scholarly journals Astronomy in South Africa

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 674-676
Author(s):  
Brian Warner

This note reviews those aspects of astronomy in South Africa that may be useful for the support of astronomical development on the rest of the African continent.Optical and infrared astronomy is largely consolidated at the Sutherland site of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), about 300 km from Cape Town. The administrative and technical headquarters of this institution occupy the buildings of the old Royal Observatory (founded in 1820) in Cape Town. In Cape Town there is a twin 18/24 inch (0.45/0.6m) refractor and an 18-inch (0.45m) photometric reflector still operational. At Sutherland the 74-inch (1.8m Radcliffe) reflector is equipped for spectroscopy, CCD imaging and IR photometry. Newtonian and coudé foci are available but rarely used. Also at Sutherland there are 40-inch, 30-inch and 20-inch telescopes (approx. 1m, 0.75m and 0.5m) used primarily for CCD imaging (40-inch), optical and infrared photometry (30-inch) and UVBRI standard photometry (20-inch). An automatic photoelectric telescope (30-inch aperture) is nearing completion. Observing conditions at Sutherland provide about 50% photometric time.

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Jared McDonald

Dr Jared McDonald, of the Department of History at the University of the Free State (UFS) in South Africa, reviews As by fire: the end of the South African university, written by former UFS vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen.    How to cite this book review: MCDONALD, Jared. Book review: Jansen, J. 2017. As by Fire: The End of the South African University. Cape Town: Tafelberg.. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, [S.l.], v. 1, n. 1, p. 117-119, Sep. 2017. Available at: <http://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=18>. Date accessed: 12 Sep. 2017.   This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


Contexts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Levenson

In Cape Town, South Africa, some residents risk eviction and even arrest by participating in land occupation. However, occupying land for many residents happened out of necessity. This article follows South African residents and their fight for “adequate housing,” freedom from eviction, and a government that will progressively realize both of these goals.


Vaccine ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (35) ◽  
pp. 3461-3466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry D. Schoub ◽  
Bradford D. Gessner ◽  
William Ampofo ◽  
Adam L. Cohen ◽  
Christoph A. Steffen

1978 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
Sipho Sepamla

One of the most interesting of South African poets, Sipho Sepamla recently published his third collection of verse, The Soweto I Love (Rex Collings, London and David Philip, Cape Town). A teacher by training, he now works for an East Rand company; apart from poetry he also writes short stories and edits two literary magazines. In an interview with the novelist Stephen Gray, broadcast last June by the African Service of the BBC, Sepamla discussed the problems of presentday Black writers in South Africa, showing why poets have now become the chief spokesmen for Black consciousness, represented in earlier years by writers of fiction.


Author(s):  
Masilonyane Mokhele

Background: The concentration of development around airports is a topical subject on the relationship between transportation, accessibility and the distribution of land use. Notwithstanding the existing literature on the analysis of airports and surrounds, and normative models of airport-led development, extensions are required on the empirical analysis of spatial economic attributes of airports and surrounds.Objectives: Objectives of the article were twofold: firstly, to establish the economic activity mix and reasons for the location of firms on and around O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports; and secondly, to analyse linkages between firms on and around the two airports as well as linkages those firms have with their metropolitan, regional, national and international contexts.Method: The article focused on the South African case studies of O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports and used a telephone survey as the primary data collection method.Results: The article discovered that the developments around O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports are spatial clusters that are also linked with other airports in South Africa and beyond.Conclusion: The article extended existing knowledge by providing insights on the spatial economic characteristics of airports and surrounds. The findings can be improved upon with work on other case studies, and potentially be used as bases for extending a theoretical framework that describes and explains the spatial economic forces that drive development on and around airports.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-122
Author(s):  
Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi

In South Africa, persons or companies convicted of fraud or corruption or companies whose directors have been convicted are debarred from participating in bidding for government tenders. Although it is easy to establish whether or not a natural person has been convicted of an offence, because a certificate can be obtained from the South African Police Service to that effect, it is the opposite with juristic persons. This issue came up in the case of Namasthethu Electrical (Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town and Another in which the appellant company was awarded a government tender although the company and its former director had been convicted of fraud and corruption. The purpose of this article is to analyse this judgment and show the challenges that the government is faced with when dealing with companies that have been convicted of offences that bid for government tenders. Because South Africa is in the process of enacting public procurement legislation, the Public Procurement Bill was published for comment in early 2020. One of the issues addressed in the Bill relates to debarring bidders who have been convicted of some offences from bidding for government tenders. Based on the facts of this case and legislation from other African countries, the author suggests ways in which the provisions of the Bill could be strengthened to address this issue.


Author(s):  
Heilna du Plooy

N. P. Van Wyk Louw is regarded as the most prominent poet of the group known as the Dertigers, a group of writers who began publishing mainly in the 1930s. These writers had a vision of Afrikaans literature which included an awareness of the need of thematic inclusiveness, a more critical view of history and a greater sense of professionality and technical complexity in their work. Van Wyk Louw is even today considered one of the greatest poets, essayists and thinkers in the Afrikaans language. Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw was born in 1906 in the small town of Sutherland in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. He grew up in an Afrikaans-speaking community but attended an English-medium school in Sutherland as well as in Cape Town, where the family lived later on. He studied at the University of Cape Town (UCT), majoring in German and Philosophy. He became a lecturer at UCT, teaching in the Faculty of Education until 1948. In 1949 he became Professor of South African Literature, History and Culture at the Gemeentelijke Universiteit van Amsterdam. In 1960 he returned to South Africa to become head of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johanneshurg. He filled this post until his death in 1970.


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