The GM debate in the developing world encompasses countries with very different priorities. Through the shrill battle of interests, the real agents for change tend to be overlooked.
Over the past two decades, it has not been easy for any country – let alone a newly freed one, like post-apartheid South Africa – to understand the rapidly changing world.
Universities were widely criticised for turning to the courts during a series of student protests in South Africa. So why did they do it, and did the interdict process work?
Textbooks have been at the centre of two major South African court cases. They may not be a magical cure for all the country’s education ills, but research shows they are a critical part of learning.
The #feesmustfall movement brought gains for democracy. As relatively free spaces for enquiry, universities have a public duty to fight, not facilitate, a slide into a national security state.
Wilfred Fritz, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Deon Kallis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Africa is blessed with an abundance of sunshine.Given the heavy demand for energy, alternatives, such as solar, could provide solutions and help stimulate economic growth.
Funding for South African higher education is inadequate considering past inequalities. Even more alarming is the fact that plans for research development and innovation in science remain elusive.
University students in South Africa have shown the potential of mass mobilisation to influence policy in advancing justice for their constitutional democratic rights.
Since the 1940s, it’s been common for political moderates to move to the fore in South Africa – then, intermittently, to the background. They are replaced by radicals or exclusivist nationalists.
It has been an exciting month for Africa, not least for the highly controversial elections in Tanzania, where the annulment of the entire vote in Zanzibar has played an important role in extending the…
Environmental racism remains a reality in South Africa. It is poor, black citizens who live on the most damaged land and in the most polluted neighbourhoods.
Students have won an important victory. But to understand the complex nature of oppression and how to respond to it will require many struggles over a longer period of time.
South Africans’ access to important knowledge and research is incredibly limited. In this time of Open Access, why is this the case – and will it ever change?
An academic who has marched alongside students during university fee protests in South Africa explains why their demands resonate with her and so many others.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand