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UFS Reflection Series webinar: The quality of our democracies under COVID-19

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

UFS cancels lease contract with House Abraham Fischer Company

2015-01-23

UFS cancels lease contract with House Abraham Fischer Company

The management of the University of the Free State (UFS) terminated the lease contract with the House Abraham Fischer company (HAF) on the Bloemfontein Campus during December 2014.

The HAF company has been managing the Abraham Fischer men’s residence as independent provider of student accommodation on the campus for a considerable time.

The decision to terminate the lease contract was taken because the company was unable to meet its financial obligations of more than R700 000 in overdue rent to the university for quite some time. Over the past few years, the management of the UFS had several discussions with the board on this matter. HAF’s inability to make payment has obliged the university to intervene in order to ensure that services to residents of the residence would be continued uninterrupted.

The termination of the lease contract means that the Department of Housing and Residence Affairs at the UFS will be taking over the management and finances of the residence, and will also be handling the placement of students in the residence from now on. The takeover is effective as from 1 January 2015.

The UFS informed senior and first-year students of the change in management on Friday 23 January 2015.

Students’ accommodation in the residence is in no way affected by the change in management.

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