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22 February 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin
Politcal Sciene read more
From left; Prof Virgil Hawkins, Prof Jakkie Cilliers from the Institute for Security Studies, Prof Hussein Solomon, Prof Heidi Hudson, Prof Francis Petersen, and Prof Theo Neethling, head of the Department Political Studies and Governance.
If you attended the two-day workshop hosted by our Department of Political Sciences and Governance, you would understand how the South African higher education and political landscapes will be defined and transformed during this important election year.

Hosted for the ninth year in collaboration with the Osaka School for International Public Policy and the Southern African Center for Collaboration on Peace and Security Studies, the workshop brought together the cream of international and national political and security studies experts in the country. Prof Virgil Hawkins from the Osaka School for International Public Policy was the honorary guest.

Theme resonates with current issues
 
“The theme of the workshop ‘South Africa and Africa: Between Promise and Peril’ is fascinating. Between those is a sense of the in-betweens, the intermediate. This is basically where we found ourselves,” said Prof Heidi Hudson during her opening remarks at the worshop.  

Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, spoke about the future of South African universities. “#RhodesMustFall and the subsequent #FeesMustFall movements were a crossroads which determined the path of higher education,” Prof Petersen said. This intervention reshaped higher education. Coupled with that was the announcement of subsidised free higher education for the poor and working class.

Service delivery and national elections

Dr Sethulego Matebesi from the UFS reflected on service-delivery protests. “Looking at key trends of service delivery, I have identified eight key trends since the eruption of service delivery protests in 2004.” Some of these trends include; the frequency of protests, geographic distribution, violent nature, the government’s response to these protests and new emerging trends of schools being held as a bargaining power.

“In each election year there seems to be a high prevalence of service-delivery protests,” he said.

Roland Henwood from the University of Pretoria spoke about the importance of the upcoming May elections and whether they will change anything for the country. “We have to be realistic about the expectations that surround the elections,” he said. There will not be any significant changes. “It is projected that the ANC will again win with a 50% majority. The results of the local elections of 2016 should not be referenced as different issues were at play then,” he said.

The workshop took place on 11 and 12 February 2019 on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus. 

News Archive

Haemophilia home infusion workshop
2017-12-17


 Description: haemophilia Tags: Haemophilia, community, patient, clinical skills, training 

Parents receive training for homecare of their children with haemophilia.
Photo Supplied


Caregivers for haemophilia patients, and patients themselves from around the Free State and Northern Cape attended a home infusion workshop held by the Clinical Skills unit in the Faculty of Health Sciences in July 2017. “It felt liberating and I feel confident to give the factor to my son correctly,” said Amanda Chaba-Okeke, the mother of a young patient, at the workshop. Her son, also at the workshop, agreed. “It felt lovely and good to learn how to administer factor VIII.” 

Clinical skills to empower parents and communities
There were two concurrent sessions: one attended by doctors from the Haemophilia Treatment Centre, and the other attended by community members including factor VIII and XI recipients, caregivers and parents. The doctors’ meeting was shown informative videos and demonstrations on how to administer the newly devised factor VII and XI kit, and discussed the pressing need for trained nurses at local clinics. Dr Jaco Joubert, a haematologist, made an educational presentation to the community members.

The South African Haemophilia Foundation was represented by Mahlomola Sewolane, who gave a brief talk about the role of the organisation in relation to the condition. Meanwhile, procedural training in the simulation laboratory involved doctors and nurses helping participants to learn the procedures by using mannequins and even some volunteers from among the patients.

A medical condition causing serious complications
Haemophilia is a medical condition in which the ability of the blood to clot is severely impaired, even from a slight injury. The condition is typically caused by a hereditary lack of a coagulation factor, most often factor VIII. Usually patients must go through replacement therapy in which concentrates of clotting factor VIII (for haemophilia A) or clotting factor IX (for haemophilia B) are slowly dripped or injected into the vein, to help replace the clotting factor that is missing or low. Patients have to receive this treatment in hospital.

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