I was walking with my dog this morning and listening to one of Simon Sinek’s podcasts. Among the amazing things he usually says, he described the most profound thing. When he was on a mission worrying about himself and only him, concerned about his cha…
“What 2020 taught us is to make plans with a pencil…” Here is to the start of a new year for the SAYAS blog. Although (or because?) many of us challenged our fates by saying the year cannot be worse than the previous one, for some of us the first month…
Show me one person that did not change their initial plans in 2020… That was definitely not me – neither in my professional or personal life. The year started promising myself I will ask the right questions, and not necessarily stress to find the answe…
Written by Prof Nhlanhla Mpofu (SAYAS member) As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were on lockdown in South Africa from March 2020. They only partially reopened in June, despite teacher unions’ concerns about the timing an…
Written by Prof Jennifer Fitchett (SAYAS member) Weather and climate have far-reaching effects on every part of life. The timing of seasons, range of daily and seasonal temperatures, the amount of rainfall – these all influence things as diverse a…
We all accumulate new experiences and learn new skills daily. Some skills take time to learn. After a while, some of these memories are replaced by new ones and consequently one often has to figure out how to do something all over again. Imagine an ide…
Have lockdowns been a good motivation for supervisors to relook at their approaches? Written byProf Roula Inglesi-Lotz, Department of Economics, University of Pretoria Guest – Star and co-contributor Prof Natasja Holtzhausen School of Public Mana…
By Prof Benita Olivier On Monday evening, 23 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa broke the shocking, nonetheless expected news: South Africa will be under lockdown as of Thursday, 26 March 2020, at midnight. At that time, many practical challenges raced t…
by Prof Willie Chinyamurindi (Repost by The Conversation https://theconversation.com/five-ways-academics-can-manage-covid-19-shutdowns-133947) The COVID-19 pandemic has begun affecting a range of African countries where infection rates have b…
by Prof Benita Olivier Are you in the process of writing your very first academic manuscript? I remember the many drafts of that first paper I sent to my supervisors. Luckily, the ink of “track changes” never gets depleted, because I used up a lot of i…
