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11 January 2021 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied
Vincent Clarke
Dr Ralph Clark

The Afromontane Research Unit (ARU), the flagship research group of the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus, has recently been granted R8,4 million to establish a Risk and Vulnerability Science Centre programme.

The Risk and Vulnerability Science Centre (RVSC) programme was established by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) as part of the Global Change Research Plan for South Africa and is funded by the DSI through the National Research Foundation (NRF). The RVSC will focus on the need to generate and disseminate knowledge about risk and vulnerability on global change challenges faced by local policy makers/ governance structures and communities in South Africa.

Invited to participate  

Dr Ralph Clark, Director of the ARU, says the UFS, together with the University of Zululand and the Sol Plaatje University, has been invited to participate in Phase 2 of the RVSC programme. Dr Clark was approached by the DSI (on referral from the South African Environmental Observation Network – SAEON) in February 2020 regarding the potential for establishing a RVSC at the UFS Qwaqwa campus.

Subsequent interactions were held between the UFS and DSI, and in March 2020, the UFS formally accepted the DSI invitation. It has since been agreed that the RVSC: UFS will be hosted as a RVSC under the ARU umbrella, with dedicated personnel embedded at the UFS in this regard (internal processes and reporting) but reporting directly to the NRF regarding the RVSC.

Interest and support welcomed

Dr Clark welcomed this interest and support from the DSI-NRF, saying that the funds will further assist the UFS in growing its excellent and growing research portfolio and building more research capacity on this traditionally undergraduate-focused campus. “The RVSC will contribute to much-needed solutions in an area marked by major sustainability challenges and will assist in moving Phuthaditjhaba away from its negative apartheid history towards becoming a sustainable African mountain city,” says Dr Clark.

News Archive

Sculpture project brings new dimension to Main Campus
2010-11-16

Noriah Mabasa, Unity is power: Let us be united (2010), fig wood, 3200 x 1700 x 1400 mm.

The first sculptures in a project to establishment a diverse collection of sculptures on our Main Campus were erected in October 2010. Artists were commissioned to create a number of sculptures.

The funds for the project were made available through a grant from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF).

This project aims to create an altered environment that provides visible, tangible symbols of change and reconciliation. It also aims to enrich the educational and multicultural experience of staff and students with these areas.

Renowned Venda artist Noriah Mabasa has created a three-metre-high wooden sculpture, “Unity is power: Let us be united”, that was placed outside the new computer laboratory near our UFS Sasol Library. The work consists of several grouped figures celebrating the coming together of many diverse people.

Another artist from Venda, Azwifarwi Ragimana, has been working in collaboration with Gallery 181 in Johannesburg and produced a group of sculptural benches that was placed in the garden behind the Main Building.

Local artists are also involved in this initiative: Jaco Spies, lecturer in our Department of Fine Arts, as well as ceramist Dina Grobler and artists from the Tshiamo Art and Crafts Project are working on a mosaic at a site known as the “philosophers” circle.’

The project will continue in 2011. We can also expect works from leading South Africa artists such as Willem Boshoff and Pat Mautloa.

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