The first group of teachers got their “colours” after participating in a pioneering mathematics course geared to improve the number of learners taking mathematics in Grade 10 and succeeding at it.
Eighteen teachers from 11 secondary schools in Gauteng participated in the course run by the Maths Connect Secondary Project, an initiative of the Wits School of Education and the brainchild of Prof. Jill Adler, holder of the First Rand Foundation-National Research Foundation Chair of Mathematics Education in the School.
The Maths Connect Secondary Project introduced the Transition Maths 1 course in 2012 to address the transition from Grade 9 to Grade 10 mathematics in schools. There is increasing recognition throughout the country of this important transition, and that Grade 8 to 10 teachers should be well prepared to teach maths. One of the goals of the project is that more learners should take mathematics in Grade 10 and succeed at it. In order to achieve this, more learners must succeed at Grade 9 mathematics.
The teachers who participated in the course were honoured at a special event held last week which was addressed by Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-Principal: Research and Innovation at UNISA, and initiator of the Mathematics Education Chairs Initiative in South Africa.
“A course like this gives teachers the opportunity to produce the kind of leaders they want to see. It gives them the chance to continue to learn and influence others,” said Phakeng.
Also invited to the event was the second cohort of teachers who began to participate in the programme in 2013. They had opportunity to network with the pilot group to get pointers on how to cope with the challenges ahead.
“Sometimes with maths, there are blind spots that you can’t always see. This course gave us the opportunity to look at those blind spots, and confront the critical nature of those blind spots for use when you are working with your class,” said Phumzile Mthiyane, one of the 2012 participants.
The course focuses on mathematics and teaching during the Grade 9 to 10 transition, including thorough study of mathematics topics relevant to the school curriculum. This year-long programme zones in on algebra, functions geometry and trigonometry. The course is supported by the Gauteng Department of Education at district and provincial level, and is built on a three-way partnership between the teacher, the school and the Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project.
Craig Pournara, Project Manager of the Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project, relayed his pride in the teachers and said he looked forward to working with the 2013 cohort.
“It is inspiring to talk to the group of teachers who have completed the first course. They have been pioneers with us and are our best ambassadors for the course. It is exciting to meet the second cohort, and particularly to hear of their high expectations of the course and of themselves in the coming year. We are really looking forward to working with them,” he said.
Pournara said after completing the course, the teachers should be paying greater attention to things like the examples they choose when explaining a concept; working harder on their explanations – striking a balance between explaining “how” and explaining “why”; using a greater range of representations of mathematics such as numbers, algebraic symbols, diagrams and graphs; precise use of mathematical language to give their learners access to the discourse of mathematics; and encouraging their learners to be more active in class, to take greater responsibility for their learning and to be more diligent in practising their maths.
Witsies off to Madrid
- By Buhle Zuma
An appetite for adventure and sheer confidence has placed three students at the centre of the buzz in the School of Accountancy.
In the last days of 2012, the students individually signed up to take part in the national qualifiers of KPMG’s International Case Study Challenge (KICC). With their peers from other SAICA accredited universities, the budding accountancy students were thrown into a challenge mirroring those challenges faced by professionals in the audit, tax and advisory services.
Under the observation of esteemed judges, and with only two and a half hours for preparation, student groups had to wade through pages of information relating to a factual business case study, analyse and develop recommendations for the business, and these along with a PowerPoint presentation developed by the group, were presented to a panel of judges.
The KPMG ‘survivor’ challenge which spread over three months, culminated with three Wits students and a peer from North West University being selected to represent South Africa in Madrid, Spain where they will meet KICC title contenders from other countries in April.
Talira Naidoo, Jimmy Moyaha and Kamal Singhala, all third-year Wits accountancy students, are reported to be the youngest team to take part in the 2013 KICC.
However the Witsies are unfazed.
“From the individuals selected, I believe everyone brings a different element to the team to make us the strongest possible team. I think we have got it,” says team member Moyaha confidently.
In preparation for the global finals, the students are receiving coaching and support from KPMG to ensure their success.
Bilal Moosa, KPMG’s Senior Recruitment Manager says that “the team has our full support. There’s a bit of healthy competition among KPMG teams so it would be great if KPMG South Africa performs well. Our preparations will reflect our ambitions.”
Competitions such as these are critical in exposing students to industry and cultivating talent.
“The KICC exemplifies the way KPMG goes above and beyond when addressing the complex issues faced by world class organisations,” reads the firms’ website.
It presents students with an opportunity to accelerate their awareness, fast track careers, meet new peers, expand their global mindset and create cultural awareness.
Collectively the South African team hopes to win and most importantly have fun and learn as much as they can on their first trip abroad. The School of Accountancy is extremely proud of its 3 students and wishes them all the best for their trip and competition abroad.
Wits to meet UJ on the field
- By Wits University
When they take on FNB UJ on Monday, 25 February 2013, FNB Wits will come up against the former club of one of South Africa’s greatest rugby legends: Francois Pienaar.
According to the University of Johannesburg’s rugby website, “It was Pienaar who piloted the Johannesburg students to their first National Club Championship title in 1992.”
The fixture represents a long history of rivalry – not just in rugby – between the two Johannesburg ‘varsities stretching back more than 40 years. The last time the sides met - last year’s round 14 Predator League match - UJ emerged 31-15 victors
Wits’ cross-town rugby adversaries boast an impressive pedigree. For a decade, from 1993, the Raukies (as they were then known) ruled the Pirates Grand Challenge competition. In an outstanding 1997 season, the club won every title on offer.
In 2005 the club became the FNB UJ RC, experiencing a great first season under its new name and with new colours, winning the FNB Superbowl (the forerunner to the current Varsity Cup). They also reached the final of the 2005 National Club Championships, losing to Maties.
UJ claimed the inaugural Predator League title in 2006, and followed it up in 2007 by winning the Pirates Grand Challenge. These victories, together with its now 37 Springboks and the more than 100 UJ players annually that represent the Golden Lions Rugby Union, ensure the FNB UJ Rugby Club’s position as one of the giants of SA rugby.
By contrast, Wits are relatively new kids on the block in Varsity Cup terms. The Witsies previously competed in the Varsity Shield competition – one tier below – before progressing higher up in 2012.
Wits lost all of its first three 2013 Varsity Cup fixtures: against the University of Free State Shimlas, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Madibaz and, two nights ago, against the North West University Pukke.
Doubtless, Wits is on a painful learning curve. But head coach Andy Doyle is keeping faith with his young charges. “We’re improving with every game... and we’re starting to score tries.”
Coach Doyle was referring to Wits stunning the Pukke in the first 10 minutes of the game by crossing the line twice to grab an early 16-0 lead. Wits later added a third try, but conceded several late in the game, eventually going down 71-25.
However next week, as always, the FNB Wits supporters will arrive in their numbers to ‘back their boytjies’ in their clash against UJ. Fans have vowed to fill the Wits stadium as the first line of defence and give Wits the home advantage.
“We want to make sure that we repay our supporters... make them proud to be Witsies by playing 100% committed rugby,” said Wits vice-captain, Riaan Arends on the Varsity Cup website.
This will be the second televised Varsity Cup match featuring FNB Wits this season. It will be broadcast live on DStv’s SS1. The epic Wits-UJ match takes place on Monday, 25 February 2013 at 16:45 at the Wits Rugby Stadium. More info: Marcus.Toerien@wits.ac.za
*Sources: UJ & Varsity Cup websites
Medical School leads with innovative course
- By Wits University
A new course has been developed to introduce systems-based education to Wits medical students.
Known as Health System Dynamics (HSD), the course utilises the principles of System Dynamics which were developed at MIT, mainly to address complex problems in social and business settings.
“The HSD course is essentially a System Dynamics course in which the examples are primarily of a medical nature, covering a wide range of topics from biochemistry to Public Health,” says Prof. David Rubin, Adjunct Professor in Biomedical Engineering.
The course is taught in the first year of the six-year medical degree (MBBCh), and again in the second year. In addition, a version of the course is also taught to first year Bachelor of Health Sciences and Bachelor of Pharmacy students, thus ensuring that many students entering the graduate medical programme will have had some systems training. The courses are taught by medical doctors and engineers from the Biomedical Engineering Research Group.
