Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Business School recently launched its book Change Agents: Leadership Lessons from 23 of South Africa’s Senior Leaders.
A collection of personal leadership stories, the 23 “lessons” are based on a series of Leadership Dialogues hosted by the school between 2020 and 2024.
The first WBS Leadership Dialogue was held in August 2020 with the late Kimi Makwetu, Auditor-General of South Africa. This inspiring conversation provided the impetus for the rest of the series of dialogues which included leaders from academia, business, and public service.Makwetu passed away two months after his interview with Professor Mills Soko, facilitator of the Dialogues, after a short illness.The book is dedicated to his memory.
“We were intentional in our choice of leader; we wanted to capture the words of wisdom of those who have led with integrity, authenticity, and courage,” says Soko, Director of Development and Partnerships at WBS. “I am excited to have been able to record these precious conversations… which I believe will serve as an inspiration for future ethical leaders and changemakers – the kind of leaders that we, at WBS, strive to develop.”
The other participants in the series of dialogues and subsequent book include:
Ralph Mupita, Nolitha Fakude, Ciko Thomas, Lesetja Kganyago, Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Wendy Lucas-Bull, Priscillah Mabelane, Professor Themba Maseko, Simon Susman, Dr Shirley Zinn, Lincoln Mali, Dominic Sewela, Edward Kieswetter, Natascha Viljoen, Robbie Brozin, Nonkululeko Gobodo, Dr Judy Dlamini, Arrie Rautenbach, Tshokolo Petrus (TP) Nchocho, Yolanda, Lillian Barnard, and Dr Mark Lamberti.
WBS celebrated the launch of the book on the 23rdApril 2026 with a dinner for special guests which included Priscillah Mabelane, Chair of the WBS Advisory Board, who delivered a heartfelt keynote, and Dr Judy Dlamini, Chancellor Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University and an alumnus of WBS. Professor Maurice Radebe, director of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and former Head of School, moderated a stimulating panel discussion with Nolitha Fakude, chair of Anglo American South Africa, Lincoln Mali, founder and CEO of Lesaka Technologies, and Wendy Lucas-Bull, chair of Shoprite Holdings, all of whom contributed to the book.
The launch was also attended by Miranda Makwetu, widow of the late Kimi Makwetu.
Change Agents: Leadership Lessons from 23 of South Africa’s Senior Leadersis available at selected Exclusive Books outlets at a recommended retail price of R280.
Breast cancer research receives a R 5.28 million endowment
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
The endowment, funded by the Philip Sceales and Janet Antrobus Cancer Research Trust, will support a wide range of breast cancer research at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.
Breast cancer is, at 23.2%, the most diagnosed of all cancers in South African women, leading to 17% of female deaths from cancer, the second highest percentage after cervical cancer, according to . It can also affect the breast tissue of men in rare cases.
The Philip Sceales and Janet Antrobus Cancer Research Trust has decided to entrust the majority of its assets, a sum of just over R 5.28 million, to the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, in order to create a perpetual endowment to fund breast cancer research. Research methods and treatments for breast cancer have diversified since the establishment of the Trust four decades ago, and today the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Faculty of Health Sciences combines discipline-specific research, on the one hand, with cross-disciplinary approaches for achieving practical outcomes, on the other.
Janet Antrobus died, aged 41, after a long battle with breast cancer. Wanting to ease the suffering of others afflicted with this cancer, she, and her father, Philip Sceales, who died not long after her, made bequests to establish a trust to fund breast cancer research. Over the four decades since their passing, researchers at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University and several other breast cancer organisations in South Africa have been supported by this legacy. Now, the gifts of Janet Antrobus and Philip Sceales are entering a new phase at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, where the Philip Sceales and Janet Antrobus Breast Cancer Research Endowment Fund has been created.
“We are delighted that Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ has accepted the donation and established an endowment fund. This will ring-fence the funds and ensure that they are used for the purpose for which the Trust was established” said Grahame Lindop, the Chairman of the Trust, and a Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ graduate.
Commenting on this generous donation, Professor Shabir Madhi, Dean of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Faculty of Health Sciences, said: “I wish to thank all the Trustees for entrusting this legacy to Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University. The Trust and the Faculty that I lead are both South African organisations that have worked over the decades to improve the lives and end the suffering of those with breast cancer. Together, the endowment fund located in the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Foundation, and the Faculty of Health Sciences, will take forward the goal to find breast cancer breakthroughs through research, so that the result can be a fitting tribute to Janet Antrobus and Philip Sceales.”
Five of the six Schools in the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Faculty of Health Sciences (the exception being the School of Oral Health Sciences) conduct research which contributes to the broad spectrum of breast cancer care. This is complemented by cross-disciplinary approaches such as those taken by the Infectious Diseases and Oncology Research Institute (IDORI), which integrates infectious disease and cancer research into goal-oriented programmes aiming to achieve practical, cost-effective solutions including rapid diagnostics and interventions suitable for use in Africa. In future, the interest accrued from the Philip Sceales and Janet Antrobus Breast Cancer Research Endowment Fund will be used to fund breast cancer research of all kinds conducted by researchers at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University.
Volunteering is good for your health and is a national economic asset
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Doing good positively affects individual well-being and skills, strengthens community trust and cohesion.
The economic valuation of recorded volunteer hours in Africa alone is worth over US$353 million annually, a large contribution to gross domestic product (GDP). Using the replacement cost method, researchers can show how economically significant volunteerism is to the region and that it also has social value.
This includes improved health outcomes, such as community health volunteers reducing maternal mortality; educational gains, such as volunteer teachers lowering pupil-teacher ratios and improving pass rates; and stronger social cohesion, as volunteers build trust and reduce conflict in communities.
From a statistical perspective, when these outcomes are modelled,volunteer involvement often explains variation in community resilience and service delivery that government spending alone cannot account for.
These estimates come from the African Union’s State of Volunteerism in Africa Report (2025), which is one of the most comprehensive assessments of volunteerism on the continent to date.
Professor Samuel Manda, a co-Principal Investigator at the Sub-Saharan Africa Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB) at the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ School of Public Health, explains that the true impact of volunteerism extends far beyond what is currently captured in official data.
“Volunteerism is woven into daily life across Africa, including neighbours caring for one another, communities organising collectively, and traditions such as Ubuntu, Harambee and Umuganda shaping how people support one another. But most of this activity happens informally and falls outside official measurement systems,” he says.
Manda says that traditional metrics focus on formal volunteering through organisations, counting hours and numbers. They miss the vast informal sector where mutual aid and community self-help are prevalent.
He is also a statistician at the University of Pretoria, and the Principal Investigator of the Global Index of Volunteer Engagement (GIVE), a United Nations Volunteers-funded project. His team at the University of Pretoria developed and validated the GIVE measurement framework, which was published as Chapter 7 of the 2026 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, the UNV’s flagship publication.
Importantly, GIVE is a measurement framework and not yet a data source. The next phase of the project will focus on operationalising the index so that countries can begin generating robust, comparable data on volunteerism.
Efforts such as the GIVE framework aim to provide a way to generate credible, comparable evidence on how volunteerism contributes to development. Unlike traditional approaches, the framework focuses on outcomes rather than inputs.
It examines how volunteering affects individual well-being and skills, strengthens community trust and cohesion, and is shaped by policy and cultural norms. It also incorporates household survey approaches, allowing it to capture everyday acts of helping that occur outside formal organisations.
“The key point is that by focusing on the effects of volunteering rather than counting only organised activities, we reflect what communities themselves value,” Manda explains.
When countries measure volunteer engagement properly, several tangible changes follow.
Volunteer contributions can be included in national statistics and development reporting, giving them weight in budget decisions. Governments can design evidence-based policies across sectors such as health, education and youth development. Legal protections and support systems for volunteers can be introduced. And credible data can attract investment from development partners.
African governments, Manda argues, are, however, under-managing one of their most important assets.
One of the most persistent misconceptions is that volunteering is simply “free labour”.
But the data shows otherwise. “It is not about getting work for free, but about leveraging a motivated workforce that multiplies the impact of public investment,” he says.
Does volunteering actually improve health?
Much of the existing research on volunteerism and health outcomes cannot definitively answer this question. Healthier individuals may be more likely to volunteer, while those who fall ill may stop. Other factors — such as income, education or social support — may influence both volunteering and health.
To address this, Manda is co-editing a new research collection focused on more rigorous methods, including longitudinal studies, natural experiments and quasi-experimental designs.
“If we want policy to take this seriously, we need stronger evidence,” he says.
If those causal links can be established, the implications could be significant, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
“Volunteerism could be deliberately integrated into health systems, for example, through community-based programmes that improve maternal health or vaccination coverage,” says Professor Tobias Chirwa, Principal Investigator at SSACAB and Head of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ School of Public Health.
Governments and donors could justify investing in training, supervision and support for volunteers as a cost-effective intervention. Task-shifting could be formalised in settings with health worker shortages, and social prescribing approaches could connect people to volunteering as part of broader care.
