Tag Archives | Opinion

What do civil society activist do – and not do?

Civil society activists in Johannesburg are usually associated with protest marches, T-shirts with cool slogans, and Braamfontein. As CEO of the South African Human Rights Commission, I attend meetings instead of marches and wear, not T-shirts, but pinstripe suits. Do we have anything in common? The one thing I have in common with my civil […]

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African innovation: The leapfrogs and left-behinds

For all the excitement about innovation in Africa, one cannot simply use it to “leapfrog” over all problems. And where does that leave the role of society and state? First, some questions: 1 Is the term “innovation” being abused in the contemporary African growth story? 2 How do tech-based innovations and other “leapfrogs” relate to […]

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Innopinion 1: Africa’s inherent innovative potential

South Africa may be better-known for the export of diamonds, safaris and the fast-food chain Nando’s, but it’s also the source of a pioneering model of health insurance that’s taking hold around the world. Vitality, part of the Discovery Health Group, has recruited millions of clients in the UK, the US and more recently in […]

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Innopinion 2: Make frontline innovation visible and change the system from the inside out

Across the planet, every day, nurses, doctors and their colleagues wrestle with the challenge of delivering healthcare to those who most need it. Many agree that to enable improvement, we need to learn what works and support innovation.  There’s wide consensus that management and business tools could help. Organisations in low-resource settings could benefit from […]

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Democratising mobile technology through design

Opinion of Professor Gary Marsden, Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town (UCT) Much has been written about the growth of cellular handset ownership in Africa. It started with wild enthusiasm about development opportunities and access to information, but then it changed to despair over what was seen as a new form of digital colonialism. […]

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New opportunities in e-Learning

Opinion of Professor Wim de Villiers, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town (UCT) For every 20 people in South Africa, there are 13 mobile phones. That’s according to a new report published by the GSMA, the body that represents the world’s mobile operators. That 65.7% penetration rate – the highest in Africa […]

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Essays on Education: 1. The experience of school

Not only does the schooling environment directly affect the adults its students become, it also affects the organisations and social systems that those adults create. It’s time we thought about that. Critics of modern schooling like John Taylor Gatto and Ivan Illich have recognised that the fundamental curriculum that schools teach is school itself. I’ve […]

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Essays on Education: 2. The gospel of dreaming

How using dreams in the educational space can lead to a life of individual and social consequence. In the public discourse, people like to talk about the structural issues contributing to the crisis in education in South Africa. They talk about the lack of textbooks, the shortage of qualified teachers, the poor quality of education […]

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Essays on Education: 3. Knowledge should be free

My journey from Nuclear Physics to producing free school textbooks with people all over the world. It happened during my Masters at the University of Cape Town. I suddenly began to pay more attention to the school education sector and its needs. Initially, I just enjoyed being a tutor in the Physics Department. This ultimately […]

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