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BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

Fort Hare University’s football right-back Ngenelwa Zikhona will always remember the months leading up to her 21st.

She has been a constant force in UFH’s historic season that has seen them win the coastal stream of the Sasol Women’s League, triumph in the competition’s provincial playoff and make their long-anticipated Varsity Football debut.

Just a few days after her landmark birthday, she has arguably done more in tertiary football than most players would in an entire career.

The team’s 4-1 demolition of Executive Ladies in the Eastern Cape playoff in Komani recently has been the icing on the cake for the human movement sciences honours student, who came of age on September 10.

“It’s all down to our hard work, dedication and teamwork. I’m thrilled and proud of myself and my teammates,” she enthused.

Zikhona, who joined the Fort Hare setup last February, is a product of Engcobo Village Senior Secondary School. Back then, she would hardly have believed that she would one day play televised games and win tournaments.

The Alice university had a solid, if not brilliant, introduction to Varsity Football in Pretoria recently. They drew with UKZN and Wits before being downed by UP-Tuks and TUT in their final two matches.

Zikhona said valuable lessons had been learnt in the process. These include developing different strategies, playing in front of TV audiences and handling pressure on the big stage.

The experience forced them to identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to fine-tune their approach, she explained, while having to mark top players like World Cup star Wendy Shongwe had been invaluable.

The defender found there were differences between Varsity Football and the Sasol league. The tertiary competition was generally a faster game, while having more experienced footballers in the Sasol competition meant a range of styles and strategies was on display.

As to her own form, she felt that she had developed a lot in terms of skills like passing and tackling. “I have become more refined and consistent. I also have a better understanding of positioning and of my role within different formations.”

Zikhona also believed that her on-field decision-making – such as choosing the right pass, when to press and when to hold back – had improved. A good right-back should be able to make strong tackles, mark well and have the ability to read the game defensively, she said.

“They need to know when to push forward and when to hold their position.” The squad are now on a two-week hiatus before their focus turns to the all-important Sasol league national playoffs, where spots in the prestigious Hollywoodbets Super League are up for grabs.

“This is our best moment. We need to enjoy every bit of it and to do that we need to play with focus and determination,” Zikhona said. “This is what we have been dreaming about since the beginning of the season. Teams will be ready. We too will fight to the end.”

Image and source: UFH

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

Thanks to her unique research on the subjective meanings of sex, sexuality, and sexual pleasure, Kylie Marais has earned an international Pleasure Fellowship – making her one of only 16 scholars from around the world to receive this prestigious fellowship this year.

Marais is a PhD candidate in the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Department of Anthropology. Her doctoral research focuses on the sexual subjectivities of several contemporary, self-identified coloured women from Cape Town. As part of her study, she conducted intimate interviews with 15 women on their individual meanings of sex, sexuality, and sexual pleasure. This work has paved the way for this fellowship opportunity.

“The topic of sexual pleasure is gaining momentum globally. As an example, the World Health Organization acknowledges that pleasure is a central aspect of being human and can assist with addressing various challenges in our sexual lives,” Marais said.

“And that’s not all, the World Association for Sexual Health recently established a Declaration on Sexual Pleasure that recognises pleasure as a fundamental part of sexual rights, sexual health, and sexual well-being. The fact that the topic has now entered the global stage is testament to its importance.”

Marais explained how she was selected, “In May, I submitted an online Pleasure Fellowship application that involved answering a set of questions about my research interests on sexual pleasure. I was also asked to propose a personal project related to pleasure that I plan to develop over time, which I then provided. I was overjoyed when I heard that I was successful. The Pleasure Project received more than 500 applications from pleasure activists all over the world, but they could only select 16 candidates for the 2023 cohort. This year, the fellows represent diverse sex-related industries. I’m also the first selected South African fellow, which makes me incredibly proud.”

“I must acknowledge that while the topic of sexual pleasure is slowly gaining momentum in South Africa, especially in the media, it remains absent in our educational system, as well as in sexual health research more broadly.