Manda adds that this would also change how volunteers themselves are treated.
“With clear evidence of impact comes a stronger obligation to ensure their safety, training and fair support. We must shift from seeing volunteers as a stopgap to recognising them as essential contributors to health systems.”
The Sub-Saharan Africa Advanced Consortium for Biostatistics (SSACAB) aims to enhance the use of data to inform public health policy and practice across Sub-Saharan Africa. SSACAB II serves as a collaborative platform that connects African and Northern academic institutions to strengthen researchers' biostatistical skills.
African leadership for pandemic preparedness
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Professor Helen Rees co-chairs WHO’s Poxvirus Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC).
Through her leadership, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ RHI has helped shape the first Mpox Research Roadmap - a critical global framework guiding research, diagnostics, vaccines, and response strategies for future outbreaks.
The World Health Organization launched the Collaborative Open Research Consortia (CORC) initiative in April 2026, bringing together networks of leading research institutions to confront pathogens with pandemic potential.
Through these efforts, ten new global research and development (R&D) roadmaps covering ten priority viral families and key bacterial threats have been launched in 2026.
These roadmaps define the critical research required to support epidemic and pandemic preparedness globally and enable the faster development and deployment of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines ahead of future outbreaks.
Co-chaired by leading African researchers, Professor , Executive Director of , and Professor Jean Jacques Muyembe, the Poxviridae Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC) is part of this initiative.
Working alongside leading international partners to advance coordinated, open, and equitable research, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ RHI has played a key role in developing the Mpox Roadmap, the first roadmap in the Poxviridae CORC.
This Roadmap defines the critical research required to protect health, strengthen preparedness, and advance equitable solutions for future pandemics at the national, regional and global level.
The significance of this work was reinforced at the WHO’s first-everGlobal Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres, a landmark gathering of one of the world’s largest and most influential public health networks.
Bringing together over 800 centres from more than 80 countries, the Forum highlighted the urgency of science-driven collaboration in an increasingly complex and fragmented global health landscape.
Amid rising global health threats, the Forum underscored the need for urgent, coordinated action.
A key focus was WHO’s expansion of its Collaborating Centre network through Collaborative Open Research Consortia (CORCs), a powerful global alliance uniting thousands of scientists to accelerate the development of vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for “Disease X,” an unknown pathogen that could trigger the next pandemic.
For more than two decades, since its designation as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Human Reproduction in 2002, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ RHI has played key roles in WHO’s research, technical expertise, and knowledge-sharing efforts.
This collaboration has reinforced Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ RHI’s role as both a global thought leader and a reliable implementation partner.
As co-chairs of the Poxvirus CORC, Rees and Muyembe (Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Research in the DRC), represent an African-led team shaping global pandemic preparedness and outbreak response mechanisms through strategic collaboration and equitable research. This achievement places Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ RHI as not only a collaborator, but one of the key voices shaping global health research and the future of pandemic preparedness across the globe.
For more information: and .
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ scientist recognised among 20 Leaders Shaping Health Across Africa
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Professor Helen Rees recognised for driving impact across health systems.
Meridian Letters has named Professor , Executive Director of , as one of its 20 Leaders Shaping Health Across Africa.
This is a recognition of African leaders driving real-time impact across health systems, from science and policy to regulation, financing, and emergency response.
An internationally acclaimed, award-winning global health leader, Rees has dedicated her career to advancing public health across Africa, championing vaccine-preventable diseases, HIV, and sexual and reproductive health.
Rees’s inclusion reflects a rare combination of scientific excellence and policy influence. At Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ RHI, she leads one of South Africa’s foremost research and implementation health institutes, with impact spanning vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and modelling on infectious diseases and other outbreak pathogens.
Her influence extends beyond academia, shaping policy, strengthening health systems, and turning evidence into action where it matters most.
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David Fine Award winner develops cold chain logistics solution
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
The inaugural 2025 winner, Wisdom Mokasi, used his grant to find a promising solution for delivering temperature-sensitive goods like pharmaceuticals.
Mokasi’s idea during the PGDip resulted in his startup KoldData, which looks to transport temperature-sensitive goods safely for longer periods of time and minimise tamper risk. “We're helping pharmaceutical and agri-food enterprises eliminate costly waste and also ensure the products arrive in a stable and safe manner, while significantly reducing the carbon footprint in tandem,” Mokasi says.
Mokasi has used the Award grant to help develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The eventual full prototype will be a cool box container that can keep products cold for longer and survive in tougher environments, like rural South Africa. It will contain a microcontroller, poweredby AI, which will be able to sense various data about the inside of the container, including for how long it can still stay cold. Eventually, it will also be matched with an AI-driven platform for whole change management and data analytics.
Mokasi has a background in industrial engineering and comes from a family in the logistics sector. He has run his own logistics company since 2018. This set him up naturally for exploring this challenge during the PGDip.
“It opened up a new world in terms of going for bigger problems,” he says, “trying to apply everything that I've learned and all the expertise that I have into developing a new high-tech solution, which is something I've always been interested in. “
Visiting Professor Surya Raghu teaches on the PGDipSc and co-created the Award. He explains that it is a core expectation of the course for students to develop a strong idea that can be commercialised, and this Award supports the best of these to establish a successful enterprise.
He praises Mokasi and the progress he has made. “He has found the right team to develop the prototype and used the Award towards building this prototype,” Raghu says. ”I believe he can raise the next round of funds needed to move ahead with his idea.”
Thembela Ntlemeza, the Business Development Manager of Commercialisation & Venture Support at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Commercial Enterprise, says the Award supports innovation by lowering the inherent risks in starting a new venture. “ Innovation requires capital to progress from concept to a solution that solves a real-world problem, and the David Fine Award bridges that gap in the earliest high-risk stage where very few capital providers will fund a project.”
Mokasi has been working with Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Commercial Enterprise to identify short- and long-term strategic partners for KoldData and to pitch the project at industry events. “Wisdom has proven to be quite exceptional in both commitment to the project and utilising the Award to progress the technology,” Ntlemeza says.
Winning the David Fine Award catapulted Mokasi’s innovative idea towards becoming a hopefully successful company in the future. “The Award has been game-changing, and it's one of the best things to happen to me,“ he explains.
Mokasi greatly appreciates the support of the university and Dr Fine directly in helping his idea come to fruition. “That was really key to actually having the backing of someone of that calibre, and getting his input, because he's got so much industry knowledge.”
Fine says Mokasi has the right attitude, drive, and willingness to do well in a startup environment. “That grit to make it all happen is so critical to an innovator, not just the idea,” he says. You've got to sleep and eat and dream innovation - everything has to be focused on what you're doing for an innovator to succeed.”
He is also excited about the possible next winner of the Award and praises the applicants for their initiative. “When people have an idea, and they decide that they are going to make something of it, that is special, because that drive is so critical, and very few people have it,” he explains. “I'm hoping this Award will be able to reach out and find those kinds of people.”
The selection of the 2026 Award winner is currently underway, with two shortlisted candidates who will be interviewed by a selection panel including Dr David Fine. The WIC's Acting Angela and David Fine Chair of Innovation, Professor Christo Doherty, says they hope to choose another candidate as strong and enterprising as Mokasi.
“The David Fine Innovation Award winner should be living examples of what PGDipSc students can do if they really set their minds to it, and also blaze a route forward for the young entrepreneurs that the program is designed to produce,” Doherty says. The hope is that the Award inspires future classes and becomes a key component of the course.
Over the next few months, Mokasi plans to build out a full MVP and prototype. While the grant amount was limited in the greater context of start-ups, it has set him up to be connected and supported towards finding future funding.
Scientists discover surprising new way to control light
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
A hidden property of light allows it to twist, spin and behave differently - without mirrors, materials or special lenses.
Scientists at the University of Witwatersrand and the University of East Anglia have uncovered a hidden property of light that allows it to twist, spin and behave differently - without mirrors, materials or special lenses.
In a breakthrough that could transform medical testing, data transmission and future quantum technologies, researchers from the UK and South Africa have shown that light can be “programmed” simply by exploiting its natural geometry.
The discovery, published in Light: Science & Applications, overturns decades of scientific thinking and reveals that light can develop chiral behaviour - meaning it can act like a left or right hand - while travelling freely through space.
This, the team says, could ultimately lead to a world where light carries information, probes biology, manipulates matter and protects quantum signals.
Why ‘handed’ light matters
Chirality, or “handedness”, is a crucial concept in science. Many molecules, including those used in medicines, come in left and right-handed forms that look almost identical but can behave very differently inside the human body.
To tell them apart, scientists often use special forms of light that spin either clockwise or anticlockwise. Until now, creating and controlling this kind of light required carefully engineered surfaces, exotic materials or extreme focusing using powerful lenses.
But the new study shows that none of that is necessary.
“Our work shows that light can naturally develop this handed behaviour all on its own,” says Dr Kayn Forbes from UEA’s School of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacology.
“You just have to prepare it in the right way.”
Light that twists like a corkscrew
Most people think of light as travelling in straight lines. But scientists can also create structured light - light whose brightness, shape and direction are carefully arranged.
“One extreme example is light that twists as it travels, forming a corkscrew shape known as an optical vortex. Each twist can carry information, making this kind of light valuable for high-speed internet, secure communications and advanced sensors,” says Forbes.
“Light can also spin as it travels, depending on how it is polarised. This spin can be left-handed or right-handed - another form of chirality.”
A hidden feature finally revealed
Until now, interactions between the spin and twist of light were thought to be incredibly weak - so weak that they could only be detected under special conditions.
But the team found that if light is prepared in a carefully balanced state, its spin can appear naturally as it moves through empty space.
“It starts off with no spin at all,” says MSc student Light Mkhumbuza from Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University’s School of Physics, who carried out key experiments. “But as the beam travels forward, spinning regions appear and separate out - almost as if the spin was hiding and then revealed itself.”
The process requires no mirrors or special materials. It is ust light propagating freely.
The ‘topological fingerprint’ of light
According to Dr Isaac Nape from the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ School of Physics, the reason this happens lies in topology - a branch of maths that focuses on properties that stay the same, even when objects are stretched or reshaped.
“To explain it, imagine a mug and a doughnut,” he says. “You can morph one into the other without tearing it, because they both have one hole. That hole is a topological feature.”
Light has its own version of this “hole count” - a hidden topological fingerprint buried in the way its polarisation is arranged. This fingerprint doesn’t disappear as light travels. Instead, it quietly guides how the beam evolves.
As the light moves forward, the hidden structure forces the spinning behaviour to emerge - giving scientists a powerful new way to control light using geometry alone.
“This gives us a completely new tuning knob for light. By adjusting its topology, we can decide how and where chirality appears,” says Nape.
Wide-ranging implications
“This work could lead to simpler and more sensitive medical tests, especially in drug development,” says Forbes. “It could also be used to pack more information into laser beams - boosting data capacity for communications, including future quantum networks.”
Because the effect doesn’t rely on fragile materials or precision-engineered surfaces, it could be easier and cheaper to use in real-world technologies.
“This research could lay the foundations for a new generation of light‑based technologies, by showing that light’s behaviour can be controlled using its own internal geometry.”
Key future applications:
Simpler medical and pharmaceutical tests, using specially structured light to distinguish left‑ and right‑handed molecules vital for drug safety and disease detection
Compact optical sensors capable of identifying biological and chemical substances quickly, cheaply and without laboratory‑grade equipment
More powerful communication technologies, where information is packed into multiple twisting and spinning states of light to boost data capacity and security
Advanced tools for biology and nanotechnology, allowing tiny particles, cells or molecules to be moved and rotated using light alone
More robust quantum technologies, with topology helping protect delicate quantum information from noise and disruption
A quiet revolution in plain sight
The researchers say their work challenges long-held assumptions about what light can and cannot do on its own.
“For something so familiar, light is proving to be far richer, stranger and more powerful than anyone imagined,” says Forbes. “This new behaviour has been there all along — just waiting to be seen.”
SACAQM opens AI_r Sensor Hosting Programme
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
The move is to encourage participants and broaden data access to improve air quality monitoring capacity.
The South African Consortium of Air Quality Monitoring (SACAQM) has opened participation for its AI_r Sensor Hosting Programme, inviting public institutions, NGOs and private organisations to host AI_r devices as part of a two-year air quality monitoring study. The programme is designed to broaden access to environmental data, strengthen local monitoring capacity, and make air quality information more visible and actionable for communities and decision-makers.
AI_r is a South African-designed and South African-assembled technology platform that brings together air quality sensors, communications and artificial intelligence in a single integrated system. It combines cost-effective environmental sensing with IoT connectivity and real-time AI analytics, enabling continuous monitoring of parameters including PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4.0, PM10.0, VOCs, NOx, COâ‚‚, temperature and humidity. Data from the network is made publicly available through an AI-powered online dashboard, supporting transparent, data-driven environmental monitoring.
Under the hosting programme, selected organisations receive an AI_r sensor free of charge for the duration of the study. Hosts are responsible for collecting the device from Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, installing it outdoors in a sheltered location, providing Wi-Fi connectivity, and ensuring that it remains powered and continuously connected. The form notes that data usage is approximately 100 MB per month.
Beyond expanding monitoring coverage, the deployment of AI_r sensors will help drive a next-generation air quality modelling capability. Real-time data from the AI_r network, combined with complex atmospheric modelling and satellite observations, will position SACAQM to develop one of the most advanced air quality intelligence platforms globally, delivering improved forecasting, stronger risk assessment and better decision support.
AI_r is also gaining international traction. Partners at the University of Leeds are deploying the technology as part of a major university-led initiative, building one of the largest university-based air quality sensor networks in the UK. Here, 90 units are being rolled out in underserved communities. This expansion highlights the growing global relevance of the South African-designed and assembled AI_r platform and its potential to support more equitable, data-driven environmental monitoring in cities around the world.
The programme reflects SACAQM’s broader mission to solve the affordability problem in air quality monitoring through AI-powered IoT, while building a stronger environmental intelligence network for South Africa.
It also builds on international and national support that has helped advance the AI_r platform, including support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Pierre Fabre Foundation in France, the Horizons Institute UK (with funding from Dr David Fine), South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF), and the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI).
What HIV taught us about dealing with obesity
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Veteran HIV clinician-scientist Professor Francois Venter takes on the obesity epidemic.
As a young doctor amid the unrelenting chaos that characterised the height of the HIV epidemic in South Africa in the late 1990s, Professor recalls writing between 10 and 20 death certificates a day at the then Johannesburg General Hospital.
A senior, curmudgeonly doctor inspired much of what underpins Venter’s work and human sensibilities. He recalls sitting in front of this doctor, who paged nonchalantly through a You magazine while consulting with his younger staff during ward rounds.
But the older doctor’s seeming insouciance was, in fact, far from it. The senior doctor knew in minute detail everything about each patient, and his assertion was that HIV patients must be given equal clinical rigour and dignity (fear, stigma and denial were particularly devastating and inherent across the system, including government).
Sustaining standards of care
Venter still shudders when he thinks about the early days of HIV. “There was no plan. The bureaucracy was crazy, unwieldy … And the worst were the senior officials who didn’t seem to care.”
He remembers that when critically ill patients lay on the floors because wards had exceeded their capacity, he urgently asked provincial administrators to redirect ambulances to other nearby facilities. The dying patients from other provinces, he was instructed, must be sent back to those provinces instead.
“But this insistence on maintaining standards of care I learnt as a young doctor (by the curmudgeon), no matter what the patient was afflicted with or where they were from, was formative, despite the overwhelming conditions,” says Venter.
Ezintsha Innovation
Venter is now the Director of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Research Centre, which has completed 34 research projects since 2018, including technically difficult yet necessary clinical trials.
In academic parlance, Venter is a clinician-researcher who believes that being a medical doctor isn’t enough and that research contributions are imperative in improving people's health and lives.
Venter learnt the ropes of clinical trials as a junior doctor, working on various pharmaceutical company trials as a minor cog in the wheel. Years later, he was approached to do what he calls an “unpopular” trial, which involved trying to bring down the cost of a toxic antiretroviral medication.
“There weren’t many people who had the expertise and were willing to take the risk on. We designed the study, set up the infrastructure and published journal articles a few years later. It was an amazing experience, because it was such a difficult endeavour and taught us so much.”
But it was the ADVANCE trial that Venter and his team are perhaps most famous for.
This helped drive the shift to safer, dolutegravir-based HIV treatment, now the basis for treatment for most people with HIV in the world. The study showed that newer regimens could suppress the virus as effectively as older ones, but with far less toxicity.
The HIV and obesity epidemics
ADVANCE revealed something else, however: patients, particularly women, were gaining weight. “At the time, we thought it was a side effect of the drugs. But overweight and obesity are part of a much bigger picture, and we know it is a complex interplay between the virus and modern food, as well as maybe the drugs. As HIV care has improved, a new set of health challenges has emerged, and so we need to link the chronic treatment of HIV to the treatment of obesity.”
Ezintsha now works at the intersection of HIV and non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
About two-thirds of women and almost a third of men in South Africa are overweight or obese. Excess weight is linked to long-lasting health problems, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, certain cancers, liver and kidney disease, mental illness and sleep disorders.
What links the HIV and obesity epidemics, in Venter’s mind, is not just the scale but also the misunderstanding. Both diseases are complex and were initially framed too narrowly, delaying the kinds of responses needed to manage them effectively.
“A nuanced and rapidly growing health challenge is being reduced to individual behaviour. Worryingly, many health workers still misunderstand obesity and will simply tell patients to eat less and exercise more, when the research shows that while those are really important habits, there is a lot more that makes a person overweight and obese, and these factors have little to do with their behaviours.”
The 'ARVs' for obesity
Obesity research is evolving more quickly than policy and care models. Just as with HIV, it took time and evidence to see how structural factors shape risk. Poverty, education, geography and access to care all determine health.
There are new drugs, “the ARVs of metabolic health,” that Venter deems miraculous, set to provide the missing piece in obesity management. Semaglutide, in particular (better known by the brand names Ozempic and Mounjaro), targets GLP-1 receptors, which reduce hunger and improve metabolic control. But the drugs are eye-wateringly expensive. A one-month supply costs between R2800 and R6000.
Once again, the people who cannot access obesity drugs are disproportionately black, poor and “under-engaged in health systems.” Venter notes that the medications are not just good for obesity, but for liver, gut, cardiovascular health, pain, addiction and maybe even immunity.
Many people are concerned about the long-term side effects of semaglutides, but Venter says that over 20 years of research suggests that they are very safe.
“We need to build a system that can deliver GLP-1 care to 27% of the population,” says Venter. And it seems possible: one of his colleagues, Dr Andrew Hill, has shown that injectable semaglutide could be produced for as little as $3 a month.
“We know what needs to happen now, and we know what happens if we don’t respond in time. History shows us that. Can we apply the lessons we learnt in the HIV crisis and apply it to our emerging health challenges?”
Galloping towards zoonotic detection
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
How a love for horses and understanding the virus that kills them put Prof. Marietjie Venter in the saddle of virology towards One Health.
Distinguished Professor Marietjie Venter knows about horses. She competes in international-level dressage classes, with pictures of her and her German Warmblood horse, Quinta 116, adorning her office wall.
But as a virologist, what also piqued her interest almost three decades ago was why horses were getting so sick from a devastating, virulent virus. African horse sickness, spread by biting midges, was but one example of a vector-borne disease occurring in Africa, causing severe respiratory distress, with a fatality rate of up to 90% in horses.
When animals get sick, it’s not only the threat of it being passed to humans. The consequences are social and economic too. In low- and middle-income countries, the death of donkeys and horses, for example, impacts agricultural trade, food production, and often transportation for livelihoods. Outbreaks in these animals may also be used as an early warning system to predict outbreaks in humans
This sparked Venter’s lifelong interest in studying a range of vector-borne and respiratory diseases. Her PhD in Medical Virology, obtained from Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, focused on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the major cause of pneumonia in babies.
This was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the USA, investigating how zoonotic mosquito-borne viruses can be transmitted from birds to humans and horses. This was fortuitously at the time when the West Nile virus travelled from Africa to the Americas for the first time.
Upon her return to South Africa, Venter established an extensive One Health surveillance network to detect known and emerging zoonotic viruses in animals, humans and mosquito vectors. This work was globally significant and helped establish Venter as a leading figure in disease surveillance.
There are about 200 firmly identified zoonotic diseases – infectious diseases that have jumped from animals to humans. These pathogens are bacterial, viral, and parasitic, involving unconventional agents that spread to humans through direct contact with infected animals (via the air, bites, and body fluids), animal products such as meat and milk, and the environment, such as water or insect vectors.
“There’s still so much more we need to study because we don’t know nearly enough. What is certain is that zoonoses comprise a large percentage of all newly identified infectious diseases as well as many existing ones,” says Venter.
When people fall ill with viral meningitis, there is a chance they were infected with West Nile virus through a mosquito bite. HIV began as a zoonosis, later mutating into human-only strains. Other zoonoses cause recurring outbreaks (think Ebola in Africa), international incidents such as the current outbreak of a rodent-borne hantavirus on a cruise ship, and catastrophic global pandemics like COVID-19.
Venter doesn’t panic about being bitten by mosquitoes (because often once you’ve been bitten, it’s too late anyway), but advises that we can prevent bites with mosquito repellents such as Peaceful Sleep and Tabard and to take malaria prophylaxis in malaria endemic areas.
“It’s important that when we try to explain, prevent and treat viruses, animals, humans and the environment must be considered as a whole. This is what is meant by the ‘One Health’ approach. When patients come to the hospital with infectious diseases, their journey started long before that with exposure to pathogens in the environment, infected animals or other humans.”
Venter led the World Health Organization’s global expert group investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID infections. The group’s found that the virus likely emerged from bats via intermediate hosts (whose identities remain unknown), but that critical information regarding the lab accident hypothesis was unavailable.
Whether the epidemic originated from a lab leak cannot be ruled out, but most scientific evidence points to a zoonotic origin, with the first cases occurring around the Huan animal market in Wuhan, China.
Closer to home, Venter was a key member of the National Genomic Surveillance Consortium on COVID-19, which identified the Omicron variant and garnered international interest. Her group also identified the first cases of reverse zoonoses, in which humans infected lions, jaguars and pumas in Africa. Spillback to animals poses a risk of new variants evolving, which can spark new epidemics.
South Africa’s health surveillance networks are world-class, established by the country’s top virologists, veterinarians, doctors, and ecologists to closely track emerging and zoonotic viruses.
“Our technology is state-of-the-art to accurately determine the risk and pathogenesis of new viruses. This informs animal and human health globally,” she says.
Zoonotic diseases that may cause outbreaks in humans and animals through environmental exposure require careful biocontainment, technical rigour, and close integration with an urgent public health response.
In addition to describing viruses such as West Nile Virus and SARS-CoV-2 in humans and animals, Venter and her colleagues have also described influenza and RSV strains, as well as various other zoonotic viruses of interest to human and animal health.
After a prolific career as a zoonotic arbo and respiratory viruses specialist at various high-profile institutions, Venter joined the Infectious Disease and Oncology Research Institute (IDORI) as a Distinguished Professor and NRF SARCHi Chair in Emerging Viral Threats, One Health Surveillance and Vaccines (EViTOH).
Her goal is to strengthen South Africa’s capacity to detect, understand and respond to emerging and re-emerging pathogens, especially vector-borne and respiratory viruses.
Venter was awarded the Royal Society of South Africa’s Marloth Medal 2026 for her highly distinguished contributions, global leadership and service to the furtherance of science.
She met the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, Professor Shabir Madhi, in the early 2000s when he was a practising paediatrician. Their shared interest in RSV in children formed an early scientific link between molecular virology and clinical disease burden. She credits her professional relationships with Madhi and other internationally renowned scientists, including Professors Barry Schoub and Lynn Morris, both affiliated with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, for broadening the scope of her work and encouraging her to look beyond disciplinary boundaries when investigating the origins of disease.
Today, Venter has contributed to building the systems needed to meaningfully detect and respond to illnesses. Her added expertise in establishing a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) zoonotic, arbo and respiratory virus laboratory is an asset to the new Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Interdisciplinary and Translational Science (WITS) BioHub, which, at 28,000 square metres, will house advanced biomolecular laboratories and a BSL-3 facility for infectious disease research.
“Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ has a strong vaccine culture, with exceptional scientists who collaborate and make their research matter to the world,” says Venter.
While work on pathogen surveillance in mosquitoes and wastewater enables early detection of pathogens in the environment, genomic and vaccine research on emerging and zoonotic causes of pneumonia and meningitis, with high-containment lab capacity, allows EViTOH at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ not just to spot them, but to be ready to move quickly.
Venter has been preparing for this her whole career.
Professor Benjamin Rosman leads South Africa’s AI policy panel
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
The Director of Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University’s MIND Institute to head a panel of independent experts in AI research, law and governance.
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi appointed Professor Benjamin Rosman and an advisory panel of experts to assist in formulating South Africa’s national policy on artificial intelligence (AI).
This comes after Malatsi withdrew the draft National AI Policy following a News24 report that several academic journals cited in the document were ‘fictitious’. Malatsi said a new draft policy needs to be based on the ‘best available evidence and align with South Africa’s priorities’.
Rosman echoes this, saying the first priority is “to make sure the policy is grounded in strong evidence and in the realities of South Africa. This means we need to look carefully at where AI could have the greatest positive impact and where the risks are most serious, and what institutional capacity we need to govern and use these technologies as well”.
“For me, the policy has to be three things at once: protect people from real harms, enable innovation and economic growth, and build long-term national capability. If we only regulate, we miss the opportunity, but if we only chase innovation, we may deepen inequality or create new risks. So the challenge for us is to get that balance right.”
He adds that it is vital to ensure that the process of drafting a national AI policy is consultative and draws on expertise from research, industry, civil society, law, labour and the public sector.
Says Rosman: “It’s both a privilege and a great responsibility to have been chosen for this role. I’ve spent so much of my career thinking about how South Africa and Africa can participate meaningfully in the future of AI. The major risk is that we become only consumers of AI systems that are built elsewhere: built for other societies, optimised for their economies, and governed according to their priorities”.
He believes South Africa and Africans need to contribute to the science, governance, and application of AI. To do this, “we need to build the capacities to enable us to build AI ourselves. This means that the skills, infrastructure, research, innovation and governance need to understand our constitutional values and our social realities,” he adds.
