Social service information is just an app away for senior citizens

On a dusty street of a village in the North West Province a group of 12-year-olds are cheering each other on as they play kgati, an indigenous game using a skipping rope. As the game intensifies one of them hears her grandmother shouting from the kitchen, requesting her to go to their ward counsellor’s house and ask if social grants will be paid…

SA’s fiscal arithmetic and growth outlook remain weak and vulnerable

The economic and fiscal strategies outlined in Tito Mboweni’s 2018 medium term budget policy statement (MTBPS) on 24 October 2018 are likely to have a mixed impact on business and the markets, given the constraints governing the fiscal framework.

Although facing an unenviable task, the Finance Minister…

Gr8 Success! – a serious game for teaching soft skills

Meet Faith Sibiya and Carl Thomson. They are two typical varsity students. Faith is an eccentric foot-dragger and always finds an excuse to do that really important assignment… tomorrow. Carl, on the other hand, is an inattentive fusspot. In less than six months’ time, both of them have to set foot in the world of work.

Do they know that…

3-D printing to improve life

Staff and students at the North-West University's (NWU’s) Engineering Faculty are in the process of giving the traditional way of manufacturing products a huge blow. They are now using their wide variety of world class three-dimensional printers.

According to CP Kloppers, a lecturer in mechanical engineering, the purpose of this…

Researcher is first in Africa to lead global hypertension society

Normal heart rates range from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Anything above that means blood is racing at an alarming speed through your veins. One person whose blood is pumping with passion in the fight against a deadly health condition, hypertension, is Prof Alta Schutte.

Part of the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Hypertension in…

Church must bring communities together

“The church is profoundly irresponsible as it disconnects itself from the realities on the ground.”

The Methodist Church’s Bishop Paul Verryn was blunt when he said the above during a recent North-West University (NWU) Pastors’ Conference.

Pastor Verryn was a guest speaker at the conference hosted by the Faculty of Theology…

Celebrating the Groot Marico Biosphere Reserve

Over the years the North West University (NWU) has shown that it is not only dedicated to achieving academic excellence, but also to helping and developing the community and the environment.

The NWU, together with a number of other industry partners recently worked together to have the United Nations Educational, Scientific and…

Using indigenous knowledge for socio-economic growth

It would be a pity if we do not reap the fruit of the indigenous knowledge cultivated in our communities.

Fortunately the Department of Science and Technology (DST) committed itself to engaging government departments to ensure that Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) are incorporated in their policies and programmes.

By doing…

Caring connections enable resilience

“My teacher loves me.” “My social worker is like my mother, she cares.” “My neighbour cares for me; he doesn’t want me to go hungry.”

These quotes illustrate that caring connections matter for the resilience of South African adolescents facing chronic, unthinkable levels of hardship.

Prof Linda Theron’s research among young people has…

Having grit goes a long way

It is the year 2000. The share price of a multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 company peaks at $90. Their recruitment strategy reads: Hire the best, fire the rest. At the time it seemed to work, only it didn’t. That company was Enron.

“Grit” is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s perseverance - combined with a passion for a…