Message from Prof. Tawana Kupe, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University on the appointment process of new cleaning companies at the University:
The University is in the process of negotiating the contracts with two cleaning companies as new service providers, who will be taking over from Wits’ current service providers. The new companies will be responsible for Wits’ cleaning requirements for offices, residences and public spaces.
The University has not signed any contracts to date. It will only sign contracts with the short-listed providers after negotiations are finalised on various aspects, including the employment of the workers of Wits’ current service providers.
Wits has requested that the new short-listed companies employ ALL the workers from Wits’ current service providers. Wits will consider this variable in its decision-making before it finalises any of these contracts. The University community will be informed as to how many workers have been absorbed by the new providers before a contract is signed.
The University has advised the short-listed providers not to use the interview process to exclude workers on the grounds of age, union membership or union activity, as such discriminatory practices fall foul of the law and the Constitution.
The new contracts will explicitly outlaw any practices that are in violation of workers’ rights and will include penalty clauses for the service providers if workers’ rights are violated. The recommendations of the Tokiso Report on outsourcing will be taken into consideration during this process.
The Wits Workers’ Solidarity Committee (a grouping of concerned Wits staff and students) are arranging a protest during lunch time tomorrow. They do not want the employees of Wits’ current service providers to be interviewed before they are offered employment by the new service providers. This matter will be discussed at Senate tomorrow, Wednesday, 5 June 2013. The interviews are scheduled to take place on Thursday, 6 June and Friday, 7 June 2013.
For more information on this matter, please contact Prof. Tawana Kupe on (011) 717-1132 or email Tawana.Kupe@wits.ac.za
Mining into the future
- By Wits University
The 5th Wits Mining Industry Forum conference, entitled 'Mining into the Future' was held in Boksburg on 22 and 23 May 2013.
The conference was organised by the Centre for Mechanised Mining Systems and the School of Mining Engineering, in partnership with Barloworld Equipment and Caterpillar Global Mining.
The conference focused on the most advanced mining equipment maintenance management methods and the latest technology for enhancing mine efficiency productivity and safety, with an outlook towards future developments. Mining Equipment Maintenance Management covered the most updated methods of machine components exchange for reducing downtime, oil sampling for wear detection and the remote monitoring of machine health. The mining technology part of the conference included real time tracking and assignment of mining machines, high precision positioning of drill rigs and draglines, remote control, autonomous and semi autonomous earthmoving systems. In the operators training area, machine simulators were introduced with real demonstrations and audience participation in the auditorium. Mine safety systems included site awareness methods for safety through visibility systems and proximity detection.
The audience were welcomed by Professor Fred Cawood, Head of Wits School of Mining Engineering and John Polykarpou, Executive Director: After-Sales at Barloworld Equipment. Presentations were also given on the first day by David Rea, Regional Manager: Southern Africa, Caterpillar Global Mining and Eric Elsmark, Johannesburg District Office Manager, Caterpillar SARL. The conference was well attended with participation of mine managers, mining engineers, mining company heads and other senior representative from the southern African mining industry.
Cawood updated the delegates on the state of mining engineering education in South Africa with a perspective on the future supply of mining engineers to the broader industry. Professor Huw Phillips, Chamber of Mines Professor of Mining Engineering at Wits and Kellelo Chabedi, Chairman, WUMEA (Wits University Mining Engineers Association) lectured about 'The need for early detection of spontaneous combustion in underground coal mining in the Waterberg'. The conference then moved on to address a range of technology related topics by Wally Parsons, Senior Product manager, JP Briggs, Bureau Manager: Mining Technology, Willie Haasbroek, Head: Operator Training Academy, and Andre Pretorius, Account Manager: Mining Technology (all from Barloworld Equipment), and John Hoffman, Product Performance Manager, Caterpillar Global Mining.
The conference concluded with a presentation by Professor Jim Porter, Director of the Wits Centre for Mechanised Mining Systems entitled 'Oil and Water – the Human Machine Interface?'
The conference was chaired by Wally Parsons of Barloworld Equipment and Professor Zvi Borowitsh, who specialises in Mine Excavation and Haulage Optimisation at the School of Mining Engineering at Wits University.
The circulation of ideas
- By Erna van Wyk
Prof. Adam Habib, Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal, opened the 2013 Joburg Radio Days Conference at the Wits Club on Wednesday, 2 July 2013, calling on radio workers to start the conversations needed to happen in South Africa.
He told the more than 100 delegates from South Africa and well as from radio stations all over Africa how important conversation is in democracies, and the essential role radio plays in a democratic society.
"Fundamentally it is all about empowerment and empowerment is fundamentally about conversation. And the media that enables conversation is at the heart of a democratic society,” he said.
The three-day conference is annually hosted by the Wits Radio Academy and is the only one of its kind in Africa. It consists of a packed programme and top notch local and international speakers and delegates from community, public and commercial radio stations.
Habib said radio is absolutely essential for democratic accountability, partly due to the diversity of ways in which it enables conversation. "For me, radio is very important because it reaches far more people than television, and reaches people where the internet does not," he said.
In a society like South Africa where there are high levels of inequality and the marginalised do not have the ability to engage radio is the only medium that equalises society and equalise the playing field that enables conversation, Habib said.
At the core of both radio and universities, Habib said, is the practise to enable conversation and sharing and circulating ideas. "At the soul and heart of each of our institutions is the circulation of ideas," he said.
This year's conference had a strong focus on the latest technological developments such as advances in digital, social and new media and how that influence radio on the continent. The speakers included well known radio personalities from no fewer than 12 countries.
James O'Brien from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the quality of television programmes has deteriorated so much that it shrunk primetime viewing to much earlier at night when people would then rather sit in bed with their tablets and engage on social media platforms. This is giving radio again a unique opportunity to tap into a new audience.
Once upon a time video killed the radio show, however it seems that in 2013 radio set to get back at its “moving picture” brother.
WBS and SuperSport to train new managers in Kenya
- By Wits University
Wits Business School in partnership with SuperSport has ventured into Kenya to train 32 sport administrators in management programmes.
The Kenyan course is in its second year, and participants are set to benefit through managerial courses such as Managing People, Project Management, Organisational Dynamics, Financial Information, Strategic Thinking, Presentation Skills, Marketing, Syndicate Assignment, Multi Media Presentation Sport Administration and Major Event management.
The six months New Managers Programme (NMP) is part of the WBS Executive Education Programme, which aims to assist newly appointed managers to develop a range of competencies relevant to their new positions.
Executive Education Direction, Adam Gordon said the partnership with SuperSport is important because it aligns the School with a high-standing corporation. He added that the programme also represents a part of the School’s growing commitment to executive development across Africa.
“The WBS-SuperSport New Managers Programme in Kenya is important to WBS Executive Education for two reasons. First it represents our relationship with a major corporate client of high-standing in its industry and the SA corporate environment as a whole. Second, delivering this programme in Kenya is important to WBS Executive Education as it represents a part of our growing commitment to executive development across Africa,” said Adam.
WBS has been in partnership with SuperSport for a successful seven years of bridging the gap of skills shortage in sports management by introducing managers to business principles to cope with pressure that accompany advancement in the workplace.
SuperSport’s Director of Legal Affairs and Enterprise Graham Abrahams said the venture was a show of commitment to the growth of sport across the continent.
“It’s the only programme of its type in the world where sports administrators, government, universities and broadcasters team up and set trends for the rest of the world to emulate. We believe in the business of sport, excellence and in people and as SuperSport we try and combine these factors and add value to Africa as a whole,” said Abrahams.
The NMP is already underway in South Africa with 34 sports administrators already attending classes in Johannesburg.
Click here to read more about SuperSport’s involvement in the programme.
R105-m. donated for star students
- By Vivienne Rowland
Rubber-stamped, signed, sealed and delivered.
The Minister of Energy, Dipuo Peters, gave the thumbs up to a multi-million rand donation from BP South Africa to the Targeting Talent Programme at Wits University.
BP South Africa announced the R105-million investment in the programme until 2018 in supporting the youth against the backdrop of government’s socio-economic empowerment ideals.
The Targeting Talent Programme, administered by the Student Equity and Talent Management Unit at Wits, provides holistic talent development and aims to counter possible negative influences such as lack of rigorous curriculum, poorly trained teachers and the absence of successful role models in rural communities. It provides the missing elements that assist learners to aspire to, prepare for and obtain university enrolment.
The substantial investment will see more than 900 gifted Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners from rural schools in Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga participate in the specially designed programme to bridge the gap between high school and university, and to create a pipeline of exceptionally talented professionals to take the country forward.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Peters reiterated how important it is for government, civil society and business to invest in young people.
“More than 60% of the South African population consists of young people and being around young ones energises me. These young people are diamonds in the raw, rare gems that need to be polished and to have value added. Targeting Talent and BP South Africa are adding that value to your life,” she said.
Dr Loyiso Nongxa, former Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal and founder of Targeting Talent, expressed his gratitude to BP South Africa and hailed the students for their commitment and drive to take the first steps in ensuring their success.
“I am very grateful to BP for their generous support. These students are among the first in their families to attend university and obtain a degree – something that will change their lives forever. Through BP’s continuous support these learners are much more ready emotionally and academically for what lies ahead at university and have been given the tools they need in order to reach their full potential,” said Nongxa.
The ceremony was also attended by the Targeting Talent students who are currently attending a winter camp at the University, Targeting Talent alumni, Prof. Adam Habib, Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Thandi Orleyn, Chairperson of BP South Africa and Gerard Derbesy, CEO of BP South Africa.
While many students are at home enjoying the winter break, hundreds of students from Southern African universities with an interest in the field of psychology are convening at Wits discussing the latest research.
The Southern African Students’ Psychology conference is currently underway and the presentation of research papers to over 650 delegates is taking place in Senate House. Themed Psychology (in) Action, the conference is the largest student conference for students organised by students in order to expose peers to a wide-range of knowledge relating to theory and practice in psychology.
Among the delegates are mother and daughter, Deidre de Villiers and Carmen Erchen, who are both studying psychology through UNISA, an institution which offers distance learning. De Villiers who lives in a farm in Plettenberg Bay says the conference is a wonderful opportunity for her to interact with lecturers and other students as most of her studies take place in a remote and isolated setting.
This sentiment was echoed by honours level students, Erchen who also lives in a farm in Petrusville in the Northern Cape. Independent study means that you rely on various online resources and Google, such events are a relief, she says.