Sadly, because we have such high levels of sexual and gender-based violence, and sexual health is one of our biggest challenges, it has resulted in mostly sex-negative messages. So, topics on sex are framed mainly around fear and risk rather than pleasure. I believe that everyone has the right to sexual pleasure and that pleasure can empower people to claim ownership over their own sexual bodies. I hope that through my doctoral research and the Pleasur-ed project I can help others see the wider personal and social value of sexual pleasure and promote pleasure education for all – regardless of gender, race, age, sexuality or disability,” she concluded.

Image and source: UCT

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

National Research Foundation awards Wits Professor Jill Adler for advancing maths teaching, research, and empowering maths educators in post-democratic SA.

The annual National Research Foundation (NRF) Awards, which honour prolific scientists behind some of the outstanding research done at South Africa’s higher education institutions, took place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, on 31 August 2023.

NRF CEO Dr Fulufhelo Nelwamondo, said, “The NRF Awards embody the NRF’s overall mandate for the support and advancement of research and human capacity; our development of the country’s National Research Facilities; the fostering of public awareness and engagement with science; and our commitment to the promotion of the national science system for national development.”

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Research Excellence Award for Early Career/Emerging Researcher (Life Sciences) also went to Wits University, with Dr Ekene Emmanuel Nweke being recognised for his research in pancreatic and gallbladder cancer.

The NRF Lifetime Achiever Award recognises an individual who has demonstrably made extraordinary contributions to the development of science in and for South Africa over an extended period. These contributions must be of international standard and impact.

The Lifetime Achiever awardee, Wits Professor of Mathematics Education, Jill Adler, said, “At a personal level, receiving recognition of work done over many years, is enormous – indeed overwhelming. More broadly, the award represents an acknowledgment, by the NRF who funded so much of my work, of the significance of inter-linking research and development in the teaching and learning of mathematics.”

The Lifetime Achiever award comes with a R50 000 grant, which Adler says will enable her to continue and enhance her current work on language-responsive-mathematics-teaching, which she says is so critical in the South African context and gaining more and more interest world-wide.

Professor Jill Adler is an NRF A1-rated researcher, indicating that she is recognised by all reviewers as a leading scholar in her field internationally for the high quality and broad impact (beyond a narrow field of specialisation) of her research outputs

She completed a BSc in Mathematics and Psychology at Wits in 1972 and a Secondary Teacher’s Diploma at the University of Cape Town in 1973, after which she taught for three years.

In 1977 she joined the SACHED Trust, an educational NGO concerned with enriching the quality of education of those disadvantaged in apartheid South Africa. Adler’s work here, over a decade, enabled her to further her social justice advocacy by improving mathematics education by developing and evaluating distance education courses.

She was studying her MEd at Wits at this time and graduated cum laude in 1985 before joining academia in 1987. She lectured in the Department of Professional Studies at the Johannesburg College of Education before moving to the Wits Education Department where she worked variously as a Lecturer, Head of Department, Professor and, from 2010 to 2019, as SARChI Chair of Mathematics Education.

Seminal research for educators to teach maths in multilingual classrooms
Adler’s PhD, completed in 1996, looked at the dynamics of teaching and learning mathematics in multilingual classrooms, specifically examining secondary teachers’ knowledge in this context. This was later published as a book.

This seminal research in early democratic SA, along with a range of papers in peer-reviewed journals, has had a lasting impact on the broader field of mathematics education, providing valuable insights for educators and policymakers.

Her theoretical and practice-based innovations, which have paved the way for new and transformative approaches in mathematics education, address two fundamental research problems: the complexities and challenges of teaching and learning mathematics in multilingual classrooms; and the enhancement of professional education for mathematics teachers, particularly in democratic South Africa in the 1990s.

