​In October 2020, leading industry publication The Analytical Scientist announced the release of its annual Power List. 

The Power List celebrates the tremendous range of talent, ingenuity and leadership present across all corners of analytical science. This year, they have done so by highlighting the pioneering work and passion of 10 leading minds from each major continent (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, North America).

To identify the top scientists in the field, the publication held open nominations and passed these on to a panel of independent judges, who chose 60 winners. 

Lucky Mo​kwena, divisional manager of the CAF GC-MS Mass Spectrometry Unit was chosen for this list. Read the article ​about him and find out more about the CAF GC-MS Mass Spectrometry laboratory on Stellenbosch Campus.

​Press release by The Analytical Scientist​​​

​

With October being Mental Health Awareness Month in South Africa, Stellenbosch University's Unit for Psychotherapeutic Support Services (UPSS) is hosting online webinars, facilitated by Stellenbosch University (SU) staff specialising in the fields of psychiatry, psychology as well as sexuality, throughout the month.

In one of UPSS' recent webinars, Prof Renata Schoeman did a presentation on rethinking resilience in the era of COVID-19. Schoeman is a practising psychiatrist and the Head of the MBA in Health Care Leadership programme at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB).

According to Schoeman, resilience can be defined as “the ability to adapt after experiencing setbacks and difficult life events whilst maintaining positive mental health," which she believes is what many people had to do during the pandemic.

During her presentation, Schoeman shared recent research and her clinical experience concerning resilience and gave webinar participants tips and advice on how to build and maintain resilience in these challenging times.

“Studies have shown that one of the most important ways to improve your resilience is to be more optimistic. Optimism does not mean we have rose coloured glasses on and we approach life as if we are in an eerie fairy tale. Optimism mean we approach things realistically and with confidence," said Schoeman.

According to Schoeman, since many people are working from home, they are struggling to create a work life balance and separating their daily work tasks from their personal life.

She believes that it is now more than ever important to have “work life structuring" and to practice “self-care everyday" to avoid burnout and suffering from mental health issues in the long term.

“It is important to tap into social support. Surround yourself with healthy and happy relationships, because your own happiness will increase if you do so. It is also important to surround yourself with role models and mentors throughout your life that can help you to navigate uncertainty and to help you be more resilient in your work and personal life."

The UPSS' next webinars will take place online 19 and 26 October 2020.

For more information on the webinars, click here.​

​​An alternative economic strategy for South Africa, proposed by Dr Nthabiseng Moleko and Prof Mark Swilling, could see South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) doubling in 10 years, 10 million people moving out of poverty, and unemployment cut by two-thirds to 12% by 2030.

This strategy seeks to ensure that there is better alignment between South Africa’s economic policy and the constitutional commitment to heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on social justice and correcting structural economic inefficiencies and inequalities.

South Africa's response to the Covid-19 crisis is an opportunity to reconfigure, restructure and rebuild the economy by departing from more than two decades of post-apartheid economic policy which has seen lacklustre growth and not achieved significant gains in economic equality, says a report released by the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) and the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University today (14 October 2020).

Continuing on the current path, reliant on “mainstream economic thinking and use of existing micro-economic solutions" is unlikely to deliver different outcomes in the future, while the proposed alternative strategies are geared to diversifying the economy to support inclusive economic transformation, labour-intensive growth and a globally competitive and sustainable economy.

Titled “New Wine into New Wine Skin: An Alternative Economic Strategy for South Africa's Economic Reconstruction", the report and proposed alternative economic framework are a collaborative effort by policy-makers, economists and academics from diverse public, private and research institutions convened under the Social Justice M-Plan by Prof Madonsela, the Law Trust Chair in Social Justice at Stellenbosch University.

To overcome the stagnation of the economy, which has been deepened by Covid-19 and the national lockdown, the South African government must boldly look to drafting new economic policies that can deliver on the vision set out in the National Development Plan (NDP), the report says.

Following workshops in Stellenbosch in late 2019, an economic working group led by Prof Mark Swilling, Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development in the Stellenbosch University Centre for Complex Systems in Transition, and Dr Nthabiseng Moleko, Development Economist and Senior Lecturer: Managerial Economics and Statistics at USB, developed the proposed strategic interventions to support the emergence of an inclusive, equitable and sustainable economy.

The alternative economic framework is driven by strategic interventions in industrial policy with a target of doubling the contribution of manufacturing to GDP, prioritising labour-absorbing sectors, and boosting domestic food production and rural development. The framework envisages shifting policy on investment and mobilising domestic capital, fiscal policy aggressively targeted at higher economic growth, building state capacity for innovation and governance, and re-shaping empowerment policies to achieve real growth through redistribution.

Sluggish economic growth and the triple crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality have worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the strategic interventions proposed in the alternative economic framework have the potential to use the current crisis spending to generate inclusive growth, the report says.

Dr Moleko said Covid-19 and lockdowns around the world could trigger an economic disaster worse than the global financial crisis of 2008, with South Africa's economy expected to contract 7.2% in 2020.

“How government chooses to allocate relief funds in efforts to support economic recovery and longer-term growth can either deepen existing systemic structures or liberate South Africa's people and the real economy to drive transformative economic change."

Dr Moleko said the collaborative, multi-stakeholder exercise had produced alternative solutions to South Africa's economic challenges packaged in seven strategic policy interventions and had used economic modelling techniques to develop scenarios and analyse the potential impact of the interventions on achieving the growth targets of the NDP.

While the “business as usual" scenario for the next decade sees the economy stuck in low growth with continued high rates of unemployment, poverty and inequality; modelling of the impact of the recommended policy interventions indicates “an inclusive growth path that will deliver real and significant benefits to the private sector and working-class and poor families", she said.

“It shows that a significant portion of the poor would be able to improve their living conditions, that unemployment would decrease significantly and that the private sector would benefit from a significant expansion of the domestic market. Direct benefits accrue to government through a declining debt-to-GDP ratio and an increasing average investment-GDP ratio. Indirect benefits include a growing sense of social cohesion that could promote stable capital accumulation."

The alternative economic framework proposes a new model of the state, “enabled by enhanced coordination and supported by domestic capital mobilisation with a reduced reliance on external capital markets and financial flows".

Strategic interventions summarised:

• On industrialisation as a key growth driver, the report recommends the establishment of an Industrial Council to enable coherent planning across the various institutions falling under the Department of Trade, Industry and Economic Development. Although under a single umbrella, agencies such as the Industrial Development Corporation, Small Enterprise Finance Agency and the National Empowerment Fund use different incentives and policy instruments, leading to fragmented and ineffective programmes.
• The alternative framework sets a target of doubling the contribution of manufacturing to GDP by shifting from primary sector activities to high-value-added goods and processing of agricultural products.
  
• A phased approach would initially develop highly labour-intensive sectors, adopting a more capital-intensive growth path over the longer term and transitioning to technology-based industrial development.
  
• Arguing that South Africa's unemployment challenges are due to ineffective interventions rather than lack of funding, labour-absorbing strategies are proposed to address the lack of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs and the mismatch between skills production and labour demand.
• Sectors with potential to absorb large numbers of unemployed people – including agro-processing, plastics, metals, construction machinery and the transition to renewable energy – should be prioritised, with education and skills programmes aligned to their needs.
• Sectors that do not hold the potential to absorb much more labour – chemicals, machinery and equipment, and agricultural and transport machinery, for example – but that still play a key role in value chains should be supported through employment-generation conditions in state procurement programmes.
• Alternative rural development and domestic food production strategies are needed to address high levels of economic inactivity, unemployment, food insecurity and dependence on social grants in rural areas, and to grow the share of black farmers in the agricultural sector.
• Alternative strategies would link the rural farming economy to upstream and downstream value chains, and improve access to markets, including by providing state-subsidised credit to small-scale farmers.
• A “radical shift in approach" to investments, domestic resource mobilisation and private sector participation is proposed to support expansion of manufacturing sectors and stimulate long-term economic growth.
• The new approach would include reconfiguring the role of the Public Investment Corporation, development finance institutions and public and private pension funds to mobilise domestic financial resources and drive growth through redistribution and structural reform. 
• Enabling debt instruments that will grow industrial and productive capacity and generate positive social outcomes are recommended, along with imposing a tax on “idle capital" to encourage corporations to reinvest rather than stockpiling capital.
• Strategic fiscal measures should link government expenditure to economic output and the impact on poverty, inequality and unemployment, while fiscal stimulus packages would revive supply side sectors, boost industry and drive competitiveness.
• Advancing economic recovery can be achieved through inflation targeting, quantitative monetary easing and lower interest rates, rather than by increasing public expenditure and tax cuts.
• Fiscal stimulus should focus on sectors such as energy and those that can generate greatest socio-economic impacts over both short- and long-term, achieving poverty alleviation alongside growth. Non-debt fiscal stimulus interventions are also recommended, including redirecting the investments of the PIC and development finance institutions, zero-rating certain items, increasing grants and restructuring the tax system.
• A new paradigm to build state capacity is needed to reverse the “hollowing out" of already limited capacity due to state capture and create a successful developmental state. This should focus on enabling effective relationships of trust between the state and stakeholders, particularly private business and civil society, and shifting to “good enough governance" that can adapt to changing dynamics.
• Government officials should be supported and rewarded for innovative risk-taking (for the right reasons) and be able to work through partnerships to achieve their mandates.
• State-led transformation interventions such as Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) have failed to achieve equitable participation in the economy, and the alternative framework proposes a number of strategies for economic growth through redistribution.               
• An empowerment model should be driven by the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act to encourage and provide fiscal support to rural and township enterprises to participate in national and provincial procurement programmes.
• Land transfers for agricultural and manufacturing use should be finalised in order to support the emergence of a new class of farmers and industrialists, while amendments to the Competition Act are recommended for fast-tracking to limit oligopolies and open access for locally-owned retailers in small towns, villages and townships.

