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.
In a special address delivered at the Women in Science 2007 Awards, Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena paid tribute to the role played by women in science through the ages. Since the beginning of time, he said, women and men, together and independently, have researched and unravelled our greatest contemporary scientific discoveries. In so doing they have contributed jointly to the wellbeing of humanity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two recently released reports on BEE are typically South African and expose a racial gulf. The one commissioned by the Presidential Black Business Working Group (PBBWG) spoke of 75% non-compliance. The survey released by a white-owned auditing firm, KPMG, spoke of a success rate of well over 75%.
Constantine Rodriguez had just fetched chilli peppers and was going out to get some onions when he heard the siren for an incoming rocket. All he remembers was a door blasting open and a loud explosion. He is lucky to be alive, said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Martin, the surgeon who treated him earlier this month at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad.
Nedbank is making things happen in a number of rural communities in the Eastern Cape. It has opened a mobile branch in Centane and another branch, called the Green Shop, will open as soon as it is built. Working with Pick ‘n Pay Group stores, Nedbank has opened an in-store branch at Boxer Superstores, one of the Pick ‘n Pay Group stores.