Adler took proactive steps to establish a range of transformative higher education programmes to address the deficits of apartheid teacher training on mathematics educators. She designed programmes that empowered the research community, including a doctoral programme, all of which fostered a rich and dynamic research environment for scholars and students to explore and advance mathematics education.

In 2005, Adler established the renowned Marang Centre for Mathematics and Science Education at Wits, which became a hub for advanced studies and innovative research and empowering educators.

As the DSI-NRF SARChI Research and Development Chair in Mathematics Education at Wits from 2010 to 2019, Adler directed a large professional development project, reaching over 200 secondary mathematics teachers and many learners across 80 schools in Gauteng.

On receipt of her award last night, Adler said, “The NRF has been a bedrock of my research post my PhD, through multiple research grants over many years, supporting empirical work, graduate students, as well as opportunities for international conference participation.”

Image and source: Wits

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

Bongeziwe Mabandla is taking his acclaimed 2023 album amaXesha on the road with a nine-date Southern African tour that includes a performance in Maputo, Mozambique, and a special show at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.

Fans of the award-winning artist in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Stellenbosch and Durban are also in for a treat with support for Mabandla’s shows in those cities coming from rising stars, The Joy.

The October amaXesha tour follows three sold-out album release shows in Johannesburg and Cape Town in June this year, giving audiences who were unable to secure tickets for those shows an opportunity to see Mabandla perform his latest album live.

Mabandla will be performing together with his producer and creative collaborator, Tiago Correia-Paulo, with the new dates adding to a live schedule for 2023 that has included shows in the UK, Europe and Mexico. Both Mabandla’s domestic and international shows have drawn rapturous responses from audiences, with critics noting that this set of shows is likely to be the last opportunity to see this globally ascendant artist in any kind of intimate setting.

The amaXesha tour gets underway in the Eastern Cape with an October 4th show at The Guild in East London followed by a performance at the Guy Butler Theatre in Makhanda on October 6th and a show at The Music Kitchen in Gqeberha on October 8th.

Mid-October sees The Joy join the amaXesha tour when it hits Gauteng with the first show at Sognage in Johannesburg on October 14th followed by a show at the African Beer Emporium in Tshwane the next day. The South African leg of the tour finishes up with shows at the Desi Jones Bar in Stellenbosch on October 20th, St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on October 21st and at the Barnyard Theatre in Durban on October 22nd.

Mabandla then heads for Maputo on October 27th for a show at CCFM in Maputo, Correia-Paulo’s hometown and where the lyric video for “zange” off iimini (2020) was shot. 

The Joy are a quintet from Hammarsdale with their roots in traditional Zulu music and modern acapella, who have just released their new EP – titled Hammarsdale – on UK based Transgressive Records. This year has seen The Joy perform in the UK, selling out their first solo date in London and also performing at various festivals including Glastonbury, The Great Escape, Love Supreme and Soho House festivals.

Image: Supplied

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

Bongeziwe Mabandla is taking his acclaimed 2023 album amaXesha on the road with a nine-date Southern African tour that includes a performance in Maputo, Mozambique, and a special show at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.

Fans of the award-winning artist in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Stellenbosch and Durban are also in for a treat with support for Mabandla’s shows in those cities coming from rising stars, The Joy.

The October amaXesha tour follows three sold-out album release shows in Johannesburg and Cape Town in June this year, giving audiences who were unable to secure tickets for those shows an opportunity to see Mabandla perform his latest album live.

Mabandla will be performing together with his producer and creative collaborator, Tiago Correia-Paulo, with the new dates adding to a live schedule for 2023 that has included shows in the UK, Europe and Mexico. Both Mabandla’s domestic and international shows have drawn rapturous responses from audiences, with critics noting that this set of shows is likely to be the last opportunity to see this globally ascendant artist in any kind of intimate setting.

The amaXesha tour gets underway in the Eastern Cape with an October 4th show at The Guild in East London followed by a performance at the Guy Butler Theatre in Makhanda on October 6th and a show at The Music Kitchen in Gqeberha on October 8th.

