A teenager from Philippi Village in the Western Cape, Siphelele Xabendlini, has beaten the odds to become the top student in Science in South Africa with an incredible mark of 100%. The 18-year-old also scored a whopping 92% for Maths. According to Philippi Village’s facebook page, Siphelele believes determination and dedication are all that’s needed to succeed. […]

South Africa is not producing enough school leavers who are competent in maths and science. This is a fact borne out by international assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. These show that South Africa is not making much headway when it […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) claims that a close analysis of the 2016 matric results reveals a VERY high ‘drop-out rate’, leading to speculation that some students may have been ‘culled’ to inflate the matric pass rate. According to the Department of Basic Education’s figures, 1 100 877 learners enrolled for Grade 10 in 2014, but only 610 178 […]

MIDRAND – The Class of 2016 has achieved an overall national pass rate of 76.2% in the 2016 National Senior Certificate (NSC) Examinations, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Wednesday, ahead of the release of matric results. The Free State was the only province that broke the 90% threshold, with 93.2% pass rate. In second […]

Yvonne Dyum always had her heart set on becoming a doctor. And although the daughter of Stellenbosch farmworkers had her share of obstacles, she never let anything stand in her way. She focussed, persevered… and has made her dream come true. Yvonne joined over 700 students of Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences to […]

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has been appointed as chancellor of Unisa (University of South Africa). The announcement was made Thursday evening.  Mbeki will replace Judge Bernard Ngoepe, who is retiring after 15 years. At a farewell dinner on Tuesday night to honour Ngoepe’s chancellorship, the retired judge was described as calm, steady and authoritative; […]

The Council of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has confirmed that the University will be increasing fees for the 2017 academic year by an average of 8% for tuition and residence fees. The reaction on Twitter was that Wits was giving #FeesMustFall protesters “the middle finger” and that the University had waited, as predicted, […]

On Monday a class of Year 10 learners in the Eastern Cape sat their exams outside, in the sun, because there are not enough classrooms at their school. The photo of the schoolchildren has begun to go viral since being shared by Vytjie Mentor, the former ANC member of parliament who alleged the Guptas offered her […]

The South African Police Services (SAPS) will be maintaining a strong presence in the Braamfontein area, Johannesburg, this evening after a SAPS vehicle and a Rea Vaya bus were torched tonight following protests… adding further costs to SAPS which revealed today that it has already spent over R3-million for overtime work, since the university fee protests […]

The polarising effects of #FeesMustFall are now pervasive in the academy, and probably beyond. Academics turn on each other, as do their schools and faculties. Whole universities are pitted against one another – the “Wits option” vs the “UCT option”. Some academics are accused of being blindly supportive of “the innocent students” and parading their […]

JOHANNESBURG – University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) workers and students sang ‘Voetsek’ outside Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court Wednesday morning, after police asked them to move. The scene came following the denial of bail for Wits University SRC leader Mcebo Dlamini (32). Watch below. Dlamini, one of the #FeesMustFall leaders, was arrested on Sunday morning – at a Wits […]

Last week Western Cape photographer JUSTIN SULLIVAN reported on a beautiful and peaceful candlelit vigil at CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology). Today he witnessed the contrast. An outbreak of violence at the University of Cape Town (UCT). “It was terrible to see violence erupt on UCT Campus this afternoon,” he says, “especially after my previous […]

PRETORIA – South African Police Services (SAPS) say they have arrested 567 persons in 265 cases relating to the student protests over fees at the country’s institutions of higher learning and training. SAPS acting National Commissioner General Kgomotso Phahlane said at a briefing in Pretoria on Monday the arrests were made from 1 February 2016 to […]

At about 6:30am Monday morning about 30 student protesters blocked Baxter Road outside the University of Cape Town’s Tugwell and Leo Marquard residences. This is the main stop of the university’s shuttle service. The protesters eventually swelled to about a hundred people. At times private security moved the protesters out the road, but the protesters […]

At a time when decolonisation, part of which involves changing the content of what’s taught, is dominating debate at many universities, the discipline of mathematics presents an interesting case. But it’s not obvious how mathematics can be decolonised at the level of content. This means that those within the discipline must consider other aspects: curriculum processes, […]

Social media and mainstream media have been quick to post images and videos of fires being set and violence being perpetrated during South African student protests… but where were these reporters on Wednesday night when the flames that burnt were from a candlelit vigil and the gathering was beautiful and peaceful? Photographer JUSTIN SULLIVAN offers his views… […]

JOHANNESBURG – Photos of a Catholic Priest in Braamfontein, with blood streaming down his face, went viral today on social media. He had been hit by a rubber bullet during #FeesMustFall protests. Police claimed it was a stray bullet. Hylton White, a Faculty Member at Wits University, was there just before it happened… White wrote on Monday […]

Social media users are calling on fellow South Africans to share the following letter, sent by an academic at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) – Dr Kelly Gillespie – to South Africa’s Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan at 6.40pm Monday night… Dear Mr Pravin Gordhan I wonder if you have any sense of what my […]

PRETORIA – Acting National Commissioner Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane said Monday that despite “intimidation” from protesting university students, police across the country will continue to do their duties wherever needed, and that South Africa was “far from a state of emergency” regardless of the rolling protests at universities, that have in recent days turned violent… including a […]

Academic studies resumed at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) this morning… but protesting students have continued to disrupt classes. In local reports, four students have so far been arrested Monday morning – see video below. Students are currently being arrested by Barratt lecture venue #UCKAR #FeesMustFall2016 pic.twitter.com/XnexYvTrtO — #ReActivated (@ActivateOnline) October 10, 2016 #Wits students moving […]

As South Africa faces a crisis in its universities – with protests having raged across the country since the Minister of Education announced ‘varsities could increase their fees by up to 8% – President Zuma has called on the parents of protesting students to get involved. One mother – ANGELA CARR LAMBSON – has heeded the […]

In a week in which Professor Jonathan Jansen described the current protests at campuses around South Africa as a “tragic movie [that] does not end well”, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has invited all students, staff and alumni to attend a General Assembly on Friday 7 October from 11:00 to 12:30. Wits said: “It is […]

Although South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has called for unity in addressing the current university fees crisis in South Africa, which has seen student protests raging on campuses around the country, his words appear to have distanced students even further… with many on Twitter calling his speech a “fail” and “empty”, displaying “no leadership”. Speaking […]

A 26-year-old Western Cape man’s rant about the #FeesMustFall movement has gone totally viral! In less than 9 hours it had already been shared over 22,000 times! Watch below as Josh Drizzy Bergh from Touwsrivier, and now living in Cape Town according to his Facebook page, tells the student protesters who’ve been violent what he […]

I’ve stripped my moer for these blooming students now! Hear ye! Hear ye! This is the most important paragraph of this whole piece: The Government does not have any money! Not a single cent. It gets all its money from taxpayers! So when you are asking the ‘government’ for ‘Free’ education, you are asking ME, […]