An AI ecosystem is vital for success
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University plays an important role in the future of AI in South Africa and Africa by bringing together several parts of the AI ecosystem.
Says Rosman: “Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ has very deep technical expertise in many areas of AI, machine learning, robotics and autonomous systems. We have interdisciplinary strength through the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ MIND Institute, which brings together computer science, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, ethics, law and humanities.”
“We also have a long-standing commitment to building African AI capacity through postgraduate training, research leadership and networks such as the Deep Learning Indaba.”
Also read Professor Benjamin Rosman’s views on algorithmic sovereignty
Visit /future/ for more AI news at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
AIrSynQ’s AI-Powered air quality product development gets funding boost
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
R11.7 million funding support from the Technology Innovation Agency will enable further development and implementation of the AI4Mines/AIrSynQ solution.
The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) has approved R11.7 million funding support for the AI4Mines/AIrSynQ solution following a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation process.
The application was assessed in full alignment with the TIA’s Investment Policy Framework, as well as all applicable legislative and governance requirements. The approval of the funding marks a significant milestone in advancing innovative, technology-driven solutions and reflects TIA’s continued commitment to supporting high-impact innovations with strong potential for sectoral and socio-economic benefit.
“The approval of this funding underscores the quality of the solution and its alignment with strategic innovation priorities,” said TIA ICT Team. “It represents a meaningful step toward accelerating the development and deployment of advanced technologies within South Africa’s innovation ecosystem.”
Funding support will enable further development and implementation of the AI4Mines/AIrSynQ solution, contributing to innovation, competitiveness, and technological advancement within the targeted sector.
AIrSynQ, a spinout of the University of the Witwatersrand, is developing products that combine advanced air quality sensing, IoT connectivity and artificial intelligence to help organizations monitor conditions in real time, detect risks early and respond proactively.
The company positions its technology for mining, offices, hospitality, healthcare and other environments where air quality has direct implications for health, safety and performance.
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand, said: “AIrSynQ is an excellent example of how innovation emerging from a research university can be translated into practical solutions with real impact. We are proud to see a Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ spinout attracting this important support from TIA to develop products that can improve health, safety and productivity across multiple sectors.”
The award reflects the increasing importance of air quality as both a workplace and business issue.
In the mining sector and other industrial environments, AIrSynQ’s products are intended to support healthier and safer workforces by strengthening the monitoring of pollutants and enabling earlier intervention.
In offices and other shared indoor spaces, the company’s technology helps employers better manage the effects of poor air quality on employee well-being, concentration and productivity.
AIrSynQ’s public materials explicitly note that poor indoor air quality can contribute to fatigue, headaches, difficulty concentrating and reduced cognitive performance.
The award reflects the increasing importance of air quality as both a workplace and business issue.
Dr. Edward Nkadimeng, Head of Engineering at AIrSynQ Systems, said:“TIA’s support comes at a critical stage in our product development journey. Our priority is to build robust, affordable and intelligent systems that can operate reliably in demanding environments, from mines and industrial sites to offices and other indoor spaces.”
AIrSynQ has already deployed its solutions in real-world operational environments across multiple sectors. Its public-facing materials highlight clients and partners in various branches of industries, and the company has also secured several distribution partnerships to accelerate market penetration. Notably, AIrSynQ has partnered with Africa Weather to expand distribution of its technology in the mining sector.
Dominique Adams, Head of Marketing at AIrSynQ Systems, said:“This funding is an important milestone for AIrSynQ. It allows us to focus on developing products that respond to a clear and growing need in the market. More organisations now understand that air quality is not only about compliance or health. It also affects how people feel, how they work and how businesses perform.”
The company is also working with Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Commercial Enterprise (Pty) Ltd, the commercial arm of the University of the Witwatersrand and a shareholder in AIrSynQ, to advance commercialization. Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Enterprise describes itself as the University’s wholly owned commercial arm focused on commercialisation and broader societal impact.
About AIrSynQ Systems AIrSynQ Systems is a South African technology company and a spinout of the University of the Witwatersrand. The company develops AI-powered products for indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring, combining sensing, IoT communications and advanced analytics to support healthier, safer and more productive environments.
Navigating the new era of CSI
- Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment
CAPSI's Professor Bhekinkosi Moyo warns corporates to respond to youth-led shift or risk losing a generation.
The Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI) at the University of the Witwatersrand participated in the Trialogue Business in Society Conference 2026 today, where leaders from business, academia and civil society gathered to examine the future of corporate social investment (CSI) in a rapidly changing world.
Participating in a featured session titled “Dialogue with Trialogue: Navigating the New Era of CSI”, CAPSI Director and Adjunct Professor at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Business School, Professor Bhekinkosi Moyo, joined Nick Rockey of Trialogue and Thandeka Nkambule of Sanlam to explore how global and local shifts are reshaping the role of business in society.
Speaking as a scholar of philanthropy and social investment, Professor Moyo said the global funding architecture is being fundamentally redrawn. He pointed to the gradual retreat of traditional Western funding streams, particularly from Europe and parts of the United States, and the rise of new global actors including China, Brazil and India. These changes, he noted, are not abstract geopolitical shifts; they have practical implications for how African institutions, corporates and development actors position themselves in a changing global order.
Within this context, Professor Moyo emphasised that corporates can no longer be seen as peripheral contributors to development. As traditional sources of funding come under pressure, business is increasingly expected to play a more central role in addressing social challenges and supporting long-term development outcomes.
A key thread in the discussion was the role of young people in reshaping corporate behaviour. Professor Moyo noted that youth expectations are influencing how companies operate, from internal culture to external engagement. Young people are increasingly demanding organisations that are socially conscious, environmentally responsible and purpose-driven.
“If corporates do not respond to this shift,” Professor Moyo cautioned, “they risk losing an entire generation.”
Asked during the session what the biggest factor influencing CSI and development strategy in 2026 is, Professor Moyo pointed to social pressures, including inequality, unemployment and community unrest. These pressures, he said, underline why corporates can no longer treat social investment as separate from core business strategy.
Professor Moyo argued for a move beyond compliance-driven CSI towards more integrated and strategic approaches. He highlighted the importance of aligning profit, people and purpose, noting that social investment should be embedded within core business functions rather than treated as a peripheral activity.
This includes linking CSI to procurement systems, supply chains and long-term growth strategies, enabling organisations to both justify and sustain their social investments. In this sense, CSI becomes not only a moral imperative, but also a strategic lever for resilience and competitiveness.
These reflections were reinforced by contributions from fellow panellists. Nick Rockey of Trialogue noted that while the language of impact, capital and strategy has become more mainstream, there is now a visible shift in practice, with philanthropic and corporate capital increasingly being deployed in more coordinated and impactful ways.
Thandeka Nkambule of Sanlam offered a practical perspective, emphasising that strategic CSI is more sustainable and resilient, particularly in times of economic pressure. She highlighted the importance of moving beyond “tick-box” approaches, noting that well-integrated programmes can create competitive advantage while addressing societal needs.
Nkambule also illustrated the value of ecosystem thinking through Sanlam’s youth-focused initiatives, which extend beyond skills development to include access to markets and long-term opportunities. This reflects a broader shift towards collaborative, system-level interventions rather than isolated projects.
Across the dialogue, a clear consensus emerged: meaningful social impact cannot be achieved in isolation. Speakers emphasised the importance of partnerships across business, government, civil society and communities. Professor Moyo further noted that collaboration should not be seen as superficial alignment, but as a pathway to addressing systemic challenges, including intergenerational wealth shifts, emerging forms of capital and the expectations of younger investors who increasingly prioritise impact alongside financial returns.
The conversation also took place during a significant year for CAPSI. Professor Moyo noted that 2026 marks a decade of CAPSI’s work in advancing African philanthropy, social investment and knowledge production. This anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the Centre’s contribution and to position its work within the evolving global and continental landscape outlined during the dialogue.
As the Trialogue Business in Society Conference continues to provide a platform for critical engagement, the insights shared during this session point to a broader transformation in how CSI is understood and practised. From shifting global power dynamics to the rising influence of youth, and from compliance-driven models to integrated, purpose-led strategies, CSI is entering a new era — one that requires organisations to be more responsive, more collaborative and more deeply embedded in the societies they serve.
CAPSI’s work remains anchored in the premise that when knowledge, practice and purpose come together, social investment can move beyond charity to become a catalyst for meaningful and sustained change.
The Trialogue Business in Society Conference 2026 continues to serve as a leading platform for dialogue on the “S” in ESG, bringing together representatives from companies and nonprofit organisations to explore “Voices. Values. Vision.”
Read more about Trialogue here:
New scenarios needed to address climate crisis
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Scientists call for a rethink of climate change scenarios that puts justice, diverse knowledge, and systemic change at the heart of modelling.
