Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
![]()
After South Africa’s battle with the record-breaking drought of 2015, Prof Andries Jordaan from our Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa(DiMTEC) saw room for improvement in dealing with this kind of disaster.
Drought impact
Commercial farmers who are usually net exporters of food crops and communal farmers who own the bulk of the country’s livestock, were all hit hard in 2015. Most of the latter had no resources to spare as the drought progressed. The concern about the drought’s impact on the country’s food production and availability resulted in a joint goal of preventing food scarcity during future droughts.
Prof Jordaan’s visit to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the US, several years ago prepared him to better equip communities in South Africa to deal with drought situations. “I recognised that in spite of the impact DiMTEC has been able to make on disaster preparedness, a gap remained in disaster response in South Africa.”
Sharing knowledge
In August this year Prof Jordaan again visited the NDMC. This time he requested a few key players in South Africa’s agriculture and disaster response communities to join him. With him were Janse Rabie, head of Natural Resources at AgriSA, a nonprofit organisation that functions as an interface between the government and about 28 000 South Africa farmers, and Moses Musiwale Khangale, director of Fire Services for the South African Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
The South African delegation met with and learnt from climatologists, geospatial technologists, and outreach and planning analysts.
Faculty of Theology presents research day for postgraduate students
2009-03-26
 |
In its pursuit of quality in academic work the Faculty of Theology at the University of the Free State (UFS) held a research day for postgraduate students. Presenters at this occasion amongst others focused on ethics of research (plagiarism), the research process, utilising the library, and the Harvard reference method. At this occasion were, from the left, front: Prof. Fanie Snyman, Chairperson of the faculty’s Research Committee, Rev Tladi Maile, Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (Masters student in Dogmatics); middle: Rev André Pieterse, Dutch Reformed Church Krokodilrivier in Brits (Ph.D. student in Dogmatics), Rev Bongsuk Oh, Johannesburg Korean Reformed Church (Masters student in Dogmatics), Darris Clement, Honours student in Practical Theology; and back: Rev Dintoe Letloenyane, Anglican Church in Bloemfontein (Honours student in Practical Theology).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs |