Response from South Africa’s health department says sensitive data have been deleted and blames “miscommunication”

South Africa’s Department of Health has hit back against allegations that it failed to account for the safe disposal of personal data collected as part of the country’s track-and-trace Covid-19 response.

On 20 February, the country’s Information Regulator announced that it had referred the department to the privacy law Enforcement Committee over failures to account for information collected as part of the management of the spread of coronavirus while the country was in a declared ‘state of disaster’.

The state of disaster lapsed on 5 April 2022. As the custodian of the database of personal data, the health department should have destroyed or de-identified the information within six weeks after that, the regulator says.

According to the regulator, the data included information such as the first name, surname, passport number, address and Covid test results of people who were known or suspected to have come into contact with Covid-infected individuals.

Compliance ‘not optional’

Since May 2022, the regulator has been demanding information about the fate of the data collected by the health department.

It has also been asking the department to confirm that it obtained a report from an expert third-party IT security firm validating the safeguards in place to avoid privacy breaches in the data collected during the crisis. This report was a recommendation to the health minister by retired judge Kate O’Regan, who had been tasked with monitoring the track-and-trace programme.

“Compliance is not optional…We have been lenient with the department on this point, but we would be failing the data subjects if we, as the regulator, do not take action to ensure that there is compliance and accountability,” said Information Regulator chair Pansy Tlakula.

‘Miscommunication’

The regulator says that after numerous unsuccessful requests to the department for information about what happened to the data, it has no choice but to escalate the matter. Reporting the department to the Enforcement Committee “can culminate in issuing an enforcement notice, which has the same effect as a court order”.

In a written response to Research Professional News, a department spokesperson said the data had been destroyed. The department had “noted and will respond to all issues raised by the Information Regulator with regards to collection and protection of personal information gathered during Covid-19 contact tracing”.

“The department will reach out to the regulator to clarify miscommunication with regards to the request,” the spokesperson said, adding: “The department recognises the role of the regulator to protect data subjects from harm and ensure that their personal information is protected by responsible parties.”

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Finance minister Enoch Godongwana hopes reformed scheme will boost uptake

The South African government has extended its R&D tax credit scheme for businesses despite the programme’s disappointing record to date.

In his 2023 budget speech on 22 February, finance minister Enoch Godongwana (pictured) announced a 10-year extension of the scheme from 2024.

South Africa’s R&D tax scheme allows for a 150 per cent deduction for tax purposes on expenditure on eligible scientific or technological R&D carried out in South Africa. To date, most of the tax credit’s beneficiaries have been in the manufacturing sector, and the amounts claimed have dwindled year on year, sparking a review in 2021.

R&D redefined

The extension to the R&D tax credits is accompanied by reforms to the scheme to make it “simpler and more effective”, said Godongwana, echoing proposals unveiled in October last year.

The extended scheme will refine the definition of R&D to make it easier to understand what qualifies under the scheme. According to a budget document, R&D will be defined as “activities aimed at resolving a scientific or technological uncertainty”.

The idea that R&D must have an end result, such as a patent, will also be removed from the definition, as applicants “will not know how their R&D activities will unfold when applying for the incentive”.

The reforms also include allowing the South African Revenue Service to disclose information to the minister of higher education, science and innovation to improve monitoring and evaluation of the scheme.

Three priorities

Godongwana’s reference to the R&D tax credit scheme was the only mention of research or science he made in what was an hour-long budget address, in which he set out government spending priorities for the coming financial year.

Those priorities include supporting clean energy investments to end the country’s rolling power blackouts, an increase in sin tax on alcohol and tobacco, and “continuing fiscal constraint” to safeguard the economy from the multiple threats of climate change, war and sluggish growth.

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Change is inevitable but artificial intelligence can be used creatively, webinar hears

The use of artificial intelligence such as the popular chatbot ChatGPT in South African higher education settings is inevitable and there is no point trying to fight it, a webinar heard this week.

ChatGPT is a language-based AI technology tool, developed by OpenAl, that can understand and communicate in human language. Launched in November 2022, it has already come in for plenty of scrutiny, with academics across the globe probing its likely effect on academic integrity.

The implications of ChatGPT for assessment in higher education was the subject of an online seminar held by the Academy of Science of South Africa on 22 February.

Here to stay 

“We need to acknowledge that this technology shift is here to stay, so we need to use it more creatively and not try to fight it,” said Roze Phillips, founder and CEO of Abundance at Work, a company that helps make businesses future-fit for their work.

“Technology can tell us what we can do, but only humans can tell us what we ought to do. It is important to unleash more critical thinking rather than just accept what is given to us,” Phillips added. 

Fellow speaker Johannes Cronjé, who is digital teaching and learning head at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, pointed out that international developments in AI matter to the African academic community.

“We are not far behind with regards to technology. Our scholars and learners are also experimenting with the tool,” he said.

Thought expander

He added that the use of ChatGPT may not be such a bad thing, as it challenges both teachers and learners to move their thinking from assessing just the end product to a broader spectrum of assessing the process that leads to the end product.

“Yes, ChatGPT can create. But it is still up to us [users] to evaluate what it has created,” he said. Learners cannot just copy and paste what ChatGPT churns out, he explained, adding that the learner still has to reflect on the answers provided by the tool.

Similarly, a lecturer would have to apply critical thinking skills when assessing students’ work in the AI era, he added. This means asking critical questions, such as whether the right question was asked and relevant information provided.

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South African university’s comments follow vice-chancellor’s controversial meeting with Russian consul general

Stellenbosch University has called the establishment of new research links with Russia “impossible” due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the resulting geopolitical tensions.

The comment, on 19 February, came after the South African university drew criticism when it emerged that vice-chancellor Wim de Villiers (pictured) had hosted Aleksei Malenko, Russia’s consul general in Cape Town, the week before.

The consulate tweeted on 17 February: “Today Russian consul general in Cape Town Mr A Malenko held a meeting with rector and vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University W de Villiers. The parties discussed [the] prospective of future cooperation in different spheres.”

Responses on the social media platform to the tweet ranged from support for the meeting to disgust. Leon Schreiber, an MP for South Africa’s main opposition party the Democratic Alliance, wrote: “This is what leadership bereft of all principle looks like.”

The university published a statement on its website saying that the meeting with the consul general was “purely academic in nature” and that De Villiers had “clearly framed the meeting within the understanding of the current geopolitical environment that makes collaboration impossible”. It added that the university “stands firmly against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”.

No new partnerships

In a statement to Research Professional News, a university spokesperson clarified that the comment referred to the initiation of new partnerships. A partnership with the HSE National Research University in Moscow, agreed “a number of years ago”, is still in place, they said.

“While we cannot prescribe the individual actions of our lecturers and students, there have been no reports regarding academic collaboration resuming between Stellenbosch University and Russian academics since 2021,” the spokesperson said.

“The university will not, and has not, pursued any further partnerships, as made clear by the vice-chancellor,” they added.

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Congolese doctor Jean Kaseya chosen to steer continental disease control agency

African heads of state appointed Congolese physician Jean Kaseya as the new head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention last week.

The appointment comes nine months after Africa CDC’s first director, John Nkengasong, stepped down from the role to take up a position coordinating US global policy on HIV/Aids. Kaseya takes over from the organisation’s interim head, Ahmed Ogwell Ouma.

Kaseya is a public health expert with several decades’ experience working in international health policy. He worked for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and led an African polio project. Other former employers include the World Health Organization, the United Nations children’s fund Unicef and vaccine alliance Gavi.

Committed to collaboration

Kaseya has vowed to collaborate closely with colleagues at the WHO. He tweeted that his first action after the Africa Union summit confirmation of his appointment on 19 February was to call Masthisido Moeti, the director of the WHO’s Africa region. The purpose of the call was “to reiterate my commitment to closely work with WHO to address health issues in Africa”, he wrote.

Senior WHO staff welcomed the appointment. WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus congratulated Kaseya on Twitter: “I and my colleagues at @WHO look forward to continuing to partner with Africa CDC under your leadership.”

Moeti tweeted: “His years of experience working in international development and health will support the continued growth of @AfricaCDC. I look forward to strengthening our partnership.”

Conciliation

The exchanges appeared conciliatory after media reports last year of a supposed rift between the two organisations. Development news site Devex reported in July that the WHO was lobbying against moves explored by the African Union to increase Africa CDC’s autonomy, including giving it powers to declare regional health emergencies—something the WHO denied at the time.

Kaseya’s appointment was agreed at the African Union’s 36th heads of state summit, held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the headquarters of Africa CDC, on 18-19 February.

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This week: Stem teachers, routine vaccinations, open science and award nominations

In depth: Stellenbosch University has called the establishment of new research links with Russia “impossible” due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the resulting geopolitical tensions.

Full story: New research links with Russia ‘impossible’, says Stellenbosch

Also this week from Research Professional News

Privacy watchdog raises concerns over Covid tracking data—Response from South Africa’s health department says sensitive data have been deleted and blames “miscommunication”

South Africa extends R&D tax credits for 10 years—Finance minister Enoch Godongwana hopes reformed scheme will boost uptake

AU summit appoints new director for Africa CDC—Congolese doctor Jean Kaseya chosen to steer continental disease control agency

  
Here is the rest of the Africa news this week…

Growth in qualified Stem teachers

The proportion of qualified teachers in Africa in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics increased from 44 per cent in 2013 to 51 per cent in 2021, a report has said. The figure for 2021, noted in an African Union progress report on its Agenda 2063 development plan, was just short of the agenda’s target of 54 per cent.

African leaders urge action on routine vaccinations

Heads of state of the African Union have agreed to “revitalise the momentum” for routine immunisations on the continent. The agreement on 19 February comes after 8.4 million African children missed out on routine vaccinations in 2021. “The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on immunisation efforts in Africa and has made it critical for us to catch up, recover and get back to normal,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, in a statement.

Partnership promotes open data in Africa

The African Library and Information Associations and Institutions has partnered with Figshare, a repository solution that is part of the Digital Science technology company, to increase awareness of open science and open data in Africa. The two are also building an open-access repository portal to host and disseminate the library group’s conference proceedings—including papers, presentations, posters and videos—from 2023 onwards.

Academy seeks ‘science for society’ nominations

The Academy of Science of South Africa is calling for nominations for its Science for Society Gold Medal Award. The purpose of the award is to recognise outstanding scientists who have applied scientific thinking in the service of society. The closing date for nominations is 17 April.

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This week: Marburg vaccines, African penguins, a French Legion knight and Pretoria climate studies

In depth: Universities in Africa and Asia report lower access to funding and research support systems than those in Europe, the Americas and the Pacific region, a survey of Commonwealth institutions has found.

Full story: Commonwealth survey highlights research funding disparities

Also this week from Research Professional News

South Africa to explore points-based skills visas—Streamlined immigration rules could mean less red tape for foreign researchers

 
Here is the rest of the Africa news this week…

Marburg in Equatorial Guinea sparks urgent meeting

The World Health Organization summoned an “urgent” meeting of its Marburg virus vaccine consortium this week after Equatorial Guinea confirmed the country’s first-ever outbreak of the killer disease. The WHO said it was helping the nation mount a rapid response after the illness was discovered in the east of the country. There are currently no vaccines or antiviral treatments for the disease.

Science panel examines fishing threat to African penguin

South Africa has appointed an international science panel to examine the risk posed by small-scale anchovy and sardine fishing to Africa’s dwindling penguin populations. The panel, announced on 13 February, will examine the effects of the banning of commercial fishing around major penguin colonies since September and advise the government on ways forward. The panel is chaired by André Punt, a fisheries professor based at the University of Washington in Seattle, the US.

Virologist named as Ifakara board chair

Tanzania’s Ifakara Health Institute has named medical doctor and virologist Said Aboud as the chair of its governing board. Aboud, who heads up Tanzania’s National Institute for Medical Research, will take the helm for a five-year period. He replaces Yunus Mgaya, who retired in 2022.

Google funds Pretoria to study language, climate and AI

The technology giant Google has granted the University of Pretoria US$40,000 for collaborative projects in cross-language data resources, climate change and artificial intelligence. The one-year projects, involving researchers from Google and the university, will be led by Vukosi Marivate, the university’s chair of data science, and statistician Sonali Das. They will study translation between South Africa’s indigenous languages and investigate climate change information needs.

Academy announces 47 affiliate members

The African Academy of Sciences has selected 47 new affiliate members. The members, chosen from over 200 applications, are young researchers with academic promise. The academy said that affiliates receive support with grant writing, entrepreneurship and mentorship for five years. The new cohort will join the academy’s existing network of 127 affiliate members.

Pretoria vice-chancellor becomes French Legion knight

University of Pretoria vice-chancellor Tawana Kupe has been made a knight of the French Legion of Honour. The honour, bestowed by the president of France, recognises Kupe’s contribution to academic and scientific cooperation, the university said on 14 February. Other South Africans who have received the honour include former public protector Thuli Madonsela and former science minister Naledi Pandor.

Alliance to safeguard Africa’s biodiversity

The Kenya-based Science for Africa Foundation has partnered with the African BioGenome Project on a genomics project to safeguard Africa’s biodiversity. The Alliance for Biodiversity Genomics in Africa will be formed under a yet-to-be-signed partnership agreement, according to a statement on 10 February. The partnership aims to sequence the genomes of 105,000 endemic African species.

Additional reporting by Linda Nordling.

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Geographic location and economic status linked with access to funding and support

Universities in Africa and Asia report lower access to funding and research support systems than those in Europe, the Americas and the Pacific region, a survey of Commonwealth institutions has found.

The Association of Commonwealth Universities surveyed 95 universities in 29 countries—20 per cent of the ACU’s membership. The results, published on 14 February, show how institutions in low-income countries commit more of their core income to supporting research, receive less income from industry and win much fewer research grants than those in high-income countries.

“The findings highlight long-standing disparities that continue to shape the wider research and research funding landscape,” William Bramwell, senior research officer at the ACU, said in a statement.

Thirty African institutions responded—more than in any other region. Nearly one in five (17 per cent) reported that they receive no government funding for research whatsoever, starkly contrasting with Europe, where all participating institutions reported that they receive government support.

Both Asia and Africa recorded lower rates of grant applications and awarded grants than the other regions. High-income countries accounted for 88 per cent of research grants applications reported by the participating institutions.

