My First attempts at journalism

UCT Student receives award for plastic waste research.

University of Cape Town PhD student Takunda Chitaka recently won the PETCO 2019 Excellence in Academia award for strategic intervention into the broad area of recycling and sustainability. Chitaka won the award for her important contribution to the understanding of marine plastic waste. Her research involved cleaning a beach entirely and than observing what waste was washed up over a 24 hr period. She looked at 5 beaches in the Cape Town area and found that the most common items, comprising 60% of waste, were items associated with the fast food industry—plastic straws, chip and other snack packets, and polystyrene containers. The important of this knowledge is it can be used to develop evidence based interventions. Chitaka commented “My hope for my research is that it helps to inform the way forward for the plastics economy in South Africa.”

Studying While Black tackles the challenges of black students in South Africa.

Studying While Black is the result of a research project undertaken by the Human Sciences Research Council. This project is part of a larger study being conducted by the HSRC into higher education in South Africa, which looks at the need to transform the country’s universities into learning spaces which are more inclusive and responsive to the needs of the majority of the country’s population. This is part of a trend in higher learning circles to focus on the study of African learning, people, spaces and problems.
The study tracks 80 students from 8 universities and documents their experience of higher learning at a South African University over 4 years. The purpose of the study was to show the obstacles and challenges black students face in accessing higher education in this country and their response to these: to find out who succeeds, and the reasons for their success. As the universities in this country seek to adapt from the elitist spaces they previously occupied, this will prove to be useful knowledge indeed.

Durban’s Urban Futures Centre tackles street level drug use.

The UFC at Durban University of Technology is an interdisciplinary research hub which tackles the social issues of living in 21st century African city.
One of the big social issues, especially in Durban is the use of cheap heroin-based drugs by a growing number of homeless street dwellers. In 2014 clashes between the police and people living in one of the city parks inspired the UFC to call together stake holders from the university, the police, city officials, NGO workers, doctors and others in the health and drug treatment profession. As a result of that meeting the KZN Harm Reduction Advocacy Group was formed. Since then a number of initiatives have been taken. These include:
• A number of meetings with street level drug users to learn about their lives and engage with them about a possible treatment program.
• A number of workshops and seminars with police, health workers and people who work with street level drug users addressing the rights of people who use drugs and other issues.
• The development of a play, Ulwembu, based on participatory action research into the lives of drug users which toured around Durban and surrounding areas in 2016.
• The setting up of a low threshold Opioid Substitution Treatment program, in conjunction with the NGO TB/HIV Care, which was also the basis for a research project which documented the lives and experience of those involved and monitored their progress over 18 months in treatment. 42 heroin users took part in the treatment program. That research is now in the process of being written up and should appear over the next few months. It is hoped that the success of this program will inspire government and NGOs to begin rolling out Opioid Substitution Treatment programs on a large scale to make them accessible to the people who need them.

.Black Studio investigates the roots of Qgom in Umlazi township

.

A group of students from Joburg and Durban recently undertook a study into the spatial roots of Qgom culture in Umlazi township as part of BlackStudio’s Design Exchange Initiative. This initiative brings together students from Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, Art and Engineering, and is intended to question the way we look at and experience spaces and to challenge the colonial system of planning and designing spaces. They were hosted by the Urban Futures Centre at DUT.
Gqom music originates in Umlazi township and has recently taken the world by storm. This years design exchange investigates the links between the culture of Qgom and the spaces that helped create it, and how Qgom is both shaped by these spaces and in turn helps shape them. Qgom music is very much influenced by the everyday sounds of township life. It has become a lifestyle bringing together music, fashion, dance, language and art in a way that contributes both to individual’s livelihood and to the economy of the township.

You are never too old to study

Jacob Seboko recently became the oldest first year student in the history of North-North-West University at the age of 79.

Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level. 

When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I’m here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.”.
Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level.
When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I’m here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.”

Jacob Seboko with fellow students.

You are never too old to study.

Jacob Seboko recently became the oldest first year student in the history of North-West University at the age of 79.
Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level.
When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I'm here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.”