HSD begins with a rigorous introduction to the principles of system dynamics. Students learn that systems can be understood in terms of underlying rates and levels, which correspond to the mathematical concepts of derivatives and integrals.
They soon learn to develop graphical computer-based models of a wide range of systems using specialised software. They then run computer simulations of these models using various numerical values and various model architectures in order to produce graphical output showing the system behaviour.
The models are created as diagrams of interlinked system elements, and as a result of this visual aspect, the medical students gain a deep understanding of these systems without needing to formulate differential equations. The students learn that the diagrams, in fact, represent the equations, but in a way that is far more intuitive for most people.
Students study a wide range of phenomena such as the kinetics of drugs in the body, immune function, enzyme kinetics, temperature regulation, the spread of epidemics and the throughput of patients in a hospital.
For example, medical students would be taught in their basic biology courses about the S-shaped growth curves of bacteria. In HSD, these curves emerge from models constructed by the students themselves based on their understanding of the underlying principles.
Even though the course is intended to teach system fundamentals rather than medical facts, the experiential learning resulting from model construction and simulation gives students enormous insight into medical phenomena far beyond what has previously been achieved at first year level.
Prof. Sarah Nuttall
- By Wits University
Prof. Sarah Nuttall is the new Director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wiser), while also Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at Wiser. She teaches the fall semester every year at Duke University, where she is a Professor of English.
She is the author of Entanglement: Literary and Cultural Reflections on Post-Apartheid, editor of Beautiful/Ugly: African and Diasporic Aesthetics and the co-editor of several books, including Negotiating the Past: The making of Memory in South Africa, Johannesburg - The Elusive Metropolis, and Load Shedding: Writing On and Over the Edge of South Africa.
The piece below is an article which appeared in the Wits 2010 Research Report on Nuttall’s work and interests.
Reality hunger on the rise worldwide
The cultural shifts in the ‘compelling, volatile and complicated life of contemporary Johannesburg’ forms the basis of the work that Prof. Sarah Nuttall of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wiser), has been doing over the past 10 years. Much of her work has been published in a series of books that straddle fiction, non-fiction, journalism and history. In 2010 she published several journal articles and book chapters on ‘the way we read now’, which will contribute to her next book of essays.
“In attempting to write the history of the present from the vantage point of contemporary Johannesburg, I have wanted to understand the often unpredictable ways in which the city itself as an urban form has begun to shift in response to the complex legacy of political and generational change in this country. At the same time I examine what has stayed the same because one of the felt dramas of living in South Africa is the shadow of a past that can seem inert and immovable,” Nuttall explains.
Included in her definition of ‘urban form’ is the life of the ‘bodies’ or people who inhabit the city (how they inhabit ordinary life or style themselves or suffer) and the structures of the intimate self (including capacities for caring, self-reflection and sexual life).
As an extension of this she is looking at the global 21st century phenomenon of ‘reality hunger’ that is showing signs of rising in the world today. This includes people’s interest, even obsession with reality shows, celebrity culture, cable news and Facebook pages, she explains.
“Each of these mediums, of course, winds together aspects of fact and fiction, reality and artifice, and I am working on drawing out a South African perspective on these.”
In her book entitled Entanglement: Literary and Cultural Reflections on Post-apartheid, for example,she examines a range of Johannesburg cultural forms: novels, paintings, radio and fashion.
“One of the central investigations of the book relates to the unexpected and striking co-incidence of the end of apartheid and the rise of consumerism as a potent, at times damaging and at the same time often creative vector of self-making and of a form of worldliness for young urban people in particular,” continues Nuttall.
In the mid-1990s the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its processes of witnessing, confessing and attempting to understand a national process of healing were central to so much cultural thinking in these years, she explains.
“At the same time, in ways that we only really caught up with in the 2000s, young people in particular were finding different kinds of identities for themselves, often inspired by new media and Internet cultures and by a global explosion in a ‘culture of things’, drawing on modes of global citizenship that had been less available to them during the years of political struggle.”
The forms of re-invention, breaking with the codes of the parental generation which were evident in the rise of loxion culture and in vernacularised hip hop culture opened up questions about the meanings of being South African in the 21st century.
In her work Nuttall investigates forms of youth culture emerging inside of market forces, and investigates the capacity of young Africans in Johannesburg to manipulate (rather than just be manipulated by) and to creatively interpret the numerous ‘surfaces’ across which market driven images work.
“It has become clear that young people in particular read across many more screens and kinds of texts than they used to, and this must change how we teach and how we imagine ourselves in the world and in relation to others,” she says.
Nuttall also analyses the history of unofficial whiteness through autobiographies and memoirs by white South Africans who have broken with inherited forms of whiteness: either through joining political struggles, living in cross-racial marriages long before the end of apartheid, or using the experience of living with AIDS to rethink their own race and class positions.
In another of Nuttall’s books called Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis, which she edited with Achille Mbembe, also from the Wiser, they attempt to substantially reconceptualise Johannesburg.
The argument is that while Johannesburg had been largely confined to a scholarly lens of ‘urbanisation’ on the one hand and ‘the rise, fall and re-emergence of the segregated city’ on the other, it had yet to be conceived of in its citiness, she explains.
“The book tries to produce an imaginative portrait of the city as city, bringing into focus its street life, its suburban formations, its self-stylisations, its built forms, fiction, and its visual art, conceptualising all of this in terms of a major intellectual and cultural metropolis in the global South.”
It includes chapters on the impact of formations like Melrose Arch and Montecasino, on the inner city, Rosebank and Yeoville and includes a reconsideration of the relationship between the city and townships, changing perceptions of each through the eyes of young people navigating both spaces on a daily basis.
In the midst of all this academic activity, she decided she wanted to drop the academic voice and try to get at a sense of what it felt like, being alive but not always well in Johannesburg. This led to her collaboration with Liz McGregor, a South African journalist who had been based at The Guardian in London for many years, but who returned to South Africa.
The result was two collections, At Risk and Load Shedding published respectively in 2007 and 2009.
“As we wrote in the foreword to At Risk, ‘the non-fiction stories gathered here are written by academics and journalists, but they collapse the distance that academic writing and journalism often impose. In academia or news writing, writers are expected to discount their personal reactions and to offer few, or no, private opinions. What is offered here, by contrast, are candid, intimate voices,” explains Nuttall.
The idea behind the book was to embrace the idea of risk and uncertainty and to accept the possibility of danger, distress or disaster.
“It is also an inherently creative act,” she explains, “because without taking a risk, there is no prospect of surprise, change or unexpected gain. Risk-taking is a way of taking on the unknown.”
The point of these two collections of non-fiction, written by Nuttall, McGregor and 10 other academics and journalists, was to build on and open a groundswell of personal stories emerging in SA after apartheid, written in a wider range of registers than political struggle and its imperatives.
The writers question and explore issues including: What are the fruits of freedom? What is it to live in a context in which we are subliminally primed for major loss (including growing poverty, violent crime, AIDS, road accidents)? Relationships between people across race, culture and history, xenophobia and corruption.
“It is very pleasurable to me to be able to reach a wider audience than academic texts generally can,” says Nuttall, concluding with a wonderful anecdote about a woman named Josephine Mashaba who cleaned the offices at Wiser for many years.
“She told me that she had been borrowing my copy of At Risk and reading one story a night on the bus on her way home. She would then return it to its spot on my shelf the next morning. She said that she loved to be able to read the work we did in our offices all day. She now has copies of both volumes and I know she has read all the stories in them.”
*On Thursday, 21 February 2013 Nuttall will explore the politics of form and the forms of the political in internationally acclaimed South African artist William Kentridge’s latest creations. Enquiries: Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za
Wits Rising pledge
- By Wits University
I WILL RISE...
Teresa Le
Charmaine Pretorius
Yolanda Paterson
John Baatjies
Melanie Keartland
Peter Mahengu
Matodzi Nengwenani
Lulo Cokoto
Muzwandile Makhanya
Elma Fritz
Filedis Tachiona
Kelebogile Tadi
Erna Van Wyk
Tshepiso Rambau
Mitchell Gohnert
Mona Shah
Precious Biyela
Buhle Zuma
Gilbert Khasane
Lindy Labrowski
Chris James
Ryan Bradley
Claudia Peterson
Alicia Toumilovich
Ngoano Pedi
Jenna Heslop
Andrew Carpede
Joseph Negondeni
Paulos Sibeko
Nthabiseng Nong
Future economists impress Gordhan
- By Wits University
Soon after the delivery of the budget speech the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan undertook yet another important task - announcing the names of the country’s brightest young economists.
