Wits student selected for prestigious Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany
- Wits University
Wits PhD student Funeka Nkosi, is among five young SA scientists nominated to participate in the 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany.
Nkosi was nominated by Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSA). The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings foster an exchange of knowledge between the Lindau Laureates and talented young scientists of different discipline. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have been held annually in Germany since 1951.
Nkosi will join 400 other young scientists under-35-years from 76 countries conducting research in the field of chemistry.
ASSAf as the official partner of the Lindau Foundation and with funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) annually nominate young scientists to attend the meetings which are designed as a forum for exchange, networking and inspiration.
This year, the meeting will take place from 25 – 30 June 2017 with a total of 31 laureates expected to partake.
Nkosi’s PhD research, sponsored by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, focuses on improving the performance of lithium-ion batteries (Lithium-ion batteries are batteries found in cellphones, laptops and cameras), to make them last a bit longer.
She is looking forward to meet Nobel Laureates in Chemistry and to expand her research networks for potential collaborations.
“I am really excited and it’s a dream come true. I just cannot wait to attend the meeting,” enthuses Nkosi.
“I hope my participation in this meeting will result in the development of meaningful research networks that will also foster collaborations in integrated science research. These collaborations will also contribute to the advancement of my research and ultimately help in building partnerships and relationships with international scientists. Attending this meeting will therefore allow me a rare opportunity to be part of a scientific community of high calibre scientists for which it is guaranteed that this will help me grow as a young emerging researcher and scientists,” she says.
The proportion of women among the selected young scientists is 45 percent. “For the field of chemistry, that is a substantial number”, says Wolfgang Lubitz, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Vice-President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and Scientific Co-chairperson of this year’s meeting.
ASSAf Executive Officer, Prof. Roseanne Diab, also welcomed the increased number of women participants. “ASSAf is committed to promoting women in science activities and highlighting the importance of applying a gender lens in activities that it undertakes. The Lindau Nobel Laureate programme presents a unique opportunity for young women to meet and interact with Nobel Laureates,” she says.
Professor Helen Rees chairs Republic of South Sudan’s National Health Summit
- Wits Communications
Wits Professor Helen Rees chaired the third National Health Summit hosted by the Ministry of Health of South Sudan.
Rees is Founder and Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) and Chairperson of the WHO'S Africa Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group.
More than 500 delegates attended the third National Health Summit. Delegates included representatives from donor agencies, international and national non-governmental organisations, the private sector, academia, and civil society. The theme of the Summit was "Harnessing strong partnerships for a resilient health system towards attainment of Universal Health Coverage."
The Summit fostered a broad range of fervent discussions on numerous key health topics for South Sudan, including financing, human resources, communicable and non-communicable diseases, humanitarian responses, pharmaceutical policies, maternal and child health, immunization, reproductive health and partnerships.
“This Summit opened everyone’s eyes to the many complex interwoven challenges of building an effective health system in South Sudan,” said Rees. “Dialogues were very open, and at times heated, I think because everyone who participated cares about the health and well-being of the people of South Sudan. Now is the time to turn the talk into actions, and I believe we have set a clear path forward as laid out in the Summit’s Declaration and position papers.”
This popular annual exhibition, presented by the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (AP&ES ) in the Faculty of Science at Wits, features live animals and plants, assorted goggas and creepy-crawlies, and related talks and demonstrations.
This year’s exhibition marked 100 years of biology research and teaching in AP&ES. Hundreds of students and Joburgers braved inclement weather to visit the exhibition in the Oppenheimer Life Sciences Centre.
Visitors witnessed an impromptu brawl between two male dung beetles over a dung ball, while other insect- Olympics included a cockroach race. AP&ES exhibitor-partners SaveMe Rescue explained how to care for pets – even those of the slithery kind!
Entomophagy (edible insect) was on the menu, with Donald McCallum of the C.E. Moss Herbarium bringing gastronomy to the table. Adventurers Steve and Karin Spottiswoode shared their experience of picnicking on Mount Kilimanjaro.
Professor Glynis Goodman-Cron shared the myths, mysteries and uses of the legendary Baobab tree and Wits MSc student, Robin Cook shared his research on the use of African honeybees as a method to protect Marula trees from elephants.
Ella and John Roberts, SANParks honorary rangers, shared their experience of camping on Malgas and Jutten Island to protect seabirds during the breeding season, while the Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Centre introduced Sagira, a hand-reared Egyptian vulture.
It is rocket science
- Wits University
His plan to mine asteroids secures big win for alumnus Jonathan Lun.
His win is a big deal. Lun will be spending two months at SingularityU’s campus at the NASA Research Park in Mountain View, California, US, on a full sponsorship to attend the transformational Global Solutions Program where he will get the mindset, tools, and network to help create moonshot innovations that will positively transform the future of humanity.
Moonshot innovations
According to SingularityU’s website, the definition of a moonshot innovations is somewhere between bold thinking and science fiction: “Moonshot thinking involves taking aim at a global challenge, ideating radical solutions that can otherwise seem like the stuff of science fiction, and then leveraging some initial validation or tangible breakthrough that could make the solution achievable in the not-too-distant future.”
Lun is a senior engineer at Denel Spaceteq and holds PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Wits University. According to tech blog, htxt.africa, Lun is one of just a handful of people globally working on a revolutionary propulsion system that could lead to humankind’s ability to mine asteroids in the future.
Extract from htxt.africa
Asteroid mining is a perennial topic that comes up in sci-fi stories and think-tank papers as a way of improving access to raw metals for Earth-bound industries. Some believe that as mines run dry on Earth, they could be the only source of some materials in the future. A single 300m long asteroid, Lun says, could yield enough iron to keep South Africa’s metalworkers going for a year. One 30m long asteroid is believed to hold $50bn of platinum.
One challenge that has to be overcome before asteroid mining is remotely feasible, however, is getting mined materials back to Earth – and in particular, fuelling rockets for the return journey. A rocket loaded up with enough fuel for both outward and inward legs of the journey would probably be too heavy to take off in the first place, or at least prohibitively expensive no matter what value of metals it returned.
And this is where Lun comes in. He’s published papers looking at the feasibility of a “vacuum arc thruster” for powering a mining craft. Vacuum arc thrusters create thrust via plasma jets by pulsing electricity between two electrodes (an anode and a cathode), and burn up the cathode as fuel.
Lun’s theory is that if a vacuum arc thruster can be built that’s big enough, a mining vessel could propel itself back to Earth by burning up some of the metal’s it’s extracted as that cathode.
And it’s very much a theory right now. While Lun has built tiny prototypes to show how existing models of vacuum arc thrusters can be improved, it’ll be many years before they’re ready for testing in even the smallest satellite, he says. Read the full article on htxt.africa.
He told bizzcommunity.com that "sometimes we don’t realise it's a problem until a solution is found. Sometimes a solution is too late by the time the problem occurs (e.g. massive global climate change). In other words, prevention is often better than a cure." Read the full interview on bizzcommunity.com.
French honours leading Wits cities researcher
- Wits University
Emeritus Professor Alan Mabin has been awarded the French National Order of Merit.
French Ambassador Christophe Farnaud presented Mabin with the Ordre National du Mérite: Chevalier (rank of Knight), on Monday, 15 May.
Mabin, an Emeritus Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits, has for over 30 years been a key figure in the fields of urbanism, development and town planning. He is the co-founder of Planact, in 1985, a NGO working with township communities and has been involved, as a consultant and board member, in town planning in several municipalities.
In presenting the award, Farnaud said: “Professor Mabin have been a partner and a friend of IFAS-Recherche since the very first days of the Institute. He spent a lot of time in France where he researched and developed joint programmes, and to teach as a visiting professor, particularly at Paris-Nanterre University and at the Institute of Political Sciences “Sciences-Po”. Professor Mabin is a pillar of Franco-South African scientific and academic cooperation. French geographers, in particular, have benefited a lot from his knowledge, his help, and last but not least his enthusiasm”.
This award takes place within the framework of the French Institute of South Africa, CUBES, and the Wits School of Architecture and Planning programme on urban studies research, titled: Experimenting/Experiencing the city, held at the University of Witwatersrand and elsewhere from 11 – 20 May 2017.
About the National Order of Merit
The National Order of Merit is a French order awarded by the President of the French Republic. It was founded in December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The order was established to create an award for French citizens as well as foreign nationals for distinguished civil or military achievements.
There are five degrees: Knight (Chevalier), Officer (Officier), Commander (Commandeur), Grand Officer (Grand Officier), Grand Cross (Grand-Croix).
South African citizens who have been awarded the order: educator David Kramer and Rear Admiral Paul Alexander Wijnberg.
Nurturing talent at Wits
- Wits University
Providing full first-year bursaries and investing in high school programmes ensures a stream of excellent results for Wits.
Two flagship programmes of the University, which aim to reward and support young talent, welcomed new recruits on Saturday, 13 May 2017.
Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Adam Habib hosted a breakfast in honour of the top performing 2016 matriculants who selected Wits as their academic home in 2017.
Twenty first-year students were awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship in recognition of their exceptional achievement in matric. Ten are Equality Scholarships recipients drawn from Quintile 1 and 2 schools, which are non-fee paying schools.
Equality scholarships are an attempt by Wits University to address inequality in our society and afford academically talented students from poor backgrounds an opportunity to flourish.
The scholarships are renewable for each year of the first undergraduate degree, provided that academic performance is of a high standard.
Another long-term Wits flagship programme, the Targeting Talent Programme (TTP), aimed at improving the performance of high school learners, held a concurrent family workshop to welcome learners to the programme.
Designed as a pre-university enrichment programme, the TTP aims to increase the academic, social and psychological preparation of academically talented learners, primarily from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, for admission to South African universities.
The TTP is a talent pipeline development programme open to Grade 9-12 learners across South Africa.
Zena Richards, Head of the Student Equity and Talent Management Unit which manages the TTP, expressed delight that the learners enrolled in the programme have consistently produced good results.
“TTP learners perform significantly better than their peers in all key subjects especially Math and Science. They also tend to do better in university and exhibit positive academic and social qualities,” says Richards.
The TTP was launched in 2007 with a cohort of 267 Grade 10 learners from three provinces.
Over the years, the programme has expanded and now enrolls nearly 2300 learners from nine provinces.
The programme receives generous support from the BP SA Education Foundation Trust, the Industrial Development Corporation, the Department of Science and Technology, and Primedia.
This century’s most important South African book
- Wits University
Everyone should read “Apartheid Guns and Money – A tale of profit”, says Professor Achille Mbembe.
Mbembe was speaking at the launch of the much-talked book Apartheid Guns and Money – A tale of profit, a exposé on the long historic shadow of state capture in South Africa.
“It is probably the single most important book that has been written about South Africa for the last 20 years,” said Mbembe, Research Professor at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WiSER).
In over 600 pages, this meticulously researched book by activist, writer and Director of Open Secrets, Hennie van Vuuren, finally lifts the lid on some of the darkest secrets of apartheid’s economic crimes, weaving together a treasure trove of newly declassified documents and eyewitness accounts.
Speaking at the book’s launch and panel discussion hosted by WiSER, Mbembe said: “The book let us have a deeper look at the long history of state capture in South Africa and the extent to which what is understood to be corruption has deep roots in the past.
“This book also allows us to reframe in new ways the question of economic justice, reparations, what it takes to move from the previous dispensation to the radically new one. And it does reframe in new terms the question of accountability. The extent to which we cannot allow the current government and any government to come to operate the way the apartheid government did operate.
“It seems to me it is a book everyone who reads, should read,” Mbembe said.
No myth – follow the money
Apartheid Guns and Money debunks the myth that the apartheid regime was self-sufficient, isolated and that it did not need the international community during the sanctions-period from the late 70s to early 90s.
This was not the case as the many examples of sanctions busting the the book demonstrate.
It maps the global covert network of nearly 50 countries, heads of state, arms dealers, aristocrats, plotucrats, securocrats, senators, bankers, spies, journlists, lobbyists and businessmen that moved cash, illegally supplied guns and created an apartheid arms money machine while whistleblowers were assasinated and ordinary people suffered.
The right to know
Speaking at the launch, Van Vuuren said another myth that South Africans have almost accepted the past two decades is that no documents have survived from the apartheid regime that can help to discover these truths about the deep state or shadow government of the apartheid regime.
“We do know that over 40 tonnes of documents were burnt at the time of South Africa’s democratic transition in the early 90s. However, there is a big source of material in the various archives in Pretoria and elsewhere that remains unearthed largely by civil society, researchers and academics.
“We relied heavily on access to these archival material. Working together with the South African History Archive, Lawyers for Human Rights, the Right2Know Campaign and others we have had to threaten to take many government departments to court and that has resulted, in times, to quite extraordinary access to material particularly in archives that were not destroyed, such as the Military Archives (the Department of Defence archive in Pretoria),” Van Vuuren said.
Their work has also strenghtend calls to have the Apartheid Archive released in full for all to access.
With his team of researchers – including Michael Marchant, Anine Kriegler and Murray Hunter – Van Vuuren collected 40 000 documents in 25 public archives, locally and internationally, and worked through two million pages of documents.
