The awards were first launched in 1998 to acknowledge those who have dedicated their work, and much of their lives, to preserving our planet for future generations. 

The theme for this year is “Crowning Our Green Champions”. Categories are:  agriculture, biodiversity, green design, green finance and business, mining, renewable energy and clean air, waste management and water and ocean conservation. 

The event coincides with the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 29, to be held in November in Baku, Azerbaijan. The theme of this year’s event is “In Solidarity for a Green World”. 

The Greening the Future winners will be announced at an event on 21 November, with a print and online supplement published on 22 November.

The closing date for nominations is 18 October 2024. Click here to nominate a green champion. 

The list of last year’s winners can be viewed here

“The DA has instructed its lawyers to continue to prepare for court action on both the process leading to the adoption of the Bela Bill, as well as its substance, on constitutional grounds,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said in response to the president’s announcement.

Ramaphosa signed the Bela Bill into law on Friday but said he will delay the implementation of two clauses — clauses 4 and 5 — for three months for negotiations with parties in the government of national unity (GNU) who have rejected its contents.

Ramaphosa’s move is an attempt to create some breathing space for both himself and the DA over the Bill, the signing of which was boycotted by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube.

On Thursday, Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen publicly allayed fears that tensions of the Bill could collapse the GNU ahead of the signing of the Bill, and the president’s opening of a window for negotiation in his speech at the signing indicates his intention to allow the  parties a chance to find each other over the next three months.

But Steenhuisen said in a statement responding to the president’s announcement that the DA would now go the legal route and have the Bill declared unconstitutional.

In his address at the signing, Ramaphosa said he had decided to use his prerogative as president to open a “window” for negotiations around the two clauses after being approached by a number of parties shortly before the signing.

Although he had not agreed to stop the signing, as they had requested, he had decided on the compromise to try to seek resolution to the impasse over the Bill.

“This will give the parties time to deliberate on these issues and make proposals on how the different views may be accommodated,” Ramaphosa said. 

“Should the parties not be able to agree on an approach, then we will proceed with the implementation of these parts of the Bill,” he said.

But Steenhuisen has rejected this, referring to it as a “threat”, and said the approach is “contrary to the spirit of the statement of intent that formed the foundation of the GNU, which requires the participating parties to reach “sufficient consensus on divisive issues”.

He further accused the ANC of “violating the constitutional rights of parents and governing bodies in functional schools”.

The Bela Bill suggests strengthening oversight of school governing bodies. 

Hours before the ceremony, Gwarube issued a statement saying she had written to Ramaphosa to notify him that she could not attend the ceremony until her concerns regarding the Bill were rectified.

Gwarube said she was always and remains opposed to the Bill in its current form and has requested that Ramaphosa to refer it back to parliament for reconsideration regarding section 79 of the Constitution.

This is despite her being the minister who is expected to ensure the Bill is implemented in schools.   

But she has also previously said she will adhere to her mandate as a minister and expeditiously implement “aspects” of the Bill should it be signed into law. 

“The Bill is the brainchild of the department that I lead and so if the president signs the Bill then we have to get on with the business of governing and implementing it,” Gwarube previously told the Mail & Guardian .

The Bill was tabled by former education minister Angie Motshekga and seeks to amend the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act of 1998.

Clause 4 of the Bela Bill gives greater control over admissions policy to the department of education, rather than the school and also compels the school to admit and educate children who might not have the necessary documentation.

Clause 5 states that the school’s governing body must submit the language policy of a public school and any amendment thereof to the provincial head of department for approval.

Advocacy group Section 27 has hailed the clauses as “progressive changes to the Schools Act” and added that no learner should be denied the right to an education based on their citizenship status. 

Steenhuisen said that although the president had delayed the implementation date, he had also said the Bill would be implemented after three months if they failed to agree on the two clauses.

“This means that if there is no agreement, the ANC will proceed with implementing the clauses that empower provincial departments to override school governing bodies on the issue of the language policy of schools,” Steenhuisen said. “The DA rejects this threat by the president.”

Steenhuisen said they regarded this approach as contrary to the spirit of the statement of intent signed among the GNU partners, which required the parties to reach sufficient consensus on divisive issues.

The Bill also makes grade R compulsory. 

In addition it proposes measures to prevent the unnecessary disruption of schooling by protests or other causes and to criminalise such actions. And it will introduce penalties for parents who keep their children out of school for extended periods.

And the Bill addresses aspects of homeschooling, requiring parents to register their children with the department and specify the curriculum being used. It mandates independent assessments to monitor the children’s progress. 

It also offers an expansive definition of corporal punishment to include “any acts which seek to belittle, humiliate, threaten, induce fear or ridicule the dignity and person of a learner”.

