Cultivating hope despite the despair of Covid-19

The continuing effect of Covid-19 on mental health is felt all over the world, but especially in South Africa now that this pandemic has hit our country with a third wave. We have lost loved ones, financial stability, some of our freedom, social interaction, and a “normal” we were used to. We…

NWU academic talks about happiness

Prof Anné Verhoef of the North-West University (NWU) presented an inaugural lecture titled “Transcendence, Chance and Happiness” on 24 June 2021.

The lecture’s focus was on how happiness relates to notions of chance and transcendence. Prof Verhoef specifically looked at the relation…

NWU and University of Venda host an IKS Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Webinar

The North-West University (NWU), in collaboration with the University of Venda (UNIVEN) and Indigenous Terrain, recently co-hosted an Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Webinar series.

This first collaborative student-organised online webinar…

Grant will help SA grapple with its difficult history

South Africa is a society in which a sense of belonging is complicated by a long and deep history of division and dispossession. Four staff members of the North-West University have received an international grant from the African Critical Inquiry Programme* (ACIP) to organise a collaborative workshop that will use…

Deep learning students shine at NWU graduation ceremony

The Faculty of Engineering at the North-West University (NWU) is rightly proud of the success of its new cohort of postgraduate students in the MuST (Multilingual Speech Technologies) research niche area.

All seven master’s degree students who joined MuST’s 2019/2020 deep learning…

Government had limited options in moving to Level 4 lockdown restrictions

“The broad realities faced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in seeking to strike the right balance between lives and livelihoods to cope with the current serious third wave of Covid-19 and its delta variant should be recognised.”

In commenting on the moving of South Africa to Level 4…

What the partial independence of the Transnet National Ports Authority means

President Cyril Ramaphosa, together with Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan and Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula, announced on 22 June 2021 the establishment of the National Ports Authority as an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of Transnet in terms of the National Ports Act, 12 of 2005.

North-West University…

A decolonising communication research lecture aims to identify new horizons of practice

The North-West University’s (NWU’s)School of Communication Studies and the Social Transformation research focus area hosted an online public lecture on 18 June 2021, titled “Decolonising communication research: Excavating the layers and identifying new horizons of practice”.

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Top scientists unite to launch Pan-African Disease Foundation

A consortium of African universities and research institutions led by the Walter Sisulu University from South Africa, today announced the founding of the Sisulu Foundation for African and Pandemic Disease Response ("The Sisulu Foundation").

The Foundation will…

Keeping the lights on

As a strategy to deal with the electricity supply crisis in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on 10 June 2021 that the limit for self-generation of electricity is being moved from 1MW to 100MW. This policy change will allow the private sector to sell excess capacity into the grid, which is expected to take pressure off Eskom.…