Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS Debate Society win Jozi Rumble again!

02 May 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa

After competing in the Jozi Rumble final for six consecutive years, the UFS Debate Society won the competition – Africa’s largest intercollegiate debate open – for the second consecutive year. The tournament took place at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in April 2019.

After seven preliminary rounds, three UFS teams out of a total of 100 competing teams overall were placed in the top 16, earning them a place in the quarterfinals – where they faced each other. A composite team of UFS LLB graduate and LLM student, Lehakoe Masedi, and a partner from Wits beat all teams, qualified for the final themed ‘This house regrets the glorification of opulence in popular culture’, and won the league.

“It was one of the most validating moments of my entire debating career; everybody wants to win the Jozi Rumble, and to have done it and to be the best speaker is truly amazing,” said Lehakoe. The top-ranking speaker at the tournament added that she had been working hard, and that she is glad that her efforts are coming full circle.

The UFS sent six teams overall to the tournament, including two novice teams competing in their first-ever intercollegiate debate tournament.

“Speaking at the Jozi Rumble debate tournament for the first time was truly an educational experience; it exposed me to the dynamics of varsity-level debating,” said Simphiwe Yana, debater in of the UFS novice teams.

The UFS speaking squad consisted of Lehakoe Masedi, 2018 Abe Bailey Bursary victor and Rhodes scholarship recipient Nkahiseng Ralepeli, Khotso Khokho, Siyanda Rixana, Morena Moabi, Simphiwe Yana, Luvuyo Shoco, Asemahle Noholoza, and Nontobeko Msimangu. Former Chairperson of the UFS Debate Society and Editor-in-Chief of the IRAWA newspaper, Tshiamo Malatji, was also present at the tournament as the Tabulation Director.

On 11 May 2019, the UFS will travel to the University of Pretoria to defend yet another debate open title at the Pretoria Parlay Intervarsity.

News Archive

Lecture honours one of SA’s greatest women leaders

2008-08-22

A member of the national executive committee of the ANC Women’s League, Yolanda Botha, has called on all South Africans to cherish the legacy of Charlotte Maxeke, one of South Africa’s greatest women leaders.

Ms Botha was delivering the first Charlotte Maxeke Memorial Lecture at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein last night, in honour of the pioneering role played by Maxeke in the struggle for human rights, democracy and freedom. The lecture series is a partnership between the Free State Provincial Government and the university.

She was born Charlotte Makgomo Manye on 7 April 1874 at Ramokgopa in the Polokwane district in Limpopo. In 1905 she graduated from the Wilberforce University in Ohio in the USA with a B.Sc. degree, making her the first black South African woman to graduate with a science degree.

She married the Rev. MM Maxeke, a prominent AME minister who had also been educated overseas, and together they collaborated on the compilation and publication of the first AME church hymn book in Xhosa.

Later she became a founder member and president of the Bantu Women’s League, forerunner of the ANC Women’s League. She was an early opponent of the pass laws for black women and an organiser of the anti-pass movement in Bloemfontein.

Charlotte Maxeke died in 1939. Two years later, an ANC conference held in Bloemfontein, passed a “resolution on the women’s section”.

Elaborating on the challenges that women still face, Ms Botha said poverty remains a challenge affecting the majority of women. She called on all women to unite and engage with government to develop a comprehensive strategy for food security and agricultural support programmes to eradicate poverty.

Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za

22 August 2008

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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