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17 April 2019 | Story Mamosa Makaya
National Lotteries Commission
Front row from the left: Dr MA Madzivhandila (board member), Prof YN Gordhan (board member), Ms Charlotte Mampane (Commissioner), Prof D Coetzee (South Campus Principal), Ms Bish B Ramahlele (Director: Community Engagement) Back row from the left T Mandyu (Provincial Manager), Prof NA Nevhutanda (Chairman of the Board), Mr F Van Der Wat (Deputy Director: KovsieSport)
The University of the Free State (UFS) has over many years embarked on developmental projects to improve and upgrade its sports facilities, sports research, medical research, arts and cultural programmes and community focused programmes. These projects were made possible with the financial support of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) which has provided funding through grants to the UFS since 2006. The UFS office of Institutional Advancement (IA) hosted the NLC on the Bloemfontein Campus on 5 April 2019, where a presentation on the success of projects was made. The role of the IA office is to ensure that the university complies with reporting requirements set out in the grant agreements and that the university maintains good relations with the NLC over the long term.

Funding fortifies UFS projects
Feedback on the success and impact of various projects was presented, such as the visual arts project. This includes the public sculpture project funded with over R3 million in 2009, which brought about the creation of outdoor sculptures that can be seen on the university grounds produced by local and regional sculptors. Feedback was provided by Ms Angela de Jesus, Curator, UFS Arts Collection and Assistant Director: Johannes Stegmann Gallery.  

In 2010 the NLC funded the upgrading of the UFS swimming pool for more than R2 million. The pool was rebuilt to bring it up to Olympic standards, allowing UFS students to have a facility at which to train for international swimming competitions. Feedback on the project was provided by Mr Frans van der Wat, Deputy Director: KovsieSport. Other funded projects are the Khoisan early learning centre, which teaches young learners on the history and culture of the “first people” of South Africa, and the Arts in Schools Project, which were both funded in 2009 for more than R6 million combined. More funded projects include the upgrading of the Johannes Stegmann Gallery in 2017, research into swimming in the Free State, and equipment for the South African Doping Control Laboratory (SADOCol), which is the only laboratory of its kind in Africa, which were funded between 2010 and 2012, totalling R4.8million.

Community development and engaged scholarship
After the change in the mandate of the Provincial Arts Council of the Free State (PACOFS) after 1996, many local dramatic arts professionals in the province were faced with dwindling work opportunities. The UFS, through the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts, stepped in to create arts programmes that would help develop and retain the skills of local performers and playwrights and an opportunity for them to be trained and directed by UFS and industry-based professional directors. 

Prof Nico Luwes, from the UFS Department of Drama and Theatre Arts, said: “I initiated the formation of the Free State Theatre Acts (FACTS) as a section 21 Company with committee members from UFS staff and local actors, with the aim of creating work for professional actors in the greater Bloemfontein area.” A combination of grants from the NLC and the UFS Department of Drama, between 2006 and 2010 resulted in 19 professional plays and four professional musicals, performed by Free State professional artists including community players from Heidedal, Botshabelo and drama students, using English, Afrikaans and Sesotho. These initiatives brought together students and artists from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, who worked together to perform at local and national arts festivals. Although the NLC will not be funding arts and culture projects at universities in the 2019-2020 financial year, the university is hopeful to be considered in the future.

The UFS and NLC have had a successful working relationship and the feedback session aimed to strengthen the ties between them. Members of the board of the NLC expressed pride at how the UFS has developed not only its own projects, but the Free State community as well. The team was treated to an art exhibition of the work of Cape Town-based artist Ieshaan Adams at the Johannes Stegmann gallery.

News Archive

Heidedal-based foundation and UFS host inaugural music concert
2015-12-04

ROC children rock in marimba music
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

Reach Our Community (ROC) Foundation in conjunction with the University of the Free State’s Odeion School of Music (OSM) held its first-ever music concert last month. Children who form part of the foundation’s Afterschool Care programme showed their impressive music skills to their parents and guardians in attendance.

ROC provides support to orphaned and vulnerable children from early childhood through to adolescence in the Heidedal community in Bloemfontein. The foundation strives to address the challenges resulting from factors such as poverty, unemployment, HIV/Aids, single parenting, lack of guardianship, and physical and sexual abuse. In the Afterschool Care programme, the children engage in educational, cultural, and recreational activities.

Going the extra mile

Since 2008, the UFS has successfully partnered with ROC through service learning and community engagement in which students from across all seven faculties participate. Two Music Education and Practice students from the OSM took it upon themselves to continue after their curriculum requirements were met.

Amy Viljoen- now a final-year BMus student, together with fellow student, Petre du Plessis, and their lecturer and programme coordinator, Gerda Pretorius, established the music class project in Heidedal in 2014. The students embarked on weekly trips to ROC, and would spend an hour working on the recorders and marimbas with children from ROC.

This year, Viljoen and Kara-Lynn Crankshaw, a final-year BA Music student, spent eleven months teaching the children music practice and theory, culminating in a concert that both the community and students can be proud of.

“I wanted to do something that was not only meant for educational purposes, but to give back to the community,” said Viljoen.

After having to gather extra chairs because of the influx of community members at the ROC hall, the founder, Patrick Kaars, said he had not expected such a turn-out. “It exceeded my expectations, and it was a dream come true. It meant so much to the children to be exposed to music, and to explore their own capabilities and talents.”

More children will learn how to play other instruments. Currently, the instruments used for the children’s training were purchased second-hand in order to cut costs. New music education specialists, who will join the programme in 2016, will also work with Pretorius to gather additional equipment, and compile learning material.

Kaars is also thrilled about the potential expansion to the music group, now that the concert has become an annual event. The OSM is also in the process of establishing a Centre for Music Development at ROC.

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