Dr Bobby Moroe, North-West University (NWU) alumnus and Consul-General of South Africa in Lagos, Nigeria, has been announced as one of the 50 recipients of Business Review Afrika’s African Trailblazers award.

Business Review Afrika is a media house structured exclusively to review and report the business and economic activities of the African economy. Published by Business Review Afrika Limited, the Business Review Afrika magazine focuses on bringing the best of Africa to the global market, telling the African story from the African perspective.

North-West University (NWU) academic Prof Sithandiwe Mazibuko-Mbeje was able to indulge in a number of her passions last year when she was awarded a University Capacity Development Grant to visit Università Politecnica delle Marche in Italy.

Since October 2022, Prof Mazibuko-Mbeje has been working under Prof Luca Tiano, who specialises in oxidative stress, inflammation, metabolic disease and skin aging. This is a perfect opportunity for Prof Mazibuko-Mbeje, who is researching on mycotoxins and oxidative stress in various cell lines.

On 23 February the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences will be hosting a public lecture conducted by A-rated researcher and extraordinary professor, Prof Don Kurtz.

The topic of the lecture is “Venus – Earth’s Evil Twin”.

People often refer to Venus as the beautiful, bright “evening star”, but in fact it is a rocky planet that is a near twin to Earth in size.

“However, Venus is 30% closer to the Sun, and that makes all the difference,” says Prof Kurtz.

North-West University (NWU) Setswana lecturer and poet Ogodiseng Mokakale recently published an anthology of 60 Setswana poems, Tswina ya Poko.

Ogodiseng says teaching poetry at schools has lost its way, and that it is difficult to bring university students up to speed when they do not have a proper poetry background.

Fortunately, his passion for poetry motivates him to teach and instil a love and appreciation for poetry in his students.

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) School of Geo and Spatial Sciences, in collaboration with the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (KZNDARD) and Wesgrow Potatoes, hosted three farmers’ days for smallholder farmers in Swayimane and Applesbosch in January 2023.

This was to show support to these farmers and to celebrate a successful 2022 summer planting season that led to high potato yields (40 t/ha).

North-West University (NWU) academic and director of Indigenous Language Media in Africa (ILMA) research unit Prof Abiodun Salawu has commended the South African television news channel Newzroom Afrika for expanding its horizons with the launch of its first Nguni-language news broadcast.

Prof Salawu says this is a very heart-warming development.

“I believe this would make information more accessible to Nguni language speakers, and it would go a long way.

North-West University (NWU) alumnus Thato Mashishi recently joined the corporate group of Walker Morris LLP (Walker Morris), the largest single-site law firm outside of London in the United Kingdom.

This corporate group is highly rated according to the rankings of Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500 – two leading global research companies.

Thato’s areas of focus at Walker Morris are general corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital.

Another player of the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Soccer Institute has been scooped up by a professional team. Tshepiso Mahlangu joined Tuks FC in January 2023.

Tuks FC, a South African Association football club representing the University of Pretoria, currently plays in the National First Division.

Tshepiso, who captained the NWU team during the 2022 Varsity Football tournament is the second Soccer Institute player to be signed by the Pretoria-based team. Thabo Mnyamane joined Tuks FC in 2013.

North-West University (NWU) staff member Mamello Maema has recently been selected as one of the 100 Brightest Young Minds in the World Food Programme (WFP) for Southern Africa.

Mamello says the programme aims to build networks across Africa for young and upcoming leaders from various spheres allowing them to connect, inspire and innovate.

This year’s summit was co-hosted with the World Food Programme Southern Africa. The theme of the event was “Connect, Inspire, Impact: Solutions to Food Systems Challenges”.

The rampant failure of banks in Zimbabwe in the past 20 years has now been explained: a major reason is inadequate supervision of banking institutions by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and other regulatory bodies.

This is according to the doctoral study of Menelisi Ncube, who recently graduated from the North-West University (NWU) as a Doctor of Laws in mercantile law. 

In his study, Menelisi investigated why the banking institutions in Zimbabwe have been failing from around 2002 to date.