A good week for Rachel Rahlao

A good week for Rachel Rahlao

While other parts of the government have taken hits from the US, the militaries of the two nations are operating amicably.

Brig Gen Rachel Rahlao, director of force preparation and training in the South African Defence Force (SANDF), joined US Army Col Jeffrey Csoka to co-chair a planning conference ahead of a joint military exercise to be held later this year involving South African and US soldiers. The meeting hosted exercise planners from the SANDF, the US military’s Southern Europe Task Force-Africa, the New York National Guard, the US Air Force and the US embassy at the HQ of 44 Parachute Regiment in Bloemfontein.

A bad week for Norman Arendse

A deciding vote cast by Norman Arendse, chair of the University of Cape Town (UCT) council, will cost the institution millions in US aid. The council debated a motion to rescind a decision taken last year for an academic boycott of Israel. The members were locked at 13 votes apiece before Arendse’s vote. The final vote is likely to have wide repercussions in the US and affect funding for the university. One of the speakers in the debate, according to Breitbart News, said UCT could lose R50m of its R77m in donor funding from the US, with the faculty of health sciences and its research programmes hardest hit. UCT is the recipient of the biggest health funding of any institution outside North America.