There was also uneven distribution of research support services, with nearly all institutions in high-income countries reporting having access to electronic systems and databases to support grant applications, while less than half of lower income country institutions saying the same.

There were synergies, however. More than half the respondents identified translating research into sustainable outputs, such as socio-economic or policy benefits, as the greatest challenge they faced, and many called for more investment in research impact evaluation and research management.

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Africa’s turn will come in 2025 as global gatherings aim to improve access and equity

The International Aids Society has announced that it will start to rotate of its global conferences geographically to help people from different regions around the world to attend.

The 14 February announcement comes after the society’s 2022 conference in Canada saw several people who planned to attend—especially from the African continent—unable to secure visas.

The announcement includes the two most influential conferences organised by IAS: the International Aids Conference and the IAS Conference on HIV Science, which take place in alternating years. It will also affect the HIV Research for Prevention Conferences organised by the IAS.

This year, the IAS Conference on HIV Science will be held in Australia in July. In 2024, the International Aids Conference will be held in Germany. The IAS is inviting bids from African hosts for the IAS Conference on HIV Science in 2025 and from Latin America and the Caribbean for the International Aids Conference in 2026.

Looking ahead, the conferences will rotate between five world regions—Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America—and no region will be awarded a conference consecutively, the IAS says.

Previously, conferences have been held in nearby cities in consecutive years, usually in wealthy nations that delegates from poor countries struggle to travel to. For example, in 2017 and 2018 the main conferences were held in France and the Netherlands, respectively. In 2010 and 2011 they were held in Austria and Italy.

“The global rotation will help to ensure that people from around the world have an opportunity to participate in our conferences in person. It will also allow us to shine a spotlight on critical HIV issues in every region,” said IAS president Sharon Lewin in a statement.

Cities that wish to host the meetings will be judged on six criteria, including the safety of delegates, especially so-called “key populations”, which includes sex workers and men who have sex with men.

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Panel is being chaired by judge Lex Mpati, chancellor of Rhodes University

The University of Cape Town in South Africa has appointed a four-member independent judicial panel to investigate the governance issues that have rocked the institution since last year.

The chair of the panel is Judge Lex Mpati, the current chancellor of Rhodes University and former president of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa. The three other members are Judge Azhar Cachalia, Bernadette Johnson, director of transformation and employment equity at the University of the Witwatersrand, and governance expert Trish Hanekom.

Last year, the institution had committed to appointing a five-member panel but in a 9 February statement, it says it had to review this number when the fifth member became unavailable.

UCT says the panel will investigate whether vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng and chair of council Babalwa Ngonyama misled faculty boards, the university senate and the council regarding the reasons for the non-availability to serve for a second term of former deputy vice-chancellor of teaching and learning Lis Lange.

The panel will also investigate other matters related to executive relationships, the statement says. This includes the number of, and reasons for, resignations of staff within and outside the executive. Last year, Phakeng and Ngonyama faced a complex set of claims and accusations relating to the turnover of senior staff. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

The panel has commenced its work, UCT said. “Members of the UCT community whom the panel wishes to interview will be contacted directly,” it added.

The decision to create the panel dates back to 8 October last year, when deputy council chair Pheladi Gwangwa said the council would give its “immediate attention” to the process of establishing the panel so it could report back by the end of 2022. In December, media reported that Gwangwa had been deposed as deputy council chair.

A month later, on 22 November, a confidential report outlining the institutions’ governance challenges was delivered to the country’s higher education minister Blade Nzimande. The minister is yet to give feedback on the report.

UCT declined to comment on when it expects the panel to publish its findings.

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Streamlined immigration rules could mean less red tape for foreign researchers

The government of South Africa is looking to introduce a points-based visa system to attract the skilled immigrants its economy needs, the country’s president said in his State of the Nation address last week.

In his 9 February speech to Parliament, Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted a lack of skills as one of South Africa’s main challenges to growing its economy. “One of the key ingredients for economic growth and competitiveness is the ability to attract skills that the economy needs,” he said.

Ramaphosa said that the government is exploring options to streamline skilled immigration regulations following a “comprehensive review” of the work visa system.

He named Mavuso Msimang, a “real veteran in the civil service” as the mastermind behind the reform plans, which include a “more flexible points-based system to attract skilled immigration” and a “trusted employer scheme” to make visa application easier for large investors.

Universities’ visa headaches

Currently, South Africa offers special visas for people who have “critical skills” that the country needs. The list of such skills is updated regularly. However, the practicality of obtaining critical skills visas has become a stumbling block for foreign researchers working in the country and for their employers.

Temporary visa holders currently often have to go back to their country of nationality to renew work permits—a process that can take months, and which is a source of anxiety and frustration for foreign researchers in the country.

However, it is not clear whether the government’s reforms will reintroduce a rule it scrapped in January last year that allowed foreigners graduating with scarce skills from the country’s universities to be fast-tracked towards permanent residency status. The move angered researchers at the time.

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Sasol funds four research chairs and six fellowships with National Research Foundation

South African energy and chemicals company Sasol announced a R40 million (US$2.2m), five-year investment in clean energy research with the country’s National Research Foundation on 10 February.

The funding will support four national research chairs—two in energy and power systems, and two in green hydrogen—the pair announced. It will also support six postdoctoral fellowships in green hydrogen, energy storage and waste utilisation.

The two chairs in energy and power systems modelling will be hosted by the universities of Pretoria and Cape Town. Ramesh Bansal from UP has been appointed to one of the chairs. He is the group head of the university’s electrical, electronic and computer engineering department. Sunetra Chowdhury, associate professor of electrical engineering, will occupy the UCT chair.

Chowdhury told Research Professional News that the appointments come at a “strategic moment” for South Africa in view of the country’s energy crisis and accompanying push for renewable energy deployment. “I strongly believe that it will give me the opportunity to build effective research collaboration links between academia and industry in South Africa and abroad,” she said.

The chairs in green hydrogen have been awarded to Tien-Chien Jen, head of the mechanical engineering department at the University of Johannesburg, and Prathieka Naidoo from Stellenbosch University.

“In addition to the innovation this chair will bring, it will build capacity for next-generation researchers and postgraduate students,” Jen told Research Professional News.

Meanwhile, three of the postdoctoral fellowships will be managed by the universities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, and the other three by the University of the Witwatersrand, the Durban University of Technology and North-West University.

"The two-year fellowships will include dedicated research time at Sasol’s research facilities in Sasolburg," said Sasol in a statement.

NRF and Sasol said they have jointly committed R150 million to industry-linked research and innovation projects over the next five years to support clean energy programmes.

Sasol was founded in 1950 when the Apartheid government looked to turn the country’s considerable coal reserves into liquid fuel in a bid to reduce the regime’s dependence on energy imports.

Today, the company produces synthetic fuels and operates in the chemical, nuclear, coal tar and electricity sectors. Environmental groups say Sasol’s Secunda plant near Sasolburg is one of the greatest point-source emitters of greenhouse gases in the world.  

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Researchers question move that grants government extraordinary powers

South African energy policy experts have questioned the raft of measures unveiled by president Cyril Ramaphosa last night to address the country’s energy crisis, which will grant the government extraordinary powers.

