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/ 29 August 2007

Temporary SA residence for Zim refugees?

The government needs to adopt a new approach to deal with Zimbabwean citizens flocking into South Africa, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday. The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported her as saying one solution could be to provide them with temporary residence permits.

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/ 29 August 2007

BEE’s principal priorities

Employment equity, skills development and management control are vital indicators of broad-based empowerment, but they are also areas of low BEE progress. Equity transfer is still king, though this must change if BEE is going to be broad-based. This has emerged from the two baseline studies into BEE.

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/ 29 August 2007

Supersleuth for survival

Working in torrential rain and then going home to spend hours in the laboratory are all in a day’s work for Dr Nadine Strydom, marine biologist specialising in larval fishes at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) in Grahamstown. And she loves it!

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/ 29 August 2007

Refining metal under duress

"I was never your typical African girl," says Izendu Emenike A Aghachi with an engaging grin. She liked to challenge the boys and always came top of her class, even in traditionally male-dominated subjects such as science and maths. Born in eastern Nigeria during the civil war, Aghachi knows what it means to fight for survival.

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/ 29 August 2007

Figuring life’s jigsaw puzzle

At the relatively tender age of 32, Dr Marieka Gryzenhout has completed a PhD, won a string of prestigious science awards, bursaries and grants and is in the process of publishing a book on her research. She is also mother to one-year-old daughter Sietske. Gryzenhout’s formidable international reputation in mycology began growing while she was a student.

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/ 29 August 2007

Do you have a strategy?

Leaving aside the fortunes of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, another battle is brewing. This is the battle of the BEE baseline studies. Now that the legislation and its codes have been finalised, the emphasis is shifting to monitoring and implementation.

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/ 29 August 2007

At the forefront of science

Type 1 diabetes is threatening the lives of about 17-million people worldwide, and this number is increasing. The financial burden associated with the treatment of this serious, debilitating disease is enormous. Early diagnosis and intervention are vital in the fight against the life-threatening complications of the disease.

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/ 29 August 2007

Exploring new frontiers in science

Carren Ginsburg’s research ventures into areas where few women scientists have gone before. Not only is she combining two divergent disciplines of research, but her PhD study also has a strong emphasis on innovative statistical modelling techniques that have not yet been applied to longitudinal data analysis in the South African context.

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/ 29 August 2007

Africa unites in focus on science

The earliest examples of women scientists come from Africa — in the persons of the Egyptian physician Merit Ptah, who practised medicine around 2700BC, and Zipporah, a physician who lived around 1500BC. Ancient Egyptian women were free to attend medical school with men or attend one exclusively for them at Sais.