“The recommended interventions aim to stimulate, stabilise and strengthen the economic framework to realise a socially just and sustainable economy. Shifting the economy will require the consistent implementation of stimulus-orientated policies that aim to expand aggregate demand and supply while growing productivity, employment levels, and income and expenditure at the business and household levels. This provides the foundation for enhanced participation in the economy, particularly by the most marginalized," Dr Moleko said.

More about the M-Plan

The M-Plan is a Marshall Plan-like initiative aimed at catalysing progress towards ending poverty and reducing inequality by 2030, in line with the National Development Plan (NDP) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The name is in honor of Palesa Musa, an anti-apartheid activist who at the tender age of 12 was one of the school children that were arrested, detained and tortured for challenging the apartheid government.

The M-Plan seeks to foster social accountability and social cohesion, mobilise corporate and civil society resources to fund socio-economic inclusion and foster civic responsibility.

It aims to leverage data analytics to enhance the state's capacity to pass laws that reduce poverty and inequality and to foster a culture of data based decision-making, focusing on assessing and predicting the likely social justice impact of planned policies, legislation and plans as well as those already in operation.

Dear member of the Stellenbosch University (SU) community

I am pleased to announce that the joint working groups established last year to combat gender-based violence (GBV) at our institution have completed their work and published a final report. This lays the foundation for all stakeholders to go forward together against this scourge on our campuses and more broadly in society.

The report reiterates that SU has a zero-tolerance approach to gender-based violence and is committed to creating an environment and institutional culture free of gender violence and advancing equal rights and social justice for all. We condemn, and will not tolerate, GBV, which is why we are mustering all the resources at our disposal to fight it.

Let me briefly provide some background. Following nationwide protests against GBV and femicide in 2019, the Anti-GBV Movement SU handed over a memorandum to management, to which we responded. In subsequent meetings, six joint working groups were set up to act systemically to combat GBV and address the issues raised in the memorandum as well as the reply.

A member of the Rectorate served in each of the six working groups, which also comprised representatives from University structures most relevant to the topics under discussion, as well as from the student body. The working groups reported to the Rectorate, through the Senior Director: Student Affairs, Dr Choice Makhetha.

The work of the respective groups centred on (1) values and principles, (2) procedures and processes, (3) residences and structures, (4) mental health and alcohol and substance abuse, (5) training and awareness, and (6) safety and security. The groups were tasked to investigate the issues and requested to make specific and implementable recommendations linked to line functions.

The working groups set about gathering information by hosting meetings and discussion forums on our Stellenbosch and Tygerberg campuses, and distributing questionnaires. To broaden the process, all students and staff were invited to submit written inputs.

A draft report was submitted to the Rectorate, to which we provided feedback, followed by the final report, which has since been distilled into a draft action plan that aims to address GBV systemically across the University over the short to medium term.

The final report and draft action plan will be discussed with institutional bodies and other relevant role-players in the coming weeks with a view to finalise the specifics of implementation, including timeframes. Both documents will then be published on the SU website.

This work will happen through different responsibility centres at the University and will be integrated into the different operational facets of our institution. Regular progress reports will be submitted to the Rectorate.

However, I must stress that curbing GBV is the joint responsibility of the entire University community. As Dr Makhetha says in her introduction to the report, this is not a fight any group can fight on its own or separately from others. Implementation of the action plan will be monitored on an ongoing basis and progress and achievements reported regularly to the University community.

The broader context of our fight against GBV is provided by the Constitution of South Africa, the Higher Education Act, other applicable legislation and the current SU Statute (published in 2019). The South African judicial system has the responsibility to deal with criminal procedures in terms of applicable legislation.

SU has educational and safety measures to curb violence as much as possible. The University has the mandate to act in accordance with our Disciplinary Code for Students, Policy on Unfair Discrimination and Harassment, Use of Alcohol Policy, as well as our disciplinary codes and processes. All of these will be reviewed in relation to the recommendations and shortcomings pointed out in the report of the joint working groups, as well as the key tenets of the recently published Policy Framework to Address GBV in the Post-School Education and Training System.

All our actions are rooted in our institutional values of excellence, compassion, accountability, respect and equity. We are opposed to all forms of harm to the dignity and well-being of individual members of our university community.

While allowing for contextual differences, SU will strive to ensure parity on all our campuses with the implementation of various measures flowing from the action plan to eradicate all forms of GBV and inequity.

I would like to join Dr Makhetha in expressing my gratitude to all the staff members and students who have served on the working groups. We appreciate the work done by everyone involved not only to raise concerns and grievances, but also offer constructive suggestions.

We remain committed to collaborating with all our staff and students to intensify the institutional efforts against GBV, and to address unacceptable behaviours and practices.

​Prof Michael le Cordeur is one of the winners of the Neville Alexander prestige awards for his lifelong commitment to promote Afrikaans​. Click on the links below to read ​​the articles:

• Die Afrikaanse Taalmuseum & -monument
  
• ​​​​afrikaans.com
  

​According to the World Health Organisation, depression is a common illness worldwide, with more than 264 million people affected. Depression may become a serious health condition if one does not recognise and react to the problems that it may be causing an individual. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide, with 800 000 people dying due to suicide every year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.

Depression does not distinguish between race, sex, cultures and nationality, so anyone can suffer from depression. This is particularly true in such a diverse nation as South Africa.

One may ask: “Why do depression sufferers not seek help? “

Most people do not get the help they need because:

• they do not see depression as “a real illness"

• Many people blame themselves and feel guilty; they do not want to be seen as being “weak"

• Stigmatisation (self and external) factors lead to delay in seeking help

What is Depression?

Depression involves disturbances of mood and thoughts, often leading to physical symptoms like disrupted sleep and eating problems. It affects the way one functions in everyday life and the way one feels about oneself. The onset is often over a long period of time, so one may not react to the above problem immediately, like one would do when faced with a physical problem. Depression is not the same as ordinary, everyday blues that we all feel sometimes. Functional difficulties occur at work, at school and in relationships. These problems just worsen if not addressed timeously.

Depression symptoms and signs:

• One feels “sadness" and hopelessness most of the time.

• Feelings of guilt, or feeling helpless.

• Loss of interest activities that you previously once enjoyed,

• Sleep disturbances, like early-morning awakening, or excessive sleeping, not wanting to get out of bed

• Weight fluctuations, either losing weight by not eating or gaining weight by overeating.

• Constant lethargy, fatigue and feeling “slowed down"

• Suicidal ideation and/or previous suicide attempts

• Often accompanying anxiety symptoms, even anxiety about the current depressive state – “I don't feel myself…"

• Difficulty concentrating, remembering things – patients often worry about “hyperactivitity and concentration disorders"

• Multitude of physical symptoms including headaches, stomach pain, chest pain, etc – one can actually complain of “any symptom under the sun", all exacerbated by the depressive state

Causes of Depression

Depression has many inter-related causes. Sometimes a negative life event may lead to depression and often depression comes on for no apparent reason, even for people whose lives are seemingly “going well". Some possible reasons include:

Life events: eg the break-up of a relationship/ loss of a loved one, a traumatic event, financial/ legal worries, loneliness (especially during lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic), retirement – these can all result in depression.

