‘Disgusting, disgraceful, inconsequential and dirty renegade?’: Reconstructing the early life and career of Anglo-Boer War combatant and war prisoner ‘Artie’ Tully, 1889–1910

Arthur William (‘Artie’) Tully is a largely forgotten name in South African military history. A professional boxer by trade, Australian-born Tully joined the republican forces during the Anglo–Boer War – also called the South African War – (1899–1902) while working on the Witwatersrand. Captured at Vaalkrans (5–7 February 1900), he became a prisoner of war on Diyatalawa in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). After the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902, Tully, portrayed by his brethren as a traitor, rekindled his boxing career and established himself in Singapore, Southeast Asia, working as a bookmaker, turf commission agent and mine-owner. Tully’s visit to Australia after a thirteen-year absence was largely ignored, just like his legacy in post-war studies, and to this day, he, like thousands of others, remains an obscured figure of the Anglo–Boer War. His life before the war and the factors that motivated him to join the republican cause remain unknown. For some Australians, he is an emigrant traitor of no consequence. South Africans ironically continue to celebrate the contribution of a range of other foreign participants but, for unknown reasons, continue to ignore or are blissfully unaware of the contribution of this Australian to their history. Against this background, the study reported here reconstructed the early life and career of a significant personality with a view to end his current obscurity

South Africa's emergent developmental state and the challenges of capabilities development - are universities at the cutting edge of ICT?

Dissertation presented for a Masters Degree in Development Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and School of Social Sciences, at the University of the Witwatersrand. 17 September 2014The manufacturing sector contributed to growth in the 20th century, which ultimately enhanced capabilities related to machinery and plants. However, towards the end of the 20th century, the manufacturing sector became less prominent as a catalyst for growth as the economy became increasingly bit-driven. A bit-driven or knowledge economy characterises the 21st century, where economic growth is created through the expansion of ideas and the enhancement of human capabilities (Evans, 2007). In order to analyse the requirements of economic growth in the 21st century, I relied on the New Growth theory and the capability approach of Amartya Sen. The capability approach reviews state policies in terms of its impact on developing its citizens’ capabilities, for instance, the ability to choose amongst Information and Communications Technology (ICT) courses at universities (Sen, 1990: 49). South Africa has several policies in place which acknowledge the importance of a knowledge-based economy. It has also referred to the efforts of the African National Congress (ANC) to build a Developmental State (DS). This research examined several policies aimed at creating a 21st century DS and asks whether they enhance the capabilities of citizens to partake in the knowledge economy. This paper looked at development during the industrialisation period (specifically after World War II). Here, economic growth was propelled through manufacturing. I drew on specific countries’ experiences such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan, which were 20th century DSs. However, as the 21st century approached, the industrial revolution was replaced with a knowledge-based economy (KBE). The 20th and 21st century DSs are linked in that the manufacturing sector in the latter DS needs the services sector as a catalyst for job creation and economic growth. Therefore the manufacturing industry needs to diversify to include the services sector (Zalk, 2014)

Spring 2012 Newsletter

Active, productive 2012 for society

“A partnership in the challenges facing us”- Apartheid and South African-Israeli rugby relations, c. 1948 – 1989

By all accounts, South Africans played a critical role in the establishment and development of rugby in Israel from the 1950s onwards. According to the available evidence, a formal relationship between the South African Rugby Football Board and the Israel Rugby Football Union was only concluded 20 years later. Because of this friendship, various reciprocal exchange tours involving both university and provincial rugby union teams and the Israeli national team took place. In addition, between 1981- 1994, the South African Maccabean rugby team successfully participated in the Maccabean Games. Since this contact was in contravention of the international sports boycott against the apartheid state, the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid blacklisted various Israeli sports organisations and individuals at a time that Israel found itself at odds with a significant number of countries globally about the Palestinian Question. Given the international dilemmas faced by both countries as isolated and pariah states, their relations eventually extended beyond rugby. This article investigates the intersection of apartheid and Palestinian politics, rugby and the relationship between South Africa and Israel against the backdrop of increased diplomatic, military and other sanctions. It is argued that the rugby relations forged, made no direct contribution to enhance South Africa’s competitiveness within the sport arena but merely served as an additional instrument to assist in shielding both countries from total isolation.

"Proceed to some other port where our flag may fly in air that is not tainted with the stench of apartheid" - The intersection between the domestic and international anti-apartheid campaign and American naval visits to South Africa, 1948-1967

The introduction of apartheid in 1948 with its extensive suite of discriminatory laws, had a wide-ranging impact on South Africa’s international relations. Despite an ever-growing global anti-apartheid movement and calls for the country’s total isolation, the country succeeded in maintaining naval relations with several nations. As a result, it frequently hosted shipping crews from Europe and Northern America, mostly on flag-displaying missions. During these visits, non-White sailors were subjected to South Africa’s racial laws and entertained separately from their White counterparts. In following the principle of respecting “local law and custom”, commanders of vessels became willing collaborators in enforcing apartheid. Over two decades (1948–1967), racially-defined events and activities at segregated facilities became a standard feature of these visits. Under the influence of the local and American activists who viewed their civil rights- and anti-apartheid struggle as a common one, all forms of collaboration with the racist regime, were roundly condemned. By 1967, as a result of continuous mobilisation and the use of a diversity of mechanisms, the American anti-apartheid movement in co-operation with their local counterparts, succeeded in, among others, forcing a change in their country’s naval policy and its relations with South Africa. Effectively this led to the termination of American naval flag-display visits to South African ports from 1967-1994

Abstracts - SA Heart Congress 2012

SA Heart Congress 2012 - Abstracts

South African Heart Association newsletter

14th Annual Congress in conjunction with the 6th World Paediatric Cardiologyand Cardiac Surgery Congress

SA Heart Newsletter

15th Annual SA Heart Congress

An investigation of the morphological and electrochemical properties of spinel cathode oxide materials used in li-ion batteries

Li-ion batteries have become the more dominant battery type used in portable electronic devices such as cell phones, computers and more recently their application in full electric vehicles (EV). Li-ion batteries have many advantages over the traditional rechargeable systems (Pb-acid and Ni-MH) such as their higher energy density, low self-discharge, long capacity cycle life and relatively maintenance free. Due to their commercial advantages, a lot of research is done in developing new novel Li-ion electrode materials, improving existing ones and to reduce manufacturing costs in order to make them more cost effective in their applications. This study looked at the cathode material chemistry that has a typical spinel manganese oxide (LiMn2O4) type structure. For comparison the study also considered the influence of doping the phase with various metals such as Al, Mg, Co and Ni that were made as precursors using various carboxylic acids (Citric, Ascorbic, Succinic and Poly-acrylic acid) from a sol-gel process. Traditional batch methods of synthesizing the electrode material is costly and do not necessarily provide optimized electrochemical performance. Alternative continuous less energy intensive methods would help reduce the costs of the preparation of the electrode materials. This study investigated the influence of two synthesis techniques on the materials physical and electrochemical characteristics. These synthesis methods included the use of a typical batch sol-gel method and the continuous spray-drying technique. The spinel materials were prepared and characterized by Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD) to confirm the formation of various phases during the synthesis process. In addition, in-situ PXRD techniques were used to track the phase changes that occurred in the typical batch synthesis process from a sol-gel mixture to the final crystalline spinel oxide. The materials were also characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), whereby the materials decomposition mechanisms were observed as the precursor was gradually heated to the final oxide. These synthesized materials prepared under various conditions were then used to build suitable Li-ion coin type of cells, whereby their electrochemical properties were tested by simple capacity tests and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). EIS measurements were done on the built cells with the various materials at various charge voltages. TG analysis showed that the materials underwent multiple decomposition steps upon heating for the doped lithium manganese oxides, whereas the undoped oxide showed only a single decomposition step. The results showed that all the materials achieved their weight loss below 400 °C, and that the final spinel oxide had already formed. The in-situ PXRD analysis showed the progression of the phase transitions where certain of the materials changed from a crystalline precursor to an amorphous intermediate phase and then finally to the spinel cathode oxide (Li1.03Mg0.2Mn1.77O4, and LiCo1.09Mn0.91O4). For other materials, the precursor would start as an amorphous phase, and then upon heating, convert into an impure intermediate phase (Mn2O3) before forming the final spinel oxide (Li1.03Mn1.97O4 and LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4). The in-situ study also showed the increases in the materials respective lattice parameters of the crystalline unit cells upon heating and the significant increases in their crystallite sizes when heated above 600 °C. Hence the results implied that a type of sintering of the particles would occur at temperatures above 600 °C, thereby increasing the respective crystallite size. The study showed that the cathode active materials made by the sol-gel spray-drying method would give a material that had a significantly larger surface area and a smaller crystallite size when compared to the materials made by the batch process. The electrochemical analysis showed that there was only a slight increase in the discharge capacities of the cells made with the spray-drying technique when compared to the cells made with the materials from the batch sol-gel technique. Whereas, the EIS study showed that there were distinct differences in the charging behavior of the cells made with the various materials using different synthesis techniques. The EIS results showed that there was a general decrease in the cells charge transfer resistance (Rct) as the charge potential increased regardless of the synthesis method used for the various materials. The results also showed that the lithium-ion diffusion coefficient (DLi) obtained from EIS measurements were in most of the samples higher for the cathode materials that had a larger surface area. This implied that the Li-ion could diffuse at a faster rate through the bulk material. The study concluded that by optimizing the synthesis process in terms of the careful control of the thermal parameters, the Li-ion batteries‟ cathode active material of the manganese spinel type could be optimized and be manufactured by using a continuous flow micro spray process

Index of Abstracts - SA Heart Congress 2012

Index of abstracts