The central focus of the 2011 Ruth Edgecombe Memorial Lecture, which each year is dedicated to highlighting issues of environmental significance, was on climate justice. The lecture is held in honour of UKZN Professor, Ruth Edgecombe, who was a passionate scholar of environmental history who contributed to the growing research in this field of study in South Africa. 

Hosted by UKZN’s School of Environmental Sciences and the Wilderness Action Group, this year’s lecture featured renowned environmental activist, Mr Bobby Peek.  Director and founding member of groundWork, a non-governmental environmental justice organisation in Pietermaritzburg, Peek spoke on the topic: “Climate Change and COP17: is climate justice a reality for South Africans?”

Academic Co-ordinator of Religion, Professor Jannie Smit was elected the eighth President of the Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa (ASRSA) at its 33rd annual congress in Durban.

ASRSA is an international scholarly association for the study of religion in southern Africa. It engages and facilitates research into the major world religions in the region as well as the wide field of the intersection of Religion with other disciplines in the Humanities. Socio-culturally speaking, the research is truly inter-religious as well as inter-disciplinary. As such, it articulates with the latest theoretical approaches in terms of the comparative and historical study of the religions and religious formations in the sub-continent.

The 21st century has seen an increase in the number of women leaders in South Africa. Although leadership roles are still new to some, a new breed with flair and confidence is stepping up to the plate at a much younger age and tackling issues of national and global significance. 

Leading by example is Ms Qhelile Nyathi (23) who hails from Zimbabwe and following in her businessperson father’s footsteps.  Nyathi left home at a tender age to pursue her undergraduate studies at UKZN and received her Bachelor of Actuarial Science degree summa cum laude in 2010. She is currently studying towards an Honours Degree in Financial Mathematics at UKZN.

The annual College of Health Sciences Research Symposium was held recently at UKZN’s Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. The presentations at the Symposium confronted various clinical, public health and laboratory-based studies focusing on South Africa and the continent’s health issues.

2011 marks the 60th Anniversary of the Medical School. To mark this anniversary, not only did current students deliver oral and poster presentations, but they were joined by 1974 Medical School graduate, Professor Saraladevi Naicker and member of the Class of 1990 Professor Bongani Mayosi, who both stressed the importance of research productivity, especially among young scientists.

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A Colloquium on “The Teacher Education Landscape” hosted by the Faculty of Education provided the Faculty with an opportunity to reflect on the progress made in the education system and to map a trajectory for priorities.

Dean of the Faculty, Professor Michael Samuel, noted that: ‘we are now more than five years into a merged institution which drew on our different biographical institutional heritages which chose to foreground different understandings of the goals for Faculties of Education.’

In partnership with the provincial Department of Education (DoE) UKZN hosted a Certification Ceremony on September 23 at the Colin Webb Hall on the Pietermaritzburg campus for primary school subject advisors. The Advisors completed courses funded by the Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority and delivered by the Faculty of Education during the last quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011.

Fifty Foundation Phase Advisors and 21 Intermediate Phase Advisors completed the course “Reading to Learn Across the Curriculum”; 22 advisors completed “Mathematics for the Intermediate Phase”; and 51 Foundation Phase advisors received certificates for “Teaching Numeracy in the Foundation Phase”.

The Collaborative for HIV and AIDS, Religion and Theology (CHART) in the School of Religion and Theology, hosted Reverend JP Mokgethi-Heath, Director of INERELA+, a network of religious leaders living with HIV.  He presented an approach to HIV prevention that is more comprehensive than the ABC method - SAVE (Safer practices, Available medicine, Voluntary, confidential testing and counselling, Empowerment and education). 

Used in prevention programmes around the world, ABC stands for ‘Abstinence; Be faithful; use Condoms.’ However the way in which it is often presented is more like: ‘Abstain, if you can’t abstain, be faithful, and if you can’t be faithful, use a condom’. The implication that the use of a condom automatically marks a person as unable to be faithful, fuels stigma and acts as a disincentive to evidence-based prevention...

The Women in Leadership and Leverage Committee (WILL) at UKZN hosted Advocate Busisiwe Mngoma who gave a presentation on effective ways of managing conflict in the workplace.

Mngoma, who is an alumnus of the University, manages the Office of the Ombudsman at UKZN. She joined the University as a manager of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit.

Mngoma said that for one to be able to deal with conflict, they need to understand what the term means and to explore the nature of the conflict. She added that conflict is not a fight but a disagreement. A number of factors can lead to conflict like a new work environment and new colleagues. She added that there are also different stages of conflict, which are usually caused by something deeper.

Tourism is a national priority, but the development of the sector is constrained by a severe skills shortage, especially at a higher level of qualification. This is why the government once again organized the National Tourism Careers Expo (NTCE), which was held at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban from September 23-25.  Over 15 000 Travel and Tourism learners and their educators from all over the country filed through the exhibition to learn about tourism careers and Higher Education options in the tourism field.

The UKZN stand was one of the most popular stopping points due to the tireless efforts of 20 student volunteers from the Cultural and Heritage Tourism Programme. Under the leadership of BA Tourism graduates, Ms Jacqueline Cafun and in particular Ms Arisha Govender, students engaged the learners with beautiful collages, creative hand-made displays and interactive activities, such as face painting...

As part of the 2011 International Coastal cleanup, Edgewood students showed their commitment to the environment by cleaning up part of the Umbilo River. Along with other volunteers, 556 kg of waste was cleared from a small section of the river in two hours! Dr Coleman, a Biological Science lecturer commented on the river cleanup: ‘Cleaning rivers of pollution is not only important for the river system itself, but because any waste that the river carries could be discharged into the sea.’

A second group, made up of 100 students from Kingswood residence, descended on the Transnet Natural Heritage Site. This was the initiative of students Mr Lungani Mangwaza and Mr Siphamandla Mhlongo...