Winners of the Nedbank Old Mutual budget speech competition have been announced and Wits students have represented well in both the undergraduate and postgraduate category.
Khethinkosi Dlamini and Maria Garachu came second and third place respectively in the postgraduate category and Terry van Staden claimed third in the undergraduate category. Dlamini walked away with R60 000, Garachu R25 000 and van Staden collected R10 000 at a gala dinner held on Wednesday, 27 February in Cape Town.
The competition open to all economics students in South Africa challenges contenders to respond to an essay topic relating to the South African economy. Undergraduates had to pen a well researched essay responding to the question of whether the overall policy in the form of the newly released New Growth Path and the Industrial Policy Action Plan together with the budget support the development of small business in South Africa. Postgraduates had to provide an evaluation of the fiscal policy between 2008 and 201 with a focus on investment, wages, efficiency and political risk.
An elated Prof. Judy Backhouse, Head of the School of Economic and Business Science (SEBS), says that she is delighted that Wits students are among the winners.
“I’d like to congratulate them on their hard work and success. SEBS offers a rigorous programme in Economics and it is clear that this thorough preparation in the theoretical foundations of the discipline leads to excellent analyses on the part of our students. Of course the fact that we attract some really bright and creative students into our programmes also helps,” says Backhouse.
Overall Wits had six students shortlisted as part of the 20 finalists.
In the past four years, Witsies have twice won the challenge and many others have featured as finalists. Shaheen Seedat took the postgraduate title in 2010 and Tsepo Machele claimed the undergraduate prize in 2008.
Click here to visit the officical website of the Nedbank Old Mutual Budget Speech Competition.
Witsies move to One Billion Rising
- By Wits University
They came from all of Wits’ five campuses to say enough is enough. Wits Rising, the Wits leg of the One Billion Rising campaign, saw hundreds of staff and students gather outside the Piazza on Thursday, 14 February 2013, heeding the call to Rise, Strike and Dance to demonstrate their outrage against rape, violence and other crimes committed against women and children.
The one-hour programme offered profound speeches on human rights, activism theatre and entertainment in the form of dance and poetry. In addition to the Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof. Loyiso Nongxa speaking about the role of higher education in turning the tide on gender-based violence, crowds heard words from the SRC, gender activist and One Billion Rising campaign speaker – Prof. Pumla Gqola, and Unions. They were joined by actress and Aids Ambassador Hlubi Mboya and Andisiwe Kawa, a rape victim and activists.
Sibulele Mgudlwa, President of the SRC said it was outrageous that people had to organise themselves to do something that should be natural – speaking out against the violation of rights and freedom of expression. He also lamented the society’s indifference and said the problem does not lie with not the perpetrators of violence but with individuals.
“Through our silence we have allowed ourselves to be responsible for the atrocities that happen. Our passiveness and lack of will drives and fuels this global issue (rape and violence).
Reading the University’s statement, Nongxa said: “There is deep shame in the knowledge that a woman in raped every four minutes in South Africa and that Interpol has named South Africa as the rape capital of the world.”
He emphasised that Wits does not tolerate any form of violence and that South Africa should act swiftly to end the brutalisation of women. Click for the University’s statement on the matter.
Dr Kellie Gillespie, received great appreciation from the crowd when she delivered “Still I rise”, a poem from Maya Angelou about overcoming oppression, racism, criticism, sexism, and personal obstacles with pride and grace.
The event culminated with Witsies being drawn to sing and dance to the One Billion Rising anthem, at first with egging from the ThembaLab group, however within moments many others willingly joined and lost themselves to the thumping and cheer.
Profile: Dr Pierre Durand
- By Wits University
Combining his qualifications in multiple disciplines has helped evolutionary biologist Dr Pierre Durand explore fundamental questions. Why do we live? Why do we die and what are the fundamental processes that have allowed life to evolve the way it has?
“One of the fundamental properties of living systems is the tendency to evolve increasing complexity,” says Dr Pierre Durand who has an MBBCh and MMed in pathology and a BSc, MSc and PhD in molecular evolution.“For example, single prokaryotic cells formed a eukaryotic cell. Single eukaryotic cells cooperated to evolve multicellular forms, which in turn can live in social groups such as bees, ants and to some degree humans,” explains Durand whose research interest is the molecular evolutionary basis for increasing complexity in the living world.
“The mechanism by which complexity emerges is often through difficult-to-explain phenomena like altruistic or cooperative behaviour. Without cooperation, more complex systems break down. So, for example, in a multicellular life form like a human being, all the cells cooperate for the greater good of the multicellular organism. When this cooperative behaviour ceases you get diseases like cancer. In essence, from an evolutionary perspective, cancer is the breakdown of cooperation and complexity. In the same way, humans mostly live in cooperative societies. However, unless we emerge more sophisticated ways of cooperating rather than selfishly exploiting the earth’s resources human life in increasingly complex societies will be unsustainable. The Earth does not have an infinite supply of resources for humans to selfishly exploit them.”
The tragedy of the commons
Selfish exploitation of shared resources leads to the breakdown of complex societies. From an evolutionary perspective this is the potential tragedy we are facing. The phrase ‘the tragedy of the commons’ was coined by ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968 in a paper published in the journal Science to explain this process. Over 40 years later this potential tragedy is accelerating, where more species and life forms are becoming extinct faster than ever.
Why did life and death evolve?
Durand’s current research focus is the molecular evolutionary basis for cooperative behavior and emerging complexity. This relates to questions like: Why did life evolve? And, why did death evolve, since it is biochemically possible to achieve immortality, yet we have never evolved mechanisms to prevent ageing?
In 2011 he published a paper with Drs Rashidi and Michod in the prestigious generalist journal American Naturalist investigating ‘programmed death’. Titled How an organism dies affects the fitness of its neighbours, they investigated death in the single celled model organism Chlamydomonas (a unicellular green alga ubiquitous in muddy ponds).
Death plays a critical socially beneficial role
The fascinating finding is that death may play a critically, socially beneficial role – it’s an altruistic phenomenon to help others survive and to enhance the survival of the group. “The organism we studied dies and releases resources (energy-rich molecules such as lipids and carbohydrates) into the environment that enhances the fitness of other organisms in the population,” says Durand. “It conforms to Hamilton’s Laws of inclusive fitness.” This finding was extensively reported in the national and international media because it was the first time that anyone presented laboratory evidence to support adaptive evolution of programmed death.
Durand explains that in a unicellular organism there are two possible explanations as to why it would ‘commit suicide’ i.e. programmed death:
1) It has nothing to do with survival of the fittest and is instead all about pleiotropy, which is an unavoidable side-effect of other essential functions.
2) It provides a fitness benefit at the group level, rather than to the individual.
Durand and his team’s results support the latter scenario.
Where to from here?
“We are now involved in three major projects that started in 2011”, says Durand. They are all concerned with the molecular basis of cooperation and emerging complexity.
1) The evolutionary origins of programmed death
“This project continues our work on programmed cell death to understand how it is beneficial to the group, and also to understand the genetics of it – which genes are involved and when are they turned on or off?” Post-doctoral fellow Dr Rajdeep Choudhury is working with him on this in collaboration with his partners at the University of Arizona.
This research has important implications for understanding pathologies like cancer, developmental disorders and viral infections. “Cancer cells, for example, have lost the ability to undergo programmed cell death. If we can develop strategies to influence this behaviour, it would be highly beneficial,” explains Durand.
2) The evolutionary origins of life
“Here we are trying to understand how and why life evolved on Earth. Specifically, how did the very first biologically relevant molecules cooperate to form a primitive genome?” PhD student Nisha Dhar is working on this with him, as is Prof Michod with whom he published Genomics in the light of evolutionary transitions in the journal Evolution in 2010.
