As a young learner growing up in Zimbabwe, Dionne Shepherd was fascinated by molecular/physical science and astronomy.
Since 1984 Dr Nosisa Matsiliza, student of medical biochemistry and dietician, has been working to ensure that SA’s youth receive an education.
‘The death of a child has a devastating impact on a woman," says Grace Chitima Mugumbate, a PhD researcher at the University of Cape Town.
Idasa and UCT have thrown their weight behind the push for open hearings on the complaint against Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe.
Last year 17 institutions received R148-million in development grants above their research subsidies, from a total R1,38-billion in research subsidies.
The blackened fragments spread out on the table look at first glance like no more than a scattering of charcoal, left over from a long-dead fire. But on closer examination one sees that the fragments are grouped, and that each group has its own printed label. In one corner, in a plastic lunchbox-type container, are the smallest fragments of all.
The Department of Education is to investigate the extent of racism and other forms of discrimination in higher education, it said on Monday. A ministerial committee is expected to look into discrimination based on gender, ethnicity and disability, with a particular focus on university residences, said spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele in a statement.
The life of Ivan Toms, who died in Cape Town on March 25, was shaped by his commitment to justice and innate sense of humanity. One of his proudest moments was receiving the Order of the Baobab for ”his outstanding contribution to the struggle against apartheid and sexual discrimination”.
Cape Town’s director of health, Dr Ivan Toms, died of meningitis, city manager Achmat Ebrahim said on Wednesday. Toms, an anti-apartheid and gay rights activist, was found dead in his Mowbray home on Tuesday morning. The estimated time of death was late Monday afternoon or early Monday evening.
Cape Town’s director of health, former anti-conscription campaigner Ivan Toms, was found dead in his home on Tuesday morning, police said. Police spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones said foul play was not suspected at this stage. He said police used a key from a neighbour to gain access to Toms’ Mowbray home at about 9.30am.
People with a genetic variation that slows down HIV may also be causing a mutation to the Aids syndrome that makes it less potent if transmitted to others, South African researchers said on Friday. The human immunodeficiency virus that causes Aids attacks immune system cells
Attitudes and decisions based on the other’s race or ethnicity offend because they stereotype groups and individuals, shackling both without good cause. Debate about the Forum of Black Journalists has centred on its total exclusion of non-black journalists. Is this racism in reverse or an attempt at redress?
Former South African president Nelson Mandela personally congratulated 23 students who were awarded the Mandela Rhodes scholarship for 2008 on Tuesday in Johannesburg. The 89-year-old Mandela slowly entered the room of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation where the students were anxiously awaiting the moment they would meet him.
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/ 18 February 2008
An anti-Aids gel that had reached the final phase of testing was unable to prevent the transmission of HIV, research NGO and non-profit organisation the Population Council said on Monday. It said the third phase of the clinical trials into the product found it ineffective in preventing male-to-female HIV transmission during vaginal intercourse.
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/ 13 February 2008
Attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement between a KwaZulu-Natal ferromanganese factory and its workers over compensation for manganese poisoning foundered on Wednesday. The workers’ trade union and attorney accused the company, Assmang, of negotiating in bad faith.
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/ 8 February 2008
Springbok coach Peter has challenged black clubs which claim he is neglecting black talent to name the players they say are overlooked. De Villiers reacted to complaints that rugby authorities paid no attention to black areas and therefore denied talented youngsters opportunities to play at the highest level.
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/ 7 February 2008
President Thabo Mbeki will strive to show he is still in charge of the country on Friday when he makes his first State of the Nation address since being ousted as leader of the ruling party in December. Jacob Zuma, front-runner to succeed Mbeki as head of state, has already begun to eclipse his rival through control of the party.
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/ 24 January 2008
President Thabo Mbeki congratulated the country’s top matric students of 2007 — 18 pupils from the nine provinces — at the presidential guest house in Pretoria on Thursday. The pupils had received scholarships through the Thabo Mbeki Matric Merit Awards programme, which is administered by the Thabo Mbeki Education Trust.
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/ 22 January 2008
Researchers from the University of Cape Town have developed two test HIV vaccines — the first wholly South African-developed products to enter the human clinical-trials phase, the Herald Online reported on Tuesday. The vaccines are just months away from being assessed in human clinical trials, the report said.
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/ 20 January 2008
Who governs in South Africa, and by what rules? Is it a political party, the ANC? Or is it the government that was elected by the citizens of South Africa? In normal times this is not an issue in parliamentary systems like ours, write Christina Murray and Richard Simeon.
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/ 23 December 2007
Thabile* was 15 when she was forced to marry a man in his thirties in the Mgudlulweni village near Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape. Her parents agreed to "give" their daughter to him. She did not know about the marriage or consent to it. On her way to school one day, four men abducted her. "I was walking to school and they grabbed me. They took me to a man I did not know to be my husband," Thabile says.
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/ 4 December 2007
A leading South African heart surgeon pleaded on Monday, the 40th anniversary of the world’s first heart transplant, for more government support for medical research. Professor Johan Brink was speaking at the opening of a refurbished transplant museum at the hospital.
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/ 26 November 2007
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African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma leads the race for nominations for the post of party president with five provinces supporting him, to President Thabo Mbeki’s four, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Sunday.
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/ 22 November 2007
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The battle for the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) moves one step closer this week to a head-to-head clash between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. While there has been talk of a compromise candidate, one commentator believes that time has run out for that option.
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/ 17 November 2007
A University of Cape Town (UCT) commercial law professor was stabbed to death during a robbery in Rondebosch on Friday, Western Cape police said. Police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana said the professor was walking down Roslyn Road between 6pm and 6.30pm on Friday evening. He was then approached by two men who tried to grab his bag.
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/ 4 November 2007
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After eight years at the helm of Africa’s economic powerhouse, Thabo Mbeki cuts an increasingly lonely figure as the battle for the reins of the African National Congress (ANC) approaches its finale. As well as taking fresh blows from his political foes, the president has also become the target of senior ANC party members.
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/ 2 November 2007
Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and HIV have merged into a double-barrelled pandemic that is sweeping across sub-Saharan Africa and threatening global efforts to eradicate both diseases, according to a report released on Friday. Overburdened health systems are unable to cope with the epidemic and risk collapse, says the report.
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/ 19 October 2007
Children’s rights activists on Friday urged MPs to push through a Bill that will ban corporal punishment of children, saying it was vital that children be protected from violence. The social development portfolio committee on Thursday postponed deliberations on the measure after members of the African National Congress’s parliamentary caucus reportedly objected.
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/ 15 October 2007
The leaders of emerging powerhouses South Africa, India and Brazil will meet in Pretoria this week to bolster trade and energy ties as well as flex their collective muscle on world affairs. All three countries see their alliance, known as Ibsa (India-Brazil-South Africa), as an opportunity to push the concerns of developing countries in the southern hemisphere.
Ships have been put on alert after an iceberg was spotted floating off St Francis Bay in the Eastern Cape, the Cape Argus reported on Tuesday. The large white mass, said to be about 35 nautical miles offshore, is estimated to be 25m long and 20m high. It was reported by a single vessel, the Ntini, which was sailing in the area on Monday night.
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/ 25 September 2007
Research done at the University of Cape Town shows that advertisers do not pay more for a white readership, despite the findings of a South African Human Rights Commission report seven years ago. A paper published on Tuesday finds that, allowing for socioeconomic differences, there is no discounted advertising rate for a black audience.
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/ 16 September 2007
As South Africa debates the political challenges associated with the ANC’s year-end conference at Polokwane, this is perhaps a good moment to think beyond immediate struggles and to consider what women have achieved beyond the borders of this country.