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25 September 2019 | Story Zamuxolo Feni | Photo Liza Crawley
Read More Photo SANRAL
SANRAL Chief Executive Officer Skhumbuzo Macozoma and UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor Prof Francis Petersen cutting a cake to mark 10 years of collaboration between the two institutions.

The Science-for-the-Future (S4F) programme is fundamental to generating the required pipeline for technologically skilled entrepreneurs and workers by focusing on Mathematics and Science support to learners, teachers, and parents.

This is according to the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) Chief Executive Officer, Skhumbuzo Macozoma, who delivered a keynote address at the Annual Science for the Future Summit held at the University of the Free State (UFS) on 20 September.

The S4F is a partnership between the UFS and SANRAL, with the fundamental purpose to train Maths and Science teachers and to support learners and parents. The programme has now been extended to six other universities, namely Nelson Mandela University and Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape; the University of Limpopo, University of KwaZulu-Natal, and the two recently established universities, the University of Mpumalanga and the Sol Plaatje University in the Northern Cape.

Dr Cobus van Breda, the Programme Director for the UFS S4S, said they developed the Family Math and Key Concepts in Science programmes to address issues that prevent learners from excelling in these critical subjects. It seeks to improve the content knowledge of teachers and provide them with more skills-teaching resources.

Macozoma said: “I am proud and deeply honoured to stand before you today in the strength of a successful 10-year partnership with the University of the Free State which we are celebrating here today, together with the hosting of the Annual Science for the Future Summit.”  More than 300 teachers attended the summit.

Planning for the future

He indicated that SANRAL's long-term strategy, Horizon 2030, instructed the development of a new human-resources strategy for the organisation, which has identified three pillars that underpin SANRAL's human-capital development initiatives, namely people, skills, and performance.

“The strategic opportunities identified by SANRAL include capitalising on the opportunity presented by the digital revolution to create a new generation of technologically skilled entrepreneurs and workers; returning to good and ethical governance in both the public and private sectors; bringing back the prestige of serving the citizens of SA through state institutions: fashioning SANRAL as an employer of the future and delivering technical skills to address the glaring skills gap in engineering and other domains,” he said.

Macozoma stated that SANRAL has also decided to review and rationalise its support to institutions of higher learning in order to grow the footprint of its support programmes, increase the impact, and ensure equity.

Beyond this, he stated that SANRAL wanted to ensure that learners are equipped with fundamental competencies that are essential to complement academic teachings, including critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, and flexibility.         

Facing 4IR head on

Macozoma said the most important characteristics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that must be taken into consideration by those who aim to survive it, drive it, and benefit from it, is a smart customer – who is informed and dictates what services he/she wants and how they should be delivered; technology at the fingertips – which will enable rapid, real-time, borderless services to information, services, and technology as an enabler – bringing efficiency to logistics, mobility, medicine, education, industries, the economy, the military, global trade, and politics.  

Working closely with school and society

UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, said the university has an important responsibility to generate knowledge that will impact society positively.

“We have a role to work closely with our schools and society so that we can understand each other’s needs,” he said.

“We need to strengthen collaboration with all our partners so that we can travel further and make an impact in our society,” said Prof Petersen.

One of the participating teachers in the S4F programme, Grace Molante, from a primary school in Zastron, said: “It is programmes such as these that instil hope in us as teachers. Some learners could find Maths and Science very difficult and challenging subjects, but this programme makes problem solving more enjoyable and practical.”

News Archive

ANC Centenary Seminar looks at the role of women in the liberation struggle
2012-03-22

 

At the ANC Centenary Seminar were, from the left: Nadine Lake, ProgrammeDirector: Gender Studies, at the UFS; Prof. Hassim; Zubeida Jaffer, Writer-in-Residence at the UFS; and Senovia Welman from the UFS-Sasol Library.
Photo: Amanda Tongha
22 March 2012


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“Looking back at the history of South African politics you will always find women involved in that history.”

This is according to Prof. Shireen Hassim, a professor in Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, who recently spoke at an ANC Centenary Seminar, held on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). The seminar is part of a series of dialogues hosted by the Centre for Africa Studies about the ruling party’s 100 years of existence. It was the first one to be held following the 100 year celebrations of the ANC in January 2012 and was dedicated to the ANC Women’s League. Prof. Hassim told the audience that from early roles as wives who provided catering and entertainment, women have always been politically active in the African National Congress (ANC).

“ Women took the lead in the defiance campaign, going beyond the role of tea lady of the 1910s. When the ANC went into exile, the women’s section, as it was called then, played an important role.” Prof. Hassim also praised independent women’s organisations for the role they had played during the struggle and added that they were part of the collective history.

Talking about today’s Women’s League, Prof. Hassim said there had been debate about its current role with some critics labelling the league conservative. “In recent years, they have become very allied to internal battles.”

According to Prof. Hassim, a new language was needed that could give voice to the policies that needed to be developed.She drew attention to the plight of rural women, saying that thus far urban women have been taking the lead in defining issues. She warned that legislation like the Traditional Courts Bill would put rural women at a disadvantage. Prof. Hassim said the Bill was not rigorously debated, despite the high number of women in Parliament.

 

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