Beating around the Bosch

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Dear Reader,

We know you have been waiting with great anticipation to hear from us again and alas, we have resurfaced. Quite literally. Just four weeks ago we were two kilometres underground. On our Johannesburg media tour, our lecturers made great efforts to give us the full experience of what it means to be writing about the world and South Africa, right down to the nitty-gritty chunks of rock underground. We, much like the seven dwarfs in Snow White (except instead there were 24 of us), trudged down winding tunnels deep underground, dressed in overalls and helmets, with big torches attached awkwardly to our foreheads, feeling our faces gradually melt in the humidity.

Upon our emergence from the dark underground, we arrived at the sparkling doors of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and received a bullet-pointed presentation explaining (or attempting to explain) how the rocky wealth from underground dissolves into numbers floating through the air, racing across oceans from country to country, company to company. The glass doors and wide windows of the JSE stood in sharp contrast with what we saw at the rather dilapidated SABC. What used to be a thriving centre of broadcast journalism has withered into a state of constant somnolence. The SABC resembled somewhat of a dungeon, with a noticeable lack of windows in some of the workspaces. The offices were lit mainly by pallid yellow lights and the occasional box TV (yes, box TV) tuned into the news. However, the rather glum surroundings do not limit the journalists that we met at the SABC. Instead, they trudge on against a tide that shows no signs of letting up in their favour…not too dissimilar from what we saw at Eskom.

Perhaps one of the most eye-opening experiences of our media tour was visiting Eskom’s National Control Centre. Supplying power to a country involves an intricate system of balance, and when one component of the system doesn’t work, it puts strain on every other component. I, for one, had always thought that every Eskom power station was corrupted, looted and dilapidated. To discover that Eskom still has employees dedicated to getting the system back on track, and even pushing for a move towards renewable energy, was electrifying.

Now, refuelled and re-caffeinated, we are back roaming the streets of Stellenbosch. Let us know what you think we can do differently this semester!

Nicola Amon, newsletter editor

Visual of the Week

📸Some BTS from SMF News’ Nicola Amon:

It’s me again… our multimedia editor, Ubaid, chose me as his latest victim to put in the spotlight. Taking this photo was an interesting experience - I never thought I would be pointing my lens into a pile of decomposing waste, but alas, journalism always puts us in unexpected spaces. It was interesting to see the inside of a residence kitchen, arguably the very backbone of the university itself  (hungry students are incredibly useless). This compost was ripe and ready to be transferred to Stellenbosch University’s experimental facility at Welgevallen Farm and opened my eyes to the behind-the-scenes initiatives of making the university greener, all round.

Read the story here

📚Good reads from SMF News this week📚

Personal information of Stellenbosch University students exposed in security breach

Iva Fulepu spoke to Kauthar Jardine, a BA student at Stellenbosch University, who found her therapy reports online after a security breach at the university’s Centre for Student Counselling and Development. At the time of publication, the university was still looking into who accessed the information without the permission of the affected students.

Ertjieskloof Dam set to reach full capacity after major upgrades

Upgrades to Ertjieskloof Dam have finally come to an end after three years of construction. Nkululeko Ndlovu spoke to Petro Mostert, the communications specialist at Stellenbosch University, on increasing the dam’s full water capacity following the R20 million upgrades to repair a leak and implement a dual-pipe system.

SU first to implement carbon-tracking in meal preparation

Stellenbosch University (SU) is introducing carbon-tracking software in residence meal preparation to enhance food sustainability and as part of its journey to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, according to Petro Mostert. Nicola Amon reports that SU is the first African university to implement such a tool.

🎶What we’re listening to:

Word of the Week

Obdurate [adjective]

~ stubbornly refusing to change one’s opinion or course of action