Author: Steven Lang

We are currently celebrating the 150th anniversary of Grocott’s Mail, but there is a good argument to be made that we should in fact be commemorating its 189th year of existence. Grocott’s Mail began publishing as a newspaper on 11 May 1870, but it later took over and incorporated The Graham’s Town Journal which had been in print since 1831. The Graham’s Town Journal , set up by 19-year-old Louis Henri Meurant, was the first newspaper in the Cape Colony to be established outside Cape Town when it hit the streets on 30 December 1831. The paper thrived as Grahamstown’s…

Part Two of this series on the history of Grocott’s Mail begins in 1920, a year of momentous changes at the newspaper and in its home city, Grahamstown. The world was recovering from the first Great War and the Spanish Flu pandemic – both of which claimed many hundreds of lives from the population of Grahamstown. Under the steady hands of William Ellington Grocott and Richard Sherry, Grocott’s Penny Mail had grown to eight pages during the War, but persistent paper shortages forced the newspaper to revert to its four-page format  published three times per week. Ironically, for a few…

A PhD student at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, SAIAB, has added a new species to the moray eel family. Yonela Sithole and her colleagues noticed that the undulated moray eel found off the South African coast looked a little different to the same species found in many other parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. She wondered whether the undulated moray eel found off the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal coasts are in fact a different species. This question became the focus of her MSc project as she and her colleagues examined local specimens, as well as…

How can you tell if you have the coronavirus? The quick answer is that you have a test, and the medical practitioners will let you know whether you have it or not. The problem with this solution is that there is a shortage of test kits and they cost money. This means that only a small proportion of South Africans will be tested in the near future. For this reason, we rely on a person’s symptoms to tell whether they are likely to have the virus. If they have a cough, fever, a sore throat or shortness of breath then…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has put a number of rules in place that apply to all South Africans for good reasons. The rules are aimed at stopping the spread of the Coronavirus, or Covid-19, and reducing the number of deaths in this country. One of the most important, and difficult rules to keep, requires us to remain a social distance, or two-metres, apart from each other. To get an idea of how far this distance is, take a broom with your outstretched arm and hold it to its full length. If you can keep that far away from other people, you…

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will show solidarity with the government in its efforts to combat the coronavirus, but the Health MEC in the Eastern Cape must be removed. This was core of the message the party put across in a virtual media conference Monday morning 4 May. DA leader in the province, Nqaba Bhanga, emphasised that his party would continue to support the efforts of President Cyril Ramaphosa, but would propose a motion to remove Health MEC Sindiswe Gomba from office because she had failed to show the required leadership. Bhanga said the Eastern Cape government had failed to act…

Die Covid19 pandemie is klaar erg genoeg, maar die geweldige hoeveelheid inligting wat daar deursypel, verwar ‘n mens nog meer. Wat is die waarheid en wat is alles vals nuus?  Wat is die beste manier om ons geliefdes en onsself te beskerm? Feitlik elke nuusorganisasie op die aardbol het nou ‘n worsmasjien geword om stories oor die virus te verskaf. Daarby het al wat leef en beef op die sosiale media  –  insluitende nie-regeringsorganisasies en die meeste private sakeondernemings  –   ook ‘n eiertjie daaroor te lê. Van die inligting is geloofwaardig en nuttig, maar heelwat daarvan is nuttelose fopnuus, en…

Niemand weet presies waarom die coronavirus die dood van meer mans as vroue veroorsaak nie. Heelwat meer mans, met ‘n coronavirusinfeksie, as vroue, is in  Europa, China, die VSA en ook in Suid-Afrika oorlede. Een verduideliking wat algemeen oorweeg word, is dat die verskil tussen mans en vroue ten opsigte van die aantal sterftes as gevolg van hierdie virus, die gevolg van lewensstyl-keuses kan wees. Mans is meer geneig om te rook en om alkohol te gebruik en hierdie gewoontes maak hulle meer vatbaar vir asemhalingsiektes. Dr Stanley Perlman van die Universiteit van Iowa voer aan dat lewensstyl-keuses wel ‘n…

No one is exactly sure why, but the coronavirus kills many more men than women. The death rate for men with a coronavirus infection is much higher in Europe, China, the United States and South Africa. An explanation that has been widely considered is that the disparity is a result of life-style choices. Men are more likely to smoke and drink alcohol – habits that would make them more susceptible to respiratory diseases. Dr Stanley Perlman of the University of Iowa argues that life-style choices might have an impact, but that it is not the whole story. Testing how coronaviruses…

Christophe H, Ida and Stijn At least 24 journalists from 16 African countries on Tuesday participated in online training aimed at improving coverage of the Covid-19 in their media organisations. International non-profit organisation, Internews set up the session aimed at helping African journalists navigate through fake news, propaganda and changing scenarios linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. Clearly the biggest concern of the journalists was about how to check on the truthfulness (or not) of the information they are receiving. Fake news on social media has been almost overwhelming since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of Covid-19 a…