The forum said on Thursday it urged “coloured communities” to not view the signing of the “draconian” Bill as something that would only affect “traditionally white schools”.  

“This is a fight for every school and every household in South Africa and specifically the Afrikaans-speaking communities,” said the forum. 

“Our experience so far is that many communities may take a never-mind attitude towards Bela because the ANC created the impression that it is only former Model C schools — in other words, traditionally white schools — that oppose it,” said Heindrich Wyngaard, the executive chairperson of the forum.

“However, we know that this is not the case, as traditionally coloured schools can also be forced by the legislation to adjust their Afrikaans language policy to accommodate small numbers of non-Afrikaans-speaking learners.”

Critics of the Bill unanimously view it as political interference in schools, saying that school governing bodies, and therefore parents, should not be undermined. 

Lobby group AfriForum and trade union Solidarity have said they will approach the courts when the Bill is signed. ActionSA said on Wednesday night that it would also consider legal action if the Bill was signed into law. ActionSA has called the Bill “a power grab by the basic education minister”. 

When it comes to language policy, the school governing body is in charge of setting that policy, but the Bill emphasises that this is not unequivocal, and the provincial head of the education department may “intervene” when there is what is deemed discriminatory language or admission policy.  

The Bill was tabled by former education minister Angie Motshekga and seeks to amend the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act of 1998.

Once signed it will be the purview of the new education minister, Siviwe Gwarube. 

The Bill has faced staunch criticism from the Democratic Alliance (DA), with party leader John Steenhuisen accusing Ramaphosa of violating “both the letter and spirit of the joint statement of intent that forms the basis of the government of national unity”.

The DA wants the Bill to be returned to parliament “because it has constitutional implications for the right to mother-tongue education, amongst other issues”, said Steenhuisen. 

Gwarube previously told the Mail & Guardian that she would adhere to her mandate and expeditiously implement “aspects” of the Bill should Ramaphosa sign it into law. 

“The Bill is the brainchild of the department that I lead and so if the president signs the Bill then we have to get on with the business of governing and implementing it,” Gwarube said. 

This comes in the wake of the Western Cape education department announcing that it plans to cut 2 400 teaching positions in January 2025. 

But when the Bill is made an Act, it would require more teachers to be hired to implement certain aspects, such as making grade R compulsory.  

In a statement after the announcement of the teacher cuts, Gwarube blamed the previous administration for “poor policy choices” which would lead to thousands of teachers being jobless. 

“These fiscal challenges stem from years of poor policy choices related to the management of our country. To emerge from this situation, we must make sound policy decisions and ensure better management of both government and the economy,” Gwarube said at an urgent meeting held by the Council of Education Ministers last week. 

In August, the Western Cape education department announced plans to cut 2 400 teaching jobs because of a severe budget cut of R3.8 billion.

The reduction in posts will mean that some contract teachers will not be reappointed after their contracts end on 31 December, and some permanent teachers will be asked to move to schools where there is a suitable vacancy.

The news about the job cuts led to an outcry from teacher unions, who threatened to take to the streets and file a case against the department and report it to the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) for lack of consultation. 

“This will not be accepted because the department hasn’t consulted in line with the legislation and we have declared a dispute. The matter will be scheduled by the ELRC in due course,” said the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union secretary, Mugwena Maluleke. 

The Good Party and the Western Cape legislature are scheduled to debate the matter on Thursday. 

There is no indication of how many teaching positions will be cut in other provinces, which are set to announce the number of posts for 2025 by 30 September. 

The Eastern Cape education department announced in a meeting last week with teaching unions that it plans to maintain 52 817 existing posts with “no retrenchments” for the next three years. 

During the budget speech in February, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana allocated R324.5 billion to basic education for the 2024-25 financial year, with additional money to cover teachers’ salaries.

Previously, in February 2023, the treasury allocated additional funds to the provincial education departments to pay teacher salaries. 

But, in the 2023 medium-term budget policy statement, the treasury acknowledged that budget pressures on education “could lead to larger class sizes and higher learner-teacher ratios, possibly resulting in weaker educational outcomes”.

Provincial education departments receive their Compensation of Employees budget allocation directly from the treasury, which is sent to the respective provincial treasuries. 

Provinces then act as employers independent of the department of basic education. Each provincial education department is responsible for managing its own human resource matters in coordination with its provincial treasuries.

But, when provincial departments start to take the strain, the ripple effect is felt across the national system. 

“This underscores the critical need for coordinated action to protect our education system,” read a statement by the basic education department. 

In April, Motshekga said her department has started recruiting people to fill the 31 000 teacher shortage in the country.

KwaZulu-Natal, at 7 044, recorded the highest number of unfilled posts followed by the Eastern Cape and Limpopo at 6 111 and 4 933, respectively. Northern Cape, at 726, has the least number of unfilled posts.

