Sasolburg – National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel says a collective approach in government will be needed to address the inefficiencies in the country’s education system and other challenges raised in the diagnostic report of South Africa released by the National Planning Commission last month.

Manuel was speaking during the Free State leg of public hearings on Tuesday to discuss the report following similar engagements held in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape last week.

President Jacob Zuma appointed the NPC consisting of 26 commissioners in April
last year to advise government on crucial development issues facing South Africa. Commissioners were further tasked with developing a 2030 vision and development plan for the country that will be tracked over time.

The document, drawn up after a year of intensive work by the NPC identified nine key problems facing the country namely, poor education, divided communities, uneven public service performance, an unsustainable resource-intensive economy, a high disease burden, unemployment, existing spatial patterns, crumbling infrastructure and corruption.

It has been received with mixed feelings by several sectors of society, with the ruling ANC saying it was in “full agreement” with the broad sentiments expressed in the body of the report to the effect that the country has achieved a lot since the dawn of democracy in 1994 but a lot remains to be done.

Manuel said on Tuesday that since the release of the commission, they had been flooded with comments from the public.

“We are obviously encouraged by the inputs we are getting. Obviously the responses will vary because some people are responding based on the South Africa we see now, whereas we will have a different South Africa by 2030, so discussion varies from individual to individual, depending on how you see South Africa,” Manuel said.

The NPC is scheduled to release its first planning report that will be presented to Cabinet in November.

While Manuel conceded there were likely to be fiscal challenges for the country to address some of the issues raised on the diagnostic document, he said it was left to government to determine how resources were allocated to meet society’s pressing demands.

A member of the public had earlier asked whether funding patterns for the three spheres of government were adequate enough for the country to address most of the challenges raised in the diagnostic report.

“Of course there may be fiscal challenges in the long run, but resources should be allocated in the manner in which the countries [sees fit] and it’s up to the Treasury to make those decisions not us as the commission.

“We will put the plan forward on 11 November and it will deal with all of these issues - some in more detail than the others, but the tools that we used are the tools that all South Africans will use to address these challenges,” added Manuel.

He went on to say that the diagnostic report was not a “prescription” for the government, but aimed at allowing proper planning for the country in the next coming decades.

“The diagnostic report deals with ranging observations about the South Africa that we know now, that we can talk from research and along with where we want to be and say to South Africans, ‘discuss these issues and tell us whether this is the country you want to live in 2050’.”

Earlier, Free State Premier Ace Magashule said the province had been hard at work to ensure popular participation of its citizens in the report, adding that there had been an agreement at provincial government on the issues raised.

“It is very clear that the people of the province who are participating in the NPC discussions are very eager in terms of ensuring that indeed, we have one plan as a country and I think all of this is the beginning of that process and our call and plea will be for everyone to participate,” he said. - BuaNews

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 8, 2011 - Announcement from Chairman of the Board, Jack Meyer. "On behalf of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation Board of Directors, it is with tremendous enthusiasm and optimism that I announce the appointment of Mary J. Sansalone as Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer for the Asian University for Women. Mary has an extraordinary track record as an educator and brings vision, compassion and exemplary leadership to AUW. Mary was appointed Provost and Chief Academic Officer on July 1, 2010, and in just one year, she has already demonstrated the capacity and conviction needed to make AUW an exemplary academic institution that inspires lives and educates leaders."

AUW is a residential liberal arts college located in Chittagong, Bangladesh that prepares students for their roles as global citizens by offering an intellectually challenging liberal arts undergraduate curriculum leading to Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. Students hail from across South and Southeast Asia, and the majority of students begin their education at AUW in the Access Academy, an 11-month academic program that focuses on strengthening students' skills in English and mathematics, broadening students' worldview through a course in world history and geography, encouraging creativity through the arts, and developing self-confidence and physical fitness through classes in karate. A hallmark of AUW's institutional identity is its far-reaching Charter, approved and ratified through an Act of the Parliament in 2006 that provides AUW with institutional autonomy, guarantees full academic freedom and wholly enshrines the principle of non-discrimination. AUW will graduate its first class in 2013.

