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23 September 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Participants in the third Amazing Race travelled through the African continent, experiencing Africa’s roots and its rich, vibrant, and diverse cultures

During the third Amazing Race presented by Organisational Development and Employee Wellness, staff had the opportunity to virtually travel through Africa. 

The aim of the race with the theme, A Journey through Africa, was to celebrate South Africa and Africa’s roots and its rich, vibrant, and diverse cultures. 

Natasha Nel, organisational development specialist and organiser of the race, says they wanted to give the 13 participating teams the opportunity to explore, learn, create, and be challenged together as they travel to some of the most interesting and exotic locations around Africa, but also in South Africa. 

Here in our own country, teams had the opportunity to experience our culture as well as the diversity of beliefs and traditions.


Here in our own country, teams had the opportunity to experience our culture as well as the diversity of beliefs and traditions.

Interactive and exciting event

Nel says staff could join the race in the convenience of their personal working space via a Zoom meeting. “They only needed to download the game that was specifically tailored for the UFS.” 

“It was a fun, interactive, and exciting event. In this unique adventure, it was interesting to see how teams worked together, made decisions, and also thought outside the box during the challenges,” she says.

Nel explains that teams were requested to take photos, answer questions, and make decisions unique to Africa and their culture. Some decisions and answers were timed. They also had to decide where they wanted to travel, but each decision and option had its costs, reward, and challenge linked to it.

We are the champions

Chanel Lewis, Aneke Kruger, Runé van der Merwe, and Lischen du Randt walked away as winners of the third Amazing Race. 

By participating in this race, the university has sponsored 13 breakfasts for the Community Chest of South Africa (this organisation’s mission is to inspire and facilitate community giving for community enhancement).


News Archive

Seminar puts language issues under spotlight
2012-06-29

The South African Languages Bill does not meet the Constitution’s requirements and is not doing much to curb English monolingualism.

This viewpoint of a number of critics was discussed at a language seminar at the University of the Free State (UFS) this week.

The Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS presented the seminar on the Bloemfontein Campus, where interested parties could discuss issues and developments relating to the South African Languages Bill.

The seminar formed part of the combined annual conference of the South African Applied Linguistics Association, the Linguistic Society of Southern Africa and the South African Association for Language Teachers.

At the conference, the rich diversity of language and also the complexity of language in South Africa was recognised.

The latest South African Languages Bill has attracted much interest and varied viewpoints this past year.

One of the most significant - and also the most controversial - suggestion of the present bill is to extend the present bi-language obligation to a four-language obligation, which implies that at least one African language is added to the present formula.

Furthermore, there are other important stipulations regarding the establishment of language units that will have implications for the public service, and specifically, for language practitioners.

Prof. Koos Malan, a Constitutional Law expert from the University of Pretoria, speaking during a discussion session, said: “Language determination in constitutions and language legislation are indications of the official ideology towards dealing with language and cultural diversity in the specific state. The ideology can range from the support of multilingualism – at the one extreme – to the other extreme, where only one language will get preference as the official language.”

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