Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
13 December 2019 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
David  read more
David Shikoyeni received a master’s degree in Town and Regional Planning during the UFS December Graduation Ceremonies. He was inspired to study at the UFS after he experienced the competency of UFS graduates he worked with.

Amid hardship and difficulty, David Shikoyeni received his master’s degree in Town and Regional Planning. It was awarded to him at the December Graduation Ceremony of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) on 11 December 2019. 

Shikoyeni, who completed his undergraduate studies at the Namibia University of Science and Technology, had the opportunity to work with several town planners who graduated from the UFS. He was inspired by their competence, which motivated him to apply for his postgraduate studies at the UFS Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

At the time (2013) when he applied for an Honours Degree in Town and Regional Planning, Shikoyeni was working for the Walvis Bay Municipality in Namibia.

Persisting and the will to overcome

He describes the start of his UFS journey: “After a 26-hour bus ride, I arrived at the UFS for the first contact session of my honours studies. It was expensive, since I did not secure any study loans or bursaries and I had to stay in a hotel for the duration of the block classes.”

He continues: “And studying was boring since I did not study for a while. The pressure of school, work, and family life was too much to handle.”

Shikoyeni, however, believed in himself and knew that he had a goal to achieve. Seeing what he was capable of, Shikoyeni persisted and proceeded to a master’s in Town and Regional Planning. 

The impact of mining on small towns

In addition to his recent qualification, Shikoyeni believes that the UFS has equipped him with research skills. For his master’s dissertation he researched the topic: The impact of mining on the land use and planning of a small town: the case of Karibib, Erongo Region, Namibia.

Shikoyeni explains: “Mining has both positive and negative effects on land use as well as on the development of most of the small towns.”

The study was conducted in Karibib due to the town’s rich mineral resources. The area is dominated by mining activities, including gold, lithium, and marble. Development is largely dependent on the mining staff and the mines’ land use demand. As a result of consistency of the gold price and the newly opened lithium mine, the population in the area is still increasing. 

Shikoyeni found that although there are employment opportunities in Karibib, people are faced with challenges regarding property values, employment opportunities, economic growth, unaffordable housing, an increase in informal housing, and pressure on existing services.

Contributors to Shikoyeni’s study indicate that mining regions are undergoing land-use change processes that are different from what might have been expected in the absence of high-quality mineral deposits and, as such, they should be managed differently. Knowing how to do this requires a general understanding of land-use change processes that occur in these regions. 

“To prevent another ghost town, Karibib must be attractive to investors. It needs industries to generate income, transport services, trade, educational facilities, and health services. 

Shikoyeni states that most of these requirements are provided partially or entirely by local providers. “This is the role that diversification plays. Local authorities should not prescribe but encourage investors to take up such activities. They should promote all attempts to ‘go local’.

“If the government, be it at local or regional level, cannot encourage the growth of a tax-paying population, it has failed in its purpose,” Shikoyeni concludes.

News Archive

DF Malherbe Memorial Lecture
2005-05-19

DF Malherbe Memorial Lecture: Language and language activism in a time of transformation (summary)
Proff Hennie van Coller and Jaap Steyn

Language activism necessary for multilingualism
The awareness is growing that language activism will be needed to bring about a truly democratic multi-lingual society. What is quite clear is that a firm resolve must continuously resist the concentrated pressure on Afrikaans-medium schools (and universities) to allow themselves to be anglicised through becoming first parallel medium, then dual medium, and finally English medium institutions.

Proff Hennie van Coller and Jaap Steyn said this last night (Wednesday night) in the 24th DF Malherbe Memorial Lecture at the University of the Free State. Prof van Coller is head of the Department Afrikaans, Dutch, German and French at the UFS. Both are widely honoured for their contributions to Afrikaans and the promotion of Afrikaans.

They discussed three periods of transformation since 1902, and said about the current phase, which started in 1994:  “Besides all institutions and councils having to be representative of South Africa’s racial composition, places of education were required to open their doors. Quite rapidly this policy has had the result that schools and universities may be solely English medium, but not solely Afrikaans medium. Afrikaans medium institutions — if they claim the right to remain Afrikaans — are quickly branded racist, even though their student body may include all races.

“Education departments are presently exerting great pressure on Afrikaans medium schools to become double or parallel medium schools.  Parallel medium education is an equitable solution provided it can be sustained. Established parallel medium schools, such as Grey College in Bloemfontein, have catered even-handedly for English and Afrikaans speakers for decades. But the situation is different in the parallel medium (and still worse in the double medium) schools that spring up usually at the behest of a department of education.

“Afrikaans schools are converted almost over-night into parallel or dual medium schools without any additional personnel being provided. Depending on the social environment, a parallel medium school becomes reconstituted as a dual medium school on average in five to eight years, and dual medium school becomes an English-only school in two to three years. Some Afrikaans medium schools have become English medium in just three years.

“Though the Constitution recognises mono-lingual schools, officials in the provinces insist that Afrikaans schools become dual or parallel medium; English medium schools are left undisturbed. One must conclude that the tacit aim of the state is English as the sole official language, despite the lip-service paid to multi-lingualism, and the optimistic references to post-apartheid South Africa as a ‘rainbow’ nation.”

They said a recent study has shown that the 1 396 Afrikaans schools in the six provinces in 1993 have dwindled to 844. The fall off in the Free State is from 153 to 97; in the Western Cape from 759 to 564; in Gauteng from 274 to 155; in Mapumalanga from 90 to 3; in the North West from 82 to 13; and in Limpopo Province from 38 to 12.

They said the changes at universities, too, have been severe, as university staffs well know. Ten years ago there were five Afrikaans universities. Today there are none. The government demanded that all universities be open to all, which has meant that all universities have had to become English medium. And no additional funding was forthcoming for the changes. The government policy amounts to a language “tax” imposed on the Afrikaans community for using Afrikaans.

“Only when all schools (and universities) are English will the clamor cease. Academics and educationists are beginning to speak openly of forming pressure groups to save Afrikaans schools, and of using litigation as one of their methods. 59% of Afrikaans parents have said they would support strong action if Afrikaans were no longer a medium of instruction at schools.”

 

 


 

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