Ramaphosa (pictured) declared the country’s unprecedented frequency of rolling blackouts a national state of disaster with immediate effect in his 9 February State of the Nation address.

“The energy crisis is an existential threat to our economy and social fabric,” Ramaphosa said. “Our most immediate task is to reduce the severity of loadshedding in the coming months and ultimately eliminate loadshedding altogether.”

Ramaphosa said the state of disaster, gazetted the same day, will enable the government to provide concrete support to ailing businesses in the food production, storage and retail supply chain. These actions, he said, include the rollout of generators, solar panels and uninterrupted power supply technology.

Ramaphosa also said he would appoint a minister of electricity to work with national electricity utility Eskom. However, he did not name the person who would get the job.

South Africa is grappling with an ailing power network caused by an ageing fleet of coal power stations that regularly break down, rampant corruption and vandalism, and a distribution system ill-equipped to handle new generating technology, such as solar and wind.

The past three months have seen rolling blackouts implemented to save the grid from failing—known as loadshedding—intensify to unprecedented levels, with power cuts experienced for 10 hours a day or more.

‘Stop planning and start doing’

However, many of the country’s energy experts are not convinced that Ramaphosa’s measures are going to solve the problem.

Monique le Roux, senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, says a state of disaster is not necessary. She says it is “unclear” how it will fast-track the measures needed to solve the crisis, such as the publication of a clear power-purchase plan for the country, which could have been prioritised already.

“The feeling is definitely that the government should stop planning and start doing,” she told Research Professional News.

As for the new ministerial post, le Roux said its success will “wholly depend” on who gets the role and the freedom they will have to implement reform—which is questionable given the state of disaster declaration.

“Whether the new minister of electricity will truly have the scope and authority to make the necessary tough choices is already debatable in light of the fact that a state of disaster has been declared and that ultimate responsibility now lies with the minister of cooperative governance,” she added.

Political analyst Everisto Benyera of the University of South Africa told Research Professional News that neither a minister of electricity nor a state of disaster were necessary.

He said there’s a risk that declaring a state of disaster could lead to a repeat of what happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the extraordinary powers and funding mechanisms instated under a state of disaster led to widespread looting of government funds.

Indeed, he said, the question was not whether the money would be stolen but how much of it would be stolen. “Whether the money will be looted or not is a foregone conclusion.”

A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe

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Workshop considers how Africa can increase production of its own vaccines to 60 per cent

Creating a skilled workforce is vital if Africa is to ramp up the manufacture of its own vaccines, a meeting in Senegal has heard.

At a workshop to identify gaps and opportunities in African vaccine manufacturing this week, Richard Gordon, director of international business development at the South African Medical Research Council, said: “We simply cannot seek to manufacture biopharmaceuticals without developing a skilled workforce for the future.”

Amadou Alpha Sall, chief executive of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal, said that one positive was Africa’s comparatively young population, which can be trained for emerging industries.

“Today, more than 60 per cent of Africa’s population is under 25, and young Africans are expected to constitute 42 per cent of global youth by 2030,” he said. “We have a great opportunity to develop this human capital today to build a successful new industry in Africa.”

Ambitious goal

At the workshop, which was jointly hosted by the South African Medical Research Council, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, participants discussed progress on the African Union’s goal to produce 60 per cent of the vaccines required in Africa by 2040.

The Pasteur institute also launched a biomanufacturing training initiative called Knowledge and Workforce for Africa Manufacturing’s Equity, which links to Senegal’s Madiba project to manufacture and supply high-quality, affordable and relevant vaccines for Africa.

Africa currently produces only about 0.1 per cent of the global supply of vaccines. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the continent needs to create between 6,000 and 7,000 skilled jobs by 2030 to achieve the ambitious 2040 goal.

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This week: a Kenyan pandemic lab, a Gavi appointment and a survey of AI gaps

In depth: South African innovators have called on the country’s government to relax regulations stifling technology startups, as fresh data show the nation’s performance in this area has dipped below the level of several African competitors.

Full story: South Africa’s tech startup performance plummets

Also this week from Research Professional News

‘Skilled workforce needed’ to meet vaccine manufacturing goal—Workshop considers how Africa can increase production of its own vaccines to 60 per cent

 
Here is the rest of the Africa news this week…

Kenya builds pandemic research platform

The Kenya Medical Research Institute has announced that it is establishing a lab to fight pandemics and outbreaks on the African continent. The lab, which will be based at the institute’s headquarters in Nairobi, will feature DNA sequencing, a DNA synthesiser and specialised technical staff. It will develop diagnostic tests and speed up biomedical research in the country, the institute said on 3 February.

Rose Leke to head Gavi review committee

Cameroonian immunologist Rose Leke has been named chair of the global Gavi vaccine alliance’s independent review committee. The committee reviews applications for Gavi support and makes recommendations for funding. Leke, an emeritus professor of immunology and parasitology at the University of Yaoundé I, has served in the Africa Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication and in World Health Organization policy groups. She also co-chairs the board of Harvard University’s Defeating Malaria initiative.

Survey of African AI gaps funded

The Kenya-based Science for Africa Foundation has received a US$300,000 grant from the Patrick J McGovern Foundation, based in Boston in the US, to map artificial intelligence and data science gaps in Africa. The aim of the investment is to ensure AI and data advances can lead to healthcare developments on the continent. The Science for Africa Foundation says it will engage policymakers, carry out activities to build public trust in AI and convene AI experts to identify research priorities.

AAU seeks head of research and programmes

The Association of African Universities is seeking to appoint a director of research and programmes. The responsibilities include overseeing research and academic planning, as well as programme development, management and fundraising. The candidate will be based in Accra, Ghana, and will report to the secretary-general of the organisation. The deadline for applications is 28 February.

UCT wins funding for disease modelling tool

The University of Cape Town in South Africa has won a grant from the Wellcome Trust, a biomedical research funder in the UK, to build an open-source modelling tool to map disease risks in southern Africa. The project is a partnership between the university’s modelling and simulation hub and its Climate System Analysis Group. The tool will start with malaria but will eventually extend to other diseases. The grant is part of a £22.7 million (US$27.5m) grant round from Wellcome supporting 24 infectious disease modelling research teams in 12 countries.

Maths institute launches AI master’s course

The South Africa-based African Institute for Mathematical Sciences is introducing a master’s course in artificial intelligence. The fully residential one-year taught master’s has been made possible by a donation from DeepMind, a British AI company. Forty scholars per year will be funded over the next four years. The deadline for applications is 8 April for a September course start.

Additional reporting by Linda Nordling.

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Partnership between UK and South Africa will train dozens of master’s and PhD students

South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Edinburgh in the UK have jointly established a postgraduate training scheme targeting sustainability.

In a statement on 3 February, Wits confirmed that the scheme would enable an estimated 50 African researchers to study for a master’s in sustainability research. Of that cohort, 30 will continue to a PhD that will be supervised by both institutions. The scheme is supported by the Mastercard Foundation.

The University of Edinburgh said in a statement that the scheme was part of a broader programme it was running in Africa with the Mastercard Foundation, which features a digital education network to support African universities in developing online degrees in sustainability.

James Smith, Edinburgh’s vice-principal with responsibility for international affairs, said in a statement that the project aimed to provide cutting-edge research training for talented researchers in Africa.

