product.
“If you have these on the front of the pack, it means that at least people have an idea of what’s in there. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not going to buy it or eat it, but at least it will guide people’s understanding of what’s healthy and what isn’t”, Goldstein explains.
Furthermore, if products fall into the category requiring front labels, advertisers won’t be allowed to market them to children, and product owners will have to adapt the fonts, colours, illustrations, design and affiliations that make them so appealing to youngsters.
Smoke breaks and caffeine fixes
While food is clearly problematic, Goldstein says caffeine, in moderation, is probably okay. But when it comes to electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or vaping, she believes these are just as dangerous and carcinogenic as any other tobacco product, including snuff and regular cigarettes.
“The tobacco industry wants us to think [e-cigarettes and vaping] help people stop smoking, but it seems like it’s the opposite. Studies are now showing that young people who use electronic cigarettes and get addicted, often then move on to smoking tobacco.” Her other concern is that e-cigarettes are available to youngsters and with their bright colours and over 50 flavours, including bubblegum, they’re specifically marketed to appeal to the youth.
Research by Guy Richards, a pulmonologist and Emeritus Professor of Critical Medicine at Wits, confirms the health hazards of e-cigarette vapours. His paper, published in the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ Open Research) in August 2023, compared the effects of e-cigarette vapours and tobacco smoke extracts on human neutrophils (a type of white blood cell that acts as your immune system’s first line of defence).
The study found that e-cigarette vapours, exactly in the same way as cigarette smoke, “adversely affect the innate immune system”. Richards says, “These findings indicate that while e-cigarettes may be less harmful than cigarettes in some respects, they are still harmful and have the potential to predispose to pulmonary infections”.
Step-up for a healthier environment
It’s clear that our daily drugs are far from benign, but how do we steer clear of them? Goldstein says, “The way we look at it from a public health perspective is that we need to create an environment for people where the healthy choice is the easier choice – where it’s easier to choose a healthy food than a processed food, easier to walk somewhere than go by car”.
She concedes that in some cases this is difficult to apply, given many people’s environment and financial constraints. Those who are living in poverty frequently have no means or space to cook, have no refrigeration, and limited access to shops offering fresh and healthier products.
People who do have choices should lobby government to ensure that products are labelled correctly, Goldstein says, and as consumers we should demand food that is healthier, cheaper, and more readily available to everyone.
Highly processed foods are feeding our addiction to salt, sugar and sugar derivatives and yet we remain oblivious to the harm they are doing.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Jagged little pills or panacea for health?
- Lem Chetty
Vitamin and nutritional supplements are big business, but are they effective or just a waste of money – or even dangerous?
There was something oddly familiar about a recent superfood trend. Matcha is a green tea from East Asia, similar in taste to spirulina, and found everywhere from coffee to confectionery. Both are powerful antioxidants, but are these and other nutritional supplements formulas for longevity and vitality or just expensive snake oils?
Energy, youth, beauty for all in a bottle
Associate Professor Neelaveni Padayachee, in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice at Wits, says that the vitamins and supplements industry is growing. “Demand escalated during the pandemic because people believed they reduce the risk of Covid-19-related complications… which, as a matter of fact, is yet to be proven,” says Padayachee.
The South African health supplements industry is worth more than R2 billion. But who is consuming these products? The answer is everyone from students on Omega-3 supplements, to athletes looking to increase performance, middle-aged adults to preserve youth, and older people seeking alternative nutrition options.
But do they work?
The disclaimer on supplements is standard: Always ask advice from a healthcare professional and consider the scientific evidence before you try something new, particularly in conjunction with chronic, acute, and over-the-counter medicines. Padayachee adds that people should not replace seeking professional healthcare advice with supplements which they believe will cure them.
“Health benefits are also based on what supplements are taken and in what quantities. Here, the concept of ‘less is more’ applies. For instance, high doses of vitamin C and B6 can lead to kidney stones and toxicity respectively,” she says.
Padayachee believes that administered correctly, some supplements do work.
Omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish oil, have been proven to be effective in reducing inflammation, supporting heart health, and improving cognitive function.
Supplements are commonly recommended for vitamin D deficiency, as this is important for bone health, immune function, and overall well-being.
CoQ10 is involved in cellular energy production and acts as an antioxidant. It may be beneficial for individuals with heart conditions, migraines, and certain neurological disorders.
But there are many others that don’t work and/or are downright dangerous: Ephedra, also known as ma huang, was used for weight loss and athletic performance enhancement but due to cardiovascular events and fatalities, was banned in many countries.
St. John’s Wort is used to manage mild to moderate depression, but it can interact with medications including antidepressants, birth control pills, and anticoagulants, reducing their effectiveness.
Vitamin E can be dangerous especially for people taking blood-thinners. Despite its being an essential nutrient with antioxidant properties, excessive intake through supplements may increase the risk of bleeding and haemorrhagic stroke.
Melamine in protein shakes
The work of Dr Gary Gabriels in the Department of Pharmacology and PhD student Mandisi Sithole has highlighted the use of harmful substances in protein supplements, including melamine, a chemical compound used in products including cabinets and countertops.
Gabriels’ 2015 paper reads: “These supplements may contain adulterated substances that may potentially have harmful short- and long-term health consequences to the consumer. ‘Scrap Melamine’ is such an example, which has been implicated in the kidney failure and death of animals.”
Sithole says, “My additional research in 2022 found two other compounds, cyanuric acid and uric acid, both related to melamine, present in protein supplements. Research has shown these substances to be more toxic to the kidneys when found in combination with melamine, which was the case in most of the supplements that were studied.”
Melamine is rich in nitrogen and can artificially and inexpensively enhance the protein content of protein supplements. While the additive may be banned in one country, it could appear in animal feed elsewhere, reaching the consumer in other ways.
Gabriels’ advice is to be cautious as these products could have health consequences later on.
“We’ve seen this in athletes who use supplements during the peak of their careers and only feel the negative effects decades later,” says Gabriels.
He also suggests that consumers read labels. “A shake will say ‘100% protein’ and is often a lie. If you cannot understand the ingredients, phone the manufacturer and ask for an explanation.” Padayachee says that there’s a regulatory deficit between vitamins and supplements, and scheduled medicines.
“Medicines are regulated for safety, quality, and effectiveness by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) – unlike complementary and alternative medicines (CAMS) including vitamins and supplements. However, in 2017, after amendments to the General Regulations of the Medicines and Related substances Act 101 of 1965, SAHPRA has been making strides in regulating the CAMS sector.”
Gabriels concludes: “The aim isn’t to demonise the products. The purpose is to regulate them instead. If we don’t control the environment, we will be dealing with the consequences.”
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Alternatives to traditional cancer treatment
- Ufrieda Ho
Opinions around cancer treatment options can be highly divisive, but many patients don’t have the luxury of choice.
The harm versus benefit argument around cancer treatment is complex and not easily resolved. But more harmful than any drug is not getting a diagnosis, or one early enough, to give more people the luxury of choice.
Razeeya Khan, Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy whose special interest is oncology pharmacy, says we cannot argue harm or benefit without acknowledging the lack of cancer awareness and patient education in the country, or the shortage of oncology specialists.
“The problem is about more than who can access hospital treatment. It’s also empowering people to recognise the signs and symptoms of cancer and getting them to go for check-ups or a referral, coupled with seamless care through the health system,” she says.
“We are not talking just about availability and access to care, but also the need for better patient advocacy and initiatives to close the gap between private and public sector healthcare.”
Treatment inequality
There are also divides between access to new therapies and advances in cancer treatment in developed countries versus availability and affordability in less-resourced countries like South Africa. Research and development imbalances result in skewed resources, with less funding and fewer opportunities in the Global South.
And yet Africa is facing an increased cancer burden. The World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2023 reported that an estimated 1.1 million new cases of cancer are reported in Africa each year, resulting in about 700 000 deaths annually. The WHO estimates that by 2030, this number will be closer to one million.
In developed countries, Khan says, cancer treatments are moving toward precision medicine; using targeted therapies to manage some cancers as chronic illnesses. These therapies target the proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide, and spread. Khan says: “The aim is to reduce the size of the tumour to stop it from spreading. The cancer is kept in check by targeting specific cycles of its cell growth. There are also immunotherapies that enhance the patient’s immune system to fight the cancer.”
In South Africa we are far from being able to offer these therapies, but scientists and researchers are nonetheless pushing ahead.
An alternative 3-step treatment
PhD student Alisha Badal in the School of Molecular and Cell Biology has made advances with her award-winning research which hones in on the treatment of triple negative breast cancer through a three-step method using advanced gene editing to manipulate a tumour suppressor gene.
Triple negative refers to cancer cells without oestrogen, progesterone or HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor2) receptors, making them more complex to treat.
“This is the most difficult type of breast cancer to treat because it is associated with higher proliferation and recurrence rates compared to other types, but for now treatment options are limited mainly to chemotherapy, which has adverse side effects and can, over time, become less effective as cancer cells become resistant,” Badal says.
“We have devised an alternative three-step treatment. Firstly, we aim to increase the expression of the GAS5 gene using advanced molecular CRISPR-CAS9 technology. In healthy cells, GAS5 is produced in sufficient quantities to identify defective or damaged cells, triggering programmed cell death. In cancer cells, GAS5 is produced in very small quantities, allowing cancer to grow and form tumours,” Badal says.
These altered cancer cells are then exposed to two drugs that are both inexpensive and highly efficient. One is UJ3 and the other is a US Food and Drug Administration approved PARP inhibitor. UJ3 has shown to be 10 times more effective than the conventional chemotherapeutic drug Cisplatin while the PARP inhibitor works to stop the process of cell repair and renewal, causing cancer cells to die. PARP, poly-ADP ribose polymerasea, is a protein (enzyme) found in our cells, which helps damaged cells to repair themselves.
“It is the first time using this approach. Advancements in immunology and endocrine therapy for treating cancer are important because in Africa we are at a major disadvantage. Many drugs are unavailable, and screening resources and awareness programmes are limited, so many cancers are detected late resulting in limited treatment options,” she says.
Homegrown treatment
Leveraging locally available and appropriate science may be part of the answer. For Associate Professor in Anatomical Sciences, Tanya Augustine, one area of opportunity for cancer management lies in compounds derived from cannabis. The region is ideally suited to growing cannabis and its decriminalisation for personal use for adults in 2018 opened the door for more research.
Although research is in its very early stages, cannabis has long been used by cancer sufferers and those undergoing chemotherapy to relieve pain and nausea and to stimulate appetite.
Augustine’s research looks at how cancer subverts the immune and coagulation system to procreate.
“We need to do more research to understand cannabis’s utility better so that it doesn’t remain forever in the realm of complementary medicine,” Augustine says.
She adds: “One of the biggest effects of cannabis on the endocannabinoid system is in helping pain reduction. Some of the receptors for these phytocannabinoids are concentrated in the central nervous system, that’s why they work so well in relieving pain.
Cannabinoids bind to the receptors, preventing the release of certain neurotransmitters associated with pain. Very early in vitro studies are showing that some of the compounds in cannabis may enhance the effects of one of breast cancer’s gold standard drugs.”
Augustine adds: “There are still a lot of unknowns about how cannabis works in cancer treatment – such as what it’s doing to immune cells, if it’s anti- or pro-inflammatory and how the interactions might switch certain transmitters and receptors on or off. We need more legislative reform so we can do more research. For every question, there are five more, it’s like a rabbit hole,” she says.
It’s a rabbit hole that researchers want to explore for an opportunity to change the landscape of cancer cure and care – and not a moment too soon.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Obesity – a new treatment frontier
- Lem Chetty
Current treatments are complex and expensive but new studies reveal that obesity medication could be the answer to this epidemic.
What is the biggest threat to the lives of most people in the world today? You would be wrong if you imagined natural disasters, war, crime, or famine. The global pandemic that far outweighs any other is associated with lifestyle related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, among other ‘preventable’ illnesses. Obesity is a driver and co-condition of these illnesses.
Wits researchers say that obesity is a real yet ignored global pandemic. In southern Africa, 41% of women and 11% of men over the age of 15 years are affected. This ‘obesogenic environment’ features “a rapidly changing diet driven by an aggressive processed food industry and a genetic hand that predisposes one to obesity.” New research shows that there could be a cost-effective pharmaceutical treatment that could help solve obesity. So why aren’t we giving it to people who so desperately need it?
In their article, Tackling obesity with medication: New hope and real challenges, the researchers write about their successful use of medication to treat patients battling obesity – but these drugs are expensive and need to be carefully monitored, including by an endocrinologist.
“[The] results [of using obesity medication] are pretty predictable and amazing! Every person that we have treated who tolerated the drugs, including lots of people who do not have HIV, have shown between 7% to as much as 20% weight loss in just over a year. Regrettably, if you stop the medication, weight steadily comes back … so people with obesity may be on some form of these drugs permanently,” says Venter.
The team had explored traditional weight loss interventions in both HIV patients and HIV negative people who had unexpectedly gained weight. For both groups, lifestyle and dietary changes proved ineffective.
“We learned that exercise and dieting only occasionally achieve sustainable weight loss. Although eating properly and being active is very, very important for good health, for the majority of people it won’t make you lose weight, except in the very short term,” says Venter.
Obesity drug hurdles
Venter and the team’s secondary focus into obesity research emerged from their 2019 study, ADVANCE, which sought to compare new ARVs to historic ones. While weight gain initially was thought to be a side effect of certain ARVs, it now seems rather linked to genetics, access to healthy food, or the obesogenic environment.
Intrigued, the HIV researchers found that “a new world of weight physiology, exciting new treatments, and even new non-stigmatising language around obesity emerged,” says Chandiwana. While the results of the obesity treatment trial are remarkable, it also showed that access will be the main barrier for the general population.
A 2023 Lancet paper in the journal Obesity, titled Pharmacotherapy of obesity: an update on the available medications and drugs under investigation, showed that it is possible for patients to access obesity drugs and keep pharmaceutical companies profitable at the same time – but South Africa is way off being able to access these obesity drugs, other than in the private sector.
While there may be some similarities to the hurdles faced with ARVs, the obesity epidemic is “killing us more slowly” and is indirectly and directly responsible for earlier death. The issue of obesity lacks prioritisation and a coordinated civil society response. “Obesity does not receive the same level of attention and funding as other health issues, which impedes progress,” says Chandiwana.
There are also significant gaps in the pharmaceutical supply chain, from research and development, through regulatory processes, to affordability and accessibility. “Ensuring that anti-obesity medication is affordable and accessible to everyone living with obesity, including those with limited resources, is a significant challenge,” she says.
Prioritise beating obesity
Chandiwana outlines her wish list for tackling obesity in South Africa:
The first step is the acknowledgement and prioritisation of obesity as a chronic disease and pressing public health issue by government, healthcare systems, and society.
Then, comprehensive prevention efforts, including promoting healthier food, simple and honest food labelling, and creating supportive and safe environments for physical activity and nutritious eating.
Next, treatment options need to be accessible and scaled up in primary healthcare clinics for greater impact.
Finally, health equity – ensuring that interventions and resources reach all segments of the population, particularly those most vulnerable to obesity, including black women and children.
“It is going to take multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, community organisations, and individuals affected by obesity to address the multifaceted nature of the epidemic,” says Chandiwana.
Venter concludes that it will be a “long time” coming before new medicines to tackle obesity are widely available unless more urgency and attention is paid to the issue. “First, the Department of Health needs to be more proactive about classifying obesity as something it actively wants to do something about.”
Exercise. Increasing your heart rate for 30 minutes a day is beneficial.
Sleep. Adults typically require seven to nine hours per night.
Move. Be less sedentary. Move briskly every 30 minutes. Stand up more and consider a standing desk if you’re a ‘desk-jockey’.
Eat better. Improve food choices including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, protein and drink eight glasses of water daily. Fibre fills you for longer. Eat smaller portions. Limit refined grains, sweets, processed meats, and sugary drinks.
Cook smarter. Steam, boil or grill, rather than frying.
10 reasons to improve your lifestyle before popping obesity pills
While drugs like semaglutide are a valuable tool in treating obesity and diabetes, they can’t replace the benefits that lifestyle changes provide, however challenging! Professor Shane Norris, Director of the Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit explains the benefits:
Holistic benefits: Beyond weight loss, diet and exercise improve cardiovascular health, mental wellbeing, bone density, and reduce the risk of certain cancers.
Sustainability: Medication may result in rapid weight loss, but without lifestyle changes, weight often returns once the medication is stopped.
Side-effects: All medications have potential side effects.
Accessibility: The cost, insurance limitations, or availability of drugs may restrict access.
Individual variation: While drugs like semaglutide are generally effective, individual responses vary. Lifestyle interventions are more widely beneficial.
Psychological benefits: Research proves that physical activity and a balanced diet positively affect mental health, reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety which medication may not achieve.
Co-morbidities: Lifestyle changes can help manage or even reverse other conditions like Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia.
Prevention: Drugs may treat obesity, but lifestyle behaviours can prevent it.
Empowerment: Take control of your own health.
Comprehensive treatment: Most healthcare professionals advocate a multi-faceted approach to managing obesity but lifestyle changes can complement the effects of medication, leading to better outcomes.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Leading the way to an HIV cure
- Deryn Graham
The battle to save millions of HIV-positive lives bears fruit in unexpected ways.
When the business, commerce, and manufacturing sectors in South Africa were all forced to ‘pivot’ during the Covid-19 pandemic and find new ways to ensure their business sustainability, so too were our health scientists, who took time off of their decades-long intensive research into HIV, immunology and virology, to tackle the latest health threat.
But while their focus shifted from what was once South Africa’s leading causes of death, it was just these expertise, from some of the world’s leading specialists in the field, that helped the country become one of the leaders in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The labs, expertise and knowledge that we have developed in South Africa in our work on HIV was invaluable in our preparedness for the pandemic,” says Glenda Gray, Research Professor in the School of Clinical Medicine at Wits.
“Without the clinical infrastructure and the work on neutralisation that our researchers have been doing around HIV, South Africa would not have been able to run the vaccine trials and respond in the way that we did.”
Now, however, the HIV focus is back on track, and the work that the country’s specialists are doing is paying off directly in fighting the human immunodeficiency virus at which it is directed. The tide in the thirty-year battle against HIV has finally turned in South Africa.
From a country that was once simply “the one with the largest population of HIV infected people in the world”, through the denialism years in 1999 to 2008, to rolling out the most extensive treatment programme globally, we have finally taken matters into our own hands.
“South Africa is taking the lead in HIV vaccine trials, implementation science, and different ways to deliver antiretroviral drugs,” says Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Wits, whose work Gray cites as part of the Covid-19 pivot.
Treatment vs cure
Local money is being put into the search for a ‘cure’ for HIV and into finding a vaccine for a virus that Gray describes as one of the most difficult to crack. A functional cure has in fact been demonstrated in a number of patients worldwide, with Wits scientists being deeply involved in the study group of international researchers who were responsible for the third patient that was cured of HIV.
The so-called ‘Düsseldorf patient’ followed successes in Berlin and London. What the patients had in common apart from being HIV positive, was that all three had leukaemia [blood cancer]. They each underwent a stem cell transplant from a donor known to have a genome mutation in the HIV-1 co-receptor, CCR5 that makes cells resistant to HIV.
After receiving the transplant, patients remained for a time on antiretrovirals (ARVs) but after a period that differed in each case, were finally taken off this medication and the HIV remained supressed and undetectable. The goal of a functional cure is to render HIV unable to replicate so that the carrier no longer transmits the virus to others, and this is what was achieved in each of these cases.
At the International Aids Society Conference on HIV Science held in July 2023 in Brisbane, a new patient, the so-called ‘Geneva patient’ was revealed to have been ‘cured’ in the same way, but this time by a donor who did not have the CCR5 mutation.
“While these results are exciting, they do not represent a scalable cure for people with HIV,” says Dr Annemarie Wensing of Ezintsha, a division of the Wits Health Consortium, who, along with her colleague Dr Monique Nijhuis from the HIV Pathogenesis Research Unit at Wits was part of the Düsseldorf study. “Stem cell transplants leave patients extremely vulnerable with no immunity whatsoever for a period of time, making the procedure very dangerous,” says Wensing.
But in terms of HIV treatment, much the same as with cancer, putting patients into remission is almost as good as a cure. For now, the ARV drugs on the market are also able to achieve this.
Finding a vaccine
“Staying ahead of a virus that mutates at an incredible rate like HIV is a major challenge,” says Morris. “It means vaccines needs to keep changing too.”
Another major obstacle is that HIV integrates itself into the DNA of our T-cells, so vaccines need to block every single virus particle from infecting a cell by making sure that they stimulate the right kinds of immune responses.
“Traditional vaccines that produce antibodies to fight off a disease have proven ineffectual against HIV. So far, all the efficacy trials of HIV vaccines have been disappointing,” she says. “One of the biggest challenges of our times is how to make a vaccine that produces neutralising antibodies against the HIV envelope protein, but there are some encouraging new approaches including mRNA [messenger RNA] that proved so successful with Covid-19.”
Prevention better than cure
The adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ has never been truer than with HIV. Behaviour amongst young, sexually active females continues to pose a risk of exposure to HIV, but if government is able to ramp up its 95/95/95 by 2025 programme, which lost some ground during the Covid-19 pandemic, we may be able to slow the rate of new infections down.
The 95/95/95 programme targets seek to ensure that 95% of people living with HIV know their status and that, of these, 95% receive ARVs. Of those on treatment, the aim is to achieve a level of 95% with an undetectable viral load, reducing the risk of transmission to zero. Currently we are sitting on 94/77/92.
Morris believes that what ARVs have already achieved in South Africa is remarkable. “The fact is there is an entire cohort of people living with HIV and who are on ARVs. They are living long and healthy lives. Indeed, they are living longer and healthier than many other people, as they have learned to take better care of themselves,” she says.
New drug regimens have been shown to prevent HIV infection, including daily pills for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the use of neutralising antibodies as passive immunity, and a bi-monthly injection of a long-acting ARV, CAB-LA, have all been trialled in South Africa.
Systemic fragility
There are local investors and financial and medical resources at our disposal in South Africa, but in terms of commercial viability, Morris believes that we need more incentives for pharmaceutical companies specifically. In business, these are known as ‘off-take agreements’ – pre-orders or commitments to purchase – but it appears that government has neither the budget nor political will in this case.
The country’s inadequate public health system remains a barrier to achieving better results in dealing with HIV. Both Gray and Morris are excited for the future of HIV research and the eventual eradication of the virus through vaccination, immunotherapy treatment or a possible cure, but they are cautious about the South African health system’s capacity to implement potential new protocols.
“Our health system is fragile, and we saw a number of slippages as a result of Covid-19,” says Gray.
However, there is certainly a great deal to be hopeful about in the search for a solution to HIV. Gray says, “South Africa has some of the world’s leading medical researchers in HIV. The country – and Wits – are open for business when it comes to investment in new technologies, new medicines, and new treatments for the virus.”
Any work done on HIV can also benefit research on other viruses, which may or may not already exist as was shown with Covid-19. Gray underlines the importance of the work that Wits is doing on HIV for other medical fields, including cancer research.
Every victory against HIV, every step forward in the search for more effective treatments and preventative medicines, takes us closer to discoveries in other fields.
“Any investment in HIV and immunology research is an investment into the future health of the country,” says Gray.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
The future of medicine
- Delia du Toit
Imagine a world where medicines can be guided to the exact place that they are needed in the body – a world closer than you think.
For centuries, smallpox ravaged humankind. During the 18th Century, 400 000 people died every year in Europe from the viral disease. The earliest evidence of skin lesions resembling those of smallpox was found on the faces of mummies from the Egyptian dynasties as early as 1570 to 1085 BC. Thanks to the development of a vaccine in the late 1800s, smallpox has since been wiped from the face of the earth.
Such is the nature of medical innovation. Once a viable solution to a problem has been found, a disease can become part of the history books. It is not such a big reach, then, to assume that some of today’s biggest medical challenges such as hypertension, various cancers, and even certain forms of paralysis could be more easily treatable in the coming years.
Developments in drug delivery
Professor Yahya Choonara, Chair and Head of Pharmacy and Pharmacology in the Faculty of Health Sciences as well as Principal Researcher and Co-Director of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP), is one of the experts leading the charge in advances in drug delivery. The WADDP, he explains, focuses on three broad areas: advanced drug delivery that delivers medicine to specific sites in the body; nanomedicine, which reduces formulations to a nano scale for better targeting; and tissue engineering and regeneration, which includes such marvels as the 3D bioprinting of human tissue.
“Advanced drug delivery is the science of developing 21st Century therapeutic interventions that ensure drugs can reach their target site of action in the body. This is beneficial because it improves the absorption and effect of medicines and significantly reduces side-effects. Some examples of targeted drug delivery technologies and nanomedicines include stimuli-responsive biomaterials, self-assembling molecules, ultrafast or extended-release delivery systems, and multilayered tablets that can be taken once but absorbed at different rates, and even the use of magnets to guide drugs to certain parts of the body.”
The focus of current projects at the WADDP is on infectious diseases such as HIV and TB, targeted anti-cancer therapeutics, 3D-bioprinted wound healing systems, bio-inspired tissue engineering, and oral insulin systems.
Thriving tissue regeneration
Merging nanomedicine with tissue engineering is changing the face of regenerative medicine.
One such exciting development from the WADDP is the work of Dr Poornima Ramburrun, a researcher in biomaterial design and tissue regeneration, who designed a biodegradable hydrogel conduit used to repair peripheral nerve injuries.
Currently, treatment for such cases involves taking nerves from another site in the patient’s body, creating two compromised sites. Alternatively, cadaveric donor tissues are used, which are sometimes rejected by the patient's body. This new device offers a better alternative, and a patent has already been granted in South Africa, Europe, the USA, and China.
“Where nerves have been severed due to traumatic injuries such as vehicle accidents, or stab or gunshot wounds, the nerves have limited capacity and need assistance to regrow. This conduit acts as a bridge across that gap and protects growing nerves from the surrounding inflammatory environment, while releasing drugs to help the nerve fibres to regenerate. The device looks similar to the clear ink tube inside a pen, and it is sutured by a surgeon to either side of the damaged nerve,” she explains.
Another very promising project is that of Dr Gillian Mahumane, who has developed a nano-reinforced hydro filled 3D scaffold for neural tissue engineering in the brain. She explains: “Brain tissue has a hard time repairing itself, sometimes causing a loss of function. So, if, for example, a small tumour is surgically removed, leaving a cavity, the brain tries to heal that tissue very quickly to restore the communication network, forming a scar that can block neurons.
“This device mimics healthy tissue to trick the brain into not responding immediately to repairing it, and instead carrying on with its normal daily cleaning and regeneration at the site, as if this was healthy tissue, eventually rebuilding healthy tissue at the injured site. Nerve signals travel across the scaffolding, which is biodegradable so that the body can break it down when its job is done.”
Jumps in genetics
In tandem with these innovations, advances in genetics research make ‘personalised’ medicine a very real possibility. Professor Michèle Ramsay, Director of the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB), explains: “At the moment, the most broadly effective drug for any given condition is usually prescribed to most patients. So, if there are five drugs available for a condition, doctors prescribe the one that usually works for the majority. But people are very different – some will respond well, others will see little effect, and others could suffer serious side effects.”
The results could be disastrous. One 2015 study of four South African hospitals, for example, showed that 16% of hospital deaths are related to adverse drug reactions.
Pharmacogenomics aims to take the guesswork out of prescribing, by looking at genetic variants that determine how a person will metabolise and respond to a drug.
This is especially important locally, adds Ramsay. “We need more data to apply precision medicine in African populations. There’s a lot of data available on European and Asian populations, but these studies wouldn’t necessarily be relevant in an African context.”
Available studies confirm this. Collen Masimirembwa, Distinguished Professor at the SBIMB, showed that side effects of the HIV drug Efavirenz (EFV), which include rashes, depression, and even suicidal tendencies, are more commonly observed in African patients on a standard dose of 600mg/day. Many people in Zimbabwe and Botswana also have a gene variant that increases the metabolism of EFV and renders the standard dose toxic when it is administered.
Following this discovery, lower doses led to increased compliance and better viral control. In Botswana, too, genomic studies showed that about 13.5% of the population would be unable to effectively utilise EFV-based therapies, leading to a change in the country’s HIV management policy in favour of dolutegravir.
Masimirembwa is currently also working on similar studies to look at the effects in African populations of the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen as well as certain tuberculosis and malaria drugs. Ramsay hopes that the practical application of some of this research could be as close as two or three years away.
Kuda Nyamupa, a PhD candidate at the SBIMB, is also working on a new pharmacogenetics-guided treatment algorithm for hypertension in black South Africans. His research involves 600 patients from Soweto and the goal is to develop a guide for health practitioners to discern what medications and dosages to use for these patients. This decision is not only influenced by genes, he says, but also by other factors such as age, body mass, activity levels and alcohol use.
“We don’t apply the term ‘one size fits all’ to most facets of our lives and yet we take this approach with medication. In the future, this will change. As genetic testing becomes more common and readily available, especially in Africa, medicine will become personalised and much more effective,” says Nyamupa.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
DRUGS!
- Lynn Morris
Editorial: The word ‘drugs’ evokes a range of reactions – from the hopes of ‘miracle’ cures to the sadness of addiction and social harm.
As a virologist, drugs are an important part of my profession and I am continuously amazed by the ingenuity in this field.
Penicillin, first discovered in 1928, revolutionised medicine and highlighted the serendipitous nature of research. When Alexander Fleming, an astute researcher with a sloppy laboratory technique noticed there were no bacteria growing near the mould that had contaminated his petri dish, he immediately understood that a diffusible compound with anti-bacterial properties was responsible. It took another 12 years of research before penicillin was available, saving millions of lives.
I am familiar with this story having done my doctoral studies in the Oxford laboratory where Howard Florey and Ernst Chain first isolated and purified penicillin, and for which they and Fleming won the Nobel Prize in 1945. It also demonstrates the role that such discoveries have in solving public health crises.
Advancements in biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics have led to rational drug design and the rise of ‘big pharma’ making enormous contributions to developing life-saving drugs. By understanding the structure and function of target molecules, researchers are able to reverse engineer drugs for higher specificity, fewer side effects and improved therapeutic outcomes.
Personalised medicine, enabled by the completion of the human genome project, advances in robotics and automation, and data analysis through AI have led to major advances in drug discovery. However, it still takes years of research and clinical testing before new drugs can be used in humans.
The Covid-19 pandemic changed that. The availability of highly effective mRNA vaccines within a year of the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 was unprecedented, even unexpected. It was achieved by conducting testing, approvals, and manufacturing in parallel, which under normal circumstances would be too risky, especially for a new modality.
Now, with this breakthrough, if a new virus with pandemic potential was identified, it’s estimated a vaccine could be ready within 100 days. That’s why it’s critical that we develop our own mRNA manufacturing capability, which we are doing through initiatives including the mRNA WHO Tech Transfer Hub, in which Wits scientists are playing a leading role.
HIV is another devastating public health crisis where Wits researchers play a prominent role. For decades, Wits has been leading the way in diagnosing, treating and documenting the epidemiology and genetic diversity of HIV. Studies conducted in South Africa on long-acting antiretroviral therapies, novel drug combinations, monoclonal antibodies, experimental vaccines, and microbicides have all led to significant findings, providing evidence-based guidance on when to initiate treatment, which drugs to use, and how to monitor and support individuals living with HIV. An emphasis on community engagement and implementation science ensures that HIV treatment programmes are locally relevant and effective.
This edition of Curios.ty highlights the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits. It spans experimental laboratory studies, clinical applications, community impact as well as social and behavioural aspects. Multidisciplinary drug research will ensure that our work positively impacts current and future diseases. Our collaboration with other academic institutions, research organisations, government agencies and pharmaceutical companies helps to accelerate the pace of drug discovery and increase its impact.
Professor Lynn Morris is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation of Wits University.
Read more in the 16th issue, themed: #Drugs, where we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
Curios.ty 16 (#Drugs): Between hope and hell
- Curiosity
In this issue, we highlight the diversity, scope, and multi-dimensional nature of drug-related research at Wits University.
The 16th issue of Wits University’s research magazine,Curios.ty, themed: #Drugs, is available online now: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/. (To republish articles, see guidelines below).
We delve into advances in HIV drugs and the economic potential of cannabis respectively, and look at innovations in drug delivery, drug adherence, psychedelic therapeutics, and what horses have to do with snake venom, and birth control with mosquitoes.
We also explore alternatives to traditional cancer treatments, consider antibiotics and their corollary antimicrobial resistance, and how plants could mitigate this World Health Organization-identified threat.
Yet, amidst the promising horizons, we turn our attention to the shadows, probing the darker realms of drug research about addiction, doping in sports, and how those legal but lethal drugs – alcohol and cigarettes – permeate our lives as do ‘fixes’ in food and the modern proclivity to ‘pop pills’ for obesity or for nutritional supplementation.
Highlights:
Leading the way to an HIV cure (page 8): The battle to save millions of HIV positive lives bears fruit in unexpected ways.
Obesity: A new treatment frontier (page 12): Current treatments are complex and expensive but new studies reveal that obesity medication could be the answer to this epidemic.
The daily drugs in our diet (page 18): Aggressively marketed, promoted by influencers, and glamourised in the media, regular and accessible stimulants like caffeine, nicotine and ultra-processed foods are far from benign.
Inside the mushroom bubble (page 20): Are psychedelic substances the magic bullet they claimed to be for the treatment of conditions such as depression and post-traumatic disorder?
Turning green grass into gold (page 28): Academia holds a uniquely advantageous position to show what a thriving sector the cannabis industry could be for the country.
Blocking the opioid pipeline (page 36): Treating opioid addiction is a painful, time consuming and often frustrating process. New medication can help solve this problem.
About Curios.ty
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Curios.ty is available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
Contact Wits Communications should you require more information or visit our media section for more on our experts and latest media releases.
Democracy and Archives: A quest for truth
- Gabriele Mohale
Archives are the custodians of evidence in the pursuit of truth and records of Commissions of Inquiry are fundamental to support democracy.
Commissions of Inquiry have played a crucial role throughout South Africa’s history. Appointed by the highest office in the land, the judiciary is mandated to investigate and interrogate, and commissions are therefore a powerful tool in ‘seeking the truth’ and their processes can well be qualified as democratic in nature.
Equally important are inquests, judicial inquiries to ascertain the facts of an incident, which too are truth seeking by nature. Inquests into the death of detainees have proved important in making public those secrets from South Africa’s apartheid past that would otherwise have remained hidden. Many of the findings from these proceedings, however, remain shrouded in ambiguity.
Records of commissions and inquests have found their way into university-based archives such as the Historical Papers Research Archive in the William Cullen Library at Wits and were deposited by progressive legal firms, organisations and individuals. These archives include various commissions of inquiry into social conditions such as housing, health, farm labour and the penal system. During South Africa’s highly charged and volatile transitional period up to 1994, the reports by the Goldstone Commissions of Inquiry were instrumental in exposing human rights abuses. The inquests into the deaths of Steve Biko, Ahmed Timol and Neil Aggett among many others, include records that are now extensively consulted by South Africa’s prosecuting authorities in their investigation into apartheid-era crimes. Often, they are the last traces remaining from original proceedings, as records of inquests are fragmented or missing from the State’s archives.
In recent years we have received outstanding additions to our archive holdings, including the papers of the former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, and of Advocate George Bizos. Their pursuit of the truth runs like a golden thread through their archival records, from the early Rivonia Trial in 1963/64 to the development of the Constitution for a new South Africa and the role of its judiciary in a democratic dispensation.
The events at the Lonmin Mine in Marikana in 2012, which became known as the ‘Marikana massacre’, once more resulted in a Commission of Inquiry to investigate what led to the deaths of the miners. As with previous commissions, its report is publicly available, but not the records generated by the commission itself. The records have found their way into Historical Papers through the full electronic submission made by Advocate Matthew Chaskalson, containing proceedings, exhibits, video footage, photographs, autopsy reports and assessments. These documents are presently supporting the cases being brought by the victims’ families and will comprise evidence in the quest to seek out the full truth.
Gabriele Mohale originally trained as a typesetter in Berlin, Germany, before coming to South Africa in 1991. She joined Wits’ Historical Papers Research Archive as an archivist in 2007, during which time she completed her Master’s in Heritage Studies, graduating in 2009. She has been Acting Head of Wits’ Historical Papers Research Archive since 2017. In recent years, Mohale has been involved in accentuating the role and status of archives in civil society, in partnership with academic departments and civil society archives and organisations.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Ethical conundrums of the great dictator
- Schalk Mouton
[Column] As elected president for one day, I struggle with the same ethical question as those who have come before me: To plunder or to serve?
My fellow South Africans
Thank you for electing me, your humble servant, to lead you through the muddy waters of the future of our beautiful, beloved country. I deeply appreciate the trust that you have placed in me, and as is customary, gladly accept the office of the president – along with all the privileges, and none of the responsibilities that go along with it.
Please allow me some of your valuable time to inform you of my plans during my one day in charge. I sincerely hope, that during this time, I will achieve as much, if not more, than our 2015 weekend special Minister of Finance, Des van Rooyen, who spent a whole three days in office.
While there is plenty for me to look forward to during my 24 hours, I would be less than honest if I didn’t tell you that among the things I am most looking forward to include being driven in a blue light convoy at high speed, and spending time rubbing shoulders with the who’s who of the world in the winter wonderland of Davos (although as a politician, being less than honest is something that comes naturally to me).
Or, couched in a different way…
However, most highly anticipated is having international business people depositing large amounts of cash in hard currency in the folds of my couch, while my attention is diverted elsewhere. I believe I would derive as much joy from that, as I would from hosting peers that are wanted for international crimes against humanity.