Mid-October sees The Joy join the amaXesha tour when it hits Gauteng with the first show at Sognage in Johannesburg on October 14th followed by a show at the African Beer Emporium in Tshwane the next day. The South African leg of the tour finishes up with shows at the Desi Jones Bar in Stellenbosch on October 20th, St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on October 21st and at the Barnyard Theatre in Durban on October 22nd.

Mabandla then heads for Maputo on October 27th for a show at CCFM in Maputo, Correia-Paulo’s hometown and where the lyric video for “zange” off iimini (2020) was shot. 

The Joy are a quintet from Hammarsdale with their roots in traditional Zulu music and modern acapella, who have just released their new EP – titled Hammarsdale – on UK based Transgressive Records. This year has seen The Joy perform in the UK, selling out their first solo date in London and also performing at various festivals including Glastonbury, The Great Escape, Love Supreme and Soho House festivals.

Image: Supplied

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

Based in Johannesburg, Nigerian fashion writer Modupe Oloruntoba’s platform exemplifies these constructive shifts.  

Amongst many things, Modupe Oloruntoba defines herself as a fashion journalist and consultant. Exercising a remarkable breadth and depth of her knowledge base that encompasses design and fashion business, Oloruntoba is also the founder and editor of African Fashion Weekly. Leading with a transformative mandate, the online publication defines itself as an “on-the-ground conversation about Africa’s fashion industries”.  

Dedicated to relevant information that captures the culture, this platform stands out in its focus on connecting happenings in African fashion to the global climate. Not only does it position African fashion as relevant within the global canon of fashion, Oloruntoba herself asserts: “AFWeekly is in a position to join the global conversation from a perspective that puts Africa first” 

Adopting a resourceful, Business-to-Business approach to building a voice in fashion media, African Fashion Weekly also includes a curated list of external sources. In addition to pioneering African Fashion Weekly and her bylines in Refinery29, GQ South Africa and InStyle, Oloruntoba’s enviable portfolio includes consultancy with the United Nations’s Ethical Fashion Initiative.  

“I started out thinking that to help African fashion contribute to lifting the continent in a measurable way, I needed to attack the perception that creative industries in general and fashion in particular aren’t attractive ‘serious’ investments. The idea that creatives aren’t pragmatic enough, that culture and consumers are too fickle, and fashion is a ‘women’s interest’ thing that doesn’t have scalable business potential outside the global luxury sector.

Those things need changing, but my focus has shifted to equipping and enabling African fashion stakeholders to better navigate increasingly challenging market conditions. If they succeed, they’ll change that perception themselves. I still have plenty to learn about how to do that, but I can show my work and learn in community, Modupe said.

Image: LinkedIn

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

South African star Kgothatso Montjane and her partner Yui Kamiji of Japan seize victory in the US Open wheelchair women’s doubles final with a walkover win after their formidable opponents, top-seeded Dutch pair Diede de Groot and Jiske Griffioen, withdrew from the match.

This triumph marks Montjane and Kamiji’s second Grand Slam title of the year, adding to their historic victory at the prestigious French Open, this June. Undeterred by their runner-up finish at Wimbledon the following month, they entered the US Open with a fierce determination to conquer the court and claim another major accolade.

Throughout the tournament, Montjane and Kamiji showcased unparalleled teamwork, exceptional skills, and unwavering resolve. Their partnership demonstrated synergy and composure, allowing them to navigate each match with precision and finesse. In the earlier rounds, they exhibited their dominance by defeating formidable opponents Dana Mathewson and Manami Tanaka with a brilliant 6-1, 6-4 victory.

With their place secured in the doubles final, Montjane and Kamiji were poised to face the toughest challenge of the tournament as they prepared to clash against de Groot and Griffioen. However, fate intervened, and their opponents were unable to compete. Despite the walkover win, the achievement was no less significant, highlighting their remarkable journey and showcasing their well-deserved place atop the wheelchair tennis universe.

