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21 October 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Tshepo Moeketsi
Qwaqwa research research
Mamokete Mokhatla (SRC: International Students Council), Pulane Xaba (Assistant: Afromontane Research Unit), Dr Hagenmeier, Morena Ntsane Mopeli, Prof Pearl Sithole, Chief Mlati, Kanego Mogotsi (Internationalisation: Qwaqwa Campus), and Prof Joseph Francis.

Communities are beginning to wonder if universities exist for themselves or for their communities. This is the view shared by Prof Pearl Sithole, Campus Vice-Principal: Academic and Research, during the opening of the two-day Travelling Seminar that was recently hosted on the Qwaqwa Campus. 

Research in communities

“This event is well-placed, considering what many communities are currently going through. We must ask ourselves what we are doing with and for our communities. We must be careful to not only reap data from them, but to be scientific in a way that accommodates our communities and allows the African and indigenous agenda into the world of science,” she added.

Providing background to the concept of homestays, the Director: Institute for Rural Development at the University of Venda, Prof Joseph Francis, acknowledged the role played by communities in research.

 “This seminar seeks to develop a testable framework for homestays; a concept enabling postgraduate students to be placed with rural families while conducting research in the area. It is also aimed at giving birth to a vibrant, community-based rural and regional development network connecting grassroots communities, business, government, and non-governmental stakeholders,” he said.

“We do not only train students for local deployment and within national borders. It is important to produce an ‘all-weather’ graduate who stands out wherever they are. Graduates must ask themselves, ‘what in me stands out among the rest?’ As a student and researcher, never see yourself as being confined to the space where you are,” he added.

Students as ambassadors

Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director: Office of International Affairs at the University of the Free State, said for internationalisation to work, it has to be inclusive and create student ambassadors. “As this seminar will show, our networks of stakeholder communities go beyond the national confines and borders. We must strive, through this project, to create ambassadors of the university, of communities, of the broader South Africa and Africa,” he said.

Participants in the seminar were academics and postgraduate students from both the Universities of the Free State and Venda. Also present were community and traditional leaders from Qwaqwa and the Vhembe District in Limpopo. 

News Archive

Esteemed Tutu family honorary guests at first intercontinental symposium
2013-10-08

 

08 October 2013
Photo: Karina Turok

The University of the Free State (UFS) will be hosting a visit by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mrs Leah Tutu. The occasion is to launch the Annual Intercontinental Leah Tutu Symposium on rape and violence against women in honour of Mrs Tutu, who has been an outspoken advocate of women’s rights and the sanctity of family life.

The Inaugural Intercontinental Leah Tutu Symposium will take place on:

Thursday 17 October 2013
12:00-14:00
Scaena Theatre


The launch of the Annual Intercontinental Leah Tutu Symposium is organised by Profs Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (who hosts the Dialogue between Science and Society lecture series) and Heidi Hudson (Director of the Centre for Africa Studies). The Inaugural Intercontinental Leah Tutu Symposium will feature gender and policy analyst Nomboniso Gasa as keynote speaker and Sheila Meintjes, Wits University professor with expertise in gender politics, violence and conflict transformation. The event will also feature voices of survivors of rape and sexual violence, including Johannesburg businesswoman and social entrepreneur, Andy Kawa, who is a survivor of rape and started the organisation Enuf is Enuf to campaign for an end to rape and sexual violence.

On Mrs Tutu’s 80th birthday, during the family’s visit to the UFS, Archbishop Desmond Tutu will also be in conversation with the Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Jonathan Jansen, at a public event: Celebration of a partnership: Archbishop Tutu pays tribute to his wife, on the topic: Man to Man: The Meaning of Leah in My Life.

Thursday 17 October 2013
16:30-18:00
Centenary Complex


The public event is part of the Dialogue between Science and Society lecture series, in collaboration with Mrs Grace Jansen and the Tutu Legacy Foundation.

Please RSVP to Anja Pienaar at pienaaran@ufs.ac.za or +27(0)51 401 7330 or Jo-Anne Naidoo at naidooja@ufs.ac.za or +27(0)51 401 7160.

Two of their daughters, Rev Mpho Tutu and Dr Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe, will accompany Archbishop Desmond and Mrs Leah Tutu.

Short Bio of Mrs Leah Tutu

Nomalizo Leah Tutu is an outspoken advocate for the rights of women and the sanctity of family life. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2000 by the National Louis University in Atlanta for her commitment to human rights and support of her husband’s work. She is patron of the Phelophepa Train, a health project that brings medical care to people living in remote areas of South Africa. She is also a patron of the Tshwaranang Centre that provides legal advocacy to end violence against women. With Archbishop Tutu, Mrs Tutu is a patron of the Tygerberg Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. She, Archbishop Tutu, and family established the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in 2012.

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