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02 May 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa
UFS Debate Society
The UFS Debate Society led by example at the 2019 Jozi Rumble.

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

Enhancement of social justice focus at research colloquium
2010-10-07

At the third Education for Social Justice Research Colloquium the publication Praxis towards sustainable empowering learning environments in South were handed to Prof. Ezekiel Moraka, Vice-Rector: External Relations at the UFS. At this occasion were, from the left: Prof. Dennis Francis, Dean of the UFS Faculty of Education; Prof. Sechaba Mahlomaholo, Research Professor in the Faculty of Education Sciences at the North-West University; Prof. Moraka; and Dr Milton Nkoane, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Faculty of Education.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

 

This year, the University of the Free State (UFS) was the host for the Research Colloquium: Education for Social Justice for the very first time. It is the third time that this colloquium has been presented.

Prof. Ezekiel Moraka, Vice-Rector: External Relations at the UFS, opened the colloquium, stating that academics, through their research, are ultimately in a good standing to advise government on important issues such as social justice for them to address these issues accordingly.

Prof. Sechaba Mahlomaholo, Research Professor in the Faculty of Education Sciences at the North-West University, delivered the opening address on the theme: Validating community cultural wealth towards sustainable empowering learning environments for social justice. He said that the legacy of our recent past as South Africa still continues to haunt us, especially as exemplified in the dysfunctionalities that are rife in our education.

“With the colloquium we manage to bring together the ideas, thoughts, resources and efforts of educators and/or educationists concerned with the creation of a more equitable, equal, free, hopeful, peaceful and socially just society. Through our teaching, our community engagement and research activities we strive towards a more humane, caring, respecting and respectful South Africa and the world,” he said.

According to Prof. Mahlomaholo, education and its research are some of the most potent mechanisms at the very centre of social transformation. The papers at the colloquium focused on investigating, understanding and responding to issues of amongst others:

  • The medium of teaching and learning which continues to be a barrier to many learners to perform to the best of their abilities in the majority of the education institutions in South Africa;
  • Health, sexuality, HIV/Aids, stigmatisation and other deseases plaguing our communities currently;
  • Self-fulfilling prophecies and stereotypes about some learners not being as intelligent as the rest and this finally being reflected and confirmed in their poor academic achievements;
  • Differentiated levels of parental involvement in the activities of their children’s learning due to long absences from their families as they have to work in far-off places of employment;

Papers delivered at the colloquium moved beyond merely identifying the problems; they also suggested possible and plausible research-based solutions to these, such as integrating HIV/Aids education in curricula, listening to the aspirations of significant stakeholders such as mothers and parents generally in teaching and facilitating more rigorous community engagement practices.

At the colloquium gala dinner the book Praxis towards sustainable empowering learning environments in South Africa by authors Dr Milton Nkoane, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Faculty of Education, Prof. Mahlomaholo and Prof. Dennis Francis, Dean of the Faculty of Education at the UFS, was launched. The publication consists of a collection of the best peer-reviewed papers from a conference with the theme Creating sustainable empowering learning environments through scholarship of engagement. The main criterion for inclusion was that the paper should contribute to the theme by means of an original, tight, theoretical and empirical study conducted with the aim of informing the practice of creating sustainable empowering learning environments. The concrete cases examined in many of the chapters are very useful to helping readers understand the specific, on-the-ground concerns related to higher education and schools.

Media Release
Issued by: Leonie Bolleurs
Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2707
Sel: 0836455853
Email: bolleursl@ufs.ac.za  
30 September 2010
 

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