What they uncovered is the first, comprehenive look at the who’s who of bankers, businessmen, securocrats, front companies, secret tax havens, shell companies, politicians and lobbyists who have constructed a network of state capture that persist in our democtratic politcal system today.
Get me Roger Stone
By following the money, Van Vuuren shows in the book how somebody like the controvercial American lobbyist, Roger Stone, who was until recently being investigated by the FBI for his attempts to link Donald Trump with the Russian government during the US Presidential Elections last year, is one of the figures who is linked to the apartheid security establishment in the 1980s. “We must not forget that Trump had said that Roger Stone is one of his closest associates and mentors for the last 30 years,” Van Vuuren said. Netflix last week released the documentary Get me Roger Stone, that examines the rise, fall and rebirth of political operative, Stone, who's been an influential member of Team Trump for decades.
Botha, Zuma and the French firm
“While our focus is primarily examining the so-called deep state network internationally in politics, and the intelligence agencies, arms companies and middle-men that facilitated many of these deals, our interest is also to look at South Africa and to understand the role that the private sector played in facilitating sanctions busting and actively did so,” he said.
One prime example is the French company Thomson CSF. “One of our earliest documents show how PW Botha went to France in the late ‘60s, bunks down in a hotel with the head of Thomson CSF and in the morning they go out together to a missile testing range where the South Africans are providing the cash and Thomson CSF is building these missiles.
“Thomson CSF’s relationship continues with the apartheid regime right throughout the ‘70s and the ‘80s, clandestinely as some of the documents show. And in the early ‘90s the company was quick to set up an office in South Africa. By the late ‘90s it changes its name to Thales Group, today one of the biggest arms companies in Europe and also the company that is alleged to have paid most of the bribe money to President Jacob Zuma in the South Africa’s infamous arms deal.”
Many more secrets waiting to be discovered
“We need not remain captured by these elements of the past that simply are not spoken about,” Van Vuuren said, adding that his book shows how the past and present are interconnected, and in forging our future a new generation needs to grapple with the persistent silence regarding apartheid-era economic crime and ask the difficult questions of those who benefitted from it.
There still remains many secrets – past and current – to be discovered.
In order to aide researchers, journalists, writers, historians, investigators, lawyers and the public to access, Open Secrets together with the South African History Archive will make available the book’s source documents for public scrutiny.
Other panelists included Associate Professor Bonita Meyersfeld, Director of the Centre of Applied Legal Studies at Wits, and Yasmin Sooka, leading human rights lawyer and Commissioner in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Parents must talk to protect children from HIV/AIDS
- Wits University
Divorce can lead children to make life impacting decisions, parents told during the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial at Wits.
Zandile Mqwathi was 16 years when her parents divorced. “At 16 I had to know the price of sanitary pads and I had to see how I got these and other necessities.”
This led her to make a series of bad choices.
A part of her journey includes falling pregnant and discovering that she was HIV positive at the age of 22.
“When I found out I was frightened and questioned what people would think of me. One day after crying very hard I decided that I needed to live for my unborn child and that I would tell my story of living with the virus as a way of healing,” says Mqwathi.
The Pretoria born young woman spoke at Wits University on Friday, 19 May 2017, ahead of International AIDS Candlelight Memorial day. The day of action and remembrance is observed annually every third Sunday in May.
Mqwathi emphasised the need for parents to be supportive and talk to their children in order to prevent cases similar to hers.
“I want to ask parents to protect their children from HIV/Aids. Don’t neglect your children just because you are divorced or separated from their mother”.
She currently works as a Programme Coordinator for HEAids (Higher Education and Training: HIV /AIDS Programme) which is a national facility aimed at developing and supporting the HIV mitigation programmes at public institutions of higher learning in South Africa.
Her work sees her travelling across the country to assist in the national planning, implementation, coordination and sector support of sustainable HIV/AIDS, health and wellness projects in the sector, focusing on public universities.
She urged universities to continue to create safe spaces and make it easy for people with HIV/AIDS to work and live without fear.
“Days like these are important. When we light candles we shine the light on HIV/AIDS and shine light on the darkness around ignorance and stigma. We create awareness about what it doesn’t mean to live with HIV/AIDS,” she told Witsies.
An artivist, which she defined as one who believes in the power of art for activism, Mqwathi holds an honors degree in Drama Therapy from Wits and is currently completing her Masters in the same field.
The Wits Candlelight Memorial Day was organised by Vinoba Krishna, HIV Programme Co-ordinator at the Wits Counselling and Careers Development Unit.
Embracing new opportunities
- Wits University
At the age of 54, Nana Mashego is excited to be resuming her studies and has bundles of energy for what lies ahead.
Mashego began her classes on 15 May, as part of a new initiative by the University to assist staff, who were not able to complete matric or other secondary schooling levels, to move further up the ladder.
As one of the oldest in her group, Mashego is excited to be back in class and imbibing new knowledge to be imparted during the course.
“The joy of being part of this surpasses any fears that I had about being a learner all over again,” says the grandmother of four.
Growing up in Limpopo province, Mashego’s schooling was cut short due to financial hardships. She held various jobs until she joined Wits in 1997 as a cleaner on the Braamfontein Campus West.
Keen to improve her education, she enrolled for classes in Adult Basic Education and Training provided by the University up until this was discontinued.
The upbeat and defiant Mashego says she is still looking forward to do more with her life.
“Sara was 90 years old when she bore a son for Abraham. Her legacy and faith inspires me – who knows what God has in store for me?” she says.
About 70 staff members have enrolled for the National Certificate in Business Administration that is currently being rolled out by the Human Resource Development Unit (HRDU). A majority of them are from the staff members who were recently insourced by the University.
According to Chantelle Murray, Head of the HRDU, the intention is to create a "pipeline" moving staff members from NQF Level 2 (Grade level 10) and NQF Level 3 (Grade level 11), through to the matric equivalent at NQF Level 4.
“This progression is extremely important because, once certified at NQF Level 4, staff members will be able to fully access the full progression potential of the NQF system.
“In practical terms, staff members will then be able to apply for higher Certificates, Diplomas and continue upward advancement, while also being able to tap into the Wits bursaries scheme in support. The project therefore has transformation and development as underpinning driver values and goals,” says Murray.
Another staff member, Vongani Maluleke, sees this as a gateway to his goal.
“I have tried previously to apply to study at Unisa but did not qualify because I did not meet the requirements. After completing this course, I should be in a better position to enroll for studies in security management,” says Maluleke who holds a certificate in fire-fighting.
Although it is still early days, Nonkululeko Ngejane says the first two days of the course have given her confidence.
