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Getting to know our 2019 Abe Bailey dynamic duo

02 September 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Xolisa Mnukwa

Shannon Arnold and Samkezi Mbalane — Shannon Arnold (left) and Samkezi Mbalane (right), the 2019 UFS recipients of the prestigious International Abe Bailey Travel Bursary.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has selected MPhil (African Studies) student and self-proclaimed ‘radical feminist’, Shannon Arnold, and former Golden Key UFS Qwaqwa Campus Chapter President and Political Studies and Governance honours student, Samkezi Mbalane, to represent the institution this year on the Abe Bailey Travel Bursary tour

The Abe Bailey Travel Bursary is a leadership-development programme that honours and targets university students or junior lecturers with a strong academic background, and who have shown exceptional qualities of leadership and service during their university careers as well as in a wider social context. Recipients of the bursary are expected to function as an integral part of a select and highly skilled group of individuals who will be embarking on a five-stage tour in December, starting in Cape Town (South Africa) and finishing in London (United Kingdom).

“Success comes from a feeling of satisfaction in what I have done for myself” – Shannon Arnold

Shannon Arnold, who is originally from Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, completed her undergraduate and honours studies in Political and International Studies and English Literature at Rhodes University. She moved to the UFS and is currently completing her transdisciplinary MPhil in African Studies, focused on Peace and Conflict in Post-conflict African Societies from a gendered perspective.

“Moving to the Free State was an interesting cultural transition,” Arnold remarked.
She further expressed how “pleasantly enlightened” she was by the UFS’s active and direct approach to transformation, and how it allowed her to spearhead and coordinate crucial student-movement initiatives such as the total shutdown protest which saw women and students march from the UFS Bloemfontein Campus to the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2018. Arnold believes that her passion, work, and experiences with community and service-based organisations against South Africa’s plight of gender-based violence has branded her a leader and qualified her for becoming an ‘Abe’.

Arnold grew up in a community-minded family and has thus been aligned with politics from a very young age. She is inspired by the thought of manifesting a reality where women in South Africa are able to pursue their own choices. She looks forward to exposing herself to foreign cultures on the tour to the UK, engaging with people who have like-minded convictions.

“The desire and compassion to motivate and uplift others is what inspires me.” – Samkezi Mbalane

Eastern Cape, Mount Fletcher-born Samkezi Mbalane, who graduated from the UFS with his undergraduate degree in Political Studies and Governance (Cum Laude), labels his life journey as ‘very difficult, yet fascinating’.

Having been raised by a struggling single mother, he reflects on being dependant on other people in his immediate community for basic needs. He lived in a foster home for three years (Grade 10 to 12) as a means of survival. Mbalane explained that such experiences motivated him to pursue a career in politics, as he dreams of playing a pivotal role in the creation and implementation of South African governmental policies that will one day effectively benefit the poor.

Mbalane believes his claim to leadership came through ‘hard work and persistence’. He has served in various leadership positions, including President of the Golden Key Society UFS Qwaqwa Campus Chapter, Prime at Steve Biko Residence, active member of the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, Enactus, and the Secretary General of the Student Parliament. Mbalane deemed being selected an ‘Abe’ as an “iconic opportunity for all aspirant leaders in South Africa.”

He looks forward to working with people from different cultural backgrounds and career fields, but mostly, to seeing the world outside South Africa from a unique perspective.

News Archive

Multi-disciplinary research approach at UFS

2005-10-25

UFS follows multi-disciplinary research approach with opening of new centre

“A new way of doing business in necessary in the research and teaching of agriculture and natural sciences in South Africa. We must move away from departmentalised research infrastructures and a multi-disciplinary approach to research involving several disciplines must be adapted,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Prof van Schalkwyk delivered the keynote address during the launch of the Centre for Plant Health Management (CePHMa) at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein today (21 October 2005). CePHMa is an initiative of the UFS Department of Plant Sciences.

According to Prof van Schalkwyk a tertiary institution must practice multi-disciplinary research to be a world-class research institution. “It is difficult for researchers to admit that they do not know a lot about each other’s area of speciality. It is therefore necessary for researchers to make a paradigm shift and to focus on inter-disciplinary co-operation. To do this, we must encourage them to work together and to find a common language to communicate ideas en establish symbiotic relationships,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

“We tend to think that research is better and faster if it is specialised. This is not true. The new generation of scientists are young and they are trained to form a concept of the total system and not to focus on a specific area of speciality. At the UFS we encourage this approach to research. This was one of the main reasons for the establishment of CePHMa,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.
CePHMa is the only centre of its kind in Africa and is established to extend the expertise in plant health management in South Africa and in Africa, to train experts in plant health and to conduct multi-disciplinary research about the health of agricultural crops.

“CePHMa is a virtual centre comprising of ten disciplines applicable to crop production and crop protection,” said Prof Wijnand Swart, Chairperson of CePHMa during the opening ceremony.

“The UFS is the leading institution in Africa in terms of news crop development and manages three research programmes that concentrate on new crops, i.e. the New Crop Pathology Programme, the New Crop Development Programme and the Insects on New Crops Programme. Other applied research programmes that are unique to the UFS are genetic resistance to rust diseases of small grain crops and sustainable integrated disease management of field crops,” said Prof Swart.

“Because the expected growth in population will be 80% in 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, the future demands of food produce in Africa will be influenced. Therefore research will in future be focused on ways to improve food security by employing agricultural systems that are economically viable and environmentally sound,” said Prof Swart.

“Thorough knowledge of the concept of holistic plant health management is crucial to meet the challenge and it is therefore imperative that innovative crop protection and crop production strategies, with particular emphasis on plant health, be adopted. This is why the Department of Plant Sciences initiated the establishment of CePHMA,” he said.

According to Prof Swart there is a shortage of expertise in plant health management. “The UFS has shown the potential to address the demand of the sub-continent of Africa regarding expertise training and CePHMa is the leader in southern Africa to provide in this need,” he said.

The appropriateness and quality of training in plant health management is reflected in the fact that students from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho have already been trained or are in the process of being trained in at the UFS.

Scientists from CePHMa have forged partnerships with numerous national and international institutions including the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), various community trusts, seed, pesticide and agricultural chemical companies, in addition to overseas universities.

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

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