Good News

BULLETIN 17 May 

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# South African artist Lebohang Kganye has won the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize. This is for her exhibition on display at the Photographers’ Gallery in central London. Kganye combines oral history, family photo albums, and theatrical stages, to trace the personal history of the apartheid era. Judging panel chairperson, Claire Grafik, says her use of theatre to bring the audience into conversation with the artwork was something they loved.

# University of Pretoria graduate, Gwaha Madwatte, has become the first recipient of the Wenner-Gren Wadsworth African Fellowship. The institution’s 373-thousand-rand fellowship provides funding for African students pursuing a PhD. The students also receive international-level training in anthropology. Madwatte, who hails from Nigeria’s Adamawa State, says this fellowship opens up a world of unimaginable possibilities for him. He is now focusing on making progress on his PhD thesis on hospital process, patient autonomy and the logic of care. 

# The University of Pretoria says its JuniorTukkie free online platform is proving to be a most valuable online source of extra classes and study material, that learners can access to boost their grades. Since 2021, 17-thousand-690 learners have registered on the platform, approximately eleven-thousand-500 of whom actively use its contents. Gauteng learners have so far benefitted the most at 68-percent, followed by learners from KwaZulu-Natal at 12-percent and the Western Cape at ten-percent. The university says this project reinforces its commitment to promoting digital leadership.

# This year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival has a notable selection of international and pan-African authors taking part in the programme this weekend. They include self-publishing expert and author Vanessa Wilson, acclaimed Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, and Romance novelist Bolu Babalola. Meanwhile, Franschhoek Reading, an initiative of the festival, has made a significant investment in four primary schools in the area over the past 15 years. Its objectives include encouraging young people to use libraries and increasing awareness of the joys of reading.

# And finally: Reigning Miss South Africa, Natasha Joubert, has partnered with HyperionDev and ASUS SA to support skill development and widen educational opportunities in the country. The education wing of her advocacy campaign, The Natasha Joubert Collection, together with the two companies is offering ten coding scholarships. The selected students will join a comprehensive six-month full-stack web developer boot camp. Joubert says coding presents a promising career path with a growing job market and huge growth potential.

Stay tuned for more news………….