Good News 14:00

BULLETIN30 July 2 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# Tshwane’s Community and Social Development Services Department has welcomed the latest inscription of South African human rights and liberation struggle sites in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The sites include the Union Buildings and Constitution Hill. The department says this inscription is significant as these sites are legally protected by international treaties and recognised as holding importance for all of humanity. It adds that the sites are culturally and historically significant.

# The University of Fort Hare is part of a new international study to find a way to prevent Parkinson’s Disease. The disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world, affecting approximately 6.3 million people. The university’s Christopher Cupido, in collaboration with other South African and international researchers, is studying the possible use of the parasol lily. Researchers say the parasol lily holds potential for the development of a new drug to prevent Parkinson’s Disease. This is the first study done in the world on this plant.

# Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has officially opened the city’s new 300-bed Safe Space shelter, to help more homeless off the streets. The facility, based at a portion of the municipal depot on Ebenezer Road in Green Point, is the fifth Safe Space to be opened by the city and takes the total beds to one-thousand-and-70 across these facilities. Hill-Lewis says city-funded Safe Spaces offer dignified transitional shelter and social programmes to assist people off the streets sustainably and reintegrate them into society:

# Fezile Wagner, who leads the University of the Witwatersrand’s Analytics and Institutional Research Unit, is a finalist in the non-profit Higher Education Resource Services-SA Awards. She is a finalist in the Emerging Young Woman Leaders category, which acknowledges young women whose career paths indicate a promising and influential future in the sector. Wits vice-chancellor and principal, professor Zeblon Vilakazi, says Wagner exemplifies excellence in every endeavour she undertakes. The awards ceremony is set to take place in Cape Town on the 29th of August.

# And finally: The University of Cape Town has developed a gaming app designed to transform the way law students engage with the legislative process. The app is called Pass a Bill and is currently available to Constitutional Law undergraduate students. UCT says spearheaded by associate professor Cathleen Powell, the app challenges players to navigate a bill through the intricate pathways of legislative approval, making critical decisions at key junctures based on provided information. Powell says they aimed to create a learning tool that engages students in a way traditional methods have not.