“In the first day we worked on our personal development plan. This made me realise I can be anything I want if I commit myself,” says the Eastern Cape-born and mother of two.
Overcoming the shyness to express herself in the medium of instruction (English) has also been a breakthrough for her, she says.
Ngejane, who loves helping people, once dreamed of joining the police. However, witnessing police brutality and misconduct has led to a change of mind.
The environment at the Faculty of Health Sciences where she is based inspires her. Becoming a doctor is now a possibility for the young mother.
The roll-out of the qualifications is funded by the Education Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDP Seta) and will span an 8 to 10 month period of contact sessions in 2017.
The South Africa of our dreams
- Wits University
The South Africa of our dreams lies in our collective hands.
These were the sentiments of Wits alumna Advocate Thuli Madonsela.
Madonsela was speaking at an alumni networking event at Wits University yesterday morning, 23 May 2017 where she shared her views on leadership and social justice in Africa and how we can heal our democracy.
“We are at paradoxical times. At the one end, we are the most advances species on earth, on the other hand we are becoming more brutal than animals. Our world is troubled,” she said, making reference to the brutal killings and kidnappings of young women in South Africa over the past few weeks.
“How do we heal our world?” she asked with great concern.
However, she said, there is still some good in the world. She related her story of how she went from being the daughter of a domestic worker and a general worker to being named one of the TIMES 100 most influential people in the world.
“All of those things were unimaginable from the world we came from, but they are possible today,” she said, adding that her successes were thanks to the generosity of the human spirit, and people and organisations that invested in her education and career.
Madonsela, an advocate of change and equality, says that as long as injustice prevails, there can’t be sustainable peace in the world.
“If we want peace, we must ensure that democracy fosters free potential and improved quality of life for all with none left behind. Amongst the things that we see in society is structural and systemic inequalities and poverty with mainly disadvantaged groups and communities left behind regarding access to the fruits of democracy and related opportunities.”
The societal challenges we are currently experiencing are a result of the growing governance failures, including systemic governance failure and corruption. These have led to a growing trust deficit between the state and citizens seeing a lot of groups and communities increasingly resorting to public protest.
An Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University, Madonsela says we all need to make an effort to combat corruption.
“If you know what is right, do what is right. If we all do not make efforts to combat corruption, we will soon be in a system whereby [everybody would feel] ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’.”
During her tenure of office as Public Protector, she discovered that the leadership paradigm in our country needs to be changed and everyone needs to be seen as leader.
“We need to see everyone as a leader, from a little child in preschool to the president. We need everyone to see themselves as an appropriate leader knowing that what they do and say influences other people. What they fail to do or fail to say influences other people in a particular way.”
Madonsela, a philanthropist and ethicist of social standing added that some of the things which have gone wrong in the country are because of a lack of ethics, purpose driven leadership, and people no considering the impacts of their decisions.
“The South Africa of our dreams is in our hands. This [what we are currently experiencing] is not the South Africa of our dreams. What is unfolding is South Africa derailed. Whatever we do, let’s make sure that we do it with integrity. It is important that we restore justice in the world and ensure social justice. We must find a way to bridge the gap of inequality and poverty.”
She urged fellow almumni to do their part in eradicating inequality and poverty by making sure that every child that deserves to be in university gets enrolled in university and is not financially excluded.
"I know that all of us alumni at Wits already support our academic institution and I know you already are contributing… but it would seem to me that one of the greatest calls right now is to find a way to make sure that everyone that deserves to be in a university gets into university. Smaller states have done that – we can’t wait for government though at some stage government should come to the party …but it is in all our interests to use the [log] in our hands to make sure that nobody who qualifies to be at a university is kicked out for financial reasons."
Her foundation, Thuma (Thuli Mandonsela Foundation) is exemplary of her plea. She ploughed in 20 percent of her gratuity when she left as Public Protector. One of the foundation's premier projects is to make sure that nobody, who is a graduate, calls themselves unemployed.
Madonsela was recently awarded an honorary doctorate of law from Wits in recognition of her integrity in seeking out corruption, upholding our Constitution and defending our democracy.
Three awards and the Presidency for Wits Anatomy
- Wits Communications
Wits academics scooped three awards at the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa Conference and Wits' Head of Anatomical Studies was re-elected as President.
Professor Maryna Steyn, head of the School of Anatomical Sciences at Wits will serve a second three-year term as President of the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA).
Dr Carol Hartmann, a clinical lecturer in the unit for Undergraduate Medical Education received the Hanno Boon Education Prize, for her presentation, Comparison of computer and laboratory based assessment methods for anatomy practical examinations, co-authored by Desire Brits, Anatomical Sciences lecturer. This award is named for the late Professor Hanno Boon who along with other ASSA colleagues instituted the medical education time-slot into the annual ASSA programme.
Dr Toby Houlton, a postdoctoral fellow in Anatomical Sciences received the Bob Symington Prize for Best Young Presenter under 35 Years for his presentation, Typological archives: incarcerated flesh with untold histories and modern dilemmas. This prize is named after the larger-than-life Professor Bob Symington, a former ASSA president who died suddenly in 1983. The prize recognises Symington’s support of young members in particular.
Vaughan Perry, a lecturer in Anatomical Sciences and an MSc (Med) candidate won the Antoinette Kotzé Prize for Best First-Time Presenter. Perry’s presentation, The effects of gestational alcohol exposure on the postnatal development of the tibia in 3 week old Sprague Dawley Rats, was co-authored by Anatomical Sciences lecturers, Dr Robert Ndou and Diana Pillay. This prize honours the late Mrs. Antoinette Kotzé, a member of the 1985 ASSA Organising Committee from MEDUSA who died in a motor vehicle accident that year.
ASSA is the major regional association for anatomists and an important forum for presenting new research. The Department of Human Biology in the School of Anatomical Sciences at Wits hosted the conference in Langebaan, Western Cape from 23-26 April 2017. Approximately 135 delegates attended the conference, which covered research topics including but not limited to:
Clinical anatomy
Histology and embryology
Neuroscience
Biological anthropology
Medical education
Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer through the eyes of Advocate George Bizos
- Wits Communications
George Bizos last night delivered the Nadine Gordimer Lecture entitled: Nadine Gordimer - student, writer, activist: Through the eyes of Advocate George Bizos.
By George Bizos SC, assisted by Samantha Brener, both at the Legal Resources Centre, and delivered in the Great Hall of the University of the Witwatersrand on 18 May 2017
Nadine Gordimer was a world-renowned writer. She has been richly praised by many of the world’s most respected voices.
The independentNewspaper in London published the following – “Gordimer has undoubtedly become one of the World’s Great Writers . . . Her rootedness in a political time, place and faith has never dimmed her complex gifts as an artist; her partisanship has not compromised her artistic distance. Great writers can retain political faith; they can believe and create. This is an important message for all aspirant writers of the next century.”