Stellenbosch University masters student and research paper presenter, Carmen Harrison has attended several conferences and feels they are invaluable in knowledge acquisition. “As researchers we tend to focus on a specific topic and here you are exposed to so much more," said Harrison.
Opening the conference, Professor Gillian Finchilescu and Head of the Department of Psychology at Wits urged students to immerse themselves in the programme.
Conferences have many advantages she told the crowd. “They give us a quick look at ideas and information that we would not afford and that which would take us many hours in the library to access. They are incredibly useful in developing our lines of enquiry,” Finchilenscu.
The Southern African Students' Psychology conference has been held annually since 2011. This year's conference is organised by the Departments of Psychology at Wits and UNISA and is the biggest tp date. It concludes on Friday, 28 June 2013.
NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards finalists announced
- By Wits University
The finalists for the prestigious 2012/13 NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards have been announced and the University is pleased to congratulate the below Witsies who have been recognised for making an outstanding contribution to Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) in South Africa.
The National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) and the Minister of Science and Technology will be announcing the winners on 27 June 2013 in Gauteng.
To an individual for an outstanding contribution to SETI over a lifetime:
Neil Coville, Professor Emeritus, School of Chemistry
Coville has been recognised for his use of catalysts to create new molecules, new reaction pathways and to generate materials that can be used in industry. During his career, he has made and studied many catalyst systems. These studies have resulted in the production of information for the design, characterisation and evaluation of catalysts used in industrial processes, such as making chemicals and fuels (the Sasol Fischer-Tropsch process), for making carbon nano-structured materials used to make sensors, solar cells and memory devices, and for making inorganic catalysts. Read more
John Pettifor, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Health Sciences and Honorary Professorial Researcher in the Department of Paediatrics
Pettifor’s research has focused on the prevention of rickets in children living in developing countries through ensuring adequate calcium intakes. He has been at the forefront of paediatric bone research for over 30 years, focused on the interrelationships between low dietary calcium intakes and vitamin D deficiency and the causation of deforming bone disease evident in children in developing countries, who have habitually low dietary calcium intakes. His findings, particularly in relation to the prevention and the development of rickets, have resulted in primary and secondary prevention programmes being introduced in Africa, India and in parts of Bangladesh.
T W Kambule Awards: to an individual for an outstanding contribution to SETI through research and its outputs over the last five to 10 years:
Karen Sliwa-Hahnle, Professor and Director of Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, and Director of the Soweto Cardiovascular Research Unit, Wits University
Sliwa-Hahnle is pursuing a professional goal of improving the cardiovascular health of Africans, through capacity training. A specialist physician, expert in tropical diseases and a clinical cardiologist, she has focused on immune activation and left ventricular remodelling in idiopathic and peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM). Descriptive studies, under her leadership, into the basic mechanism have resulted in a promising new therapy for PPCM. As Chair of the Working Group on PPCM of the European Society of Cardiology, leading a worldwide registry on 1 000 women with this condition she developed a major series of studies on cardiac diseases in African populations, both in South Africa and in nine other African countries. Read more
To a researcher, for an outstanding contribution to SETI through research capacity development over the last five to 10 years:
Professor Lesley Cornish, School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, and Director of DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials
Cornish was the prime instigator of the African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN) funded by Carnegie-IAS. AMSEN was one of the 5 networks chosen from 48 applications, and includes a university each in SA, Namibia, Kenya, Nigeria and Botswana. The rationale is to develop the next generation of academics through collaborative research. There are 10 Research Teams, 29 academics, and 20 students. Each student has at least two supervisors across the network, and students write reports and make presentations. Even before AMSEN, she supervised black students, including Scarce Skill students, to a total of over 20, and from different African countries. Read more
To an individual or a team for an outstanding contribution to SETI through communication for outreach and creating awareness over the last five years:
David Block, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy
Block is to South Africa what Carl Sagan was to American astronomy – his pioneering discoveries are reshaping astronomical paradigms, and his imprint on human culture is a legacy to all South Africans. He has been intimately involved in the communication of science, particularly astronomy, to the public for over 30 years. His outreach activities span the complete spectrum from the writing of books, TV interviews (including the BBC), radio interviews, newspaper interviews, public lectures and outreaches to school learners and to their teachers. Read more
New VC speaks at School of Public Health lekgotla
- By Wits University
Hours away from being instated as the new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adam Habib said Wits University was a fractitious place, but that when the fractitiousness took the form of intellectual engagement, rather than turning in on itself, nothing came close in terms of intellectual stimulation.
Speaking at the School of Public Health lekgotla on Friday, 31 May, Habib said there was a polarised conversation happening at Wits - between national responsiveness on the one hand and world class status on the other.
'There is tension between addressing the challenges of the nation and being at the cutting edge of research globally. But the two are not mutually exclusive. If you want to be truly world class you have to take the entire body of world knowledge and apply it your context. Being world class is, in part, about uniqueness, and uniqueness is about specificity - using science to speak to your specificity.
'We are local but we have to be cosmopolitan. That is what a university needs to be - born in a nation, but at the service of the globe.'
Habib urged the University community to ask the hard questions. 'Too often in society we look for categoric answers, rather than asking the right questions. If you want to talk about academic enquiry, scientific enquiry, and societal wellbeing, identify the questions and provoke multiple answerrs to those questions, because ultimately it's in the battle of those ideas that solutions will be found.'
Wits University will be hosting a session of exciting intellectual events over a 10-day period, kicking off on 23 June and running until 2 July 2013. The Life of Forms will be convened by the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (www.jwtc.org.za).
The theme of the session, The Life of Forms, is asking how contemporary forms – architecture and city forms, literature and the arts, politics and democracy, forms of sound and image, and technologies of the digital age – are transforming the way in which our world is lived and experienced.
More than perhaps at any other period of the late modern age, forms permeate contemporary life-worlds and practices, generating effects of various kinds and, in the process, redistributing our senses and our experiences of the world.
The modernist distinction between ‘form’ and ‘content’ is being remade through the increasing value and liveliness of form itself, unsettling easy explanations of how forms work, and posing new questions about how we might understand and encounter them.
This broad consideration of ‘the life of forms’ will be done through a jam-packed session of events, to which an interested public is warmly invited.
Public events are free and include panels, exhibitions, round tables, book launches, as well as public lectures by internationally-acclaimed intellectuals and artists William Kentridge, Arjun Appadurai, Jane Guyer, Eyal Weizman, Sue van Zyl, Ato Quayson, Achille Mbembe, Ackbar Abbas, Edgar Peterse, Teresa Caldeira, David Goldberg and many others.
Composer and librettist Neo Muyanga will perform with Cairo-based troupe El Warsha, noted film-maker Trinh Minh-ha will speak on her experiments with filmic form, and Ntone Edjabe, the founder of Chimurenga, will hold a conversation about the magazine.
Tickets for the five lectures/performances by William Kentridge at the Wits Theatre are available for free and can be secured by emailing Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za.
The JWCT Life of Forms programme is made possible by: The Office of the Vice-Chancellor; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Partnerships and Strategic Operations; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Finance and Operations; the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities; the School of Social Sciences; and Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research.
The JWTC works in partnership with the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI); the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University and The Goethe Institute.
The William Kentridge Lecture Series has been organised in partnership with The Mail and Guardian, The Wits Theatre and the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER).
NOTE TO EDITORS
Founded in 2008 as an independent and interdisciplinary platform in the Faculty of the Humanities at Wits University, the JWTC has established itself as an international node for experimenting with critical theory in the global South. It is intended for intellectual stimulation, exchange and sustained interaction with noted international scholars in the humanities. It is a platform for intellectual work that takes seriously a position in the South while addressing global conversations, taking the labour of theory to be significant political work that is crucial to the development of experimentation in social forms.
It was a night of appreciating the country’s rich culture and a lesson by one of South Africa’s well known sons of modern art, William Kentridge.
A diverse audience came from all corners of Johannesburg to attend the fully booked inaugural event of the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism’s (JWTC) Life of Forms 2013 session, a ten-day event hosted by the JWTC housed at Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wiser).
Internationally acclaimed Kentridge presented the first of five public lectures at the Wits Theatre, entitled Five Lessons in Drawing. The first lecture, In Praise of Shadows, was a resounding success. The audience was welcomed by Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof. Adam Habib.
“Hosting a well-known artist such as William Kentridge and events such as this enables conversation and society to have debate and discussion around the arts. Kentridge has always been a great chronicler of our transition and he is a great story teller, conversationalist and teacher and has perfected the art of visualisation, painting and the theatre,” said Habib.
Kentridge first presented the lectures as Six Drawing Lessons at Harvard University in 2012, as part of the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry. The lectures at Wits, and one public question and answer session with the artist, are free and open to the public.
In Kentridge’s inimitable mode, the lessons will move from image to word, from artistic practice to philosophical reflection, and back, reviewing the deepest ideas of his work and method over the past 30 years. These extraordinary lectures scale back and forth between classical philosophical ideas, the history of images, the practice of studio-work, the history of the colonial world and the life of Johannesburg. All made sense of through reference to particular works of the artist from across his auspicious career. Five Drawing Lessons promises to be a magical journey through the art and mind of one of our most important artists.
Kentridge presented a humorous and unpretentious lecture. “About 18 months ago, I phoned my father to say that I have been invited to present the Norton Lectures at Harvard University. “Well,” he said, “do you have anything to say?” But you must understand, I said, it is a great honour to be asked to give these lectures. “Indeed,” he said “and now you have that honour. You don’t have to accept.”
Lesson two,A Brief History of Colonial Revolts took place on Sunday, 23 June 2013, while lesson three and four, Vertical Thinking: A Johannesburg Biography and Practical Epistemology: Life in the Studio, takes place on Sunday, 30 June 2013, while a question and answer session with the artist and lesson five, In Praise of Mistranslation, take place on Tuesday,2 July 2013.
Five Drawing Lessons forms part of a broader programme of public lectures, round-tables, panels and exhibitions which runs until 2 July 2013. A full programme of all events can be found here. All events are open to the public on a first-come-first-seated basis. Join the JWTC on Twitter @JWTCWits #Lifeofforms; #JWTC or on Facebook.
*Please note that tickets for ALL the Lessons have been allocated. For those who have reserved tickets, please collect your ticket at least 60 minutes before each Lesson at the entrance of the Theatre. Tickets not collected 10 minutes before the Lesson will be reallocated. If you would like a ticket, feel free to come to the Theatre before the lesson and put your name down on a reserved waiting list.