Family History: close family members who have had diagnosed and treated depression sometimes may make one more vulnerable to have depression as well, especially 1^st degree relatives.

Depression is also believed to be caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals, which is what the antidepressant medications seek to stabilise. Other medical illnesses eg HIV, and other health problems, can also cause depression. Some medications, like treatment for high blood pressure, birth control pills, and steroids may also aggravate depressive tendencies.

Treatments

Depression is a very treatable mental condition and the majority of people recover completely after a course of treatment. We always suggest that you see your GP to exclude other causes as indicated above.

Anti-depressant medications

The majority of people with depression will make a good recovery on medications, especially if combined with psychotherapy or counselling. If one medicine doesn't work for you, the GP will suggest another one. Anti-depressants don't work quickly - it takes 2-3 weeks to start feeling better, and there is also a 2-3 weeks taper period once you wish to stop the medications. It is very important not to stop taking the pills abruptly. The medications may cause mild side-effects like a dry mouth, headache, nausea or dizziness, which usually pass in a week or two. Always tell the doctor if you are pregnant or have any other illnesses. Call your doctor if you have a question about any medicine or visit your local clinic.

Psychotherapy or “talk" therapy

Psychotherapy (or talk therapy) with a psychologist, social worker, or counsellor gives people the skills to cope with their illness in the short- and long- terms.

Support Groups

Support Groups are a very good way to get support and advice from people who have been through the same experiences as you have. They are often run by patients for other patients as a safe place where you can share experiences and ask for assistance.

Call SADAG 0800 20 51 21 for contacts in your area. Read the SADAG brochure here.

Other Relevant contacts:

SA Depression and Anxiety Group 0800 70 80 90; 011 262 6396

SADAG www.sadag.co.za; SMS 31393

On Stellenbosch Campus:

Campus Health Service Stellenbosch 021 8083496; Tygerberg 021 9389590; Emergency 076 4310305

CSCD Emergency 082 5570880;

ER24 Emergency 010 2053032 (all students)

HR Stellenbosch University 021 8082753 (all staff)

​The need for effective campus-based suicide prevention programmes at universities was highlighted in a study conducted by a team of researchers in SU's Department of Psychology and Psychiatry. The research team consisted of Dr Wylene Saal, Dr Elsie Breet, Prof Christine Lochner and Janine Roos, under the leadership of Prof Jason Bantjes.

Data collected from first-year students at SU and the University of Cape Town showed that 30,6% had experienced thoughts of suicide in the past 12 months, while 1,6% had made a suicide plan, and 2,4% had attempted suicide. These rates are markedly higher than those typically found in the country's general population.

Is there cause for concern?

There are no accurate data about the number of students in SA who complete suicide. Still, anecdotal evidence suggests that deaths as a result of suicide among students are a cause for concern.

Students with suicidal thoughts and behaviours most frequently reported that these problems started when they were between 15 and 16 years of age. Students rarely started experiencing suicidal thoughts before the age of 11, but the reported cases of onset increased sharply up to age 18, after which there was a marked decline in onset. Less than 15% of students reported that their suicidal thoughts started after they were 18 years old. More than half (57,2%) of students who had experienced thoughts of suicide in the past 12 months transitioned to making a suicide plan, while 19,1% of those who had made a plan went on to attempt suicide.

The onset of suicidality was associated with having a mental health problem, highlighting the importance of promoting student mental health as an integral component of campus-based suicide prevention programmes.

Promoting student mental health

 This research forms part of the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health International College Student Initiative, an international network of experts working to promote the mental health of university students across the globe. This network was established in response to growing awareness of the high rates of psychological distress among university students internationally and the need for a coordinated global response. Studies show that as many as 31% of students report having suffered from a common mental disorder (most often depression, anxiety or attention difficulties) in the 12 months before the study.

Data from South Africa show that in the preceding 12 months, 20,8% of first-year students experienced clinically significant problems with anxiety, and 13,6% experienced problems with depression. More research is needed to ensure that suicide prevention strategies are evidence-based and focused on reaching the students most at risk. This work is particularly important given that mental health resources are scarce in South Africa, and that universities face considerable resource constraints.

Universities South Africa (USAF), an organisation representing the country's universities, has recognised the need for action in this area and initiated a national student mental health survey. This research is funded by the South African Medical Research Council and will be completed in 2020. It has the support of many vice-chancellors of South Africa's publicly funded universities and promises to provide data that will enable an evidence-based public health approach to promoting student mental health in the country.​

* This article featured in the latest edition of Stellenbosch University (SU)'s  multi-award winning publication Research at Stellenbosch University . Produced annually by SU's Division for Research Development (DRD), this flagship publication offers the national and international research community as well as other interested parties a comprehensive, yet accessible overview of innovative and interesting research being done at the institution.The theme of the edition is Research for Impact which is one of SU's core strategic themes from its Vision 2040 and Strategic Framework 2019–2024.

Click here to access the virtual copy.  

​

​​Thabani Mtsi, a Master's student in Civil Engineering at Stellenbosch University (SU), won the SU heat of the 2020 national FameLab science communication and public speaking competition. The virtual event took place on Wednesday (14 October). Kaylan Reddy, a Master's student in Botany and Zoology, and Zimbili Sibiya, a doctoral student in Forest and Wood Science, finished second and third respectively. Considered one of the biggest science communication competitions in the world, FameLab creates a platform for young scientists to speak to public audiences about their work.

Mtsi and 23 other postgraduate students were given only three minutes to share their research with the audience. He spoke about ways in which the minibus taxi industry user experience can be improved, while Reddy talked about how indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants can be combined with brain biology to treat  anxiety and depression. Sibiya focused on the link between nature and technological sustainability. As the winner of the heat, Mtsi will represent SU at the national final in April 2021 where he will compete against the winners of heats at other universities in South Africa. 

The SU FameLab heat was organised by Jive Media and the Postgraduate Office which forms part of the Division for Research Development. The judges were Martin Viljoen (Corporate Communication and Marketing), Wilma Stassen (Marketing & Communications at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences), Dr Palesa Mothapo (Research Development) and Prof Nox Makunga (Botany and Zoology).

Commenting on his win, Mtsi, said “my life purpose is to inspire and edify those within my sphere of influence and everything I do is in service of this purpose. It is imperative that we use our academic pursuits to build the communities that built us because we are because of them. I was clothed, fed and raised by the taxi industry and so 'isintu' has it that I reciprocate that benevolence."

Regarding the importance of science communication, he said “Science that is circumscribed to the bounds of scientific journals and papers has stifled societal applicability. The gap between science and society needs to be bridged so that we can co-create solutions — particularly on the Afrikan continent."

Mtsi also boasts a Mandela Rhodes Scholarship and two Rector's Awards for Excellence, among others. His undergraduate thesis was named the best in South Africa by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering for 2018/2019.

The winner of the South African final will compete against participants from 30 countries at the international FameLab competition

• Photo: Thabani Mtsi, Kaylan Reddy.and Zimbili Sibiya

​​

Stellenbosch University (SU) staff member Mawethu Nyakatya was recently awarded with the international Visiting Professor of Community-Engaged Scholarship at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in the USA.

Nyakatya is the Manager: Research Partnerships at SU's Division for Social Impact and through the five-year scholarship he will share his knowledge and experience in community-engaged scholarship at UCF.

“The invitation is definitely a career milestone. To have one's experience and expertise recognised by peers from an international institution is wonderful. It is also an invitation to remain committed to community-engaged scholarship and continue to succeed," says Nyakatya.

UCF recently opened a new campus in the downtown part of Orlando, Florida, USA. The campus facilitates collaborative interactions with the City of Orlando, various businesses and civil society organisations, and leverages university assets to address challenges facing the city, much like the work of SU's Division for Social Impact.

Nyakatya will work in collaboration with the UCF Office of Downtown Community-Engaged Scholarship to provide objective assessments of UCF Downtown's commitment to the principles of sustainable and ethical community-engaged scholarship, and participate in training academic staff, professional staff and students in community-engaged scholarship practices.

“I hope to share my knowledge and experience of community-engaged scholarship and to learn from others to improve community engagement for social impact at Stellenbosch University and in the South African context. I would also like to use my association with UCF to create more opportunities for staff and students from the two institutions to engage."

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the scholarship will consist of online and remote engagements during the COVID-19 period and contact engagements post-COVID-19. 