This is a 28% increase on the 24 000 vacancies recorded in 2021.

When asked by the M&G whether the department still plans on recruiting temporary teachers, Gwarube said she was “still assessing the situation”. 

A survey by the education department showed that, as of December 2023, 12 701 575 learners were enrolled in public schools with 409 488 educators in 22 511 schools across South Africa’s nine provinces. 

In 2023, a study by Stellenbosch University found that public schools have an average of 35 learners to one teacher — the maximum class size for foundation phase learners (grades R to four).

Early this year, the National Teachers Union raised the matter of a primary school offering grades one to seven and operated with only two teachers — one of whom served as principal.

Gwarube, since the teacher cut announcement, said she would approach the treasury to find ways to protect the education system from “painful budget cuts”.

The Governing Body Foundation has expressed its support for Gwarube’s plan for the provincial education departments to analyse the effect of the fiscal constraints. 

“National treasury may have to consider reprioritising expenditure to prevent the irreparable harm that would result from undermining the ability of schools to provide quality education,” said Anthea Cereseto, the chief executive of the foundation.

Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said in a statement that 12 cases had been reported in Gauteng, 11 in KwaZulu-Natal and now two in the Western Cape.

The latest patient has neither an international travel history nor contact with a suspected or confirmed mpox case.

Mohale said based on the current number of active mpox cases, South Africa has enough treatments to treat mild symptoms of smallpox. Currently, South Africa does not have any vaccines, Mohale said.

Earlier this year, South Africa secured a few batches of Tecovirimat, also known as TPOXX – a treatment donated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as part of “ongoing support to the country’s response efforts to this preventable and manageable disease”.

Last week, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said the first shipment of 99 100 doses of the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine had arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has had the biggest outbreak of mpox since September 2023 caused by the spread of the new clade I MPXV variant. 

Since the start of 2024, the DRC has reported more than 4 901 mpox cases, with more than 629 associated deaths, representing a sharp escalation in both infections and fatalities compared with previous years.

In 2023, the DRC reported 14 626 mpox cases and 654 deaths — the highest figures recorded in the country and the highest among countries in the WHO African region.

The DRC’s health minister, Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba, said the newly received vaccine will be rolled out to adults in the country’s high-risk areas.

“We know which provinces are heavily affected, notably Equateur and South Kivu,” he said. “The idea is to contain the virus as quickly as possible.” 

JYNNEOS, which was first administered in 2022 to curb the global outbreak, is a live virus vaccine scientifically proven to be safe and effective for the prevention of mpox, according to various centres for disease control.  

The clade I variant reported in the DRC’s South Kivu district bordering Uganda and Rwanda carries predominantly APOBEC3-type mutations, indicating an adaptation of the virus as a result of circulation among humans.

It is not known whether this variant is more transmissible or leads to more severe disease than other clade I MPXV strains. 

The clade I strain has also spread to Burundi, which has reported 100 cases. Rwanda has four cases, Uganda 10 and Kenya has five confirmed cases.

According to the WHO, mpox is a viral illness caused by the monkeypox virus. Common symptoms are a skin rash, which can last for up to four weeks, accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.

South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire are experiencing the spread of the clade II variation, which is reportedly less lethal. Cameroon and the DRC are the only countries reported to have both variants of mpox.

The virus has also been detected in Pakistan, the Philippines, Sweden and Thailand. So far, no countries have reported travel and trade restrictions because of the mpox outbreak. 

In August, the WHO and the Africa CDC declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern. 

The virus was discovered in 1958 in monkeys kept for research in Denmark. It was first discovered in humans in 1970.

Nine-year-old Mira Baher Khaled Ayash arrived last week for a skin graft after one of her legs was severely injured in an explosion. 

The second patient is 17-year-old Lina Zyiad Hasan Abu Ea’mar, who suffered a severe femoral fracture in an explosion on 5 December and was later diagnosed with avascular necrosis, which requires surgical intervention and specialised care.

Representatives from the groups said they began the process earlier this year of bringing children with complicated medical conditions to South Africa to receive medical care after being evacuated from Gaza to Egypt. 

“The initiative was launched as part of the hospital [and MealSA’s] ‘Gift of Mobility Programme’ to facilitate the treatment of children that have been physically affected by the war in Palestine and this is only the beginning of the treatment programme,” one of the hospital’s directors, Dr Ismail Mitha, told a media briefing on Thursday. 

The hospital’s chief executive, Dr Iftikhar Ebrahim, said more patients from Gaza are expected to arrive in coming weeks. 

“We have started the process of documentation with the PCRF to bring other children from Gaza who have sustained life-threatening injuries,” Ebrahim told the Mail & Guardian. 

He added that Raslouw Private Hospital and MealSA have asked other hospitals in South Africa to provide medical treatment for injured Palestinian children. 

