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        <description><![CDATA[The Conversation is a network of not-for-profit media outlets that publish news stories written by academics and researchers.]]></description>
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            <title>How a basic solar grant brought cheaper electricity to one shack settlement in South Africa</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/how-a-basic-solar-grant-brought-cheaper-electricity-to-one-shack-settlement-in-south-africa-2026-06-25</link>
            <description><![CDATA[In South Africa, 47% of the national population is energy poor, meaning that they spend more than 10%-15% of their income on power and still do not have nearly enough for their basic needs.  The problem is getting worse as informal or shack settlements continue to grow. This growth has accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of households exposed to precarious energy conditions is rising.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Fossil fuels still dominate in Africa’s electricity future – study tracks 3 139 power plants</title>
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            <description><![CDATA[Only about 57% of the people in Africa have access to electricity, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. To meet the United Nations goal of everyone having access to affordable electricity by 2030, African countries will need to rapidly expand electricity generation.  However, generating more electricity will have an effect on available water resources and climate change. Power plants use water and emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (which causes global warming) to generate electricity. For instance, coal-fired electricity emits huge amounts of carbon dioxide. Thermal and nuclear power plants use water for cooling, hydropower needs water to move its turbines, and solar panels need water for cleaning.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
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            <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 11:06:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>We are mapping and monitoring Africa’s underground water supplies in preparation for a hotter ...</title>
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            <description><![CDATA[As global temperatures rise, surface waters – including rivers, lakes and reservoirs – are becoming dangerously erratic. This is because in a hotter climate, there are rapid swings between intense evaporation and sudden, extreme rainfall.  Water is at the centre of the climate crisis. In Africa, around 400-million people currently lack access to basic drinking water services.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 11:04:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Vaccine hesitancy can’t be boiled down to a single factor: what we learnt in South Africa and ...</title>
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            <description><![CDATA[Vaccine uptake has been declining in Brazil and South Africa over the last decade. This decline has reversed important gains in protecting children against vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, polio, diphtheria and whooping cough.  Both countries have well-established, universal and free childhood immunisation programmes. In Brazil, coverage has dropped 10-20 percentage points since 2016 and remains below the 95% target for several routine vaccines. In South Africa, vaccination coverage has steadily declined since 2015. For example, coverage for the first dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV1), a key indicator of immunisation programme performance, decreased from 86% in 2015 to 76% in 2024.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 11:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Can Africa survive the global aid squeeze? Yes, but it will take financial discipline</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/can-africa-survive-the-global-aid-squeeze-yes-but-it-will-take-financial-discipline-2026-06-22</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Africa faces declining aid, rising debt, climate pressure and a weakening global order. Official development assistance, the technical term for foreign aid, fell by 23.1% in 2025, the largest annual contraction on record. It’s projected to decline by a further 5.8% in 2026, before accounting for strain from the current crisis in the Middle East.  UN Trade and Development has also warned that debt servicing is diverting scarce resources from education, health, infrastructure and other development priorities.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 11:28:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>South African scientists make breakthrough in decoding cancer’s most effective survival strategy</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/south-african-scientists-make-breakthrough-in-decoding-cancers-most-effective-survival-strategy-2026-06-19</link>
            <description><![CDATA[In the intricate biology of the human body, organs such as the breast, the colon and the lungs are lined with a defensive barrier known as the epithelium. At the heart of this barrier sits a remarkable protein called Mucin-1 (MUC1). In a healthy body, MUC1 is like a sentinel.  It stands on the cell wall, draped in a complex “armour” of long chains of sugar molecules (carbohydrates), where it serves as a physical shield against bacteria, viruses and toxins. Crucially, it communicates with the immune system, telling our natural defences when the body is under threat.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2026 10:22:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Could the roofs of low cost houses be South Africa’s secret weapon against hunger?</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/could-the-roofs-of-low-cost-houses-be-south-africas-secret-weapon-against-hunger-2026-06-18</link>
            <description><![CDATA[South Africa’s hunger crisis is no longer a distant warning. Millions of poor households are forced to choose between food, electricity, transport and water every month. The country also faces worsening climate shocks, such as floods, heatwaves, drought and growing water scarcity.  Yet one of South Africa’s most overlooked food security solutions may already exist above the heads of millions of poor households. These are the rooftops of what’s known locally as RDP houses (small, 40m², government subsidised dwellings built under the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme after the end of apartheid). There are over 3.5-million across South Africa.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:17:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Xenophobia in South Africa: state’s complicity with gangs and vigilantes is threatening its ...</title>
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            <description><![CDATA[Marches, Mozambicans murdered, state-sponsored evacuations, a nationally televised presidential address. Anti-immigrant mobilisation has again drawn the world’s attention to South Africa. The continental backlash threatens tourism, trade, diplomacy and investment opportunities in Africa’s largest economy, and is derailing its constitutional democracy.  Many citizens demand the country restore its sovereignty – the state’s ability to govern itself and determine its own laws within its borders – by tightening border controls. Parties promise to deliver walls, raids and deportations.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
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            <pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:41:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Young, South African and unemployed: finding direction starts with knowing yourself – counsellor</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/young-south-african-and-unemployed-finding-direction-starts-with-knowing-yourself-counsellor-2026-06-15</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Thirty-two years after South Africa became a democratic state, the futures of millions of young people in the country are shaped to a large degree by uncertainty, exclusion, poverty and discouragement. As one lens on this scene, unemployment in the age group 15-34 borders on 46%.  I am an educational psychologist who has done 35 years of research on the career-life stories of young people growing up in contexts marked by extreme poverty, exclusion, inequality and disadvantage. These hardships shape their career development and views of the ever-changing world of work.]]></description>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:44:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>The story behind Soweto Blues, Miriam Makeba’s famous song about the June 16 uprising</title>
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            <description><![CDATA[Miriam Makeba sang a famous song about the 16 June 1976 uprising in her birthplace, South Africa. The protest was a pivotal point in the fight against apartheid and white minority rule in the country. The song was called Soweto Blues and its opening lines go:  The children got a letter from the Master.]]></description>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:42:00 +0200</pubDate>
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