In a new paper, scientists argue how today’s scenarios are falling short of providing solutions to the climate crisis. They call for a rethink that puts justice, diverse knowledge, and systemic change at the heart of modelling.
Scientists, including those working with the Earth Commission, are calling for a fundamental rethink of how the world imagines its future, arguing that today’s dominant climate and biodiversity models are too narrow to deal with the scale and complexity of the crises ahead.
In a , researchers warn that many widely used global scenarios are built on the same assumptions that helped create the world’s current problems. By relying on existing economic systems, governance structures, and social norms, these models tend to focus on incremental change rather than the deeper, sweeping transformations needed to achieve a safe and just future.
“Right now, many of our global scenarios are effectively asking how to fix the future without really changing the present,” Commissioner and lead author Professor Laura Pereira from the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and the Stockholm Resilience Centre says. “If we want pathways that work, we need tools that can explore different economic models, different power structures, and different relationships between people and nature, not just different technologies.”
Pereira adds that this matters because the world is not facing a single crisis, but several at once: climate change, biodiversity loss, widening inequality and more. Yet current models rarely capture how these challenges interact or how shifts in power, institutions, and values could reshape possible futures.
Pereira is one of 23 commissioners on the Earth Commission, four of whom are from Africa. Convened by , the world’s largest network of sustainability researchers, the Commission brings together an international team of natural and social scientists to identify the planet’s critical thresholds – to ensure there is clean air and water, biodiversity, and a stable climate in which all life can thrive.
Scientists use models to understand how the planet works in a simplified way. Different models specialise in different things: they can pull together data and theories to simulate how the atmosphere, oceans, ecosystems, and economies interact over time and how they might respond to changes such as rising emissions, land-use shifts, or new policies. The most widely used models for decision-making include Integrated Assessment Models, but these have acknowledged constraints that can be improved through better scenarios and more innovative use of diverse models, including those used in economics and conservation. This is a big gap in the African context because we are the only region without an IAM- a gap that has been noted within the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½-led , and which the team hopes to address if their funding is renewed.
The outputs from scenarios and models shape major global assessments like the IPCC and IPBES and negotiations in the UNFCCC and CBD, but the paper argues how many scenarios fail to ask some of the most basic questions: who benefits, who bears the costs, and whose voices are included in shaping the future. These blind spots are particularly stark when it comes to perspectives from the Global South, the authors write.
Instead, they call for a new generation of “integrated transformative scenarios”, approaches which bring together climate, biodiversity, and equity goals, and which are co-developed with a much broader range of actors, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
To get there, the paper lays out a research agenda. Among its proposals is a Global South–led “scenarios secretariat,” new types of models designed from the ground up to handle complexity and uncertainty, and stronger links between different fields of research, and alternative economic thinking.
Some early examples already point in this direction, including nature-centred scenarios, post-growth economic models, and justice-focused initiatives such as the Justice Model Intercomparison Project and the work undertaken by the Transformations Pathways workstream in the Earth Commission. Together, they begin to sketch out futures that are not only environmentally sustainable, but also more equitable.
“We find there’s a real need to move beyond business-as-usual modelling,” says Albert Norström, the Commission’s science director, “and start co-creating futures that reflect the diversity of societies, knowledge, and values around the world.”
Why babies are dying and how we can stop It
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Vida - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Faculty of Health Sciences
New post-portem study reveals over 80% of infection-related neonatal deaths in South Africa are preventable.
A groundbreaking study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal has identified that the vast majority of neonatal (newborn infant in the first 28 days of life) deaths caused by infections in South Africa and other low-and-middle-income countries could be prevented through improved clinical care and targeted medical interventions. The research, conducted by the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network, utilized innovative post-mortem techniques that enables accurate identification of causes of death in low-resource settings. To provide the most granular look to date at what is killing newborns in these regions, more than 2,600 neonatal deaths were analysed using minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS).
The study, titled “Post-mortem characterisation of pathogen-specific causes of infection-related deaths in African and south Asian neonates: a prospective, observational, multicentre study which included a major surveillance site in Soweto, South Africa”, has revealed that infections are involved in 44% of neonatal deaths across multiple sites in Africa and South Asia, underscoring an urgent need to strengthen infection prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies. Crucially, an expert panel determined that over 80% of these infection-related deaths were preventable under current or improved facility-based conditions.
Key Findings for South Africa:
Dominant Hospital Pathogens: In South Africa, Acinetobacter baumannii was the overwhelming driver of hospital-acquired infections, contributing to 74.3% of presumed hospital-acquired neonatal deaths.
Community-Acquired Threats: Group B Streptococcus (GBS) was identified as the leading cause of community-acquired neonatal deaths in South Africa, accounting for 30.6% of such cases, followed by Escherichia coli at 24.7%.
Emerging Fungal Risks: South Africa was the only site to report specific life-threatening fungal infections, including Candidozyma auris and Nakaseomyces glabratus, in the causal pathway to death.
Preventability: The modifiable factors identified to reduce these deaths include improvements in infection prevention and control (50.8%), clinical care (50.7%), and antenatal and obstetric care (42.2%).
The findings reveal that current empirical antibiotic treatments may be insufficient, particularly in high-burden settings where antimicrobial resistance is rising. The study also shows that infections often occur alongside other conditions such as prematurity and birth complications, indicating that neonatal deaths are driven by multiple, interconnected factors.
“These findings indicate an urgent need to review empirical antibiotic treatment for neonatal infections,” said Prof. Shabir A. Madhi, Director of the South African Medical Research Council Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research (Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ VIDA) Unit and lead author of the study. “The high prevalence of multidrug-resistant pathogens like K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii suggests our current standard protocols may no longer be sufficient. Alarmingly, some of these bacteria are resistant to all classes of antibiotics currently available.”
Nearly half of all deaths in children under five occur in the neonatal period, with the highest burden in Africa and South Asia. Importantly, local data further underscores the urgency of action. Within the Soweto and Thembelihle surveillance population, the neonatal mortality rate is estimated at 16.0 deaths per 1,000 live births, significantly higher than both South Africa’s national estimate of 10 per 1,000 and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2030 target of 12 per 1,000 live births.
These findings highlight persistent inequalities in maternal and child health outcomes, even within urban settings, and reinforce the need for targeted, evidence-based interventions.
The MITS technique used at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ VIDA uses needle biopsies rather than full autopsies to collect biological specimens. This method proved far more effective than traditional antemortem diagnostics, which failed to identify a pathogen in up to 73% of suspected sepsis cases in South Africa.
The study provides one of the most comprehensive, pathogen-specific analyses of neonatal deaths to date and ultimately, the study highlights a powerful opportunity. That most infection-related neonatal deaths are preventable.The CHAMPS consortium concludes that prioritizing new maternal vaccines and strengthening hospital infection control are essential steps to reducing the high burden of neonatal mortality.
CHAMPS South Africa consistently shares its granular research findings with the National Department of Health (NDoH) through various channels to ensure this detailed evidence assists in developing targeted strategies to prevent neonatal infections. These data, which provide a precise look at the pathogens responsible for mortality, are intended to help the NDoH refine empirical antibiotic protocols and strengthen hospital infection control measures. Beyond policy-level engagement, CHAMPS collaborates with local communities to raise awareness regarding prevention strategies, specifically emphasizing the importance of early antenatal care booking and consistent attendance. By focusing on these modifiable factors, the initiative seeks to improve obstetric care and reduce the number of babies born "too soon or too small," addressing the preterm birth complications that frequently underlie neonatal deaths.
About CHAMPS: The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network is a global collaboration funded by The Gates Foundation. It aims to provide accurate data on the causes of childhood death to inform policy and save lives in high-mortality regions.
International Vaccine Institute Board of Trustees appoints Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ie as Chair
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ RHI’s Prof. Helen Rees looks towards advancing vaccine innovation and access globally.
The Board of Trustees of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) has elected South African Professor as the incoming Chair.
Rees will guide IVI’s governance through the next phase of institutional growth over an initial three-year term.
Under her leadership, IVI’s 2027-2031 strategy will prioritise strengthening and expanding the vaccine ecosystem across the African continent, reinforcing regional capacity for vaccine development, research, and access.
Rees says, “It is an honour to serve as Chair of IVI’s Board of Trustees at such an important moment for the organisation. IVI plays a critical role in advancing vaccine innovation and access globally, and I look forward to working with the Board, member states, leadership, and partners to further strengthen its impact.”
Rees is the Founding and Executive Director of , a flagship research institute at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University in Johannesburg. Rees founded Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ RHI in 1994 at the request of South Africa’s post-apartheid government.
IVI was founded in 1997 with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme and now operates as an autonomous international organisation, focusing on research, development, and delivery of vaccines for global health.
Saliva could flag one of SA’s deadliest and baffling cancers sooner
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Could bacteria in saliva offer a low-cost warning signal for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma?
Scientists at the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience () at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University are exploring whether bacteria in saliva could offer a low-cost warning signal for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, where late diagnosis leaves palliative care as the only option.
Unlike oesophageal adenocarcinoma, which is strongly linked to reflux, obesity, diet and other lifestyle changes and is found across developed nations, the squamous cell subtype common in South Africa follows a far more puzzling pattern.
Indeed, the full picture of what causes oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma has baffled scientists for decades. Distinguished Professor at the SBIMB, Professor Christopher Mathew, and colleagues in the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Faculty of Health Sciences have been trying to answer this question, working with limited etiologic or clinical research devoted to this specific cancer.
“A feature of the cancer is the young age of many patients, with a mean age of 50, and 18% of patients presenting before the age of 40”, says Mathew.
Notably, oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma occurs in a high-incidence belt that runs through parts of China and Iran, and down the eastern side of Africa, including South Africa’s Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
“This geographical occurrence is also puzzling, and may reflect genetic susceptibility, a specific environmental exposure, or a combination of factors that researchers have still not been able to pin down,” explains Dr Wenlong Carl Chen, a researcher at SBIMB.
Chen and his colleagues have shown from the data that smoking and heavy alcohol use remain important risks, as does living in rural areas, having lower educational attainment, and use of biomass or other household fuels.
“Still, they do not fully explain the number of cases, the geographic clustering, or why some patients develop the disease without these obvious exposures.”
The saliva clue
But a newly published , a collaboration between Chen and Columbia University in New York, published in Communications Medicine, may open a new line of inquiry.
“We found clear differences between the saliva bacteria of people with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and unaffected controls. Using genetic sequencing of bacteria and machine-learning methods, the team identified a distinctive microbial pattern associated with the cancer,” says Chen.
The microbiome-based model performed better than a model based only on clinical and demographic data.
Several bacteria were more abundant in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, including Fusobacterium nucleatum, a bacterium implicated in other cancers.
Chen is careful not to overstate what this means. The bacterial changes may not be causing the cancer. They may instead be a consequence of the disease, much like what happens when a kitchen sink becomes blocked, and material begins to accumulate.
“But even that could be useful. A blockage in the oesophagus develops gradually, often before patients arrive at the hospital, unable to swallow properly. If microbial changes in saliva can help flag that something is already changing, they could one day help identify people who need earlier referral for endoscopy.”
From clue to triage tool
A saliva-based, or even cheek-swab-based, test would not replace endoscopy, and it is not yet an early cancer-detection test. But if validated, it could become a low-cost triage tool for high-risk communities. Clinicians could then make better decisions about who should be investigated sooner.
Globally, oesophageal cancer accounted for more than 600,000 new cases and more than 540,000 deaths in 2020, with a substantial burden in sub-Saharan Africa.
Asking better questions
Oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma remains understudied, and so the next step, argues Chen, is to build a broader research programme that combines epidemiology, genomics, microbiome science, environmental exposure work and community engagement.
Researchers are now asking two related questions. First, could some people inherit genetic differences that make them more vulnerable to this cancer? And second, could the tumours themselves carry clues about what patients were exposed to before they became ill?
One way to look for those clues is by studying mutation signatures in the tumour. These are patterns of DNA changes that can act like molecular fingerprints. If a certain chemical, pollutant, smoke exposure, water contaminant or other local environmental factor has damaged the DNA over time, it may leave a trace in the tumour genome that researchers can use to infer possible causes.
But Chen stresses that this is still early work. The model has been internally validated and still needs to be tested in external cohorts. Microbial patterns can differ by geography, diet, environment and population, so a model developed in one setting may not automatically work in another.
“This is critical research which has generated important foundational knowledge that will take us to the next step, and hopefully to the clinic in the long run,” says Professor Michèle Ramsay, Director of the SBIMB.
The next step is enrolling new cohorts, including confirmed ESCC cases, people with benign oesophageal conditions that may also cause swallowing difficulties , and healthy population controls.
It will help researchers understand whether the saliva signal can distinguish cancer from non-cancerous blockage, or whether it is better understood as a broader warning sign that something abnormal is happening in the oesophagus.
The next generation of research leaders starts here
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Dr Simone Richardson named as one of just 15 CIFAR Global Scholars for 2026-2028
How could understanding how HIV co-infection affects immune responses in babies enable more effective vaccine design?
How might our understanding of the microbiome, quantum materials and AI transform the technologies and health systems of the future?
These are among the bold questions driving 15 exceptional early-career researchers named CIFAR Global Scholars for 2026-2028.
As the newest members of CIFAR’s global research community, they will join leading researchers from around the world to advance ambitious ideas across disciplines.
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½’ Dr Simone Richardson is amongst these 15 CIFAR Global Scholars for 2026-2028.
Richardson says, “I’m honoured to be able to work alongside some of the brightest in science to solve some really big problems.”
Towards informing more effective and durable vaccine design
Richardson leads the Fc-Omics research team at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, which investigates how antibody functions contribute to vaccine-mediated protection against infectious diseases.
The team’s work uses systems serology to identify immune signatures that predict protection and applies these insights to diseases that disproportionately affect African populations, including HIV, congenital cytomegalovirus, RSV, Klebsiella and COVID-19.
Local expertise, global impact
Richardson’s CIFAR Global Scholarship confirms her increasing international impact. Here in South Africa, she is National Research Foundation P-rated (‘Prestigious Award’) scholar. The very-rarely awarded P-rating is usually made to researchers under the age of 35 years and denotes a scholar considered likely to become a future international leader.
Further national evidence of Richardson’s growing global footprint is that she was joint winner of the Royal Society of South Africa’s Meiring Naudé Medal in 2025. This is the RSSAf’s junior medal, which recognises an early career scientist who is poised to become a scientific leader.
About the Next-Generation Initiative
This Next-Generation Initiative enables early-career researchers to expand their professional networks and pursue cutting-edge ideas with Canadian $100,000 of unrestricted research funding. Furthermore, the researchers become full members of a CIFAR research program, gaining access to international networks, mentorship and opportunities for deep interdisciplinary collaboration.
Selection for membership of the CIFAR research program follows a competitive recruitment process that this year generated over 450 applications from 41 countries across the globe – the highest number of applicants in the program’s history. The new cohort features top early-career researchers based at institutions in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, to name a few.
AI model sheds light on language evolution
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
AI model of Early Child Development explains how language evolves.
New research from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, has significant implications for understanding both human language development and the behaviour of large-scale artificial intelligence language models.
Culture is key, as well as an understanding of “iterated learning”, which posits that language evolves over generations (in humans and computers) to become more structured.
“We built a computer brain with similar characteristics to a child’s, and compared it to behaviours we see in children’s brains. We then fed it data with similar properties found in human language and watched how the generations (versions) of the computer brain learn.”
Their findings were recently published in a paper titled: in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
It all starts in childhood
Jarvis explains that children have a remarkable ability to rapidly learn language during early development. They learn the world in hierarchies: starting with basic concepts and gradually understanding more complex ones.
“First, they learn that plants and animals are different things. Then they learn that there are different types of animals. But at some point, there is a depth of understanding of the world that they just have not reached yet,” says Jarvis.
Take the penguin, for instance. Children learn that birds have wings and therefore can fly. AHA! But they are confused that the penguin cannot fly. Here, they over-extrapolate, and mistakes are made, which then help them to learn new information: penguins can’t fly, but they can swim, AHA!. And slowly, they built a structured understanding of the world with increasing precision.
“While this progressive acquisition of knowledge has its benefits, the work focused on the implications for generations of learners. A child learns some language from their parents, and they will eventually pass it on to their own children. Due to the complexity of language, this transmission introduces mistakes.”
“Just like the penguin example, these mistakes are not arbitrary and result from the over-generalisation of knowledge. The net result is that easy portions of language to learn are remembered and reused, while the more unstructured portions are forgotten. Essentially, individuals are good at learning but only with the pressure of communication do we really see the depth of their intelligence,” explains Jarvis.
Not all neural networks are equal
The researchers used deep linear neural networks (mathematical models that mimic how the brain processes information) to study the neural basis of this process. They found that iterated learning only works well when the network has sufficient depth, multiple layers of processing, and a sufficiently complex language. Shallow networks, those with fewer layers, failed to capture the structured regularities that make language learnable.
This suggests that the architecture of a learning system, whether biological or artificial, and the richness of its environment, play a crucial role in how well language structure can be absorbed and transmitted. A point also coming to bear in the recent advances in generative AI models, which rely heavily on scale for their emergent capabilities.
Jarvis continues: “The pieces of this work have been around in the various literatures for a while now. Deep linear networks are established models of child development and iterated learning has been known to linguists for many years.”
“But it is the combination of these two perspectives that seems to make a useful point: that language evolves to become learnable based on the very specific nature of how children learn in stages and favour reusing information over learning new things.”
“The fact that this was shown in a very simple version of the technology underpinning the modern boom in AI tools is also encouraging and suggests that in the intersection of multiple fields lies the fundamental principles of cognition.”
