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South Africa spent just over R18.6-billion on research and development (R&D) in 2007/8, which represents an increase of R2.1-billion of the gross expenditure on R&D compared to R16.5-billion in 2006/7.

South Africa's former Aids chief Dr Nono Simelela recently returned to South Africa to head up the country's national Aids Council She spoke to Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service about her appointment which she descnbes as exciting and a challenge.

The separation of education in South Africa into basic education and higher education could be applauded as a way of putting special focus on the dynamics of these levels. However, thus far it is ...

An HSRC study has found serious flaws in the government ranking system for schools funding, writes Latoya Newman.

An advisory body to drive consultation on the government's National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme has been finalised and is expected to be announced soon by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.

"We are experiencing a very chaotic time, where humanity determines the outcome for the Planet - sustainability or collapse ...?" (Steffen 2008). When Fritjof Capra wrote the Turning Point in 1982 he described much of what is going wrong in modern society.

Meer as 'n dekade nadat die regering met sy omstrede kurrikulumhervorming in skole begin het, het die onderwysdepartement gister verskeie aanbevelings van 'n taakspan aanvaar wat neerkom "op 'n terugkeer na hoe baie dinge vroeër gedoen is".

Young people should be encouraged to remain in education for as long as possible, writes Michael Cosser. A study tracing the destinations of learners who were in Grade 12 in 2005 has revealed that 9 percent of the 40 002 matriculants were working in 2006, less than half the 20 percent who had aspired to a job.

The Birth to Twenty (Bt20) research project is to use cellphones for a study on risk behaviour. Alistair van Heerden from the Human Sciences Research Council said he is planning to use cellphones to research a broader health topic: risk behaviour among the Bt20 cohort. He said Bt20 expected to launch this pilot study next month, which will use cellphones to collect sensitive data on day-to-day behaviour, including smoking, drinking and sexual activity.

The Road to Vienna aims to address and energise the idea of family-centred services for children affected by HIV and AIDS.

The HSRC and Tshwane are partnering to design and test policy innovations in the field, through the Centre of Excellence on Employment Creation. The aim is to identify scalable interventions, ideally that are aligned to existing institutions.

THE economy has lost almost 200 000 formal sector jobs as the recession has taken hold over the past year, with the state proving to be the only source of employment growth while jobs have been shed by private firms in almost all sectors.

A GROUNDBREAKING new study into poverty-stricken teenage fathers has quashed the stereotype of the absent father and presented a portrait of emotional young men trying to find a balance between modern and traditional versions of fatherhood.

THE 2010 Fifa World Cup will most probably disappoint in the delivery of socio-economic benefits sold to the South African public by its promoters.

JUST days after teenage pregnancy experts told parliament that teenage mothers should be kept at school, a Cape Town principal stands accused of suspending pregnant school girls - and not allowing them back after they give birth.

AS the sun sets over the informal settlement of Finetown, west of Johannesburg, Constance Mseleku (not her real name) calls out to her three younger brothers playing football outside. "Wozani nizogeza", she summons them for their bath.

Radical proposals unveiled by the government last week aim to put an end to the short-term planning and lack of co-ordination that have seen good policies founder through botched implementation, costing the taxpayer billions in wasted spending.

SA's scarce and critical skills shortages have stunted the country's economic growth from reaching the target of 6% a year set by our politicians.

MORE than 60% of pregnant teenagers do not return to school after the two-year period enforced by the Education Department, a report by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) reveals.

The South African Traditional Health Practitioners Act defines traditional health practice as performance of a function, activity, process, or service based on a traditional philosophy that uses indigenous African techniques and principles that include traditional medicine or practice, including the physical or mental preparation of an individual for puberty, adulthood, pregnancy, childbirth, and death.

The training of new nurses desperately needed to address the massive shortages in both the public and private sectors could come to a virtual standstill next year if the implementation of the new nursing qualifications framework (NQF) is further delayed.

THE Mining Qualification Authority (MQA) will spend R600000 next month to commemorate International Literacy Day in Limpopo, promoting adult basic education and training for illiterate mineworkers.

