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17 December 2018 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Supplied
Sport ablution South Cam
Sports ablution facilities at the South Campus will ensure universal access.
As part of its 2018 infrastructure expansion, the University of the Free State (UFS) launched three solar farms earlier this year. The solar farm in Bloemfontein is large enough to power up to 300 houses, while the Qwaqwa and South campuses had 750kWp ground-mounted solar systems installed. 

“The power generated from the solar systems will always take preference over the conventional Centlec power supply meaning less power will be used from the national grid,” said Maureen Khati, Assistant Director at Facilities Planning.

All these sites will be connected directly to the university’s medium voltage electrical grid, thus the power can be distributed to areas where needed. 

The year that was 

The solar farms formed part of 274 new developments which were planned for the year by the Department of University Estates. These covered all three campuses and the off-campus environment in some cases. Areas including sports and recreation, academic spaces, security, energy, electrical, property, and landscapes experienced major upgrades.

By the virtue of being an institution and given the growing population of the university, study areas have ascended to human rights status. This has warranted an additional 24/7 study space on the Bloemfontein Campus. This new development provided a necessary diversion of traffic from the Sasol Library Study Labs during the year-end exam period.

According to Khati: “The space accommodates 80 students and is a collaborative learning facility since it is divided into different compartments such as discussion rooms and a larger open study space which is safe to study for longer hours.”

A student housing unit with 268 beds was built in the South Campus to accommodate undergraduate students. A new University Estates building, sports ablution facilities on the South Campus, which includes universal access, and tutorial venues on the Qwaqwa Campus were also successfully completed.

Projects currently under way

A 252- and 255-bed student housing project that will be connected to the existing grey water system is in progress on the South Campus. The new intake of students for the next academic year will be treated to luxury student living equipped with a heat pump.

In addition, a new hockey Astro Turf field was constructed at the Bloemfontein Campus to supplement the already existing facility, and the Naval Hill telescope sculpture and a viewing platform were installed.

Looking to the future

The university has been granted funding by the Department of Higher Education and Training for three projects on the Qwaqwa Campus and an additional three at the Bloemfontein Campus. These projects include residences, Student Lecturing Assessment Centres, as well as Language Development Centres.

Safety and security is at the core of developments at the UFS.
Safety and security is at the core of developments at the UFS.
World-class study space for improved learning efficiency.
World-class study space for improved learning efficiency.
Harvesting natural resources to power Qwaqwa Campus.
Harvesting natural resources to power Qwaqwa Campus.
Solar energy is the future: new solar farm propels UFS into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Solar energy is the future: new solar farm propels UFS into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Game time upgrades: Hockey on a brand new Astro Turf field for our star athletes.
Game time upgrades: Hockey on a brand new Astro Turf field for our star athletes.

News Archive

Lecture focuses on how Marikana widows embody the transformative power of art
2015-08-11

Makopane Thelejane

"When I got the news of my husband is dead, I put my hands above my head, as you see me in this picture. I could not bear the ache in my heart." - Makopane Thelejane

A woman looks down on a canvas covered in thick layers of red, dark shadows falling across her face. A brief moment that captures the silently-devastating aftermath of the Marikana massacre that bled into the lives of 34 widows.

It is this silent trauma that was at the centre of the last instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series for 2015. “These stories of the Marikana widows are important. It is these stories of silence that live behind the spectacular scenes of the violence,” Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) said at the event.

Panel
The lecture, which took place on Monday 27 July 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus, took the form of a panel discussing the theme of “Speaking wounds: voices of Marikana widows through art and narrative”. The panel consisted of members from the Khulumani Support Group, including Dr Marjorie Jobson (National Director) and Judy Seidman (Sociologist and Graphic Artist), as well as Nomfundo Walaza, former CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.

Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

"Then this dark time came, a dark cloud over me. It made me to have an aching heart, which took me to hospital, from losing my loved one, my husband, in such a terrible manner. " - Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

Trauma made visible
In a project initiated by Khulumani, the Marikana widows were encouraged to share their trauma through painting body maps – in which the widows depicted their own bodies immersed in their trauma – and narrating their personal stories. Throughout the workshops, the focus always remained on the women. As Siedman put it, “the power of this process is rooted in the participants. The statements of what the participants experienced is what’s important.”

Initially silenced and isolated, this group of women has now moved “into a space where they have become connected to each, and stand up for each other in the most powerful ways,” Dr Jobson said. “Our work is conceptualised in terms of giving visibility and voice to the people who know what it takes to change this country; to change this struggle.”

The transformative power of art and narrative
During her response, Walaza pointed out “how art and narrative can transform traumatic memory and become integrated in the survivors’ life story.” This gives individuals the opportunity, she said, “to step into a space of mutual listening and dialoguing in which people bond together.”

Co-hosted by Prof Gobodo-Madikizela and the UFS Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, the lecture series forms part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

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