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24 August 2021
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Story Amanda Tongha
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In a year marked by a global pandemic, the University of the Free State (UFS) has made great strides in research, teaching, and impactful engagement.
Our 2020 journey has seen many staff members providing services to advance public knowledge of COVID-19 for the greater good of South Africa. We have produced top-rated scientists, boasting six SARChI research chairs and three A-rated scholars in our world-class workforce. Our various initiatives to ensure student success continue to bear fruit, with current and former students making their mark in the world. One such example is Qinisani Qwabe, a PhD student in the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Development and Extension, who was selected in the education category of the Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans. He was also chosen to represent South Africa at a BRICS conference in Russia.
You can read these and other facts and figures in ‘Our 2020 Journey’ publication.
Click on image to download the document
Leadership is about people, Tsedu
2009-09-16
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Mr Mathatha Tsedu, Head of the Journalism Academy at Media24
Photo: Dries Myburgh |
Modern-day leaders have neither the inclination nor the will to lead the very people who have entrusted them with that responsibility, said Mr Mathatha Tsedu, Head of the Journalism Academy at Media24.
The former City Press editor delivered the 2nd King Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein last night.
He said the current state of leadership in South Africa was characterised by patronage and self-enrichment.
“The poorest of the poor and our affection for them extends only to public meetings where we mouth socialist slogans. But in reality we want nothing to do with them and they have to fend for themselves,” he said.
“Leadership has to be more than just the power of a mayor, premier, MEC or minister to dish out tenders to friends for projects that never get completed. Projects whose real legacy is the fact that the friend of the leader now drives a Hummer.”
He said leadership had to be about people but acknowledged the fact that it would not happen unless people themselves insisted on that.
“King Moshoeshoe teaches us that leadership is about taking decisions and taking risks. Not only as leaders but more especially as members of the community,” he said.
“We can address our critical challenges only if citizens’ groups, business, labour and broader civil society actively engage with the state to improve delivery and enforce an accountable government.”
He appealed to leaders to follow the example of King Moshoeshoe and always put people first, and involve them, in the decisions that they take.
“This is about concern for others and for self. It is about compassion in leadership and in society, it is about caring beyond own concerns. It is about being involved and engaged. These are the attributes that I feel King Moshoeshoe left us as a legacy of leadership. Leadership not only of the leaders but of the led,” he said.
Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za
10 September 2009
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