Johannesburg - South Africa does not depend exclusively on foreign technology, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said on Tuesday. This was based on the Human Sciences Research Council's 2005 innovation survey, she said in an address at the National Innovation Summit in Gauteng.

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa does not depend exclusively on foreign technology, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said yesterday. This was based on the Human Sciences Research Council's 2005 innovation survey, she said in an address at the National Innovation Summit in Gauteng.

The South African welfare system provides a relatively effective poverty alleviation measure, especially for orphans, but there is a need to extend these benefits to non-orphans as well.

Deep cuts in provincial budgets and the restructuring of the higher education system has resulted in a critical shortage of nurses. Public training in the profession has declined substantially in recent years.

Residents of Diepsloot were less than starry-eyed this week after a visit by Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale. Diepsloot is one of many areas where service delivery failures have provoked incensed community members to take to the streets in protest.

An attempt to have the South African state investigate and prosecute 70 individuals with links to alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza is of symbolic importance but has little chance of succeeding, says Gerhard Kemp, a professor of public law at Stellenbosch University.

Although I have never wanted to be a rock star, or even an actor with moderate fame, I got a taste of it. How so? Well, it was my privilege to be invited to deliver a paper at the recent International Council of Nurses 25"1 Quadrennial Congress in Durban.

ORANGE FARM, South Africa - Young men have flocked by the thousands to this clinic for circumcisions, the only one of its kind in South Africa. Each of them lies down on one of seven closely spaced surgical tables, his privacy shielded only by a green curtain.

he Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa enlisted a number of prestigious academics to verify the legitimacy of the apartheid characterization attributed to the regime of Tel Aviv by the United Nations Special Rapporteur.

Our hearts are under attack. But though heart disease tops the bill of noncommunicable diseases in SA, this is not necessarily a death sentence for sufferers. Like all lifestyle diseases, with some tweaks to diet and exercise routine, a heart attack is avoidable.

A Green Paper detailing the "precise role and function" of the Planning Ministry and National Planning Commission, headed by former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, will be released for discussion by the end of July. But there are already some signals as to what its role might be.

HE African National Congress-led (ANC) government has so far remained firm in its insistence that it will be able to create "decent work" even in the economic decline.

The changed political context defined by the inauguration of President Jacob Zuma is obviously weighing on the minds of workers. Rather than making the reasonable assumption that the new administration will deliver on its promises, public service workers are rattling their sabres to remind current leadership that existing agreements are vital to long run improvements in the performance of the public service.

CITIZENS last week had to come to terms with the passing of a great cultural icon and celebrated popular entertainer. The budget vote of the Presidency is just not the same without former minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad.

THE ISSUE of the need to establish a national health insurance (NHI) system in South Africa is not a new phenomenon. The debate began more than 70 years ago.

THE opening of former Model C schools posed a lot of challenges for teachers who were used to teaching only one racial group. Many of these teachers have surprised many of us and children speak of them as if they are members of their extended families. This mix of cultures assists in the reconciliation of future generations and peace between all races.

PEOPLE might be dissatisfied with the economy, but that did not affect how they voted in the general election. The Human Sciences Research Council's South African Social Attitude Survey showed that the global economic crisis between late 2007 and 2008 did not influence their vote this year.

PROFESSOR Leickness Simbayi has been appointed executive director at the HSRC of the large research programme on the social aspects of HTV/Aids and health, as of June 1.

THE opening of former Model C schools posed a lot of challenges for teachers who were used to teaching only one racial group. Many of these teachers have done a wonderful job and children speak of them as if they are members of their extended families.

The latest job studies paint a bleak picture on the economic fate of millions of young people.

ALTHOUGH the African National Congress (ANC) decision to split the education ministry into two has been welcomed, reaction to the people appointed to the posts has been mixed.

THE involvement of parents in schools, rather than money and the resources it could buy, was what made schools effective, activist and businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele said yesterday.

