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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

Publication on indigenous knowledge systems
2005-10-21

 

 

Dr Otsile Ntsoane (acting Director: IKS, Department of Science and Technology) and Prof Philip Nel (Director:  Africa Studies at the UFS and guest editor of the publication) at the launch of the publication

UFS launches most comprehensive publication on indigenous knowledge systems
A unique collection of essays on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) was launched yesterday (20 October 2005) by the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Programme of Africa Studies.

The essays are published as a special edition of INDILINGA, the African Journal for Indigenous Knowledge Systems and is an outcome of the colloquium on Indigenous Knowledge Systems that was presented last year by the UFS Director of Africa Studies in cooperation with the National Research Council.

“The amount and diversity of materials on IKS brought together under one cover is unique as there are no other South African publications of this magnitude on this issue.  It contains papers of international experts on IKS such as Prof Fritz Wallner from Austria and Prof Gayatri Spivak, foremost postcolonial theorist from India,” said Prof Philip Nel, Director of Africa Studies and guest editor of the publication.

“The publication is a rich source field for students and scholars to exploit because most of the sources quoted in the articles are recent, fresh and relevant.  The contributors are largely people responsible for managing, fostering and studying IKS in a responsible manner,” said Prof Nel.

“An added value of the publication is the inclusion of the policy document on IKS that was adopted by Cabinet in November 2004,” said Prof Nel.


“Millions of people in South Africa are faced with the painful choice of abandoning their heritage.  In this choice, the study and management of IKS has a major role to play; on the one hand, to encourage as much assimilation of traditional knowledge as possible into the modern systems, and on the other hand to provide a “language” and a “grammar” for indigenous people through which they can access modernity,” said Prof Nel.

The IKS debate involves questions of African identity, protection of indigenous communities and practices, political aspects as well as the scientific integrity of the enterprise. 

The publication displays the range of burning questions that have to be resolved in this field such as mainstreaming IKS in academic debate and practice, recognition and protection of the knowledge holders, bio-prospecting and bio-piracy, bio and ethnic healing, lack of textbooks and field manuals, etc and will prove worthwhile for future researchers.

 “One of the main reasons for publishing this volume is the fact that IKS should be studied not only to provide a sense of pride in the past, or  to engender respect for indigenous peoples, but also to enable people in indigenous mind sets to make a better transition into the world of science and technology,” said Prof Nel.

The guest speaker at the launch was Dr Otsile Ntsoane, acting Director of IKS at the Department of Science and Technology.  In his speech Dr Ntsoane stressed the symbolic and concrete value of the publication.  “The publication can have a great social impact and the research results can contribute to chancing the economic landscape of South Africa,” he said.

The publication can be purchased at R150 per copy.  For more information, Ms Steffi Cawood, Programme Coordinator for Africa Studies at the UFS can be contacted at (051) 401-2614.

Media release
Issued by:Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
21 October 2005
 

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