Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
20 July 2018 Photo iStock
Speaking about the politics of land reform at UFS Thought-Leader Series on 26 July 2018
The road to land reform is paved with politics which are to be analysed by South African political parties at the fourth panel discussion in the UFS Thought-Leader Series on 26 July 2018.

Representatives of South African political parties are expected to descend upon the University of the Free State (UFS) to field conversations and shed light on the politics of land reform. As part of the UFS inaugural Thought-Leader Series, the fourth panel discussion is due to take place at the Bloemfontein Campus on 26 July 2018.

Standpoints by the African National Congress (ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Democratic Alliance (DA), Freedom Front Plus (FF+), and the Congress of the People (COPE) are expected to be shared by the panellists. Lynette Francis, presenter and producer of the daily news and actuality talk show Praat Saam on Radio Sonder Grense (RSG) and anchor of Fokus on SABC 2, will facilitate the discussions.

Representing the DA will be Annette Steyn, who serves as the party’s shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Wouter Wessels, a member of the National Assembly and former office-bearer in the Free State Provincial Legislature, will share the FF+ stance on land reform. Also among the representatives will be Jeremy Cronin, Deputy Minister of Public Works in the ANC, former Deputy General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), and former lecturer at the University of Cape Town as well as Mosiuoa Lekota, President and Leader of the Congress of the People (COPE).

Intersections between land and governance
At the dawn of the democratic dispensation in 1994, the ANC developed a programme for land reform to settle the disparity resulting from the Land Act of 1913. Earlier this year, the ANC and the EFF made a joint call for land expropriation without compensation in Parliament. Since then, the land reform question has been on the forefront of national discourse.

An ad hoc Constitutional Review Committee, comprising different political parties, was subsequently established to carry out the duty of amending Section 25 and other clauses to make it possible for the state to expropriate land in the public interest without compensation. The committee was tasked with collecting recommendations on the issue from ordinary South Africans, policy-makers, civil society organisations, and academics, while adhering to a 30 August 2018 deadline.

In light of these current affairs, the university officially launched its inaugural Thought-Leader Series focusing on land reform on 12 July 2018, where three panels of industry role players and scholars from across the country exchanged views on human rights, organised agriculture, and food security within the land context.

The programme will commence as follows:

Date: Thursday 26 July 2018
Time: 09:30
Venue: Odeion Theatre, Bloemfontein Campus

For a recording of the 12 July 2018 inaugural UFS Thought-Leader Series, visit the UFS Livestream YouTube channel.

Related article:
Robust reform rhetoric shared at the inaugural UFS Thought-Leader Series (July 2018)

News Archive

UFS hosts Colloquium on Sexuality, Society and Pedagogy
2013-04-08

10 April 2013

Top researchers in the field of sexuality and education in South Africa will be presenting the first ever colloquium on sexuality education in South Africa in Bloemfontein this month. The colloquium will be hosted by the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State (UFS), where sexuality education and how the South African Schools System teaches sexuality to youths, will be under the spotlight.

This Colloquium aims to open discussion and debate on how sexuality is taught, and should be taught to South African teens by teachers and society.

Prof Dennis Francis, Dean: Faculty of Education, also explains that the objective of this colloquium is to understand the importance of sexuality education in schools.

Some of the topics up for discussion at the two-day colloquium, entitled Sexuality, Society and Pedagogy, will address issues on mediating sexuality in South African schools, youths with disabilities and sexual identities, homosexuality and homophobia, teaching ‘straight’ in South African communities and the implications thereof. It will also take a closer look at the position and/or repositioning of South African teachers as sexual educators.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept