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25 August 2020 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Supplied
Nicole Morris champions leadership development in her role as Director: Student Affairs.
She describes herself as passionate about leadership development in Africa and constantly seeking new ways of developing and nurturing talent. Her current role as Secretary-General of the National Association of Student Development (NASDEV) bears testimony to this. Closer to home, she is the Director: Student Affairs, having joined the Qwaqwa Campus just as COVID-19 was about to hit South Africa and the entire globe. During August, she hosted, among other things, a Women’s Month Webinar Series that focused on the theme of Intersectionality Between Politics, Feminism and Social Justice, and featured Pilani Bubu, South African Music Awards Winner of Best African Adult Contemporary Album in 2020. 

She was previously the Manager: Development and Leadership Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand. 
Meet Nicole Morris.

Please tell us about yourself: Who you are and what you do.

My name is Nicole Morris – a daughter, friend, traveller, seeker of knowledge, and trailblazer.

Is there a woman who inspires you and who you would like to celebrate this Women’s Month, and why?

My mother – a phenomenal beauty who did not allow any challenge to repress her infectious laughter and her search for beauty and progress through any and all entrepreneurial ventures.

What are some of the challenges you have faced in your life that have made you a better woman?

Fear! The fear of failure, the fear of succeeding! Fear, fear, fear! And then realising that fear is nothing, but False Evidence Appearing Real! Now, having learnt to feel the fear and doing my thing, has anyway liberated me. 

What advice would you give to the 15-year-old you?

It is OK to not fit in, it is OK to ask questions, and it is definitely OK to want more.  What is important, is to know that you are always living your truth.

What would you say makes you a champion woman [of the UFS]?

An irrepressible ability and desire to find solutions to challenges big and small, and smiling and laughing throughout the journey.  

Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us; some people and experiences ignite them, and some dampen them. Each of us has to discover what will set off those explosions in order to live; the combustion that occurs when one of them is ignited is what nourishes the soul. That fire, in short, is its [the soul's] food.

 


News Archive

Fracking in the Karoo has advantages and disadvantages
2012-05-25

 

Dr Danie Vermeulen
Photo: Leatitia Pienaar
25 May 2012

Fracking for shale gas in the Karoo was laid bare during a public lecture by Dr Danie Vermeulen, Director of the Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS). He shared facts, figures and research with his audience. No “yes” or “no” vote was cast. The audience was left to decide for itself.

The exploitation of shale gas in the pristine Karoo has probably been one of the most debated issues in South Africa since 2011.
 
Dr Vermeulen’s lecture, “The shale gas story in the Karoo: both sides of the coin”, was the first in a series presented by the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science under the theme “Sustainability”. Dr Vermeulen is a trained geo-hydrologist and geologist. He has been involved in fracking in South Africa since the debate started. He went on a study tour to the USA in 2011 to learn more about fracking and he visited the USA to further his investigation in May 2012.
 
Some of the information he shared, includes:

- It is estimated that South Africa has the fifth-largest shale-gas reserves in the world, following on China, the USA, Argentina and Mexico.
- Flow-back water is stored in sealed tanks and not in flow-back dams.
- Fracturing will not contaminate the water in an area, as the drilling of the wells will go far deeper than the groundwater aquifers. Every well has four steel casings – one within the other – with the gaps between them sealed with cement.
- More than a million hydraulic fracturing simulations took place in the USA without compromising fresh groundwater. The surface activities can cause problems because that is where man-made and managerial operations could cause pollution.
- Water use for shale-gas exploration is lower than for other kinds of energy, but the fact that the Karoo is an arid region makes the use of groundwater a sensitive issue. Dr Vermeulen highlighted this aspect as his major concern regarding shale-gas exploration.
- The cost to develop is a quarter of the cost for an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Dolerite intrusions in the Karoo are an unresearched concern. Dolerite is unique to the South African situation. Dolerite intrusion temperatures exceed 900 °C.

He also addressed the shale-gas footprint, well decommissioning and site reclamation, radio activity in the shale and the low possibility of seismic events.
 
Dr Vermeulen said South Africa is a net importer of energy. About 90% of its power supply is coal-based. For continued economic growth, South Africa needs a stable energy supply. It is also forecast that energy demand in South Africa is growing faster than the average global demand.
 
Unknowns to be addressed in research and exploration are the gas reserves and gas needs of South Africa. Do we have enough water? What will be the visual and social impact? Who must do the exploration?
 
“Only exploration will give us these answers,” Dr Vermeulen said.

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