Media statement

Two Cape Flats learners from the MRC/Tellumat school science programme scoops gold at this year’s Eskom Science Expo in Pretoria

A SA Medical Research Council (MRC) and sponsor Tellumat school’s science programme has finally borne fruit as Lungelwa Tyeda and Nunu Sive received gold medals for their outstanding work at this year’s annual ESKOM’s National Expo for Young Scientists (National finals) held on 28 and 29 September in Pretoria.

The Grade 11 pupils, both from Intlanganiso High School in Khayelitsha (Site C) undertook an “investigation into the causes of electrical fires in informal settlements” in their surrounding area.

The sixteen year-old winners say their project was inspired by the need to prevent electrical fires in squatter camps and informal settlements, which happen everyday and often lead to severe injury. “We wanted to look at the main causes of the fires, such as people not switching off their electricity; cable-theft; children getting shocked by live electrical wires lying around (mostly caused by cable-thieves) and incorrect electrical wiring," says Lungelwa Tyeda.

This was not a first time win for the two tenacious girls who initially participated in the Cape Town regional Expo in August where they also won gold medals. These learners would not have achieved such outstanding results had it not been for the Khanyagula Expo which acts as a stepping stone to the regional competition.

The Khanyagula EXPO programme, now funded by telecommunications company Tellumat and facilitated by the Medical Research Council (MRC), was initiated in 1997 by a small group of school science teachers from Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Guguletu and Langa to encourage learners to participate in national science exhibitions.

“We are very passionate about the contribution we are making towards building capacity among the future scientists of South Africa and the recent gold medals as well as the increase in participation by underprivileged communities at expo are a manifestation of this passion,” says MRC Community Liaison Officer Khalipha Ramahlape,

Winner, Nunu Sive, says she hopes that winning the gold medal will inspire other learners to take science seriously at school so that they can be exposed to the expo and be able to compete with other learners from South Africa. “There are many opportunities you get when you enter the Science Expo for Junior Scientists and it's really amazing," she said.

Ramahlaphe says she has been involved with Khanyagula for the past ten years and finds it very encouraging to see that they can finally bear the fruit of all the hard work. “Had it not been for the excellent partnership between the MRC and Tellumat, these learners would have gone unnoticed in these kinds of activities,” she says.