shutterstock COVID-19 has affected most industries and sectors in some way. One of those hit the hardest is the tourism sector as a result of lockdowns, borders closing and the global pandemic. Hospitality, aviation and travel for sport and religion were all hit hard. But what steps have tourism industries taken to survive? How have these industries coped during this time? In today’s episode of Pasha, Kaitano Dube at the Vaal University of Technology, and Godwell Nhamo and David Chikodzi, both a...
Dec 10, 2020•15 min
shutterstock Earthquakes are quite rare on the African continent. But that’s not to say that one couldn’t hit and be damaging. Recently the Western Cape region of South Africa saw some earthquake activity, though it’s unusual and was low on the scale that measures earthquakes. There is always a risk that a larger one could hit the region. Why do they occur? Is South Africa prepared? What about potential damage to the nuclear power plant in the region? In today’s episode of Pasha, Ray Durrheim, r...
Dec 02, 2020•14 min
GettyImages For many young people living on the streets, lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic has made their situation worse. The city of Harare in Zimbabwe was no exception. Lockdown made it difficult for young people to find food and make money in the informal economy. Researchers set up a story map – a map with text, images and multimedia content – to hear their voices and understand their experiences. It’s part of a three-year project called Growing up on the Streets , which worked with young ...
Nov 25, 2020•9 min
GettyImages Tensions between Ethiopia’s central government and its Tigray region escalated after Tigray disputed a decision by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to delay elections. Tigray held its own elections. Ahmed then launched a military offensive on Tigray. Mass casualties, suffering and regional conflict are likely. Ethiopia, which has a legacy of civil war, needs to work towards a peaceful resolution. But what will that take? In today’s episode of Pasha, Francesca Baldwin, a PhD resear...
Nov 18, 2020•13 min
shutterstock The state of democracy on the continent is often depicted as generally negative. But the reality is more nuanced. African countries represent a spectrum, from relatively stable democracies like Botswana, Ghana and South Africa to problem spots where opposition and transfers of power are not tolerated. There is no single trend. Tanzania, Ivory Coast and Guinea may appear to be backsliding towards authoritarianism, but they don’t represent the entire continent. In today’s episode of P...
Nov 11, 2020•16 min
shutterstock Around 5,000 aborted seal foetuses were found at a Cape fur seal colony on Namibia’s coast in October 2020. Events like this have occurred before, for example in 1994, but this high rate of simultaneous abortion has not been seen recently. The reasons for seal pups being aborted may be poor nutrition or infections in the mothers. The causes this time remain to be seen and scientists are collecting as much information as possible. In today’s episode of Pasha, Tess Gridley, research a...
Nov 04, 2020•10 min
shutterstock South Africa will almost certainly experience a resurgence of COVID-19. However, this new round is likely to be lower than the first round of infections in the country. This is because at the peak earlier in the year, restrictions were being eased and an estimated 35%-40% of South Africans had already been infected with the virus. The worry is that this time round the country’s hospitals could come under great pressure if people don’t adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions – lik...
Oct 28, 2020•14 min
GettyImages Following over two weeks’ protest against police brutality in Nigeria, there are reports that a number of protesters have been shot with live ammunition. Reports suggest that unarmed protesters were shot by military men at the Lekki toll plaza in Lagos on Tuesday, October 20. The shooting was said to have occurred just before a 24 hour curfew imposed by the Lagos State government. The people were protesting against human rights abuses perpetrated by a now disbanded unit in the Nigeri...
Oct 21, 2020•9 min
shutterstock The call to prayer in Islam has been sounded out aloud for centuries. Recently in South Africa a citizen took issue with the noise coming from the Islamic education centre in his neighbourhood and took the matter to court. Here we explain how the call to prayer came about, why it’s important and some of the issues around it. In today’s episode of Pasha, Suleman Essop Dangor, emeritus professor of religion at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, discusses the call to prayer. He also resp...
Oct 14, 2020•8 min
shutterstock The call to prayer in Islam, or adhan, as it’s known in Arabic, has come under the spotlight in South Africa. Fed up with hearing the call to prayer from a neighbouring Islamic education centre in Durban, a resident took the centre to court alleging the call amounted to “nuisance noise”. The court agreed, ruling that the centre should only announce the call to prayer within the confines of its walls. In today’s episode of Pasha, Thomas Coggin, a senior lecturer in property law at th...