Since January, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund has coordinated the evacuation of more than 120 Palestinian children from Gaza. South Africa joins Turkey, Spain, Egypt, Qatar, the United States and the United Arab Emirates in offering medical attention to Gaza’s wounded children. 

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund explained that an injured child is placed on a list for countries to offer medical assistance, after which the fund then facilitates the patient’s documentation and evacuation approvals through Egypt. 

“We are very happy that South Africa has opened the doors for our children and we will be waiting for others to also come and receive medical treatment,” said PCRF representative Ghada Al-Gharably, who accompanied the children from Egypt to South Africa. 

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund said the initiative would not be possible without assistance from the department of international relations and cooperation. 

It is not yet clear what will happen to the patients once their treatment is complete. But Al-Gharably said that based on previous cases, the patients might be sent back to Egypt once their rehabilitation is over. 

Since the war in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, more than 17 000 children have been killed while 20 000 are missing and 10 000 more have been displaced or trapped under the rubble. Many still remain unidentified and more than 25 000 children have been left with no surviving family. 

The World Health Organisation says about 5 000 people have been evacuated for medical treatment outside of Gaza, with another 10 000 still awaiting evacuation.

“There is no life here,” 31-year-old Munira Rajab, who lived on the fourth floor of the Usindiso building, told the Mail & Guardian during a visit to the Denver shelter on the outskirts of Johannesburg’s city centre. It houses scores of homeless people including 12 who were affected by last year’s fire.

“We are far from the city centre so we can’t even get jobs easily, and there is no money for me and my child to survive. It has been one year but we are in the same situation that we were in after the fire.”

Rajab, who has a 16-month-old daughter, said she is the sole breadwinner after her husband — a Tanzanian — was deported after failing to produce his documentation to the Usindiso commission of inquiry into the fire. She says his documents were burnt in the inferno.

In May, a report by the Khampepe commission of inquiry into the cause of the fire found that many of the tenants were undocumented people from Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho and Kenya. Following the inquiry, 32 people from other countries were arrested and placed in a repatriation centre. 

The commission said it collected 340 written statements from victims.

Human rights groups, including ProBono.Org, took the matter to the Johannesburg high court and argued that the victims “were valuable witnesses” in the inquiry. In December 2023, the department of home affairs was interdicted from deporting the victims until the commission of inquiry had made its findings.

After the Usindiso fire, 248 people agreed to be moved to various shelters, according to court documents, although some refused to be relocated for fear of deportation.

A Malawian told the M&G this week that she had been asked to provide her immigration documents to the commission but could not do so because they were burnt in the fire. She said she had then run away from the scene. 

“They were asking for my documents and I knew that they were going to provide me false hope that they won’t deport me but knowing the situation I had to get away,” the 32-year-old mother of two children said. 

Some survivors of the fire are still detained at the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp, awaiting deportation.

A woman who lost her husband in the fire said she has not had any stability since the incident, and has not been able to bring her five children to live with her in a shack that is about 3m wide.

The Denver shelter, which is along a gravel road off Main Reef Road, consists of 220 zinc shacks, 15 communal toilets at the property’s entrance and power lines stretching into the air to provide electricity. 

According to one of the victims, Johannesburg electricity utility City Power organised a raffle for some of the shelter’s inhabitants to be given jobs as labourers at the shelter.

“They put our name in a bowl and then pull out maybe 10 names and then if your name gets pulled out, you get a job — if you’re lucky,” said Thobika Biyela, 27, who was one of the casual labourers. 

A person in City Power’s communication department confirmed that a raffle was organised for the shelter’s residents to get employment. 

The victims said they had been initially promised that Denver was a temporary shelter, but it had now been nine months since officials had communicated with them. 

“We have so many questions for them: is the electricity going to be temporary? What about the victims that are still living on the roads? What happens when the victims come back from hospital? Is the government going to take our accommodation away to house them? There are no answers on this,” said Biyela. 

Usindiso was one of 188 “bad buildings” in Johannesburg that are under investigation by city authorities, former mayor Kabelo Gwamanda previously said. The Khampepe commission confirmed it had analysed buildings in the inner city that have been flagged as “hijacked”. 

Johannesburg’s new mayor, Dada Morero, says reclaiming hijacked buildings is a “bigger” problem than initially thought.

The inmates of the Denver shelter are among more than 25 000 homeless people in  Gauteng, according to the 2022 Census. 

The provincial department of social development has identified eight shelters for the homeless in Johannesburg, including the Immaculata shelter in Rosebank, Frida Hartley  in Yeoville, the Wembley Stadium shelter, the City of Johannesburg shelter for the homeless on Kotze Street and MES in Jeppestown. 

Sister John, who manages the Immaculata Shelter, said there had been a spike in homeless people coming to the facility in recent years. 