First-quarter employment losses - 208 000 jobs - wiped out the gains made in the past year, according to Statistics SA's quarterly labour force survey (QLFS), released yesterday.

SA's unemployment rate is set to climb above 25% this year as the global downturn deepens, but this need not point to a "bloodbath" in the domestic economy, analysts say.

The DA's controversial "Stop Zuma" posters have disappeared from central Cape Town but the party claims it hasn't taken them down.

Jacob Zuma's "brains trust" has gone on the attack, slamming Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Human Rights Commission , the country's lawyers and Supreme Court of Appeal judge Louis Harms.

Institutional systems in Africa remain fragmented, despite over four decades of institution building, resulting in de-linking the state from society, failure to coordinate resources with broad social interests and exclusionary policies and practices. The current project ‘Reconciling Africa's fragmented institutions of governance" aims to explain such fragmentations and their sources, analyse their impact on state building and democratization, and to determine attributes of both traditional institutions and modern ones.

LIKE Johannesburg, Bogota in Colombia is a large, flat, high altitude, industrial heart of a country with the scars of its violent history. In the mid-1990s, two-thirds of "Bogotanos" believed the city had no future. Now, two-thirds believe the future is filled with hope. What happened to turn this around?

SOUTH AFRICA had to ensure that retired engineers impart what they had learnt over the years to new entrants in the sector, the Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa) said last month, hailing efforts by some municipalities to recruit retired engineers to mentor juniors in the field

EXPERTS say the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) might have made a good decision in dropping charges against African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma, but its credibility would be "severely" questioned by the public for years to come.

A new Human Sciences Research Council report paints a bleak picture of South Africa's future, with Stellenbosch University economics professor Sampie Terrcblanche predicting that "the poor will remain trapped for the foreseeable future in poverty and destitution".

FAMOUS pollster Stan Greenberg said former president Thabo Mbeki's tragic response to both the HIV/Aids crisis and the Zimbabwe meltdown had forced him to question his role in getting Mbeki and the ANC elected.

Legal experts are divided on whether opposition parties will be able to mount any legal challenge to yesterday's National Prosecuting Authority decision to drop all charges against ANC president Jacob Zuma.

South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) research sector chair and HSRC CEO Dr Olive Shisana chaired a satellite session on the opening day of the 4^th South African AIDS Conference held in Durban from 31 March to 4 April 2009. Several HSRC researchers also delivered presentations at this session titled "Towards evidence based interventions for the National Strategic Plan (NSP)".

An internal ANC survey has shown that the ruling party will lose its two-thirds majority and the Western Cape in next month's general election. But although it finds the party will suffer a marginal loss in support overall it will retain power in the other eight provinces.

SOUTH Africa's dire shortage of skilled engineers is putting pressure on the booming infrastructure.

REASONING and discussion is the most preferred method of disciplining in schools, a Human Sciences Research Council study has revealed

SA's severe shortage of engineering professionals is putting a strain on the country's infrastructure growth programme, according to research by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) published this week.

REASONING and discussion is the most preferred method of disciplining in schools, a Human Sciences
Research Council (HSRC) study revealed yesterday.

BEYOND the literality of events leading to the protest by ANC-aligned labour and student organisations at the University of South Africa (Unisa) and their call for the resignation of Barney Pityana, the vice-chancellor, lies a more serious question about the independence of intellectuals in this country - the independence to make pronouncements on "truthful" facts, findings and related opinion.

There was a crisis of confidence in teaching as a profession  that was repelling many South African matrics, but attracting some who were looking for 'easy work'.

About 72 percent of matriculants want to continue their studies after school, a study by the Human Sciences Research Council revealed yesterday.

WITH most eyes fixed on national leaders as the elections draw nearer, analysts say candidates for the post of provincial premiers also have a crucial role to play in influencing the outcome of the elections.

This is a good time to take stock of the threats faced by LGBT people around the world. That's because on Feb. 25, the State Department released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2008. The Council for Global Equality a day later released its extract of sexual orientation and gender identity references for 190 countries.

