Inaugural Lectures 2022

We are living in a society which is continuously being made and unmade, made and remade, in a dynamic, contested set of processes that generate confusions, disorder and confrontations – frequently violent. Thinking about this poses problems for sociology (and the social sciences more generally). We are trained to see the pattern in things, to try and discern their underlying structures and forces. We tend to be more comfortable with thinking through a frame of social structure and social order rather than rupture, confrontation, breakdown. Perhaps we need to rethink our categories and concepts, to destabilise them and remake them as well so that they are adequate to the task of understanding the world.

In this lecture I reflected on the development of my thinking through 30 years of research on trade unions, communities, violence, corruption and the state, which has also been 30 years of activism to remake the world.

The impact of education and research on nursing practice is undisputable as the role of nursing professionals continue to evolve and expand. To respond to changing disease profiles and advances in health care, nurse educators regularly review and renew educational programmes and strategies to prepare professional nurses, including developing their capacity for specialist practice. Advocating for nursing education and sharing ones scholarship, brings about new ideas or models that can be tested, refined or replicated; ultimately, building evidence for the advancement of nursing education, and developing nursing’s potential in a more intentional, practical and evidence-informed manner.

Fungi are an astonishingly diverse form of life, underpinning entire ecosystems. Some fungi are harnessed for human use. Our bodies are colonised inside and out with beneficial fungi. Yet a few fungal pathogens cause silent epidemics of deadly infections, particularly among people with weakened immunity. Lives can be saved by understanding how these pathogens interact with their environment and the human host, by tracking the burden of fungal illness and by developing simpler diagnostic tests and better antifungal treatments.

Achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of UN Agenda 2030 relating to water calls for more human-centred water resources management that involves all stakeholders. Human-water dynamics have been studied and applied in water resource decision-making for decades and sociohydrology has been recently conceived to refine this further. While sociohydrology incorporates the dynamic change of human behaviour in response to changes in water systems, there has been no consideration of the potential of the psychological practices that enhance resilience and decision-making abilities. Mindfulness and other contemplative practices are widely applied as enablers of inner coherence and resilience in educational, health care, political, public policy, and other settings.

Published research on these techniques has also increased exponentially in the last two decades and there is evidence that they could be applied to enhance crop yield significantly. How applicable are these contemplative techniques towards meeting water-related SDGs?

May 25^th 2022 marks the 10^th anniversary of South Africa’s successful bid to host the SKA telescope. What were the policy and development reasons behind the country taking on the Herculean task of hosting the first mega science project to be located on the African continent? For a developing country, prioritising science is very difficult. We want to attract young people into science and engineering. We want to keep the best of them in these subjects and in our countries. This means we have to provide them with exciting and challenging projects. Having such a project located in our country creates a focus on science and engineering, which stimulates technology in local industry and science and technology in universities. Attracting world-leading scientists and engineers to the project creates a stimulating environment for local scientists and students.

The big iconic science projects, if managed well, can provide a mechanism to develop indigenous high-tech capabilities in developing countries. But there is an opposite point of view that says developing countries should only do science that is immediately relevant to their socio-economic development needs. The presentation teased out these issues and concludes that it pays to set your sights on performing at a globally competitive standard.

The origins of ill health, including obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, can be traced to early life stages. Malnutrition during early developmental stages of life, such as the time around conception, gestation and the neonatal phase, can result in poor health outcomes later in life. Obesity and non-alcoholic disease due to high sugar consumption, place a heavy burden on healthcare facilities globally. This lecture explored the potential of strategic interventions in early life stages using plant derived chemicals to provide long term protection against malnutrition-induced poor health outcomes.

The combination of PET and CT technologies has revolutionized the way imaging is performed in clinical medicine. Pioneers in physics and chemistry leading to conceptualization of this hybrid system did not anticipate the impact that the new technology will have in the management of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases, but most importantly, in life of individuals with cancer. The rapid advances in instrumentation and novel imaging tracers are continuously changing the face of both research and clinical practice. I cannot resist to ponder whether this combination of two in one system was not conceived in ‘Heaven’, and surely by the Gods.

Most drugs fail their functions for two main reasons: firstly, they simply do not work and, secondly, they are not safe. Selecting the best compounds for drug design is not an easy task because the number of compounds in plants and synthetic libraries is almost infinite. In this lecture, he gave an overview of how graph theory, a fast-growing branch of pure mathematics, and mathematical modelling can be used to develop prototype activity predicting models in drug design.

In process, he developed a model that ranks the anti-skin cancer abilities of compounds. Using the model, compounds are identified that are superior to some well-known standard anti-skin cancer agents.

Global temperatures have increased by 1.1 °C since the industrial revolution and are projected to rise an additional 1 -2 °C  in the coming decades. Extreme heat causes a range of adverse birth outcomes, including preterm birth and stillbirths. Most health programmes in Africa focus on pregnant women and infants, making these groups a strategic focus for climate change research.

The lecture presented a body of transdisciplinary work, ranging from physiological pathways underpinning vulnerability to heat during pregnancy, to data science applications, public health approaches and advocacy around reducing carbon emissions. It concluded by considering whether we need a new Climate Change and Health sub-specialty, and a national programme on climate and health. 

