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Underlying societal ills fuelled recent looting and protest

24 August 2021 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Flickr (GovernmentZA)

Min Zulu — Minister Lindiwe Zulu said the ethos of social sciences should serve as a blueprint for academics to foster a better understanding of social development.

While most of the discussion about the recent violent protests and looting focuses on the political impact and economic ramifications, a group of social science academics met with the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, for a virtual colloquium on 18 August 2021 to assess the entrenched societal ills that preceded these acts of violence.

During the colloquium hosted jointly by the Department of Social Work at the University of the Free State (UFS) and the Zola Skweyiya African Social Policy Innovation (ZSASPI) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), there were tangible engagements and presentations on how to deliver implementable solutions that social scientists could utilise when attempting to address the notion of violence during protests in South Africa. Some of the solutions are based on active citizenship – getting communities to contribute to the national development agenda, and an understanding of the provisioned right to protest and the responsibilities thereof.

Other speakers included Dr Mpumelelo Ncube, Academic Head of the Department of Social Work at the UFS; Prof Chitja Twala, Vice-Dean, UFS Faculty of the Humanities; and Prof Ndangwa Noyoo, Director of the Zola Skweyiya African Social Policy Innovation. The panel also featured Dr Motlalepula Nathane-Taulela from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Dr Grey Magaiza, Lecturer in Sociology at the UFS, and Dr Thabisa Matsea from the University of Venda (Univen). Presentations ranged from the right to protest with responsibility, active citizenry, political intolerance and inequality, unemployment, and poverty.

Social Sciences best to deal with underlying issues

In her keynote address, the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, stressed that social scientists are the best equipped to address social development issues. “We need to understand the deeper state of the people, and the humanities and social sciences should redefine their role,” she said.

In the wake of the looting and riots in July 2021, it is important for the Ministry of Social Development to understand and to look deeper into the impact and effect that COVID-19 had on the psyche of people in South Africa. Minister Zulu said her department wants to intensify the psychosocial support to communities and that she hoped the colloquium would look for “African solutions for our unique African problem”.

She also cautioned that many youngsters were involved in these violent protests and reminded the youth about their role within the broader society – “to be educated in order to prepare, lead, and build a prosperous South Africa and African continent”.

Watch a recording of colloquium here:

Colloquium much-needed space for critical discussion

“This is the kind of platform we need to use in order to inform but also to try and guide our communities in terms of our research findings,” Prof Twala said in his opening remarks. Dr Ncube reiterated Prof Twala’s sentiment by saying, “As academics, we had to ask ourselves what the role of social workers is in the broader society and what could be the role of social sciences in addressing these questions of violence in protest, using our intellectual muscle to bring about tangible change.”

Protesting comes with inherent responsibility

Section 17 of the Constitution of South Africa makes provision for protesting, but with these rights, there are also some responsibilities on the part of the protesting community. “This right has gotten backlash – particularly from academia – on how the protest culture has turned violent,” Dr Ncube said. He also said that South Africa has been dubbed the world capital of protest, because in “some cases we had a protest every second day”.

This colloquium served as an inaugural step in facilitating important discussions on a national level.

Listen to a recording of the colloquium here

News Archive

Champagne and cancer have more in common than you might think

2013-05-08

Photo: Supplied
08 May 2013

No, a glass of champagne will not cure cancer....

…But they have more in common than you might think.

Researchers from the Departments of Microbial Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, Physics and the Centre for Microscopy at the University of the Free State in South Africa were recently exploring the properties of yeast cells in wine and food to find out more of how yeast was able to manufacture the gas that caused bread to rise, champagne to fizz and traditional beer to foam. And the discovery they made is a breakthrough that may have enormous implications for the treatment of diseases in humans.

The team discovered that they could slice open cells with argon gas particles, and look inside. They were surprised to find a maze of tiny passages like gas chambers that allowed each cell to ‘breathe.’ It is this tiny set of ‘lungs’ that puts the bubbles in your bubbly and the bounce in your bread.

But it was the technique that the researchers used to open up the cells that caught the attention of the scientists at the Mayo Clinic (Tumor Angiogenesis and Vascular Biology Research Centre) in the US.

Using this technology, they ultimately aim to peer inside cells taken from a cancer patient to see how treatment was progressing. In this way they would be able to assist the Mayo team to target treatments more effectively, reduce dosages in order to make treatment gentler on the patient, and have an accurate view of how the cancer was being eliminated.

“Yes, we are working with the Mayo Clinic,” said Profes Lodewyk Kock from the Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology Department at the UFS.

“This technique we developed has enormous potential for cell research, whether it is for cancer treatment or any other investigation into the working of cells. Through nanotechnology, and our own invention called Auger-architectomics, we are able to see where no-one has been able to see before.”

The team of Prof Kock including Dr Chantel Swart, Kumisho Dithebe, Prof Hendrik Swart (Physics, UFS) and Prof Pieter van Wyk (Centre for Microscopy, UFS) unlocked the ‘missing link’ that explains the existence of bubbles inside yeasts, and incidentally have created a possible technique for tracking drug and chemotherapy treatment in human cells.

Their work has been published recently in FEMS Yeast Research, the leading international journal on yeast research. In addition, their discovery has been selected for display on the cover page of all 2013 issues of this journal.

One can most certainly raise a glass of champagne to celebrate that!

There are links for video lectures on the technique used and findings on the Internet at:

1. http://vimeo.com/63643628 (Comic version for school kids)

2. http://vimeo.com/61521401 (Detailed version for fellow scientists)

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