Cecil Abrahams of the Chicago Tribune commenting on “My Son’s Story”, Nadine’s ninth novel, wrote “The novel abounds with the fine turn of phrase, the ironical twist that opens up thought to further exploration, the uncanny ability to enter the varied recesses of the human mind . . .MY SON’S STORY proves that in a changing society such as South Africa, Nadine Gordimer is well placed to portray “the fullness of life”.
The Star-Telegram wrote: “Only very lucky readers are familiar with 1991 Nobel Laureate Gordimer’s work. Join them.”
Margaret Atwood, herself a literary giant, wrote in an obituary for Gordimer “Despite her minute size, she was a huge presence – a voice of rectitude that spoke above the political din, addressing itself to our common humanity…. It’s difficult to imagine the history of the South African novel, indeed of the 20th-century political novel without her”.
Stephen Clingman, says about her “Nadine Gordimer is a most extraordinary observer of her society”.
I am very grateful to Clingman, whose work “The Essential Gesture” provided substantial assistance to me in writing this speech.
Nadine was born in 1923, to immigrant parents in a new place, and her formative years were spent in the mining town of Springs on the East Rand. Her first piece of fiction was published when she was thirteen. Between the time of that first piece and her death, Nadine wrote 15 novels, and a number of short story and essay collections. Her work was translated into at least twenty languages.
During her life, she received the Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writer’s prize for the Best Book in Africa and, of course, the Nobel Prize for Literature. She was one of only four Wits alumni to have received a Nobel Prize, and of the four, she was the only woman. Karen Lazar wrote about her receipt of the Nobel Prize: “Instead of complying with the custom of being walked down the carpet to receive her award in Stockholm by a member of her government, she chose instead to be accompanied by a literary comrade from her “government-in-waiting”, the ANC’S … Mongane Wally Serote, this being 1991 and transition underway.”
Nadine Gordimer: The Student
Nadine’s time at the University of the Witwatersrand lasted one year only. She registered as an occasional student in English Literature and English Language in 1946. When asked, much later in her life, whether she ever considered doing an undergraduate degree, she dismissed the idea, saying that at 20 years of age, she had already read much more than was on the degree reading list. Although she was a student for only a short period of time, she maintained connections with universities in South Africa, and was closely associated with the National Union of South African Students, a national student body well-known for its opposition to apartheid.
I started my university career in 1948. The vast majority of the students were white, with very few Africans, Indians, Coloureds, Chinese South Africans and a very small number of Africans from neighbouring states. A substantive number had postponed their tertiary education to join the South African Army during the Second World War between 1940 and 1945. We were led to believe it was a war to end all wars. Then the National Party took power in the 1948 general election. The win for the National Party was a huge disappointment for a number of students, including those that had experienced the war, and hated the prejudice that Nazi Germany stood for. There was protest at Wits against the apartheid government. These students were calling for fundamental change.
During a sitting of parliament, Prime Minister Malan was asked about the situation at the university of the Witwatersrand: why black and white students were sitting in the same lecture hall; why white women and black men were walking around campus arm-in-arm? This was contrary to policy! His response was that he had been told by the University that those doing such things were “a small group of leftists”, and that they would be dealt with.
The next day there was a protest meeting at the Great Hall, at Wits University. I was in the front row. I raised my hand and stated unequivocally that if demanding equal treatment with our black fellow students made me a leftist, I was proud to be one. The next day the front page of the Transvaaler read “Linksgesind, en trots daarop. So het George Bizos gese”. This made me popular with most of the students. Nadine congratulated me on the speech.
I was elected four times to the Students Representative Council of the University of the Witwatersrand and represented Wits at the student assembly of the National Union of South African Students in 1953. At the organisation’s congress that same year, NUSAS’s affiliation to the International Union of Students became a controversial issue. Notice had been given that NUSAS should disaffiliate from the international organisation. More than enough votes had been secured that the motion would pass. We were encouraged to support the motion on the basis that the International Union of Students was an instrument of the Soviet Union (among other reasons) and were told that it would be preferable to join a democratic organisation, such as the International Student Conference. I argued that we should not assist those who wanted to create division in the world – between East and West, capitalist and socialist, rich and poor, that we should remain non-aligned and that the International Student Conference was a creation of the CIA. At the time I had no hard evidence to support this. Years later John Didcott, who was by then a judge, told me that it had been exposed in Time magazine that the CIA had formed and financed the International Student Conference. Didcott was appointed a judge of the Natal Provincial Division in 1975 and in 1994 he joined the Constitutional Court bench.
From 1948 onward, there remained anti-government feeling amongst the students. Although I was elected four times to the SRC, I was never an office bearer. The position of head of the SRC was, at the time, taken up by great names such as Philip Tobias, Sydney Brenner, Harold Wolpe, Godfrey Getz and Richard Goldstone.
I remained at Wits for my second degree, and thereafter became a member of the convocation committee. I have always considered myself a Witsie.
Although Nadine remained at Wits for only one year, she regularly attended protest meetings. She and I were friendly through my years of serving on the SRC. We discussed various issues, and she often gave suggestions about how she felt things ought to be done. In later years, she moved into a house that was just walking distance from Wits.
I have wondered to myself whether the treatment of women at Wits at the time may have contributed to Nadine’s estrangement from the University. I recall an incident where a Professor Scholtens told the first year class of law students that, out of a first year class of 45, only a third would be promoted to second year. There were three women in the class. Scholten’s words were “…and if they are women, they might as well give up”. Of the three women, two failed, and the one that passed became a teacher instead of practicing law. Of course, Nadine was not registered for the law class, but it is this kind of approach that she would not have tolerated.
In a similarly interesting story, during my time at law school, we reached that time of year when the law dinner was to be held. The law school did not allow black students to come to the dinner. The usual practice was for the student body to contribute 100 pounds for the guests. This year, 1952, the SRC, of which I was a member, passed a resolution in protest, that the usual 100 pounds would not be given, and that students would be asked not to attend the dinner. We won the round! The black students were allowed to attend, and 8 of them arrived at the dinner. The senior judge was Judge Ramsbottom. Far from being embarrassed by their presence, he had conversations with practically all of them.
There was a law passed in the early 60s, providing that Universities were prohibited from receiving black students unless applicants could prove that they wanted to study something that was not being taught by the newly-established black universities. Students became rather adept at choosing first year subjects that were not taught at these newly-established universities.
Through all of this, Nadine was on the fringe of things. But she nevertheless spent much time discussing what ought to be done in order that equality could be introduced.