Cell proliferation in the adult brain was an unacceptable concept over half a century ago. Once this dogma was revoked, it became necessary to establish the phenomenon of adult neurogenesis in the adult brain which declines with age. We have provided the empirical data for the confirmation of this process in the adult mammalian and avian species strengthening the acceptance of such a phenomenon. Beyond this the question now becomes the functionality and the factors that can influence this process positively to warrant a continuous engagement in research and adjustment in lifestyle for better functioning of the adult brain.

The dawn of democracy for South Africa in the 1990s carried the promise of a revitalisation and restoration of African thought systems. A deluge of African concepts/ expressions/metaphors such as simunye, masakhane, indaba, lekgotla, tswele pele, etc emerged marking a shift from apartheid towards post-apartheid planning systems. The concept of ubuntu entered this euphoria of political change with a resounding echo signifying a well-branded phenomenon geared towards reconstruction and provision of African solutions. Indeed, some disciplines such as education, governance, management, politics, philosophy have explored the implication of ubuntu to their social practices. However, planning is aloof towards this concept. It remains deeply invested with colonial meanings and significations at odds with the African context and its subjectivities. This paper sought to discuss the concept of ubuntu and its multiple dimensions and potential impact on urban planning in South Africa.

The National Water Act 32 of 1998 has been praised as a ground-breaking law setting a global standard for countries that seek to transform their environmental laws and water governance regimes. It is applauded for introducing modern concepts that ensure integrated water resources management, transforming pre-democracy entrenched private water rights by making water a public resource under the trusteeship of the state.

These projected qualities of the legislation mask a compromised legal reform process where laws meant to transform natural resource governance, have served to perpetuate entrenched rights to the detriment of historically disadvantaged individuals who continue to struggle to access water, and other natural resources, equitably. By analysing recent South African jurisprudence, this lecture broadly demonstrated the need for overdue reforms to environmental and resource governance laws to enable true transformation.

A cell, the unit of life, has certain biological checks and balances in place that allow human body to work optimally by eradicating diseased or old cells. On the other hand, a cancer cell develops the capability to manipulate certain internal cellular processes to its advantage, which allows it to survive and divide uncontrollably. One such process involves the synthesis, utilisation, and removal of cholesterol from cellular environment. Normal cells have an intricate balance of cholesterol homeostasis, which is disrupted in certain types of cancer cells, thus diminishing their response to chemotherapies and ensuring their survival. Cholesterol-lowering agents may offer a new therapeutic approach to combat cancer, but this relatively new approach has its own challenges that need to be surmounted. My laboratory is involved in identifying new therapeutic agents in this domain and to decipher the involved biological mechanisms.

This lecture discussed the role of cholesterol in cancer while addressing the potential therapeutic approaches, opportunities, and associated challenges.

Cricket is the fourth biggest global sport, and although it is considered a non-contact sport, injuries are prevalent and debilitating. This inaugural lecture gave some insight into a body of cricket research, especially regarding abdominal muscle thickness measured via ultrasound imaging and its role in injury and performance in cricket fast bowling. Creating, sharing and applying knowledge is the core business of a university and the academic. These responsibilities can be very exciting and, at times challenging to balance.

This presentation titled “Bowling, babies and balancing it all: changing the world one impact initiative at a time” elaborate on some principles to consider while navigating the academic journey, specifically in our quest to move beyond the notion of “Publish or Perish” to “Impact to Cherish”.

Population growth, coupled with massive growth in the production and consumption of goods and services, has resulted in increasing volumes, varieties, and complexity of both municipal and industrial wastes. Several working definitions for wastes exist and are used for practical purposes in society. Generally, waste is any material or substance in whatever form, whether solid, liquid or gaseous, hazardous or non-hazardous, organic or inorganic that has lost its primary value and is disposed of, intended to be disposed of, or required to be disposed of by the provisions of national and international laws. Undoubtedly, waste is one of society’s biggest challenges today, and if not addressed adequately or handled correctly, waste can have detrimental effect on the natural environment with devastating results that pose threat to human health. Quite often, waste is considered as a problem that needs to be quickly disposed of, but there is currently a paradigm shift that is realigning waste not to be perceived as a problem.

This lecture sought to illustrate that waste does not necessarily represent worthless, harmful, and disposable material, but can alternatively be considered as a useful resource that can be reused, recycled, and recovered in multiple beneficial ways. In this regard, selected typical examples of resource generation from all the three forms of waste (solid, liquid and gas) based on my research will be explored in the lecture, including (1) production of adsorbents from agricultural solid waste, (2) production of activated carbon fibres and carbon nanotubes from spent ion exchange resins, (3) the generation of various products such as water, acid, and coagulants from acid mine drainage, and (4) the production of carbon nanomaterials from carbon dioxide and coal pyrolysis.

Skills are seen as essential to addressing unemployment and lack of economic development - which in South Africa are catastrophic. But ‘skill’ is an inflated notion, used with little understanding of what occupational knowledge is comprised of, and what it takes to acquire it. Moreover, expertise and knowledge are produced in a complex set of institutions and institutional arrangements, which shape and are shaped by societies and economies.

I explored how the ‘skills problem’ is positioned as an educational problem, with the idea that there is a need for an efficient flow of information from labour market actors to education actors and vice versa. So governments invest money and energy into curriculum reform, qualifications reform, and skills anticipation. My research shows that in many low and middle income countries, ‘skills crises’ remain unsolved because interventions are based on wrong or incomplete analysis of the problems, misunderstanding the complex relationships between industrialisation, economic development, state formation, industrial relations, social policy, and educational development.