South Africans are still basking in the glow of the Springboks’ emphatic 43–10 dismantling of the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship. It was a win that restored pride, silenced doubters, and reaffirmed South Africa’s place at the summit of world rugby.
Now the Springboks will host Argentina in Durban as Rassie Erasmus’ men look to defend their Rugby Championship crown in the coming two weeks.
At a time when teachers are so often regarded as the unsung heroes of society, growing attention is being paid to the emotional burden they carry on a daily basis. The question is no longer whether teachers are under pressure, but rather how long they can withstand it without severe consequences for their own well-being and for the future of South Africa’s children. Dr Marelize Vergottini, senior lecturer in Social Work at the North-West University (NWU), cautions that the emotional well-being of our teachers is in a state of crisis – one that can no longer be ignored.
• Dr Casper Lötter: “Tenderpreneurs only care for their profits and have no regard for the crises in public safety that they have unleashed.”
• “It is imperative that all South Africans resist the revival of this American monster known as the Prison-Industrial-Complex on South African soil.”
• “In this struggle against crime, Groenewald deserves our full support.”
Man the gates, the tourists are coming! Popular European destinations such as Barcelona, Paris and Venice are being laid to siege by an unrelenting influx of tourists, prompting residents to take to the streets in protest, sometimes disruptively so. It is a tourism meltdown, and an untenable situation for those living in the very cities tourists flock to.
Budget airlines, cheap transport and low-cost accommodation have fueled this migration headache, and many of the discontented would scoff at the idea of us South Africans celebrating Tourism Month in September.
South Africa is preparing the most sweeping reconfiguration of local government since 1996. Velenkosini Hlabisa, the minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs (CoGTA), has unveiled a plan to reduce dysfunction, shore up finances and restore public trust in the country’s 257 municipalities. At least 35 of these are now deemed dysfunctional, crippled by empty coffers and chronic failures in basic service delivery.
The North-West University (NWU) is pleased with the overwhelming response to the announcement by our principal and vice-chancellor, Prof. Mzubanzi Bismark Tyobeka, regarding the financial support for qualifying postgraduate students (honours, master’s, and doctoral).This intervention is crucial in ensuring that we play our part towards our country’s research and development agenda and contribute towards the achievement of the objectives of the national development plan.
South Africa’s municipalities are rediscovering an old habit: generating their own electricity. In a country long dominated by Eskom, the lumbering state utility, the city of eThekwini has announced an ambitious strategy to reduce its reliance on the national grid by 40% by 2030. With Eskom’s ageing infrastructure, crippling debt and load-shedding woes, such moves are inevitable. Yet this raises new dilemmas about who wins and who pays.
The North West province of South Africa sits on a bedrock of riches. From platinum to chrome, vanadium to gold, the region is among the most mineral-endowed in the world. Yet its communities remain scarred by poverty and unemployment, relics of a resource economy too often divorced from local benefit. For a province where mines dominate both the landscape and livelihoods, the need to convert mineral wealth into long-term skills, jobs and technological leadership is a necessity.
As Starlink’s vast constellation of satellites traverse the sky in low-Earth orbit, they evoke wonder and awe in those gazing up at the night heavens. Science fiction has become technological reality. Yet, for South Africans, the benefits remain as distant as the stars beyond our solar system.
A tree long overlooked as goat feed could help farmers in the North West Province boost meat production and cut feed costs, new research from the North-West University (NWU) has found.