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02 September 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah
Eunice Lebona
Eunice Lebona sees herself as a ‘perfectionist procrastinator.’

She is literally the beginning and the end of students’ academic careers on the Qwaqwa Campus, as she welcomes each one of them with an application form when they arrive and ensures that they enjoy their moment in the Rolihlahla Mandela Hall when they graduate. She says she derives all the pleasure and creativity from ‘last-minute crunch’. For those who have interacted with her, she epitomises excellence in the execution of her duties, but many would not know that she is a procrastinator. 

She is Eunice Lebona, Assistant Director: Student Academic Services.

Childhood lesson

‘Ausi Eunice’, as she is affectionately known, credits her grandmother for valuing accountability, her most prized childhood lesson.

“My grandmother raised me and as the oldest grandchild, I learnt the value of accountability at an early age; this has been the cornerstone of my life and career.  Although it is valuable to have support around you, standing on your own two feet is critical, because you will not know when that support might not be available,” she said. 

Working with students comes naturally to her, as she is inspired by progression and achievement.

Personal inspiration

“Getting to higher echelons than previous accomplishments, is my inspiration.  My successes are energisers to achieve the next steps on unique and distinctly different notes than the previous ones. It is this same notion that builds my view, that – as the University of the Free State – we need to see women representation in leadership on a greater scale, as well as respect for their spaces of delivery.”

When asked about the one thing that very few people knew about her, she said: 
“I am a procrastinator. In fact, I am a perfectionist procrastinator. Although procrastination is not good, the last-minute crunch is stimuli to ideas that I would normally not dream of in my comfort mode,” Lebona insists.

What is success?

She defines success as “inner gratification which is the result of the outcomes I had to deliver on”.  She adds: “Witnessing the success and motivation of others from the small contributions I have made in their lives, is all the success that resonates with me. Respect and humility go a long way in attaining success. As indicated earlier, my grandmother played a crucial role in my upbringing and instilled in me the philosophy entrenched in Luke 6:31 that says: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ That has been my motto since her passing away”.

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Final lecture in Darwin series presented at the UFS
2010-02-23

At the lecture were, from the left: Prof. Terence McCarthy, Prof. Jo van As, Chairperson of the Darwin 200 Committee and Head of the Department of Zoology and Entomology at the UFS, Prof. Bruce Rubidge, Elsabe Brits, journalist at Die Burger and Esther van der Westhuizen, presenter on Groen.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs


The University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) and The National Museum in Bloemfontein recently hosted the final lecture on the Charles Darwin lecture series entitled “The story of life and survival”.

The lecture was presented by Prof. Bruce Rubidge, the Director of the Bernard Price Institute for Paleontological Research at Wits University and Prof. Terence McCarthy, a Professor of Mineral Geochemistry at Wits and Head of the Department of Geology. Proff. Rubidge and McCarthy are co-authors of the book The Story of Life on Earth.

Their lecture with the topic “Trends in evolution and their bearing on the future of humankind” dealt with the future of evolution. According to Prof. Rubidge, ninety-nine percent of the species that have ever lived are extinct. “We are living in a time of mass extinction. Fifty thousand species become extinct annually,” he said.

Prof. McCarthy discussed many factors that can result in mankind’s extinction today. The impact of climate change, big volcanic eruptions, a comet or asteroid hitting earth, tsunamis and the collapsing of sea islands are some of the factors Prof. McCarthy believes could cause great catastrophe’s on earth.

“We live on the brink of this all the time,” he said.

Prof. McCarthy also believes that we can avoid these catastrophes. By allowing only one child per family we can shrink the global population with 30% per generation. This is doable in a short time span,” he said.

Other ideas he had on saving mankind from getting extinct is to create extensive ecological reserves on land but especially in the ocean, to decentralise everything, to change to renewable energy, to recycle resources and to be vigilant in doing this.

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