Young Scientists on SAfm

Akhona Mbele and Busisile Zilwa (see photo) both grade 11 students from the Cape
Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology, are appearing on Morning Talkback with Ashraf Garda on SAfm radio on Monday, August 20. They will share the airwaves with Ivan James, an Expo vice-chairperson in the Cape.

The two students were among the hundreds of competitors who flooded into the MTN Sciencentre last week for the Eskom Expo For Young Scientists.

It was the first time that the MTN Sciencentre hosted the Expo, which has been running for a quarter of a century in South Africa.

Akhona and Busisile were happy with their bronze medals after competing for the first time.

Busisile, who lives in Khayelitsha outside of school term, when he stays in the Academy's boarding house, said the project focused on how to help the municipality supply clean water, as cheaply as possible, to densely-populated and impoverished townships.

Akhona, who hails from Beaufort West in the central Karoo, where he lives with his pensioner mother and granny, said they utilised river water, bore holes and underground aquifers, and concentrated on ways to clean the water up to human standards.

Charl Schoeman, their biology teacher, said it was the four-year-old school's first time at the Expo. Schoeman was delighted that three of his four teams received bronze medals.

Jani de Bruin of the MTN Sciencentre, which hosted the Cape Town leg of the Expo for the first time, paid tribute to Engen for allowing visitors free access during the two days of the competition, and said she looked forward to a repeat performance next year.

Cape Town Expo organiser Olga Peel from the Bishops (Diocesan College) biology department in Rondebosch said 435 projects by nearly 650 pupils across the Cape peninsula competed for silver, bronze and gold medals.

In the past week, in addition to the Cape Town competition, thousands of students participated in the Bloemfontein, Ladysmith, Nelspruit, Bethlehem, Welkom, Secunda and Port Elizabeth competitions.

And this week there will be Expo for Young Scientist competitions in Ixopo in KwaZulu Natal on Tuesday (August 21), in Kimberley on Wednesday, in Upington in the Northern Cape on Thursday and in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape on Thursday and Friday.

More Expos follow in Mmabatho in the Northwest, the University of the North-West in Phalaborwa, in Tzaneen and in Polokwane.