According to Prof Thomas Bryer, Programme Director for Community-Engaged Scholarship at UCF, Nyakatya is one of a “select group of individuals" from inside and outside USA, whose experience and expertise he values in the efforts that they are establishing at their university.

“We know that insights, observations and questions from outside the university can help ensure that the scholarship that occurs in downtown Orlando makes the university not just a good neighbour but a trusted ally in working to address community challenges and enhance quality of life," says Bryer.

Nyakatya, along with eight other researchers, will begin the visiting scholarship early next year. 

For more information on UCF and the scholarship, click here. ​

​Three South African universities are involved in a world-first research project that aims to understand how changes in the ocean influence the recovery of humpback whale populations in the Southern Hemisphere.

During the previous century humpback whale populations were severely depleted by the modern whaling industry, with catches of over 220 000 individuals between 1904 and 1972 (from an existing population of around 140 000 prior to modern whaling). Since protection in the 1960s and 1970s, certain populations have started to recover.

The Whales and Climate Research Program was conceptualised by Prof Alakendra Roychoudhury, an environmental geochemist in the Department of Earth Sciences at Stellenbosch University (SU), in collaboration with Professor Brendan Mackey, Director of the Griffith Climate Change Response Program at Griffith University in Australia. The research team also includes Prof Ken Findlay, a whale expert from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Associate Professor Marcello Vichi, an oceanographer from the University of Cape Town (UCT), and another four research institutions from South America.

Prof Roychoudhury says the Southern Ocean is vastly unexplored, and there is an urgent need for both seasonal and long-term observations from this vast expanse of ocean: “A lack of ground-truth data provides a skewed picture in climate models, creating uncertainties. Recent observations of fluxes in carbon dioxide, a major driver in climate change, show that the Southern Ocean is behaving quite differently from what we understand from climatology and satellite data".

According to Prof Findlay from CPUT, the project breaks new ground in combining historic and more recent long-term datasets with future scenarios in multiple regions in the Southern Hemisphere.

The research team from CPUT will dive deep into these datasets: “We hope to identify and link variations in seasonal abundance and distribution of whales to the oceanographic and biogeochemical changes occurring in the Southern Ocean over the same time period," he explains.

Professor Vichi from UCT says the combination of these different data sets represent a powerful tool to understand changes in whale distribution, and will also serve as validation of climate models: “The concurrent use of ocean models with whale observation networks can help us to understand the recent large aggregations of humpbacks, called super-groups, which we have observed along the Western Cape coast," he adds.

Professor Brendan Mackey from Griffith University says the six-year research program would establish a fundamental understanding of how changing ocean conditions were influencing the recovery of humpback whale populations.

“Climate change is drastically altering ecosystems and our oceans are experiencing fast changes, affecting all marine life. The project will also develop adaptation scenarios for advancing whale conservation policies and programs," Professor Mackey said.

Dr Olaf Meynecke, a whale researcher from Griffith University and programme manager, says over the past decade a new understanding of the important role of whales as ecosystems engineers has emerged: “Recent research shows that baleen whales are integral to refertilising the upper 80 metres of the ocean, the photic zone where light penetration drives primary productivity. Whales also act as recyclers of iron, an essential micronutrient, within the upper ocean by feeding on iron-rich Antarctic krill".

The research teams from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Panama will investigate detailed movement of the South American west coast humpback whale population. During the austral summer, these populations migrate to feeding grounds in the cold waters of southern Chile and the Antarctic Peninsula. But, the western Antarctic Peninsula has been experiencing a drastic increase in warming: “There is strong scientific evidence that this warming is affecting the ecosystem," says Professor Eduardo Secchi, Federal University of Rio Grande in Brazil.

The project will run over six years and the lead team comprises climate scientists, marine ecologists and oceanographers from:

• Stellenbosch University – Professor Alakendra Roychoudhury, Dr Jan Lukas Menzel, Dr Suamik Samanta;
• University of Cape Town – Professor Marcello Vichi, Dr Subhra Dey;
• Cape Peninsula University of Technology – Professor Ken Findlay, Dr Elisa Seyboth;
• Griffith University (Australia) – Professor Brendan Mackey, Dr Olaf Meynecke, Dr Serena Lee and Dr Jasper De Bie;
• Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (Brazil) – Professor Eduardo R. Secchi, Professor Luciano Dalla Rosa, Dr Pedro Fruet, Dr Rodrigo Genoves
• Pontific Catholic University of Ecuador (Ecuador) – Dr Fernando Felix
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama) – Dr Héctor Guzmán
• CEQUA Foundation (Chile) – Dr(c) Jorge Acevedo and Dr Esther Jiménez

Multiple research cruises and field work is scheduled for the feeding and breeding grounds of target populations in Antarctic and the coastlines of Australia, Africa, and South America.

The Whales and Climate Research Program will be hosted at Griffith University. The humpback whale migration models and access to relevant project information will be available at www.whalesandclimate.org.

Fact sheet on the Whales and Climate Research Program

• Project life span: approximately six years
• Total project budget: approximately AUD 7 million (R80 million)

• Project team consists of 16 full time researchers and 7 associated researchers, and includes 14 postgraduate students.
• Joint Antarctic voyages accomplished: 4
• Total number of contemporary whale records currently in database: 73132
• Total number of whale catch records available to project: 215 928

 On the photo above: Like most baleen whale species in the Southern Hemisphere, humpback whales make annual migrations across ocean basins, from their summer feeding grounds in the Antarctic polar region to their winter breeding grounds in the coastal tropical and subtropical waters of Africa, Australia and South America. Photo: Ken Findlay

Media enquiries

Prof Alakendra Roychoudhury

Department of Earth Sciences, Stellenbosch University

E-mail: roy@sun.ac.za

Mobile: +27 (0)72 062 8416

Landline: +27 (0)21 808 3124 (office hours only)

Prof Ken Findlay

CPUT Research Chair: Oceans Economy, Centre for Sustainable Oceans

Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)

E-mail: FINDLAYK@cput.ac.za

Mobile: +27 (0)82 570 8212

Tel: +27 (0)21 460-3192

Prof Marcello Vichi

Director: Marine Research Institute, Department of Oceanography

University of Cape Town

E-mail: Marcello.vichi@uct.ac.za

​Plant ecologist Prof Karen Esler of the Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology has been promoted to the position of distinguished professor – and in the process she has become the first woman to receive the honour in the Faculty of AgriSciences at Stellenbosch University.

The position was also re-bestowed on animal scientist Prof Kennedy Dzama, wine biotechnologist Prof Florian Bauer and postharvest specialist Prof Linus Opara.

The title of distinguished professor gives recognition to academics' exceptional performance and leadership in higher education in the areas of research, learning and teaching, as well as social impact. It also recognises the academics' international stature in their respective disciplines.

Prof Esler has served Stellenbosch University for 25 years and as a full professor since 2008. She is currently enjoying her second and final term as chair of the Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology. She has been a core member of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Invasion Biology since its inception in 2004, and is currently an associate member of the Centre for Coastal Palaeosciences at Nelson Mandela University.

As a leader in the disciplinary fields of Mediterranean-ecosystem plant ecology and restoration ecology, Prof Esler has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. She is also a highly productive postgraduate supervisor, having supported 64 MSc (30 cum laude) and 22 PhD students to graduate since 1996.

“An important driver of my research has been to deliver products that will be of practical use in the fields of conservation planning, vegetation management and the restoration of degraded ecosystems" Prof Esler explains, “for this reason my work has become increasingly transdisciplinary in nature".

She says transdisciplinary research acknowledges the need for diverse perspectives to enhance understanding of complex social-ecological challenges and is increasingly advocated as a way to bridge the “knowing-doing gap" for sustainable actions. Prof Esler approaches this by collaborating (among others with colleagues in Brazil, USA and Europe), facilitating, leading and supervising research on a wide range of ecological and sustainability-related topics.

She is currently working on team-based projects related to the ecological restoration of Fynbos and riparian systems,  including a focus on the roles that nature based solutions might play in improving ecosystem functioning while contributing to social-ecological system resilience. Other work focuses on the perceptions of stakeholders about ecosystems, ecologically-based farm management and the use of an ecological infrastructure approach to water management.

“My collaborations (both national and international) are a general feature of my academic life and reach beyond my disciplinary foci to include social-ecological aspects – an understanding of the value and consequences of human interactions with the natural landscape and the ecological infrastructure it provides" she notes.

“This research has lent towards applied solutions for best-practice management, ecological restoration and conservation," says Prof Esler, who currently serves as regional editor for Africa for the international journal Conservation Biology.

