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08 December 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Sonia Small
Namibia university
The Office for International Affairs at the UFS recently hosted a delegation from the Namibia University of Science and Technology. Pictured here are, from the left, front: Seithati Ramonaheng, UFS International Scholarships in the Office for International Affairs (OIA); Dr Erling Kavita; Dr Erold Naomab; Prof Yonas Bahta; back: Kagiso Ngake, UFS Partnerships in the OIA; Cornelius Hagenmeier; Zenzele Mdletshe, UFS Partnerships in the OIA; and Dr Falko Buschke, Centre for Environmental Management.

The Office for International Affairs (OIA) at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently (25 November 2021) hosted a delegation from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).

During deliberations, the two institutions discussed the possibility of formalising a partnership and it was agreed that the OIA would lead this process through its Partnership portfolio. The UFS and NUST are looking to work together and share information on the development of a COVID-19 vaccination policy, leveraging on the Germany/Namibia green hydrogen partnership, joining forces on the application for centres of excellence administered by the African Union, establishing staff and student exchange programmes, and intensifying their research collaborations.

Cornelius Hagenmeier, the Director of the Office for International Affairs (OIA) at the UFS, chaired the meeting with Dr Erold Naomab, the Vice-Chancellor of NUST, and his adviser, Dr Erling Kavita. Prof Yonas Bahta, Associate Professor in the UFS Department of Agricultural Economics, and Dr Falko Buschke, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Centre for Environmental Management, also attended the meeting and reported on their existing academic collaborations with NUST.

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Prof. Iain Benson delivers inaugural lecture in UFS's Faculty of Law
2010-10-27

Prof. Shaun de Freitas (left) of the Faculty of Law at the UFS and Prof. Iain Benson.

Prof. Iain T. Benson delivered his inaugural address as Professor Extraordinary in the Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law in the Faculty of Law at University of the Free State (UFS) faculty last week.

Originally hailing from Canada and currently residing with his family in France, Prof. Benson is an academic with a wealth of experience and expertise in the field of law, especially with regard to the right of conscience and religion. His achievements number many, including being a Senior Associate Counsel at one of Canada’s leading law firms, Miller Thompson LLP; and serving on the Founding Board of the Global Centre for Pluralism. 

Apart from his work on leading cases in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Prof. Benson also has strong ties with the law in South Africa. He is part of the Continuity Committee that is responsible for the major undertaking of drawing up the South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms in cooperation with all the major religions in South Africa which, when completed, will be the first use of Section 234 of the South African Constitution.

The title of the inaugural lecture was Living together with Disagreements and the Limits of the Law, which tackled various conscientious and topical issues regarding the complex relationships between the law and religions. Starting off the lecture, Prof. Benson recalled that living together with disagreement is a necessary achievement in free and democratic societies and that differences of belief and opinion should not be resolved by force acceptance of a “one-size fits all” model. Mentioning religion and same-sex marriages, Prof. Benson held these up as issues which reasonable people may disagree on and should hence be respected by the public sphere that is girded round by the law. 

Quoting Sophocles’ Antigone, Prof. Benson noted that tensions between the so-called divine and imminent or state laws as in a non-theocratic state have always been with us. He stressed the importance of a wide respect by the law for civic associations in addition to but particularly in relation to religion which guides citizens views about wrong and right beyond matters that are regulated by law.
 

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