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01 October 2020 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Supplied
Siphamandla Shabangu hopes to develop intercontinental networks during the Qatar University webinar.
“Assume you are in a leadership position, what can you do to improve the future of higher education?”
This is one of the questions Qwaqwa Campus SRC member, Siphamandla Shabangu, will be discussing during an international webinar to be hosted by Qatar University on Monday 5 October 2020. He will represent the University of the Free State, South Africa, and the African continent as a panellist to discuss the topic: Preparing for an Unpredictable Future: Global Insights from Higher Education Students. 

“Words to describe how it feels to represent not only my campus or institution, but the whole South African nation can never express this new feeling I have,” said Siphamandla. “I have never been afforded such an auspicious opportunity. This is indeed a new feeling for me, and I will do my best to turn it into a habit. I am honoured to have been selected to represent South Africa in a global academic and leadership space. I am a proud UFS ambassador and hope to one day become the face of the University of the Free State,” he added.

Tough selection process

Siphamandla revealed that the process of selection started with the Career Development office on campus. “I was selected among many greater minds on the Qwaqwa Campus. Fortunately, I further prospered among students across all three campuses of the University of the Free State, and finally became one of the best among the greats. Now, I am proud to be part of six unique panellists from different countries to unpack the impact of COVID-19 on institutions of higher learning. In fact, it is a prestigious honour to be the only African panellist – black African for that matter – in this global panel discussion,” he said.

Looking forward to the webinar

“I would very much like to acquire student lived experiences from countries outside the continent during the COVID-19 pandemic. I am also interested to know what methods of learning are sustainably applied at higher learning institutions from the perspectives of developing and highly developed countries. Moreover, I am eager to find out as to what leadership-inspired methods work best in different continents within the educational space that is gradually consumed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, I am looking forward to developing international and intercontinental networks that will equip me to best explore opportunities across the globe. The academic space is dominated by intellects, visionaries, hustlers, lifelong learners, problem solvers, and even creative thinkers such as artists. However, it is within us to broaden the potential we have in life. It would be gratifying to know higher education systems from other prominent countries,” said Siphamandla.

The panel discussion will take place on Monday 5 October from 12:00 to13:00 (South African time). Other panellists are from the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Turkey, and Qatar. 

Siphamandla is currently serving as the SRC member responsible for Universal Access and Social Justice Council.

News Archive

Lecture focuses on how Marikana widows embody the transformative power of art
2015-08-11

Makopane Thelejane

"When I got the news of my husband is dead, I put my hands above my head, as you see me in this picture. I could not bear the ache in my heart." - Makopane Thelejane

A woman looks down on a canvas covered in thick layers of red, dark shadows falling across her face. A brief moment that captures the silently-devastating aftermath of the Marikana massacre that bled into the lives of 34 widows.

It is this silent trauma that was at the centre of the last instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series for 2015. “These stories of the Marikana widows are important. It is these stories of silence that live behind the spectacular scenes of the violence,” Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) said at the event.

Panel
The lecture, which took place on Monday 27 July 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus, took the form of a panel discussing the theme of “Speaking wounds: voices of Marikana widows through art and narrative”. The panel consisted of members from the Khulumani Support Group, including Dr Marjorie Jobson (National Director) and Judy Seidman (Sociologist and Graphic Artist), as well as Nomfundo Walaza, former CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.

Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

"Then this dark time came, a dark cloud over me. It made me to have an aching heart, which took me to hospital, from losing my loved one, my husband, in such a terrible manner. " - Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

Trauma made visible
In a project initiated by Khulumani, the Marikana widows were encouraged to share their trauma through painting body maps – in which the widows depicted their own bodies immersed in their trauma – and narrating their personal stories. Throughout the workshops, the focus always remained on the women. As Siedman put it, “the power of this process is rooted in the participants. The statements of what the participants experienced is what’s important.”

Initially silenced and isolated, this group of women has now moved “into a space where they have become connected to each, and stand up for each other in the most powerful ways,” Dr Jobson said. “Our work is conceptualised in terms of giving visibility and voice to the people who know what it takes to change this country; to change this struggle.”

The transformative power of art and narrative
During her response, Walaza pointed out “how art and narrative can transform traumatic memory and become integrated in the survivors’ life story.” This gives individuals the opportunity, she said, “to step into a space of mutual listening and dialoguing in which people bond together.”

Co-hosted by Prof Gobodo-Madikizela and the UFS Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, the lecture series forms part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

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