Among these outputs count popular books such as Karoo veld: Ecology and Management (Briza Publications, 2006, also available in Afrikaans), Fynbos: Ecology & Management (Briza Publications, 2014, also available in Afrikaans) and The Biology of Mediterranean-Type Ecosystem (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Her research output and teaching abilities have been recognised repeatedly through Rector's Awards, and in 2018 she was also named as a leading figure in South African science when she was a category winner in the South African Woman in Science Award (SAWiSA).

Prof Esler, who in 2006 became the first woman president of the South African Association of Botanists, is acutely interested in promoting women in science and in academia in general and has served in various leadership roles in this regard, including the chair of the board of HERS-SA for seven years.

She plays a key international role at the interface between science and policy, including recently as review editor for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Report (2018-2019). She was one of 38 invited experts from 16 countries at the Global Forum on Ecological Restoration in Cape Town and serves as the South African representative on the International Society for Mediterranean Ecology, which will hold its 2021 conference in South Africa. 

Friday (16 October) is World Food Day. In opinion pieces for the media, experts at Stellenbosch University highlight the importance of building sustainable food systems, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Click on the links below to read the articles.

• Prof Xikombiso Mbhenyane & Dr Betrand Ayuk (Pretoria News)
• Dr Scott Drimie (News24)
  

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In pursuit of Stellenbosch University's (SU) commitment to academic excellence and in recognition of SU academics who have reached the pinnacle of achievement in their university careers, the institution has conferred the title of Distinguished Professor upon a group of 37 academics from across nine faculties. The group includes new appointments as well as re-appointments.

The Distinguished Professors are among SU's leading academics who exhibit the ideals that SU pursues according to its Vision 2040 and the Strategic Framework 2019 -2024.

The criteria for eligibility included: being appointed as a professor at SU for at least five years; continuous excellent performance over the last three years; international stature; proven exceptional performance and leadership in higher education in research and publications, postgraduate study leadership, learning and teaching, and transformative social impact.

The appointment is valid for five years and re-appointments can be considered.

Prof Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of SU, has congratulated the new Distinguished Professors and said that the title of “Distinguished Professor" was created to recognise SU's very best academics who have reached the pinnacle of achievement in their university careers.

“This initiative of appointing distinguished professors is a very important step in pursuing the excellence that we strive for. This is recognition for you, and confirmation of the University's commitment to academic excellence, as reflected in the good standing that our institution currently maintains internationally," said De Villiers.

The names of the appointees are:

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

• Prof Ashraf Kagee (Re-appointment), from the Department of Psychology. His work is broadly located at the nexus of psychology and public health and he has served on several international research boards including serving on a working group of the World Health Organisation.
• Prof Amanda Gouws (Re-appointment), from the Department of Political Science. She is the author of several books, which covers her fields of specialisation on South African Politics and Gender Politics and Political Behaviour.

Faculty of Education

• Prof Lesley le Grange (Re-appointment) is a Member of Council on Higher Education in South Africa. He is the recipient of several awards and has authored/co-authored chapters in over fifty books on education.
• Prof Yusef Waghid (Re-appointment) is the Editor-in-Chief of South African Journal of Higher Education and to date has produced 372 research publications, 42 books and edited collections. In 2011, he was honoured with the prestigious National Research Foundation Special Recognition Award.

Faculty of Science

• Prof JAC (André) Weideman (New appointment), from the Department of Mathematical Sciences. He is a recipient of the South African Mathematics Society award for Research Distinction and has been a Professor of Applied Mathematics at SU since 1999.
• Prof Bert Klumperman (Re-appointment), from the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science. He is the Chair of Advanced Macromolecular Engineering, and the recipient of the 2016 National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) lifetime award.
• Prof Dave Richardson (Re-appointment), from the Department of Botany and Zoology. He is the Director of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, authored/co-authored over 450 journal papers and book chapters and in 2019, received the Kwame Nkrumah Award for Scientific Excellence from the African Union.
• Prof Guy Midgley (New appointment), from the Department of Botany and Zoology. He is a leading expert in the field of biodiversity and global change science and was recently awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.
• Prof Kathryn H Myburgh (Re-appointment), from the Department of Physiological Sciences. She is a Council Member of the Royal Society of South Africa and is an expert in integrative human biology and exercise physiology.
• Prof Leonard Barbour (Re-appointment), from the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science. He heads a Structural Chemistry Laboratory at SU and received the Chancellor's Award for Research in 2017.
• Prof Leon MT Dicks (Re-appointment), from the Department of Microbiology. He serves on the Advisory Board for Probiotics (Copenhagen, Denmark), and the probiotic entiroTM, was developed by his research group, which is patented in 65 countries (PCT/IB2007/051982) and is available in all major pharmacies across South Africa.
• Prof Resia Pretorius (New appointment), from the Department of Physiological Sciences. Rated by the National Research Foundation and considered a leading international researcher in her field, Pretorius has published extensively in high impact international academic journals, and has eight book chapters to her name.
• Prof WH (Emile) van Zyl (Re-appointment), from the Department of Microbiology. He has established collaborations with researchers in Europe and the USA, particularly in the field of biomass conversion to bioethanol. In 2007, he was awarded the prestigious Senior Chair of Energy Research (CoER) in Biofuels and other clean alternative fuels, currently funded as a Tier 1 SARChI Chair by die NRF.

Faculty of Theology

• Prof Louis Jonker (New appointment) was awarded the Andrew Murray-Desmond Tutu prize for the best Theological publication in South African in the period 2016-2017. He is also the Chair of the Board of Dutch Reformed Lecturers and his research interests focus on Persian period Biblical literature, Biblical history writing and Intercultural Biblical hermeneutics.

Faculty of Engineering

• Prof Gideon van Zijl (New appointment), from the Department of Civil Engineering. He is an award-winning researcher. Structural design guidelines for cement-based construction materials are being developed in his research group, the Centre for Development of Sustainable Infrastructure.
• Prof Johann Görgens (New appointment), from the Department of Process Engineering. He is the SARChI Research Chair in Sugarcane Biorefineries and is a core member of the NRF-funded Senior Research Chair in Biofuels/Bioenergy (CoER) since 2007.
• Prof Maarten J Kamper (New appointment), from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He has co-authored two books and has written over 200 peer reviewed research articles. In 2017, he received the Chancellor's award at SU and the Research Excellence award in 2018.
• Prof Petrie Meyer (Re-appointment), from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He is Vice-Dean (Research) at the Faculty of Engineering. He has received five Rector's Awards over the years and Stellenbosch University Chancellor's Lifetime Award for Excellence over a career.
• Prof Steven Bradshaw (New appointment), from the Department of Process Engineering. He received the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Engineering Lecturer of the Year 2016 and has over 1 500 citations to date. His research focus is on Mineral Processing, Hydrometallurgy, Machine Learning and Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Faculty of Agriscience

• Prof Florian Bauer (Re-appointment), from the Institute for Wine Biotechnology. He is the SA Research Chair in “Integrated Wine Science" and he does research in Yeast Cellular Biology and microbial ecosystems.
• Prof Kennedy Dzama (Re-appointment), from the Department of Animal Sciences. He is the Deputy Dean of Faculty (Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies) and was awarded with the South African Society of Animal Science Top Research scientist Award in 2017. His research has primarily been on the evaluation of indigenous animal genetic resources.
• Prof Karen Esler (New appointment), from the Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology. She has been the recipient of several awards over the years, including the Golden Key best lecturer award, in AgriSciences, at SU. Esler's research interests focuses on the influence of plant population and community structure and processes in fynbos, Karoo and riparian vegetation.
• Professor Umezuruike Linus Opara (Re-appointment) established and is the South African Research Chair in Postharvest Technology. He is the recipient of multiple Awards for exceptional performance in research outputs and the graduation of PhDs.

Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences

• Prof Christo Boshoff (Re-appointment), from the Department of Business Management. He teaches Marketing and Marketing Research and his research interests are service quality as a competitive strategy, the role of risk perceptions in service marketing, the management of service recovery and scale development.
• Prof Mark Swilling (Re-appointment), is the Programme Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Programme in the School of Public Leadership; the Academic Director of the Sustainability Institute; and the Co-Director of the Stellenbosch Centre for Complex Systems in Transition.

