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06 April 2018
Photo Rulanzen Martin
From the left: Dr Thulisile Mphambukeli, leader of the BRICS research team that is exploring the political economy of water and food security, and her research partner, Dr Victor Okorie.
A Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) delegation is to hold the 10th Annual BRICS Summit in the last week of May 2018 in Johannesburg. Dr Thulisile Mphambukeli, leader of the University of the Free State (UFS) research team alongside Dr Victor Okorie from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, in collaboration with Prof Lere Amusan of North-West University, will ensure that water and food security is a prominent feature on the gathering’s agenda.
First, the project titled: “Exploring the political economy of water and food security nexus in BRICS and Africa” will debut at the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences BRICS Think Tank Forum”.
According to Dr Mphambukeli, the key to water security is attitudinal change by means of education and conscientisation. This, she is adamant about, holds the potential to drive behavioural adjustments in the way society interacts with water.
Genetic and social approaches
Dr Okorie asserts that if strides towards reducing the demand for water were to be made, research efforts should be geared towards effecting changes at DNA level. Meaning we need to explore waterwise ways that enable crops and animals to thrive optimally.
The project also looks at social dimensions of water such as flushing a toilet. “Research activities on redesigning toilets, especially the urinal, where more than nine litres of water are used to flush less than one cubic centimetre of urine, are timely in the context of managing water and the food nexus crises,” said Dr Okorie.
Combining the genetic and social approaches would allow us to produce more with a smaller water footprint. This can be made possible by implementing precision agriculture which is about estimating and applying exact quantities of water and nutrients needed for the production of crops or the raising of livestock.
Paradigm shifting policies
Prof Amusan said the team intended to propose functional solutions that take the quality of water into consideration. Equitable production and distribution of water depends on endorsing policies of co-production between citizens, governments and the public sector. BRICS member states mutually consider water and food security as an issue of paramount significance, hence its feature on this prestigious summit’s agenda.
Kovsies perform well at South African Netball Championships
2010-04-30
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Kovsies in the Free State u.19 and u.21 teams who performed excellently at the recent South African Netball Championships. Here are, from the left: Fikile Mkhuzangwe, best defender, Monique Lemon, best centre court, Anja Opperman, best goal shooter and Karla Mostert, overall best player at the South African Netball Championships.
Photo: Gerhard Louw |
Karla Mostert, a student at the University of the Free State (UFS), was named as the best player of the tournament at the recent South African Netball Championships that was held in Richards Bay.
At the tournament top players in each position were also identified. The best goal shooter was a Kovsie Anja Opperman. Other Kovsies included the following: Monique Lemon was named as the best centre-court player and Fikile Mkhuzangwe as the best goal keeper.
The Free State’s u.19 and u.21 netball teams that participated in the tournament entirely comprised of Kovsies. Ms Burta de Kock, Assistant Director at the UFS’s KovieSport, is very proud of the Kovsies netball players’ achievements.
Not only did they reach four of the top positions, but they also won each of the ten matches in the round robin, which took them through to the finals. Both teams brought gold home in the finals when Free State u.19 beat Gauteng East 35-25 and Free State u.21 beat North-West South 37-23.
The Kovsies students performed even better when Fikile Mkhuzangwe, Carmen Swanepoel, Ane Botha, Lauren-Lee Christians, Monique Lemon and Nieke Loubser were named amongst the top 20 players in the u.19 age group. In the U/21 age group, four of the 20 top players were Kovsies, namely Anja Opperman, Anja Zandberg, Karla Mostert and Mari-lise Linde.
“Three of our players also qualified as national umpires: Lizahn Zimmerman (Netball SA, C grading), Mari-Lise Linde (Netball SA, C-plus grading) and Johanet Coetzer (Netball SA, C+ grading),” says Ms De Kock. |