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…

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…

Good! Better! Best! School of Language Education applauds achievers

The School of Language Education recently hosted its first-ever top achievers’ event on the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Vanderbijlpark.

The event, which took on the form of a luncheon, saw more than 20 students receive recognition for their academic achievements throughout the year.

According to Dr Rhelda Krügel,…

Alumnus ranked amongst top 200 African young leaders

Eric Ntumba is a man on a mission: to bring change to the African continent. And he is doing so by continually refining his leadership skills and by taking a firm stand on issues that affect the continent.

This proud alumnus of the North-West University (NWU) recently added yet another accolade to his already impressive curriculum vitae.…

Unemployment project delivers second PhD-graduate

If the streets of Orange Farm could talk, it would tell of all the tears that had fallen on its red dirt: tears of hopelessness and poverty.

Four years ago, Melinda du Toit embarked on a PhD study. She did not know how much she would come to care for the people that roam these streets.

This week, Melinda became the second PhD-…

Aspiring social workers promise to do the right thing

“My social worker is my last hope. My social worker will help me get out of a life of abuse.” O, how that last hope would disappear if the social worker in question could not be trusted to do the right thing.

Steering them in the right direction, the second-year social work students on the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in…

Maths + science = GeeXpo success

If you still doubt the value of mathematics and science, just ask William Cronje and Reinardt Atkinson to share their future prospects with you.

William, a Grade 11 learner from Vereeniging Gymnasium, and Reinardt, a final year BSc IT student, recently programmed and calculated their way to success during the annual North-West University (…

When puppets talk, children listen!

The energy in the room full of five-year-olds is almost tangible. The moment the music starts playing and the velvet curtains draw open, their eyes shine with amazement and all quiets down. It is time for the puppets to talk and the children to listen.

Puppetry plays an important role in sharing knowledge, especially when it comes to young…

Cultivating humanity: interdisciplinary research for a better tomorrow

Poverty, unemployment, poor service delivery, lack of economic growth. There are a lot to be done before we will see the African continent truly thriving. The need for interdisciplinary research has never been greater.

The Optentia research focus area on the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Vanderbijlpark recently hosted a day…

BTMG – an equation that makes sense!

Five years since the inception of the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Bridging The Mathematical Gap learning programme, the demand for participation in the programme has grown by leaps and bounds.

Through the intervention, also referred to as the BTMG programme, many learners have not only overcome their anxiety towards mathematics, but are…