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04 August 2020 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath

Apart from its devastating impact on people’s lives and livelihoods, the COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the nature and quality of our democracies – democracy read in its widest sense here as collective and individual self-determination. Formal, institutional democracy has beencurtailed through the imposition of states of emergency or disaster and the logistical difficulties associated with social distancing. Extra-institutional democratic work, such as protest and social-movement activity, has suffered from prohibitions imposed by law and through state suppression related to ‘lockdown’. The nature (and perhaps democratic quality) of public conversation has changed – for better or worse – from increasing reliance on ‘science’ and ‘scientists’ to justify public choices. The crisis has brought to the fore already existing characteristics of our democracies, such as the prevalence and power of special-interest bargaining, the extreme inequality of our societies, and chauvinist nationalisms that force us to ask whether we have ever had democracy at all. What will be the long-term effects of these impacts of the crisis on our democracies? What will democracy look like post-COVID? What does the crisis teach us about what our democracies have always been?

Join us for a discussion of these and other democracy-related issues in these troubled times by a panel of four hailing from Colombia, India, South Africa, and the USA.

Date: Thursday, 13 August
Time: 14:00-16:00 (South African Standard Time – GMT +2)

 

Please RSVP to Mamello Serasengwe at serasengwemsm@ufs.ac.za no later than 12 August 2020 upon which you will receive a Skype for Business meeting invite and link to access the webinar

Panel

Prof Natalia Angel Cabo (University of Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia)

Dr Quaraysha Ismail-Sooliman (University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa)

Dr Usha Ramanathan  Independent Law Researcher  (Delhi, India)

Prof Katie Young (Boston College, Boston, USA) 

Moderator

Prof Danie Brand (Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa)   




News Archive

Gate re-opens to allow limited access
2014-01-29

The end of 2013 has marked the escalation of the university’s stranglehold on crime. With the launch of the B|Smart Campaign, the entire Kovsie community has been sharpening their safety senses.

Amidst this drive towards increased safety on the Bloemfontein Campus, the university has made an interim decision to close one of the gates. As from 1 October 2013, the gate at Badenhorst Street in Universitas near Roosmaryn residence has been closed for traffic.

As the safety initiative is gaining momentum, the matter of the closed gate has recently been reviewed. The university provisionally decided to re-open the gate to grant limited entry for vehicles and pedestrians, with immediate effect.

Only staff and students of the university, and legitimate visitors to the Bloemfontein Campus, will be allowed access. The gate will only be open during weekdays between:

  • 06:30 – 08:30 and
  • 16:00 – 18:00.

No entry will be allowed during weekends, as has been the case in the past.

“A student or staff card will ensure easy access and anybody else would have to validate their reason for entering,” explained Mokgawa Kobe, Director of Protection Services. Legitimate visitors will have to explain or prove their reason for wishing to enter the campus, he said. Absolutely no thoroughfare will be allowed.

Electronic access control is being implemented and as soon as this has been completed, the gate will be fully operational again.

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