“The programme will act as a catalyst to ensure that African researchers are at the forefront of addressing some of our most profound challenges,” he said.

Ruksana Osman, senior deputy vice-chancellor for academic affairs at Wits, said: “Wits is pleased to be part of this incredible programme that will go a long way towards advancing teaching and learning and knowledge creation on the continent.”

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Entrepreneurs urge government to take action as Africa’s former “wonder child” loses its lead

South African innovators have called on the country’s government to relax regulations stifling technology startups, as fresh data show the nation’s performance in this area has dipped below the level of several African competitors.

South Africa, “once the wonder child” of African startup funding, saw its performance drop last year, according to the African Tech Startups Funding Report 2022, published on 6 February by the tech startup news site Disrupt Africa.

The country’s “78 startups to raise funding represented a decline of 12.4 per cent on the previous year, and the US$329,707,000 they netted was down 2 per cent on the total of US$336,405,000 achieved in 2021”, the report states.

This places South Africa at odds with Africa as a whole, which saw both investments and number of startups grow to unprecedented levels in 2022, bucking a global slump in the tech startup investment landscape caused by a deteriorating financial climate.

“It has been a disappointing year for South African funding, and [this] reflects a general dwindling in the ecosystem of late which has seen the country nosedive from the leading market on the continent to fourth place,” the report states.

South Africa is being “truly overshadowed” by Nigeria and Egypt, whose “vibrancy and enthusiasm” are attracting investment, it adds.

Exchange rules ‘chief culprit’

The South Africa Startup Act Movement, a collective of South African startup investors, incubators, accelerators and founders formed in 2020, is calling on the country’s government to relax its red tape for emerging businesses.

The collective says the chief culprit holding back South Africa’s tech startup growth is the country’s restrictive exchange control system, which requires prior permission for raising foreign capital for local companies.

“South Africa’s perseverance with Apartheid-era exchange controls [and] restrictions on offshore holding companies and intellectual property transfers make it challenging to attract international investors, and so our entrepreneurs are physically moving their businesses into investor-friendly jurisdictions to raise funding,” Adrian Dommisse, a lawyer and member of the SA Startup Act Movement’s steering committee, told Research Professional News.

As a result, investment flows not into South African companies but into offshore companies, explaining the drop-off in South Africa’s ranking, he added.

The SA Startup Act Movement wants the government to relax exchange controls and other cumbersome rules for emerging companies with an annual turnover smaller than 100 million rand (US$5.7m).

Without reforms, South Africa “will lose technology talent, lose investments, lose jobs and one of the few avenues that can revive our ailing economy”, SA Startup Act Movement chair Matsi Modise writes in a report published by the collective this month.

All is not gloom, the Disrupt Africa report notes. South Africa “does have its merits”, including a higher prevalence of late-stage investment funding than in other parts of the continent. “But the country’s ecosystem could do with a renewed burst of energy that is unlikely to be forthcoming given prevailing macroeconomic conditions within the country,” it says.

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This week: a strike averted, Covid progress and European funding for African teachers

In depth: A recent rise in violent attacks on academic staff constitutes a crisis, South African academics have said.

Full story: Campus violence and threats ‘have reached crisis point’

Also this week from Research Professional News

South Africa’s power crisis eats into university budgets—Cape university spends R1.5 million on diesel power monthly as government “consults” on way forward

Tool launched to track pledges in neglected-diseases fight—Tracker will hold signatories of last year’s Kigali declaration to account

 
Here is the rest of the Africa news this week…

Strike averted at UCT

The University of Cape Town has signed an agreement with the Academics Union over salary increases for 2023, averting strike action threatened by the union earlier this year. The 6 per cent increase is double the earlier offer of 3 per cent, which prompted the threat to strike. The salary increases will be implemented in the February 2023 pay run, backdated to January.

Covid cases down in holiday season

African countries have reported a significantly lower number of Covid-19 cases over the holiday travel season this year than last year. A total of 20,552 new cases were recorded in the first three weeks of January 2023, a 97 per cent reduction from the same period in 2022. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, says countries need to remain vigilant as more variants are emerging. “It’s important that countries stay alert and have measures in place to effectively detect and tackle any upsurge in infection,” she said.

Europe invests in African teachers

Jutta Urpilainen, the EU’s commissioner for international partnerships, has launched a €100 million (US$109m) initiative on African teacher training. The Regional Teachers’ Initiative in Africa and for Africa, part of the EU-Africa Global Gateway Investment Package, aims to accelerate the training of teachers to respond to the continent’s need for 15 million new qualified teachers by 2030.

Free State appoints head of research

South Africa’s University of the Free State has appointed Vasu Reddy as its vice-rector for research and internationalisation. Reddy, who will start on 1 May, joins from the University of Pretoria, where he is a professor of sociology and dean of the humanities faculty. Reddy’s research interests include gender-based violence, affirmative action and poverty.

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Tracker will hold signatories of last year’s Kigali declaration to account

A tool to track whether signatories of the Kigali Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases are meeting their commitments to fight overlooked illnesses was launched on 30 January.

The Kigali Declaration Commitment Tracker will capture, track and monitor commitments made by countries and organisations towards the declaration, published in June last year. The initiative aims to generate political will, community commitment, resources and action to fight NTDs.

The tracker’s launch, on World NTD Day, coincided with Ghana becoming the 12th NTD-endemic country to sign the declaration. “An Africa free from NTDs is possible. Let us act now, and act together,” said the country’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, in a statement.

Two more commitments to fight NTDs were made this week. Global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline extended its commitment to fight soil-transmitted helminthiasis, promising to donate up to 100 million doses of medicine per year from 2026 to 2030.

And Spain-based NGO Anesvad Foundation promised to spend €34 million by 2026 to reduce the burden in sub-Saharan Africa of NTDs that affect the skin, such as Buruli ulcer, cutaneous leishmaniasis and leprosy.

To date, the Kigali declaration’s 61 signatories have generated more than US$1.6 billion and more than 19bn treatment doses, including pills, to fight NTDs. The commitment tracker will hold those who have made these commitments to account, said Thoko Elphick-Pooley, executive director of public-private partnership Uniting to Combat NTDs, which manages the tracker.

“The tracker is providing a new level of transparency that will enable us to hold each other accountable and effectively mobilise new resources that are required to end the suffering caused by these diseases,” he said in a statement. 

More remains to be done, he added. The first year of the pandemic saw a 34 per cent drop in the number of people receiving mass treatments for NTDs, and the rate only recovered slightly in 2021. “There is a financing crisis for NTDs,” Elphick-Pooley said.

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Partnership aims to produce medicines made for Africa by Africans

A partnership between international pharmaceutical companies and South Africa’s research community will result in fairer, more accessible research outcomes that address the needs of local people, one of its architects has said.

Ben Durham, chief director of bio-innovation at South Africa’s Department of Science and Innovation, said the partnership, announced on 27 January, would create fresh collaborations and also boost pharmaceutical manufacturing locally.

The partners are the department, the South African Medical Research Council and the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa, an association comprising innovative multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Writing to Research Professional News by email, Durham (pictured, left) said the agreement was intended to establish research programmes on communicable and non­-communicable diseases and improve access to precision medicines for locals. Precision medicine is when doctors use information about their patients’ genetic makeup, and other individual health data, to guide their treatment.

