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13 August 2018 Photo Charl Devenish
Mountain research Maloti-Drakensberg
Tucked in the foothills of the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains is the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), the home of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU).
Mountains and highlands have always played an important role in the history of mankind. They produce economically essential goods and services (such as fresh water), host unique biodiversity, and offer unique recreational and tourism opportunities. Mountains are also a place for spiritual sanctuaries and are often used for journeys of self-reflection through pilgrimage.

In addition to these ‘feel good’ benefits, mountains are hazardous areas for communities and infrastructure and are vulnerable to natural disasters. Mountainous areas are also often natural borders defining geopolitical entities, but in the process splitting and marginalising communities, creating economic shadow zones and sometimes becoming highly militarised areas. 

“Southern African mountains provide enormous opportunities for holistic research as social-ecological systems, with some of the most interesting and least academically explored environments on Earth,” said Dr Vincent Clark, Director: Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus. 

The Afromontane Research Unit
The Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) is the home of the ARU, a multidisciplinary flagship group addressing the largely under-researched mountainous landscapes of southern Africa. 

Research in the ARU is promoted around three broad themes to foster inter- and multidisciplinary discourse: (1) conservation and sustainable use of Afromontane biodiversity; (2) sustainable futures for the people of the Afromontane; and (3) living and doing business in the Afromontane –  with the intention of creating a sustainability science hub to bring the three themes into the ambit of solution-oriented transdisciplinary research, centred in the sustainable development goals and sustainability research in general. 

Continental leader
To achieve its vision of becoming a continental leader in African mountain research, the ARU is positioning itself as a mountain-knowledge generator and interchange by developing key relationships locally and internationally. The most valuable local partnership is with the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), with which the ARU will be sharing a Research Chair. 

The Chair will contain strong expertise in the Social Sciences to complement the existing strong Natural Science element in both the ARU and SAEON. The Sustainability Science component is being built through inter alia a mutually-reinforcing relationship with the University of Tokyo and United Nations University, Tokyo. 

The future
“In tandem with robust collaborations to achieve its goals, the ARU provides an envious capacity-building programme for its early career campus academics, postdoctoral and postgraduate students,” said Dr Clark. 

The scale of influence of the ARU is prioritised as ‘back yard first’, namely solution-oriented research that benefits Phuthaditjhaba, Qwaqwa, Golden Gate Highlands National Park and Royal Natal National Park. Thereafter, the ARU seeks to facilitate research that encourages the sustainable development of the Maloti-Drakensberg as a unique social-ecological system in Africa, and from there facilitate research in the intellectual vacuum that is the southern African mountains. With time, the ARU aims to take the intellectual lead as an Africa-based leader in African mountain research. The success of this will depend on how carefully the development of human infrastructure can be balanced with that of the myriad opportunities presented.”

With a diverse and motivated team, situated in one of the most attractive environments in Africa, the ARU is here to change the way we think about African mountains and what they mean for us all. 

News Archive

SA cannot sustain momentum - Boesak
2010-09-02

Photo: Stephen Collett

South Africa finds it increasingly difficult to live up to the challenges facing it as a nation because of its failure to meet its democratic ideals and possibilities, peace and lack of self-belief.

This was according to renowned cleric and former political activist, Dr Allan Boesak, who recently delivered the CR Swart Memorial Lecture, the oldest memorial lecture at the University of the Free State (UFS). His lecture was on the topic Creating moments, sustaining momentum.

He said South Africa had plenty of opportunities to show the whole world what was possible if all the people of this country joined hands and worked together to build a truly united society. However, he said, the country somehow invariably contrived to find its way out of these wonderful possibilities.

He cited events of historical significance like Codesa, the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first democratic president of South Africa, the assassination of South African Communist Party leader, Chris Hani; and the rugby and soccer world cups.
To drive his point home about this dismal failure of the country to “sustain momentum”, he alluded to the current public servants’ strike that is gradually crippling public service.

“The public servants’ strike was neither unexpected nor is it completely unjustifiable. Most of us have understanding for the frustration of teachers and health workers. Their demands resonate with most of us, and I think that it is scandalous of SACP fat cats to tell workers to “stop crying like babies,” he said.

He also added to the criticism of the much-maligned decision of the government to spend billions of taxpayers’ money to purchase weapons when there was “no discernible military threat” to the country. He said the greatest threat to the security of the country was poverty, inequality and social cohesion.

“As for the argument that arms sales bring in foreign exchange – how can we be instrumental in killing the poor elsewhere with the intention of feeding our poor, and then our ill-gained profits feed only the already well-fed?” he asked.
“Can we see the hopeless contradiction, the total impossibility of being both the apostle of peace and a merchant of death?”

He also lambasted the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy of the government which he said benefited only those connected to the political aristocracy.

“It couples with the unashamed, in-your-face display of wealth by the privileged elite in this country, the crass materialism of the so-called “bling generation”, and the casual carelessness with which promises to the poor are given and treated. It is only the public symptom of the deep-seated scorn our political elites feel for the poor,” he said.

He said the government’s disdain to the poor was “setting fire to our future”.

“The anger of people on the ground can no longer be denied or ignored, and little by little, the leadership articulating and directing this anger is being estranged from politically elected leadership, and even more disturbing, from our democratic processes,” he said.

He concluded that the country’s difficulty in dealing with race and racism was putting the reconciliation process kick-started by Mandela just over a decade ago, under a threat.
 

 

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