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High-risk areas are concentrated in townships and informal settlements, including Khayelitsha, Crossroads, Philippi and Gugulethu.

1.9 million Cape Town residents face high to very high air pollution risk, new UCT research reveals

More than 40% of Cape Town’s population is exposed to high or very high air pollution risk, according to a new UCT study that reveals sharp environmental inequalities across the…

Whizz kids: The 2025 cohort of the National Science and Technology Forum’s Brilliants Programme. Photos: National Science and Technology Forum

Top pupils get wings to help SA soar

Through the NSTF Brilliants Programme, a group of top maths and science learners are becoming tomorrow’s problem-solvers, innovators and leaders

Hout Bay’s marine environment is threatened by pharmaceutical and personal care product compounds that have accumulated in marine life, even kilometres from pollution sources, University of Cape Town researchers have found.

Pharmaceuticals found in Hout Bay mussels

Medication and personal care products have accumulated in mussels that are far from the sewage outlet and river mouths

Powering the future: Senzability’s vision for renewable energy through mine rehabilitation 

Lorraine Mvubelo is at the forefront of transforming South Africa’s mining landscape with Senzability Energy, a company dedicated to responsible mining practices while uplifting…

South African higher academic institutions have called for a ceasefire and the promotion of education in Palestine-Israel

University of Pretoria still reviewing resolution on Palestine

Students and staff at the university who are sympathetic to Palestine have asked that it boycott all Israeli academic institutions

The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) team.

The cosmos decoders

IDIA team pioneers data-intensive astronomy in South Africa

The students’ demands and the reactions they solicit no longer match those of 2015’s #FeesMustFall – students need an actionable plan, funds, accommodation.

Why do the student protests seem different this year?

Their demands and the reactions they solicit no longer match those of 2015’s #FeesMustFall – students need an actionable plan, funds, accommodation

Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice Chancellor, University of Cape Town. Copyright: University of Cape Town.

UCT council offered to drop probe against vice-chancellor if she agreed to early-retirement package

Council said it would withdraw all allegations, including that Phakeng misled the senate and had a role in the resignation of executives

The University of Cape Town (UCT) council has received a new complaint against embattled vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng from suspended executive director for communication and marketing Gerda Kruger.

UCT council receives new claim from Kruger against vice-chancellor Phakeng

Meeting postponed to January as Phakeng faces mounting opposition to her leadership at the divided campus, including accusations of flouting governance processes

The University of Cape Town (UCT) council has received a new complaint against embattled vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng from suspended executive director for communication and marketing Gerda Kruger.

R27m: Cost to remove UCT vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng

She is accused of flouting governance processes, along with council chair Babalwa Ngonyama, particularly regarding the exit of deputy vice-chancellor Lis Lange

Hunters and hunted: Caracal prey on rodents, hares and antelope. However, they are hunted by farmers during the lambing season. (Thomas Dressler)

Predators: Beauties or beasts?

How farmers perceive jackal and caracal — as ‘beautiful’ or ‘thieves’ — determines whether they will tolerate them on their livestock farms

Extinction threat: The African penguins breed on islands off South Africa’s coast, including in the St Croix Island Reserve near the Coega River mouth. Photo: Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild/Getty Images

Penguins can’t get enough to eat

The causes include commercial fishing near their colonies and a scarcity of sardines and anchovies

UCT needs to clean up its dirty investments

The University has appointed a panel to advise the university on the fossil fuel intensity of its finances

(John McCann/M&G)

EU-banned pesticides are harming farmworkers in SA

The department does not even have a list of registered pesticides, a damning report finds

Archivists have started collecting recovered artefacts but nowhere near all the material was digitised. (David Harrison/M&G)

‘Hopefully, it’s all been digitised . . .’

Actually, digitising archives is far more complex, expensive and arduous than it sounds

The things we lost in the fire

The fight for equality is valid but the burning down of our universities is not the revolution or decolonisation any of us should want

Destruction of UCT’s special collections is less than imagined

But among the items destroyed were 3 000 films in the African Studies collection

Condemnation of UCT lecturer misses context

Groups slam UCT professor’s Hitler comment without an understanding of the lecture’s purpose

UFS: Private security moves on campus to monitor protests

The vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State has spoken about academic measures for students for the academic year following the national shutdown

The University of Cape Town leads the continent on the rankings.
(Mike Hutchings/Reuters)

UCT to undo racial appointments through its new employment policy

This comes after the university made headlines for allegedly failing to adhere to its own policies when it comes to employing staff