The international pharmaceutical companies participating in the partnership through the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa include Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, GSK and AstraZeneca. They will join the other partners to establish a clinical research ‘innovation cluster’, which will combine the expertise of the private sector with that of universities. 

“Co-funding of some clinical research is also not excluded,” Durham said.

Innovation and access

Africa’s genetic diversity means a better understanding of mutations in populations can have “significant” effects on treatment, he said. “South Africa is in the process of building a strong precision medicine programme and already some innovative pharmaceutical companies are co-funding some of the research activities.”

But doing the right science is only one piece of the puzzle, he added. “It is also essential to ensure that the new treatments being developed are affordable and have a more widespread use case. By developing these treatments together, access to medicines is built into the research programme.”

The agreement is a broad and general document that provides a basis for more specific partnerships to be developed, said Durham. But, he added, it will create a formal process where individual innovative pharmaceutical companies can offer universities with pharmaceutical degrees and drug discovery more activities and support.

“One of the first activities under this memorandum of understanding is to establish a joint steering committee that will also develop the annual work plan. One of the first projects is around regulatory support and strengthening. This will ensure that the scrutiny for the safety and appropriateness of medicines is improved, and the capabilities of the regulators are continually developed as new drugs come to the market,” Durham said.

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Research institutions hope membership will bring fresh funding and collaboration opportunities in the life sciences

South Africa’s admission as the first African member of the international Human Frontier Science Program will help to foster relationships, the country’s chief research funder has said.

On 31 January, the National Research Foundation of South Africa announced that the country was the first in Africa, and the 16th overall, to become a member of the HFSP, an organisation founded in 1989 to advance international research and training in the life sciences by funding high-risk, interdisciplinary, collaborative research.

The NRF said the admission should encourage the South African government to invest more in science. “As a member, South Africa will work closely with other HFSP members to support innovative basic research; apply novel and interdisciplinary approaches; and enable scientific exchanges across national and disciplinary boundaries to address fundamental biological problems,” it said in a statement.

Membership could result in more funding for South African science from overseas, the NRF told Research Professional News. “Through joint programming, funding and research with partners, South Africa will increase its vital scientific and innovation skills development,” it said.

Additional resources

The South African Medical Research Council and the NRF will both be members of the organisation, the NRF said. Over the next two years, the two organisations will not add new funding but will leverage their existing programmes to participate in the joint opportunities provided by the HFSP. Long term, both will aim to invest additional resources in joint programmes.

The selection process for being admitted to the organisation included an assessment of the level of governmental and non-governmental support of research, the level of basic science activity of universities and institutes and the level of education in the country, such as the number of PhDs awarded and number of scientists involved in research.

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Academics blame corruption and weak leadership for South Africa’s spate of violence against university staff

A recent rise in violent attacks on academic staff constitutes a crisis, South African academics have said. 

A virtual discussion hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa on 27 January followed what the University of Fort Hare described as an “assassination attempt” earlier that month on vice-chancellor Sakhela Buhlungu, which claimed the life of Mboneli Vesele, his head of security. It is believed Buhlungu was targeted for supporting an investigation into alleged corruption at the institution.

This was the latest in a number of such attacks against university staff, the meeting heard. In 2018, Gregory Kamwendo, arts faculty dean at the University of Zululand, was murdered, allegedly by an assassin hired by a colleague, after Kamwendo reportedly had uncovered a fraudulent PhD scheme at the institution.

In the discussion, Themba Mosia, vice-principal of the University of Pretoria and former chair of the Council on Higher Education, said he had hired security after receiving threats against his life more than once. 

Chairing the discussion, academy president Jonathan Jansen said the levels of violence currently seen against university staff were unprecedented, but that they also reflected longstanding challenges facing South Africa as a country.

“This is unbelievable in the context of higher education, yet common in our country,” Jansen said.

Growing problem

Mosia said the increase in violence and criminal threats could be due to a scramble for the large resources that universities hold, such as infrastructure budgets.

“Because the economy has been declining for a while and as a country we are battling with corruption, people have become very sophisticated in the manner in which they can swindle funds,” he said.

Mosia shared a gloomy view of the future. Higher education, he said, is a reflection of the state, which has failed itself and its citizens. “Unless the government urgently takes serious action, we will see more and more of these occurrences.”

He added that he viewed a post in industry as safer, currently, than being part of a university’s leadership, and he added that simply boosting security would not bring about change. “We need to get to the core of the problem.”

Lacking leadership

Nomalanga Mkhize, a historian based at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, said that the increasingly corporate way universities were run, with centralised executive powers, had fuelled greed and eroded the academic project. “Giving too much power to executive management and councils has led us to this,” she said.

She also dealt a harsh blow to vice-chancellors and other institutional leaders, insisting they had lost the essence of what it meant to be an academic leader. “The focus is no longer on creating great leaders, fostering academic projects and creating institutions that will offer value to societies,” she said, adding that some leaders seemed to prioritise social media stardom over academic leadership.

Mkhize said that more needed to be done to curb the spike in violent and aggressive culture, calling on vice-chancellors to “deal with these urgent matters of protecting staff”.

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Cape university spends R1.5 million on diesel power monthly as government “consults” on way forward

With universities in South Africa facing rising costs from intensifying periods of rolling blackouts, researchers fear what will happen to their work should the money run out.

The University of the Western Cape in Cape Town says it spends 1.5 million rand (US$87,000) a month to keep its fleet of backup power diesel generators running when the grid power is switched off.

The institution shared the sum—more than a professor’s annual salary—with Research Professional News as the country’s Department of Higher Education and Training announced it was consulting universities on ways to deal with the blackouts, known as loadshedding.

“I will update the public on these efforts following the conclusion of our internal consultation processes,” higher education and science minister Blade Nzimande said on 24 January.

Finite funds

Loadshedding is intended to protect the integrity of the national grid when generating supply does not meet demand. As South Africa enters its third month of uninterrupted loadshedding, with blackouts lasting 10 or more hours a day, questions are being raised about how universities should fund the additional cost of dealing with this, given their already tight finances.

“The situation is untenable and requires clear short, medium and long-term solutions from government. Getting universities off grid may be a long-term solution but for now universities require assistance to remain functional,” said Phethiwe Matutu, chief executive of Universities South Africa, the umbrella group for the country’s 26 universities.

A big worry for researchers is what happens if universities’ money for diesel runs out. 

Lonnie van Zyl, chief officer of the University of the Western Cape’s Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics, says his lab runs well on backup generator power for now. He hopes the university will give him plenty of notice if it is about to run out of funds for diesel, so that plans can be put in place to save rare or irreplaceable samples that require cold storage.

Van Zyl’s main concern is his lab’s six -80C freezers. These house microbial isolates and rare samples, some taken from deep-sea trenches using special robots. “If those freezers go down, there is a real risk that we lose those samples forever,” he says.

This was close to happening during the December holidays, when the building’s generator ran out of diesel. “I had to come in at two o’clock in the morning once or twice,” says Van Zyl. “Worst case, I was going to move these -80C freezers out and run them off my own generator.”