Despite never having completed an undergraduate degree, by the time of her death, Nadine Gordimer had accumulated honorary degrees from Yale, Harvard, Columbia, the University of York, the University of Cambridge, University of Leuven in Belgium, and the University of Cape Town, amongst others. She received an honorary doctorate from this university hosting us this evening, the University of the Witwatersrand, in 1984.
Nadine Gordimer: The Writer
Gordimer’s first book was launched in a small bookshop in Pritchard Street. It was on sale for 9 shillings. I could not afford to purchase the book at the time, but I was present at the launch. And she was praised.
One of Nadine’s most important commitments in her life was to the creation of a common community of writers. From early in her career, she befriended the best black writers of the 1950s, most of them based in Sophiatown, writing for periodicals such as Drum. They included Nat Nakasa, Ezekiel Mphahlele, and Can Themba. She was the founder of COSAW – the Congress of South African Writers - a non-racial organisation of anti-apartheid writers.
Often, when these budding young writers found themselves in trouble with the apartheid laws, Nadine sent them to me for their legal defence. I worked on a pro-bono basis defending them. They were often charged with ridiculous things.
I remember one such referral in particular. A young poet had written a sonnet for his lover. In it, he’d said two things. The first ten or twelve lines were a recitation of the terrible things that apartheid had brought to his life. The last two lines – the end of the poem - were an expression of his love for his girlfriend. The poem was found in her home and the poet was arrested. The allegations were bizarre. The man was charged with a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act. The offence carried a 5 year prison sentence. Nadine Gordimer sent the case to me, requesting that I defend the poet in court. I did so, and managed to convince the magistrate that it could not possibly be a criminal offence for a poet to express love for his partner. He had not said anything destructive. The poem was simply an expression of his feelings. As wide as the Terrorism Act was, he surely could not punish a poet for expressing his love? The magistrate acquitted the man, with Nadine sitting at the back of the court room, watching the case.
Nadine’s work as a writer has led to our paths crossing in strange, unexpected ways. One ordinary day Nadine phoned me up. She said “George, I have a guest from the US. She is doing a film of one of Andre Brink’s books.” The book was “A Dry White Season”. The producer had wanted Marlon Brando to play the role of a well-known lawyer defending a young black man charged with a political offence. However Brando had refused to play the role – he had found the script flat, and decided the piece was not for him. The producer came to South Africa, looking for input on improving the part of the lawyer defending political cases, so that she might convince Brando to play the part. Nadine arranged for her to see me, to give input into how a political lawyer might behave. I spent some time answering her questions. Nadine gave much input because she had spent a great deal of time watching me argue in court. We described a specific account to the producer. A young man had made a confession and given evidence against his best friend. Members of his family had told me that the young man had been beaten by the police, and forced to give evidence. While asking the young man questions on the stand, I asked him to turn his back to the audience, and to lift his shirt. His back was covered in half-healed parallel welts. He admitted that the investigating officer had done this damage to his body, as an act of coercion.
This very scene found its way into the film adaptation of “A Dry White Season”. And Marlon Brando accepted the role of the lead lawyer.
Nadine Gordimer: The Activist
The relationship between her writing and her social responsibility was one of the central questions of Nadine’s life. Her involvement in the struggle against apartheid took a number of forms, some of which intertwine with my own story. She often attended political trials. She sat with the public at the back of the court house, watching proceedings unfold. She would discuss the cases with me during breaks. She was making notes, thinking of and remembering things she would later make use of in her written work.
She often assisted me, playing the role of behind-the-scenes editor of crucial pieces of writing and speech during the struggle against apartheid.
In 1963, the ANC leadership were arrested at their headquarters - Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Dennis Goldberg, Rusty Bernstein and Bob Hepple were taken into custody by police. Thus began the work of Bram Fisher, Vernon Berrange, Joel Joffe, with Arthur Chaskalson and myself on the defending the Rivonia trialists. In the lead up to the trial, the UN General Assembly had passed a resolution, by one hundred and six votes to one, demanding the abandonment of the Rivonia trial. We decided it was necessary to publicise the resolution both locally and internationally. Similarly, at the time of the trial, we decided it was necessary to promote the international campaign for the release of the detainees by providing personal detail to local and foreign journalists. We had each accused write up autobiographical notes about themselves, about their families, their political beliefs, and their underground work. Nadine Gordimer, by then an established authoress, reviewed and edited these autographical statements. She did a marvellous job. These statements were duplicated and distributed, in the hope that they would assist in dispelling negative perceptions about the accused that had been created by the apartheid-sympathetic press.
Later on in the trial, Nelson Mandela showed us, for the first time, the statement that he intended to make from the dock. His closing words stated that he was ready to die for what he had done. After some discussion between Nelson and the legal team, I proposed that Nelson change the final lines to state that he hoped to live and achieve his ideals, but if needs be was prepared to die. We agreed. Nelson then gave me permission to take a copy of his statement to Nadine Gordimer. At the time, Anthony Sampson, editor of Drum in the 1950s and good friend of Nadine’s, was staying with her. Sampson also knew Nelson well. I asked Sampson to review the statement. He withdrew to Nadine’s study. After an hour and half, he returned, having re-ordered the contents of the statement. He noted that, in order to have maximum impact, it was necessary to move many of the impactful paragraphs to the start, since busy journalists were likely to read the first few pages, and then skip straight to the end of the statement. We took his advice. Both Sampson and Gordimer were most impressed by the statement.
During the 1960s, Nadine Gordimer’s political consciousness was being fully explored in her fiction. She was particularly fascinated by the story of Bram (a shortening of “Abram”) Fischer. When he was brought to trial, she attended proceedings. She wrote two non- fiction pieces about Fischer, and her interest in him persisted and resulted in her seventh novel, Burger’s Daughter. This novel is an excellent example of how personal knowledge can be translated into fiction. The book’s jacket describes Burger’s Daughter as “a brilliantly realised work [in which] Nadine Gordimer unfolds the story of a young woman’s evolving identity in the turbulent political environment that has culminated in present-day South Africa. Her father’s death in prison leaves Rosa Burger alone to explore the intricacies of what it actually means to be Burger’s Daughter…. Nadine Gordimer’s subtle, fastidiously crafted prose sweeps this engrossing narrative to a triumphant conclusion”.
During the latter half of the Rivonia trial, it became clear that the security police had evidence the Bram Fischer was one of the senior leaders of the Communist party, and was actively involved in the underground movement. They did not arrest him at the time. However, on 23 September 1964, Bram Fisher was arrested and charged under the Suppression of Communism Act. I was one of Bram Fischer’s legal counsel in his trial. Following Nelson Mandela’s example in the Rivonia Trial, Fischer chose to make a statement from the dock. We worked on the statement very carefully and in great detail, and included a very important explanation as to why Bram was making a statement from the dock rather than from the witness box. As I had done with crucially important documents before, I asked Nadine Gordimer to review his statement, and she helped contribute to its final form.