Mary Sansalone studied literature and engineering as an undergraduate and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Civil Engineering. She obtained a Masters and a Ph.D. in engineering from Cornell University and a Masters in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Appointed to the faculty of engineering at Cornell University in 1987, she was the second woman to earn tenure and then be promoted to full professor in the College of Engineering. At Cornell, Mary served as Associate Director of the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Vice Provost of Academic Programs at Cornell University. Subsequently, she served as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mary is known for her dedication to her students. She is widely respected for her capacity to envision, develop and execute excellent academic programs, and to set standards that earn the respect and admiration of all. In 1992, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation named Mary the United States Professor of the Year "for extraordinary contributions to the lives and careers of undergraduate students and to the intellectual welfare of our society." In 1993, Cornell University named her a Weiss Presidential Fellow "for effective, inspiring, and distinguished teaching of undergraduate students and for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education."

Mary's primary research interests focus on understanding transient stress wave propagation in bounded solids, pattern recognition, the development of sensing techniques for detecting cracks and flaws in materials, and evaluation of materials and structures. She and her graduate students invented and perfected a method and an instrument, called Impact-Echo, for nondestructive evaluation of concrete and masonry structures (highways, buildings, bridges, dams, tunnels, etc.). Impact-echo instruments are now manufactured in North America, Asia, and Europe and are in use worldwide for nondestructive testing of concrete and masonry structures. In 2002, the American Association for the Advancement of Science named her as a Fellow "for development of the impact-echo method and instrument for the evaluation of civil infrastructure world-wide and for extraordinary contributions to undergraduate education."

AUW Founder, Kamal Ahmad, will step down as Acting Vice Chancellor effective immediately and has also announced his resignation as President and CEO of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation effective September 30, 2011. Kamal has been a visionary founder, committed to the highest standards of academic excellence. He has been fully devoted to launching the university for nearly a decade and bringing the university to its current state of success. Kamal has yet to announce his next venture, but it will undoubtedly extend his commitment to bringing positive growth and development to the region. On behalf of the entire AUW community, it is with enormous gratitude and respect for all that he has accomplished that we thank him and wish him well.

Sandton – While South Africa has made significant strides in improving access to justice for its citizens, factors such as poverty, lack of education and resources, continued to hinder government from delivering on this constitutional right, says President Jacob Zuma.

Addressing the Access to Justice Conference in Sandton on Friday, Zuma stressed that access to justice was a fundamental and democratic right, and was a central pillar of a free and equal society.

Zuma was delivering the keynote address at the conference hosted by Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, together with the heads of court.

He acknowledged that the country had gone a long way since 1994 to ensure that all South Africans had access to justice.

The adoption of the Constitution, the equality clause in the Bill of Rights and Chapter 9 institutions had helped achieve that progress, the President noted.

Highlighting the obstacles that stood in the way of everyone accessing justice, Zuma touched on the working conditions of judicial officers, which included poor and inadequate support services, a lack of chambers for judges and insufficient courtrooms.

“The other side of the coin is the difficulties for the recipients of justice, especially the poor. Their situation is more desperate because unlike judicial officers, they are powerless and usually cannot solve the conditions they find themselves in,” he said.

Poverty was another impediment to the access of justice for a number of people.

Many people do not know the law and do not exercise their rights due to “poverty-related lack of education and ignorance.”

There was a need for citizen education about the justice system so that people knew their basic rights, the different courts and structures which they could turn to when they had problems, Zuma said.

Access to justice was also hindered by language with some cases being lost due to incorrect interpretation by interpreters, and a lack of transport, which made it difficult for people who lived far from the courts to reach them.

With regards to the efficiency of the court system, Zuma said challenges included the failure to deliver judgments on time; unreasonable delays in finalising cases; unwarranted and unsubstantiated court orders and poorly considered judgments.

“All these have the devastating effects on the lives of our people and put strain on state resources too,” he acknowledged.

Zuma cited the lack of communication on cases as a source of frustration. People often travelled long distances only find out that a case had been postponed.

Government was exploring ways to ensure that victims of crime attend court sittings when they are fruitfully dealt with in court, he added.

Zuma also noted the court’s commitment to dealing with court backlogs, some judicial staff in the North West even working on Saturdays to address the backlogs.

The President also pointed out that the government was involved in a number of initiatives aimed at improving access to justice.

The maintenance and Master’s services had been identified as areas that must receive utmost attention, as these issues affected the welfare of people.

“We know too well that implementing an effective maintenance recovery and payment system would reduce dependence on the child support grant as more and more working parents will be compelled to support their children,” said Zuma.

More effort was also being put in to turn around the Master’s office to improve services relating to the winding up of estates of the deceased and the administration of insolvent estates.

He also noted efforts to cater for access to justice for children, women and civil claims.

Zuma also highlighted the need for judicial independence, adding that government remained committed to the independence of the judiciary as entailed in the Constitution. - BuaNews

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