No respite in sight

Loadshedding has been a recurring phenomenon in South Africa since 2007. Until last year it was intermittent, with long periods of sustained power between periods of cuts. However, in the second half of 2022 the frequency of power cuts rose to unprecedented levels, with no respite in sight.

Matutu said that Universities South Africa had discussed its concerns around loadshedding with Nzimande and the Department of Higher Education and Training. “The department assured us that they are attending to them,” she said.

Research Professional News asked the department to comment on whether it has considered offering financial support to universities to meet the costs of operating under loadshedding. The department did not respond to the question.

Van Zyl says there is a “very thin silver lining” attached to loadshedding, since it forces students and staff to think creatively about how to carry out their research. “We will make a plan. South Africans are very resourceful,” he says.

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Cohort of new members come from near and far, reflecting excellence in African science

The African Academy of Sciences based in Nairobi, Kenya, has welcomed 29 scholars as fellows. The cohort is made up of fellows, associate fellows and honorary fellows.

“The scholars were elected through a rigorous process following a call for applications for the 2021 round of AAS Fellowships. The new fellows bring experience from across the globe and from a cross-section of scientific disciplines,” the academy said in a 19 January statement.

The fellows include Alain Krief from the University of Namur and the University of Karachi, and Jean Albergel from the French Research Institute for Sustainable Development who, according to the AAS, spent most of his working life in Africa researching the impacts of climate and water and land management.

South African fellows include Albert Modi and Francesco Petruccione from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Jill Farrant from the University of Cape Town and André Pascal Kengne of the South African Medical Research Council.

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This week: infectious disease grants, DRC-South Africa cooperation and a health innovation partnership

In depth: National research facilities in South Africa say they are looking at alternative power sources to protect them against the country’s persistent rolling blackouts.

Full story: South African facilities eye solar to solve energy woes

Also this week from Research Professional News

‘Many instruments are not going to make it’—South Africa’s power crisis could push science out of country’s poorly resourced institutions, biochemist warns

University of Cape Town strike on temporary hold—Academic union considers new offer after rejecting “insulting and derisory” 3 per cent pay hike

Beitbridge economic zone ‘may harm wetlands’ in South Africa—Scientific advisory group recommends halting Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone development

 
Here is the rest of the Africa news this week…

Grants available for infectious disease research

The international pharmaceutical firm GSK is providing grants worth up to £75,000 for high-quality African infectious disease research projects. Early career African scientists can apply for the grants, which last for up to 36 months. The award will cover costs including equipment, fieldwork, data collection, consumables and research assistance, and the deadline for applications is 17 February.

DRC and South Africa deepen science collaboration

South Africa’s science minister Blade Nzimande and his Democratic Republic of the Congo counterpart Maître José Mpanda Kabangu have signed an agreement to deepen scientific cooperation between the two countries. The focus areas of the partnership include agriculture, mining and geosciences, renewable energy, water, intellectual property management, technology innovation, high-performance computing, and space science and technology.

Last week to submit HIV abstracts for Brisbane

HIV/Aids scientists have until the end of January to submit abstracts for the International Aids Society meeting taking place in Brisbane, Australia, in July. There will be a window for late-breaking abstracts between 20 April and 10 May. This will be the 12th IAS conference on HIV science.

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Renewables could help create operational stability at radio astronomy and medical radiocarbon facilities

National research facilities in South Africa say they are looking at alternative power sources to protect them against the country’s persistent rolling blackouts.

The system of rolling blackouts, called loadshedding, is intended to protect the integrity of the national grid when generating supply does not meet demand. Since September, it’s been an almost daily occurrence—and for the past few weeks outages have struck for as many as 10 hours a day.

Research Professional News asked the country’s National Research Foundation-managed research facilities about their power supply and how they were faring under increased frequency of loadshedding. These are their replies.

Radio astronomy

The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which manages the country’s high-profile radio telescopes including MeerKAT, is looking to establish a solar power plan to stabilise its operational costs.

The timeline for the solar plant coming online is in the order of 5 to 10 years, Khulu Phasiwe, head of communications at the observatory, told Research Professional News. For now, critical systems in the Karoo as well as the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory have backup power systems.

iThemba

South Africa’s medical radioisotope production facility in Cape Town run by iThemba Labs is currently spared rotational loadshedding. However, it has an agreement with the national power utility to reduce power when requested at short notice.

Faïçal Azaïez, director of iThemba Labs, told Research Professional News that the institution had developed plans for renewing and extending its backup power capacity at its Cape Town site, as well as to invest in solar capacity. However, these projects are subject to funding availability.

Optical astronomy

The country’s optical observatories, managed by the South African Astronomical Observatory, have been able to operate so far, its director Petri Vaisanen says.

However, he adds, the backup systems have significant cost implications, as both its Sutherland and Cape Town sites need to be powered continuously due to the data and data product services they provide to international and national researchers.

Environmental observation

The South African Environmental Observation Network has Uninterruptible Power Supply units installed at all its offices and nodes that can run for two hours. On top of that, the network’s hosting organisations have back-up generators that start automatically, says Theo Jongwana, governance and operations manager.

Aquatic biodiversity

The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity in Grahamstown has been able to operate under the recent loadshedding conditions, its managing director Angus Paterson says. However, fuelling the back-up diesel generators that enable the institution to do so are incurring a "high cost", he added.  

How is your lab affected by loadshedding? Email [email protected].

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South Africa’s power crisis could push science out of country’s poorly resourced institutions, biochemist warns

The rolling blackouts crippling South Africa’s electricity grid are wreaking havoc at labs around the country—not least at ‘previously disadvantaged’ universities, which battled with resources for research even before the current energy crisis hit.

“My mass spectrometers don’t have on and off buttons. They are not meant to be turned off during their lifetime,” says Edwin Madala, a biochemist who has spent the last few years building a world-class spectrometry lab at the University of Venda in the Limpopo province.

However, in 2022 alone, one of his instruments went off more than ten times due to power outages.

South Africa’s university landscape is deeply divided, with a handful of universities performing the lion’s share of the country’s academic research, while the others—which historically catered to non-white South Africans and were not set up for research—have struggled to catch up.

Over the past two decades, the South African government has been working to build research capacity in these left-behind institutions, but the country’s power crisis threatens to undo the progress made so far.

At Madala’s lab, diesel generators normally take over when power is switched off for ‘loadshedding’—a rolling blackout system designed to keep the integrity of the grid when national electricity demand exceeds supply. In the gap between the grid goes down and the generators kick in, Uninterrupted Power Supply units are meant to supply seamless power.

However, with blackouts reaching 10 hours per day in recent months, the backup systems are failing, says Madala. The generators run out of diesel, and the UPS systems are left to power what they can, for as long as they can, during two-to-four-hour loadshedding blocks. This is running down their batteries quickly, meaning they cannot function properly.

As a result, there’s a real threat to equipment in the University of Venda’s science building, which Madala currently values at around R60 million (US$3.5m). He does not run his spectrometers at the moment. While he knows of colleagues at other universities who are running theirs, he says that poses a great risk. “Many instruments are not going to make it.”

His is not the only faltering lab on Venda’s campus. Madala says his colleagues in biology have come into campus only to find their -80 degree freezers off, with irreplaceable samples thawing inside. “People’s research careers are melting in front of their eyes,” he says.