Habib officially takes over
- By Wits University
Professor officially took over as the new Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Wits on Saturday, 1 June 2013. He takes over from Professor Loyiso Nongxa, who has served in this capacity for ten years.
“Wits has incredible energy and depth, and promises to be world-class. It is probably the most diverse University on the African continent in terms of its demography, programmes and ideas,” says Habib. “It is definitely a microcosm of South Africa and a dichotomy of note, which makes it a very exciting and challenging place to lead.”
Habib supports the Vision 2022 strategy and is confident that Wits can achieve the objectives set out therein. “Vision 2022 speaks to becoming more of a postgraduate, research-driven institution. This means that we will require the best talent – academic and support staff and quality students to make this happen. It also means that we have to balance access with success, without becoming elitist.”
Habib has welcomed the multi-billion rand infrastructure programme that Wits has just completed. He has outlined in the short-term which includes forming a shared social compact and investing heavily in people; increasing the University’s research output; preparing students so that they pass better; giving access to talented students from disadvantaged communities; securing resources to fund priority areas and acquiring the best academic talent.
“I am ready to engage robustly in the global war for the very best academic talent,” says Habib. “If we are going to be the best, then we have to secure the best scholars and scientists on the planet. This also means that we need to look after those who are already on board and who are productive and leading the way in their respective areas.”
“I am looking forward to working with the Wits community to make our University one of the best in the country and the world.”
Statement from Wits University
- By Wits University
STATEMENT FROM WITS UNIVERSITY ON TECHNICAL ERROR RELATED TO MANDELA OBITUARY
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg extends its sincerest apologies to the family members, friends, fellow South Africans and global citizens for an obituary related to the death of former president Nelson Mandela that was not published or issued by the University.
The University had prepared a statement which was hidden on its systems. However, a technical error made this available via the search function on Google. At no stage did the University issue this statement or publish it on its website.
The University regrets the mishap and will take all the necessary steps to get to the root of the technical error and to ensure that the responsible departments are held accountable for this incident.
Please direct any media enquiries to Shirona Patel on 011 717 1019 or 083 362 1995 or shirona.patel@wits.ac.za
Through the front door
- By Dr Anlia Pretorius and Duncan Yates
When the youth of 1976 took to the street it was to reverse serious inequalities in the South African educational system. While this battle has been won on paper, it is astonishing how dominant views about the capabilities of different children continue to oppress and deny segments of our youth the very rights that South Africans fought for – equality, the right to education and a chance to be more in life.
All people in South Africa deserve an opportunity to equip themselves with the necessary skills and competencies in order to become productive citizens. In the context of education, all children, including those with disabilities should be provided with opportunities not only to enter education, but to also be successful. South Africa needs to, with even greater urgency, create sensitivity and awareness within our society regarding the needs of people with disabilities. People with disabilities are generally as disabled as their physical environments or people’s attitudes allow.
Accurate statistics regarding the prevalence of disabilities in South Africa are not readily available. This may be because of the lack of a universal definition and measurement as well as the self-reporting nature of the data. If the definition and questions are too narrow, individual interpretation will impact the results and one might only pick up a small number of people declaring their disabilities (Schneider, 2009). Census 2011 reported that 9% of the population has some form of a disability. In this census, questions on disability were replaced by general health and functioning questions and thus defined as difficulties encountered in functioning due to body impairments or activity limitation, with or without the use of assistive devices..
According to legislation, equal access is a basic right of ALL people, yet for many years, disability inclusion in higher education institutions in South Africa has not been a focus area. Access and inclusion of students with disabilities has received very little attention and resources, leading to a low number of students with disabilities entering and graduating from the South African higher education system.
More tertiary institutions are now addressing the need to provide services and have adequate policies in place to “open up” access to students with disabilities. Some progress has already been made but much still needs to be done to ensure and regulate disability inclusion (Disability in Higher Education Project report, 2011), such as addressing disability equity more holistically.
South Africa has put in place a legislative framework that supports the needs of people with disabilities and has a progressive constitution that protects the rights of persons with disabilities. As a country, we have adopted the United Nations Disability Convention. Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities underscores equality of opportunity and the right to education without discrimination. The Employment Equity ActNo 55 of 1998 and the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 2000 are examples of legal instruments aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities in the country.
In 1997, the White Paper on the Integrated National Disability Strategy was signed. The South African Government established a Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities with the Deputy Minister conducting road trips to post-school institutions to enquire about access for students with disabilities. In 2012, the Department of Higher and Further Education included a chapter addressing disability within post-school education and training institutions in the Green Paper for Post-School Education and Training. These events together with the importance of human rights placed the issue of disability firmly in the centre of concerns around what it takes to make a society, including education that is accessible and provides equal opportunities for all.
The Understanding Poverty and Disability in Johannesburg report indicated that only 9% of the disabled respondents achieved Grade 12 as highest education level. This is significantly lower than the general population (33%). Factors that might contribute to this include: poverty, difficulties with transport, lack of support and assistance, quality of schools and lack of assistive aids.
In 2010 Minister Nzimande mentioned in his address to Higher Education Disability Services Association that higher education has undergone a significant process of increasing access and success for transformation in recent years. Work has been carried out in the last few years to prioritise access for and improve services to students with disabilities in universities but there are still challenges to overcome. These reflect a combination of factors, but include a lack of coherence in the education sector as to what comprehensive disability support in universities entails.
The provision of education for disabled students continues to be shaped by South Africa's socio-economic realities. The minister indicated that he is concerned that disability should not be an added disadvantage for students, already disadvantaged by a lack of funding, and other barriers, to succeed in higher education. The minister also emphasised the need for policies implemented by institutions that identify clear and specific strategies for support to students with disabilities.
Most universities have formal disability policies, which serves as a written commitment to admit and to support eligible students with disabilities. The policy protects the rights of disabled students registered at the University. The objective of such policies is also to allow students with disabilities full participation in every possible respect and accommodate them as part of a diverse society. Basic services should include the provision of study material in alternative format, addressing access issues, provision of assistive devices, programme/course arrangements and adaptations, support in terms of financial aid, career counselling, student accommodation, transport arrangements and other areas relating to a comfortable university life. Skills training and awareness programmes for all staff members working in the institution should be a given in order to ensure an inclusive environment.
Disability must rise to the fore on agendas and it should be a cross-cutting theme across core areas including learning, research and community engagement. In South Africa we have good legislation and policies in place for disability, it is now time that action is taken on these. Other areas of transformation such as gender and racism have shown great strides in recent years, however it seems that disability is lagging behind. Are students with disabilities treated with respect and dignity and granted “front door access” or are they still relegated to make use of back door entrances?
The UNESCO Chair in Teacher education for Diversity and Development at Wits University in association with the Southern African Association of Learning and Education Differences (SAALED) are hosting a conference to identify and dismantle pressure and practices in education and considering ways of inclusion from 1-6July 2013. Visitwww.inclusionconference2013.org for more details.
Dr Anlia Pretorius and Duncan Yates are from the Wits Disability Unit
An edited version of this article appeared in The Sowetan. Click to read more.
Home is where the heart is
- By Wits University
Hayani is the voice of a generation nearly lost and forgotten, and which is yearning to be heard. It is home-grown storytelling at its truest, a homecoming story, which will tug at raw heartstrings.
Drama For Life at Wits University brings the sensational piece of home-coming theatre back to the South African stage starting at the National Schools Festival in Grahamstown, from 8 to 9 July 2013, where after it moves to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town from 8 to 31 August 2013 before finally making its way to Johannesburg’s Market Theatre from 18 September to 27 October 2013.
Where is your true home? How do you find it? How do you keep from leaving it? These are some of the questions dealt with in Hayani, which plays on the theme ‘home is where the heart is’. Hayani, which means ‘home’ in Venda, is an original play reflecting on the meaning of ‘home’ in the context of South Africa since its transition. The play explores the stories of two young South African males who both take journeys back home and in so doing they journey towards better understanding who they are and what it really means to be a South African.
The actors
Atandwa Kani, who hails from New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, and Nat Ramabulana, who is from Thoyandou, Limpopo, give equally stunning performances as they weave their personal narratives against the tumultuous transitional years in South Africa. Along their journey they recollect their memories, painful, awkward and funny, of childhoods and teen years past, in an honest and enriching tale. In past reviews critics commented on how seamless and brilliant the two gifted actors are; that you believe their performance to be organic and therefore incredibly believable.
Audiences buy into the magical tale from the moment it begins until the journey ends. Respected and acclaimed journalist, Adrienne Sichel in her reflection of the work once wrote, “The performers are consummate entertainers and gender surfers as they play each other’s parents, siblings and each other; thus turning the performance space into an interactive playground of very personal memory.”
The Play
While the objective is to popularise Hayani on the mainstream theatre circuit and give it even more appeal, it’s the message the play will be taking to schools and communities thereafter to address issues of transformation, which will make the biggest impact. Then, to root itself permanently in South African theatrical soil, it will become a published work made accessible to school learners and young professional theatre practitioners and continue to acknowledge the challenges of transformation facing our society today. Performing against evocative live music composed by Matthew Macfarlane and a striking set design by graffiti artist Mak1One, all it takes is the brilliant performances from Kani and Ramabulana for audiences to be captivated as they are lured into this magical display of intimate and beautiful story-telling; all at once rich, diverse and vibrant.
Hayani is directed by Warren Nebe and presented by the Drama for Life Company Laboratory, a research-based project aimed at developing young professional theatre performers, writers and directors in the Wits School of Arts.
Booking is essential and can be made at Computicket on 0861 915 8000 or visit www.computicket.com.
MESSAGE FROM THE OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR: FINANCE AND OPERATIONS
Dear Colleagues
Senate's recommendation yesterday that all workers employed by Wits' two current cleaning service providers be employed by the new short-listed providers was put to the two short-listed service providers this morning.
An agreement was reached with the managers of the two short-listed providers to employ ALL workers from the current service providers.
On behalf of the University's management, I would like to thank all stakeholders who have through various actions enabled us to reach a situation where we can make humane decisions, while maintaining our financial sustainability.
Professor Tawana Kupe
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance and Operations)
In Conversation with the Judiciary
- By Wits University
Wits University’s School of Law recently hosted former Constitutional Judge Kate O’Regan as part of its Speaker Series: In Conversation with the Judiciary.