What I can tell you, however, is one thing that I will not be doing, for as long as our police stations are not even connected to each other, our hospitals are falling apart, and our children are drowning in pit-toilets at school, is having fantasies of building new ‘smart cities’, connected with bullet trains. In my opinion, we should be outraged at the deplorable state of our infrastructure.
I am reminded of walking through the beautiful Company Gardens that run alongside the buildings of Parliament the other day when, looking up at this magnificent heritage building and seat of governance, I did so with a heavy heart. Instead of feeling pride, I felt sadness staring up at the derelict building, its windows broken and plasterwork peeling and collapsing.
It must be noted, though, that this damage was caused not by any malfeasance on the part of the previous regime but occurred, as we may all remember, after an act of arson in 2022. It now requires R2 billion to be restored to its former glory, money that we don’t have because it was spent on a firepool, somewhere in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
Contrast this situation with the near destruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019, where a fire caused damage worth €767 million (over R15,3 billion). Within one day of an appeal for help by the French President Emmanuel Macron, a total of €846 million (about R16,9 billion) was raised through pledges from across the world.
Personal enrichment versus economic growth
I must admit, occupying the seat of the most powerful person in South Africa for a day, I am torn between the decision either to enrich myself and my comrades beyond belief, or, on the other hand, to do what’s right for the country and all its citizens – that is to ensure sustainable development through economic growth and to rebuild the infrastructure necessary for the achievement of our goals.
Naturally, like my predecessors, I lean toward the latter (former?) However, some of my advisors have very different ideas, and strangely enough believe that by improving the future for all South Africans, my esteemed colleagues and I will also stand to benefit.
I have been told that in order to change the future of the country for the better, Professor Alex Van den Heever of the Wits School of Governance says we need to do three things. Number one, we need to get rid of systemic corruption, number two, we need to get the country’s economy back on track and number three, we need to fix the social functions of the country, which would need work and input from points one and two.
An executive accountable to the public
In order to put a stop to systemic corruption, Van den Heever says that we need to change the legislative framework that regulates the relationship between the executive and all organs of state, so that they can be held accountable by the public, and not the state itself. Unless we do this, says Van den Heever, no policy could work.
To get the economy going, we need to prioritise areas of infrastructure investment, and get our roads, freight, ports and electricity transmission back in reasonable working order. This would not only result in a huge improvement in our employment figures, but we’d be able to capitalise on our massively abundant natural resources. By doing these two things, we can then finance our social responsibilities, such as crime prevention, education, social security and improved healthcare.
At the moment, Van den Heever says, we lose up to 40% of the financial resources that we have to corruption.
To be completely honest, I have always believed that every single problem in our great country could easily be fixed, if only there was the necessary political will to back it up. I still believe that. However, Van den Heever says that while this may be true, at the moment there is no real interest in serving the public. Effectively, the necessary political will is stymied by the systemic corruption.
There are so many gaps and multiple cabals in our political system, that even if the person right at the top wants to do the right thing, people in positions of power below are holding them back. Take as an example that not a single person has, up to now, been prosecuted from the findings of the Zondo Commission.
Political interference
The fact that South Africa’s public organisations afford political office bearers, i.e. the executive government, such powers of interference and involvement in their day-to-day running, allows for massive abuse of power. In addition, our political principals do not have to make decisions for the benefit of the country, but for their own personal benefit and perhaps even that of the political party they serve. A case in point is Minister Pravin Gordhan, who, due to a misinterpretation of the law, acts as the sole ‘owner’ of entities such as Eskom and South African Airways.
“No single person should be in a position where he or she alone could appoint a board of a state-owned entity,” says Van den Heever.
If, as my advisors urge me to do, if I were to fix the country and put it back on the path of economic growth and improved social wellbeing for all its people, there is just so much work to be done. It is possible, but we would need a completely new social compact and a new set of rules governing how we work in the future.
Various analysts have in recent years pointed out that the coming century is the “African Century” due to the continent’s youthful population and growth. Our richness in human capital (and our diversity, I would add) is what is going to make us world leaders in the next century.
But, as another advisor, Professor Craig Sheridan from the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies points out, we need to educate our people.
“If I were president for a day,” he says (Ahem!) “I would borrow a trillion dollars, and properly fund education, so that all our youth can be educated to similar levels as those of Finland, and the rest would follow.” It will take time, acknowledges Sheridan, but the gains would be worth it.
Now, if all you great citizens of our beloved country will excuse me, I have to go and call my bank manager.
Yours honourably
Your humble servant, His Eminence, Commander in Chief, Supreme Leader and
President (for a day)
Schalk Mouton
Schalk Mouton is a Senior Communications Officer at Wits University.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Using Ubuntu to recognise animal rights
- Dr Sheena Swemmer
[Column] Under the SA Constitution, animals do not enjoy the same rights as humans. But Ubuntu principles can change that, writes Dr Sheena Swemmer.
In 2020, the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals approached the High Court in Grahamstown for an urgent interdict to stop the export of 40 000 – 80 000 sheep across the ocean for slaughter at their destination in the Middle East.
The NSPCA argued that shipping live sheep across the equator is a form of severe cruelty and would never meet welfare standards as set out in the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962. Due to the high temperatures on board these carriers and the sheep’s inability to thermoregulate, many die in transit due to circulatory and respiratory failure. Some also perish from being trampled in overcrowded conditions, and others die from being exposed to ammonia in urea, which is allowed to accumulate during the voyage without being hosed away.
Ultimately, the Court permitted the transportation of the sheep, a finding it came to after weighing the economic benefits to the exporting company and farmers in the Eastern Cape of live export, against what it saw as ‘manageable’ animal welfare issues.
I argue that until animals are granted the enjoyment of certain rights under the South African Constitution, they will continue to endure gross mistreatment by humans despite laws to protect their interests. This is because the Constitutional rights enjoyed by humans easily trump those of animals, as they carry more legal significance than other privileges or entitlements created in law.
For example, and in the instance of the above case, the rights of humans to work and carry out business or trade were a critical factor, ultimately overriding the animals’ welfare interests. Yet, if animals had rights entrenched in the same way as humans, it would be more difficult to limit those rights.
Entrenching animal rights
The courts have not interpreted the rights set out in the Constitution to apply directly to animals. Even rights in respect to an environment, of which animals are deemed to form part, only applies directly to human interests. The provision states that “everyone has the right to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations” – with courts interpreting “everyone” to only include humans.
Given that judges predominantly adopt an anthropocentric interpretation – that is, they consider human beings the most significant entities in the Universe – when giving content to rights in the Constitution, a mandatory framework which endorses, emphasises and guides judges into recognising animal rights must be applied to the interpretation process.
Section 39 of the Constitution provides the interpretative techniques that judges must adopt when interpreting what a right means or to whom it applies. The Section states that when a court interprets a right, it must “promote the values that underlie an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom”.
Section 1 of the Constitution sets out the values, which, for example, include human dignity, equality, the advancement of human rights and freedoms, non-racialism, non-sexism, and the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law.
Adjudication by Ubuntu
In the first Constitutional Court case, S v Makwanyane (which declared the death penalty unconstitutional), the court explicitly acknowledged Ubuntu as a value, although it was not referred to as a value in the Constitution itself.
Ubuntu is a moral theory that includes animals as bearers of moral status, which means having a right to have your interests realised and protected because you have value. All those individuals who share a common value will also have their interests equally realised and protected. In the case of Ubuntu, the ability to belong to a community is valuable.
A famous maxim for describing is that “I am because we are”, highlighting individuals' connectedness and interdependence. For many theorists, including myself, being part of a community is not dependent on your being a human. Instead, being part of a community is dependent on individuals having the potential to interact with other members in a cooperative and caring way.
If animals form part of the community, then they, too, have value under and would have a claim to the protection of their interests. In terms of Section 39 and the findings of the Constitutional Court, Ubuntu is one of the values or tools that must be used to interpret rights. If Ubuntu is to be truly reflected within the interpretation of the rights in the Constitution, then animals also will have a claim to certain rights that protect their interests.
Many animal species work cooperatively and show a sense of care and empathy for others. For example, Asian elephants live in closely bonded, family-centric units and display a wide range of other-directed, often cooperative behaviour. Studies also show that mice indicate greater empathy for their ‘cage mates’ than towards strange mice, thus having a form of affinity for their community.
Equalising animal and human needs
The court has endorsed Ubuntu as a value and thus an interpretive tool many times, including recently in King N.O. v De Jager. In this case, the Constitutional Court said, “[t]his Court has affirmed Ubuntu as a principle in our law which should inform all forms of adjudication. At the heart of Ubuntu is the idea that a society based on human dignity must take care of its most vulnerable members and leave no one behind. It emphasises the adage that none of us are free until all of us are free”.
When faced with the inherently inhumane conditions associated with the live export of sheep, a court correctly applying a Section 39 interpretation of rights would be required to include Ubuntu in their approach and consider animals’ and their human counterparts’ interests equally. The balancing exercise would then take place where the animal and human needs have equal weight, in which case the animals would have a stronger basis in law to compete with human interests.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Conflicts of (natural) interest
- Shaun Smillie
The creation of conservation areas has become a tug-of-war between the needs of local communities and preserving critical natural resources.
For centuries the Makuleke community lived in the northeastern corner of South Africa, close to the modern-day border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. But by the beginning of the 20th century the squeeze on a disenfranchised community had begun, as they were forced to make way for the private game reserves that were springing up in the Lowveld.
In 1912, the Singwidzi Game Reserve displaced several Makuleke villages, followed by the establishment in 1933 of the Pafuri Game Reserve.
The limited number of game rangers policing the area meant that the community still had limited access to their former lands, but this changed in 1969 when Pafuri was incorporated into the Kruger National Park and the Makuleke were forcibly removed.
The South African government was not alone in removing communities from newly-established conservation areas. Other countries including the United States had also displaced communities as they carved out pristine wilderness areas that became the preserve of wealthier tourists.
But more recently, over the last several decades, there has been a change in thinking. The old idea of wildlife reserves as exclusive domains fell away and was replaced by a more inclusive model that took into consideration the needs of those communities living adjacent to these areas.
South Africa joined this global movement and shortly after the advent of democracy, the Makuleke made history. Under the Restitution of Land Rights Act, in 1997, they reached the first successful settlement of a land restitution claim involving a South African national park.
Benefitting from conservation
Through the settlement, the Makuleke chose to keep the land as a joint management venture between themselves and the Kruger National Park to generate funds and jobs for their community. Today, there are five-star lodges and educational programmes running aimed at uplifting the community on the 22 000 hectares of land.
The Makuleke are not alone; across the country communities are benefitting from conservation thanks to changes in policy and legislation.
In addition to the more than 2 000 jobs created by the Kruger National Park, peripheral services such as car washes and emergency towing services at camps have been outsourced to entrepreneurs from the neighbouring communities.
The recent South African National Parks (SANParks) Resource Use Policy of 2019 allows for a number of renewable and non-renewable resources to be harvested in their parks annually, including thatch harvesting, the collection of medicinal plants and even the picking of mopani worms, all done under the watchful eye of an armed ranger.
“In a post-apartheid South Africa, the point is that those national reserves actually belong to the people and those who were disadvantaged by the establishment of these conservation areas should not still be disadvantaged by the continued existence of these parks. As citizens, they should be the first line of stakeholders who should be benefitting from conservation,” says Wayne Twine, Associate Professor in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences.
It is not just state-run reserves; many private reserves have community outreach programmes and are addressing the needs of communities within their areas with job opportunities and ancillary services which are outsourced to small, local businesses.
But Twine warns that addressing the needs of both is often a complex balancing act that requires the building of good relationships and honest communication. SANParks has used forums to communicate with the various communities.
“It’s really important that you don’t wait until you have a crisis before you reach out to neighbouring communities,” says Twine. Also, it's important that expectations are kept realistic. “It’s about balances and trade-offs,” he adds.
Data-driven decision-making
It is not just about providing economic opportunities. Recently the people living alongside the Kruger National Park between Numbi Gate and Matsulu complained of elephants venturing onto their land. SANParks said in a press release that they were in discussion with affected communities to work together on the construction of a fence, which is expected to take about eight months to complete.
But protecting ecosystems that better serve both communities and conservation requires gathering data that can help in the making of future policy decisions. This is what the Future Ecosystems for Africa Programme, a partnership between scientists, policy makers and land users and led by academics at Wits, provides.
“If we get good data, we can find ways to enable people to derive the benefit of the land’s resources while maintaining healthy ecosystems,” says Professor Sally Archibald, the Principal Investigator at the Future Ecosystems for Africa Programme in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences.
Their research is also helping to dispel some preconceptions held by the Global North about conservation in the developing world. One example of this is afforestation programmes that involve planting trees in areas that evolved as open, grassy savannah systems with their own unique biodiversity. Although the aim is to help mitigate the impact of climate change, scientists like Archibald have argued that this would destroy these ecological areas, reduce water supplies and do little to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels.
Combatting the ‘wilderness philosophy’
The ‘wilderness philosophy’ is something that was brought to Africa with colonialism and is exemplified by fortress conservation – the idea that protected areas can only exist by excluding humans from the land.
However, recent research done by Archibald in the Mozambique Niassa Special Reserve in collaboration with Claire Spottiswoode and David Lloyd Jones from the University of Cape Town is showing that people can live in such protected areas while leaving a minimal imprint on the ecosystem.
Funded by the European Research Council, the research involved studying honey hunters who live in the park and who, in order to calm the bees and access the hives, light fires at the base of trees and then chop them down.
“Many people, with a more ‘wilderness philosophy’ would think that this is shocking, and the activity needed to be stopped. But we have shown that they are harvesting a very small proportion of the total tree population and that the rates of tree recovery make these activities sustainable. Our student, Rion Cuthill, has done great work in showing that, yes, sometimes, honey hunting does cause wildfires, but they often happen at times of the year when it is recommended that you burn,” says Archibald.
In 2022 the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the ‘Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’ which set a 2030 deadline for one third of the planet being under effective conservation management.
“The Framework had pushback from Africa and South America over not just who was going to fund this, but also what it means to conserve. Can we consider landscapes conserved if they have people living on them and are managed in a sustainable way?” asks Archibald.
To help international organisations best fund projects in Africa, together with colleagues Barnie Kgope in the Department of Environmental Affairs and Odirilwe Selomane from the University of Pretoria, Archibald is developing a checklist that provides guidance on how projects should be funded in Africa.
“This is so that we not only become the recipients of funding, but so we can also guide that funding towards activities that really will benefit our biodiversity and people. Otherwise, we are always going to be fighting, telling people you can’t plant trees on grasslands,” explains Archibald.
But while much has been done to democratise the relationships between communities and conservation areas, the future looms with challenges, and climate change and a growing population will make resources even more scarce.
“There are certainly going to be challenges, and that is why going forward it is important to find innovative ways of creating economic opportunities for communities through conservation – rather than conservation being pitted against development,” says Twine.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
A drought of political will
- Ufrieda Ho
South Africans are still fighting for the right to basic water supply as enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
Water is life; it is also a weapon of political and social control making this scarce natural resource one that’s increasingly reliant on strong democracies to ensure that it is competently managed, fairly accessed and distributed, and mindfully conserved.
The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Professor Mucha Musemwa, is an environmental historian. Water for him is a liquid history and a mirror of the “flows and consumption that follow the contour of social stratification”. Musemwa says that colonialism and apartheid were marked by injustices and discrepancies in how water was – and still is – either made available or restricted depending on race, gender, geographical location and wealth.
With the dawn of democracy came the promise of access to water as a basic right. It became a social and environmental justice issue. Underscoring this consciousness, the Water Act of 1998 was enacted to democratise access to this critical resource.
But at the 30-year mark of democracy, Musemwa flags a different kind of threat to water and human rights.
Conflicts and tensions
“Even before we think about water as what some people believe will be the reason for the next world war, we should be thinking about conflicts and tensions over water at a local level. We need to ask why we are experiencing service delivery protests and demonstrations over water outages and water leaks, why we have cholera outbreaks, water shedding, and a water mafia causing artificial water shortages in some areas,” he says.
Musemwa calls out incompetent leadership. He adds: “It is a case of not having the right kind of leadership dedicated to resolving problems. The South African government is complicit in perpetuating inequities, as it has taken very little action against corrupt officials who siphon off resources earmarked for water and sanitation development.”
Democratising natural resources
The story of water and its precarity at this point in our democracy should be a reminder that, more than ever before, the role of elections, robust legal frameworks and the Constitution do matter, Musemwa says. As he points out, water flows into everything from the unresolved land issue, food security, the levelling of economic opportunities in the agricultural and forestry sector and our ability to better withstand the mounting climate change pressures.
Professor Tumai Murombo is a Law Professor and former director of the Mandela Institute in the Wits School of Law. He says that the unequal access and unequal distribution of water remains an agenda topper, 30 years into democracy, but it’s also deeply complex.
“Balancing access to water, food security, environmental sustainability, and dealing with historical injustices is a fraught exercise. Water law, politics and policies are issues shaped by the global economic system. We see inequalities at a micro level, we can see them at a regional and national level, but these are amplified at the level of global economies, technology development, and intellectual property rights regimes,” Murombo says.
He adds that South Africa is still experiencing “a chaos of transition” with competing economic interests in a polarised political space. He highlights the key sticking point which is the issue of the historical water use licenses granted mainly to commercial, white-owned farms by the previous regime. They remain lawful, but without a clear policy approach of how they are to be adjusted for fairer water use allocation, these entitlements remain heavily skewed and keep historically disadvantaged groups locked out.
“There will be delays and trade-offs, challenges and pushbacks in a democracy – using the very democratic Constitution and laws, but it means practically that we aren’t making big enough strides forward,” he says. Proposed amendments to the 1998 National Water Act are still out for public comment and will grind through Parliament this autumn. The proposed amendments are critical for the reallocation of water resources and for curtailing existing users. He adds that there is also a dearth of specialised legal expertise in the country, creating more delays.
“We are not where we should be. We do have the foundational legal framework, and some experience but implementation remains hesitant and poor. It might take five or 10 years more, but we will get a greater degree of legal certainty in how we reallocate water resources more fairly,” he says.
Active citizenry
For Professor Craig Sheridan, another critical pillar alongside legal frameworks and policies is for South Africans to be better active citizens taking personal responsibility to be strong stewards of water use and conservation. We cannot ignore that safe drinking water coming out of a tap has travelled a long journey. Water, he says, is a renewable resource but one that’s also easily wasted and polluted.
Sheridan, who is based in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies and is the Co-Director of the Centre in Water Research and Development, says that active citizenship means doing a more deliberate job of holding authorities to account when it comes to delivery. He says: “The situation right now is that we are not even playing catch-up. We are in deficit in terms of things like the maintenance of pipelines and national planning for water security for a growing population. We also need a secure supply of water that is not linked to treaties with our neighbouring countries that can be torn up when we have weak leadership and governance.”
