A proud tradition of speaking up to protect the environment is alive and well.

The experts of the North-West University (NWU) have for years been part of the very popular weekly insert Omgewingspraatjies on the radio programme Brêkfis met Derrich on Radio Sonder Grense (RSG) on Saturday mornings. Prof Rialet Pieters, professor in Zoology at the School of Biological Sciences, is continuing this tradition on RSG as the NWU’s new voice on Omgewingspraatjies.

Prof Roelien Goede is passionate about teaching and moved to Potchefstroom, where she had been appointed as lecturer in the then School for Computer Science, Statistics and Mathematics, in 2001.

Her main research focus, for which she received a C2 rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa in 2018, is the improvement of data warehousing in South Africa using systems thinking.

The improvement of data warehousing includes a focus on technical improvements and on improving the readiness of graduates to enter the data warehousing industry.

Prof Hanlie Moss, research director of PhASRec (Physical Activity, Sport and Recreation) at the North-West University (NWU), completed her master’s degree in Biochemistry, although she has always had a profound interest in the way the human body moves.

She coached gymnastics while completing a BSc in Physiology and Biochemistry and decided to study human movement science to become a better coach.

From climate change and associated extreme weather events to pollutants, over-utilisation and invasive species, human activities are the main threats to freshwater species in South Africa’s largest floodplain ecosystem.

This is according to the Water Research Group (WRG) of the North-West University (NWU), which for the past 10 years has been actively involved in studies relating to water preservation in the Pongola River and floodplain (PRF).

In times of turmoil and uncertainty, expertise is indispensable. At the North-West University (NWU), potential is nurtured into expertise and moulded in a form that will serve to benefit the society that the NWU serves. Few fields of study fit this description better than chartered accountancy. In a country that faces unique challenges, chartered accountants (CAs) play a vital role in setting a course to prosperity.

Congratulations, congratulations and, once more, congratulations! History will always remember the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Dr Adele Broodryk, a senior lecturer at the School of Human Movement Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences, as being the first South African woman to complete the 2022 Comrades Marathon.

She also claimed the overall third position in the women's division with a time of 06:26:35. What makes this achievement even more remarkable is that it was the mother of two’s first Comrades Marathon.  

Game, set and match. The Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University (NWU) is set to become the country’s premier tennis destination with the completion of five new clay courts. These courts, together with ten hard courts and two grass courts, make the NWU unrivalled when compared to the court and facility offerings of other institutions.

The NWU is already a sought-after host, thanks to the successful presentation of many national and international tournaments, for example, the Davis Cup tie between South Africa and the Netherlands.

Our world is speeding up, and never in human existence have we been able to search as fast, travel as far or delve as deep. The last century alone has seen a meteoric increase in the accumulation of data and we are able to store unfathomable quantities of information to help us solve problems known and unknown. At some point the ability to optimally utilise these vast amounts of data will be beyond our reach, but not beyond that of the tools we have made.

This time of the year the humidity in Nigeria’s capital, Lagos, sticks to you like Prestik. It is oppressive, constant. Then there is Benin, Nigeria’s neighbour in the west, just a thousand kilometres above the equator. The port city of Cotonou is captive between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Noukoué, where pirates are known to roam.

 “The ‘s’ is silent,” explains Anais, who has just turned 20. “You pronounce it like ‘A-nay’.” Correcting people with the pronunciation of her name is second nature. “I am used to it,” she laughs.

However, this former pupil of Potchefstroom Gymnasium and now BCom Tourism Management student at the North-West University (NWU) does most of her talking on the chessboard. Look, this is a chess fundi if you have never seen one.