O’Regan was joined by Prof. Stuart Woolman from the Graduate School of Business Administration, and Prof. Mtendeweka Mhango from the School of Law. They discussed: Judicial Philosophy and the Role of the Courts in a Constitutional Democracy.
The Constitution confers important powers of constitutional review on the judiciary. Therefore, society has an interest in learning about how judges exercise the powers entrusted to them. Moreover, the role of judges raises interesting questions of judicial philosophy in a constitutional democracy. Thus, it is important for judges to speak to the public not only through their judgments but also directly to allow the public to learn about what judges do and how they do it.
There are many kinds of barriers to learning and many forms of learning difficulties and disabilities. Dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, aggression, different religious beliefs, disability, chronic illnesses and orphan hood can challenge the learning and teaching experience in schools.
Incidences of violence in schools and other social conflicts arising from diversity are playing themselves out in schools and courtrooms.
To enable educators, parents and specialists to effectively address these challenges, the UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education for Diversity and Development at Wits University in association with the Southern African Association of Learning and Education Differences (SAALED) will host three conferences aimed at equipping various players in education, to effectively meet diverse learning needs.
Entitled Making Education Inclusive, the conferences will be held from 1- 6 July 2013 and days are segmented according to interest groups and professions.
The Research symposium for academics and researchers from at least ten countries takes place from 1 to 3 July 2013.
The Professional Development Conference and Workshops takes place from 4 to 6 July 2013. Teachers, therapists, parents and school leaders as well as education department officials will participate in plenary sessions and workshops offering practical strategies to implement inclusive education.
The Regional Ministerial Conference takes place from 3 to 4 July 2013. Representatives from the ministries of education from the SADC regionwill offer input into a strategy for an Inclusive Education for Children Strategy with Disabilities and sign a communiqué for a regional strategy for Inclusive Education.
Click here for conference details and the programme.
What is inclusive Education?
Elizabeth Walton, conference committee member and lecturer at Wits, explains that the term inclusive education can be interpreted in many ways by different users.
“Some think it means reaching out to learners with special needs and placing them in mainstream schools. For others it is expanded to take into account religious diversity, linguistic diversity and a range of abilities. Whatever the interpretation, inclusive education is akin to social justice, taking the view that no child should be denied the opportunity to learn because of differences,” she says.
Where does South Africa stand with inclusive education?
In 2012, the Sowetan newspaper reported that 400 000 children with special needs were out of school and some of these are children who can be can be taught at regular schools. The reasons are vast; however a key barrier is the implementation of inclusive education. In 2001, Prof. Kader Asmal, former Minister of Education introduced White Paper 6, which stated that learners with special needs who require low-intensive support should receive education in regular or mainstream schools.
A decade later, progress is slow and nearly 250 000 children are excluded from school.
Among the papers to be presented are those looking at the South African educational landscape. Townships and rural areas teachers’ perceptions of dyslexic learners are among thelocal papers to be presented alongside SADC and international papers.
The conferences is a step forward in dismantling exclusionary practices in schools and at institutional level; and in building an integrated society where children with special needs are given the necessary support to improve their chances in life.
In today’s society where learners have different learning needs and social backgrounds, all role players in the education system need to be competent in responding to be aware of the value of inclusive education in solving social conflicts that play themselves out in schools.
Bullying, sexual assault, murder and reports of violence in school ominously continue. Another victim, 19 year old Nkosentsha Mdluli, was stabbed to death on 6 June 2013 outside the Magaliesburg State School on the West Rand.
Ensuring a safe and secure school environment is one of the goals of inclusive education. The Alternatives to Violence workshop is one among 15 workshops that will be presented at the conference.
The South African National Zakaah Fund (SANZAF) has paid R1 555 779 towards bursaries for 48 deserving students studying at Wits this year. Of this amount, approximately R350 000 was paid to the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences by SANZAF’s partner, the Islamic Medical Association (IMA). SANZAF and IMA have established a fund to support Health Science students.
“It is an honour and a privilege for us to accept these cheques from SANZAF on behalf of our students,” said Prof. Adam Habib, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand. “We are grateful for the support that SANZAF and IMA has extended to assist students in need.”
The cheques were handed over at a ceremony on Friday, 21 June 2013 at Wits University.
“SANZAF is a faith-based organisation that strives to facilitate the empowerment of families, and we help students by offering bursaries,” says Yusuf Seedat, the Public Relations Officer of SANZAF. “We see tremendous value in investing in empowering our youth and future generations through our national bursary programme.”
The SANZAF bursary programme covers most fields of study and supports students from diverse backgrounds, across the country. SANZAF has allocated over R9 million for some 550 students in the 2013 academic year.
Habib posed two further challenges to SANZAF. “Wits requires more funding to support postgraduate and international students studying in South Africa,” he says. “Given the current economic climate, we know that it is tough out there, especially for parents who have one or more children at university. The more funding we receive from donors, corporates and those who can afford it, the easier it is for less wealthy parents to put their children through the higher education system.”
In the context of funding in the higher education system, he added: “The higher education inflation rate is sitting at around 9.5% at the moment. It is higher than the current inflation rate as most textbooks, electronic resources and specialised equipment have to be imported. The current rand/dollar exchange rate is also exacerbating the problem.”
Both SANZAF and IMA agreed to invite Wits University to partner on other mutually beneficial initiatives in the future.
Alien invasive plants that strangle out South Africa’s natural flora have been the target of teams of weed controllers for exactly one century this year.
Armed with carefully selected agents – insects that eat only the target plant – these dedicated scientists have fought to save the country’s biodiversity from alien invasive plants that have been brought across oceans from as far as Asia, South America, and the US.
“In most cases these plants were brought into the country for aesthetic reasons, or as curiosities. The problem is that there is nothing in South Africa’s natural environment that targets these plants, so they multiply uncontrolled,” says entomologist Professor Marcus Byrne from Wits University.
Alien invasive species pose a serious threat to South Africa’s biodiversity, and by implication, its economy. Farmers lose crops and livestock, and in a country that already has a water scarcity, 7% of water is disappearing to weeds like black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) and satansbos (Solanum elaeagnifolium).
Weed control involves going back to the native country to find an agent that limits the growth of the plant in its natural environment. There are very specific requirements for an insect (or fungus) to be selected as an agent.
“The agent cannot target anything other than the alien invasive species, otherwise you risk doing more harm than good. What’s incredible about weed control in South Africa is that – over a 100 year period – we haven’t made a single mistake,” says Byrne.
Mistakes can be costly. In 1935, Australia imported about 3 000 cane toads in the hope that they would control the destructive cane beetle population. They turned out to be failures at controlling the beetles, but remarkably successful at reproducing, now numbering well into the millions, and eating everything including pet food left outside homes.
But weed controllers in South Africa haven’t put a foot wrong. In fact, they’ve saved the country millions of rands, as recognised by the fact that government is starting to make more funds available via the Working for Water programme.
“In the case of the golden wattle, for every rand spent on weed control, the country has saved R4 333,” says Byrne.
The chain-fruit cholla tree, which is indigenous to Arizona, Texas and parts of Mexico, forms dense stands of spiny, branched, tree-sized succulent plants with easily-detachable stem segments. Birds, reptiles and small mammals are frequently impaled on the long, barbed spines and suffer a cruel death. Game, livestock and pets become so covered in spiny segments that they eventually die.
South African Dr Helmuth Zimmermann, world expert on the bio-control of cacti, took his wife to see a chain-fruit cholla tree, and they witnessed the suffering of a small antelope that accidentally ran into it.
“Zimmermann made a promise to his wife that he would help eradicate this cactus. He did this by finding the highly damaging biotype of cochineal that is now eradicating the cactus,” says Hildegard Klein from the Plant Protection Research Institute.
To download a selection of incredible photographs, click here.
The following experts are available to speak about weed control:
Wits congratulates Professors Lesley Cornish and David Block for winning under their categories in the 15th NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards.
The University is proud of these ambassadors for science, engineering, technology and innovation (SETI) who were acknowledged for their exceptional contribution at a gala dinner on 27 June 2013.
In total twelve awards were presented by the Minister in the Presidency, Trevor Manuel, on behalf of the Minister of Science and Technology, Derek Hanekom.
To a Researcher, for an outstanding contribution to SETI through Research Capacity Development over the last 5 to 10 years – sponsored by Eskom
Professor Lesley Cornish Professor (Physical Metallurgy), School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, and; Director of DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials, University of the Witwatersrand
To an Individual or a Team for an outstanding contribution to SETI through Communication for Outreach and creating Awareness over the last 5 years – sponsored by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA)
Professor David Block Professor of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy, University of the Witwatersrand
NSTF Chairperson Professor Brenda Wingfield said: ‘“Africa is rising”. This statement echoed around the continent as the African Union celebrated its 50th anniversary. As a country and a continent we have much to celebrate, but it is important not only to look back but also to look forward.
‘We need to plan for the next 50 years and even beyond that. There is no question that for Africa and South Africa to prosper, we will need scientists, technologists and engineers. The NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards promote those who excel in these fields and in so doing, we highlight potential careers for school leavers and university graduates.’
About the NSTF
The National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) is the stakeholder body for all science, engineering, technology and innovation (SETI) organisations in South Africa. It is incorporated as a non-profit company in terms of the Companies Act and is registered as anon-profit organisation with the Department ofSocial Development.
The NSTF Share ‘n Dare Programme
The impact of the NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards goes far beyond the ‘glitzy’ Awards ceremony. NSTF-BHP Billiton Award Winners are ‘ambassadors’ for their fields of expertise for the whole year. The NSTF, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council’s Web & Media Technologies Platform, arranges opportunities for the NSTF-BHP Billiton Award Winners to share their knowledge and experience with young people, to be role models, and thus to motivate, or dare, the youth to take up studies and careers in the sciences and engineering. There are no better role models than these top scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and science communicators!
Read more about the activities of the winners of the 2011/12 NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards.
WBS and World Bank financial inclusion report
- By Wits University
The Wits Business School in partnership with the World Bank of South Africa launched the South African Economic Update Report at the Donald Gordon Auditorium on 30 May, 2013. The findings of the report were presented by Financial Advisor Michael Fuchs, Lead Economist Sandeep Mahajan, with our very own Deputy Head of School, Professor Kalu Ojah joining the panel discussion.
The Report found that conditions in global financial market have eased considerably since mid-2012, reflecting further monetary stimulus provided by high-income country (and many developing countries) central banks, improved fiscal sustainability in developed countries and the establishment of mutual support mechanisms in the European Union. Global economic recovery, however, remains fragile, susceptible to downside risks, and more uneven across country groupings.