“Johannesburg is a city and that is causing the influx — people come for jobs and oftentimes they can’t afford the stay here so they are then left homeless while they look for security.” 

She urged the government to develop abandoned buildings into decent shelter for the homeless.

““There was Usindiso and I’m sure there are many other abandoned buildings in Johannesburg. Why doesn’t the department of social development evaluate these buildings and put people to live in them? It’s that simple; they have the money and the ability to do that,” she said.

“Just one building; get an engineer involved even and see how it turns out so that we can get people off the street and into a space where they can think and find security to move on to the next step of their lives.”

An uproar followed an earlier department statement about plans to cut 2 400 teaching jobs in the province as a result of a severe budget cut of R3.8 billion.

“We are not firing teachers, and we are not retrenching teachers,” Western Cape education MEC David Maynier said in the latest statement.

“The reduction in posts will mean that some contract teachers will not be reappointed after their contracts end on 31 December 2024, and some permanent teachers will be asked to move to another school where there is a suitable vacancy.”

Last week, the department said it had informed schools that “the current number of educator posts in the Western Cape cannot be maintained” and it had “cut down on spending across various directorates”. It said it had informed schools on where it planned to cut teacher posts. 

In the latest statement, Maynier said despite the department’s plan to implement a drastic R2.5 billion budget cut, including on administration, curriculum and infrastructure, it still faced a R3.8 billion budget shortfall over the next three years. 

“We are in an impossible position, and it is not of our making, and the Western Cape is not the only province affected.The decision by the national government to not fully fund the 2023 wage agreement has caused a fiscal crisis for education departments across the country,” he said.

South Africa’s public education system has 410 000 teachers employed in about 25 000 schools in the country, according to the Western Cape department.

In April last year, unions representing the majority of public servants at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council accepted the government’s wage increase offer of 7.5% during the 2023-24 fiscal year.

But the Western Cape education department said it had received only 64% of the cost of the nationally negotiated wage agreement, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%.

According to the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), the department began consultations with teacher unions and school governing bodies in July about its proposal to reduce the 2025 basket of educator posts.

Sadtu, the largest trade union for teachers in South Africa, has rejected the Western Cape department’s plans, saying it would report it to the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC). 

“This will not be accepted because the department hasn’t consulted in line with the legislation and we have declared a dispute in the matter. The matter will be scheduled by the ELRC in due course,” said Sadtu secretary Mugwena Maluleke. 

The union confirmed that its members will embark on a strike on a date to be determined, taking into consideration the fact that matric exams are due to begin in October. 

Maynier’s Democratic Alliance, the party governing the Western Cape, said it would “fight for teachers affected by treasury’s funding shortfalls”. 

“The DA urges the national government to find alternative areas for budget cuts and to ensure that essential public service roles, including those of teachers, are fully protected.” DA basic education spokesperson Delmaine Christians said.

In the national budget, the department of basic education was allocated R32.3 billion for the 2024-25 financial year, a 7.4% increase from the 2023-24 budget allocation. 

Maynier noted that provinces had outlined the difficulties they were facing in presentations to the portfolio committee on basic education in the National Assembly on 20 August.

KwaZulu-Natal said its education department could not afford 11 092 of its educator posts because of its budget shortfall of R4 billion for 2024, and that it had to reduce norms and standards payments to schools and delay paying service providers.

“Mpumalanga has a budget pressure of R876 million that it must resolve, while the North West has to find R485 million.The Northern Cape has had to, according to the wording of their presentation to the portfolio committee, implement a ‘drastic removal of a large number of vacant posts’ from their organisational structure, but still won’t be able to deal with their shortfall,” Maynier said.

Gauteng said it would have to reduce learner transport, and would not be able to expand early childhood development as planned. The province has the second biggest education system in the country after Kwa Zulu-Natal, with more than 15 million pupils.

South Africa is already grappling with a 31 000 teacher shortage in the country. KwaZulu-Natal, at 7 044, recorded the highest number of unfilled posts followed by the Eastern Cape and Limpopo at 6111 and 4933, respectively. The Northern Cape, at 726, has the least number of unfilled posts.

Apprehensive walk to work

It’s 6:30am on the quiet streets of Crosby in Johannesburg as Galima Sibeko walks to the Brixton police station, which is about 1km away from where she lives. From there she catches a bus to work in Morningside. 

Despite the five to six-minute walk, Sibeko is always on edge. “I fear being mugged, kidnapped. Basically I fear men,” the 24-year-old human resources assistant said.

“I feel this fear the most when I’m walking in the streets to get to the bus or to go to the shop to buy groceries.”

Winter is more terrifying because the sun rises late. “There’s usually no one in the streets because it’s dark, so I always walk looking behind me just to make sure no one is following me”.