My most difficult and unpleasant case was the Delmas trial. In total, the matter ran for more than four years, from August 1985 to November 1989 – we spent four hundred and twenty days in court (excluding time spent arguing appeals of the judgement). Twenty two men had been charged with treason, terrorism and furthering the objectives of unlawful organisations. Ultimately, and with bitter disappointment on our part, five of our clients were convicted. We then had the task of arguing in mitigation of their sentences. One of the people we asked to give evidence in mitigation was, upon my insistence, was Nadine Gordimer. She faced vigorous cross-examination about her political beliefs, but she did not waver. She did not apologise for being a supporter of the policies of the ANC and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, as well as of the use of force. She supported economic and other sanctions. She was an active supporter of the United Democratic Front. This testimony showed her absolute fearlessness. On their way home that evening, her then husband, Rienhold Cassirer remarked that it was perhaps wise that she stay at a friend for the night, for fear that the security police would be looking to pick her up. She ignored this advice, and she was not picked up by the security police. It was already the 1980s, the writing was on the wall for the apartheid government, and they were likely concerned about the worldwide protests that would inevitably follow.
When the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, and Nelson decided to accept the shared prize, both Nadine and I were invited to accompany him to Oslo for the award ceremony. Nelson’s daughter, Zenani, was also part of the delegation. Relations between the Mandela delegation and the de Klerk delegation were not at all times absolutely genial. When asked by journalist to comment on the award of the prize to both, Zenani said “my father deserved it”. Things got worse. Nelson had expected that in his acceptance speech, President de Klerk would acknowledge the evils of Apartheid. Instead he said that both sides had made mistakes, which infuriated Mandela. At the Prime Minister’s dinner that evening, Nelson made a scathing attack in response. Later, Pik Botha came up to me and said “please tell your president that from now on my President will speak last. He wants an opportunity to answer the things that your President has said”.
Through her life, Gordimer’s identity and politics were challenged, and shifted as a result. Clingman describes how she struggled with “alienation and belonging in the 1950s, her politicisation in the 1960s, the radical challenge to her identity from the Black Consciousness movement in the 1970s, and a process of reconstruction in the 1980s whereby a new set of inner definition comes to match vastly changed external circumstances”. But, he says, “underlying all Gordimer’s changes, the flexibility of a mind growing stronger and more radical as it [grew] older, [was] the firmness of conviction”.
In 1963, Gordimer initiated her long-standing campaign against censorship, opposing the Publications and Entertainments Act of 1963, which empowered the Publications Control Board to deal with films, plays, objects, magazines and books. In a non-fiction essay on the matter, she speaks angrily about the “principle of mutilation of books throughcensorship”. She wrote with incredulity of the 102 people who, in terms of the Publications and Entertainments Act, were forbidden from making any communication whatsoever with the public, either through speech or written word.
After the 1963 Act, came the Publications Act of 1974. It was in terms of the piece of legislation that her novel Burger’s Daughter was banned. In June 1979, the novel had been published in England. By the end of June it had been embargoed in South Africa. By 11 July it had been banned by the Censorship committee. After an internal appeal by the Director of Publications, the novel was “unbanned” or “reinstated”. In April 1980, Nadine Gordimer was awarded the CNA Prize (a top literary award) for Burger’s Daughter. Her acceptance speech made her feelings clear. She says, revealing her seething anger at the treatment of her novel, others like it, and the work of apartheid regime more generally:
“Censorship is the weapon of information-control, thought-control, idea-control, above all, the control of healthy doubt and questioning, and as such as much a part of the arsenal of apartheid as the hippos [armoured cars] that went through the streets of Soweto in ’76 … Censorship is necessary for the daily maintenance of racism – and the laws of our country are still racist, whatever fancy names we give them; the very changes that are being made to ease the chafing of those laws around the necks of the masses still reflect racist differentiation in the assessment of people’s needs and self-respect, from the comparative amounts spent on black schools and white schools and pensions to the special arrangements that have to be made, on occasions such as this dinner, to have blacks as guests in a white club”.
And later in the speech, she says, with admirable fearlessness:
“A cultural counter-establishment is on the move beyond the government’s control, no matter how many writers’ telephones they tap, how many manuscripts are taken away in police raids on black writers’ houses, no matter how many books they ban. The cage is empty. The keepers are beginning to notice; God knows what they will do next. But the writers are singing in the words of Pablo Neruda: This is the song of what is happening and of what will be”
She was not one for mincing words. She hated censorship because her writing was her struggle against racism and injustice. Even less than a year before her death, Gordimer railed against censorship. She wrote publically and critically about the Protection of State Information Bill.
Her old friend, Anthony Sampson wrote of her, just before his death in 2004 “Nadine Gordimer was small and neat, with a bird-like vivacity and intensity. She talked as precisely as she wrote, telling stories dramatically, with acute observation and curiosity. But her sharp intelligence concealed a warmth and involvement that enriched her friends and gave her writing a deep compassion”.
My friendship with Nadine and her husband and children lasted a long time. After the release of Nelson Mandela, Nadine and I visited Nelson together from time to time. We both had things to discuss with Nelson about the future. Later, we visited one another, both at her home and at mine. She and her husband owned a farm, where we would spend Sundays together occasionally.
Nadine Gordimer was concerned about the acknowledgement of the humanity of people, irrespective of whether they were black, white, Jews, Greeks, or any other race, religion or grouping. This was a philosophy that both she and I understood and lived by. We shared this. In her novels, she almost invariably dealt with love affairs crossing colour lines. She wanted her readers to understand the normalcy of this love. This kind of statement was part of her protest against oppression.
The equally legendary South African writer, JM Coetzee said of her:
“As a writer and as a human being, Nadine Gordimer responded with exemplary courage and creative energy to the great challenge of her times, the system of apartheid unjustly and heartlessly imposed on the South African people”
Gillian Slovo, herself a well-known writer, and daughter of the late Joe Slovo and Ruth First said:
“Politics, both large and small-scale, was Nadine's subject. Speaking the truth was her passion. She wrote about injustices not only in the bad old days, but in the new. She was a model of what an engaged writer can achieve, and that's what makes her my hero”
She was a remarkable, courageous role model, and I am honoured to have met, worked with, and befriended Nadine Gordimer.
