The Quest For Intellectual Leadership
When Xolela Mangcu first stepped onto Wits campus in 1983, he swiftly gained a reputation for his undiluted Black Consciousness politics. Three decades later he sticks to his guns. […]
How Is South Africa’s Linefish And Seafood Doing?
There’s good news and there’s bad when it comes to the state of South Africa’s linefish and seafood. The bad news is that 79% of our key linefish species are over-exploited or collapsed, with populations of household favourites such as Cape Salmon/Geelbek reduced to 3% of their original abundance and kob/kabeljou reduced to somewhere around [...]
New ‘Boutique’ Carbon Projects For SA
It’s relatively easy to measure how many tons of carbon are present in a tropical forest, using physical measurements and satellite photos. But how do you measure how much carbon is present in a wetland or in a million hectares of grassland soil? It’s not easy, says Onno Huyser, the WWF Senior Manager for Fynbos [...]
It’s All About Caring About People
Caring about people is the formula for success, says Wits alumnus Stan Bergman who heads up a US$9-billion company in New York. […]
Green Jokes, How To Meet Woman And Avos
The other day I received an online survey asking “What do you think about avos?” It said that if I took the time to answer the survey I would be in the running for a bumper supply of the all green fruit. […]
Scotland, Anarchists & Taming The Tiger
“Going to Scotland to do my Masters in Law was one of the best choices I ever made in my life,” says Professor Nqosa Mahao who is originally from Lesotho and who has a Masters in Law from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from the University of the Western Cape. […]
Future Cities, Future World
You wake up in the morning, switch on your solar-powered lights, head over to your coffee maker and enjoy a delicious renewable energy beverage. You get dressed in carbon neutral clothes produced by off grid factories and catch the wind-powered underground to your energy-efficient office. A dream? No. Welcome to Masdar City in the United [...]
The Karoo’s First Protected Environment
The first Protected Environment in the Karoo, Eastern Cape, has been proclaimed. Called the Compassberg Protected Environment it is a critical water catchment area spanning 42 000 hectares of livestock and game farms, and including the iconic Compassberg. […]
Impatience for change: The 1976 – 1981 Era Of Activism at Wits
The 1970s at Wits were a time of mass meetings, all-night vigils, marches, arrests and security police spies. The decade ushered in the June 16 uprisings and the era of Africanisation, when the SRC and the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) took a long, hard look at what it meant to be South [...]
China Time
“They’re taking over the world!” a resident from the country town of Middelburg in the Karoo stopped me outside the ‘Chinese shop’. She was whispering but it was more like a shout. “Look!” she said. I looked and I saw a bunch of Chinese people offloading a truckload of stuff and carrying it into the [...]