The world is adapting to AI use in music - Africa needs to take the lead
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
Five artist-engineer teams of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and African Music project recently presented their impressive work in a day-long showcase.
At the moment, major markets like the United States and the United Kingdom are driving the overall commercial market norms in AI and music. During his keynote address at the industry event, US-based philanthropist, music executive and Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ alumnus, Charles Goldstuck, set the scene of the current environment.
While AI has been a part of the music experience for around 15 years through machine learning, the launch of tools like ChatGPT shifted use towards what AI can make. “This isn't something that's new, but the generative element has really come to life in the last three and a half years,” Goldstuck explains.
He says that since this point, the music industry has moved extremely fast through the early cycle of disruption, adoption, litigation, and licensing.
Unfortunately, African players are yet to have a significant seat at the table for these changes. Goldstuck says it will likely be on the creative community and interested parties petitioning for creative rights to determine how Africans are able to participate a lot with few resources.
The five teams involved in the pilot project are an excellent representation of how this creative community can be proactively involved in building the future. The participants represented seven African countries, namely Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Africa. They thus brought together not only different disciplines but also cultures and insights.
“One of the interesting things for me as the organiser of this project was the way that the projects were very much orientated towards working with traditional musics, using the power of AI models to preserve and re-create these musics,” Professor Christo Doherty from the WIC said during the event.
While this pilot put the needs of the continent at the forefront, the larger shift will need greater engagement at multiple levels. During a panel discussion at the industry showcase, experts from different parts of the music and AI world contributed their views on how the African music industry can promote creative sovereignty in the AI space.
Thando Makhunga, Managing Director of Downtown Publishing and Chair of the Music Publishing Association of South Africa, noted that the projects reflect the important conversations around how traditional and indigenous work is handled in Africa regarding AI.
She said that ownership and intellectual property have been a long-running big challenge in this regard for the music industry. “My feeling on AI and how it’s going to progress is that the more we start to get information from an African context - whether that is language, sounds, tone, context, or tradition- we’ll have a better idea of how to solve for it.“
Ninel Musson, co-founder and CEO of Music Business Lab, and founder of the award-winning independent record label and artist management agency, Vth Season, said that unfortunately, the distribution platforms are mostly not African.
This makes it harder to control and monetise this for the good of African people, particularly regarding indigenous work. “Those are outputs that are largely out of our control, until the landscape changes away from more global distribution to local,” she said
East African music executive and music business leader and strategist, Martha Huro, notes that, unfortunately, the continent is still getting on board with other disruptive technologies, like streaming.
But, she emphasises a positive outlook, saying that AI should be seen to provide solutions, not break tradition. “Africa, we are still catching up with technology,” Huro says, “Now we have AI, and we’ll figure it out!
Tech entrepreneur Nick Argyros, who is the group CEO of INJOZI Digital, Audio Militia, and Got Bot AI, echoes that Africans need to take a step towards changing the fact that a lot of technology around AI is being made elsewhere. “That foundational layer fundamentally needs to change and have African businesses, entrepreneurs and techies create that.” He said that is the key to scaling opportunities across the continent.
Makhungo added that an important part of this change is to challenge and hold account policy makers. “The pace of our regulators grappling with the change and responding adequately is probably the biggest challenge,” she admits. At the same time, she acknowledges that policy-making needs to take into account how fast AI technology is changing.
The full discussions and video snippets of the AI and African Music showcase can be found .
World-class sports complex to revitalise sport, health, and exercise medicine
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
The R300m Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Brian and Dorothy Zylstra Sports Complex, an integrated training, exercise, clinical practice, and research complex, launches at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University.
The was launched with a sneak-preview for VIPs and the international donors on Saturday, 30 May 2026.
The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex opens to athletes, patients, and the public in September.
Located on the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Education Campus in Parktown, next to the Linder Auditorium, this Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Centenary project is a flagship institute for training, exercise, teaching, research, and services in sports science and exercise medicine, in the heart of Johannesburg.
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi FRS, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Vice-Chancellor and Principal, says: “Today we celebrate one of the largest family gifts to Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University, which ignites a new era for our University’s sports culture. Thank you to the Zylstra family and the Skye Foundation for their generous and sustained support of their alma mater. This namesake – the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Brian and Dorothy Zylstra Sports Complex – is a fitting way to honour two remarkable Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ alumni.”
A world-class and inclusive facility
The envisages becoming a world-class and inclusive South African facility for the promotion of physical activity, excellence in sport, and training in disciplines related to sports science and exercise medicine.
Professor Georgia Torres, Chief Operating Officer of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex and Head of the Department of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, says: “The beauty of this building is that it’s all under one roof. There is a proximity of place that allows for the formation of an interdisciplinary clinical team, which enables process to impact human performance and health.”
What's available?
The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex combines significant refurbishment of the former Impilo Building with architectural construction innovation to create a state-of the-art facility.
The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex now houses enhanced and sophisticated sports and exercise grounds, facilities, and equipment, as well as consulting rooms, research laboratories, and operational headquarters. Key offerings of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex are listed below.
The Go To-Centre of Excellence for cardio-metabolic exercise rehabilitation, focusing on chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.
Sports and exercise medicine and movement laboratories for sport performance, and biomechanical and clinical exercise testing and programming.
High Performance Sport gym and training facility for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½’, national, and international high-performance teams, and serving as a hub and host for inter-school, inter-university, and national sporting events and tournaments.
Physician, physiotherapist, biokineticist, exercise clinical physiologist, sport scientist, sport psychologist, dietician, and health coach consulting rooms.
Disability sport and therapeutics, which were assessed and developed in collaboration with Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University’s Disability Rights unit.
Interdisciplinary AI-data integration powered by partner, Technogym,which enables inter-disciplinary programming and monitoring of athletes and patients.
Comprising a global network of academically excellent interest groups, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Sport and Health (WiSH) will drive research initiatives in the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex, which also houses the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Cricket Research Hub and Women’s Health Research Group.
WiSH Director Jon Patricios is Professor of Sport and Exercise Medicine at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and the originator of the concept of this integrated sports space. Patricios says:
“This one-of-a-kind Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex ushers in an exciting future for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Sport and Health, servicing our greater Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and Johannesburg community – and ultimately nationally and internationally – through dynamic teaching, research, high performance training, and evidence-based clinical practice. The multidisciplinary concept and ambitious vision of WiSH aligned with the donors’ desire to create a world-class facility at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½. The stars have aligned!”
Academic postgraduate degrees including Master’s and PhDs inBiokinetics, Sports Science, Sports Medicine, Sports Physiotherapy, and (in 2028), the Sport and Exercise Medicine specialialization and Clinical Exercise Physiology.
Significant investment into sports scholarships and bursaries for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University student-athletes via Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Sport, particularly in high-performance sports at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, which include rugby, soccer, basketball, netball, cricket, hockey, and rowing.
Director of Sport at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, Mandla Gagayi says: “The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex is a gamechanger for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Sport because it allows us to adapt to the new demands and challenges of sport that have come with new sciences and technologies.”
New Aquatics Centre, including a 50m, covered, heated training pool; hot and cold pools; steam and sauna rooms; and SA’s only flume pool. Also available are a resident swim coach and lifesaving coach, as well as a synchronised swimming school and a Paralympic swim school. Unique hydrotherapy isavailable for intensive training or rehabilitation.
Radiology and X-ray facilities, including a DEXA machine (Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry), which is a specialised medical scanner to measure bone density and body composition. DEXA is the gold standard for diagnosing osteoporosis and assessing fracture risk.
World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) facility.
Access and costs
Monthly membership packages will enable access to all the equipment, facilities, and services at the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex.
These packages are being tailored for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ staff, students, and alumni; secondary schools; and national teams.
Discussions are underway with medical aid providers to be able to refer their members to the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex, particularly those members in need of physical exercise rehabilitation.
Technogym’s ACTIVATE is the operational and commercial arm of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex. The gyms will operate using a unique model of AI-driven member journeys and integrated equipment that allows for individualized programming, taking the guesswork out of gym training.
Brian and Dorothy Zylstra and The Skye Foundation
The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Zylstra Sports Complex is the legacy of Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ alumni Brian and Dorothy Zylstra. The VIP sneak-preview tribute launch marks the culmination and final tranche of significant and generous financial disbursements by the Zylstra family’s Skye Foundation.
Philip Zylstra, Chair of the Skye Foundation, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ alumnus, and eldest son of Brian and Dorothy, says:
“We feel that the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Brian and Dorothy Zylstra Sports Complex will be a landmark building and a resource not only for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, but for the schools and sporting organisations from South Africa and abroad that will use it. It will be a fitting testament to my parents, Brian and Dorothy, and a sign of gratitude for the role the University played in many of our lives.”
In a breakthrough that could transform medical testing, data transmission and future quantum technologies, researchers from the UK and South Africa have shown that light can be “programmed” simply by exploiting its natural geometry.
