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16 September 2020 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Supplied
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Prof Mongane Wally Serote will present the Heritage Day webinar on 23 September 2020.

September is dedicated to heritage celebrations, with the nation celebrating Heritage Day on 24 September. The Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) will collaborate with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and the University of the Western Cape to present a national Heritage Day webinar with Prof Mongane Wally Serote as keynote speaker.

Date: 23 September 2020
Time:12:00
Platform: Webinarjam

Registration is required prior to webinar: 

Prof Serote is widely recognised as the ‘Father of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)’ in South Africa, where he  pioneered research and debate on IKS at national level. Prof Serote is also the National Poet Laureate. Dr Stephanie Cawood, director of CGAS said that Prof Serote is one of South Africa’s struggle and intellectual stalwarts and that his lecture promises “to be insightful and hopeful in a time when we need to reflect on our position as a nation carefully.”

The topic of the webinar is Going to Basics: The Reconstruction and Development Programme of the Source.  “Heritage Day is important to help us reflect on who we are and what we have in common as a people, to focus on what binds us together and not what divides us,” said Dr Cawood

Due to the limitations imposed by government on events as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CGAS had to reinvent what would have been the Africa Day Memorial Lecture. 



About our speaker:

Professor Mongane Wally Serote is the third National Poet Laureate of South Africa inaugurated on November 6, 2018. He is a celebrated poet, author, struggle stalwart, member of the Black Consciousness Movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe commander, pioneer of IKS in South Africa, former MP, and Ngaka (healer). Serote has been awarded national and international accolades, amongst others the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize (1973); the Noma Award (1993); the English Academy of Southern Africa Medal (2003); the Pablo Neruda Award (2004); the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver awarded by President Thabo Mbeki (2007); the prestigious Golden Wreath Award for Poetry (2012), and the Arts and Culture Trust Lifetime Achievement Award (2016). 

Read more about Prof Mongane Wally Serote

 

News Archive

Open Day attracts thousands
2012-05-02

 

Campus was abuzz with prospective students and their parents finding out what Kovsies has to offer.
Photo: Kaleidoscope Studios
1 May 2012

“It is easier to pass Grade 12 today because we don’t have a standard. However, at the University of the Free State, standards are important.”

This was Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS’ message when he addressed a packed Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus during this year’s Open Day.

“This university is the jewel of the country. Here at Kovsies we take academic standards seriously. You must know who you are in a place where academic standards are extremely important. Anyone can obtain a degree, but here you can get more than a degree. You get an education,” he said to the more than 5 000 learners and parents from across the country.

“It is not only important that you study here in South Africa, but also in other countries. That is why our students study all over the world. You must think out of your comfort zone, have a big heart, achieve great heights and show everyone that you are a Kovsie.

But, it is not all about studying – it is also about being human and reaching out to others. When you come to this university, you will also do other things that will make you proud of being a Kovsie.

Quality looks for quality. Therefore, work hard and study hard because you need to be at a good university,” he said.

The programme consisted of, among others, a spectacular laser show, a performance by Bobby van Jaarsveld and special messages from DW Bester and Sannah Mokone, Rhodes Scholars currently studying at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

In a pre-recorded message DW, a Ph.D. student in Mathematical Statistics, encouraged prospective students to work hard and persevere. Sannah, doing a Master’s degree in African Studies, said she believes in the future of the African continent. “I believe in our future students and know you can make it.”

Prof. Jansen also introduced some of the university’s recent student achievers such as Jurie Swart, regional winner of the Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Award; Farzana Samuel, named by the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS) as the most outstanding student in quantity surveying for 2012; and Sibusiso Tshabalala, one of Google’s Top 10 Young Minds.

Richard Chemaly, President of the Central Student Representative Council (CSRC), said that, by coming to Kovsies, prospective students would become the best person they can be. “We have over 70 student organisations to help you take part in student life activities. So, make use of these opportunities,” he said.

The programme concluded with an introduction to the seven faculties by the respective deans.

The estimated 7 000 prospective students and their parents also had the opportunity to visit faculties and the stalls of residences.
 

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