3) Understanding how multicellular life evolved from unicellular life
“Here again we use algae as our model system. Several extant members’ genomes of this group of algae, known as the volvocines, are being completely sequenced. This is an international collaboration involving Wits, University of Arizona, Kansas State University and the University of Tokyo. PhD student Jonathan Featherston is involved as part of his PhD project.”
Durand is a firm believer in collaboration. “When people come together from different backgrounds with different perspectives and strengths it’s extremely helpful.” He’s in good company. Dr Rick Michod is one of the world’s foremost experts in evolutionary transitions and the origins of multiceullularity.
Future prognosis
Regarding Durand’s prognosis for the future of this planet, he says:
“Failure of human cooperation is causing the mass extinction of organisms at present. If humans learn to behave more cooperatively we will have reached a new level of social complexity. But if we don’t it will affect our collective fitness, and we might not survive.”
Data about to explode
- By Kanina Foss
There’s a tsunami of data on the horizon. Will you sink or swim? That might depend on the computer systems you have at hand to help you extract information from the giant wave of unstructured ones and zeros that is about to engulf us.
IBM is predicting that soon, every twelve months, we will create more data than we have in the whole of human history before us.
This is according to Dr John E. Kelly III who directs the worldwide operations of IBM Research, with approximately 3 000 scientists and technical employees at 12 laboratories in 10 countries around the world, most recently in Kenya.
Kelly gave a public lecture at Wits in which he outlined his predictions for a new era of computing. “Future computer systems will be entirely different to what we’ve been dealing with over the past half century. It’s going to be really, really exciting,” he said.
We’re at a point we’ve never seen before. The confluence of mobile device usage, cloud computing and social media is about to produce a Big Bang in IT.
One of IBM’s focus areas is cognitive systems, with a computer called Watson leading their developments. When asked a question, Watson understands natural language, breaking down the barrier between people and machines. The system then generates hypotheses – recognising that there are different probabilities of various outcomes. It also learns from previous questions, so the more you use it, the smarter it gets.
Watson’s first triumph was to beat the two best contestants at the game show Jeopardy! Its real world applications include providing medical information, which doubles every five years. According to a recent estimate, one in five patients is diagnosed incorrectly or incompletely. Watson can help analyse all available data to improve diagnoses.
According to Kelly, there will come a time when you will demand your doctor has access to a Watson. “Watson can answer any question that a doctor can. It will ingest information and be able to make an instantaneous recommendation,” he said.
Might Watson one day replace humans in decision making? Only in non-critical situations, says Kelly. The one thing humans can do which machines can’t is to be creative.
The Wits Transformation Office and the Wits SRC will lead the Wits community in joining the One Billion Rising campaign, an international movement that calls on a billion men and women to act and demonstrate their non-tolerance of gender-based violence. Witsies pledge to I Will Rise...
The campaign has gained impetus in South Africa and galvanised the country, where only last week, the country learnt of the rape, mutilation and murder of Anene Booysen, a 17-year-old girl. It is estimated that one in three women in South Africa are likely to be raped during their lifetime.
In an act of solidarity with the global movement, Wits will hold an event on Valentine’s Day at lunchtime, outside the Library Lawns, where it will release a public statement outlining the University’s commitment to tackling violence against women. The University’s programme on the day will adhere to the global campaign’s theme and three commands calling on all to Strike, Dance and Singin protest against rape and gender-based violence which are endemic in society. Click to view the programme.
The Wits Community and the public are urged to familiarise themselves with the One Billion Rising anthem to be sung on the day. Drama For Life and ThembaLab will deliver their creative interpretation of the campaign. Enquiries: Tish.White@wits.ac.za or (011) 717 1456/1018.
In a statement by the University it said that it is the responsibility of every citizen to counter the violence against women.”
“The abuse and violence suffered by women in South Africa is persistent, continuous, habitual and normalised. Anene Booysen's death has highlighted the failure of attempts in our country to counter the scourge that oppresses women in South Africa. The horrific death of the 17-year-old has indicated that we have failed yet another generation of young women. It is important that education institutions, government, civil society, the private sector and every person who resides in South Africa takes an oath to act against the violence that has come to characterise who we are as a nation.”
The University commits to act in this regard by calling a special meeting of Senate and a General Assembly of the University to find ways in which the University could a make a difference
One in Three Women On The Planet Will Be Raped Or Beaten In Her Lifetime.
The main programme organised by One Billion Rising is scheduled to take place at Constitution Hill from 16:00 – 23:00, a venue of historical significance. This is the site of Johannesburg’s notorious Old Fort Prison Complex, which housed the women’s jail pre-democracy and a place where thousands of ordinary people were brutally punished before the current dispensation. Nowadays the site serves as a place of protest and a platform to tell the stories of all South Africans. Click to view the programme consisting of poetry, tours to the Women’s jail, public seminars, drumming and dance.
Wits buses to and from Constitution Hill will be available at the Amick Deck from 16:00. These will run at a 30-minute interval from 16:00 and the last bus from Constitution Hill will depart at 23:00.
Stand up be counted – Be part of the One Billion Women and Men against gender-based violence.
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, is calling on all students and staff who feel that they may be the victims of sexual harassment by their fellow students or staff members, to consult with the University’s Sexual Harassment Advisor, and where necessary to lay formal complaints against alleged perpetrators.
We live in a society plagued with issues related to sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Sexual harassment is prevalent in the workplace, in the public and private sectors, on our campuses across the country and even in our schools.
As an illustration of its responsibility, Wits University has taken several steps in the last six months to counter sexual harassment and gender based violence on its campuses:
In 2012, the University proactively instituted a campus-wide inquiry into sexual harassment and it is encouraging the Wits community to participate in this process
Wits has a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment (click for policy) and views all matters related to sexual harassment in a very serious light
The University is committed to investigating all complaints of sexual harassment in line with its policies, processes and procedures and where necessary, to take the appropriate action
It regularly holds awareness campaigns to advise students and staff of its Sexual Harassment and Social Justice policies and processes (through regular workshops, induction meetings, student peer advocacy programmes, campus media, events, etc). Last Thursday, it participated as Wits Rising as part of the One Billion Rising campaign, where it made a public commitment to bring to the fore, and to tackle sexual harassment and gender based violence on campus with vigour.
All students and staff who feel that may be the victims of sexual harassment by their fellow students or staff members are advised to consult with the University’s Sexual Harassment Advisor, Maria Wanyane on 27 11 717-9144.
Please direct all media enquiries to Shirona Patel on 27 11 717-1019 or email Shirona.Patel@wits.ac.za
Prominent researchers visits Wits as part of Diaspora programme
- By Vivienne Rowland
Two prominent international researchers and Wits alumni visited the Faculty of Health Sciences as part of its Alumni Diaspora programme, which was established in 2010.
Prof. Duncan Saunders, a generalist epidemiologist from the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta, Canada; and Prof. Kelvin Hong, Clinical Director of the Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology and an Assistant Professor of Radiology and Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School, both delivered lectures to staff, students and researchers during their visit.
Saunders, who obtained his MBBCh from Wits in 1975, completed internships in Medicine and Surgery at the Johannesburg General Hospital in 1976. He has held positions in South Africa and the United States, and since 1989 he has been a faculty member of the University of Alberta.
“As a generalist epidemiologist, my scholarly interests over the course of my career have involved several topical areas and methodological approaches. Topical areas have included hypertension management, AIDS-related malignancies, pre-eclampsia, spinal cord injuries, hip fractures and anti-retroviral treatment for AIDS,” he says.
During his visit he also attended the opening of the new School of Public Health building, a unit he was part of during his tenure at Wits. “The School has changed immensely. As recently as 15 years ago it was different, because it focused more on undergraduate studies. Now it has expanded: there is a much broader range of education programmes and PhD programmes, combined with strong research programmes. All this is a sign of the success of the Wits School of Public Health.”
Prof. Hong received his undergraduate education and medical degree from Wits in 1992. He received his Diagnostic Radiology residency training at Wits and continued as a Faculty Radiologist at the Johannesburg General Hospital. Owing to his interest in Vascular and Interventional Radiology (VIR), he pursued further training in the United States in 1999.
He continued his Diagnostic Radiology residency at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as well as sub-specialty fellowship training in Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology training. He then took up a full time faculty appointment in the Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology at Johns Hopkins since 2004, and has been entrusted with the Interventional Radiology fellowship as its programme director since 2009. Hong directs the clinical operations at one of the largest and most progressive VIR academic practices in the USA, with over 100 personnel including 10 faculty members and eight fellows.
During his lecture he focused on inspiring current students and researchers, and spurred them on to pursue greatness in their chosen fields.
“Even though clinical health sciences haven’t had that much interest, in no way should it detract or inhibit you to be productive. The fact that you may have done very little so far does not mean you can’t change that. You just need to seek mentorship, accessibility and the right assistance in order to achieve success,” he says.
Wits officially a tourist destination
- By Vivienne Rowland
It’s official! The University of the Witwatersrand can officially add “tourist destination” to its many descriptions following its inclusion as a stop on a new bus tour route, launched in Johannesburg last week.
Capetonians are long familiar with the cheery red open-top buses which snake all over the city showing both tourists and locals all the interesting nooks and crannies one normally drives past without a second glance.
Now the fire-engine red buses have made their way north to Johannesburg and thanks to the foresight of the people at City Sightseeing, the world’s largest open-top sightseeing tour operator, the Wits Origins Centre and the Wits Art Museum are now two of the many places the bus takes you to on a tour of the south of Johannesburg and the city centre.
During the official launch last week, City Sightseeing, operating the iconic open-top red double decker buses on six continents and in over 100 cities in the world, was welcomed to Johannesburg by dignitaries from the Gauteng Provincial Government and the City of Johannesburg, as well as key tourism stakeholders from the private sector. The event officially marked the start of the City Sightseeing tours in Johannesburg – an exciting development that offers both locals and tourists the chance to explore this vibrant city, visiting the many attractions and sampling the cultural melting pot that is Jozi.
The tour runs along a fascinating route through the Johannesburg CBD, stopping at Gandhi Square, the Roof of Africa at the Carlton Centre, the James Hall Transport Museum, the Apartheid Museum and Gold Reef City, the Mining District, the World of Beer, the Carlton Centre, Santarama Miniland, Newtown Precinct, the Origins Centre, Wits Art Museum, Braamfontein and Constitution Hill.
“Johannesburg joins ranks with cities from around the world – New York, Paris, London and Cape Town – to name a few. We are hoping to help develop the tourism industry and assist with economic growth in the city,” said Enrique Ybarra, president and CEO of City Sightseeing Worldwide.
As with all City Sightseeing tours, Joburg operates on the world renowned and hugely popular Hop-On, Hop-Off basis, which allows sight seers the chance to get off the bus at any of the designated stops along the route and then get back on to a later bus at their leisure – guaranteeing frequent, safe and reliable transport that is cost effective, informative and fun for the entire family.
Buses run on a rotational basis, stopping regularly at all the designated points along the route and you can start your tour at either the Gautrain Station at Park Station or Gold Reef City – although one can join the tour at any of the stops along the route. Tickets can be purchased from the City Sightseeing Tour Office inside Gold Reef City; online at www.citysightseeing.co.za or on the bus using a credit card.
“The City Sightseeing tour will change people’s perceptions of the inner city of Johannesburg, turning it into a tourism friendly zone, and thereby continuing to grow the tourism footprint and associated spend of tourists to the benefit of local businesses,” said Claus Tworeck, CEO of City Sightseeing South Africa.
“There are twelve stops along the route and the service will run between 9:00 and 17:30 seven days a week. The commentary on the buses, in multiple languages, will tell the story of Johannesburg through the many historic buildings, landmarks and attractions along the route.”
Social workers urged to move from margins
- By Buhle Zuma
As a profession at the coalface of societal problems, social workers are awfully quiet in public discourse and advocacy work, say budding social workers.
South Africa is all too familiar with the view that the country, through its social development intervention programmes, is becoming a nanny state. Discussions rage on about the merits of the child support grant, the proposed youth wage subsidy and, more recently, the outlawing of drinking on Sundays to counter our Phuza Nation status.
These important debates about quality of life are at the core of social work, yet the profession has been absent in guiding the nation.
This observation and the role of social workers in promoting social and economic equity were presented at an event hosted by the Discipline of Social Work to mark World Social Work Day. The annual event is coordinated by the International Federation of Social Work under the theme Promoting Social and Economic Equality.
What has happened to the engaged and socially active profession?
Masters student Naledi Selebano argued that the profession needed to be more politically active. She said that the problems faced by social workers on the ground were a reflection of political decisions, therefore South Africa needed more politically engaged social workers in order to effect change.
“Social workers cannot continue to pick up the pieces left by inept policies that only intensify the status quo (inequity and societal ills).”
Responding to the theme of promoting social and economic equality, third year student Sameera Ismail said she felt that the South Africa of today had brought about more damage with inequity becoming more deeply rooted.
Basic necessities are scarce, education is in crisis and health services are far from being equipped and compassionate, she said.
Sameera urged her fellow students to not restrict themselves to contract terms but to go beyond job descriptions, engage in advocacy work and become educators raising the quality of life in South Africa.
Loyalty to the profession
It is a well known fact that the status society affords to the profession has declined and that social workers are among the more poorly paid professionals in the public sector. Students are familiar with this fact, and yet they seem unwavering in their professional choice.
Nkosinathi Sibanyoni wastes no time defining what he is studying when asked by enquirers. To him social work equates to social engineering and is on par with the other scarce skills in the country. It is a profession that is changing lives and society, says the masters student.
First year student Anele Masikane convincingly argued that the value of the profession was ever present and could be heard in the “calling issued by society through the endless problems the country faces on a day to day basis”. Masikane noted that future doctors, teachers and presidents were trapped in escalating inequity and that upcoming practitioners, through their work, needed to overthrow impediments.
Nobulalu Mfengu, Deputy Director in the National Department of Social Development, delivered a speech on behalf of the Department.
She noted that the theme and the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development were a reminder that “social work should not veer from its historical commitment to and founding principles of promoting human rights, social justice, social transformation and effectively serving and responding to the needs of the most vulnerable in society”.
Her speech concurred with the view that the role and contribution of social workers is to a large extent determined by the social policy of the government of the day and the appropriateness of the social work curriculum in universities.
Surgical Students show charitable spirit
- By Vivienne Rowland
The humanitarian spirit of the Wits Surgical Students Society was put to good practice earlier this month when the students raised funds for a rehabilitation centre inspired by burn victim Pippie Kruger.
The Society invited members of the Wits community and the public to participate in a five kilometre Fun Run in aid of the community based Centre being built in Ellisras, Limpopo. The project for the centre is being headed up by Anice Kruger, mother of Pippie.
The event, which took place on Wednesday, 13 February 2013 managed to bring in R8000 for the centre, an amount Anice says will go a long way toward covering costs associated with the construction of the Centre.
“Construction costs can soar very quickly beyond what you can imagine, and this donation will come in very handy to ensure we get the best for the children who will be helped through it. It will go a long way to help Pippie and other unfortunate children just like her,” says Anice.
Amongst other amenities, the Centre will have a physiotherapist on call, a gym, physiotherapy room and a warm water pool to assist burn victims in getting the best possible care and rehabilitation.
While the Centre has not officially been named, Anice said she would like it to be called the “Vat my skapie gym” (Take my lamb gym). “A charity organisation, Vat my hand, and the people from the town in Limpopo where we come from, who we refer to as the sheep, raised R100 000 for us. That is how we came up with the unusual name,” says Anice.
About 370 students and other participants showed up in wacky costumes impersonating the theme Tight, bright and white to do their bit for charity and for the fun run around the Education Campus at sunset.
“We were thrilled to be involved in this project and it is wonderful to give back to our community,” says Sule Burger, secretary of the Wits Surgical Students Society.
“We are all about outreach and we learn a lot about our community with projects such as these. Whenever we are presented with such an opportunity, we are just too excited to take it on,” says Burger.
Pippie, who suffered burns to 85% of her body on New Year’s Eve in 2011, has been recovering well since Dr Ridwan Mia, a Wits graduate, made history last year when he and a team of doctors saved the three-year-old’s life by transplanting skin cloned from her own cells in a lab in Boston in the United States.
The medical team led by Mia, performed the surgery on 11 June 2012 in the Garden City Hospital, making it the first reconstructive surgery where cloned skin is used in Africa. Mia studied medicine at the Wits School of Medicine, specialising in plastic and reconstructive surgery.
