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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

Four modernised controlled environment cabinets inaugurated

2006-07-27

Photographed in a controlled environment cabinet were at the back from the left: Mr Adriaan Hugo (head of the UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division), Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS) and Prof Koos Terblans (lecturer at the UFS Department of Physics). In front is Mr Koos Uys (engineering consultant from Experto Designa who helped with the cooling systems of the cabinets).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Different look for research in controlled circumstances at the UFS

Research in controlled circumstances at the University of the Free State (UFS) turned a new page today with the inauguration of four modernised controlled environment cabinets of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences.

“The controlled environment cabinets, which are situated next to the glass houses on the eastern side of the Agriculture Building on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein, were installed in the early 1980’s. The cabinets, used for research purposes in controlled circumstances by the UFS for many years, became dysfunctional and needed to be repaired and put into use again,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.

“The cabinets are used by the agronomics, horticulture and soil science divisions of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences to control factors such as the temperature, the intensity and quality of light, synthesis and humidity. This is done 24 hours a day, with hourly intervals,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

The cabinets are ideally suited to determine the joint and separate effects of these factors on the growth of plants. The adaptability of plants to climate can also be investigated under controlled circumstances. All of this leads to a better understanding of the growth and development process of plants, more specifically that of agricultural crops.

“The effect of these environmental factors on the effectiveness of insect killers such as fungus killers, insecticide and weed killers can also be investigated and can help to explain the damage that is sometimes experienced, or even prevent the damage if the research is timeously,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

A new cabinet can cost between R2-3 million, depending on the degree of sophistication. “Although controlled environment cabinets have been used for agricultural research for a long time, it has become costly to maintain them and even more impossible to purchase new ones,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the cabinets were re-built by die UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division. Some of the mechanisms were also replaced and computerised.

“The re-building and mechanisation of the cabinets were funded by the faculty and because the work was done by our own staff, an amount of about R1 million was saved. The maintenance costs will now be lower as the cabinets are specifically tailor made for our research needs,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Where all monitoring was done manually in the past, the cabinets can now be controlled with a computer. This programme was designed by Prof Koos Terblans from the UFS Department of Physics.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the modernisation of the cabinets is part of the faculty’s larger strategy to get its instruments and apparatus up to world standards. “With this project we have proved that we can find a solution for a problem ourselves and that there are ways to get old apparatus functional again,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
26 July 2006

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