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08 October 2021 | Story Burneline Kaars | Photo Supplied
Some of the current staff well-being ambassadors.

A key responsibility of the Division of Organisational Development and Employee Well-being is to actively promote and enhance the health and well-being of University of the Free State (UFS) staff members. The philosophy of the programme views human beings as a complex interplay between various internal and external influences. Thus, optimal levels of health and well-being can only be achieved by following a holistic approach, both physically and emotionally. The way we function in one dimension can enhance or impede the way we function in another dimension. In response, the division develops and offers programmes for employees to enhance their overall well-being.

Staff Well-being Ambassadors Team

The implementation of the preventative programmes has been shown to have a beneficial impact on the health and well-being of attendees. Adequate attendance is also a critical factor in the success of preventative programmes, and as a result, continuous efforts are being implemented to reach as many employees as possible.

The Staff Well-being Ambassadors Programme (SWAP) at the UFS has been created and introduced to expand the reach and impact of the OD and Employee Well-being initiatives.  The Staff Well-being Ambassadors Team (SWAT) is truly the backbone of our OD and well-being programme. Employees who form part of SWAT will act as accredited representatives of the OD and Employee Well-being division within their respective departments and workplaces.

Promoting health and wellness

Staff well-being ambassadors are employees from across our three campuses, advocating for employees' holistic well-being and promoting a healthy workplace. The SWAT goal is to contribute to a supportive workplace environment and to encourage positive health and wellness behaviours. Ambassadors will support OD and Well-being initiatives by promoting health and wellness messages and behaviours, as well as inspiring their colleagues to get involved to improve their holistic well-being.

Please contact wellness@ufs.ac.za if you are interested in promoting health and well-being within your department or unit.

Burneline Kaars is Head of the Division of Organisational Development and Employee Well-being in the Department of Human Resources at the UFS.

News Archive

Expert in Africa Studies debunks African middle class myth
2016-05-10

Description: Prof Henning Melber Tags: Prof Henning Melber

From left: Prof Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), Joe Besigye from the Institute of Reconciliation and Social Justice, and Prof Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor at the CAS and guest lecturer for the day.
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

Until recently, think tanks from North America, the African Development Bank, United Nations Development Plan, and global economists have defined the African middle class based purely on monetary arithmetic. One of the claims made in the past is that anyone with a consumption power of $2 per day constitutes the middle class. Following this, if poverty is defined as monetary income below $1.5 a day, it means that it takes just half a dollar to reach the threshold considered as African middle class.

Prof Henning Melber highlighted the disparities in the notion of a growing African middle class in a guest lecture titled A critical anatomy of the African middle class(es), hosted by our Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at the University of the Free State on 4 May 2016. He is an Extraordinary Professor at the Centre, as well as Senior Adviser and Director Emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Sweden.

Prof Melber argued that it is misleading to consider only income when identifying the middle class. In his opinion, such views were advanced by promoters of the global neo-liberal project. “My suspicion is that those who promote the middle class  discourse in that way, based on such a low threshold, were desperate to look for the success story that testifies to Africa rising.”

Another pitfall of such a middle-class analysis is its ahistorical contextualisation. This economically-reduced notion of the class is a sheer distortion. Prof Melber advised analysts to take cognisance of factors, such as consumption patterns, lifestyle, and political affiliation, amongst others.

In his second lecture for the day, Prof Melber dealt withthe topic of: Namibia since independence: the limits to Liberation, painting the historical backdrop against which the country’s current government is consolidating its political hegemony. He highlighted examples of the limited transformation that has been achieved since Namibia’s independence in 1990.

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