Sheridan says that citizens need to demand the exercising of political will and competence. We also need to keep up pressure to make planning and investing in water security a priority, as well as the desalination and reclamation of wastewater to potable water. Ultimately he says that citizens have to “engage with democracy” as a safeguard to keep water from becoming a “tipping point issue”.
“Upgrading and replacing infrastructure in terms of water, roads and sanitation just makes sense because the alternative is possible mass civil unrest,” he says.
Sheridan says that outrage is growing and was palpably demonstrated this past summer when parts of Johannesburg – the economic heartland of the country – had no water for close to two weeks. It’s “stressful, but also unifying”. People standing together and choosing to use their voice is positive, he says.
“I am choosing to speak up publicly – it’s not a comfortable position for me as an academic and engineer – but I will speak my truth so that those in government who should be making a difference start to take action. Water is a basic human right, and we should be defending that right,” Sheridan says.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
What environmental equality in Africa really looks like
- Shaun Smillie
As countries move to adopt green technologies to fight climate change, the Global South is left at a disadvantage in this new revolution.
The just energy transition is meant to be an equal, democratic process where the world gradually moves towards lower carbon technology. Green technologies are reliant on minerals such as cobalt and lithium that are abundant in some African nations. There is a concern that this revolution will produce a new scramble for these commodities and that the rich will simply exploit poorer nations using their wealth and influence.
The United States’ Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has allotted $663 billion for climate action investments. Part of this is aimed at stimulating manufacturing in the green economy, which in turn will require certain specific materials. But while countries like China and the US are spending their way to a greener future, it is Africa that needs to transform and mitigate climate change.
“Africa has to industrialise if it doesn’t want to be a provider of raw materials, and it needs to take the green path,” says Professor Dean Brady in the School of Chemistry at Wits. “This is for two reasons: One being we need to prevent climate change as, according to the Wits Global Change Institute, southern Africa is particularly vulnerable because of its geographical location and its rate of socioeconomic development. Secondly, green technologies tend to be more efficient by definition [they produce less waste] and therefore are more competitive.” Brady believes that countries like South Africa can fund this in part through ring-fencing green taxes, such as the carbon tax.
Protectionist tariffs undermine Africa
Valodia believes that the use of green technologies to industrialise will become urgent for developing countries, because developed nations are introducing protectionist tariffs to safeguard their economies as they de-carbonise.
An example of this is the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a European Union tariff on imported, carbon-intensive products like steel, cement, and aluminium which will come into effect in 2025.
“The basic plan with CBAM is that, for example, if you import a car into the EU, they can calculate backwards the amount of carbon used in its manufacture and tax you on this,” explains Valodia. This means an add-on cost for local exporters putting an estimated R53 billion of South African exports at risk in the short-term.
The UK is planning to introduce a similar carbon tariff in 2027, and other countries, like Canada, Japan and the US, are in the process of introducing their own such border taxes.
“The rich nations need to finance this adjustment in countries in the Global South rather than expecting us to bear the burden on our exports,” says Valodia.
Opaque funding ‘aid’
Even the aid provided by wealthier countries to help move developing countries to green economies has been found wanting. At COP27, the 27th annual UN meeting on climate, several European countries and the US announced an $8.5 billion funding package to help South Africa in its just transition in the energy sector.
In an article published in March 2024 titled, What happened to the Just Energy Transition grant funding?, Valodia and SCIS colleagues Katrina Lehmann-Grube, Julia Taylor, and Sonia Phalatse took a closer look at this funding package. What they found was that only 4% of the total amount was grant financing with most of the balance comprising concessional loans.
“Most of it is funding packaged as technical support that is actually going to institutions in their own countries, not to us,” says Valodia. “There needs to be proper commendatory schemes that go to the people that need it, rather than grand schemes that just benefit people in the north.”
Funding Africa’s just transition
But countries in the Global South are fighting back and BRICs countries have strongly opposed the introduction of CBAM. Their primary concern is that the risks associated with the tariff will not be equally distributed across the globe.
It has been suggested that certain concessions could be negotiated between South Africa and the European Union, where our existing climate change mechanisms, like green taxes, are used as an off-set.
There is also more funding money available that could be accessed, although some of this funding is controlled by the big powers.
At COP28 in 2023, it was decided to formally establish a loss and damage fund to support vulnerable countries to deal with the effects of climate change. The decision to make the World Bank the administrator of the fund was a controversial one of concern to many developing countries, given that the United States is the finance institution’s largest shareholder and the only country that has veto powers to change the structure of the Bank. Another option was for the United Nations to administer such a fund.
Still, South Africa needs to find a way to speed itself to a green future. “The sooner we do this, the better for us,” says Brady. “Africa is projected to be the most populous continent by the end of the 21st century and we really need to industrialise with efficient and non-polluting technologies for any chance of a healthy and wealthy future. There have already been a lot of missed opportunities.”
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Who is accountable for environmental rights?
- Sarah Hudleston
The lack of enforcement of environmental laws allow powerful entities to act without consequence. Where does the buck stop?
In the last decade South Africans have experienced a litany of infrastructure issues that have hindered the supply of clean water and working sewerage systems, and which could be seen as an infringement of citizens’ basic human rights.
The lack of delivery of clean water, the flowing of untreated effluent and the dumping of toxic chemicals into rivers, and the growing problem of acid mine drainage have now become commonplace issues.
Johannesburg is currently experiencing major water outages, largely attributable to electricity loadshedding and poorly maintained electric pumps, but also due to the ageing infrastructure of pipes.
Over the past few years, Durban’s tourist economy has been decimated. High levels of E. coli have been recorded in the sea off the City’s popular beaches, resulting in their closure during the busy holiday season.
“It is perceived that we are supposed to get a basic allocation of free water, yet one wonders whether this rather means the access to a tap or stand tap that is supposed to give us water.
“What we do have is a democratic right to an environment which is not harmful to our health or wellbeing. This is not ‘access to an environment’,” he says.
“The problem with many of these legal phrases, in my opinion, is that they are vague. Who, for example, defines harmful versus not harmful? I guess that answer often sits in the legislative limits of what you are allowed to put into the atmosphere or into water. So, if you discharge water containing effluent into the environment, there will be limits as to what is allowed to be pumped into other systems.”
Whether it’s a nebulous right to access, or to actual water, or to a non-harmful environment, Sheridan says that we have a responsibility to become more water-efficient, as Cape Town did: “During the Day Zero crisis it became even more critical that sewerage could not go back into the dams without being treated first. Contaminants need to be removed and only purified water pumped back into the rivers and dams.”
Culpability and environmental rights
In the early 2000s, while doing his PhD in Chemical Engineering at UCT, Sheridan consulted on a case where the Oude Molen distillery in Grabouw was pumping alcoholic effluent into the Klipdrift River, due to the malfunctioning pumps pumping cooling water from reservoirs into the effluent disposal dam. The director of the company pleaded guilty in the court case that ensued.
But this director’s admission of guilt is evidently the exception, not the norm. Mazi Choshane, who is a junior attorney and active in the Environmental Justice Programme at Wits, says that it’s concerning that, despite having robust environmental laws in place, there seems to be a lack of accountability – and one of the primary challenges is often the enforcement of these laws, she says – particularly in mining.
Robust laws lack enforcement
“The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy plays a crucial role in managing and regulating the mining sector, including addressing environmental and social challenges associated with mining activities,” says Choshane. “But legacy issues related to the sector, such as acid mine drainage which is a major ongoing environmental issue, and the rehabilitation of derelict and ownerless mines, are of major concern. They pose serious risks to water quality, ecosystems, and human health.”
Chosane points out that in 2021, an estimated 6 100 mines in South Africa were classified as “derelict and ownerless”. And when the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights visited South Africa between 31 July and 11 August 2023, he noted that while we have a robust legislative framework that supports accountability and effective remedies, law enforcement and implementation often fall short.
“This lack of enforcement allows powerful entities to act without consequence, undermining confidence in democracy and the environmental rule of law,” says Choshane.
Increased litigation but less attention
Ruchir Naidoo, an advocate and PhD candidate in Environmental Law as Wits, says that there is an upward trend in environmental litigation. “Civil society and political parties are exercising their constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment through our courts,” he says.
Naidoo points out that in February 2024, the residents of Verulam, a town in KwaZulu-Natal, appealed to the United Nations for assistance with a severe water supply crisis which they deemed to be a violation of human rights.
There is also an increase in youth and community-based initiatives across various sectors, particularly relating to climate change and pollution issues, according to Naidoo. “But while it appears that there is a growing sense of environmental awareness and people are taking action, environmental issues continue to receive far less attention than South Africa’s historic issues of poverty, crime and unemployment.”
He concurs with Chosane that South Africa has excellent environmental legislation, but non-compliance with and poor enforcement of those laws mean that negative impacts on the environment continue to be felt in large parts of the country, and very often in the most vulnerable and historically disadvantaged communities, such as those in Verulam.
What will it take to invoke our democratic right to an environment which is not harmful to our health or wellbeing? Chosane believes that, while international commitments to and membership of relevant global bodies provide a framework and platform for addressing environmental issues, the root causes of environmental challenges require a multi-faceted approach involving the government, civil society, the private sector, and the public.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Stokvels secure income and social capital
- Sarah Hudleston
A stokvel research project at Wits could lead to greater financial freedom, transparency, and accessibility for members.
One of the most egregious injustices of South Africa’s apartheid system was the exclusion of the majority from the country’s economy. As a result, there was much mistrust of formal financial institutions – even after the 1994 dawn of democracy. Many communities, comprising families and close-knit neighbours where there was a strong element of trust, established stokvels.
The Wits Margo Steele School of Accountancy is busy with a research project into stokvels which is set to run for over a decade. This research will include the development of an app that will enable each member of a stokvel to have an accurate picture of their savings fund, liabilities and assets.
The project is aimed at democratising the use of what has arguably become South Africa’s most important community financial institution and instrument of wealth creation. Today, the stokvel market is worth an estimated R45 billion.
Professor Wayne van Zijl from the School says that the history of stokvels, which are sometimes referred to as rotational savings clubs, lies in the fact that they were subscribed to by very close family members resulting in an interesting co-existence and relationship between the fund’s financial and cultural aspects.
“The original main aim of a stokvel was for members to be able to save money for important events such as burials as well as other needs,” says Van Zijl. “Many of these stokvels grew exponentially, often merging with another stokvel.”
However, because stokvels are now serving larger groups of people, they have become a target for scammers who take advantage of members’ limited financial literacy. The research project aims to understand the stokvel environment and to create a free-to-use mobile application to make each stokvel’s financial data accessible to all its members.
“In doing so, it should reduce the risk of fraud and help stokvels make better financial decisions, ultimately helping them uplift themselves from their current economic status,” says Van Zijl.
Family ties
Van Zijl says that researchers were interested to discover that in some burial stokvel constitutions there are strict guidelines about the emotional support that members are expected to provide. For example, there are penalties imposed on members for not providing support in terms of bringing food, cleaning, and helping arrange the funeral procession which tends to mitigate the financial risk for the member.
Taking on members who are not close relatives, says Van Zijl, introduces increased risks of fraud due to the dilution of cultural and emotional connections in the association.
Stokvel app for financial literacy
Faeeza Soni, a Senior Lecturer in the Wits Margo Steele School of Accountancy says that the stokvel mergers that Van Zijl mentions present challenges. “When stokvels get bigger, it gets more complicated from an accounting point of view,” says Soni, who is involved with the research project which is still in its infancy, and which is using and analysing the data of one stokvel to inform planning.
She says, “We have started by examining a single stokvel, which has revealed that its recorded transactions are not always that simple. We have found that there are some complicated transactions occurring, so we are examining them so that we can suggest possible improvements.”
Further complications include instances where the numbers do not add up, says Soni, prompting researchers to conclude that, even with close-knit family stokvels, it is important to highlight these risks.
“Raising awareness of these issues is a good starting point. Transparency in the transactional records of stokvels for their members improves the stokvels’ governance. Giving members access to these records, such as via an app, increases financial inclusion for even the least financially literate,” says Soni.
Soni suggests that the proposed app will be easy for stokvel members to download and use and will give them simplified accounting information.
“They will be able to find out what contributions there have been, or what is owing from previous months, and what is available to be paid out.”
Van Zijl adds that the app will help to educate members as to how much they should contribute and enable an understanding of what their pay-out ratio is, or how much they are paying in bank fees.
“Members would be able to see that, for example, if there are only 20 people in the stokvel, only three could receive a pay-out,” he says. “Members could also learn from the app what a reasonable amount would be to add to the stokvel each month without reducing a member’s ability to meet the current needs of their family.”
Should private companies publish sustainability reports?
In South Africa between 90% and 100% of public companies compile sustainability (or integrated) reports. Should private companies be obligated to undertake similar forms of disclosure? Not necessarily, since the contexts are vastly different.
Professor Warren Maroun in the Wits Margo Steele School of Accountancy says that he often asks students whether sustainability reports are not just marketing tools that are being used to acquiesce to the demands of public sentiment and the ‘woke culture’.
“I would say there are lots of cheaper ways of engaging in impression management. We know there are many institutional and retail investors and other stakeholders who are reading the integrated or sustainability reports and engaging with those companies on their financial and social and environmental performance,” says Maroun.
“We cannot say that these reports are completely free of impression management or ‘greenwashing’. As to whether private companies should be preparing these sustainability reports, I would say not.”
Public, listed companies provide returns to investors and have a statutory obligation to prepare financial statements according to established conventions, says Maroun, adding that they also must take social and environmental impact factors into account. “Their ethical reputation in the market and with consumers and other stakeholders is crucial,” he says.
However when it comes to private companies, the context is very different. Instead of a company potentially having many thousands of owners, the holding of these private companies is often very closed with shareholders and management sometimes being the same people, he says.
Ethics and integrated thinking
Maroun says that research in the Wits Margo Steele School of Accountancy has been examining the idea that integrated thinking should come before integrated reporting.
“So, whether companies are listed or not, whether they are state owned entities or are operating in the not-for-profit sector, and irrespective of size, the same principles relating to ethical behaviour should apply,” says Maroun.
Some of these companies may not prepare formal sustainability reports, but in terms of their customers, promoting themselves and ensuring their social licence to operate, they may be keen to demonstrate their commitment to the environment and ethical practices.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Finding ubuntu in the word of the law
- Leanne Rencken
Busisiwe Kamolane-Kgadima, the Acting Director at CALS is driven by human rights, and the fight for social justice.
Listening to Busisiwe Kamolane-Kgadima describe her journey from law student to newly appointed Acting Director at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), you’d be mistaken for thinking it’s been easy – serendipitous, even. But when you probe a little deeper, you begin to understand how hard she’s worked to get to this point.
The metaphor that she uses to describe this journey is that of construction – building a future not just for herself, but for the country, for other black women, for the disadvantaged and unrepresented. This future is one that is carefully chosen, critically examined, one brick at a time.
While her Acting Director role was announced in February 2024, Kamolane-Kgadima has been at the Centre for five years. In this time, she completed her articles as well as her LLM at Wits University, launched and led the Research and Advocacy Unit, and served as Deputy Director before her most recent promotion.
Centred in human rights
Her current position is one of enormous responsibility, and she speaks of CALS as a living, breathing “tool of the law” that works across various aspects of human rights, fosters the advancement of social justice, including advocating for the protection of activists, and backs it all up with research and data collection.
While she has been involved in leading many projects under this framework, she is particularly passionate about CALS attracting students to the social justice sector: “We really believe in trying to get people out of the position that I, and many other students were in when we started our law studies, which is not knowing that human rights law presents a viable, impactful and fulfilling career opportunity and that human rights law can permeate all other areas of the law.”
It was in her fourth year as an LLB student at the University of Pretoria, where Kamolane-Kgadima had her epiphany. “Writing an essay about the South African ‘mud schools’ case study during a child law elective with Professor Ann Skelton, I suddenly realised that public-interest related work was exactly what I’d been looking for.”
This “Aha! moment” was critical in constructing Kamolane-Kgadima's future as a human rights lawyer and social justice activist, but looking back, she says that her personality had been pushing her in this direction from an early age.
“When I was trying to figure out my future career path, what was always important for me was that the work I chose to do had to make a positive impact in people’s lives,” she says. “In hindsight, I have always lived my life with this perspective in mind, but I also wanted it to be my career as well.”
Constitutionally speaking
Having completed her LLB degree at the University of Pretoria, Kamolane-Kgadima started her career as a legal intern and was later accepted into the coveted Constitutional Court law clerk programme. She describes her year clerking for Chief Justice Mogoeng as a conscientising and seminal experience.
“The experience and mentorship at the Constitutional Court was absolutely phenomenal. It gave me a deeper understanding of how the law can be used as a powerful tool to advance democracy and social justice. Working closely with the Chief Justice in conducting extensive research and writing judgments that have implications for the whole country, imprinted upon me a weight of responsibility to contribute to the building of our country and its constitutional democracy.”
Kamolane-Kgadima says that the career opportunities that have opened up for her also affirmed her belief that “everything happens the way it’s supposed to happen, to get you to where you are supposed to be”. While this may be true, it’s becoming clear in this interview just how strategic and determined she is, so I challenge her on this point, saying that it feels unjust to give fate all the credit.
Confidence through ubuntu
Smiling, she agrees: “You don’t get to where you are without people in your life to guide you, to believe in you, and to help put you in the right rooms. I have had the privilege of having many exceptional people play this role in my life. I’ve also learnt to bet on myself, to trust my gut and to seize opportunities and take risks.”
Her to-do list at CALS includes a stewardship that is cognisant of the present climate, that can forecast what is going to happen and is strategic in how it reacts and responds: “We are going into an election, for example, we have to be prepared to respond to various challenges that may arise while being proactive in seeking opportunities to advance our cause. We must consider things such as, if we end up with a coalition government, what does that look like? And what does that mean for the work that we're doing?”
CALS’ work involves holding the state and private entities accountable, shifting critical judgments from the theoretical into the implementation phase, capacitating state entities, partnering with grassroots movements in expanding their work, addressing historical and social injustices, and responding to rapidly changing situations both in this country and beyond our borders. “CALS has contributed a lot to the country, and will continue to do that, but there are so many lessons that we can learn from other African countries, and so much knowledge that we can give in return. Social justice and the kind of world we want to live in is not only tied to South Africa, but we also need to start focusing our attention on how we impact the rest of the continent, and the world,” she explains.
Towards a transformed future
She’s achieved a lot at the Centre already, knows it well and is pleased by the transformation signified by recent appointments.
“It's the first time that CALS has a black female director and an all-black female management team. It's interesting to see these changes happening and it means so much for the public interest sector and the legal profession. I don’t take it lightly, though, being here, showing other young black women that it’s possible, despite all the barriers that we face. I hope that my appointment is a spark that encourages others to pursue their dreams, and a challenge to the institutions whose leadership is still dominated by white males.”