For several years, those of us warning that we already face a one-state solution in Israel-Palestine have been regularly dismissed as nay-sayers, ivory-tower intellectuals, and/or utopian crackpots. So it's noticeable when these dismissive comments begin to falter and flicker out.

Only 41% of ANC supporters believe party president Jacob Zuma is innocent of corruption, and the same percentage do not believe the corruption charges Zuma is facing have anything to do with a political conspiracy by his enemies.

A new report on the effects of AIDS and poverty on children adds to the growing realisation that mistaken assump-tions have rendered ineffective many of the world's attempts to help.

United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa believes a coalition of opposition parties can wrest the Eastern Cape from the ANC - but analysts aren't so sure.

The Congress of the People's secretary-general, Charlotte Lobe, announced late on Friday afternoon that Mvume Dandala, a former head of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, had been chosen as the face of party's election campaign.

Many parents would baulk at the thought of allowing their children to watch the horror film 'Poltergeist' or the gangster epic 'The Godfather', but few would think twice about playing the video of 'The Lion King' for the thirteenth time.

The global response to AIDS must be significantly reoriented to address the unmet needs of millions of children and their families in the worst affected countries, according to a new report by the independent Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA).

The rows centred on Jacob Zuma, the recent attacks on black lesbians, and this year's antiforeigner murder spree have raised the crucial question of whether the media have stoked South Africans' apparent reversion to antagonistic roles - or whether changes in identity are gaining ground, via either the state's own simunye policies, the "market leveller" of commercialisation, or the sense of virtual community created by new media forms.

Johannesburg - The ANC is typical of parties across Africa that start out as liberation movements who reward themselves with comfortable lives, the Human Sciences Research Council said on Monday.

WHILE many industries are in the economic doldrums, the illicit sex trade is booming as prostitutes gear up to take advantage of the potentially lucrative Fifa Confederations Cup tournament in June and the long-awaited 2010 soccer World Cup next year.

An international report on children and HIV says global governments need to do more to help children and families caught up in the Aids disease. More must be done, it says, to support affected communities.

IT APPEARS to be only a matter of time before former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka announces her defection from the African National Congress (ANC) to the Congress of the People (COPE).

A SURVEY released last week has revealed why the Eastern Cape is becoming a battleground for political parties ahead of the coming elections. As reported in the Daily Dispatch on Friday, the Eastern Cape has one of the highest proportions of registered voters.

Sunday is the last chance to register to vote, but it seems many young people are not bothering.

Women are more likely to vote for a male candidate - even though they feel they can do a better job. This is according to research conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on the electoral process on behalf of the IEC last year.

The Independent Electoral Commission says the upcoming general election is likely to have a higher voter turnout than that of 2004.

Kids today. They sure don't look much like the passionately charged, driven and determined youth of 1976.  But, then again, why should they?

The Independent Electoral Commission says it does not interfere with or give instructions to any political party in South Africa on where they should or should not campaign.

Yesterday we reached the 500 days mark from the 2010 World Cup. The world soccer tournament is much talked about, but little analysed. The ANC manifesto is claiming the tournament as one of its achievements in government. But we must ask: Do we really need the World Cup?

With the skyrocketing prices of food and basic services, the scarcity of jobs and high crime rate weighing heavily on many minds, does the Congress of the People's election manifesto measure up?

With swathes of the private sector in financial crisis, South Africa's swelling number of unemployed must increasingly look to the government to provide them with jobs.

Political daggers are out as the country gears itself for the next political episode.

SA's new school curriculum is modern, more relevant and better than anything SA has had before, say education experts, and calls to scrap it are misguided.

The recently published Grade 12 results have again brought into focus education quality in South Africa.

As the battles continue to rage in Gaza and horrifying images of the bodies of the dead produced by this conflict are distributed in the world media, a verbal choreography is produced around these corpses.

There were fears that South Africa could be heading for another round of xenophobic attacks on the same scale as last year's, or even larger, because of the looming elections, non-government organisations warned on Wednesday.