O-Week fun
- By Wits University
A week of intervarsity sports, live theatre and games lies ahead for the Wits community this week.
Having conquered in the Varsity Shield competition last year, the FNB Wits rugby team is set to make its debut in the Varsity Cup competition today, Monday, 4 February 2013. This is a double-bill for the team as this is their first home match for the season and also their first match in the the top-tier national intervarsity competition. Kickoff against the University of Free State’s Shimlas, who traditionally have a strong rugby culture, is at 19:00 at the Wits Rugby Stadium. All welcome to join the sea of blue, yellow and white – the team’s colours and preferred garb to the matches.
The Wits Theatre is showing a colourful array of plays as powerful and electric as the Joburg thunders. The Orientation-Week programme contains the very best of fine art, theater and live music. This includes free lunch time plays starting at 13:00 in the various theatres of the Wits Theatre complex.
Food Fair – the Science Stadium on the West Campus will be a food lover’s delight from 4 to 8 February between 12:30 and 14:30.
Click here for more details on the Freshers’ Bash, Beer Garden and other thrills of the week.
Voice of Wits (VOW FM) is on a recruitment drive looking for on-air talent for 2013 in addition to the various station departments; marketing, music, news and sports reporters, technical and content production. Auditions conclude on 15 February. More info: www.vowfm.co.za or info@vowfm.co.za
"Pop idols" for scientists finally in SA
- By Wits University
February sees the international FameLab competition getting underway for the first time in South Africa.
Hailed as “Pop idols for scientists” the competition originated at the Cheltenham Science Festival in 2005 and has spread like wildfire to include 25 countries. Contestants have 3 minutes to explain a science concept using only what they can carry onto the stage with them – and no PowerPoint!
The competition kicks off with regional heats and regional finals around the country. Finalists win prizes and attend the FameLab master class before competing in the national final at Scifest Africa in Grahamstown on the 15th of March. The winner of the national competition walks away with a cash prize and an all expenses paid trip to represent South Africa in the international final at Cheltenham in the UK.
The aim behind the competition is to encourage young scientists to talk about their work - improving their communication skills to public (or non-science) audience – critically important where science and technology impacts on the whole of society. The competition also seeks out new spokespeople for science – to inspire a new generation of scientists and challenge public perceptions about what it means to be a scientist.
If you are a scientist, mathematician, engineer or technologist either studying or working in South Africa and in the age range 21-35, then FameLab is for you. Registrations are already open and the competition is attracting researchers, academics, and young professionals who are eager to share their science with the world.
Participants can register online, and then come with their 3 minute talk to one of the regional heats. The heats take place in Johannesburg (21st Feb at SciBono Discovery centre), Durban (26th of February at The KZN Science Centre) and in CapeTown (28th of Feb at the CapeTown Science Centre). If you can’t make one of the regional heats you can also enter by uploading a video to the FameLab site before the 15th of February.
The competition is an initiative of Cheltenham Festivals. It is run in South Africa by the British Council and independent science communication agency Jive Media Africa – both organisations being excited about science, creativity and the healthy exchange of ideas.
While continuing to draw increasing student numbers, the Wits School of Mining Engineering is maintaining high standards, retaining its accreditation from the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).
Associate Professor at the School, Prof. Cuthbert Musingwini, says the accreditation is a formal recognition awarded to each engineering programme, so that the profession can be assured of quality in the training being offered.
“Renewal of ECSA accreditation is an important goal of the School’s Strategic Plan,” says Prof. Fred Cawood, Head of the School. “Wits Mining is a student-centred school and programme relevance is important to ensure that our graduates qualify for good employment. Accreditation encourages regular programme review and curricula development in a complex, exciting and challenging economic sector,” he says.
Importantly, it allows the graduates of the school to register directly as candidate engineers and begin working towards becoming recognised as professional engineers (and attach the letters Pr Eng after their names).
“All programmes must be regularly examined to ensure that they provide graduates with a range of attributes,” says Prof. Musingwini. “These include the ability to recognise and solve engineering problems, to apply the engineering sciences they’ve learnt to design solutions, and to assess the impact of engineering on the environment.”
Operating in a field incorporating many disciplines, candidate mining engineers also need to show that they can interact professionally in an interdisciplinary environment.
Musingwini says to be accredited by the ECSA, the school also needs to demonstrate the ability of its staff to deliver a high quality of teaching, and its capacity to sustain this delivery into the future.
“We are proud of the growth we’ve seen in the school over the past five years, where we’ve expanded from 16 to 22 academics and reduced the staff-to-student ratio from 1:50 down to 1:35,” he says.
A mine design laboratory has been developed with sponsorship from Anglo American and Goldfields, further building the school’s capacity to graduate more mining engineers. While about 30 used to complete the programme each year, the number set to graduate in 2014 is likely to reach 100.
Prof. Musingwini also highlighted the importance of the Washington Accord, which makes it possible for Wits engineering graduates to have their academic qualifications recognised in other parts of the world – including big mining countries like Australia and the United States.
The Washington Accord was signed in 1989 as an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programmes. With ECSA accreditation, Wits graduates will be recognised by any of the other signatory bodies as having met the academic requirements for entry into the practice of engineering.
“This allows our graduates to be more geographically mobile, and makes it easier for them to share their skills in a number of countries worldwide,” he said.
Witsies dominate SAICA and IRBA top 10
- By Wits University
The Wits School of Accountancy's graduates have once again excelled in the Part II Professional Examinations set by SAICA and IRBA, with a Wits graduate again taking first place for the second consecutive year.
The Part II results released on Friday, 22 February 2013, by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA), are the culmination of at least six years of studying and training and form the final academic hurdle to be crossed in order to qualify as a Chartered Accountant (SA).
For the Part II examination, candidates choose to write either the Professional Practice Exam (PPE) set by the IRBA or the Financial Management Exam (FME) set by the SAICA. These are results of the examinations written in November 2012.
Four Wits graduates were placed in the top five for the Professional Practice Examination, all passing with honours.
Nicole Wainer attained first place while Tamar Schamroth claimed the third position. Fourth place is jointly shared by Caeleigh Britton and Jessica Jones.
In addition, five Wits graduates were placed in the top 10 for the Financial Management Exam and two passed with honours.
Honours passes were netted by Leanne Hackner at second place, Anton Friedlander at fourth position; Candace Stuhler at eight position while Robert Peche and Ori Shushan share tenth position.
“I am delighted that the Wits graduates have once again excelled. We are particularly pleased with our contribution to the transformation of the profession and our previously disadvantaged candidates achieved an impressive pass rate,” says Prof. Jackie Arendse, Head of the School of Accounting.
Of the 149 candidates in this category who sat for the exams, 83% can now boast to be chartered accountants having successfully completed all the required board exams.
Click here to view Wits’ performance in the 2011 examinations.
The School of Accountancy has a SAICA Level 1 accreditation status, which is the highest level of accreditation awarded by SAICA.
Lesbian rights under spotlight
- By Vivienne Rowland
The rights of lesbians in South Africa and particularly black lesbians and the atrocities they suffer because of their lifestyle choice, was the focus of the evening at the welcoming ceremony of the 2013 protégés of the Drama for Life programme at Wits.
The evening was highlighted by an international performance and a welcome address by one of Drama for Life’s most well known exports.
Terri Baum, pioneer lesbian playwright, performed her show Excerpts from a Lesbian’s Life on invitation of Drama for Life and the Wits Writing Centre. The show was quite a coup for Wits, since Baum performed a one-night only show in Johannesburg for the Drama for Life opening.
The show, which preceded the formal welcome for the scholars and the invited guests, consisted of three acts, excerpts from a show Baum has performed all over the world since the 1970s.
One Fool, Immediate Family and Eleanor Roosevelt & Hick, A Love Story, proved to be fitting entertainment for the evening.
“We appreciate Terry’s extraordinary story telling. You come from another place, another culture and reminded us what love may be and what love could be,” said Warren Nebe, Director of Drama for Life.
Thokozani Ndaba, a Drama for Life alumnus from the first cohort in 2008, addressed the new scholars and guest and gave some insight into what being part of Drama for Life has done for her. She has just returned from New York where she qualified as a theatre practitioner.