As Kamolane-Kgadima has her eye squarely on CALS, it's a bit premature to ask what’s next, but she is willing to concede: “My utopia would be to see a world in which we make each other’s lives better, where doing things doesn’t come at the expense of another person or require the exploitation of marginalised people.”
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Religion and the state: A shifting cocktail of contradictions
- Sue de Groot
Many countries are grappling with religious challenges. Can political structures withstand the pressures of religious groups’ ‘New Right’ ideology?
Religion and politics have always been intertwined in South Africa. During the early years of National Party rule, the government-approved Christian church and the State were joined at the hip.
Conservative churches and politics used religion to help justify nationalism and apartheid – with some notable exceptions from people such as Beyers Naudé, the Afrikaans church leader who challenged racism and inequality from the pulpit.
It did not take long, however, for many religious institutions to take up cudgels against the discriminatory laws of the land.
Currently Academic Director of the Doctoral Programme in the Wits-Edinburgh Programme in Sustainable African Futures (WESAF), Barbara Bompani has studied politics and religion, and the way that they shape each other, for more than 20 years. (WESAF is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Wits University.)
She came from the University of Bologna to South Africa to investigate the role that religion played in the struggle against apartheid towards the end of the 1990s. Her Master’s dissertation in political science was about religion and politics during apartheid, focusing particularly on mainstream Christian churches and councils such as the South African Council of Churches and the SA Catholic Bishops Conference, as well as on important leaders.
“I found that churches were some of the few civil spaces where politics played an important role before 1994,” says Bompani. “There was a lot of politics taking place in religious venues and it influenced religious debates. For example, a funeral could be a space to talk about politics during apartheid when other political spaces were banned.”
“There is this amazing collection where I found documentation about the relevance of religious organisations and about international organisations funding churches which opposed apartheid.”
Leaders and followers of other faiths, such as Islam and Judaism, were also vocal and public in the anti-apartheid movement, but it is the Christian church that has changed most radically since South Africa became a democracy.
Apolitical churches?
Bompani remained in South Africa as a visiting PhD student at Wits. Her doctoral thesis also focused on religion and politics in this country, this time including traditional African churches.
“One of the interesting things for me was that in the literature, African Independent Churches were defined as apolitical, but this raised the question of what politics is. You can define it as the organised politics of a political party, as in a church supporting the African National Congress (ANC) or the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), but if you talk about democracy, values and rights, these are also political concepts, and these churches were embracing and promoting them every day.”
Bompani’s PhD research explored development and change in religion and politics between 1994 and 2000 and on the way the two were intertwined in the first years of democracy. The changes that happened after 1994 were significant, she says.
“There was a strong alliance between mainstream churches and the ANC. Church leaders were very vocal, energetic and organised, not only during apartheid but during the transition, keeping peace during very tense times.”
After 1994, these church voices became less strident. This, says Bompani, was partly a question of resources and priorities.
“Before apartheid ended, a lot of international funds were being channelled through the church – it was the first time that the European Union had funded religious organisations – but with the end of apartheid a lot of church funding stopped because there were other priorities. There was also a sense from mainstream churches that there was no longer such a need to be so public and so political.”
This opened up a space for other kinds of churches to fill. Pentecostalism/evangelism rose and became more vocal. Also, African Independent Churches became more public along with a renewed interest in African traditions which bled into politics under the Zuma presidency.
“I think what influenced the change in religion and politics and the shaping of one by the other in that time was about the change in energy and the different actors that emerged,” says Bompani.
A right to belong
Bompani is also an associate of the African Centre for Migration and Society, based at Wits, and has conducted research in East Africa, particularly Uganda. Both the US and Uganda are examples of how the religious right influences politics and politicians, some of whom will pragmatically campaign in churches because of their numerical voting power.
Bompani says that so-called ‘family values’ have infiltrated the heart of public conversations because they are pushed by the Pentecostalist actors into the political landscape.
“These organisations bring out important tensions within the public sphere: what’s right? what’s wrong? who belongs? who doesn’t belong? If you are not a ‘moral citizen’ you don’t belong to the moral community and you should be excluded – LGBTQIA+ people, for example, or sex workers, who may be considered as immoral subjects, see their rights denied. Religion changes the perception of what society is and what should be at the centre of the political agenda.”
Bompani believes that South Africa’s Constitution is strong enough to withstand challenges to the dignity and equality for all that is promised by this document.
“A liberal understanding of religion allows for diversity, whereas a conservative understanding does not. This dichotomised warfare between good and evil is theological but not always applied in nature. However, democratic structures in South Africa are very strong. It’s society that worries me. What if you change the opinions of society so much that society wants to change the political structure?”
Whichever side of the divide on which one stands, we should not shy away from these arguments and counter-arguments. Democracy thrives on diversity and debate, and the diversity of debate.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Democratising knowledge through open access
- Morgan Morris
More than half of SA’s academic publications appear in Open Access sources, with Wits University embracing this trend.
Are universities there to generate skilled employees to foster economic development, to serve the needs of the state and the economy, or perhaps to produce graduates who can question the world order and systems around them? Or all of these – however conflicted those objectives might appear?
In a country still coming to terms with its apartheid past, this role might be even more conflicted as institutions balance research needs – a traditional pillar of universities – with the call to help transform South African society.
“Currently we live in a time of extraordinary partisanship, a time of threats to democracy,” says Professor Ruksana Osman, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at Wits. “So in essence a university’s role is about ensuring hope amid the inhumanity around us by staying true to our commitment to open expression and democracy, and then finding and keeping our pedagogic centre as a University.”
The Open Science movement is seeking a middle ground that satisfies all sides of that debate.
Open science for society
Open Access (OA) is an international movement that aims to provide free and open online access to academic publications and data. The movement traces its origins back to the 1990s and was in part a response to the rising costs of accessing academic research published in commercial academic journals. Since then, OA has grown exponentially in popularity, perhaps best illustrated in the ‘scientific globalism’ around the sharing of research on Covid-19.
OA publication has become more sophisticated, categorised (gold, green, hybrid, diamond, bronze,
etc.) according to levels, costing and point of access. Increasingly, OA champions have also made a direct link between Open Access and the good health of democracies. To strengthen this connection, South Africa is developing an open science policy that, among other aspects, looks at including civil society and social movements in the selection and collection development and management plans of academic libraries and archives.
“It’s widely accepted that any democracy needs an informed citizenry,” says Dr Daisy Selematsela, University Librarian at Wits. “To participate fully in public life, beyond just casting a ballot every five years, citizens need access to information and special collections that would encompass grey literature for informed decision making and the advancement of societal knowledge.”
Open access at Wits
Mirroring global trends, Open Access publication in South Africa has accelerated in recent years. As at January 2024, some 53% of academic publications are Open Access, according to Selematsela and Lazarus Matizirofa, Associate Director of Research, Scholarly Communication, Digital Services and Systems at Wits. In an Open Access presentation earlier this year, they reported that a total of 224 000 OA publications have racked up around 7.4 million citations.
OA publication has also taken off at Wits, a signatory to the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, and the University is punching well above its weight. In 2023, for instance, although the University’s more than 28 000 OA publications fell short of the number of closed publications (approximately 36 000) they tallied 697 083 citations compared to 692 296 citations for articles published in closed journals. “We are witnessing a changing of the guard, if you will, in the publishing of academic research at Wits and elsewhere,” says Matizirofa.
Making science visible
To facilitate this growth in Open Access publications (not all published on existing platforms) Wits Libraries are expanding their Repository and Publishing Platforms. This diversified data repository will be supported through a Research Visibility Impact Framework, in part to aid researchers in raising their online profiles and their research visibility. As part of this process, the Wits Researcher Visibility and Impact Tool will seek to gain more visibility for Wits’ research.
“In turn, that will generate more collaborative prospects and the ability to partner with colleagues across disciplines, institutions, and borders,” says Matizirofa.
However, OA is not without its challenges, especially in the Global South, where getting bigger publishing houses to accept scripts can be difficult, explains Selematsela. Another challenge relates to issues of social justice around the North/South open scholarship divide.
On the other hand, the rewards of OA are undeniable. By embracing a culture of shared knowledge, universities stand to impact societies beyond just their own graduates. “Healthy democracies are founded on informed citizens,” says Selematsela. “So as Open Access grows in scale, the opportunities to reshape our society, and inform our democracy, grows in tandem.”
To be free or not to be free
#FeesMustFall and the struggle for ‘open access’ to higher education
Wits University has had its share of brushes with the challenges facing higher education institutions in South Africa’s democracy, which at thirty, is approaching its first midlife crisis.
When the #FeesMustFall protests broke out at universities across the country in 2015 – starting at Wits – the movement quickly divided the country into two broad camps. On the one side were those who ridiculed students’ demands for free education as symptomatic of the younger generation’s impractical entitlement complex, divorced from South Africa’s fiscal realities. On the other, a chorus of scholars and others rose in support of the students, arguing that free higher education is not just feasible, but also imperative if South Africa is to live up to its lofty democratic ambitions.
“A legitimate request”
A Wits University panel established in 2016 to take a census of opinions on the subject found that, across the University, the demand for free higher education was ‘a legitimate request that demands interrogation’.
The recommendations coming from the Commission of Inquiry into the feasibility of making higher education and training fee-free in South Africa (2017) would back up the feasibility argument, at least for those students most in need.
The Commission’s recommendations included the expansion of existing bursary and loan tools (including extended repayment periods), along with novel measures such as loans from commercial banks shored up by government sureties.
Proposals from the Wits panel, including the use of an array of financial instruments and an amended loan system, echoed the recommendations of the Commission. Wits panellists also argued for greater participation from the private sector, perhaps through a ‘systematic mechanism that channels private sector funds to universities’.
What’s more, the call for free education has sired some unintended consequences, such as a boom in private and increasingly expensive student residences, often paid directly by the state through the National Students’ Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), she adds.
The debate on free higher education appears to have gone off the boiler for now. However, it’s likely to resurface as inequalities deepen and South Africa’s democracy continues to face obstacles.
“The #FeesMustFall moment was an extremely important moment in the history of South African higher education because it revealed many latent and unexpressed expectations regarding the meaning and value of a university degree,” says Mokoena. “The jury is, however, out on whether these expectations can ever be fulfilled since to fulfil these expectations would involve opening many painful and unresolved conversations about what democracy, in general, means.”
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
AI and democracy: For better and for worse
- Deryn Graham
Today’s news and current affairs landscape, which underpins our democracy, requires both ethical content producers and discerning consumers.
The extraordinary capacity of AI to target and reach millions of people can definitely be used for good. One example is the campaign by Malaria No More using, with his consent, David Beckham who is seen to ‘speak’ nine languages to deliver the organisation’s anti malaria message. Instead of simply dubbing the international soccer star, AI synchronises the movement of his lips to each language. Leveraging Beckham’s credibility and reach, this innovative use of technology nevertheless set alarm bells ringing around the potential use of the same technology to subvert democracy by manipulating politicians’ speeches.
Faking it
When ethics go out of the window, and large numbers of the population are poorly educated, a gap opens for unscrupulous pedlars of fake news to create stories that can be misleading and even dangerous. Certainly, they can undermine the democratic process by deliberately targeting specific population groups with their messaging.
We don’t even need sophisticated equipment to produce AI-driven content. A cellphone and Photoshop can work, and images can easily be manipulated.
“A work of deep fake doesn’t even have to be of good quality for it to do immense damage,” says Richard Klein, Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Wits School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. “But even as we build tools to detect sophisticated deep fakes, so the technology to create images, videos and even voice excerpts becomes more advanced. It’s like the arms race out there, as creation and detection technology move to outdo each other.”
Trust courts, not tech
Professor Keith Breckenridge, Acting Co-Director at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research believes that while AI may make some computer functions easier, it also has the power to increase suspicion as we become mistrustful of computer-generated content. However, he also believes that in the South African context, we have bigger issues that threaten to destabilise our democracy than AI.
“In the cascading hierarchy of trust in South Africa, the courts still have the ultimate say, making them a vital part of the infrastructure that will determine the proper function and authenticity of a piece of AI or digitally created work. If we want to protect trust, when AI is used negligently or criminally, those responsible for deploying it need to be held liable,” he says.
“Tech companies cannot blame users’ lack of vigilance if, for example, their own systems are hacked or security is breached, nor can they blame consumers of fake news for being gullible,” he adds.
Whose news ‘just for you’?
The proliferation of online news sites and social media platforms has resulted in volumes of authentic, reliable news as well as fake news, mis- and disinformation, and deep fake visual imagery. We are all required to sift through pages and pages of information to extract news, form our opinions and later, to exercise our democratic rights and elect our public servants. However, if social media, using AI algorithms, individualises our newsfeed according to our own biases, AI becomes divisive, restricting our access to a broader range of sources.
“Algorithms skew the delivery of information along what individuals may have expressed an interest in at any given moment, but which doesn’t necessarily represent what their general interests are,” says Klein, “and this can further entrench a single idea and close off access to other viewpoints.”
Big Tech threat
Benjamin Rosman, Professor in the Wits School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, and Head of the Robotics, Autonomous Intelligence and Learning Laboratory, believes that while philosophically we can all agree that AI and other technologies have democratised access to information and content creation, practically it is a potentially dangerous tool. Although its ability to further someone’s education outside of the formal system, and to enable personal growth and development is a form of democracy, it can also mislead and misinform.
“The barriers to entry for the many uses of AI are low, but all the funding and support is directed to the tech giants. The set up of the information ecosystem is inherently dangerous,” says Rosman.
Klein concurs: “The big tech companies have a disproportionate amount of power in this space, and regulators are way behind and need to catch up very quickly.”
AI, ethics, and humans
Applying AI in a purely administrative and technical function can assist democracy and the electoral process by managing voter rolls, spotting anomalies and duplications, and synthesising massive amounts of data pre and post the ballot. In addition, AI is helpful in multilingual societies such as South Africa and offers wider opportunities for political engagement. It can translate manifestos, and electoral proceedings, for example, into all official languages or even into a format that matches individual cognitive styles, including pictorial representations of information.
However, in the wrong hands it can be used to influence human behaviour, including decision-making at the ballot box and skewing an electoral outcome in one direction over another. Ultimately AI can undermine independent thought and everything for which democracies stand.
In a recent finding published in the Paris Charter on AI & Journalism, it was determined that ‘ethics must guide’ the use and application of AI. Sadly, in the hands of humans who must be the final arbiters, we cannot be sure that this will always be the case and that our democratic and human rights will always be protected and upheld.
How cryptocurrency democratises financial activity
If freedom of choice is a key element of democracy, then cryptocurrencies are democratising the financial landscape.
So says Associate Professor in the Wits Margo Steele School of Accountancy, Asheer Jaywant Ram, for whom the single most important impact of cryptocurrencies (also called crypto assets) has been to emancipate users from the influence and dominance of traditional banks.
“Crypto is democratising the management and movement of money,” he says.
Despite crypto being banned in several countries across the African continent and in China, South Africa has embraced it, taking what steps it can to protect investors by regulating and legislating its use.
According to the website of The Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group, a collective of financial sector regulators, they are working to ‘demystify the regulatory landscape, provide a safe space for experimentation and actively advance innovation’ which Ram applauds. “South Africa is taking the power to the people,” he says.
Although scepticism about the wild fluctuations in the value of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has prevented more consumers from adopting crypto, governments’ reservations revolve more around their inability to track the movement of crypto transactions, which remain anonymous on the blockchain. This opens crypto up to potential misuse for money laundering, tax evasion and other less than savoury or legal financial activity.
But, using cryptocurrencies also frees people, for example in crisis zones, to continue to run businesses, to buy, sell and invest, where their economies and currencies are unstable and even under siege.
Greater uptake of crypto is inevitable, Ram believes. “Some studies have shown that South Africa ranks fifth in the world in terms of crypto ownership and 84% of holders of the different crypto currencies are aged between 18 and 44,” he says.
While more users experiment with existing crypto currencies and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority is likely to grant more crypto trading licences in the future, some central banks are looking at creating digital and possibly even eventually cryptocurrencies of their own. However, these will remain under the control of the central banking authority, in South Africa’s case the Reserve Bank – which is the converse of what crypto supporters advocate.
However, Ram says, “South Africa has taken steps in the right direction regarding the use and trading of crypto, and this is democratising our financial sector. We already have proof of concept; retailers like Pick ‘n Pay have even piloted accepting payment in crypto, and I believe it has a future utility in this country.”
“With crypto, users have the choice not to have to engage with traditional financial infrastructures. If freedom of choice is a key element of democracy, then cryptocurrencies are democratising the financial landscape,” asserts Ram.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Stabilising the crumbling walls of the Fourth Estate
- Ufrieda Ho
Journalism as an institution is facing a bleak outlook. It needs to dig deep to find ways in which to pull itself out of the well.
Journalism has been burnt by big tech, extractive owners and their gatekeepers, shifting revenue models and a falling out of love with its audiences. It’s left journalism singed and with dashed hopes of a phoenix-rising moment any time soon.
Bad news for journalism is also bad news for democracy. This is particularly true for South Africa, which faces elections at a pivotal moment in its 30-year recent history. At this point of deep reckoning, it leaves the two golden questions of journalism for journalism itself to answer – so what? And, what now?
The promise of the internet resulting in more plurality of voices in society and as a leveller for the information agenda being hogged by traditional media channels didn't materialise.
Daniels says: “Sadly, mainstream legacy newspapers and the world of traditional journalism have been conflated with a misinformation and fake news era. What we have now is something quite chaotic in the media-scape.
"We've seen massive job losses and the loss of experience in newsrooms; a loss of sub-editors and fact checkers when we need more, not fewer of these skills."
Holding up society’s mirror
The role of a free media is to provide credible information and news, to be a reflection and record of society, to be a watchdog and to speak truth to power. In 2023, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, called freedom of the press the "foundation of democracy and justice - press freedom represents the very lifeblood of human rights."
Daniels says that journalism as a guardrail for democracy is being pushed to the limits in a dispirited and depleted media landscape, and that this is particularly significant in a year in which 64 countries are holding elections.
"The world seems split into binary opposition and democracy is being squeezed out. You see more authoritarianism and shrinking press freedom. Around the world journalists are being jailed, shot and killed. We see governments turning off the internet during elections, increased cyber bullying and cyber misogyny."
And in the end, it is the public that is failed. "Consumers of news suffer when journalism and journalists are no longer the conduits of reliable factual information and analysis. What we see today in traditional media is a lot of opinions which are not backed by facts that help the public make informed decisions about things like elections.
"Media think that people are not interested in the small person's point of view and struggles. But showing the struggles highlights what the powerful political elite is not doing. The media can be a lot more imaginative," she says.
A spark of hope
Daniels does see sparks of hope though in the strengthening of the idea of journalism as a public good. A shift from competitive and retail-based business models opens up opportunities for alternative funding, including through donors, philanthropy and reader subscriptions.
Another positive is policy reform and legislation. Daniels is Secretary General of the South African National Editors’ Forum. She was part of a series of presentations to the Competition Commission that sought the imposition on tech giants such as Facebook and Google of a tax for using content and news produced by local media outlets which they had been reproducing for free on their platforms while earning ad revenue for every click. Australia has successfully tested this model with their News Media Bargaining Code that came into effect in March 2021.