Recently there has been a small group of commentators, saying that nothing has changed since the Apartheid years. I was at a graduation ceremony a few months ago. The majority of the graduates were black and the majority of that majority were women. I would like to turn to you Mr Vice Chancellor and ask you, when you hear someone saying that nothing in South Africa has changed, please invite them to the next graduation.
A boost for student food programme
- Wits University
Wits alumni have donated a quarter of a million rand to the Wits Food Programme.
Wits alumni have donated a quarter of a million rand to the Wits Food Programme, which caters for student threatened by food insecurity due to disadvantaged backgrounds.
Wits alumni, through the South African Student Solidarity Foundation for Education (SASSFE), have raised and donated R250 000 for the Masidleni Daily Meal Project at the University. Masidleni means let’s eat in isiZulu.
The Masidleni Daily Meal Project supports hundreds of students with a hot, nutritional lunch from Monday to Friday every week. This project falls under the Division of Student Affairs and is run by Wits Citizenship and Community Outreach (WCCO).
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Chairperson of SASSFE’s Board of Trustees, says, “Our objective is to bolster and strengthen programmes at Wits which aim to provide students in need with the kind of dignified and caring environment so necessary for students’ academic success.”
“SASSFE has focussed on mobilising funds from alumni in order to show solidarity with, and to find ways of materially supporting, the current generation of students. We have found that many alumni are keen to assist the thousands of students in need at South Africa’s tertiary education institutions. The older generation is very keen to lend a hand, as they have seen the transformative power that access to good quality higher education has had in their lives,” continues Makgoba.
SASSFE was set up in April 2016 with its first chapter based at Wits University. The Foundation has plans to expand its activities nationally. It envisages that SASSFE chapters, made up of and driven by alumni, will be established at many other tertiary education institutions around South Africa.
In addition to Makgoba, SASSFE’s trustees are retired Judge Richard Goldstone, Judge Azhar Cachalia, and Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng. Tiego Moseneke chairs the SASSFE Management Committee.
“We are making a clarion call for alumni across South Africa to dig into their pockets and make a contribution. Small, regular contributions by a large number of alumni will make a big difference to the lives of bright young minds, who require support. Through our contributions we can provide students with basic, yet essential, needs that will allow them to fulfill their dreams for the future,” says Moseneke.
Wits University through the Division of Student Affairs, and in particular, the Wits Citizenship and Community Outreach (WCCO) has several programmes across its campuses aimed at combating student hunger and assisting students with basic hygiene needs.
The Wits Food Programme consists of two key projects which ensure that students receive support. A student’s circumstances have to be assessed to be added to these projects.
Established in 2013, the Wits Food Bank provides non-perishable food packs to students. The packs consists of starch, protein, and dried and canned vegetables. Depending on the availability, the Food Bank also provides toiletries and stationery to students.
The Masidleni project was established in 2016 and provides a nutritious hot meal to more than 800 students.
The University is able to provide this service through its own limited resources and the contribution of individuals, alumni and corporate donors.
Taking theatre to the kids
- Wits University
Drama for Life unveiled the world of theatre to children and young people at the 19th ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival in Cape Town.
The Wits Drama for Life, brought theatre to life last week when they co-hosted the Cradle of Creativity - the 19th ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival in Cape Town.
The Congress, which was held on the African soil for the first time, attracted delegates from more than 100 countries from across the world, all focusing on what the Africa has to offer in terms of research and theatre for young audiences.”
The International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) is dedicated to ensuring that every child everywhere is able to encounter opportunities for dreaming through the live performing arts.
Unveiling the world of theatre to young people, Drama for Life (DFL) profiled their ground-breaking methodologies designed for theatre for children and youth through an array of captivating seminar presentations, workshops and performances.
As a global leader in an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to arts for social transformation and healing, DFL visited the Vrygrond, Langa and Phillipi communities in Cape Town where they held focus groups to restore dignity, respect and self-worth among young people using various forms of theatre such as, Theatre and Storytelling, Theatre for Social Change, Theatre for Healing and Theatre by Children for Children.
DFL remains committed to enhancing dialogue for purposes of social transformation and healing through arts-based research, teaching and learning, and community engagement.
In an effort to take theatre to children, performances such as Mainane! (directed by Director of Drama for Life, Warren Nebe), Space Rocks (directed Craig Morris) and Instagrammar (directed by Lecturer and Drama for Life Theatre Company Director, Hamish Neill ), produced in partnership with the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project were showcased to children at Cape Town schools.
The Congress set the foundation for future international collaborations. The 19th ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival highlighted Wits’ contribution to the arts.
Drama for Life acknowledged the sponsorship of the National Lotteries Commission, Department of Arts and Culture, National Arts Council, City of Cape Town, National Research Foundation and Rand Merchant Bank.
Tshimologong's first accelerator programme now open for applications
- Wits University
The Journalism and Media Accelerator (JAMLAB) will be home to innovators who want to develop new forms of journalism.
Applications open today for a new six-month innovation support programme for existing or new South African journalism and media teams.
JAMLAB will provide participating teams with the tools, facilities, contacts and the support necessary to realise their ideas and ambitions, combining professional mentorship with a collaborative and creative tech-advanced working space.
Up to six teams will be selected for the programme, which runs from July at the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Braamfontein. This will be the first accelerator programme to launch at Tshimologong.
Successful applicants will receive:
A six-month fellowship at Wits Journalism
Free workspace and membership at the new Tshimologong Precinct co-working space
Mentorship and coaching from experienced media, start-up and tech experts, and entrepreneurs
Free places on a three-month Wits ‘Creating the Media’ certificate course
Access to a software development team at Tshimologong
Opportunities to pitch to potential investors and funders
JAMLAB will be seeking to ensure that it addresses historic inequalities of opportunities in South Africa and that those who are selected are a diverse group of people who understand and want to engage the widest range of South African audiences.
The partners are especially keen to see women and women led teams apply.
Indra de Lanerolle, JAMLAB director, says: “We are looking for great new ideas that can change the media and journalism landscape. We want strong teams that are passionate about stories, information, opinion and ideas. They must also have a keen interest to engage with new audiences. Whether non-profit or for profit, brand new or old hands, as long as you have the energy to do something new that can make a real difference to media and journalism in South Africa.”
Professor Barry Dwolatzky, Director of the JCSE and founder of the Tshimologong Precinct, says that this is an exciting collaboration: “We are delighted to work with such esteemed partners to focus on creating new ideas that bring technology and journalism closer together. As the first accelerator programme to launch at the Precinct, we are both excited and happy to host the next generation of journalists and media moguls.”
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French Ambassador Christophe Farnaud presented Mabin with the Ordre National du Mérite: Chevalier (rank of Knight), on Monday, 15 May.
levels, to move further up the ladder.