Sibeko reads the domestic crime statistics religiously. The stats for the second quarter of 2023-24 showed that there were 10 516 reported rapes, 1  514 cases of attempted murder and 14  401 assaults against women. In the same period, 881 women were murdered. 

Sibeko is scared to leave her daughter with anyone, even relatives, when she has to work.

“Young boys can do things to young girls. It’s very scary,” she said.

Even the occasional catcalls she gets during her walk worry her, because there is the danger of that the men could become aggressive if she ignores them. 

Sibeko is grateful that she has never been physically harmed, but wonders how long it will be before she is next.

‘I always park close to doors’ 

Nolwazi Sibiya, who lives in Midrand, is very deliberate about where she parks her car when she goes out. 

“There are certain parking spaces that I don’t go to. I try to park closer to the doors at the malls so that I am not in a secluded place. I keep pepper spray as well.” 

Sibiya hasn’t had a personal experience, but has heard stories about other women being attacked or kidnapped in parking lots. At shopping malls, she makes it a point never to go to the bathroom alone.

“Unfortunately, because we only have ourselves, we can’t rely on the justice system or police or anything, we have to take extra precaution,” she says. “You have to be responsible for yourself. There’s always that thing at the back of your head everywhere you go.”

‘You can’t really be you’ 

Galaletsang Phongwako works at a male-dominated logistics company and feels her safety is compromised “almost every day”.

“My company is built for men and I’m a woman, so obviously, it doesn’t favour me much. 

“It makes me so angry that even after 30 years of being a democratic country and establishing systems where equality and safety for all is supposed to be implemented, I still feel so unsafe in a country where I am supposed to feel safe. So I feel like I don’t belong.” 

Phongwako likes clubbing, but has had to change the way she dresses so that she can feel safe. 

“I don’t wear short things. I don’t wear things that are revealing enough for men to have the temptation to force me enough to do something that I’m not comfortable with.

“I try to cover up so I’m not in danger of being raped, sexually harassed or even touched or somebody comments things to me that I don’t like. You can’t really dress like you want. You can’t really be yourself for your own safety.” 

Gang violence, cat-calls

Vernetia Lewis is from Cape Town and said she feels unsafe where she lives because of the danger of being caught in the crossfire between rival gangs. She also feels unsafe driving alone at night or walking through the streets of her neighbourhood.

“I recall a specific incident when my parents were away overnight, and there was an attempt to break into our home. I was alone with my two younger siblings, and it seemed as though the perpetrators were aware of my parents’ absence,” she said. 

As a social worker, Lewis tries to make a difference in the lives of young people, hoping to help create a South Africa where women can feel safe in their everyday lives.

‘Fearful but I speak out’

Laaiqa Variawa, 25, tries not to live under the constant shadow of fear, but makes sure to always be aware of her surroundings, avoid walking alone at night, and stay informed about local crime trends. 

“I also believe that it’s important to speak out against gender-based violence and support initiatives that work towards creating a safer environment for all,” said Variawa, who has been subjected to catcalling when using public transport, at work or even out shopping at the mall. For her, there is always the worry that the catcalling could degenerate to physical assault. 

Variawa recalls a day she was taking an elevator at the mall towards the parking lot when she noticed a man behind her. Unsure about his intentions, she walked back into the mall and waited for more people to head towards the parking lot so that she was not alone.

Cost of reporting violence

Bronwyn Marcus is outspoken about gender-based violence and the fact that perpetrators lurking in churches, businesses and homes often get away with their crimes simply because it is too costly — emotionally and financially — for women to lay criminal charges.

Marcus, the editor of the Unfold Durban guide, attended a widely publicised event in July for which she had already purchased a ticket.

“Upon arrival, it was apparent the event was over capacity, leading to traffic, access and safety problems for the public, prompting questions from members of the public and I sought some answers on their behalf,” she said.

“Unfortunately, a senior official responsible for the event took umbrage at being asked these questions. His approach was surly and combative. 

“In an attempt to stop me from recording his abrupt answers, he tried to grab my phone out of my hands. In the process he grabbed my wrist with severe force to prevent me from countering his phone snatch.

“I tried to free myself and retreat but he tightened his grasp and injured my wrist as I wrestled away. Perhaps he was afraid that the misogynistic and condescending retorts he was giving were being recorded. Afraid his carefully cultivated public image might be shattered? Yet, by choosing violence he shattered it all by himself.”

Marcus did not open a case of attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances with the police for the same reason many women are silent about their abuse — she views the legal system as too onerous.

To open a case she would need to be examined by a doctor to get a medical certificate.

“And I would have to spend money to travel to the police station to open a charge. Unfortunately, a powerful individual like this could also make my life extremely difficult through his commercial and social contacts, so I had to weigh up the short- and long-term costs of being abused further through the wielding of his power.”