“Against the backdrop of subdued external demand subject to significant downside risks and a domestic investment climate weakened in particular by labor strife, medium-term growth prospects for South Africa have been revised down, from a projected 3.2 percent for 2013 in the July 2012 Economic Update to 2.5 percent currently,” said Sandeep Mahajan.
The slowdown has put into sharper focus the key structural challenges facing South Africa in its quest to achieve higher and more inclusive growth. Among them is the expansion of access to financial services for both individuals and small enterprises, which, according to the Report, could help reduce poverty and inequality and stimulate job creation in South Africa.
There are 12 million unbanked people in South Africa and the phenomenon of financial exclusion extends to millions more who are under-banked. This is despite the fact that along the modes-of-access indicators of financial inclusion, South Africa is more in line with high income countries than developing countries.
This report analysed South Africa’s financial inclusion landscape, with a particular focus on formal payments, savings and credit. Its main messages are:
·Financial inclusion is important for growth and reducing inequality and poverty – in South Africa and across the developing world.
·On an aggregate basis, access to financial services in South Africa seems strong. However, the aggregate picture masks significant inequalities in access. In part, financial inclusion reflects the duality of the South African economy.
·Supply-side issues play a major role – particularly inadequate competition in the banking sector, near absence of microfinance institutions, and inordinate emphasis on payroll lending.
·Aspects of the regulatory environment may play a role, although they do not only serve financial inclusion purpose.
· The presence of highly developed financial infrastructure as well as mobile technology offer exciting opportunities for expanding financial inclusion.
“Global experience shows that less endowed segments of the population are best serviced by specialized institutions with a cost structure and business model adapted to their needs,” said Michael Fuchs.
Furthermore, the report argues that the entrance of new banks has demonstrated how greater competition can enhance product choice and reduce customer choice. It cites case studies from countries with comparable economies to show potential approaches that South Africa might consider for enhancing financial inclusion.
Richard Ward Modernisation Project
- By Wits University
Crying to be touched, to be renewed
With the fervour of new life
- From Braamfontein Morning by Don Mattera
There is much renewing, revamping and reviving happening in Braamfontein, Johannesburg and Wits University is also doing its bit to modernise the urban landscape of the precinct.
The latest project is a R75 million modernisation project planned for the Richard Ward Building which houses the University’s School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. The building is the western entry point of Jorrisen Street as the one-way stretches eastwards towards the Metropolitan Centre.
When Richard Ward (1891 – 1976) posthumously left R1 million to the University in 1976, it was the largest amount ever bequeathed to the Wits at the time. His vision to conserve resources and advance the progress of the people of South Africa prompted the University to name the Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy Building in loving memory after him.
The planned upgrade of the Richard Ward Building will provide new state of the art lecture theatres and laboratories, as well as the best intellectual capital to educate and mentor the students.
While chemical and metallurgical engineering student numbers have increased, there remains a critical shortage of these professionals, who make a significant contribution to the national economy and development of the country. Better infrastructure and resources are urgently needed to ensure that the highest standards of teaching and research are maintained.
The modernisation of the Richard Ward Building will help the School to remain an international centre of excellence in terms of its quality teaching and research initiatives in the 21st Century.
Wits is committed to being a source of vital research that speaks to the needs of the industry and development in Africa. The University is also committed to giving young engineering students access to the latest equipment so they may gain the practical experience necessary to make a seamless transition from the education environment to the private or public sector.
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DoHET) has invested R14 million in this project, and the University is committed to raising the balance of R61 million from individuals and the corporate sector. Now, 37 years after Ward made his generous donation, Wits is seeking other men and women of vision to keep the dream alive by contributing towards the cost of the upgrade and modernisation of the building.
This project is a wonderful opportunity to make a long term investment in improving the quality and quantity of chemical, metallurgical and materials graduates entering the engineering management professions. It will have a direct impact on these sectors’ capacity to respond to the challenges of South Africa and the continent.
The Wits University Council has elected a new Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of Council. The new Chairperson of Council is Dr Randall Carolissen while Dr Brian Bruce has been appointed as the Deputy Chairperson of Council.
BIO OF DR RANDALL CAROLISSEN
Dr Randall Carolissen obtained his Masters degree in solid state Physics cum laude and this thesis was widely cited as a significant contribution to the understanding of how nano second laser pulses interact with semi-conductors. He obtained his Ph.D degree in Solid State Physics from the University of the Western Cape in 1995 and followed it up with a Ph.D with an Honours degree in Business Administration cum laude from the University of Stellenbosch. He has also completed his MBA also cum laude. His MBA thesis was a statistical treatise over 50 countries on the relationship between the extent of implementation of quality management system ISO9000 and the competitiveness of a nation.
During his studies Dr Carolissen obtained numerous awards and fellowships. These include the Old Mutual Gold Medal Award (MBA) and various fellowships from the Universities of Pennsylvania, Missouri and Gent (Belgium). He has published widely in Physics, but the one publication he is proud of the most is an Industrial Relations paper delivered in Tokyo, Japan. In 2008 he completed an M.Com in International Tax at the University of the Northwest.
Dr Carolissen started off his career in 1982 as a Production Engineer at Firestone S.A, in Port Elizabeth and is a quality and process management expert. In November 2000 he was appointed Executive Director: Commercial during the Business Re-engineering process at the SABS and was part of the Strategic Management of the SABS. From 1 April 2001 his position changed to Group Managing Director: SABS Commercial, to head-up the eight companies established by the implementation of the commercialisation strategy of the SABS.
In February 2007 Dr Carolissen was appointed as the General Manager Standards and Policy at the South African Receiver of Revenue, responsible for the Operations Policy framework, Risk management, Continuous Improvement, Compliance against both internal and legislative requirements and Services and Channels Management. His interest in Process engineering and overall quality management assisted him in assisting to map and implemented the Modernization program in SARS. In October 2009 he was became Group Executive; Revenue planning, Analysis and Reporting. In this position he analyses international and national economic indicators, sets the Enterprise Revenue Strategy, give input into Treasury Fiscal policy, determine national budget targets, manage government cash flow, and monitor and coordinate operational plans. He has over the past two fiscal years on a national basis effectively managed annual Revenue collections and budgets of more than R600 billion on an enterprise basis. Under his leadership SARS modelling of revenue flows and accurate interpretation of economic indicators secured revenue surpluses which offered the National government fiscal space to address national expenditure imperatives and provide a buffer against the worst effects of the global financial crisis that manifested itself over the past two years. His team developed systems and processes that assisted the mobilization of enterprise wide resources across traditional divisional silos, allowing SARS to collect R25 billion in special revenue initiatives.
He has served as the chairman of both the Finance and Remuneration committees of the council and is a trustee of the Wits Foundation of the University of Witwatersrand and has fiduciary responsibility for the entire budgets development and approval process of Wits as well as all its subsidiaries. He has been instrumental in setting up the governance structure for the Holdings Company as well as placed it on a successful commercial footing. During his tenure the organisation under his leadership doubled revenue from the commercial sector, and improved on all of the corporate indicators.
In this time he represented South Africa at international forums such as the World Trade Organization and the International standards Organization. He has travelled widely and established bilateral agreements in South East Asia, Europe, the USA and the Middle East as well assisting African countries to implement Standards and Technical Regulations to promote Trade.
He engaged, at CEO level, with most corporates in South Africa on issues that affect international trade, the promotion of competitiveness enhancement through quality management systems and compatibility improvement through standardization. Following that assignment he took up the position as Chief Operating Officer in the Damelin Education Group, responsible for 14 campuses and 27 franchises, and was part of an executive team that engineered and implemented a turnaround strategy for this Media 24 subsidiary prior to a sell off. He is a founding member of the Association of Black Scientists, Engineer and Technologists and served as its first National Secretary for a period of two years during which time he facilitated the input into the development of Science and Technology white and green papers, the development of mentorship programs of young scientists and the transformation of parastatals and university institutions.
Dr Carolissen has also been involved in various governmental task teams and commissions on trade and science and technology policy and accompanied several bi-national delegations on the African and European continents. He served on the National Science and Technology Forum for a period of two years, immediately post 1994, during which time he made, inter alia, significant contributions to the Foresight study. He previously was appointed by Prof. Kader Asmal to serve as a commissioner on the South African Chapter of UNESCO.
Dr Carolissen has been an active member of the Wits University Council from 2008 and served in various capacities on its sub-committees.
BIO OF DR BRIAN BRUCE
Dr Brian Bruce, PrEng, BSc Eng (Civil) DEng (hc), Hon FSAICE served as the Group Chief Executive Officer of Murray & Roberts Holdings Limited from 2000 until 2011. Bruce also serves as Chairman and Managing Director of Murray & Roberts Limited, operating company of Murray & Roberts Holdings Limited. He was first joined Murray & Roberts Holdings Limited in 1967. He serves as chairman of the University of the Witwatersrand engineering & the built environment faculty advisory board and is a member of the same faculty's advisory board at the University of Cape Town.
He serves as Chairperson of the Construction Industry Development Board. Dr Bruce served as an Executive Director of Murray & Roberts Holdings Limited since 2000. He served as a Non-Executive Director of Clough Ltd. from November 2004 to June 2011. He served as Non-Executive Director of Unitrans Ltd. since July 2000. Dr Bruce’s business philosophy derives from his interest in history and philosophy combined with his engineering and management training and experience. Dr Bruce built his career through the strategic and project management of a range of world class contracting projects.
He is a Director of the National Business Initiative in South Africa and a member of the Construction and Engineering Board of Governors at the World Economic Forum. As former chairperson of South Africa’s CIDB and President of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering since 1994, he is also an active participant in the development of the strategic future of the regional construction and engineering sector. He holds a PrEngy BSC Eng (Civil) Ding (hccs).
Dr Bruce has been an active member of the Wits University Council from 2007 and served in various capacities on its sub-committees.
ENDS
Statement from Wits on the passing of Professor Ismail Mohamed
- By Wits University
The University of the Witwatersrand extends its deepest sympathies to the family, friends, colleagues and loved ones of the late Professor Ismail Mohamed, who passed away at the age of 82, on Saturday, 6 July 2013, following a protracted period of illness.
A memorial service will be held in his honour (details to be confirmed) and his funeral will take place on Saturday at St Anthony Catholic Church in Coronationville.