For Montjane, this victory signifies the culmination of years of dedication and hard work. As a pioneer for wheelchair athletes in South Africa, her success serves as an inspiration to a nation and the global sports community. It is a testament to her resilience, tenacity, and relentless pursuit of excellence despite facing numerous obstacles.

Partnered with the immensely talented Kamiji, Montjane’s rise to the top of wheelchair tennis has been a testament to her unwavering spirit and fierce competitive drive. Together, they have become a formidable pair, capturing the hearts of fans worldwide and solidifying their place as the crème de la crème of the sport.

The US Open wheelchair women’s doubles title is a testament to Montjane and Kamiji unwavering dedication and their transformation of adversity into triumph. Their partnership has already left an indelible mark on the sport, inspiring a new generation of athletes to dream big and overcome any challenges they may face.

As they bask in the glory of their latest triumph, the world eagerly awaits the next chapter in Montjane and Kamiji’s extraordinary journey, fully aware that they continue to rewrite the history of wheelchair tennis and leave an indelible mark on the sport they love.

Image: LinkedIn

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

Carla Dodd, a Geosciences PhD student at Nelson Mandela University, shines bright with her NRF Research Excellence Award. Her groundbreaking work focuses on coastal groundwater resources, addressing crucial questions about replenishment and pollution effects.

With cutting-edge methods and international collaboration, Carla maps hydrological flowpaths and explores groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Her research contributes to drought mitigation and a sustainable future, making her a role model in her field.

Image and source: NMU

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

Ayanda Sibiya owns Branding Africa, a renowned branding agency that envisions a prosperous Africa driven by industry-leading African brands. Their mission is to support African businesses and entrepreneurs in building strong brands through comprehensive brand development programs, workshops, and strategy consulting services.

They also offer brand consulting services to corporates, helping businesses succeed in the digital age and representing innovation in the global landscape. Their inception was inspired by the need they identified among African entrepreneurs who struggle to build a strong brand around their businesses, resulting in many failing before reaching their 3rd anniversary.

With 22% of the working-age population in Africa starting businesses, but a significant percentage of them failing, Branding Africa aims to capacitate African businesses to grow and thrive in a way that positively impacts the communities around them and the African economy.

“Our significant achievement has been establishing ourselves as a sought-after voice representing entrepreneurs in Africa. Over the past year, we have been privileged to participate in policy-making conversations that benefit entrepreneurs and promote trade across the continent, specifically in relation to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement,” she said.

In addition to supporting over 100 entrepreneurs through brand development workshops, masterclasses, and consultations, their greatest success lies in being able to contribute to high-level discussions addressing the challenges faced by entrepreneurs throughout Africa. Being part of these conversations and having a seat at the table allows them to serve African businesses and entrepreneurs on a larger scale, advocating for their interests and driving positive change.

“We are proud of our role as a trusted partner and influencer in policy-making conversations, and we remain committed to leveraging our expertise to make a lasting impact on the entrepreneurial landscape in Africa. Our continued involvement in these discussions further solidifies our position as a leading branding agency with a deep commitment to the growth and success of African businesses,” Ayanda added.

Image: Supplied

BY Nkosazana Ngwadla

Boitumelo Majodina is a 28-year-old inspirational attorney of the High Court of South Africa and Founder of Biotumelo M Attorneys.

She was raised by a struggling single mom in Clermont township, Durban. Against all odds, she obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Kwazulu-Natal.

On 21 July 2023, Biotumelo was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa and decided to open her own law firm.

“I would like to tell my story and encourage a black child to believe that with dedication, hard work and resilience it is possible, achievable and doable.”

“My story is a beacon of hope for young South Africans, especially those who may have lost faith in their dreams. My law firm isn’t just about my success; it’s about creating opportunities and offering excellent legal expertise to all. Through my journey, I hope to encourage black youth and the South African community,” she said.

Image: LinkedIn