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30 July 2020 | Story Igno van Niekerk | Photo Igno van Niekerk
Keabetswe Malebo was recipient to the scholarship by Abbe Levin.
Great stories are often the result of unexpected connections made across time and space. Upon looking back and connecting dots, one is often surprised at how seemingly random events lead to happy endings, which in themselves become beginnings for new stories.

Leaving a legacy

When Ida Manana Siyila left South Africa in the first half of the twentieth century, no one would have known how her legacy would influence a young student at the UFS many years later. While working for the same American family for more than 30 years, she never stopped learning and working to improve herself. Ida, proud of her dual citizenship, never lost contact with her friends and family in Bloemfontein, wishing to return to Bloemfontein in her old age. Her American family made sure that this wish was fulfilled.

For Keabetswe Malebo, the first six months as a student were tough. An energetic young lady with joy in her voice and a passion for learning and making a difference in her community, Keabetswe had been squatting with a friend while studying at the UFS. The friend was running out of money; there was no way Keabetswe could pay her debt, and her friend could not afford the rent. No rent, no accommodation. No accommodation, no further studies.

Changing a life

Abbe Levin was sincerely grateful for what Ida Siyila had done for her family. In 2017, Abbe made a donation to the UFS requesting that it be used as a scholarship for a disadvantaged student in Ida’s name.

When Keabetswe read about the scholarship, she applied. “I felt it was for me, I was so excited and afraid.” Keabetswe’ s belief, commitment, and hard work were rewarded when she was granted the scholarship. “I got the money just in time to buy a laptop, a printer, and a microwave … and of course to pay the rent I owed my friend.”

Since then, Keabetswe has met Abbe Levin online, and they have become friends, communicating, sharing family pictures and stories, ever grateful for the never-ending story of Ida Manana Siyila.

News Archive

Official opening: UFS earmarks R10-million to support national priorities
2006-02-06

 

The University of the Free State (UFS) is to align key areas of its academic and research efforts with national priorities through the introduction of five strategic clusters which would be funded by seedmoney of R10-million in 2006.

Speaking at the Official Opening of the UFS on Friday (3 February 2006), the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the academic and research work that will be done in the five strategic clusters would contribute to the development of Mangaung, the Free State, South Africa and Africa.

 “It makes sense to concentrate the university’s human resources, our infrastructure, financial resources and intellectual expertise to ensure that the UFS makes a contribution to the country and the African continent,” Prof Fourie said.

“Strategic clusters will be organised on the basis that these areas of knowledge could become in the short term the flagships of the UFS, meaning those areas where the university currently has or in the very near future is likely to have some competitive advantage,” Prof Fourie said.

According to Prof Fourie, this strategic-cluster approach will be in line with the approach being designed by the National Research Foundation (NRF) to take national priorities into account and would enhance the quality of scholarship at the UFS.

The five strategic areas in which research and academic investment at the UFS will be clustered are the following:

Enabling technologies / Technology for the future;
Food production, quality and food security for Africa;
Development;
Social transformation;
Water resource and ecosystem management;

“Such strategic clusters are understood not only as research areas but as areas that also encompass strong undergraduate and particularly postgraduate teaching and a potentially solid scientific basis for service learning and community service research,” Prof Fourie said.

Within each of these clusters specific niche areas will be identified. Clusters could focus on one or more aspects of a particular discipline or could involve more than one discipline in researching a particular issue.

He said not all academic work and research being done at the UFS would be clustered in this way. Sufficient resources and support have been put in place for general research excellence in the past five years.

“Some of the spin-offs can have an important impact on industrial development, for example in the chemicals industry and may also create a basis for cooperation with provincial, national and international partners,” he said. 

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
5 February 2006

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