Rhodes readies for water outages

Report by Dumisa Lengwati & Taryn Isaac, School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University

The perpetual threat of water shortages sees Grahamstown residents seeking alternatives for their water supply. Rhodes University has purchased a water tanker to help alleviate the effects of these dry spells.

The purchase of a R1,1 million water tanker will provide a necessary back-up supply. Last year’s shortages cost an estimated R115 000 a day due to the costs of plastic utensils in dining halls and bottled water for students and staff. According to Dr Iain L’Ange, Rhodes Infrastructure, Operations and Finance Division Head, the tanker will help the university to respond to emergency situations and be able to service all students living in residence. This move has been approved and applauded by the Makana Municipality, which struggles to cope with the ongoing crisis.

Die Physikanten at Scifest Africa 2014

Report by Lillian Magari & Noxolo Mafu.

Following the theme “Into the Space”, Scifest Africa 2014 welcomed award winning German scientist performing group: Die Physikanten. Creating a giant tornado of fire, crashing oil drums using air and making gigantic smoke rings, Die Physikanten aimed to make science exciting and accessible.
Sascha Ott, a scientist from Die Physikanten, believes that the purpose of the show is to allow children to become eager to learn more about science. Although the children were entertained and enthusiastic to interact with certain experiments, science teacher at Ntsika Secondary High School, Solomon Johnson explains that this excitement does not always filter into the classrooms beyond the annual SciFest. The inability to provide such experiments to local school children in a sustainable way, due to lack of resources, creates an absence in general science knowledge for young pupils.

Metal thefts hit Grahamstown schools

Report by Lillian Magari & Noxolo Mafu,

The illegal trade of stolen metal parts has hit Grahamstown local township schoolsand seen their premises severely vandalised. Thieves target metal urinals, water pipes, electricity cables and plugs. This epidemic has seen schools such as NV Cewu and Samuel Ntlebi without any electricity or adequate plumbing. As a result, educators and learners are unable to use the toilet facilities.
The need for tighter security sees these school squeezing out R20 000 to install Hi-Tec sensitive security beams. The expensive beams are a wise investment but also prove to be a hard purchase for the schools and even private homes.
As the most expensive product offered by Hi-Tec, it is difficult for the company to offer the beam to schools on a lay-bye basis. This becomes even more difficult as many of the targeted schools have poor infrastructure which makes the beams less effective.
Samuel Ntlebi specifically, has faced R100 000 in damages, with little or no money in the maintenance budget to do repairs.
Leonard Vodell, Manager of licensed scrapyard: Metal Masters, confirms a profit of R20 per kilo for metals brought in. These metals are often traded as broken or burnt pieces in order to make the identification process harder.
All the while, learners and educators are suffering as they are denied adequate sanitation and electricity.

Human Chain crosses Grahamstown

Report by Lillian Magari & Noxolo Mafu,

The Grahamstown Human Chain started at Ncame street and carried through to Somerset street form township to town. The event was held on a rainy 21 February to spotlight the legacy of Tata Nelson Mandela.
The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba contacted universities across the country to encourage them to participate in this initiative. The event brought to light the importance of reflection on both our young democracy and social integration in all communities. However, such an event also probes further questions, regarding the effectiveness of a human chain in unpacking complex relations in a town such as Grahamstown.

Unearthing Grahamstown

Report by Natalie Austin & Jason Randall

Dr Rob Gess caused a stir with his discovery of Gondwana’s oldest known land animal, Gondwanascorpio emzantsiensis, in 2013. He continues to make internationally important discoveries which have opened Africa’s most important window into the 360 million year old Late Devonian world. Most of these he found in the estuarine derived rocks from Waterloo Farm on the outskirts of Grahamstown. Formerly employed by the Institute for Evolutionary Studies at Wits he has recently taken up a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at his original alma mater, the Rhodes Geology Department.

The scorpion fossil remains are the oldest terrestrial animal remains from Gondwana, one of two supercontinents that existed from 510 to 180 million years ago, before fragmenting into the land masses now known as Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, India and Madagascar. He talks here of his work with Dr Cyrille Prestiani of the Royal Museum of Natural History in Belgium, and an expert in Late Devonian palaeobotany.