University of South Africa

Owl is also survived by his stepmother, Kathy Bryant of New Orleans, his stepfather, Michael J. Melroy of Eureka Springs, stepbrothers Mark Melroy of Seattle, Washington, and Sam Bryant of Bettendorf, Iowa, and stepsister Michelle Hawley of DeWitt, Iowa.

family was at the center of owl's life and his children were his absolute pride and joy and the inspiration for everything he did owl's early years reflected both determination and promise he graduated from bentendorf high school in iowa after only three years a testament to his drive and ability He continued his education at the University of South Africa and also graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans with three degrees in German language, philosophy, and world religions.

Professionally, Al was a talented production designer, art director, and the CEO of Louisiana Lightscapes.

His colleagues and collaborators valued his imagination, his leadership, and the energy he brought to every project.

Very interesting.

All right, then we're gonna be taking you straight to the BRICS Summer School, uh, at UNISA, and we're gonna be taking you on the ground with our correspondent Thabo Mokwakwa.

After that, we are going to be talking a little bit about sugar.

Now South Africa has raised the tariffs on sugar, trying to protect the local market.

The program covers areas including international politics, economics, culture, science, education, digital technology, AI, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, you name it.

Now, this year around 150 participants from 12 countries are expected to take part in this year's program.

Our correspondent, Thabo Mokwakwa, is at UNISA, and he spoke to Ben Joubert, South Africa's BRICS Sous-Sherpa, uh, from the in- Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

Now, Ben Joubert, uh, is, is, is, is the BRICS Sherpa for South Africa, and here is the conversation that he had with our correspondent, Thabo Mokwakwa Yeah.

Uh, true, and I think, Bongani, uh, our conversation this morning is about the mid-year population estimates.

It's a report released by the Bureau of Market Research at the University of South Africa on an annual basis, and we present that report to our corporate members for planning purposes.

And, and quite rightly so, uh, we're definitely becoming a larger population, uh, although we are growing at a slower pace as compared to the past.

But I think two important demographic movements that's happening at the same time, as you have highlighted this morning, is that the percentage of children, and we're talking children 15 years and younger, are gradually declining.

So very, very interesting, I suppose, to watch all of these issues unfold.

And then, of course, Professor Dirk Kotsa of the University of South Africa talking to me about the possibility that we may have legislation that is going to regulate the coalition space in the local government space, I suppose.

And we are watching with great interest As to how that is going to be.

Finalized.

To examine the history of this relationship, the opportunities for deeper cooperation and South Africa's potential role as South Sudan approaches its elections, our other correspondent, Ms. Christine Sotetsi, she spoke to Professor Dirk Kotsa.

He's an international politics analyst and a professor of political sciences at the University of South Africa.

Let's go to that conversation between Christine and Professor Dirk Kotsa.

Thank you so much, Professor Dekotempo, Professor in Political Science.

Yes, it is indeed so that South Africa has a long history with South Sudan, even when it was still part of the bigger Sudan.

This goes back to the period specifically before 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, where South Africa became directly involved in it, although it was not part of the mediation process that was done by IGAD.

the east african community organization but thereafter as he indicated the south african government as well as my university the university of south africa were involved in a period of about six years of capacity building

so the

And, and, In that process, I then went and studied at Rhodes University for a master's in which I did a lot of that psychology of organizations and leadership and everything like that.

And at the same time, a little while afterwards, I studied at University of South Africa on an MBL.

and in it the whole side of organizational development psychology kind of rose to the fore.

And so I've been doing a lot of that leadership work.

Interestingly, as the beginning of COVID came about, I hate the word pivoted, but I decided that if I couldn't get out and do stuff anyway, I would then rather study.

So I studied executive management coaching through University of South Africa, sorry, through University of Cape Town.

which allowed me to work with senior people in Southern Africa, now with Zoom and virtual kind of means.

And I got even more immersed in that whole process of management and I studied further because COVID did not... finished by that stage.

And that was fairly, you know, uh, the mission that I had to work on.

Uh, and that is why after that I had to go to University of South Africa and do an honors degree.

I then moved to the University of Pretoria and do a master's degree-

Mm

There's never ...

Unisa has its own system.

Nelson Mandela University has its own system, how it deals with the data of their students.

TVET colleges have their own systems.