Revenue generated by such a tax, Daniels says, could be channelled into newsroom-based training for junior journalists, reversing sector job losses and improving low freelance rates. There is also a need to revive community-based media that in the past decade has shrunk from 586 titles to under 200.
Professor William Gumede of the Wits School of Governance is Executive Chairperson of the Democracy Works Foundation and former deputy editor of The Sowetan. In reimagining and innovating for journalism he says that there must be a reckoning of how journalism in a democratic era has been impacted under an ANC-led government. Gumede chaired the talks that led to the formation of the Multi-Party Charter, a coalition of opposition parties that will contest the May 2024 elections.
"We have seen a decline in the quality of leadership in South Africa and in Africa at a time when we have needed it most. The ANC since 1994 has also been hostile to media," says Gumede. He cites as an example the withdrawal of government advertising from newspapers critical of government and the refusal of successive presidents to take live questions during press conferences.
Vanity projects
Gumede says that another threat for democracy has been the purchase of media houses by those intent on using them for their own political agenda and bias. "Newspapers have being stripped and exist as vanity projects for owners. They have become part of corruption, capture and patronage," he says.
Gumede says that something like Norway's Media Ownership Act, which is meant to curtail political interference and propaganda through media channels could rein in this practice. The Act also sets up frameworks for fund disbursement to support media plurality and media freedom and Norway now ranks first in press freedom in the Reporters Without Borders index.
Gumede adds that another damning failure is that even after 30 years of democracy, South Africa has a weak mass reading culture. The consequence of this, he says, is an electorate less able to interrogate news or discern propaganda from credible information. He says: "Supporters of political parties that run on populist slogans and ideology imbibe these slogans as if they were a set of commandments."
The situation is bleak, Gumede concedes. But he still believes that journalists have a role to play as pillars for strong democracies, the so-called Fourth Estate. He adds that media will have to adapt and master new tech platforms in order to serve the broader interests of new generations of news consumers.
Fort mentality
Dr Dinesh Balliah, Director of the Wits Centre for Journalism believes that journalism must face up to some harsh realities. She says: "Journalists are holding on to an idea of journalists as the custodian of journalism; that they somehow hold the line. But it’s the people who will decide what journalism will be, not journalists."
Balliah says that once journalism and journalists become less tied to the idea that journalism is a vocation and an identity even, the industry has a chance to "break out of its fort mentality".
"When we can move away from these hard boundaries of what journalism is and what it is not, we can have a leaking in both directions that allows us to learn about the audiences that exist outside of the boundary and to learn what types of storytelling people want to access," she says, adding that traditional media could also have better insights into how social media achieves its audience reach and revenue streams.
In turn, Balliah says that a more welcoming space for content creators who do "information work" means that they can be more exposed to the incorporation into their work of the fundamentals of journalism, without necessarily having to be practising journalists. This is a way to push back against the tide of mis- and disinformation and for audiences to strengthen their critical discernment of content, she says.
Balliah acknowledges that it's a tough message that she brings to a deflated industry. There may be no phoenix rising soon, but gazing into the ashes won't help either.
The crisis of sustainability in the industry calls for this reality check and for a plan that is multipronged and pragmatic, she says.
"We are ultimately about the business of journalism. We have to attract the people, train them with the right skills and the ethics of journalism so that they can become journalists in the traditional sense, but also so that they can enter a wider range of professions. The more people who may not choose to work as journalists but who understand the fundamentals of journalism, the better it is for building strong democracies," she says.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Playing the migration blame game
- Marcia Zali
Pushing a nationalist agenda and fuelling xenophobia is politicians’ way of disguising the causes of South Africa’s economic woes.
South Africa’s so-called porous borders and the right to free movement within the country have led in recent years to a rise in nationalism and an increase in anti-migrant rhetoric. Political parties as well as citizen organisations have driven campaigns and staged protests aimed at intimidating migrant workers and other foreigners living in the country.
Some political parties have specifically targeted citizens of neighbouring countries who come to South Africa, claiming that they take up local resources and jobs, and use the issue in their election campaigns to gain voters.
By contrast, a number of South Africa’s neighbouring countries have in recent years benefited from relaxed border controls and visa restrictions and have seen their economies benefit enormously from the free movement of people, goods and money.
Scapegoating as a distraction
“The scapegoating and demonisation of migrants merely draw people’s attention away from the true source of South Africa’s problems and erodes democracy while putting the welfare of many people – both our own citizens and foreigners – at risk,” says Professor Loren Landau, senior migration researcher at the Wits African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS).
"Migrants are not the source of any of South Africa’s challenges. There are too few to make a substantial impact on employment or crime, and they have nothing to do with corrupt officials, water cuts, or Eskom,” he says.
Landau explores how mobility on the African continent, particularly in respect of South Africa, is reshaping politics within communities, with a focus on the emerging political subjectivity, political authority, and governance regimes.
While the founding values of South Africa’s Constitution include the protection of human dignity, as well as equality and the advancement of human rights and freedom for all, migrants in the country have faced the persistent violation of their rights, including violent and sometimes deadly outbreaks of xenophobia, which could easily lead to a challenge of our democracy.
Landau says that visas have proven to have limited success in removing genuine security threats to
the country, while greater restrictions on labour rights only tend to bolster informal markets in ways that suppress wages and create poor labour conditions.
Free movement in a free market benefits everyone
“Visa restrictions have economic, political, and security dimensions. Where there are no legitimate economic or security risks, allowing people to move at lower costs (financially and in terms of time) is generally better for everyone,” he says.
South Africa’s borders have always been open to migrant labourers, most of whom historically worked in the mines. Government policies such as the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit give Zimbabwean nationals permission to live, work and study in South Africa, says Dr Johannes Machinya, Lecturer in the Wits Department of Sociology who has conducted several studies that looked at migration control and labour migration between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
A recent bilateral agreement between South Africa and Lesotho which grants Basotho nationals a 90-day visa further solidifies South Africa’s official stance on migration, especially among Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.
However, while these visas allow migrants with valid travel documents into South Africa, Machinya says that they have also led to informal and unregulated labour practices.
“Ninety-day visas are given on condition that the bearer does not work in South Africa. This, in a capitalist system, leaves these people vulnerable and open to being exploited, and they don't have anywhere to run,” he says.
Down the work chain, South African citizens are not spared from the ripple-effect of having a “competitive” job market because they too can end up being vulnerable to unfavourable employment conditions.
Migrants have rights too
“An effort should also be made to sensitise migrants to their employment rights and inform them about institutions such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration where they can seek recourse from unfair labour practices whether they have work permits or not,” says Machinya.
While there is a perception that immigrants use up local resources, Wits ACMS Associate Professor Jo Vearey, coordinator at the Migration and Health Project Southern Africa, says that there is no evidence showing that migrants are a burden on state resources.
“Evidence shows that health migrants from neighbouring countries mostly come into South Africa to get the medical care that they need before returning home. This is why it is important to hold the government and politicians accountable when they try to use migrants as a political tool to cover up their failures, because this is what fuels the anti-migrant sentiment in our communities,” she explains.
Easing the tension
The project aims to improve responses to the health and well-being of migrants in the SADC region through generating and communicating knowledge. A report released by the ACMS shows that migrants, refugees and asylum seekers often face structural or indirect violence when attempting to access healthcare through the country’s public health sector.
To rectify the situation, Landau believes that migration control practices and policies should be improved. The combined belief of the ACMS researchers is that a more balanced, rights-based, and empirically informed policy discussion is needed to help ease tensions between neighbours and to protect the fundamental human rights of all who live in the country.
“Strengthening bodies like the South African Human Rights Commission, increasing advocacy and fostering partnerships that will advance the rights of migrants, implementing inclusive campaigns in the communities, upholding the existing laws, and holding the State accountable for the poor implementation of existing policies, are some of the measures that can be used to uphold and advance the rights of migrants,” says Vearey.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
NHI: From aspiration to implementation
- Lem Chetty
Access to healthcare services is a constitutional right but is equal healthcare in South Africa a reality in our lifetime?
A young doctor recently took to social media to bemoan a lack of electricity, making it difficult for her to get ready for work, while the relative of a patient elsewhere complained about a 36-hour wait in a hospital ward for their octogenarian mother to be seen. And no, this was not Limpopo, these incidences were in Liverpool and London, England.
Equitable universal healthcare for everyone, including here in South Africa, would be ideal, but what these UK examples show is that, even in well-funded countries, implementing and maintaining a public health system is increasingly difficult.
The National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, currently in proposal phase in SA, is a roadmap to universal healthcare. But it has come under sharp scrutiny for its lack of detail and financial modelling.
“The principle of NHI is one that is certainly widely recognised as a need, as it is enshrined in our Constitution. How you implement and interpret it is the problem. Certainly, in its current format, it is unlikely to be possible to implement,” says Veller.
The main issue he cites is that the vast sum of funding needed to meet the basic tenets of universal healthcare is not available to government. “Secondly, there are insufficient healthcare professionals to care for the population,” he says, adding that overarching a project of this scale is the “poor track record of how the public sector has been run for the last 60 to 70 years, particularly for the disenfranchised in our society. NHI is not in their favour.”
Veller adds, “Also missing from the discussion are our current healthcare outcomes, which are poor – way below the level of other countries with similar economies. A better healthcare system means that health outcomes, and as a result, the economy, would improve, but the NHI bill is being dangled like a carrot to win favour, despite its obvious limitations.”
“What’s not mentioned is that true universal healthcare has never been achieved anywhere in the world – bottomless funding from the public purse is unrealistic. In the UK, you can wait several years for a hip replacement, during which time your quality of life declines along with your ability to earn an income. It is an interesting cycle; when the amount of money spent on an individual is linked to their earning potential.”
“It’s a paper plan. It’s not a real proposal. The problem is that the institutional and fiscal elements are not aligned. It is unrealistic and unimplementable and comes on the back of years of government having done very little in the healthcare system,” he says.
Van den Heever stresses that there has also been no significant structural reform of systems or infrastructure in the public healthcare sector to entice private healthcare to integrate. “This is not how you access the private sector intelligence. Sophisticated design is needed,” he says.
These experts agree that many people do not realise that the NHI proposals in circulation aim to centralise the health budget, eliminating current provincial mandates: “To put healthcare into a centralised government structure has enormous implications for the public sector,” says Van den Heever. “It is not based on the way our systems are designed, nor on the way health systems are designed around the world. The risk of the NHI being run like Eskom is mammoth.”
He adds that patronage, the capture of public entities, and political interference, that all cause massive collapse and failure of any system, pose too great a risk.
What’s the solution?
Veller says a pragmatic approach could work. “We have to accept that we have a two-tier healthcare system that needs closer alignment. It is simply not fair that 85% of the population is denied access to what just 15% have in private healthcare. We must progressively find a way of integrating the two systems.”
He says that the NHI should not be funded by increased taxation and that other means of income should be found to improve healthcare. “From a universal access to healthcare perspective, we must be able to guarantee that the current dispensation not only guarantees healthcare for everyone, but also quality healthcare and outcomes.”
“We must fix the existing healthcare system. The NHI can be achieved only if what we already have is repaired. First, professionalise and depoliticise healthcare – that means the right people, doing the right job, under the right circumstances. Every cent spent, must be well spent.”
While Veller is in favour of a universal healthcare system, he says there is work to be done before we reach a functional option. “It is high time that the public healthcare sector is properly administered and that systems are adequately audited. We must really start looking at incorporating academic health systems into the sector. Where medicine is practised under academia, it is improved and is better for everyone. There is no doubt that academic healthcare is worldclass and should be integrated into the public sector more rigorously.”
Veller says that “at the institutional and individual level, we must incentivise excellence. Measure outcomes and incentivise people to do their jobs well, which happens in Thailand and Sweden.”
To make the NHI work, Veller advocates:
In the short term: We must improve what we have and make it work, and really work. Get rid of political interference that has prevented it from achieving good outcomes.
In the medium term: An incremental introduction of private sector participation and buying of services by the public sector. Pricing and competition must be good and that will encourage the public sector to improve, too. If there is good quality control, there will be a gradual integration of the two.
Long term: Integration. It is simply not appropriate in a country like ours that most healthcare needs cannot be accessed by a large majority of the population. Improved healthcare outcomes have been demonstrated to make economies grow across the world. The question is how to achieve universal healthcare but not the NHI, which requires a funding mechanism.
He concludes: “As it stands, the NHI is unaffordable. The proposal must evolve beyond theoretical constructs. A pragmatic approach, informed by systems understanding and decentralised governance, is essential.”
Only then can we bridge the gap between aspiration and implementation, thereby ensuring equitable healthcare for all South Africans.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Realising disability rights in Southern Africa
- Lem Chetty
People with disabilities still experience barriers to the realisation of their rights. A new view on disability is required.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, states that: “Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons or categories of persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken.”
For everyone in South Africa, our Constitutional rights are among the strongest and most just in the world. However, there is a long way to go in the practical implementation of many of those rights and freedoms. For people with disabilities, the chasm between legislation, policy, and implementation is that much deeper.
Few public or workspaces in South Africa today adequately meet the needs of people with disabilities. While some have demarcated access areas, modified bathroom facilities, maps to disability-friendly access points, and handrails on stairwells, the requirements for a person with disabilities to successfully engage in economic activity are generally lacking.
Although Wits' campuses include accessible control panel interfaces in elevators (Braille keypads, voice activation, mirrored back walls), other facilities such as tactile paving for the visually impaired, hearing loop systems and other smart facilities that accommodate “everyone” are generally few and far between elsewhere.
Dr Leila Abdool Gafoor, Head of the Disability Rights Unit at Wits says that while the University’s physical environment has created access for people with disabilities, this is not the case in all sectors of society.
“In my own work environment in the higher education sector, for example, I see reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities being applied quite well and fairly, levelling the playing field between those with and those without disabilities. Most educational institutions have Disability Units that actively advocate for those who need support, and which provide that support to anyone who seeks it. While I think that South Africa’s policies are fantastic, as well as the overarching and guiding mechanisms in terms of what should be put into place, it is the struggle to implement them that I mostly see in our society.”
Silos stymie progress
An advocate for disability rights, Naeema Hussein El Kout is a Lecturer in the Physiotherapy Department at Wits and is currently researching policies related to disability. She says that one of the biggest hurdles in considering disability rights is silos in governance.
She quotes Sir Michael Marmot, a renowned epidemiologist and public health expert, who emphasises a crucial perspective: “ ‘Every sector is a health sector’. This underscores the interconnectedness of the various aspects of our lives with our overall wellbeing. We need intersectoral collaboration with the Department of Labour and the Department of Education and so on, if we are going to be improving rights.”
New views on disabilities
El Kout scores policy implementation a 5 out of 10. She says, “Following many years of broad inequity in South Africa, considering that our democracy is young and our sociopolitical history fraught, disability rights are not being actualised and support has not improved significantly since 1994. This is true for many areas of society; we see efforts being made but we haven’t quite got there yet, particularly in improving healthcare.”
It's about trying to revolutionise policy and how disability is viewed, from just a physical lens, to include speech and rehabilitation from conditions including strokes and heart disease, Covid-19, mental health and HIV. “These are not often considered disabilities, but they are,” she says.
Using guidelines from the World Health Organization, and focusing on public health and service delivery, she says that the aim is to ensure that policy not only supports accommodating people with disabilities, but also rehabilitation and before that, prevention. “How many years are lost to disability – in whatever form it comes – what has it done to a person’s life and how could that have been prevented if we intervened early?”
Prioritising policy in practice
“My wish list is that there is more focus on health policy and that the agenda reaches the people who are considering national health priorities. Rehabilitation specialists need to be part of the policy teams. In a national health insurance scenario, rehabilitation would be prioritised as well as preventative care, promotion of healthy lifestyles and physical activity,” says El Kout.
The need is urgent. “We are still recovering from HIV, secondary complications from antiretrovirals and more recently the Covid pandemic. We don’t even have accurate figures for the prevalence of disability – I am certain that disability affects many more people than the current statistic of 15% of our population.”
Limited disability rights actualisation in a democratic South Africa due to a lack of true transformative policy and implementation, has a direct impact on employability, which in turn has an impact on the country’s economy and on its social conditions.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Social grants: A hand up, not a hand-out
- Beth Amato
The child support grant and proposed pregnancy grant give children a healthier start in life and make democratic and economic sense.
When Covid-19 tore holes in the already flimsy social fabric of communities across South Africa, the government introduced a Social Relief of Distress grant for those in acute crisis. It supplemented the existing social grants and highlighted that the government could execute its social protection and constitutional mandate.
While the small amount of R350 is far below the national poverty line threshold of R1 058 per person per month (as of May 2023), cash transfers alleviated extreme poverty, says Thokozile Madonko, a Southern Centre for Inequality Studies researcher.
“Covid revealed that people had little to fall back on. Suddenly, there were people without money and the government could cover the basic minimum in response to a disaster,” she says.
Social security and economic activity
Section 27 of the Constitution mandates the state to afford everyone the right to receive social security. It also obliges the state to take reasonable measures to help people attain this right.
Ultimately, cash transfers should counter poverty and inequality, and protect children, older people, and those with disabilities.
Madonko says that financial grants allow people to be more economically active. “If everyone received a grant despite their income, they could begin to play a meaningful part in the economy and engage as democratic citizens,” she says.
Moreover, evidence from a basic income grant project piloted in Namibia showed that a monthly cash grant of N$100 per person each month had multiplier effects – it reduced child malnutrition, increased attendance in schools, and enhanced economic activity. Women could also move away from risky work.
In South Africa, the real value of social grants is decreasing because of the exorbitant cost-of-living, but they continue to play a role in alleviating poverty, particularly in female-headed households.
“Basic cash injections are certainly useful in the context of the multiple crises humanity faces and the changing nature of work,” says Madonko.
A future beyond the first 1 000 days
Professor Susan Goldstein, Managing Director in the South African Medical Research Council Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science, explains that most social grant recipients are poor black households in urban areas, where women and children are the most vulnerable.
“Pregnant women in these households, for example, can’t afford to buy nutritious food or seek antenatal care. A baby’s first 1 000 days [from conception to their second birthday] is a critical period of development in ensuring that they are later able to reach their full potential. Should stunting as a result of under nutrition occur, major social and health effects are felt later on. This costs the individual their health and future, and costs the government billions in healthcare spending,” she says.
Vulnerable groups in South Africa include these women and children, as well as those with disabilities, and the aged.
He says that the Child Support Grant is also critical. “If a child under six isn’t getting the right nutrition, it’s almost impossible to recover from that later in life,” he says.
Pushing for a pregnancy grant
A pregnancy grant, not yet available in South Africa, could address child development concerns.
Goldstein refutes claims that women fall pregnant merely to receive the State’s financial support. In fact, many needy women with children do not access the grant. Moreover, if the child grant is received, it is not spent frivolously.
Goldstein says that low-middle income countries such as India, Bangladesh, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Kenya and Brazil have introduced pregnancy grants, voucher schemes, conditional cash and nutritional support. These interventions have proven quite effective in ensuring that mothers and children can access good nutrition during and post pregnancy.
Goldstein says that globally about 41% of mothers receive a maternity benefit. In Europe this number is 80%, but in Africa, only 16% of pregnant women receive a cash transfer.
She adds, “There has to be political commitment – because the consequences of not spending this money should be taken into account. Our research shows that implementing a pregnancy grant will save the government money in the long run and decrease medical costs,” says Goldstein.
The South African Law Reform Commission has proposed a pregnancy support grant to prioritise support for poor and vulnerable women.
Equity beyond the bread line
Valodia says that social grants on their own don’t profoundly impact inequality in South Africa, even though an equitable society is a pillar of democracy.
“The grants must be supplemented with other initiatives to eradicate poverty and inequality. We need to identify what can change the current trajectory. This requires creativity,” he says.
Job creation in areas like green industrial development (where there are growing opportunities) could boost household income, he says. “We have important mineral resources that are important for the energy transition. We have more than half of the global resources for manganese. How can we shape employment opportunities around this? We have a real opportunity.”
Madonko asserts that whatever is introduced should translate into access to food, economic opportunities and a safe environment. “It’s not just about the absence of poverty. It is about social support creating a life of meaning,” she says.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
How colonialism bastardised ancient rituals
- Beth Amato
Traditional rituals and practices such as lobola and initiation are often misunderstood in democratic societies where they are viewed through a western lens.
In 1850, the colonialist and so-called ‘Administrator of Native Affairs’, Theophilus Shepstone ruled that only 11 cattle could be exchanged in the marriage practice of ilobolo, because he regarded it as an exploitative business transaction. Before then, there was no limit to how many cattle could be given to a bride’s family. Ilobolo or lobola, an ancient and noble African ritual relating to marriage, was thus tarnished and reduced to a mere financial exchange.
Today, in our modern, democratic society, cultural practices such as lobola and other rituals are often dismissed as inappropriate, patriarchal relics.
Female flexibility
The tragic narrowing of lobola’s meaning and significance denies its roots in kinship and a reciprocal relationship between families, explains Associate Professor Hlonipha Mokoena, a South African historian in the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER). “The colonial perspective sees lobola as the buying and selling of women, when in fact it was about creating a bond between two families,” she says.
Mokoena explains that cattle are ‘latecomers’ in the practice of lobola. About 300 years ago, people exchanged brass rings, which were devalued when the Portuguese introduced counterfeit brass in exchange for products like ivory.
Moreover, women could decide their lobola, particularly if they came from a powerful family. Indeed, a woman could refuse to be married. “The archives are full of stories of how flexible lobola was,” says Mokoena.
Uniting families
Dr Sinethemba Makanya, a traditional healer with a PhD in Medical Humanities and a Lecturer in the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care says that colonialism and apartheid bastardised lobola and other initiatory practices.
“Lobola is not divorced from African cosmology and metaphysics. It can’t be spoken about without bringing in the importance of ancestral spirits and natural ecology. When a woman is married, she belongs to the whole, and the husband’s ancestors will embrace her too,” says Makanya.
Lobola is a complex practice involving intricate rituals, explains Makanya, only some of which are well known. In fact, marriage rites also include umembeso, when the husband’s family dresses the wife. Blankets, coats, and traditional attire are examples of clothing given. Sometimes, the wife is given a new name to help her journey to becoming part of the husband’s family.
“The wife’s family does the same for the husband as a way of bringing the families together and teaching one another about each family’s values and conventions,” says Makanya. The wife’s family also hopes to entrust their daughter to a man who can prove his maturity and an ability to care for others.
“When cattle are given, each of the cows means something. For example, many cows belong to the bride's mother, and some to the grandmother and ancestors. The cows are tokens of appreciation to those who helped raise the bride,” explains Makanya.
After the wedding ceremony, there is umabo. The two families have a final ‘dressing’, and the wife is dropped off at the husband’s home where she should stay to show her care for her new husband’s family.
Initiation as celebration
The diminishing of the meaning of lobola also applies to other traditional practices. When boys are initiated into becoming men, circumcision camps are often referenced. “Of course, this has been called into question, but the practice is about maturing into a fuller human being. It is a celebration and a call to take responsibility,” says Mokoena.
When a young woman undergoes puberty, she can no longer follow her father around. In addition, sleeping arrangements change; people can only sleep in the same room as those who are of similar age.
Mokoena says, “At first glance, this can seem strict or even patriarchal, but there is a wise logic to these rules. They encourage independence and peer relationships. They allow your parents to acknowledge that they’ve done their job raising you.”
Western weddings and conspicuous consumption
Both Mokoena and Makanya lament how lobola, in particular, has changed an ancient kinship practice. “Marriage seems to reflect the capitalist society in which we live. The expensive and elaborate wedding dress seems more important than affirming an important part of African culture,” says Mokoena.
Meanwhile, many people believe that marriage is an unattainable goal because they can’t afford the lobola. “It’s about keeping up with the Joneses, and if you can’t have a huge wedding, both traditional and ‘western’, then you have failed,” she adds. Marriage is, therefore, aspirational and a victim of the wider economic and social order.
“Rituals should be about developing rather than destroying people’s lives. You don’t want people to feel like outsiders. I don’t think our ancestors ever intended lobola, for example, to be exclusionary.”
Lobola is a way to imagine all the ways in which love can be applied. “It is asking what it takes to create love and a bond between families,” says Mokoena.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Marching to new drums
- Leanne Rencken
A generation of ‘born frees’ are heading to the polls in 2024. What is the soundtrack, if any, that underscores this election year?
When considering how music serves a democratic agenda, the struggle songs of the liberation movement immediately come to mind. Historically South Africa has been a country that protests with song, toyi-toying its way through revolution. Leaders call for change, and the nation responds in harmonious verse.
Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology at Wits, David Coplan, says, “We all know the most iconic struggle songs. Many of them were hymns but were sung strictly for political purposes during the struggle – songs like Senzenina [What Have We Done?] and Hamilton Masiza’s Vukani Mawethu [Wake Up My People].”
The progress of protest
While these hymns and other struggle songs have historical significance and are still often invoked with a sense of nostalgia, they’re not the go-to anthems of today. Neither is kwaito, the youth-led post-1994 pop/rap genre that spoke to both liberation and disillusionment and peaked in the early 2010s.
Can kwaito’s successors, such as popular music genre amapiano, or even gqom, fill the protest-music gap? Probably not, but perhaps that’s not the point. Coplan theorises that “the young generation is looking for other avenues to keep the country going for them. Maybe the most political thing about music is that it represents social mobility.” Given South African singer-songwriter, Tyla Seethal’s recent Grammy win for her global hit, Water, and her deal with US label Epic Records and her large social media following, he may be right.
New concepts
Lebogang Ngwatle is a Master's student in the Department of Cultural Policy and Management in the Wits School of Arts and has a slightly different take. Ngwatle believes that “the messaging and the revolution in the contemporary sound we hear is extremely spiritual. There are the drums, the chanting, references to idioms of old, questions about self-identity, and land – not directly, but it’s clear that land is connected to spirituality.”
While amapiano and gqom are mainstream, says Ngwatle, there are other concept bands like iPhupho L’Ka Biko that are rooted in Black Consciousness and Africanism. Founded by Wits Music alumnus, Nhlanhla Ngqaqu, in 2015, the experimental sound of iPhupho L’Ka Biko is rooted in jazz and draws on themes such as spirituality, love, ritual, culture, their envisaged future, and displacement. They gained prominence as proponents of the #FeesMustFall movement and have recently released their first album, Azania.
Chantal Willie-Petersen, renowned jazz musician, lecturer and PhD candidate in Wits Music adds, “A lot of South African artists that I am aware of and that I am drawn to are those that provoke the idea of what democracy should look like in our country. Artists like Benjamin Jephta [in Wits Music] who has recently released an album called, Born Coloured, Not Born-Free, and others who are still talking around the ideas of racism, poverty, inequality, war, gender-based violence, the way we do life, nation building, etc. There are so many inconsistencies, inequalities, and instabilities that music addresses, and I feel that music plays a great role in establishing what our Constitution asks for theoretically, but what it is still very much lacking practically.”
Arts economics
Can the powerful messaging behind music like this only be validated by its engagement with a rapt audience, intent on driving its mission forward, and equally important, shouldn’t it be able to support artists financially?
Ngwatle, whose research interrogates the role community art centres played in creating a cultural and financial support system for artists, believes that with the closure of many of these centres the South African government needs to step in with respect to both audience and artist development.
“In South Africa the biggest concern that underpins all policy is social cohesion,” she says. “What better way to achieve social cohesion than through the arts? My research interest asks how we can communicate about art this way and measure its contribution to social cohesion? What indicators would we use?”
Singing from the same song sheet
Willie-Peterson believes that activists will always find an audience if they address the needs of society. She also believes that participation in music is important for the artist because it is transactional, but it’s vital for everyone because it’s inherently restorative: “Audiences will find a space where music is there to contribute towards cultural enhancement and towards the seasons in our lives where we need to be carried by something that is of a divine nature, that speaks to the healing of the body, the mind and the reconciliation of nations.”
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Q&A: The South African Constitution
- Wits University
Constitutional expert, Professor Cathi Albertyn, answers your questions on the South African Constitution, the bedrock of South Africa’s democracy.
How has the Constitution helped to shape South Africa's political landscape?
Constitutions typically set out the institutions, rules and principles that organise power and decision-making within a state and identify the rights and duties that govern the relationship between the state and its people. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa establishes a constitutional democracy where a representative parliament and an independent judiciary are important features of our political landscape.
A commitment to a universal franchise, regular elections and a multiparty democracy, based on proportional representation, means that Parliament is representative of multiple parties.
Critically, an independent judiciary is authorised to interpret and enforce the Constitution which means that courts play a central role in holding the exercise of public power to account. People can go to court to vindicate their rights – from the right to vote, to rights to non-discrimination, socioeconomic rights to housing, healthcare, water, social assistance and education. Courts can hold Parliament, the Executive and public officials to account, which means that the courts play a significant role in the fight against impunity and corruption. Various political battles have spilled over into the courts, including faction-fighting within the ANC as well as highly publicised litigation around President Zuma and those associated with state capture. Sometimes referred as lawfare, this means that the courts are used multiple times to delay accountability in what is often called the ‘Stalingrad strategy’.
How does the Constitution ensure accountability and transparency in government?
The establishment of an accountable, responsive and open government is a cornerstone of our democracy. Parliament, the courts and Chapter Nine Institutions all play a role in ensuring accountability and transparency.
Apart from its central role in law-making, Parliament is tasked with scrutinising and overseeing government action. This allows Parliament and its Committees to call the President, Ministers and government officials to account for implementing laws, service delivery, public expenditure, and allegations of maladministration. Parliament must also approve the annual budget. There has been substantial criticism of Parliament’s weak oversight role in the past, often arising from party loyalty. Parliament’s reluctance to hold the Executive to account was highlighted when the Constitutional Court found that it failed to ensure that President Zuma complied with remedial action ordered by the Public Protector in respect of irregular expenditure at his Nkandla private residence.
The supremacy of the Constitution means that all law and conduct that is inconsistent with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is invalid. Where Parliament, the Executive and public officials violate the Constitution, citizens may go to court to enforce the Constitution.
How does the Constitution address issues of educational inequality and promote equal opportunities for all students?
The Constitution guarantees a right to basic education, including adult education. This is given content in legislation, particularly by the South African Schools Act. This right has grounded a number of cases to address ongoing educational inequalities, ranging from discrimination in access, to universal norms and standards for schooling and the provision of desks, teachers and textbooks. While all of these cases have been successful, the implementation of court orders tends to be subject to significant delays. In addition, matters relating to the quality of education and successful educational outcomes are probably beyond the purview of courts.
The Constitution also guarantees the right to further education which the state is bound to make ‘progressively available and accessible’. At the core of equality in the higher education system is funding. While universal funding is not guaranteed in the Constitution, it does require the progressive roll-out of such funding and probably prevents its unreasonable and irrational roll-back. For example, a recent retraction of National Student Financial Aid Scheme funding from students doing a postgraduate LLB at Wits was overturned on review, against the broad backdrop of the Constitutional educational right.
How does the Constitution handle the concept of land expropriation without compensation, and what implications does it have for land ownership and redistribution?
The Constitution addresses the land question in Section 25 by setting out the broad framework for restitution and redistribution but it leaves the details of these processes to be defined in policy and law. On the question of expropriation, Section 25 provides that expropriation, for a public purpose or public interest, must take place under a law of general application and is subject to compensation. The amount of compensation must be ‘just and equitable’ and be approved or decided by a court, which must balance the public interest and the interests of those affected.
Whether this compensation may amount to ‘nil’ has been the subject of heated debate. One side argues for certainty in the constitutional text (thus advocating for a constitutional amendment). These are split between those who state that there is no duty to compensate (expropriation without compensation) and those who would keep the duty but specify that this might amount to ‘nil’. The other side argues that ‘nil’ compensation is permitted by the Constitution, but that the Expropriation Act must be revised to guide government and the courts to enable this under specified circumstances.
The latter view aligns with the general idea that the Constitution provides a broad normative and enabling framework for social and economic transformation, that is flexible and designed to endure. It is in the details of policies, laws and programmes – and their implementation and enforcement – that real transformation becomes possible. Here, the question is whether the Expropriation Reform Bill, currently before the President for signature into law, is up to the task.
How does the Constitution contribute to tackling unemployment and inequality and fostering inclusive economic growth in the country? Is that part of its role?
The Constitution establishes a vision of an egalitarian society based on social justice, human dignity, and the achievement of equality and freedom. This can be seen to envisage a redistributive social democracy, and constitutional rights and principles can be interpreted to enable, defend and advance quite radically redistributive measures. However, the Constitution does not specify a particular economic policy, the choice of which falls to the government of the day.
Among the principles and rights that foster an inclusive economy are the constitutional commitment to achieving equality and the Section 9 equality rights that permit positive measures. These enable, for example, black economic empowerment. In addition, non-discrimination and affirmative action under Section 9, and the right to fair labour practices, trade unions, and collective bargaining in Section 23 help foster an inclusive labour market. The detail, of course, falls to policy and legislation.
Overall, the rights and principles of the Constitution can be drawn on in multiple ways to advocate for greater economic transformation, to defend economic transformation and redistribution where it does takes place and, more rarely, to call out government in court when it fails to assist those in need.
More on this story:
For more answers on questions about the Constitution, visit www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/ or follow Wits on LinkedIn or Facebook.
Cathi Albertyn is a Professor in the Wits School of Law. She is known for her work in Constitutional Law and has served as a commissioner on the Commission for Gender Equality and the South African Law Reform Commission.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
The social consensus revolution
- William Gumede
[Column] To prevent South Africa from becoming a failed society, we must all rise and become active citizens.
The society-wide consensus forged in South Africa after the end of apartheid has now collapsed in the face of corruption, dishonesty, the breakdown of basic moral standards, and the rule of law. We need something new to replace the consensus forged after 1994, to which every political party, irrespective of their ideology, should subscribe.
Competing governance systems to the Constitution, state failure, tribalisation, the exclusion of large numbers of South Africans based on demographics, and uncaring public servants, have all contributed to a breakdown of the former democratic consensus.
The pillars of a new democratic consensus
What should the pillars of a new democratic consensus be? The Constitution must be the apex governance system, without challenge, whether from customary law, township or village communal culture, gang, or liberation party culture. The rule of law has to be a central pillar of a new consensus.
South Africa’s diversity must be accepted as a pillar of the country’s identity. The best way forward for South Africa is what Michael Ignatieff described as “civic nationalism”, where the glue holding communities together is equal rights and shared democratic cultures, values, and institutions, rather than ethnic nationalism.
Merit-based public service
A professional, merit-based, non-politicised public service that is not aligned to a governing party is critical for the delivery of public services, a functioning economy and uniting South Africans across race, class, and politics. The state must treat citizens with dignity and with efficiency.
The public service is critical in modelling moral, democratic, responsive behaviour that is accountable, and therefore helps to instill a democratic culture (or not).
Strategies of redress have to be reimagined and economic development policies must focus not on a small black or white elite, or only on uplifting the poor, but on everyone, irrespective of race, colour, or political affiliation.
Upskilling vs empowerment
Empowerment must refocus on delivering skills, quality education and entrepreneurial opportunities, as well as assets, such as home ownership. In the short term, South Africa needs a basic income grant, but one that is linked to skills development, entrepreneurship, active citizenship, and democratic civic education – with recipients even being asked to volunteer in their communities in a variety of roles.
Active citizenry
South Africa needs more active democratic citizenship, which carries with it individual roles and responsibilities, and accountability – not just the exercising of rights, freedoms, and expectations, but the kind of citizenship which follows the rule of law, and engages with neighbours, community, and society through a range of civic activities.
Companies too must behave as model democratic corporate citizens, respecting democratic institutions and the environment. Business operations should be conducted in a sustainable way – minimising environmental harm, emphasising human rights, and ensuring fair labour and consumer trade practices.
The ultimate demonstration of active citizenship is at the ballot box, rejecting parties and leaders who are corrupt, incompetent, and uncaring. South Africa is in danger of becoming a failed society, one in which social order breaks down, social norms fray and traditional family structures collapse. The failure of government to provide basic services accelerates society’s fracturing.
Recovery strategy
Reversing the slide starts with government law enforcement, the delivery of public services, and holding public officials to account. But opposition parties, civil society, faith-based organisations, and businesses will all have to collaborate if we are to restore social norms, order, and good civic behaviours.
There has to be a national consensus to tackle apartheid-induced mass trauma which has left individuals and communities so broken, with many struggling to engage fully in our democracy, with the state, in the workplace, and even in intimate relationships.
Given this reality, self-esteem and agency assertion need to be taught at all levels of society – recipients of government grants and other forms of financial support could be compelled to attend civic, democracy and self-care programmes.
There has to be a new consensus if we are to change the country’s culture and the way we engage with others, and to change what have become acceptable social norms, values, and behaviour, but which have become corrupted.
To give effect to this national culture change, there must be greater enforcement of duties, responsibilities, and accountabilities among ordinary citizens, as well as elected and public representatives.
Finally, the reward structure in society has to be changed to one based on hard work, honesty, and merit – not political affiliations, colour, or past struggle credentials.
William Gumede is an Associate Professor in the Wits School of Governance, Founder and Executive Chairperson of the Democracy Works Foundation, and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg).
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Reimagining democracy
- Beth Amato
Democracy, as a system of government by the whole population, seems to have had its heyday. Is ‘People Power’ a viable option?
In the 1991 movie Thelma and Louise, the two female protagonists were literally behind the wheel (in this case of a convertible Ford Thunderbird) after they took a decision, in the face of violent patriarchy, to own their story.
In that classic final scene, when their car flies into the Grand Canyon, the message is that while women can strive for heady freedom and defy imposed and traditional roles, it turns out that the ideal is just a Hollywood fantasy. Then as now.
Thelma and Louise becoming a cult classic coincided with democracy’s big moment. Evan Cupido and Raphael de Kadt, writing for the Helen Suzman Foundation, noted that the world rode a wave of democratisation in the 1980s and early 1990s, as authoritarian states began to wane. Adopting democracy was attractive, coloured, as it was, by the West’s economic and political tenets.
But, like Thelma and Louise’s defiance of entrenched systems, democracy is fragile. Moreover, it has a growing number of staunch, conservative opponents.
In defence of democracy
“Liberal democracy was advancing confidently from the mid-1970s to the 1990s. But we see now how fragile the system is across the world. The 2008 global economic crisis revealed how democracy did not ensure economic prosperity for everyone,” says Professor Daryl Glaser in the Department of Political Studies.
The evidence is that democracy is compatible with economic growth but does not guarantee it. Indeed, both democracy and dictatorship can succeed and fail economically.
China’s authoritarian government has been economically successful in recent decades. “But we can also say that China got lucky with its dictators. Where democracy is useful is that it offers the possibility of peaceful ‘course correction’ through voting. In China, if something goes wrong, there is no mechanism for people to replace leaders,” says Glaser.
Democracy’s intrinsic merits are therefore evident: “We can defend democracy because political equality, participation, freedom, and procedural fairness are fundamental. For some people, this is sufficient and an end in itself,” says Glaser.
Will South Africa’s democracy survive after 2024?
Glaser says that South Africa’s democracy is procedurally sound, but the democratic constitutional settlement did not achieve everything that people wanted. “There is a disconnect between the rulers and the ruled,” says Glaser. Today, South Africa is economically stagnant and socially unequal.
Moreover, this country’s democracy has not been put to its biggest test: will the African National Congress (ANC) concede power if it loses an election? And, if it does, can South Africa be well run by a coalition government? “The ANC will for a long time be the largest party, but we can cautiously predict that it will not get the majority of votes in the 2024 election,” says Glaser.
Realistically, the best hope for South Africa is a stable coalition where partners curb the ANC's excesses, patronage, corruption and authoritarianism. “We will need current opposition parties to play their part in maintaining a stable democracy. This can’t be the ANC’s burden alone.” If a non-ANC coalition exists, its multiple constituent parties must demonstrate that they can get along.
Moreover, democracy needs the backing and support of effective administration. “South African state administration probably requires an injection of professionalism and less partisan cadre deployment,” says Glaser.
This is not to say that the free market should reign supreme, but that efficient bureaucratic systems should ensure service delivery and the realisation of human freedoms.
Imperfect politics and the pursuit of happiness
Visiting Professor Mia Swart in the School of Law says that there has been democratic backsliding, particularly in the treatment of immigrants and minorities. In 2019, when India (often referred to as the world’s most populous democracy) passed its Citizenship Amendment Act, it effectively excluded Muslims from becoming Indian citizens.
“How far do we need to drift from the principles of democracy for it no longer to be a democracy? There is little pressure on India to democratise its policies. In Europe, where strong democratic values and human rights have been central, there is a rise in right-wing, anti-immigrant rhetoric and we now doubt what Europe stands for,” says Swart.
In Singapore, there is economic prosperity but little personal freedom. “Would you rather live in a poor democracy or a wealthy democratic state?” asks Swart. She says that what people most want is tangible goods and services. “Material goods play a huge role in people’s happiness. Democracy and progressive constitutions don’t put bread on the table. People want to feel happiness on a daily basis.”
For Swart, democracy fails if it doesn’t focus on the pursuit of happiness. “But right now, it’s the best of the other bad options.” In South Africa, the devastating levels of youth unemployment should be everyone’s focus. “Every political party’s manifesto must address this. Yes, we honour individual freedoms, but we are failing an entire sector of the population.”
Confronted with urgent issues such as youth unemployment, pervasive, and entrenched patterns of violence, disruption and poverty, no political system will be a quick fix. Democracy should continuously be reimagined in its national context.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
A violent freedom
- Beth Amato
Despite the knife-edge upon which South Africans live, the country is not, in fact, a failed state – but a new form of democracy is required.
In July 2021, a profoundly unsettling eight days of violence, looting, and burning gripped South Africa. The media attributed these actions, which caused 340 deaths and around R50 billion in damage, to the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma, and the term ‘failed state’ was freely bandied around.
While Zuma’s arrest may have been a trigger, it was not the root cause of the revolt; the July riots were a symptom of a more significant historical crisis, and “patterns were only crystallised under Zuma,” explains Dr Edward Cottle, a researcher at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits.
If Zuma was the spark, the pandemic was the wood – as was the government’s granting of a meagre R350 monthly social grant. Add in the lack of adequate housing, food, and jobs affecting many communities, and the tinder box was ready to blow. Not reckoning with unresolved issues relating to the country’s unjust past was the fuel, and the fire created a smokescreen for the repercussions of a macroeconomic model that believed a free market would address South Africa’s inequities, says Cottle.
“Before Mbeki’s drive for efficiency and the rationalisation of the economy, the Reconstruction and Development Plan, introduced in 1994, was a way for black people to partake in the economy.”
Furthermore, Mbeki’s growth, employment, and redistribution plan was not developed in meaningful partnership with labour and civil society. Cottle says, “Mbeki argued that local economic and political systems would become more efficient, decreasing debt levels. This never transpired.”
Fragile not failed
A failed state, by definition, is a place where the state cannot fulfill most of its functions. “It’s a war zone with no basic security or development,” says Cottle.
Despite the country’s dire socioeconomic and political realities, South Africa is not a failed state, “The concept is dated,” says Cottle. “It’s more plausible to say we are a fragile state.”
A fragile state can be defined as one that is in some form of crisis and is characterised by poor government performance.
Furthermore, South Africa is not unique if violent protests are an indicator of a fragile state. Violent urban uprisings have engulfed Europe, and the Middle East’s Arab Spring was also a seminal moment in the history of violent protests.
Polarisation versus democracy
“Democracy is perceived to be fraught with moral failings,” explains Dr Siphiwe Dube, a Senior Lecturer in Political Studies. “The growing conservatism across the globe is underpinned by the belief that ‘undeserving’ people are given rights.
Conservatives believe that the world has gone too far in accommodating and tolerating trans people, immigrants, those seeking abortions, anyone entering a same sex marriage, and so-called rampant feminists,” he says, and points out that in the US, right-wing demagogues espouse hatred and suspicion towards immigrants, but need the latter for cheap labour and to do the kind of work that others refuse to do.
African conservatism
Dube has researched the values and rhetoric of conservative South African political entities, particularly leading up to the 2024 elections. He has examined the Freedom Front Plus, Solidarity, the African Christian Democratic Party, and the African Transformation Movement. These organisations have different manifestos but common threads, says Dube, including the sanctity of the nuclear family, religion, and the entrenchment of patriarchy.
“These parties are saying we should have a new and totally different moral system. But there is such hypocrisy; these parties exist because of key Constitutional rights such as freedom of speech.”
Inkululeko – a new form of democracy
Dube believes that democracy must be reimagined. “When John Locke wrote about democracy, he was speaking only to an elite of white men who held the belief that liberal democracy was inherently good. We have to think about democracy in a way that promotes justice, effectively addresses polycrises, and shifts away from staunch positionality.”
Cottle asserts that a new political model must focus on delivering socioeconomic rights. “I believe we also need a firm review of our past. We can’t blame every failing on the government. We need to address the causes of increasing inequality. And this is not peculiar to South Africa.”
Dr Hlengiwe Ndlovu, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Governance, has delved into state and societal relations, and particularly the concept of inkululeko.
“This isiXhosa term is loosely translated as ‘freedom.’ Inkululeko is linked to the socioeconomic outcomes people expected from the fruits of the liberation struggle and the promise of a better life for all, as stated in the ANC’s 1994 election manifesto,” says Ndlovu, who conducted an ethnographic study in Duncan Village, East London, between 2014 and 2019, to understand what democracy and true freedom mean to people.
“While democracy is conventionally a system where people can elect their representatives and partake in decision-making, inkululeko is more tangible. It is being free from hunger, homelessness, and human indignity.”
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
The Untouchables: Crime and corruption
- Sarah Hudleston
Corruption is not unique to SA as US and UK have shown. Democracy relies on holding authorities accountable, but no one seems keen to do that.
South Africans have begun to view the growing litany of our politicians’ criminal and corrupt practices with a growing sense of alarm.
In 2018, then Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Mogoeng Mogoeng (the then Chief), appointed Raymond Zondo to chair a commission to investigate state capture.
The report emanating from the inquiry and published in its entirety in June 2022 revealed that no fewer than 1 483 people were implicated in state capture, yet less than a handful have been prosecuted and convicted.
Nor have investigations into a string of other incidences of gross corruption, including the VBS Mutual Bank scandal, the arms deal, and the Phala Phala affair which implicated the country’s first citizen in allegations of money laundering, resulted in any of the perpetrators being held accountable.
Does this all point to a breakdown of our political and legal system and a threat to South Africa’s democracy?
Colonial corruption
Professor David Everatt in the Wits School of Governance says, “Perhaps it would be better to ask why, when South African politicians lie, the response is, ‘is our system close to collapse?’, but when a sitting US President supports an armed insurrection to steal power after lying and cheating for decades, there are no such questions? Similarly, when the UK cabinet is shown to be profoundly corrupt, there are no such questions.”
Everatt makes a good point. Evidently, democracy in the United States is not deemed to be damaged, despite former President Trump’s actions, says Professor Lawrence Hamilton, the SA UK Bilateral Research Professor in Political Theory at Wits and Cambridge University. He believes that Trump defies much of democratic logic.
“There is no doubt that he has an incredibly loyal support base, which is surprising because Trump is not like his supporters at all. But they seem to enjoy his rebelliousness and his perceived people’s touch,” says Hamilton.
“As to why the West describes South Africa as a failed state and does not consider the US or the UK in the same way, comes perhaps from their inherent prejudice against the South which is reinforced by something that is real, which we have lived through. It is not as if these northern countries are not corrupt. But what they do have is a long history of global dominance.”
Procedural accountability in politics
Democracy functions through a variety of mechanisms, with the focus on accountability, says Hamilton. “We have representatives to speak for us as citizens, and we hold them accountable through the electoral process. In addition, there are various media mechanisms to hold them to account. If elected officials have broken the law, or if they are corrupt – as revealed by the Zondo Commission – they need to have their day in court.”
However, “There is this generalised acceptance that there won’t be any consequences for corrupt actions.”
Hamilton says that the current lack of accountability in South Africa is due to two main factors that go hand in hand:
“The first is a structural factor, in that we do not vote for individual representatives, we vote for parties. The other is that an incredibly corrupt set of practices, that we now refer to as state capture, became prevalent, and it is corrupting of our system of governance.”
‘Political capture’
Alex Van den Heever, Adjunct Professor and Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies in the Wits School of Governance, believes that democracy is more than just the electoral process.
“Theoretically it is about being able to change the people who make key strategic decisions in government as well as holding politicians to account if they behave in a fraudulent or dishonest manner,” says Van den Heever.
“We must be able to remove these people swiftly through a process of investigation and prosecution. That is quite apart from other kinds of accountability structures such as administrative penalties and disciplinary processes within government.
What we now see in South Africa is political capture. The state system is failing to deal with that concurrent aspect of accountability. The very long period of incumbency of one political party means that we have not had accountability in our political process for a long time.”
Overcoming structurally imperfect politics
Hamilton believes that despite the current challenges facing South Africa, it does have a viable democracy, given the mechanisms that focus on accountability. Similarly, Van den Heever believes there is hope for democracy in South Africa, which goes to the polls on 29 May 2024.
“This country has got the resources to grow fantastically, to eliminate unemployment, and to have a decent society overall. It has all of that potential but, as long as we allow the current status of our structurally imperfect politics that befuddles large parts of our population to prevail, we cannot achieve this,” says Van den Heever.
“We are underperforming against peer countries – and the gap is widening. We are doing worse and worse relative to countries similar to our own and we are falling behind. In 1982 South Korea had a lower per capita GDP than South Africa but today it is eight times that of ours. So, this is the potential. You get it right, and you will grow systematically. Your infrastructure will work, and you will have a decent democratic society.”
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Celebrating 30 years of democracy
- Lynn Morris
[Editorial] Wits continues to contribute towards advancing democracy, social justice, and human rights.
The theme of this edition of Curios.ty is very timely as we celebrate 30 years of democracy in South Africa. I still remember 1994, as I’m sure many do, queuing for hours waiting to cast my vote and then celebrating as we welcomed Nelson Mandela as our first post-apartheid President.
The South African Constitution, adopted in 1996, is widely regarded as one of the most progressive and innovative in the world. It enabled the dismantling of apartheid and spawned a new era of democracy and human rights in our country. It is one of the few Constitutions to include a comprehensive set of socioeconomic rights, such as the right to housing, healthcare, education, and social security, reflecting a commitment to addressing issues of poverty, inequality, and social disparities through legal mechanisms.
Wits University has played a significant role in South Africa's democratic history and continues to contribute towards advancing democracy, social justice, and human rights through its research and advocacy. This issue of Curios.ty provides research, perspectives and commentary from our academics and professional staff across faculties on both our progress and our shortcomings.
The impressive Wits Libraries house some of the most important collections documenting our path to democracy, among which and most notably are the reports by the Goldstone Commissions of Inquiry, which exposed human rights abuses leading up to the 1994 elections, including the murders of many prominent anti-apartheid activists. One of South Africa’s most important social justice archives, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) archives, was recently returned to Wits for safekeeping. Papers from former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson and Advocate George Bizos are also at Wits and available for scholarly endeavours. According to Dr Daisy Selematsela, the Wits Libraries are democratising knowledge through Open Access initiatives, which help strengthen our democracy.
Thirty years has also brought some disillusionment as we grapple with corruption, inequality, and unemployment which undermine our young democracy. The right of access to a basic water supply, enshrined in our Constitution, is sadly not a reality for many South Africans writes Professor Mucha Musemwa and colleagues. And despite having a robust legislative framework, the lack of accountability threatens to undo all our good work in protecting the environment, which in turn compromises our ability to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Implementing the National Health Insurance Bill is an admirable and essential goal, but a clear roadmap to universal healthcare does not yet exist, say Wits experts in one of this edition’s articles. The magazine also features a poignant account by Professor Hlonipha Mokoena of the #FeesMustFall protests that broke out at universities across the country in 2015 – starting at Wits – and whose embers threaten to reignite at the start of each academic year.
To prevent South Africa becoming a failed society, we must all rise-up and become active citizens, writes Associate Professor William Gumede from the Wits School of Governance. Democracy relies on holding perpetrators of crime and corruption accountable and bringing them to book, but we have failed dismally in this regard, according to Professors Everatt, Hamilton and van den Heever. However, despite these shortcomings, they say, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic for the country’s democracy and its future.
Ensuring that we continue on the path of progress, development, and reconciliation requires the ongoing dedication of institutions such as Wits University to defend democratic principles and to safeguard the gains made over the past three decades. We are undoubtedly up to this task. We are committed to shaping the future of our country through research, dialogue, and critical thinking and to producing the next generation of inspirational leaders.
Read more in the 17th issue, themed: #Democracy, we turn to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy, and democracies elsewhere.
Curios.ty 17: #Democracy
- Curiosity
This issue is very timely as South Africa celebrates 30 years of democracy, and heads to the polls again on 29 May 2024.
The 17th issue of Wits University’s research magazine, Curios.ty, themed: #Democracy, is available online now: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/. (To republish articles, see guidelines below.)
We turned to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy. Their work interrogates democracy as a political system as well as its liberal, conservative, and other alternatives.
Our feature stories explore how media maintain and support democracy in the 21st century, and how crime and corruption undermine it. We share research and expertise on hot topics including AI, religion, migration, social grants, and the National Health Insurance.
Our experts also answer your questions on the Constitution, and investigate environmental rights, conservation, and water wars and how all of these relate to our individual and collective democratic roles and responsibilities. There is also a call for a social consensus revolution.
Despite our shortcomings, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic about the country’s future.
Highlights:
The rise and fall and reform of democracy: A violent freedom (page 8): Despite the knife-edge upon which South Africans live, the country is not, in fact, a failed state – but a new form of democracy is required.
How colonialism bastardised ancient rituals (page 18): Traditional rituals and practices such as lobola and initiation are often viewed through a western lens and are misunderstood as misogynist or patriarchal.
Social grants: A hand up, not a hand-out (page 20): The existing child support grant and proposed pregnancy grant both give children a healthier start in life, and they make democratic and economic sense.
NHI: From aspiration to implementation (page 24): Access to healthcare services is a constitutional right but is equal healthcare in South Africa a reality in our lifetime?
Playing the migration blame game (page 26): Blaming foreigners is merely a smokescreen for politicians' own failures.
AI and democracy: For better and for worse (page 32): Today’s news and current affairs landscape, which underpins our democracy, requires both ethical content producers and discerning consumers.
Religion and the state: A shifting cocktail of contradictions (page 36): Can political structures withstand the pressures of religious groups’ ‘New Right’ ideology?
What environmental equality in Africa really look like (page 44): South Africa must urgently industrialise to ensure sustainability and a genuinely just transition.
About Curios.ty
Curios.ty is a print and digital magazine that aims to make the research at Wits University accessible to multiple publics. Curios.ty is available on the Wits website here: http://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/
We hail the work of those who – with doggedness, skill and bravery – are calling to account our president, his friends, family and allies, and exposing the extent to which they have destroyed individuals and institutions while they loot the public fiscus. Where most other institutions of accountability– such as the new Public Protector, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Hawks and the SA Revenue Services – have fallen short, a coterie of journalists have filled the gap. 
This commission failed to resolve Lesotho’s difficulties. The release of the commission’s report was delayed, prompting charges that it had been tampered with, and the report’s central finding (when it was finally released) was diffident: “We are unable to state that the invalidity of the elections has been conclusively established.” 
The sixth issue of Wits University’s research magazine, 
As an ambassador for the Thriving Together campaign, led by the Margaret Pyke Trust, Goodall is at the forefront of advocating for the “removal of barriers to family planning” for the health of women, all humans and our fragile ecosystems. The trust is supported by 150 global organisations, including the United Nations.
#Mood answers 
“The dung beetles’ ability to use directional sensors to achieve navigational precision opens possibilities for us to understand how their minuscule brains are able to handle large amounts of information, which allow them to go in a certain direction,” says Byrne.
Research is a central steppingstone of an individual’s academic journey, but it should also be viewed holistically, says 
This issue of 
We turned to our academics and professional staff for their research, perspectives and commentary on both the progress and shortcomings in our democracy. Their work interrogates democracy as a political system as well as its liberal, conservative, and other alternatives.