“Before coming to Drama for life, I was just working as an activist and acting now and then. But I hadn’t found how you can use drama in different spaces outside the conventional theatre space yet. With Drama for Life I was able to take this to communities and share experiences and dialogues about issues in the communities,” said Ndaba.
Ndaba also screened a short clip about the plight of lesbians and how the South African society views them, where after she facilitated a discussion around these issues.
“From now on, let’s all rise up and put an end to the injustices that are happening out there. This is the time for the revolution and the revolution is now. We need to be radical and it’s going to need all of us to work as a collective. Drama for Life is all about collectiveness, but in that collective you will find the individuality within yourself. When “I” is replaced by “we”, even illness becomes wellness,” says Ndaba.
Drama for Life is an independent academic, research and community engagement programme based at the Wits School of Arts. Its primary research and academic focus falls within the fields of Applied Drama: Theatre in Education, Communities and Social Contexts; Drama in Education; and Drama Therapy. It enhances dialogue for purposes of social transformation through research, teaching and learning, and community engagement.
This year’s intake in the scholarship programme includes 32 postgraduate students – 23 South Africans, one Nigerian, a Congolese, a Namibian, an Isreali national and five Zimbabweans.
These hands rock
- By Erna van Wyk
Wits palaeoscientists at the University’s Institute for Human Evolution played a key role in the establishment of a new beneficiation programme for communities that live in and around the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site (COHWHS).
The Hands that Rock the Cradle is a craft-making government, education, private and community business initiative that seeks to empower the local community through growing South Africa’s rich, developing craft industry that is geared to enhance visitors’ tourism experience.
Wits has a strong bond with the Cradle of Humankind and played a key role in having it declared a World Heritage Site. The University also owns and manages important fossil sites in the Cradle and Wits scientists’ contributions to some of the most extraordinary fossil finds here have led to South Africa being a world leader in palaeosciences research with a huge offering to palaeo-tourism.
Unearthing this palaeo-tourism gem, Prof. Francis Thackeray, Director of the Wits Institute for Human Evolution, and his colleagues offered their expertise in fossils and palaeo-research to help train the 30 crafters in making unique “evolutionary” crafts.
The Hands that Rock the Cradle is a Gauteng Tourism Authority Initiative. The authority contracted the Siyazisiza Trust to develop this craft community beneficiation programme into an economically viable co-operative business for communities living around the Maropeng Visitors Centre.
Wits’ palaeoscientists participated in the crafters’ skills training by providing them with information on human origins and evolution as well as education on fossils and the importance thereof. This knowledge has unleashed a fountain of creativity that is evident in the crafters hip handywork.
Visitors to Maropeng will be able to buy unique, evolution-inspired craft with a strong modern design which will live on in their homes and enhance their tourism experience. From Andy Warhol-inspired hominin-featuring wall art to the not-so-usual skulls’ wirework that depict the evolution of our species.
According to Dawn Robertson, CEO of the Cradle of Humankind, this programme is to ensure that communities are also able to benefit from the world attention that is being placed on Maropeng.
“Unemployment in South Africa is very high and skills development is necessary to empower people and communities. Although we have a craft industry in South Africa, more craft products need to be developed that speak to the ‘tourism experience’ of visitors and that is what The Hands that Rock the Cradle is doing with this project,” she told delegates at the opening of the shop.
The crafters have also received a huge boost by being invited to be exhibitors at the coveted 2013 Design Indaba that takes place in Cape Town later this month. Discussions are also underway between the gift shop at the Origins Centre at Wits University and the Siyazisiza Trust to be able to have some of the craft works available for sale to visitors to the Origins Centre.
VOWfm and DFL finalists in MTN Radio Awards
- By Wits University
Wits campus radio station Voice of Wits (VOWfm) and the Wits School of Arts programme Drama for Life (DfL) have been nominated for the 2013 MTN Radio Awards. Wits has seven nominations in these prestigious national radio awards.
VOWfm is nominated in the following categories: Breakfast Show (Campus) for The Morning Fixx hosted by FixxtheDJ and Botlhale Baitsiwe; Business and Finance Show category "The Bizz Buzz" got a nod; Music Show (Campus) category "Living Electro" hosted by Zweli B Magic; News and Actuality Presenter (Community and Campus) Tsholo Gontse Semenya received a nomination for her show The Bizz Buzz; News and Actuality Show(Community) the DFL and VOW FM initiative "Lifebeats – Suicide" show hosted by India Stone and Lesley Nkosi; Afternoon Drive Presenter (Campus) by Zweli ‘BMagic’ Mbhele; and Neo ‘FixxtheDJ’ Rathebe received a nomination for Breakfast Presenter (Campus).
The shortlisting of the nominees is conducted by a panel of judges respected for their experience and expertise.
“It is a great achievement for the station to have received the nominations. Especially since it is the first time that the station has ventured into these awards and we have only been on-air for three years,” says Mike Smurthwaite, VOWfm's Station Manager.
“We entered 16 pieces of audio for various shows and products at the station. To get half on the shortlist is amazing. Now we hope that we can win one or two.”
The DFL productionLife.Beats, highlights human rights and social justice, transformation, diversity and gender issues. The specific show that has been nominated by the jury deals with rising suicide rates at South African universities.
The awards ceremony takes place at the Sandton Convention Centre on 13 April 2013.
Dr Mark Collison, Senior Researcher in the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt) in the School of Public Health in the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences, was recently quoted in an article on labour migration entitled Measuring the waves of migration, which appeared in the Mail and Guardian on 11 January 2013. Read the article here.
“The migrant labour system in South Africa has been blamed for many social ills – broken families, the prevalence of HIV/Aids, as well as undue financial strain on the poorest of households. Most recently, the migrant system was seen as a major contributor to the violent wildcat strikes in the mining industry, marked by the Marikana massacre of August 16 2012,” writes Lisa Steyn.
Biography of Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits
- By Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke
The following was read by Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke at the the Science graduation ceremony on 27 March:
Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great privilege and an honour for me to invite our ‘guest speaker’ to address you this afternoon. I say ‘guest speaker’, but this is not true as this individual is no ’guest’ to Wits. In fact, he has served this institution for 10 years with the utmost commitment, courage and care required to keep Wits at the leading edge in South Africa, and amongst the very best in the world.
Our Vice-Chancellor and Principal has dedicated over 120 months to lead this ‘national key point’, which is often a more contentious space to navigate than any other political area in the country. This is partly because he encourages ‘critical thinking, creative innovation, problem-posing and problem-solving’ and promotes robust debate, freedom of speech, thought and expression, and academic freedom across our campuses, of course within the limits of our Constitution.
He has afforded 522 weeks of his time at the helm of this University to re-establish Wits’ sound foundation, and to offer stability, leadership and guidance when Wits needed it most. He is a luminary that offered Wits a strategic plan and a vision – to be a world-class university, among the top 100 universities in the world by 2022, the year in which we celebrate our centenary.
During the 3 652 days spent on our campuses, he strengthened Wits’ governance and financial systems, and when he was not physically at work, he was developing beneficial partnerships for the University to raise funds for buildings and infrastructure, and the University’s academic and research activities. Under his guard– all 87 658 hours of it – over 40 new centres, and hundreds of academic, research and student activities were launched.
In the decade that he spent at the helm, he has left a legacy that will outlast his generation and that of several to come. He has overseen a multi-billion rand infrastructure development programme in the last five years. We have to hold him responsible for turning a derelict sports stadium into a world-class science centre, for finding a magnificent home for Wits’ 9 000 works of African art and for opening a new R530 million student residence complex in Parktown. These are just three of about 60 capital projects that were developed in recent years.
Our Vice-Chancellor is a passionate man and he is particularly enthusiastic about the six multi-million rand 21st Century Research Institutes being developed which focuses on mining; global change; cities; health and wellness; the molecular biosciences and the evolutionary sciences.
A humanitarian by nature, our Principal is the brainchild of the Targeting Talent Programme – conceived during the 5 259 480 minutes spent at Wits, which aims to increase the academic, social and psychological preparation of academically talented learners from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
I have had to be extremely precise with my numbers this afternoon, as our Vice-Chancellor is a mathematician who holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Fort Hare and a doctorate from the University of Oxford. He has lectured at the University of Fort Hare, the National University of Lesotho, the University of Natal and the University of the Western Cape. He was also a Professor in Mathematics and Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at UWC.
