Multilingual Mokete panel allows student voices to be heard
—STORY:Eugene Seegers
What does your language mean to you, or what does it allow you to do? This will be the focus of the student-led panel discussion during this year’s Kovsies Multilingual Mokete on Friday 17 September 2021. Other questions under discussion will revolve around language promotion on the UFS campuses, African languages in the academic curricula, and the empowerment of students through language instruction.
Date: 17 September 2021
Time: 14:45 to 15:30
Topic: Multilingualism on campus(es): Are we heard?
Teams link: Click here to join the panel discussion at the above time
‘Hearing you, hearing me.’ | ‘Ons luister na mekaar.’ | ‘Ukungizwa, ukukuzwa.’ | ‘Mmamele ke o mamele.’
Facilitator
Kamogelo Dithebe
Student Governance Coordinator
(Department of Student Affairs)
Student Panellists
- Katlego Sekele
Bloemfontein SRC: Universal Access and Social Justice Council - Makhura Ngwako Kamogelo
Qwaqwa Campus Faculty Chairperson (Faculty of The Humanities) - Ethan Isaacs
South Campus: First-year Student Perspective - Lebohang Jeanette Rapapali
Bachelor of Arts student on the Qwaqwa Campus
Panellists’ Bios
Katlego Sekele
Katlego Sekele is a diversity, belonging and inclusion human rights activist. A student in her final year of study for her BA degree in Governance and Political Transformation, she found her start in advocacy and volunteer programmes in Pretoria, from where she hails. Having completed her internship at the Commission for Gender Equality, she continued her advocacy through the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Office as a student volunteer and former chairperson of the Gender and Equality Council. She now holds the title of CSRC: Universal Access and Social Justice (Chairperson) on the Bloemfontein Campus, and has continued to expand her reach in advocacy, championing the rights of marginalised and minority groups, with the key focus on womxn’s rights, rights of persons with disabilities, as well as LGBTQIA+ rights. She believes in the inclusion and acknowledgement of the diverse student populace and aims to create an institutional culture of transformation and universal accessibility.
Makhura Ngwako
Makhura Ngwako is currently a final-year BA student in the Faculty of The Humanities at the University of the Free State, and serves as the Qwaqwa Campus Faculty Chairperson. He is majoring in History and English. His eventual career goal is to become a fully qualified and experienced lecturer, working with students. Occupying various student leadership positions has exposed him to a vast array of knowledge and experience. In addition, he has been a motivational speaker, debater, and poet during the past few years.
Ethan Isaacs
Ethan Isaacs is from a town called Keimoes in the Northern Cape. He matriculated at Upington High School and in 2019 is currently in his second year of a Bachelor of Commerce (Extended Curriculum Programme) at the South Campus, with the aim of specialising in a Bachelor of Commerce: Investment Management and Banking. He is proud to be the Prime of Liberty, one of the three residences on the South Campus. Ethan describes himself as ambitious, driven, and value oriented. He believes in making an impact wherever he finds himself and strives to be as effective and efficient as possible. He is passionate about helping others and having a positive influence on those around him; being a peer mentor on the South Campus helps him to do exactly that. He finds great benefit in reading books that augment his people and leadership skills. His dream is to be able to change people’s lives for the better and to make a difference through a positive contribution to society.
Lebohang Jeanette Rapapali
Lebohang Rapapali was born in Qwaqwa on 25 February 1994 and currently resides in Sasolburg. Growing up was not easy for her, since she had to move to different provinces each year because of her father’s job. However, moving to different provinces exposed her to different people’s cultures, different races, and different languages. She attended secondary school at Retief Hoërskool for seven years. This is where she became passionate about the Afrikaans language. At first, she thought the language was difficult, but the more she learned it, the more she realised how easy it was. She ended up doing all her school subjects in Afrikaans and fell deeply in love with the language. In 2019, she applied again at Qwaqwa Campus and was admitted for a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology and English; she also received funding this time around. Her love for Afrikaans had not changed, so she decided to add it to her modules and believes that one day it will be added as a major, not a minor at the university, so that it will be easier for students who want to teach it or specialise in it during their levels of study.