Faculty of Law

• Prof Jacques Etienne du Plessis (Re-appointment), from the Department of Private Law. He has co-authored five books and contributed to several academic journals. He is also the recipient of the 2003 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Scholarship, which was used to conduct research on the comparative law of unjustified enrichment at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, Germany.
• Prof Sandra Liebenberg (Re-appointment), from the Department of Public Law. She currently is the HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law and has been a member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

• Prof Bob Mash (New appointment) is the Global Primary Health Care Research Consortium funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He serves on several local and international boards and committees and in 2019 was recognised with an award from the South African Medical Association for his Extraordinary Contribution to Medicine in South Africa.
• Prof Anneke Hesseling (Re-appointment), from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health. She is the Director of the Desmond Tutu TB Centre and in 2018 received the University Newsmaker of the Year Award.
• Prof Mark Cotton (Re-appointment), from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health. He is the Chair of Scientific Committee for South-to-South Training and Mentorship and has served on international committees at the World Health Organisation and the CIPHER Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee.
• Prof Gerhard Walzl (Re-appointment) is the head of the Stellenbosch University Immunology Research Group, which has done research that has identified promising tuberculosis diagnostic and treatment response.
• Prof Hendrik Schaaf (Re-appointment), from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health. His main area of research is childhood TB and especially drug-resistant TB.
• Prof Keymanthri Moodley (New appointment) is the Director: Centre for Medical Ethics and Law. In 2018, she was awarded her fourth NIH grant to develop a Bioethics Leadership programme in Southern Africa.
• Prof Quinette Louw (New appointment), from the Division of Physiotherapy. In April 2005, she was appointed as the first-ever professor in Physiotherapy at SU to develop research and postgraduate training.
• Prof Robin Warren (Re-appointment), from the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics. Warren is the recipient of the 2018 Chancellors award for contribution to research.
• Prof Soraya Seedat (Re-appointment) is the Executive Head of Department of Psychiatry and the South African Research Chair in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Seedat is a leading expert in posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders and has been the recipient of several awards.
• Prof Taryn Young (New appointment), from the Department of Global Health. She is the Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care and the Head of Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Young has expertise in evidence-informed health care and specialises in Public Health.
  
  

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Prof Michael le Cordeur from Stellenbosch University (SU) was recently honoured for his lifelong and outstanding service to the Afrikaans language community.

The Afrikaans Language Museum and Monument (ATM), in association with the Stigting vir Bemagtiging deur Afrikaans (Foundation for Empowerment through Afrikaans, SBA), awarded Le Cordeur with the 2020 Neville Alexander Prestige Award for the promotion of Afrikaans.

He received prize money to the value of R20 000 in total that was sponsored by Naspers, which he will donate to the District Six Museum in Cape Town.

“Receiving the Neville Alexander Prestige Award is a great honour for me, because it binds me forever to the man who was an inspiration to me as well as a mentor. The value of this cannot be defined in words, much less measured in monetary value. I however hope that my prize money can bring a little bit of relief to the District Six Museum, as it is such an important beacon of historical significance in our country," says Le Cordeur.

Le Cordeur is a former language teacher and high school principal, who is now a National Research Fund-rated researcher. He has served the Afrikaans language community in various positions over the years, including being the chair of the Western Cape Language Committee where he co-authored the Western Cape Language Policy.

He currently chairs the Department of Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at SU and also serves on the board of directors of the SBA, and is a member of the Internationale Centrum voor het Afrikaans at Gent University and the International Association for Research in Language Education.

According to Le Cordeur, it is important that every child and student be empowered to be taught in the language of his or her choice. He believes this award could not have come at a better time in his own career, as it has motivated him once more to help achieve Prof Neville Alexander's lifelong dream of advocating for multilingualism and mother-tongue education in South Africa.

“It has always been important to me to position Afrikaans as a conciliatory and a friendly language. Afrikaans is the language of the struggle, but also the language of reconciliation. It is a language that can bind people together provided we are willing to see each other's views and show respect for each other's unique past. Afrikaans survived wars, apartheid, colonialism and pandemics. Therefore, there is no doubt in my mind that the language will only grow stronger and stronger."

For more information on the Neville Alexander Prestige Awards and ATM, click here.​

​On Saturday (17 October), the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was observed. In an opinion piece for Daily Maverick, Dr Chris Jones (Unit for Moral Leadership) writes that we need to achieve social and environmental justice to help eradicate poverty.

• Read the article below or click here for the piece as published.

Chris Jones*

Every year on 17 October people around the world observe the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The theme for 2020 is “acting together to achieve social and environmental justice for all".

Given the growing awareness of the multi-dimensionality of poverty, these two issues cannot be separated, because we can only realize and promote social justice if we address certain urgent environmental challenges.

To deal with these two extremely important issues, governments will not only have to make certain policy adjustments and decisions, but also act decisively in partnership and solidarity with the people living in daily poverty, often experiencing the harsh impact of environmental injustices.

Although progress has been made in terms of income poverty during the last decades, the success made in addressing the growing impact of the environment and climate change on poor people, has been less successful.

In its document Implementation of the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018-2027), the United Nations (UN) says that “frequent and severe climate change-induced threats and disasters, such as droughts, floods, rising sea levels and other extreme weather events, are increasingly undermining the attainment of the 2030 Agenda". 

This document states that in 2017, economic damage caused by weather-related disasters, amounted to some $320 billion, making it up till then the costliest year ever for such losses. It further refers to the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season which had a devastating social and economic impact, severely setting back decades of development. In the same year, 41 million people in South Asia were affected by monsoon floods, while in Africa almost 900 000 people were affected by severe droughts.

These kinds of disasters have a devastating effect on poor people especially those who rely on climate-sensitive activities, affecting women differently and disproportionately compared with men.

Consequently, climate change mitigation and adaptation as critical elements for eradicating poverty, have been prioritized by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

For the UN it is of utmost importance to push the implementation of the Paris Agreement as an integral part of its support to the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). In this regard, the organisation is helping to make developing countries more resilient against the devastating and sometimes lasting impacts of climate change.

According to the Global Civil Society Report on the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, the current global economic recession, caused by COVID-19, affects all countries. We have noticed how unemployment, poverty, and hunger have risen drastically. However, actions to fight global warming threaten to move even further down on the list of political priorities. It is as if, for the most part, “economic relief packages have been ecologically blind".

This was also echoed by UN Secretary-General, António Guterres when he delivered the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture recently. In his speech, Guterres strikingly stated that “the pandemic has demonstrated the fragility of our world. It has laid bare risks we have ignored for decades: inadequate health systems; gaps in social protection; structural inequalities; environmental degradation; the climate crisis".

He added that “entire regions that were making progress on eradicating poverty and narrowing inequality have been set back years, in a matter of months. The virus poses the greatest risk to the most vulnerable: those living in poverty, older people, and people with disabilities and pre-existing conditions". 

Governments and international organisations have responded on a massive scale to the economic and health crises resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown as indicated by the abovementioned Global Civil Society Report on the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. Globally $11 trillion was spent on liquidity measures, rescue packages, and recovery programmes, with 196 countries and territories taking political measures. Because of considerable restriction of fiscal capacity and policy space (particularly in the global South) due to COVID-19, one could argue that the realisation of the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs has become unfeasible.

The same Report then makes the valid point: “Without effective multilateral counter-measures, economic disparities and inequality between rich and poor countries will increase considerably. COVID-19 is thus a global wake-up call for international cooperation and solidarity".

If the world can succeed with this, during the so-called second phase of COVID-19 policy responses, the chance of policies becoming engines of the urgently needed socio-ecological transformation, proclaimed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, could be offered.

Crises globally such as the floods in Southeast Asia, the locust plague in East Africa, the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut, the destruction caused by wildfires in Brazil and California, and the hurricanes in the Caribbean Gulf, do not stop because of COVID-19. In fact, they are often the consequences of a dysfunctional system that deems corporate profit more important than the rights and well-being of humans and the environment.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has put together the “Great Reset" initiative to improve the state of the world. It is referred to as the “8 R"-agenda for systemic change. In this article I unfortunately only focus very briefly on one of the eight sections included in this agenda, namely, to reinforce the shift towards climate justice, although not one of these sections the aforementioned agenda intend to provide a comprehensive reform programme.

Against the backdrop of increasing environmental change that negatively affects the poor, particularly in developing countries, a more just and equitable way to deal with climate and environmental change, must be embraced and implemented, according to the WEF.

Countries of the global North, in particular, should begin to eliminate and shift subsidies and investments from fossil fuel exploration, extraction, and production as instantly as possible, and commit to a 100% use of clean and renewable energy by 2030. They should further scale up the provision of climate financing to at least $100 billion by the end of 2020 and increase that rapidly between 2020 and 2030.