In 1978 he served as South Africa’s first African Rhodes Scholar. He is an established researcher and enjoys international recognition for his high quality research outputs.
During the 315 568 800 seconds of his tenure, our Vice-Chancellor has served as the Chairperson of the Sasol Inzalo Foundation, the Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa, and the South African National Department of Science and Technology’s Ministerial Review Committee on the National System of Innovation.
He is also a member of the South African and American Mathematical Society amongst various other committee memberships.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great respect and admiration that I invite you join me at this historic moment in celebrating the culmination of a decade of commitment, courage and care, as I request Prof. Loyiso Nongxa to address this graduation ceremony for the last time in his capacity as our Vice-Chancellor and Principal.
Obituary: Cachalia and Lipman
- By Wits University
Wits recently had to say farewell to a two stalwarts who have been connected to and served the University well over the years. The University extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the late Amina Cachalia and Professor Alan Lipman.
Amina Cachalia – activist for women’s rights
Amina Cachalia was a lifelong activist who dedicated her life to fighting for freedom in South Africa. Wits acknowledges the passing of Amina with great sadness for in her we have lost not only a freedom fighter but more importantly a human rights activist and a protector of the vulnerable.
Cachalia, and indeed her family, are close friends of Wits. In recognition of her achievements, the University bestowed its highest honour, an Honorary Doctorate of Laws on her in 2004, the same year in which the National Order of Luthuli (Bronze) was bestowed on her by the South African government. A brief synopsis of her life follows below, reflecting something of the tremendous contribution of this great stalwart of our society.
Cachalia (nee Asvat) was born on 28 June 1930 in Vereeniging, the youngest daughter of Ebrahim and Fatima Asvat. The family’s tradition of political activism dates back to her father’s close association with Mahatma Gandhi and the first passive resistance campaign of 1907. Cachalia’s subsequent political activism and championing of women’s rights was almost preordained.
Cachalia ensured that she was sent to school in Durban in the mid-1940s because she was aware (partly through role played by her sister) that the women’s passive resistance campaign would be launched from that city and she wanted to be part of it. The organising committee, however, decided she was too young, slight and frail to go to jail and, much to her chagrin; she was prevented from participating actively at that stage.
She returned to Johannesburg towards the end of 1947 when the campaign drew to a close and, because of the parlous state of the family finances, she took up a number of jobs, eventually settling into permanent employment as a secretary in a garment factory. Her experience as a woman in the workplace underlined for her the importance of financial independence and the need to amass skills and she founded the Women’s Progressive Union (WPU) to foster training, skills development and the financial independence of women. The response to the WPU was enthusiastic and the union grew and flourished for four years under Cachalia’s mentorship, until she went to jail in 1952 during the Defiance Campaign.
In the 1950s she was an active member of the Peace Council and was politically active in the Indian Youth Congress, of which she was an executive member; the Indian Congress; and the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw), of which she was the national treasurer. She was involved in organising the protest campaign against passes for women and was one of the leaders of the 20 000-strong march of women on the Union Buildings in Pretoria in August 1956. As part of her ongoing political activism she helped organise the Congress of the People in 1955 and attended as a delegate. During the Treason Trial she was involved in looking after the dependants of the trialists.
As the political struggle against apartheid gained momentum in the late 1950s Cachalia’s active leadership role in Fedsaw and the Youth Congress as well as her participation in the structures of the Transvaal Indian Congress brought her into close contact and cooperation with the Congress of Democrats, the Coloured People’s Organisation and the African National Congress. Her political activism and her involvement in the organisation of protests and campaigns continued until the government’s crackdown on organisations in 1960.
Thereafter, Cachalia pursued her political activities clandestinely and, as a result, was served with a restrictive banning order in 1963 while she was recuperating from a serious heart operation. During that year she played a key role in planning and executing the escape of Arthur Goldreich, Harold Wolpe, Mosie Moolla and Abdulhai Jassat from the prison in Marshall Square. Her underground activities continued throughout the period of her banning, which lasted from 1963 to 1980.
Her late husband, Yusuf, too, was banned and for 10 years was under house arrest. In the 1980s Cachalia served as a patron of the Federation of Transvaal Women (Fedtraw) and was active in organising women in the liberation struggle. During this period she participated in bodies, including the United Democratic Front, which were actively opposed to the Tricameral Parliament. When the ANC Women’s League was resuscitated in the 1990s, she served on the committee of the PWV region. She was elected a Member of Parliament for the National Assembly in the first democratic elections and was offered an ambassadorial posting but was unable to accept because of family commitments.
Cachalia served in organisations and groups that focussed on the upliftment of women, the nurturing and protection of children, and the rehabilitation of the disadvantaged. She was a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Ububele (a psychotherapeutic rehabilitation centre in Alexandra), and Operation Hunger. She served on the Finance Committee of the National Women’s League and several other projects in recent years.
Prof. Alan Lipman - teacher, intellectual, architect and struggle stalwart
The University and the School of Architecture and Planning mourn the passing of alumni and Honorary Professor Alan Lipman, who peacefully passed away at his home on 27 January 2013.
Lipman graduated as an architect from Wits in an era which produced an astonishing array of progressive and assertive professionals: they included Rusty Bernstein, Pancho Guedes and Clive Chipkin as well as Lipman himself. The 40s and 50s will remain an epoch for exploration, and the metanarrative of struggle against apartheid versus blind adherence to the then-regime has to adapt to accommodate individuals of this calibre.
Involved in South African architecture in an uncertain time, connected to the politics of the era, and exiled for decades in the UK, he was instrumental in the drafting of the Freedom Charter in 1955. Lipman returned to South Africa in the early 90s. He taught and practised, and designed for Nelson Mandela and other luminaries. He also led new forms of writing about architecture in the country with his books Architecture on my mind: critical readings in design (Pretoria: Unisa Press in 2003) and On the outside looking in: colliding with apartheid and other authorities (Johannesburg: Architect Africa Publications in 2009). As an honorary professor in the School, Lipman tried to continue a contribution to a tripod – training professionals, developing critique and contributing to a wider appreciation of design in a tough society.
In 1998 Wits honoured his contribution to the country and academia by bestowing on him an Honorary Doctorate in Architecture.
The School mourns the departure of one of its internationally best known graduates. The realisation of the principles he espoused will long inspire us.
Wits students in global aerospace competition
- By Wits University
A Wits student team has been selected as one of only three African teams to proceed to the next stage of a global competition.Wits and university teams from Kenya and Nigeria are among 100 student teams to go through to the second round of the biennial global Fly Your Ideas competition where entrants are invited to propose new ideas which will help the aerospace and air transport industry to become sustainable and eco-efficient. The teams were selected from over 600 hopefuls who had submitted entries into the third edition of the competition hosted by Airbus and supported by UNESCO.
The winning team stands to win a first prize of €30 000 (more than R300 000).
The Stormhawks from Wits University are proposing a revolutionary aircraft control system which would replace fly-by-wire technology with a hybrid visible light communication system. The team members are Pitso Mangoro, Muhammed Dangor, Sambharthan Cooppan, Tshireletso Mango and Azhar Cassim.
The University of Nairobi’s A.B.E. team entry involves the use of engineering a bamboo, sandwiched honeycomb structure and embedded thermal-acoustic foam as a replacement for non-recyclable composite materials used in the manufacture of aircraft cabin items.
Of the student teams selected, only 3% are from Africa, another 3% from the Middle East, 8% from America, 37% from Europe, and 49% are from the Asia Pacific.
Another elimination round still awaits the 100 teams before the final five teams to present their idea to a panel of Airbus and industry experts at Airbus in Hamburg, Germany on 12 June 2013 are announced. The awards ceremony will take place in Paris on 13 June 2013 at the UNESCO headquarters.
The teams now have until 12 April 2013 to explore, test and develop their concepts. While the idea remains in the hands of the students, an Airbus mentor and an expert have been assigned to each team to support, inspire and challenge the competitors.
Further information is available on the Fly Your Ideas website at www.airbus-fyi.com