The way things are, Madala says he is considering moving his research to a better-resourced university if the situation does not improve. At Venda, diesel is being burnt to power residences and lifts, while essential research equipment is left to languish.

“These disadvantaged institutions are not research-oriented, so when you say that ‘we must prioritise diesel for equipment’, you are speaking a foreign language,” he says. “I’m tired of fighting this diesel war.”

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Academic union considers new offer after rejecting “insulting and derisory” 3 per cent pay hike

The union representing academic staff at the University of Cape Town in South Africa is waiting for members to consider a new pay offer before embarking on a strike, its leader has said.

Kelley Moult, president of the UCT’s Academics Union, told Research Professional News that the union would hold off on implementing its strike action until at least 27 January, to allow members to consider the pay offer.

While she did not divulge what the offer was, the previous deadlock between the union and the university’s salary negotiations committee was over a proposed 3 per cent pay hike—something the union described as woefully low in a statement on 20 January announcing its intention to strike.

“Academic staff are committed to go on strike over what they feel is an insulting and derisory pay increase of 3 per cent offered for the 2023 year,” it said. “The universities that UCT has historically used as comparators in setting pay increases have been able to offer their employees at least a 6 per cent increase.”

Strategic under-prioritisation

The threatened strike action—the first in the university’s century-long history—comes at a time when South African tertiary institutions are preparing to reopen in February. Moult confirmed to Research Professional News that 87 per cent of the Academics Union membership had agreed to go on strike.

“The wage increment, and the negotiation process that has led us to this point, is an illustration of the strategic under-prioritisation of the academic project at our institution. We believe that this needs to be rectified,” she said.

Moult said on 25 January that the revised offer from UCT management had been brought to members to consider, and that the poll would close the same day.

“Because the Academics Union remains committed to resolving the dispute, we have undertaken not to implement the strike certificate by issuing any strike notices up until the end of business on Friday 27 January to allow the offer to be reduced to writing, and to allow our members to consider whether to accept,” she told Research Professional News.

In a letter to the UCT community on 21 January, vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng said the institution’s executive had been “working tirelessly” to settle the dispute. “It is important to emphasise that the executive is approaching every step of the process in compliance with the university’s governance procedures,” she wrote.

This week, Phakeng, answering via university spokesperson Elijah Moholola, could not be drawn for further comment by Research Professional News, noting that “the engagements are ongoing and due to this, we [the university] are not in a position to comment further on the matter at this stage”.

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Scientific advisory group recommends halting Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone development

The proposed development of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone in South Africa’s Limpopo province poses a threat to local natural heritage, a science advisory committee has found.

The zone, designated in 2017 but not yet operational, is planned for the area surrounding the Beitbridge Border Post between South Africa and Zimbabwe—one of the busiest ports of entry to South Africa and its chief gateway to the Southern African Development Community.

However, the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies, which is hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa, argues that the development will degrade biodiverse areas and irrevocably threaten the ecological integrity and conservation goals of the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, which includes the northern part of Kruger National Park.

“Given its potentially detrimental impact on water resources in the area, the development could threaten sensitive wetlands within the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, including the Makuleke Wetlands,” notes a report on 18 January from Sage’s subcommittee on the zone’s environmental and heritage implications.

Water security

The report says that development would pose a threat to the region’s water security and would be likely to cause problems for water users in Limpopo and outside South Africa, including in drought-prone Zimbabwe.

It will also increase South Africa’s national greenhouse gas emissions, the report adds. “The development will yield high levels of air, soil and water pollution and have a detrimental impact on human health, and degrade the ecological functionality of the area.”

The subcommittee, made up of scientists from across South Africa, recommends that the national government as well as the Limpopo provincial government suspend activities relating to the development.

“This includes vegetation clearance for fencing and bulk services infrastructure related to the project. Furthermore, relevant [UN agency] Unesco officials should urgently engage with appropriate South African national authorities to commission an independent assessment of the potential implications of the proposed zone,” it states.

Neither the government of the Limpopo province nor the government of South Africa has responded to the report yet.

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Experiments could be forced overseas as country’s energy crisis deepens

Researchers at several South African labs say the country’s increasingly frequent blackouts have left them unable to carry out experiments, crippling critical work.

South Africa’s power network is in crisis, with an ageing fleet of coal power stations that regularly break down, rampant corruption and vandalism, and a distribution system ill-equipped to handle new generating technology, such as solar and wind.

In Johannesburg, paleoclimatologist Stephan Woodborne needs these faltering power supplies to run the African continent’s sole accelerator mass spectrometry facility, which uses radiocarbon dating to determine the age of historical artefacts, as well as biological, hydrological and geological samples. The facility is used by researchers from across South Africa and beyond.

At the moment, the power goes off several times per day, meaning neither he nor Tebogo Makhubela at the University of Johannesburg—a geochronologist who uses a noble gas mass spectrometer in his lab—are able to run their experiments.

“There are instances where the amount of time we have power, say four hours, is just not enough to make a complete measurement,” said Makhubela. He plans to go to Germany in April to carry out the experiments he no longer can do in South Africa.

Rolling blackouts

Since 2007, South Africa has implemented rolling blackouts—dubbed loadshedding—when the country’s ailing power stations cannot meet demand.

The situation has deteriorated further since 2019, when unprecedented ‘stage 6’ loadshedding was implemented for the first time. Stage 6 means the power is off 6-12 hours every day, spread over blocks that usually last two to four hours.

Last year was the worst to date, with loadshedding occurring nearly every day since September. This month the national power utility Eskom announced there was no end in sight to the interruptions.

Mitigating measures

Many life scientists told Research Professional News they have been forced to use backup power systems including uninterrupted power supply (UPS) units and diesel generators to continue their work. But these are rarely sufficient to run facilities that require a lot of power. They are also expensive.

Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician based at Stellenbosch University, said a long-term solution would be to centralise more of South Africa’s research infrastructure. 

“Backup systems are important but they can become very costly if every single lab is trying to build that,” he said. “Having core resources that are protected against loadshedding would be a more effective use of resources.”

Woodborne said he cannot run his experiments when loadshedding is higher than stage 2, when the power goes off 2-4 hours per day. 

The 100 million rand (US$5.8m) accelerator generates three and a half million volts when in use, and must be safely switched off before the power goes off to avoid damaging the equipment—a process that takes two hours. Once off, it takes about six hours to get the particle beam back up and running to where it can start making measurements.

“We can’t even prepare the samples under stage 6,” he said. “I have no idea when we’re going to get down to stage 2, which is when I will be able to start running again.” He added that the situation is likely to damage South Africa’s reputation as a place that can do cutting-edge science.

Losing the edge

According to Makhubela, the power crisis is also harming the country’s ability to attract scientific talent. “We are now at a point where even postdoctoral fellows from smaller economies in Africa and Asia are just not interested in coming to South Africa because they fear not being able to generate data for their research,” he said.

The situation could also undermine efforts to ensure South African research samples and field data can be studied without leaving the country, undoing years of work to stop ‘helicopter science’, he said.

“Just as our raw materials are processed abroad to make final consumer products, in research we will see increased shifts towards South Africa only being good enough for field data and sample collection,” he said.

A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe

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