The system, called Ai_r, combines air quality sensors with an Internet of Things network and artificial intelligence (AI).

The project was initiated after the Institute for Collider Particle Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand flagged a lack of local systems to track air pollution, said the director of the institute, Bruce Mellado.

“Air quality systems are currently imported. We have designed a complete system from scratch that is assembled in South Africa,” he said. 

There are 130 big air quality measuring stations in South Africa that only measure the air quality in their vicinity, according to the South African Air Quality Information System. 

“This is why we need cost-effective, dense networks made up of Ai_r systems set up all around these stations, to measure air quality in a much wider area,” said Mellado. 

As part of the project, 25 particle physicists from the iThemba Laboratories for Accelerator Based Sciences were trained at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research, which is on the Franco-Swiss border. 

Ai_r is made up of a collection of small boxes that cost about R1 700 to make. 

The boxes, which can be mounted on the window sill of any building, have a device that uses a small laser to shoot light into the air. Based on how the light reflects, it measures the concentration of particles and feeds data every five minutes through an antenna back to a cloud-based system where the data is then stored.

AI features are present in the modelling and forecasting of the device which, according to Mellado, is a cost-effective alternative to traditional methods. 

“Artificial intelligence does not do magic. It is a bunch of mathematical tools that scientists control to perform a task. It integrates sets of data, learns from the data and creates automatic models. That saves a tremendous amount of resources,” he said. 

Twenty devices, which use little to no electricity, were in June placed in Soweto and Braamfontein, Johannesburg, with about 120 more to be installed around Gauteng in the coming months. 

Mellado said these areas were chosen because of the high number of vehicles that drive through them daily, creating higher risk of air pollution. 

The highest level of air pollution in the country has been reported in KwaMbonambi in KwaZulu-Natal, with an average of 56 air quality index. Pretoria is the fourth highest with 62 air quality index as of Wednesday morning. This is four times the prescribed annual air quality guideline value by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The device posts data on the Ai_r dashboard to monitor its effectiveness. But some experts have raised concerns. Janine Wichmann, a professor at the University of Pretoria’s School of Health Systems and Public Health, said the scientist behind the project should share the “peer-reviewed scientific articles published from the validation studies”. 

Without proper calibration, data captured on low-cost sensors can influence the accuracy of information. This is a result of the variability in sensing materials, transducer designs and environmental conditions. 

For this reason standardised calibration protocols are necessary to ensure the accuracy and reliability of low-cost sensor data, as was found in a scientific paper regarding these types of sensors.

In 2019, the WHO reported that air pollution was responsible for 25 800 premature deaths in South Africa, which has the fourth highest number of deaths linked to particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) in Africa. 

PM2.5, a fine particulate matter of 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter, is the most dangerous pollutant because of its ability to penetrate the lung barrier and enter the blood system, causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancers.

Based on recent WHO data, nearly 99% of the world’s population breathes air that exceeds the organisation’s guideline levels.

The higher the air quality index value, the greater the level of air pollution and the higher risk of poor health conditions.

In 2022, the Pretoria high court, in the Deadly Air Judgment, recognised that the poor air quality in the Highveld Priority Area — which extends from eastern Gauteng and across the Mpumalanga Highveld — “breaches citizens’ constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and wellbeing”.

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, RSF adviser Ibrahim Mukhayar said the conflict — which has killed more than 15 000 people and displaced 10 million — had erupted because of the influence of the extremist Islamic movement in the country on the SAF.

“The Islamists, with their extreme ideology, control the SAF and are determined to regain control of the country by any means necessary, including taking the most extreme measures to achieve their objectives in the war,” Mukhayar said.

Last Friday, the US said it had concluded talks in Geneva, Switzerland, in which it attempted to navigate a peaceful “democratic transition” between the RSF and the Sudanese government’s armed wing. 

The talks, which began on 14 August, included a delegation of observers from the African Union, Saudi Arabia, Sudan’s neighbour Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the UN. The UAE has been accused of supporting the paramilitary group with weapons but officials have denied this.

While there was an RSF delegation to the talks, Sudan’s de facto government, headed by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, did not attend, saying they were aimed at “whitewashing” the RSF and countries that support the paramilitaries.

US Sudan envoy Tom Perriello told a press conference in Geneva that the results of the talks were insufficient to address the humanitarian crisis, which he acknowledged was slow, due to the absence of the SAF. 

Al-Burhan, who leads the governing Transitional Sovereignty Council, told reporters in Port Sudan on Saturday that the military would “fight for 100 years”, if necessary, to defeat the RSF. 

“We will not put down our weapons as the rebellion continues. We will not co-exist with the rebels and we will not forgive them,” he said.

RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti”, claims to control 72% of Sudanese territory including the capital, Khartoum. 

