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The Public Affairs Research Institute launched its working paper titled
Exploring Institutional Coordination of the Return to Schools with a webinar discussion on Thursday, 11 February. The speakers at the discussion were education activists Dr Faranaaz Veriava from SECTION27, Professor Martin Gustafsson from the University of Stellenbosch, Xolisa Guzula from the University of Cape Town and South African Democratic Teachers’ Union General Secretary, Mugwena Maluleke.
The paper states that “Based on interviews with provincial education officials in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape, as well as other education stakeholders, this Working Paper finds that the reopening of schools in these South African provinces was predicated on three factors.
South Africa adapts its vaccine strategy
On Sunday, 7 February, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced a major change to South Africa’s vaccine roll-out: health workers would now receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and not the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot as planned. This came after the Oxford/AstraZeneca trial showed “disappointing results” that the vaccine did not work well against the new variant, 501Y.V2, originally detected in South Africa.
In the following days it was stressed that this did not mean the vaccine was useless. The World Health Organisation agrees. The data show it does not work as well against mild disease, but it probably does protect against severe disease, hospital admission and death, according to the principal investigator in the South African arm of the trial, Professor Shabir Madhi, on Tuesday, 9 February. Scientists are still deciding what should be done with the million doses of the vaccine, but Madhi says it should not be used “in someone young
South Africa is committed to a just energy transition in terms of Chapter 5 of the National Development Plan, although the country is only at the very start of that journey. How is this transition conceptualised? It focuses on how to address the results of a shift in energy generation away from coal: how do we ameliorate the impact of job losses in the coal value chain and the impact on local economies dominated by coal?
These are important issues that need sustainable solutions. However, there are significant linkages between energy, poverty and inequality occurring in the
distribution part of the energy system that have largely been overlooked. This reflects a broader emphasis on the restructuring of energy generation – rather than distribution – in discussions about how to reform our energy system.