In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the exclusion of even more South African residents from economic activity has further weakened the country’s already fragile peace.

This is one of the conclusions drawn by North-West University (NWU) academic Dr Gideon van Riet, who recently published an article based on three years of research in the JB Marks Municipality. The research focused on investigating the link between the Covid-19 pandemic and South Africa’s fragile peace through the lens of crime.

Cyberattacks are occurring thick and fast as the world becomes more connected and the rewards greater.
According to a North-West University (NWU) academic, the possible rewards for cyberattackers will continue to increase, as more aspects of our everyday lives become interwoven and reliant on online interaction.

Prof Wian Erlank from the Faculty of Law says he keeps a watch on cybersecurity developments to understand how these affect other areas of law on which he conducts research.

Using genomics to understand and protect the African continent’s biodiversity could improve the resilience of plants, animals and other life forms to climate change, with a knock-on effect on food security, says North-West University (NWU) researcher Dr Roksana Majewska.

She and fellow researchers at the African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) have undertaken to safeguard and preserve African genomic biodiversity through an Africa-led effort to sequence the genomes of plants, animals, fungi and protists that are endemic to the continent.

The Earth is in trouble. It is suffocating under clouds of carbon dioxide emissions from the use of coal and other environmentally damaging resources to generate energy. These emissions are the primary cause of global warming, and if humanity wants to avoid the worst consequences of global warming*, we have to find alternatives for our energy needs.

The earlier kidney disease is detected, the more effectively it can be treated. Anja Degenaar, a master’s student in physiology at the North-West University (NWU), has set out to identify the biomarkers which will indicate deteriorating kidney function in young South Africans, ensuring early detection and treatment.

“The global prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is becoming an increasing concern, especially since CKD is expected to be the fifth leading cause of mortality by the year 2040,” she says.

Phenyo Mokgothu

North-West University (NWU) student and Setswana writer Lesego Motlhankana has taken the world by storm.

Willie du Plessis

Taken prisoner, isolated from loved ones and incarcerated with thousands of others in lice-infested camps.

This was the reality for many German men living in South Africa and South West Africa during the Second World War, when the government of former Prime Minister Jan Smuts held them in internment camps.

A new donation to the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Library Services focuses on what life was like for these men during their incarceration.

Bertie Jacobs

It is no joke. From 1 April, the North-West University (NWU) will host the 2022 Women's FIH Hockey Junior World Cup at the Astroturf fields in Potchefstroom.

This is the ninth time the event has been presented, and it would have taken place in December, but the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus put paid to those plans.

Now, 16 teams comprising the best under-21 hockey players on the planet will come together next to the Mooi River from 1 to 12 April.

They were the twin murders that enraged a community and shocked a nation. On Saturday, 26 May 2018, 19-year-old Xander Bylsma murdered Sharnelle Hough (17) and Marna Engelbrecht (16) in their hostel in the small town of Stella.

South Africa’s economic growth of 1,2% in the fourth quarter of 2021 has yielded an overall positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 4,9% in 2021, which is a welcome rebound in the economy after the devastating -6,4% growth in 2020.

According to Prof Raymond Parsons, economist from the Business School of the North-West University (NWU), half the sectors in the economy, especially mining and agriculture, made positive contributions to the economic recovery in the final quarter of the year.