According to Mukhayar, the RSF will keep up its efforts to gain control of Sudan while it continues peace talks to manage the country’s humanitarian crisis. 

“We believe the real reason behind the SAF’s rejection of the Geneva negotiations is that the US Secretary of State proposed real control mechanisms for what is happening in Sudan,” he said.

This is not the first time peace talks have been held on Sudan’s civil war. In May 2023 — a month after the fighting broke out — talks were organised by Saudi Arabia and the US but were suspended after the SAF accused the RSF of failing to abide by the declaration.

The January discussions, attended by both forces, took place over three meetings in Manama, Bahrain. Reportedly, among those present were Egypt and the UAE, which are supporters of the SAF and the RSF, respectively. 

According to military sources, the RSF stated conditions for a ceasefire, including the reinstatement of Hemedti as deputy chair of the Transitional Sovereignty Council. The talks yielded no results.

The peace talks mediated by the US come on the back of a new report by Amnesty International detailing a weapons flow through the Sahel region from countries like Russia, China, Turkey and the UAE, which has fuelled Sudan’s conflict. 

“Shipment-level trade data indicates that hundreds of thousands of blank guns have been exported to Sudan in recent years, along with millions of blank cartridges [which] Amnesty International believes are being converted en masse into lethal weapons in Sudan,” the organisation said in a statement. 

The report identified recently manufactured or recently transferred small arms and ammunition from countries such as Serbia, Yemen and China that are being used in the conflict by both the RSF and the SAF. 

The RSF has refuted Amnesty International’s claims, saying the report is based on “poor information”. 

“This claim is false from beginning to end and lacks compelling evidence. There is a lot of misleading information circulating … In what sense is RSF getting arms from Russia? In fact, in my perspective, Amnesty International’s report was based on poor information,” Mukhayar said.

Amnesty has called on the UN Security Council to amend its arms embargo to restrict weapons being transported into Sudan and also wants the council to strengthen its monitoring and verification mechanisms related to arms sales. 

The 16-month-long war began after Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir was toppled in a 2019 coup which split the military power, that was once one body, into two factions namely, RSF and SAF.

The RSF, an independent security force recognised under Sudanese law in 2017, was contracted by the government to act as border guards before the force participated in the coup to topple al-Bashir. 

Four months later, the military and the pro-democracy movement reached a power-sharing deal that birthed a joint military-civilian council that would govern Sudan for the next three years until elections were held.

Dagalo was announced as the council’s vice chairman headed by al-Burhan with economist Abdalla Hamdok as Sudan’s prime minister and leader of the transitional cabinet. 

However, before signing the deal that should have ushered in a new dawn for Sudan, activists accused the RSF of participating in the killing of dozens of pro-democracy protesters.

In October 2021, the RSF participated in another coup to overthrow the transitional government which halted the agreement to set up a democratically elected government. The move triggered new mass pro-democracy rallies across Sudan which was plunged into what has been described by the UN as a “humanitarian nightmare”.

Intense fighting broke out in Khartoum and quickly escalated across Darfur to the west, with the RSF taking control of most centres.

The war in the North African country has led to the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. 

The International Organisation for Migration’s latest weekly displacement tracking matrix showed that 9.9 million people have been internally displaced in all 18 states in Sudan — 2.8 million before the April 2023 war and 7.1 million since. More than half are women and a quarter are children under the age of five. 

Sudan is also home to the world’s largest hunger crisis, with an estimated 26.6 million people — more than half the population — facing food insecurity, according to the UN World Food Programme, while 14 areas in the country have been declared “at risk of famine”.

A report by Human Rights Watch details the RSF’s involvement in widespread acts of sexual violence in areas of Khartoum, which it describes as “acts that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity”. It says RSF members have in some cases sexually assaulted women and girls in front of their families and forced them into marriages in RSF-controlled regions.

Although the report states that fewer cases of abuse were attributed to SAF members, there was an increase in cases reported after the SAF took control of Omdurman early this year. It reports that men and boys were raped while in detention centres.

Mukhayar rubbished the claims and said that the accusations were “false and lack credibility”. 

“The testimonies submitted are one-sided, as no organisation, including Amnesty International, has entered Sudan to date to verify what is happening, despite our invitation and sincere desire to provide the information they request,” he said. 

According to Human Rights Watch, researchers have had limited access to Khartoum with the dangerous conditions and lack of services and logistics barriers to obtaining information for reports on the humanitarian crisis. 

Mukhayar said he is hopeful that peace talks will continue on the sidelines and that Sudan will achieve a “democratic state” that will prioritise the people. 

“Rebuilding the country will undoubtedly be challenging but history has shown that the greatest nations can rise from the debris of war. We will not lose hope and we will never give up on our country,” he said.