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07 May 2018 Photo Valentino Ndaba
Study shows students shop more and save less Dr Koloba
Dr Habofanwe Koloba, senior lecturer at the University of the Free State’s Department of Business proposes financial literacy as the solution to student debt and lack of saving predicament.
Did you know that failing to service store or credit card debt may jeopardise the growth of South Africa’s economy? Outstanding payments might seem inconsequential but they may adversely affect the country’s credit rating. Dr Habofanwe Koloba, senior lecturer at the University of the Free State’s Department of Business Management recently published an article titled: “Access to credit and saving behaviour of generation Y students: Are we educating an over-indebted generation,” in the Journal of Economics and Finance Studies which speaks of this phenomenon. 

From analysing the financial behaviour of a group of 145 millennials and literature, Dr Koloba hypothesised that easy access to store and credit cards by Generation Y students had influenced their poor saving habits. “There is a statistically significant relationship between store or credit card usage and lack of savings among Generation Y students,” he writes.

Salvaging the situation
Dr Koloba advocates for the integration of financial literacy within the curriculum in addition to parents playing an active role in instilling financial intelligence in their children from a young age. He also asserts that financial institutions need to offer products that encourage saving among students rather than luring them to indebtedness.

The benefits of saving 
Savings are channelled into dividend-producing investments which fuel the eradication of poverty, inequality and unemployment as well as provide capital for infrastructure development. Needless to say, a consumerist society with a poor saving culture does not promise to attain these successes.

News Archive

UFS academic discusses Dutch, Afrikaans and African languages
2006-05-22

During the colloquium presented in Belgium by the Province Antwerp were from the left Prof Pol Cuvelier (University of Antwerp), Prof Theo du Plessis (Director: Unit for Language Management at the UFS), Mr Ludo Helsen (Permanent Deputy: Province of Antwerp) and Mr Jean-Pierre Rondas (Flemish radio journalist).

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UFS academic discusses Dutch, Afrikaans and African languages at international conference

Prof Theo du Plessis, Director of the Unit for Language Management at the University of the Free State (UFS), was the main speaker at a colloquium titled “Routes:  Where to now? - Een traject van het Nederlands naar het Afrikaans en de Afrikatalen”, which was recently presented by the Province Antwerp in Belgium.

 The aim of the colloquium was to discuss the future cooperation in the field of language between the Province Antwerp and South Africa. 

 The Province Antwerp is already involved with projects in South Africa.  One of these projects is the Multilingual Information Development Programme (MIDP), a partnership project between the UFS and the Free State Province that is mainly funded by the Province Antwerp. 

 The project has been running since 1999 and was recently in the news with the presentation of a symposium on multilingualism and exclusion on the Main Campus of the UFS.  It is hoped that the Routes colloquium will indicate new stages on which can be added to the already successful cooperation in the area of language.

 Prof Du Plessis’s presentation titled “Nederlands, Afrikaans en die Afrikatale – kan samewerking slaag? Die geval MIDP in die Vrystaat”, investigated the successes that have been made with the MIDP.  He discussed two possible approaches to cooperation in the areas of language, that of a sentimentalistic  approach against an instrumentalistic approach. 

Cooperation in the first approach makes language the aim.  In the second approach language is used as a means to a greater aim.  According to Prof du Plessis the first approach is driven by a romantisised idea about the relation between the Flemish and Afrikaans speaking people, which may unfortunately polarise the position of Afrikaans in South Africa even further.

 He argues that, given the time that we are in, the second approach will deliver more constructive results as language can among others be used for to further  democracy in South Africa.   This can happen by cooperation in the institutionalising of multilingualism in our society.  The more languages are used in education, law and government administration, the more we can be assured a successful democracy.

 The Routes colloquium was facilitated by the well-known Flemish radio journalist, Jean-Pierre Rondas. About twenty South African and Flemish language specialists took part in the colloquium.  Dr Fritz Kok, outgoing chief executive officer of the ATKV took part in the opening ceremony and Dr Neville Alexander from the University of Cape Town and well-known activist for multilingualism in South Africa was also one of the main speakers.

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