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The quotation in the title highlights the experience of many students of summative assessment as the dominant mode of assessment in most South African schools. As a result, students enter university ignorant of good formative feedback and they are therefore often unable to recognise its value and may even be traumatised by the presence of so much ink on the page. This situation indicates a need for explicit focus on formative assessment and its usefulness for EAL university students in South Africa. This article is based on focus group interviews, which formed part of an ongoing critical action research project exploring formative assessment in an academic writing course for disadvantaged access students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In previous stages of this research, Wilhelm Meyer and Penny Niven have explored their identity as writing teachers giving feedback on student essays and attempted to implement the principles of good formative assessment developed as a result. In this phase of the research project, the students were given explicit instruction on summative, formative and criterion-based assessment, in a series of classes developed by Penny Niven. At the end of this series, Wilhelm Meyer conducted focus group interviews with twelve students in an attempt to assess the success of the experiment in creating a heightened awareness of formative criterion-based assessment practices in order that they would understand and therefore utilise formative feedback on their writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sub-Saharan Africa, virulent babesiosis in domestic dogs is primarily caused by Babesia rossi. Black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas), indigenous hosts of B. rossi, are the most likely reservoir from which B. rossi became established in domestic dog populations in South Africa. Haemaphysalis elliptica is the only confirmed vector transmitting B. rossi to domestic dogs; very little was known about the prevalence of H. elliptica infestation in black-backed jackal populations. All jackals (n = 9) from a site in Gauteng Province, South Africa, were infested with H. elliptica, which was also the most numerous tick recovered. Rhipicephalus simus was the second-most prevalent tick. Low numbers of four other tick species were recovered. An extended dataset (n = 23) including published data on adult black-backed jackals (n = 14) from other parts of South Africa indicated that H. elliptica (74%) was the most prevalent species, followed by R. simus (44%). Published data from black-backed jackals (n = 12) in Kenya showed a prevalence of H. leachi sensu lato infestation of 93%. We conclude that where its off-host ecological requirements are met, H. elliptica/leachi is the most prevalent tick infesting black-backed jackal population throughout their range. A comprehensive checklist, with discussion, is given for the 29 tick species reported from black-backed jackals in both southern and northeastern Africa., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors report no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Four hand-reared, naïve roan antelope, 4 months of age, were exposed to naturally infected pasture on a game farm in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, where roan are known to die from theileriosis. Various clinical parameters were recorded during this period. The predominant ticks parasitising these animals at the time (January to February), were Rhipicephalus appendiculatus and Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi adults. After a period of 5 weeks the animals developed signs of clinical theileriosis and were treated with buparvaquone to prevent mortality. Primary hyperplasia of the local draining lymph nodes (Lnn. anorectales) near the feeding site of adult R. evertsi evertsi indicated possible transmission of Theileria sp. (sable) by this tick species. After recovery from theileriosis, these animals were confirmed carriers of Theileria sp. (sable) by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and DNA probe analysis. Laboratory-bred larvae and nymphs of R. evertsi evertsi and R. appendiculatus respectively, were fed on the ears of these roan antelope. Salivary glands from moulted and prefed adult ticks of each species were dissected and stained for Theileria spp., and the PCR and DNA probe applied to a representative batch of dissected glands. R. appendiculatus adults collected from grass in infected camps were also dissected after prefeeding them on rabbits. Salivary glands of both tick species showed infected acini on staining and were also positive for Theileria sp. (sable) only, on multiprotozoal PCR-screening analysis. There was no statistical significant difference between the infection rate and the intensity of infection between the two tick species. R. appendiculatus ticks collected from grass were also PCR-positive for Theileria sp. (sable).