Professor Ismail Mohamed served as a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Wits in the 1970s and 1980s, after joining Wits from the University of Roma in Lesotho. He was detained on a number of occasions by the security forces during this period. He served as a member of the first democratically elected parliament in the new government after 1994, and as an ANC parliamentary representative for over two terms.
The Vice-President of the Transvaal branch of the United Democratic Front (UDF), Professor Mohamed campaigned fiercely against the Tricameral Parliament and was vociferously outspoken on human rights violations and the need for the UDF to campaign for democracy. In 1985 he was charged firstly, as part of a group of 16 in what was known as the Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial, and then later in the year as one of the accused in the Delmas Treason Trial.
Professor Mohamed made an important contribution to the University, to the struggle against apartheid, and to the freedom of our country – a freedom which would not have been possible without his steadfast commitment and activism.
We offer our deepest condolences to Professor Mohamed’s wife Ellen, his five children and many grandchildren during this difficult time.
Prof. Adam Habib
Vice-Chancellor and Principal
University of the Witwatersrand
Wits leads SA to supercomputing win
- By Wits University
Four Wits students were part of the team who made their country proud when they who won an international supercomputing competition, beating teams from the US, Germany, Costa Rica and China.
The core of the South African team were three third year students from Electrical Engineering – Kerren Ortlepp, Jan-Willem Steeb and Ryan Strange — and a Computer Science third year, Mohamed Atif.
The team triumphed at the HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Challenge which took place in Germany over three days from 17 to 19 June 2013. This is the first time South Africa has entered the Challenge which is now in its second year.
The competition features small teams that compete to demonstrate the incredible capabilities of state-of- the-art high-performance cluster hardware and software. The teams have to build a small cluster (like a mini-supercomputer) of their own design on the exhibit floor of the ISC (International Supercomputing Conference) and race to demonstrate the greatest performance across a series of benchmarks and applications. It’s designed to introduce the next generation of students to the high performance computing world and community.
The students were entered for the competition after the three Electrical Engineering students, together with a student from North West University, won a local challenge organised by the CHPC (Centre for High Performance Computing) which provides supercomputing facilities to South African universities.
Dr Renier Dreyer, Wits lecturer and CEO of CrunchYard which is a supercomputer hosted by Wits, helped the Wits students prepare for the competition. He said they worked through the night in Germany, configuring their design for a cluster to take a title which they initially thought they had no chance of winning.
According to Dreyer: “South Africans have this inferiority complex for some reason, but when you do go and measure yourself against the rest of the world, you find that you’re not bad and in fact you might be better.”
The School of Economic and Business Sciences and the School of Accountancy at Wits recently held separate functions to recognise top academic performers and those who have demonstrated an extra-ordinary will in overcoming scholastic difficulties.
Prizes worth over R218 000 were awarded to students from the schools by industry sponsors and private donors who are keen on investing in top talent and human capital.
A memorable occasion of first and lasts
Bongukwanda Twala, Steven Hurwitz and Bradley Gordon almost stole the show as repeat awardees at the School of Accountancy’s prize-giving, collecting at least 14 awards among themselves.
The awards celebrating 2012’s top performers in the School were held on 30 May 2013 at Sturrock Park, at an event filled with many highlights. Apart from recognising students who had distinguished themselves through scoring top marks in courses offered by the School, the event was in many ways a celebration of the School’s history and contribution to industry, monumentalising a stalwart whilst bidding farewell to another guardian.
Awards
Parents and industry representatives were among the special guests as the School awarded over 40 prizes to illustrious students. Prizes were sponsored by audit firms Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton, KMPG, Lexis Nexis, PriceWaterHouseCoopers, Investec, BDO, SAIPA, Institute for Internal Auditors, SAICA, Abram-Liily Schlosberg, Walter Davis; and Wimble, Cairns and Taylor.
Twala, who obtained the highest mark in the third year class, emerged as the most distinguished third year Bachelor of Accounting science graduate collecting five awards. His performance is consistent with the previous year where he collected several prizes much to the delight of his grandparents.
Hurwitz was rewarded as the best honours student specialising in Financial Accounting and collected three awards.
Gordon, who achieved the highest mark in the fourth year of study, polished the walkway six times to collect his prizes.
Gary Swartz, associate professor in the School, received the KPMG Tom Grieve leadership awarded to candidates who best possess the values embodied in the Constitution of the country and reflects the audit firm’s core values.
Click for a list of prize and award recipients.
Celebrating first and lasts
Friday, 31 May 2013 marked the last day of Prof. Loyiso Nongxa’s term as the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University. Prof. Nirupa Padia, the new Head of the School of Accountancy, had the task of bidding farewell to a custodian who has guided the School out of its challenging period in the mid 2000s. This was among several of the final events for Nongxa on the day, the last being the official farewell dinner in the evening.
In line with recognising commitment to excellence, Auditorium 101 in the FNB Building, the home of Wits bean counters, will henceforth be known as the Margaret Steele Auditorium. Steele led the School from 1987-1995 and holds the record as the first woman to lead a school of accountancy in the higher educator sector.
In her acceptance speech Steele offered key words which could serve as a useful reminder to the troubled education system in the country.
Education leaders have been accused of focusing on numbers and output at the expense of quality. Without any direct reference to the turbulence in basic education, Steele said that the performance of a teacher is not determined by the number of students who are successful in an examination but rather by the quality of the students.
“Beware of a teacher who coaches a student to pass an examination or drops the standards to increase the pass rate,” she cautioned.
The fundamental aspiration of teaching is to ignite that spark which motivates students to that ‘Aha’ moment. That moment when they (the student) become a learner and a seeker of knowledge, she said.
She further shed light on her reading habits as an elder maintaining that the business section of the paper remains her favourite read as she is able to keep track of Wits graduates and takes pride in having taught and mentored captains of industry.
Others in the audience might have been unaware of the gravitas this gathering and morning in Wits’ history – Padia, the first woman of colour to be head the accounting in South Africa; Steele who inspired many women into the profession with her impeccable record; and Nongxa, a former herd boy from the rural Transkei who went on to acquire an Oxford PhD in mathematics, and become the first black Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University.
School of Economic and Business Sciences Achievements
The total monetary value of the prizes awarded at the School of Economic and Business Sciences (SEBS) prize-giving was R142 800. The ceremony was held on 24 May 2013 at Sturrock Park. The School also used the function to showcase its research achievements.
Research output from SEBS more than doubled between 2011 and 2012. Top researchers included Prof. David Coldwell, who established the Strategic Foresight Research Group, a cross-school initiative that includes international collaborators such as Dr Chimwemwe Chipeta, senior lecturer in Finance, Chris Callaghan, lecturer in Human Resources Management, and Douglas Mbululu, lecturer in Finance. Download the May newsletter. Cilck to view the prize-winners.
SEBS prize sponsors: Accenture, Anthony Lumby Memorial, Arnold Dagut Trust, Bubele Mahanjana, Business Systems Group (Africa), Economic Research Southern Africa, Genesis-Analytics Company, Gentron, HSBC Africa, Hollard Insurance, JSE LTD, KPMG I.T. Advisory, McKinsey & Company, Marsh Africa and SASFIN Securities.
Wits innovation features in mining mag
- By Wits University
An article written by Professor Sunny Iyuke and Craig Sheridan about a newly developed membrane used to separate water from waste has been published in one of the leading guides to the mining industry in Southern Africa, Mining Prospectus.
Clean and safe drinking water has become one of the most pressing problems for modern society with pollution being a serious threat.
The new membrane - which was developed by a team of researchers from Wits University, in collaboration with NASA - could become key in the treatment of a range of pollutants and the article explores its potential uses in combatting acid mine drainage.
Five Drawing Lessons by William Kentridge
- By Wits University
Internationally acclaimed South African artist William Kentridge will be presenting five public lectures at Wits Theatre in Johannesburg, hosted by the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (JWTC) at Wits University. Kentridge first presented the lectures as Six Drawing Lessons at Harvard University in 2012, as part of the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry. Wits University is pleased to be able to host the lecture series in Johannesburg for a general public. The lectures, and one public Question and Answer session with the artist, are free and open to the public, but bookings for each lecture are essential.
In introducing the Lessons at Harvard, Professor Homi Bhabha remarked, ‘Nothing is impossible in the company of William Kentridge: Plato, Mozart, Saartjie Baartman, Gauguin, Picasso, Shostakovich, and Muafangejo will rub noses in the most unexpected ways. Vienna 1791, Berlin 1884, Nyassaland 1915, Congo 1936, Johannesburg 2011, Cambridge 2012 will map a global geopolitical itinerary as territoriality bleeds into a formal aesthetic inventory.’ In Kentridge’s inimitable mode, the Lessons will move from image to word, from artistic practice to philosophical reflection, and back, reviewing the deepest ideas of his work and method over the past 30 years. These extraordinary lectures scale back and forth between classical philosophical ideas, the history of images, the practice of studio-work, the history of the colonial world and the life of Johannesburg. All made sense of through reference to particular works of the artist from across his auspicious career. Five Drawing Lessons promises to be a magical journey through the art and mind of one of our most important artists.
Lesson One: In Praise of Shadows, Thurs 20 June, 6.30pm
Lesson Two: A Brief History of Colonial Revolts, Sun 23 June, 4pm
Lesson Three: Vertical Thinking: A Johannesburg Biography, Sun 30 June, 11am
Lesson Four: Practical Epistemology: Life in the Studio, Sun 30 June, 2pm
Question and Answer with the Artist, Tues 2 July, 5.30pm
Lesson Five: In Praise of Mistranslation, Tues 2 July, 6.30pm
Venue: Wits Theatre, 25 Station Street, Braamfontein.
Parking available in Senate House Basement 2 and Station Road Entrance.
Five Drawing Lessons by William Kentridge are part of the JWTC 2013 Session on “The Life of Forms”, and form part of a broader 10-day programme of public lectures, round-tables, panels and exhibitions to which the public is warmly invited. A full programme of all events can be found at http://jwtc.org.za/the_workshop/programme_2013/full_programme.htm. All events are open to the public on a first-come-first-seated basis.
Rare and historical material belonging to prominent political figure Ronnie Kasrils, gathered during the liberation struggle and the transition to a democratic South Africa, has now found a home at Wits University’s Historical Papers Research Archive, along with other material of national significance.
To celebrate the depositing of the Ronnie Kasrils Archive, the University hosted a seminar to launch the archive on 20 June 2013 at the Wits Club, West Campus.
