Good News

BULLETIN 17 October 

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# An electric motorcycle, designed and built in Africa and powered only by the sun, completed the groundbreaking journey from Kenya to Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. It was developed by researchers from Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Engineering, and a technology-driven electric mobility company in Kenya, Roam. The journey spanned approximately six-thousand kilometres through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Botswana to South Africa. Roam’s Masa Kituyi says this is proof that clean energy can power not just vehicles, but a brighter, more sustainable future for the continent.

# The Do More Foundation has launched an initiative aimed at improving nutrition literacy among one-thousand early childhood development practitioners and cooks. Malnutrition is a severe issue in South Africa, with 23-percent of children experiencing child food poverty. The foundation’s Jabu Mthembu-Dlamini says they are working closely with ECDs to position them as hubs of health and nutrition, particularly in communities facing significant food insecurity.

# The University of Witwatersrand student representative council has introduced an engaging and practical online course, WorkReady Gen Z. This is in collaboration with the Counselling and Careers Development Unit. The course is structured into three key sections to provide comprehensive career readiness, job hunting strategies, my first job series, and skills-building exercises. Wits’ career services team leader, Lindelwe Cili, says WorkReady Gen Z was built to empower students not just for their first jobs but for long-term success in their careers.

# The University of Pretoria’s Ovuwa cultural ensemble has been nominated for a South African Traditional Music Achievements Award. Ovuwa performs a repertoire of traditional African songs and dances, showcasing the diversity of South Africa’s cultures, and extends its performances to include the musical traditions of Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda and other African countries. The university says this nomination recognises the ensemble’s dedication to preserving and promoting African indigenous musical art forms.

# And finally: The Italian fashion house Prada and US aerospace start-up Axiom Space have unveiled the spacesuits for NASA’s upcoming Artemis 3 mission, its first crewed venture to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The new spacesuit’s design improves flexibility, can manage an eight-hour spacewalk, and will sustain two hours of the lunar south pole’s coldest temperatures. Axiom Space president, Matt Ondler, says the spacesuits have undergone rigorous testing and simulations:

Stay tuned for more news………….