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11 October 2018 | Story UFS | Photo Zama Feni
UFS launch student business incubator project
Rector and Vice-Chancellor Francis Peterson cutting the ribbon as the office of Student Business Incubator Project was officially opened last Friday.
The University of Free State has recently launched a Student Business Incubator Project that will provide impetus to students with business ideas.

The initiative, which is under the management of the Directorate for Research and Development (DRD) was conceived a few years ago with objective of untapping the entrepreneurial potential of students. 

And it was on Friday last week that all the energy and efforts that were directed towards the planning of this project culminated into the official launch and opening of the offices where the students will conduct their business operations.

Generate new business ideas

Delivering a brief address at the launch, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen encouraged students to generate new business ideas that would make them job creators at the end of the day. 

“As a university, we should disseminate our output to society through research, education and technology transfer. The Incubator Project is a good initiative and I would like to see it growing so that more students can benefit from a facility such as this,” he said. 
Professor Petersen encouraged the student innovators to engage society so that they can make quality of life better through new knowledge.

“You must continue to incubate ideas and develop them,” he said adding that one of the great things that a university is measured about is the employability of its graduates.

Business ideas awarded 
On the previous day, DRD hosted a pitching competition for the business ideas that students were invited to submit.

Assistant Research Officer and Project Manager, Ayanda Makhanya said they were excited about the outcome of their call to students as they received an overall total of 60 ideas.

“We screened all the inputs and came up with 14 ideas. We will now be working with these students to provide the necessary support,” she said.

The winner in the pitching competition was an LLB student Mannini Setai whose idea was the production of eco-friendly bricks.

The office are located near the UFS Sasol Library and has computers and a big flat screen.

News Archive

UFS Faculty of Theology hosts expert on African Traditional Religion (ATR)
2016-05-20

Description: African Traditional Religion Tags: African Traditional Religion

Dr Nokuzola Mndende, Prof Fanie Snyman (Dean of the Faculty of Theology), and Dr Luvuyo Ntombana (Department Head: Religion Studies)

Dr Nokuzola Mndende, an acclaimed theologian, researcher, and practitioner of African Traditional Religion (ATR), is often called upon in the media to offer her expert opinion or participate in interfaith panel discussions. Thanks to an initiative from the postgraduate diploma class in the Faculty of Theology and the efforts of Dr Luvuyo Ntombana (Department Head: Religion Studies; Faculty of Theology), Dr Mndende accepted an invitation to present her paper, “From the periphery to the centre: African Traditional Religion in a democratic state”, on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). In his opening remarks, Dr Ntombana stated that he was heartened by his students’ desire to be “co-workers in knowledge production” by engaging with Dr Mndende.

Dr Mndende’s contention is that African Traditional Religion (ATR) was suppressed throughout colonial times, and, despite a 22-year-old democracy, continues to be moved to “beyond the periphery” by what she terms “spiritual subsets”; those who strive to amalgamate their African Traditional Religion rituals with the practices of Christianity. Quoting statistics from a 1995 survey by the SABC, she stated that ATR is a minority in its birthplace (with only 5% representation), and posed the question: “If ATR is a minority in its place of birth, where is it a majority?” Her presentation put forward the need to study and interpret ATR introspectively, but acknowledged that more “homework” would be needed in this regard.

Dr Mndende thanked the university, Dr Ntombana, and the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Prof Fanie Snyman, for inviting her, and expressed a desire for the relationship with the UFS to continue.

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