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Education key to repairing SA economy

08 July 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Charl Devenish

Thought-Leader Series 2019 — Executive Director: Centre for Politics and Research and political commentator, Prince Mashele, one of the key experts at the UFS Thought-Leader series, advises the youth in South Africa on acquiring multidisciplinary skills in order to survive in the future world of work.

The University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with Vrye Weekblad, presented the second consecutive Thought-Leader series on the Bloemfontein Campus on 4 July 2019, with topics focusing on economic growth and entrepreneurship for an emergent South African economy and environment. The series formed part of the literature festival of the Vrystaat Arts Festival, presented on the campus from 1 to 7 July 2019.

Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, Prof Francis Petersen, opened the discussions with the words, “We need to project ourselves as thought-leaders,” clarifying that the UFS itself is responsible for contributing to local and national public discourse by assembling industry experts to deliberate on imperative topics that affect students, the broader community, and the country in one way or another.

Editor of the Vrye Weekblad, political analyst, and master of ceremonies for the morning, Dr Max du Preez, introduced the panellists for the first discussion, themed How can we fix the South African economy and create jobs.

According to Prof Philippe Burger, Vice-Dean (Strategic Projects): UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, South Africa has the highest level of economic inequality in the world. He further explained that the long-term solution to growing the country’s economy is to improve the quality of education, which will result in a higher growth rate for the country.

Chief Economist at Investec, Ms Annabel Bishop, went on to explain that, “South Africa has a worrying de-industrialisation trend, which contributes to the decreased opportunity for decent job creation, essentially contributing to our struggling economy.” This was echoed by Executive Director: Centre for Politics and Research and political commentator, Mr Prince Mashele, who spoke on employing the unemployed. He suggested that South Africa’s youth be trained and equipped with skills so that SA gravitate more towards producing an industrial class in order to build its economy.

Director and Chief Economist of the Efficient Group, Mr Dawie Roodt, concluded the first discussion by highlighting that South Africa needs a GDP growth rate of 2,5% to at least maintain the country’s current unemployment rate and prevent it from getting worse.

The second panel discussed the establishment of a pro-youth entrepreneurship country, where the Head: Department of Business Management (UFS), Prof Brownhilder Neheh, spoke about bridging the intention-behaviour gap, and further exposing the youth to practical opportunities and teaching them the importance of group mentality as entrepreneurs. Chief Executive Officer: Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, Ms Maryana Iskander, suggested that foreign direct investment can improve youth employment.

The final panellist to speak during the last half of the discussion, Senior Banker and Transactor: Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Division at Rand Merchant Bank – Corporate Investment Bank, Mr David Abbey, advised on tomorrow’s world of work by saying, “The focus of the workplace should always be on the people, and entrepreneurs should understand the importance of multidisciplinary skills, and emotional and social intelligence, as the future world of work requires a trusted society.”

UFS Thought-Leader Series Programme:		UFS Thought-Leader Series Panel discussions:

News Archive

Research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

2005-11-30

Mr Akach in conversation (using sign language) with his assistant Ms Emily Matabane. Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

The Sign Language Division of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language has signed a bilateral research project with the universities of Ghent and Brussels to write a book on sign language.

“We want to compare the Belgium and South African sign languages with each other. The book will be about the deaf telling us about themselves and how they live. It will also focus on the use of story telling techniques and the grammar used by deaf people. We want to see if the hand forms and the grammatical markers and other linguistic features that deaf people from these two countries use are the same or not,” said Mr Philemon Akach, lecturer at the UFS Sign Language Division and coordinator of the research.

According to Mr Akach, the sign language community in South Africa, with about 600 000 deaf people who use South African Sign Language (SASL) as first language, is quite big. “Over and above the deaf people in South Africa, there are also the non-deaf who use SASL, like the children of deaf parents etc. This book can therefore be used to teach people about the deaf culture,” he added.

Another of Mr Akach’s achievements is his election as Vice-President of the newly established World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI). The association was established earlier this month during a conference in Worcester.

Mr Akach has been actively involved with sign language interpretation since 1986 and has been interpreting at the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) since 1987. “My appointment as Vice-President of the WASLI is an emotional one. I have been involved with deaf people for so long and have been trying to create awareness and obtain recognition for sign language, especially in Africa,” said Mr Akach. WASLI is affiliated to the WFD.

According to Mr Akach there was no formal structure in the world to support sign language and sign language interpreters. “Now we have the backup of WASLI and we can convince governments in other African countries and across the world to support deaf people by supporting WASLI and therefore narrow the communication gap between the deaf and the hearing. My main aim as Vice-President is to endeavour for the recognition of sign language and spoken language interpreters as a profession by governments,” he said.

According to Mr Akach the formal training of interpreters is of vital importance. “Anybody who has a deaf person in his/her family and can communicate in sign language can claim that they are an interpreter. This is not true. It is tantamount to think that all mother tongue or first language speakers are interpreters. Likewise students who learn sign language up to whatever level and are fluent in signing, should still join an interpreter’s programme,” he said.

“Sign language interpreting is a profession and should be presented as an academic course alongside other spoken languages. The UFS has been taking the lead with sign language and spoken language interpretation and was the first university on the African continent to introduce sign language as an academic course,” he said.

“Although sign language has always been an unknown language to young people it has become quite popular in recent years. This year we had a total of 160 students at the Sign Language Section of the UFS and the numbers seem to increase steadily every year,” he said.

Mr Akach’s assistant, Ms Emily Matabane, is deaf and they communicate in sign language. Ms Matabane also handles the tutorials with students to give them hands-on experience on how to use sign language.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
30 November 2005

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