Kasrils was a member of the AfricanNational Congress (ANC), Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and secretary of the Congress of Democrats in the early 1960s. He was involved in MK military operations, and served as Deputy Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999. Kasrils was also appointed Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry from 1999 to 2004; and Minister of Intelligence Services from 2004 to 2008.
Opening the function, the new Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University, Prof. Adam Habib said the handover of the archive and the seminar reflecting on the state of South Africa, occurs at a key moment in the country.
Habib said that the ill health of former president Nelson Mandela has “provoked a soul searching of who we are, where we come from and where are we going.”
Kasril’s archive and particularly his book the Armed Struggle, both speak about our pasts and our future, said Habib.
While he commended Kasrils’ acknowledgment that serious mistakes were made in the negotiations of a democratic South Africa, Habib set the tone for robust discussion with his question to Kasrils about the extent to which he engages with the question of why the mistakes occured and how they be can be avoided in the future.
The 'Born frees'; Mandela's leadership; the armed struggle; political freedom without economic freedom; and pervasive silence in the current South Africa were among the issues Kasrils discussed with the guests at the launch.
Synchrotron imaging reveals odd couple - 250 million years ago, a mammal forerunner and an amphibian shared a burrow
Scientists from South Africa, Australia and France have discovered a world first association while scanning a 250 million year old fossilised burrow from the Karoo Basin of South Africa.
The burrow revealed two unrelated vertebrate animals nestled together and fossilised after being trapped by a flash flood event. Facing harsh climatic conditions subsequent to the Permo-Triassic (P-T) mass extinction, the amphibian Broomistega and the mammal forerunner Thrinaxodon cohabited in a burrow.
Scanning shows that the amphibian, which was suffering from broken ribs, crawled into a sleeping mammal’s shelter for protection. This research suggests that short periods of dormancy, called aestivation, in addition to burrowing behaviour, may have been a crucial adaptation that allowed mammal ancestors to survive the P-T extinction.
The results of this research resulted in a paper entitled Synchrotron reveals Early Triassic odd couple: injured amphibian and aestivating therapsid share burrow and which is published in the scientific journal, PLoS ONE, on Friday, 21 June 2013 at 23:00 SA Standard Time.
The international team of scientists was led by Dr Vincent Fernandez from Wits University, South Africa and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France. The other authors from Wits University include Prof. Bruce Rubidge (Director of the newly formed Palaeosciences Centre of Excellence at Wits), Dr Fernando Abdala and Dr Kristian Carlson. Other authors include Dr Della Collins Cook (Indiana University); Dr Adam Yates (Museum of Central Australia) and Dr. Paul Tafforeau (ESRF).
After many impressive results obtained on fossils, synchrotron imaging has led to revived interest in the studies of the numerous fossilised burrows discovered in the Karoo Basin of South Africa and dated to 250 million years ago. The first attempt to investigate one of these burrow-casts surprisingly revealed a world-first association of two unrelated animals.
The fossil was recovered from sedimentary rock strata in the Karoo Basin. It dates from 250 million years ago, at the beginning of the Triassic Period. At that time, the ecosystem was recovering from the Permo-Triassic mass extinction that wiped out most of life on Earth. In the Pangea Supercontinent context, what is now South Africa was an enclave in the southern half called Gondwana. It was the scene of pronounced climatic warming and increased seasonality marked by monsoonal rainfall. To survive this harsh environment, many animals, including mammal-like reptiles (mammal forerunners), developed a digging behaviour, attested by the numerous fossilised burrow casts discovered in the Karoo Basin. These casts have long been thought to enclose fossilised remains, triggering interest from palaeontologists. Early this year, an international group of scientists started to research the contents of these burrows using X-ray synchrotron computed microtomography.
Two burrow casts were selected from the collection at Wits to be scanned using the state-of-the-art facility at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Using the unique properties of the X-ray beam which enables non-destructive probing, the scan of the first burrow started to reveal the skull of a mammal-like reptile called Thrinaxodon, an animal previously reported in another burrow.
As the scan progressed, the three-dimensional reconstruction displayed results beyond expectations: the mammal-like reptile was accompanied by an amphibian Broomistega, belonging to the extinct group of Temnospondyl.
“While discovering the results we were amazed by the quality of the images”, says lead author Fernandez, “but the real excitement came when we discovered a second set of teeth completely different from that of the mammal-like reptile. It was really something else”.
Besides the pristine preservation of the two skeletons, the team focused on the reasons explaining such an unusual co-habitation. Fernandez explains: “Burrow-sharing by different species exists in the modern world, but it corresponds to a specific pattern. For example, a small visitor is not going to disturb the host. A large visitor can be accepted by the host if it provides some help, like predator vigilance. But neither of these patterns corresponds to what we have discovered in this fossilised burrow”.
The scientists gathered all the information to try to reconstitute the events that led to this incredible fossil aggregation, testing scenarios one after another. "It’s a fascinating scientific question: what caused the association of these two organisms in the burrow? One of the more obvious possibilities is a predator-prey interaction, but we inspected both skeletons looking for tooth marks or other evidence implying predation, ultimately finding no support for one having attempted to feed on the other,” says Carlson.
His colleague, Cook, adds that the consecutive broken ribs resulted from a single, massive trauma. The amphibian clearly survived the injury for some time because the fractures were healing, but it was surely quite handicapped. According to Fernandez this Broomistega is the first complete skeleton of this rare species that has been discovered. “It tells us that this individual was a juvenile and mostly aquatic at that time of its life,” he says.
The scientists eventually concluded that the amphibian crawled into the burrow in response to its poor physical condition but was not evicted by the mammal-like reptile.
Numerous Thrinaxodon specimens have been found in South Africa, many of them fossilised in a curled-up position. Abdala says: “I have always been fascinated by the preservation of Thrinaxodon fossils in a curled-up position that show even tiny bones of the skeleton preserved. It’s as if they were peacefully resting in shelters at the time of death”.
The shelters prevented disturbance of the skeletal remains from scavengers and weathering. “We also think it might reflect a state of torpor called aestivation in response to aridity and absence of food resources,” Abdala says.
Piecing all the clues together, the team finally elucidated the enigmatic association, concluding that “the mammal-like reptile, Thrinaxodon, was most probably aestivating in its burrow, a key adaptation response together with a burrowing behaviour which enabled our distant ancestors to survive the most dramatic mass extinction event. This state of torpor explains why the amphibian was not chased out of the burrow,” says Rubidge.
Both animals were finally entrapped in the burrow by a sudden flood and preserved together in the sediments for 250 million years.
Tafforeau says: “Thanks to the unique possibilities for high quality imaging of fossils developed during the last decade at the ESRF, these unique specimens remain untouched, protected by their mineral matrix. Who knows what kind of information we’ll be able to obtain from them in the future and which would have been completely lost if the specimen had been prepared out of its burrow cast?”
TO INTERVIEW WITS RESEARCHERS:
Dr Vincent Fernandez European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France Evolutionary Studies Institute, Wits University Tel: 33 4 76 88 28 56 or 33 6 95 57 68 96 Email: vincent.fernandez@esrf.fr
Dr Kristian Carlson Evolutionary Studies Institute, Wits University Tel 27 (0) 11 717 6681 or 27 (0) 73 666 0106 Email: Kristian.Carlson@wits.ac.za
Prof. Bruce Rubidge Director for the Centre for Excellence in Palaeosciences as well as the Evolutionary Studies Institute, Wits University Tel 27 (0) 11 717 6685 or 27 (0) 72 575 7752 Email: Bruce.Rubidge@wits.ac.za
Most species at greatest risk from climate change are not currently conservation priorities, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) study that has introduced a pioneering method to assess the vulnerability of species to climate change.
The paper, published in the journal PLOS ONE, is one of the biggest studies of its kind, assessing all of the world’s birds, amphibians and corals. It draws on the work of more than 100 scientists over a period of five years, including Wits PhD student and leader of the study, Wendy Foden.
Up to 83% of birds, 66% of amphibians and 70% of corals that were identified as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are not currently considered threatened with extinction on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They are therefore unlikely to be receiving focused conservation attention, according to the study.
“The findings revealed some alarming surprises,” says Foden, who conducted the study while formerly working for the IUCN Global Species Programme. “We hadn’t expected that so many species and areas that were not previously considered to be of concern would emerge as highly vulnerable to climate change. Clearly, if we simply carry on with conservation as usual, without taking climate change into account, we’ll fail to help many of the species and areas that need it most.”
Up to nine percent of all birds, 15% of all amphibians and nine percent of all corals that were found to be highly vulnerable to climate change are already threatened with extinction. These species are threatened by unsustainable logging and agricultural expansion but also need urgent conservation action in the face of climate change, according to the authors.
The study’s novel approach looks at the unique biological and ecological characteristics that make species more or less sensitive or adaptable to climate change. Conventional methods have focussed largely on measuring the amount of change to which species are likely to be exposed. IUCN will use the approach and results to ensure The IUCN Red List continues to provide the best possible assessments of extinction risk, including due to climate change.
“This is a leap forward for conservation,” says Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Director, IUCN Global Species Programme and a co-author of the study. “As well as having a far clearer picture of which birds, amphibians and corals are most at risk from climate change, we now also know the biological characteristics that create their climate change ‘weak points’. This gives us an enormous advantage in meeting their conservation needs.”
The study also presents the first global-scale maps of vulnerability to climate change for the assessed species groups. It shows that the Amazon hosts the highest concentrations of the birds and amphibians that are most vulnerable to climate change, and the Coral Triangle of the central Indo-west Pacific contains the majority of climate change vulnerable corals.
“Looking into the future is always an uncertain business, so we need a variety of methods to assess the risks we face,” says Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission and one of the study’s authors. “This new method perfectly complements the more conventional ones used to date. Where various methods give the same frightening results, then we really need to pay attention and take steps to avoid them.”
The new approach has already been applied to the species-rich Albertine Rift region of Central and East Africa, identifying those plants and animals that are important for human use and are most likely to decline due to climate change. These include 33 plants that are used as fuel, construction materials, food and medicine, 19 species of freshwater fish that are an important source of food and income and 24 mammals used primarily as a source of food.
“The study has shown that people in the region rely heavily on wild species for their livelihoods, and that this will undoubtedly be disrupted by climate change,” says Jamie Carr of IUCN Global Species Programme and lead author of the Albertine Rift study. “This is particularly important for the poorest and most marginalised communities who rely most directly on wild species to meet their basic needs.”
Climate Change in Southern Africa: What to expect and what to do
- By Wits University
The Earth's climate has evolved through geological eras, and has actually fluctuated significantly at times. Some 20 000 years ago, the planet was experiencing an Ice Age, when vast tracts of land at mid- to high-latitudes, especially but not only in the Northern Hemisphere, were covered by layers of ice, sometimes more than a kilometre thick. It subsequently took thousands of years to warm the planet and much of human history has developed during the ensuing, relatively mild, interglacial period.
Over the last few centuries, human populations have increased drastically (resulting, for example, in significant deforestation), and economic development has become largely reliant on the availability of fossil fuels (coal, petroleum products, gas) as sources of energy.
In fact, the rate of consumption of these fuels has been so rapid that the composition of the atmosphere has been significantly modified by the exhausts: it now contains some 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide (one of the key by-products of combustion), whereas the pre-industrial atmosphere contained only about 280 parts per million. This gas is invisible, odourless and non-toxic, but it acts like a blanket for the planet. Such a drastic increase in concentration implies a progressive warming of the surface of the planet, which is already measurable nowadays.
What distinguishes today's climate warming from past fluctuations is the speed at which the change is occurring. The current rate of change in the mean temperature of the Earth is unprecedented in at least the last 100 000 years. And not only is the climate becoming progressively warmer, it is also getting more variable, with more extreme conditions becoming more frequent than previously.
Changes are now happening at such a fast rate that plants, animals, and perhaps even human civilisations can't possibly adapt to this evolution fast enough to survive.
While the fundamental processes at work have been known by the scientific community for over a century, this issue has emerged as a central concern within political circles and in popular consciousness only within the past few decades.
Despite the urgency of the problem, insufficient progress has been achieved, whether in terms of mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit future impacts) or adaptation (taking immediate action to prepare for inevitable changes and their implied consequences).
On Monday, 10 June 2013, the Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute (GCSRI) at Wits University hosted Michel Verstraete from the European Commission Joint Research Centre and Dr Rob Varley from the UK Met Office for lectures on Climate Change in Southern Africa: What to expect and what to do. They were joined for a panel discussion by Dr Daniel Irurah from the School of Architecture and Planning, and Professor Eric Worby from the School of Social Sciences. The discussion was chaired by Mary Scholes from the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Science.
While many of the students receive financial aid from the government through its National Student Financial Aid Scheme, many more deserving students are unable to access this support and battle to pay for their tuition fees, let alone afford additional resources such as books, photocopies, toiletries and adequate accommodation necessary to ensure academic success.
The Division of Student Affairs in association with Hofmeyer House are hosting a 'warm winter lunch' to collect dry groceries and toiletries in order to assist less fortunate students on campus. It takes place on Friday, 7 June at 12:30 to 14:30.
Menu and RSVP details:
Top speakers for education conference
- By Wits University
Local and international experts and differently-abled self advocates of inclusive education to participate in a conference hosted by the UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education for Diversity and Development at Wits in associtaion with the Southern African Association for Learning & Educational Differences (SAALED).
Advocate for inclusive education as a foundation platform for broader social inclusion and the development of an inclusive democracy, Prof. Linda Graham will deliver a keynote address entitled Don’t mention the (inclusion) war! Policy-orientated research as intellectual activism at the research symposium, which forms the first part of the Inclusive Education conference taking place from 1-6 July 2013. She is a Principal Research Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology.
Sharing practical strategies with teachers, therapists and parents are:
Richard Rieser, the managing director of World of Inclusion Ltd and an international equality trainer, consultant, teacher and UK representative at the United Nations and European Disability Forum. He is currently working on a teacher training project with UNICEF. View his full CV.
Luan Swanepoel, a 24-year-old South African young man living with Down’s syndrome and a self-advocate will lead one of the break-away session on enabling inclusive education and removing barriers to learning.
Kiki Messiou is from the University of Southampton and her research interests are in the area of inclusive education and, in particular, in exploring children’s and young people’s voices to understand notions of marginalisation and develop inclusive practices in schools.
Dr Loretta Giorcelli works extensively as a specialist consultant with schools as well as with government, NGOs, private agencies and parent groups and with parents as an advisor, keynote speaker, staff developer and long-range planner. She is well known to SAALED members who, over many years have benefitted from her vast knowledge and expertise and her selfless service in support of Southern African efforts to promote inclusive education.
Frances Browne currently works to support 56 schools P-12 in rural communities in Australia in the area of Pastoral Wellbeing. Her focus is on working with schools to build shared understandings of wellbeing and implement systems and practices to establish ‘well’ environments which support the academic and social achievement of all students. Much of her present work is focused on supporting schools to implement school-wide positive behaviour intervention and support (PBIS).
After a decade leading Wits, the institution bids farewell to Prof. Loyiso Nongxa, Vice-Chancellor and Principal during a farewell dinner in his honour hosted on Friday, 31 May 2013.
To read a special tribute to him, click
Parents' understanding of teen suicide
- By Palesa Radebe
Elliot Masemola, a Master’s student at the University of South Africa is one of the many psychology students who attended the Southern African Students’ Psychology Conference at Wits University.
He presented a paper entitled Exploring parents’ perception of teenage depression inspired by the work that he did at the South African Depression and Anxiety Group.
His term with the support group exposed him to the high levels of teenage suicide which he says is associated with depression especially in young people, urging him to find out more.
Masemola explains that despite the rising levels of depression among teenagers and the associated dangers, there has not been enough research to understand parents’ perception of teenage depression.
For his pilot study he interviewed parents from Daveyton township in the east of Johannesburg.
His preliminary findings show that parents perceive and explain depression as an illness that exerts pressure and disturbs the normal functioning of the teenager.
Most importantly, parents believe that prayer and social support are regarded as treatment while death is attributed to life stresses and bewitchment by others.
Masemola intends conducting a bigger study, however, he says that early findings show that it is important to develop a culturally specific understanding of teenage depressions in order to render relevant intervention programmes.
In the health calendar, July is mental illness awareness month.
With regards to the value of the conference, he commented that:
“There not many conferences in South Africa that specifically cater for students, (and it contributes to the) development for young scholars.”
According to Masemola, the conference was of high quality and exposed attendants to research issues that they would only encounter at masters level of study.
Formulating a researchable question and selecting the appropriate research design are some of the challenges that confront students and researchers; and to this Masemola advises students to choose a research topic on an issue that they enjoy in order to avoid frustration and getting bored in the middle of research.
Moving forward, Masemola said that the conference will shape how he will progresses with his research and his research methods. “I see how other students are presenting, what methods they are using. This definitely has an influence on how I view my research.”
The Southern African Students’ Psychology conference was held for the third year this year from 24 – 28 June and drew over 650 delegates. Themed Psychology (in) Action, this was the largest student conference for students organised by students in order to expose peers to a wide range of knowledge relating to theory and practice in psychology.
Andrew Crouch, new Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic
- By Erna van Wyk
There is more to varsity life than graduating. The graduateness of today’s students and the overall experiences and insights they gain while studying is what gives these future leaders the tools to take on life’s challenges.
This is where Professor Andrew Crouch, the new Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic, wants his office to play a bigger role in. Not only in looking after the academic offering at Wits, but also at what he calls the “third curriculum” - the overall experience that students get once they are at university.
Crouch officially took office on 1 May 2013 and his office on the 11th Floor in Senate House is down the corridor from that of the new Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Adam Habib. It’s a new era in Wits Management and the Senior Executive Team of the University. And a new challenge for Crouch, the former Dean of Science.
“It is a very important job, or calling, especially in the current education landscape of tertiary education management where we have seen the last couple of years certainly a breakdown in management in various institutions in the country,” Crouch says. “That has had an adverse impact on the institutions and on how they are run, some even being put under administration by the Department of Higher Education. Thus, from the view of broader institutional management, I think the Academic portfolio is a very important one to management, as it speaks to the academic ethos and principals of institutions.”
The Office of the DVC: Academic looks after the academic programme of the University and setting the trend for where the institution is going too in the next couple of years in terms of its academic offering. Crouch says for him it also speaks to the academic philosophy of how under- and postgraduate students are approached both in terms of the curricula they are exposed too and taught, as well as to how students are generally treated once they are inside the University.
“I would like to look at a close interaction between our enrolment, our academic development, the shape and size of our institution and also our graduateness, not only in terms of what and how students are taught academically – of their experiences in class, but also the other experiences such as how they are interacting with people from diverse backgrounds, societies and thinking to enrich the way they look at the world,” he says. “By the end of their time at Wits, students should also have had the experience of interacting with their classmates, their fellow residents, the people in the local waterhole – so that they can be enriched by their interactions with the cultural, sport and club activities on campus.”
He wants his office to play a leading role in driving Wits’ enrolment policy, aligning it with the vision of the University as well as national objectives. “As a matter of urgency I’m looking at establishing an Enrolment Unit, which is in our Teaching and Learning Plan, to not only see that we enrol students, but also to track them once they are at Wits to see what happens to them.”
Crouch plans to use the resources – whether funds or expertise - that were used in the now defunct Foundation Programme, to be ploughed into developing the necessary academic support for first year students that will lead to better through-put rates and successful graduation of students which is now a national imperative. “Attrition in graduates is a national problem in South Africa, and it’s a bleed on taxpayers’ money. This is something we at Wits should take the lead in addressing, because we are in the heartland of Africa’s economic engine,” says Crouch.
He says the good work being done in Engineering and Health Sciences should be learned from and further improved in other schools and faculties to build a structured approach to academic development. He also wants Wits to learn about academic development from the best institutions in the world and adapt it to local conditions.
Wits offers excellent programmes and is known for its quality of undergraduates. However, to support the ambitions of becoming a research intensive university, Crouch says, Wits has to further strengthen those programmes so that there is a base from which to draw on for postgraduate students that are stronger and more excellent. With the other two new universities being established in South Africa, Wits has decided to focus on research and the production of postgraduate students; in honours, masters and PhDs.
“But we also believe that as an institution we need to focus on our strengths in undergraduate degrees, focussing primarily on science, engineering and technology environment. A realistic goal for us is to have a 60% under- and 40% postgraduate student component. And of the 60% undergraduates, half would be in the Science, Engineering and Technology as well as Health Sciences environment, whilst the other half is distributed between Business, Law, Commerce and Humanities.
“Situated in the economic heartland of Africa, Wits speaks to the national imperatives of providing scares skills and are ideally positioned and have the strengths to do that,” says Crouch.