Oct 07, 2020•9 min
shutterstock South African human rights lawyer and advocate George Bizos passed away on 9 September 2020. Bizos was famous as a fighter for human rights and was one of Nelson Mandela’s lawyers in the Rivonia trial. He also represented anti-apartheid struggle icons like Ahmed Kathrada. Bizos left an important legacy in South Africa. In today’s episode of Pasha Kylie Thomas, a research fellow at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the Netherlands, pays tribute to George B...
Sep 30, 2020•7 min
GettyImages Water is a scarce resource. In certain parts of Nairobi, Kenya, water is hard to come by. This has created a market for informal vendors to exist. Often these vendors sell water at highly inflated prices and they often take water from cut municipality pipes, which can lead to contaminated water. But the vendors are necessary because they provide people with water which they would normally struggle to access. This means that steps need to be taken to ensure that water is provided to p...
Sep 23, 2020•12 min
shutterstock Fighting the coronavirus can put severe strain on a person’s mental health. Frontline workers in healthcare constantly have to deal with challenges of life and death importance. With this in mind, a team of researchers and health experts in South Africa developed an app to help healthcare professionals cope with anxiety and stress. The app connects healthcare workers to information, resources and each other. It recognises the importance of holistic protection. In today’s episode of ...
Sep 09, 2020•10 min
shutterstock South Africa is one of the countries where trials are under way to find an efficacious vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. South Africa’s participation in these trials is crucial. These vaccines are produced in the West and it’s important that they prove to be safe and effective in African countries. Participation in the trials also means that should a vaccine prove to work, the country may have easier access to it. In today’s episode of Pasha, Profes...
Sep 02, 2020•4 min
shutterstock Trials have begun in South Africa for a second COVID-19 vaccine study. The hope is that at least one of the vaccines being trialled will show promise and play a role in eliminating the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In this episode of Pasha, Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology and director of the vaccines and infectious diseases analytics research unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, explains why there are multiple vaccine studies under way, the differences between them, how thi...
Aug 26, 2020•12 min
GettyImages This is not the first time a ship has run aground in Mauritius, the island nation 2,000 kilometres off the south-east coast of Africa. But how and why did it happen again? Could the government have done more to prevent the spillage that is wreaking havoc on the coastal systems? What will the impact be for the biodiversity? What will it take to clean up this mess and avoid situations like these in the future? In today’s episode of Pasha, Adam Moolna, a lecturer in environment and sust...
Aug 19, 2020•8 min
shutterstock Nowadays, when one thinks of an intensive care unit or ICU, one might think of a ventilator. But the ICU is so much more than that. A lot of work that goes into keeping patients stable in the ICU so they can recover better. And in this challenging time of the coronavirus, ICUs have come under strain. As part of a global study, Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town has joined a global alliance sharing clinical insights and using cutting edge technology to find more effective treatments...
Aug 12, 2020•8 min
Snake eating a frog Theo Busschau Snakes eat a great diversity of prey but the details of each species’ diet have long been a bit of a mystery. That’s because it’s difficult to observe their infrequent and unpredictable feeding behaviour. But it’s important to understand their diet because of its impact on ecological systems and its role in venom biochemistry. Snake bites account for many deaths on the African continent. Two researchers used a novel way to gather information about the reptiles’ ...
Aug 06, 2020•8 min
shutterstock There are a number of reasons why many girls marry young in Ghana. They include gender inequality, poverty, traditional and customary practices, social norms, peer pressure and poor parenting. The impact of early marriage on girls’ lives can be negative, especially if they drop out of school and are not ready for adult responsibilities. But some adolescent girls report being happy in their marriages, saying their quality of life is better than it was in their parents’ home. Educatio...
Jul 29, 2020•8 min
shutterstock Fake medication is doing the rounds in Ghana and Nigeria. A BBC Africa Eye documentary into sales of fake COVID-19 drugs looked into this. Traditional healers are selling these concoctions to people who believe that it will cure them of the coronavirus. The investigation found that many of the fake drugs have harmful substances in them. In today’s episode of Pasha, Wuraola Akande-Sholabi, a lecturer at the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, talks to Anas Are...
Jul 22, 2020•8 min
shutterstock According to the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, the country is facing a second pandemic – gender-based violence. But what exactly is government doing about it? Numerous interventions suggest that effort is going into trying to deal with the problem. But are the actions being taken enough? In today’s episode of Pasha Amanda Gouws, Professor of Political Science and SARChi Chair in Gender Politics at Stellenbosch University looks at gender-based violence in the country. S...
Jul 15, 2020•5 min
shutterstock South African researchers, in collaboration with Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, are trialling a vaccine for the COVID-19. Trials of this nature are important because they give robust data about the safety of vaccines. Being part of the trial will also mean that South Africa won’t lag behind should a vaccine prove to work. But how exactly does the trial work? Who receives the vaccine and the placebo? Are South African volunteers being used as “guinea pigs”? In this episode of ...
Jul 08, 2020•10 min
shutterstock Sleep is incredibly important for the body and mind. When we sleep our immune system makes antibodies, which help fight off pathogens. That’s obviously vital during a health crisis. But many people have been having disrupted sleep and weird dreams in recent times. In today’s episode of Pasha, Dale Rae, Director of Sleep Science and a senior researcher at the faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town, discusses why it’s so necessary to sleep well and why the coronavir...
Jul 01, 2020•8 min
shutterstock Most adult smokers take up the habit before the age of 20. So, if governments can prevent young people from smoking, it’s likely they won’t smoke in adulthood. To ensure a smoke-free future, governments should aim anti-smoking campaigns at young people. But how can they go about this? To answer this question, this episode’s guests are Corné van Walbeek, a professor at the University of Cape Town’s School of Economics and principal investigator of the Economics of Tobacco Control Pro...
Jun 24, 2020•11 min
shutterstock Education is crucial for many refugees: a way out in the future, a way to get a job. But how can people get a tertiary education in a refugee camp, where challenges – such as a lack of infrastructure – are everywhere? It’s possible, as long as the education programmes are tailored to the needs of the refugee students. In today’s episode of Pasha we hear from Paul O'Keeffe, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva. We also ask some refugees at Kakuma in Kenya about the c...
Jun 10, 2020•11 min
shutterstock COVID-19 is proving a hard medical nut to crack. Why are some people asymptomatic? Why do some people have different symptoms? Why are children hardly symptomatic and why do older people seem to be hit the hardest? In today’s episode of Pasha Tom Boyles, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of the Witwatersrand, answers these, and other questions. Photo: “Coronavirus Bacteria Cell Icon” By Vectores de Lia Shutterstock Music “Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, fo...
Jun 03, 2020•9 min
shutterstock “The coronavirus was made in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.” “COVID-19 is not real and comes from 5G network towers.” “Drinking warm water with lemon juice will kill the coronavirus.” “The flu vaccination will mean I won’t get COVID-19.” These are all conspiracy theories and myths shared on social media platforms. And it’s time they were addressed. In today’s episode of Pasha, Neelaveni Padayachee, a lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, and Lisa Claire du Toit, an...
May 28, 2020•7 min
shutterstock The flu vaccine will not stop you from getting the coronavirus but it’s still important to get it. It will help you fight off other respiratory viruses like the flu and you will avoid visits to the doctor, where there are sick people. Many people think the flu vaccine will make you sicker. There are also those who believe that it contains toxic mercury. In today’s episode of Pasha, Marietjie Venter, head of the Zoonotic, Arbo and Respiratory Virus Programme and professor in the Depa...
May 20, 2020•6 min
shutterstock The history of drugs in southern Africa shows how pharmaceutical and illegal substances are intertwined. Understanding the history matters because a society inherits ideas about what is “normal” and what is morally right or wrong. This shapes the approach to care for people with drug addiction, for example. Policy makers need to base their decisions on empirical information, not prejudice, fear and blame. In today’s episode of Pasha, Thembisa Waetjen, an Associate Professor of Histo...
May 06, 2020•9 min
shutterstock With COVID-19 cases continuing to rise in South Africa, health professionals will have to make important decisions on who gets what treatment. But how do these decisions get made? In today’s episode of Pasha, Kevin Behrens, director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, and Christopher Wareham, a senior lecturer at the same centre, discuss the ethics surrounding coronavirus topics. Photo: Medical Ethics Concept. By SK Design /Shutterstock Music: “Happy African Village” by John Bar...
Apr 29, 2020•10 min
