Blog

Roboticist Prof Arthur G.O. Mutambara who is an author, chartered engineer, and academic has been appointed as the executive director and full professor of the Institute for the Future of Knowledge (IFK) at the University of Johannesburg. The IFK is a cross-disciplinary ecosystem – an epistemological interface between the fourth Industrial Revolution and the Humanities. He will be establishing ...

South Africans – at least, the party-political ones – are facing the future with a large degree of consternation since the results of the local government elections were released. With  42m South Africans eligible to vote and 26m registered these are the key considerations: There was a low turnout of 46% of registered voters. That is not unusual in local government elections. What was dif...

The CoP dance continues. One step forward, two steps back. With a jump to the left then a leap to the right. If we are to accept that the agreements reached in Glasgow is where this process will end, we must accept a 2,5 degrees Celsius warming and some dire consequences.  The credibility of the process is – again – being tested. However, it remains the only global forum and is valuable in m...

by Naledi Nomalanga Mkhize Many years ago, I had lunch with an American education funder. Her name could have been Rachel or Lindsay, I cannot remember, but it just fit the profile of the kind of person who jets into South Africa every two years to check on projects, catch some sun and fun in Cape Town, and then returns to the United States feeling like she changed the world. Anyway, at this lunc...

By Nomfundo Mogapi Our starting point: psychological depletion South Africa’s population was critically psychologically depleted even before Covid-19 dropped a pall of fear, stress and confusion over the country. Reports note that somewhere between one in four and one in six South Africans suffers from some form of mental disorder during their lifetime, with only 15-25% of affected individuals ...

In 1998, Coleman Andrews was appointed by Saki Makozoma to turn SAA around. Two years later, he left with an after-tax payment of US$29m (R500m today) as well as a portion of the R200m paid to Bain (a consultancy he founded) and appointed to SAA. He also spent R118m on nine expatriate managers. Coleman and company left SAA – having achieved what he was contracted to do – bereft of a susta...

Mr Sabelo Dumezweni, Lomso’ Father; Mr Khulile Qamata, Nyanga SSS Principal; Dr Futhi Mtoba; Lomso Dumezweni; Lerato Mathenjwa; and Jethro Leshaba, TEACH Ambassador. TEACH South Africa (TEACH) attended the announcement of the 2019 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination results at Vodacom on 06 January 2020. TEACH Ambassador Mr Jethro Leshaba and the principal from Nyanga Senior Secondary ...

Conventional wisdom tells us that the Chinese are buying up Africa faster than any other investors. It tells us that African banking lags in terms of innovation and reliability and that no African country is at the forefront of global innovation. But conventional wisdom is often wrong and it is important to recognise that we don’t have the Africa we think we have. What do I mean? Perhaps we can...