With all the challenges that we face at the moment, achieving social and environmental justice to help eradicate poverty might seem a bridge too far. It is, however, doable. We shouldn't despair because together we can make a difference!

*Dr Chris Jones heads the Unit for Moral Leadership in the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch University.

​​The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences has announced that the Faculty will be recognizing its best online lecturers of 2020, as nominated by students in an online poll. This faculty initiative follows an extremely challenging period of emergency remote teaching.

From 20 to 28 October 2020, undergraduate EMS students vote for any undergraduate lecturer from whom they received emergency remote teaching, and postgraduate EMS students (excluding doctoral students) vote for any postgraduate lecturer from whom they received emergency remote teaching.

In each of the Faculty's seven departments undergraduate lecturers compete for the departmental position as best undergraduate online lecturer, and postgraduate lecturers compete for the departmental position of best postgraduate online lecturer. The University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) will also nominate its best lecturer.

The names of prize-winners will be announced at a virtual function on 5 November 2020, where the winners will each get an opportunity to share a tip regarding online teaching.

• All EMS staff are welcome to attend the MS Teams function, but must register beforehand to receive the link. Click here to register.
  

​​International Open Access Week is an annual scholarly communication event which focuses on Open Access and related topics and takes place every year in the last week of October. The theme for this year's Open Access week is “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion". In light of this theme, the Library and Information Service decided to put the spotlight on Open Data as an aspect of Open Science and inform the research community regarding the importance of Open Data as well as showcasing the growth of SUNScholarData, the institutional Research Data repository managed by the Library.

Open Data is a sub-component that exists within the broader context of Open Research. It owes its existence largely to the increasingly prominent role which research data have come to play in the world of scholarly research. The impetus behind making research data openly accessible has been a desire to democratise the data so that any person could access such data free of constraints such as paywalls. However, the need itself goes beyond this and is linked to certain positive benefits which can flow out to the rest of society. Examples of this include but are not limited to the following: Improvements in the quality of research data; compliance with certain ethical and legal requirements; a reduction in the duplication of data collection efforts; an increase in the diffusion of information and ultimately knowledge throughout society and the broader dissemination of research data.

The final point cannot be over-emphasised enough. The fact that members of society can now access research data more readily on account of its openness leads to a more inclusive and equitable outcome. The outcome is inclusive in the sense that it enables more people than ever before to access research data owing to the elimination of access barriers. Not only is such an outcome inclusive, but it also levels the playing field by giving individuals who do not have financial resources just as much a chance of accessing the research data as those who are financially well-resourced. In the absence of access costs, the consumption of research data can be expected to increase. Considering that the production of research data has been increasing in the recent past, it is not surprising to observe increases in the consumption of research data over that same time period. Assuming that all other factors remain constant, the expected outcome is that a greater level of inclusivity and equity pertaining to the dissemination of research data would be attainable in the future.

Research data can be made openly accessible in one of the following ways: Supplementary data published along with journal articles; data articles published as stand-alone data papers in data journals and data published via digital data repositories.

Historically researchers have tended to make their research data openly accessible by publishing supplementary data along with their scholarly publications. However, not all academic publishers mandate the publication of research data. As such, there has generally been more scope to improve the degree to which research data could be made more openly accessible. The advent of research data repositories has changed the nature of the research publication landscape somewhat in this respect by filling this void.

In recognising the important role that research data repositories can play in facilitating the dissemination of open scientific data, Stellenbosch University set up and launched its very own institutional research data repository, SUNScholarData, on 12 August 2019. 

SUNScholarData can be used for the registration, archival storage, sharing and dissemination of research data produced or collected in relation to research conducted under the auspices of Stellenbosch University. The repository has a public interface which can be used for finding content. It also has private user accounts which can be used by Stellenbosch University users in order to upload, share or publish their research data. In addition to this Stellenbosch University researchers can also use SUNScholarData in order to collaborate with researchers from other institutions.

The first dataset was deposited in SUNScholarData on the 7 August 2019. Since then the number of deposits has increased at a modest rate and now totals 84 datasets. Some 21 of these datasets have been published and are openly accessible. The datasets have been viewed 9,564 times and generated 1,559 downloads since August 2019.

In addition to permitting the deposit of research data, SUNScholarData's system facilitates the bulk-linkage to supplementary data originally submitted to academic publishers. Currently this is only possible with supplementary data associated with the Public Library of Science's (PLOS) journals. On 16 September 2020, a total of 3,508 PLOS datasets were linked to SUNScholarData. These datasets cover a time-period ranging from 2006-2020 and provide a broad view of openly accessible research data that span across several academic disciplines.

SUNScholarData provides several benefits which can be harnessed by Stellenbosch University researchers. The greatest benefit which researchers who have published research data on SUNScholarData have experienced is the increased visibility which the repository brings to their research data. As SUNScholarData is visible and accessible online it is certainly better than the option of storing research data on local as well as external hard drives. Furthermore, the repository stores research data securely in accordance with recognised ISO standards. The research datasets are curated prior to publication, thus ensuring quality and by extension trustworthiness. SUNScholarData facilitates compliance with research funder mandates, which may require that the research data associated with funded research be shared publicly upon the completion of research projects. SUNScholardata also facilitates compliance with the policies of academic publishers, which sometimes mandate that the research data underpinning research publication be published via research data repositories.

Researchers interested in learning more about SUNScholarData are welcome to contact the Manager: Research Data Services of the Library at ssimango@sun.ac.za

Samuel Simango

​In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, doctors at Tygerberg Hospital implemented a daring, lesser-known treatment that not only bypassed the imminent ventilator shortage caused by the large number of critically ill patients, but potentially saved thousands of lives while also providing a more patient-friendly experience.

In a research article published this week in The Lancet's EClinicalMedicine, medical experts from Stellenbosch University (SU) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) described how they were able to successfully treat half of all their critically ill Covid-19 patients by using high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO), and avoiding mechanical ventilation. 

HFNO is a non-invasive oxygen therapy that channels oxygen into the lungs through nasal tubes at a high flow rate – up to 60 litres per minute. HFNO is considered to be 'gentler' on patients than mechanical ventilation and allows patients to eat, talk and engage with others in the ward. Ventilation, on the other hand, is an invasive treatment that requires a tube to be inserted into the patient's airway. This can cause severe discomfort and necessitates sedation in some patients.

When the first Covid-19 patients with acute respiratory distress were admitted to Tygerberg Hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) in March this year, doctors treated them according to the internationally recommended regimen of mechanical ventilation.

In line with international trends, there were high mortality rates among ventilated patients.

“The first seven patients all received ventilation, and unfortunately all of them died," recalls Dr Usha Lalla, who manages the Covid-19 ICU. “I remember the day so clearly – two of the patients died on the same day, and the ICU was in tears," says Lalla, who is also an internal medicine specialist with SU's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

At that time, a few anecdotal reports started emerging about the use of HFNO therapy in Covid-19 patients, but generally there was a reluctance to use this lesser-known treatment.

“I remember discussing it with colleagues, including Prof Mervin Mer from Wits University, and saying that a large proportion of the patients just need oxygen – why don't we try it? The first patient we treated with HFNO was up and chatting on her cell phone within five days – in stark contrast to patients who have to be ventilated for two to three weeks," says Lalla. “This gave us hope that we might not experience the carnage seen in other parts of the world."

They treated more patients with HFNO, and achieved much higher recovery rates with this new treatment than going straight to mechanical ventilation. News of the success of HFNO therapy quickly spread to other hospitals in the province and later, around the country, who also rapidly adopted it. This modality was also implemented at Cape Town's Hospital of Hope where engineers had to adapt the infrastructure at short notice to accommodate this new therapy.

High flow nasal oxygen does not replace mechanical ventilation, which is still extensively used in the management of Covid-19 patients, but provides an extra 'weapon' in doctors' arsenal in the fight against Covid-19.

“For a resource-constrained setting in the midst of a pandemic, this had a massive impact on the management of patients," says Prof Coenie Koegelenberg, a SU pulmonologist who also works in Tygerberg Hospital's Covid-19 ICU.

Unlike mechanical ventilation that has to be managed in the ICU, HFNO can be administered in the general ward – provided that the hospitals' infrastructure provides for the higher flow of oxygen required. Furthermore, it can be safely managed by non-ICU trained doctors and nurses, saving on the country's sparse healthcare resources.

The doctors from Stellenbosch University (Tygerberg Hospital) collaborated with Prof Greg Calligaro's team at UCT (Groote Schuur Hospital) to combine data of approximately 300 Covid-19 patients who received HFNO therapy at these facilities. The resulting research article is by far of one the biggest studies to date on HFNO, not only in Covid-19 patients, but for any form of pneumonia.

“Our study showed that HFNO can be successfully utilised to avoid the need for mechanical ventilation in half of all patients with severe disease," says Koegelenberg. “These patients fulfilled the criteria for acute respiratory distress syndrome, and if the recommended treatment protocol was followed, would all have had to be mechanically ventilated – yet we managed to support them successfully without it."

“High flow made an enormous difference to our capacity to treat patients during this pandemic. But it was no easy feat changing tack from ventilation to HFNO in the middle of a pandemic," comments Lalla. “Everybody just pulled together – health workers, hospital management, clinical and general engineers and volunteers. Everybody just did what needed to be done… and it was amazing."

Caption: Dr Usha Lalla and Prof Coenie Koegelenberg.

Photo credit: Damien Schumann

​Much more research is needed to determine if tea is effective as a treatment to reduce high blood sugar and to help manage diabetes, argue Drs Hanél Sadie-Van Gijsen & Liske Kotze-Hörstmann (Centre for Cardio-metabolic Research in Africa) in an opinion piece for Health24 (20 October 2020).

• Read the article below or click here for the piece as published.

Hanél Sadie-Van Gijsen & Liske Kotze-Hörstmann*

Tea, in particular green tea, has a well-established “health halo". We are regularly treated with magazine and newspaper articles about the many health-promoting properties of green tea, and as a result, many people believe green tea to be superior to black tea. A popular claim about green tea is that it may help to lower blood sugar levels and manage diabetes, but our recent work has shown that there is very little scientific evidence to support this claim.  

Tea is the most consumed drink in the world, apart from water. The most popular tea plant is Camellia sinensis, and is used to make green, black, yellow, white and oolong tea. Green tea is touted to be rich in anti-oxidants, especially EGCG, to which many of its health-promoting properties are attributed, but all teas actually contain high levels of anti-oxidants. However, the quantities of different anti-oxidants vary between types of tea, and there is no indication that certain anti-oxidants should be favoured over others in our diet.   

Data from large population studies indicate that a life-time of tea-drinking may prevent the development of diabetes (chronically high blood sugar and insulin resistance), but it is not clear whether tea can help to treat high blood sugar or diabetes. To answer this question, we examined the scientific literature of the past seven years to find randomised control trials (RCTs) where the effect of tea products on blood glucose levels and insulin resistance was tested.

RCTs are the gold standard of drug testing, as they compare the results of a treatment group with that of a closely-matched control group, to account for random differences that would have occurred over time. By examining these studies, we made a few surprising discoveries. Dozens of studies in laboratory animals have shown mostly positive results for a variety of teas from different plant species on high blood sugar and insulin resistance, but very few such studies have been performed in humans.

Black tea makes up nearly 80% of all tea consumed world-wide, but most human and animal studies focused on green tea, probably due to the perception that green tea is healthier than black tea. Only 14 RCTs testing the effect of tea on blood sugar regulation were performed across the world in the past seven years, totalling fewer than 1000 study participants combined across all 14 studies.

Eleven of these RCTs tested green Camellia sinensis tea, while only two trials used black Camellia sinensis tea and one used Japanese olive tea. No other teas have been evaluated in RCTs for their effects on blood sugar. Only half of the RCTs that we reviewed showed a decrease in blood sugar levels and/or an improvement in insulin resistance, which could help to alleviate diabetes, but the other half did not show any improvement in blood sugar regulation with tea. Crucially, green tea was not more effective than black tea in relieving high blood sugar and insulin resistance, and in fact black tea was found to reduce insulin resistance and blood cholesterol levels.

This is great news if you find green tea unpalatable, or if you simply enjoy drinking black tea and are reluctant to switch. In some of the RCTs, green tea consumption did assist with weight loss, but without lowering blood sugar. Surprisingly, the tea dosage or the duration of the trial did not appear to be related to positive results. It also did not make a difference whether tea drinks or capsules with purified compounds such as EGCG were used in the trials. Simply, in some trials, they worked; in others, not.

Some magazine articles on the health-promoting effects of tea reason that the weight-loss effects and anti-diabetic properties of tea result from tea being a zero-calorie drink, as long as you do not add sugar, honey or milk. If consumed as such, tea can safely be included in calorie-controlled or sugar-controlled diets. However, the anti-oxidants in tea have their own health benefits, and luckily, these benefits do not suddenly disappear if you add milk or sugar. Unfortunately, given the weak scientific evidence currently available, we really cannot say if tea is effective as a treatment to reduce high blood sugar and to help manage diabetes.

Much more work, particularly clinical trials, is needed before we can answer this question with certainty. In the meantime, we may have to re-think the “health halo" of green tea with regards to body weight and blood sugar control, as your ordinary “cuppa" may already be good enough.

*Drs Hanél Sadie-Van Gijsen and Liske Kotze-Hörstmann are affiliated with the Centre for Cardio-metabolic Research in Africa (CARMA) at Stellenbosch University.

Quintin the robot, who has been assisting physicians at Tygerberg Hospital's Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU), is now also helping to put concerned family members in touch with ICU patients that have had to be isolated – and in some cases, allowing them to say goodbye for the very last time.

Quintin, a Double Robotics robot that looks like a computer tablet on wheels, has been equipped to do video and voice calls using the freely available WhatsApp service, or regular phone calls. That means family members can now dial in to “visit" with patients in the Covid-19 ICU.

Quintin can be remotely steered using an app and therefore hospital staff don't have to physically enter the ward to position the robot. This reduces their risk of infection, saves on personal protective equipment (PPE) and frees up their time to focus on other tasks.

Enabling contact between patients and their families has been a “humanising process", explains Dr Kerry Louw, a psychiatrist at Stellenbosch University's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) and Tygerberg Hospital.

She likens the experience of being a patient in an ICU to “a form of psychological anguish which involves a fear of death, unexpected pain and sensory deprivation, as well as overstimulation".

ICU patients are not only physically ill, but often also suffer psychologically because they are isolated from their families, are sleep-deprived due to the constant beeping of machines, and experience no natural light or air movement. “Some patients stay in an ICU for long periods of time, and it becomes really difficult for them," Louw explains.

“It's heart-warming to see the smiles once patients have connected with their families. It has made such a difference.

“In some cases, the patients have not been awake while the family communicates with them, but it has still been meaningful. We have been able to organise some end-of-life conversations for people to say goodbye. One family wanted to be present at the moment of passing and we enabled them to be there with the patient."

Louw says the Department of Psychiatry was already providing individual and group support for healthcare staff working with Covid-19 patients, when a colleague asked if they could help with patient family contact.

“Staff members of the Department moved into a little office at the ICU to be on site to support the ICU staff. We go in every day to be visible to the staff and to give psychological support to the patients."

When Quintin is called upon to assist, he moves over to the patient and sometimes stays with them for hours while the family visits virtually.

“I always explain to the families beforehand what to expect and what it looks like to see someone who is intubated, as it can be a shock. Some families don't want visual contact and prefer audio contact. We always check in with the patient to see how they are doing after engaging with their families. We also check in with the families, who can be very emotional after they've connected with the patient."

According to Prof Coenie Koegelenberg, an FMHS pulmonologist who also works in Tygerberg Hospital's Covid-19 ICU, the idea of using Quintin in this capacity came about “because we didn't expect the patients to be so aware, awake and anxious".

“It is difficult for healthcare workers to provide psychological support through a mask and goggles, because you look like an alien and it is difficult to hear what people are saying," he says.

Koegelenberg originally sourced Quintin's services to enable ICU specialists to do virtual Covid-19 ward rounds when they are unable to be physically present. “The odds of at least one of us falling ill or having to go into self-isolation and being unable to physically go to work were quite high, so it was reassuring to know that we would be able to function remotely by using a phone or a laptop to steer the robot."

None of the ICU specialists have fallen ill yet, but Quintin's services as an intermediary between patients and their families have been indispensable.

Louw says connecting the family who wanted to be present when their relative passed away was memorable and moving. “We were able to have Quintin present while the family sang and prayed with the patient as he died. It was very powerful."

“It has been a huge privilege to engage with patients and their families at such a vulnerable time in their lives. It is beautiful, but hard."

Caption: Dr Kerry Louw with Quintin the Robot.

Photo credit: Damien Schumann