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12 August 2022 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo NONSINDISO QWABE
Mpho Twala
Cultivating the land-Mpho Twala.

The Bachelor of Community Development qualification offered on the Qwaqwa Campus develops young professionals who are able to work collaboratively with the community to come up with initiatives that build resilience and sustainability. Before obtaining their qualifications, students are required to identify community needs and to come up with viable ways to eradicate these.

It was during this period that Mpho Twala, a recent CommDev graduate, identified a once-thriving community vegetable garden that had been abandoned and subsequently stripped over the years. Further research led her to realise that the soil was still very fertile, and with a bit of work, could once again be revived to become an income-generating business. She received her qualification during the April graduations on the Qwaqwa Campus, but she did not stop there.

Bringing change to the community through vegetable farming

Twala, with no agricultural background, approached the locals for permission to revive the 1-ha garden into a community-owned vegetable garden. “The land has been uncultivated for more than a decade, and after conducting a needs analysis, I didn’t want to leave it like that, because I saw that if I worked with young people, this would help with the high unemployment rate among the youth in this area,” Twala said.

She says she was driven by bringing about change in her community, which she believes was inspired by her studies.
“I’ve always wanted to do something in my community, and CommDev taught me to see opportunities instead of challenges.”

The vegetable garden currently has 17 employees, 10 of whom are under the age of 35. They are currently harvesting cabbages, various forms of spinach, and white onion – all organic – for home consumption and community purchasing. They also occasionally sell to hawkers around Qwaqwa.

Twala dreams of expanding the garden, adding more crops, and ultimately reaching commercial level. “We are currently classified under subsistence farming – farming for home consumption and selling the surplus so that the project can remain operational. But with the right funding and support, we can grow bigger and better.”

News Archive

Prof Mary Kay Blakely from the Missouri School of Journalism (USA) speaks about the age of misinformation
2015-03-10

 

Prof Mary Kay Blakely  

Living in an age where misinformation is as common as loadshedding in South Africa, we all tend to ask who we can trust when reading or hearing the news media.

Prof Mary Kay Blakely from the Missouri School of Journalism (Columbia, USA) presented a public lecture recently entitled The age of misinformation: Who do you trust? at the UFS. She stressed the point of how, with the social media revolution and the rise of the citizen journalist, our news interests of old are being fed by many more new channels, influences, and opinions. This leaves us to question what is still true and what is still objective

For example, Blakely mentioned that “gossip, scandal, and celebrities have always been our fascination – even more so today.”

“But nowadays, we have to become even more critical thinkers.”

During Blakely’s presentation, she stated the harsh reality that objectivity is extremely difficult. True objectivity, which means keeping  yourself completely out of the story you cover, is virtually impossible.

“It is not just about covering both sides of the story. Often, there are far more sides to a story than just two, probably even five.”

Therefore, it comes down to fairness, balance, and truth, which are really important in covering a story. Hence, it is the obligation of the media to be fair, balanced, and truthful while recognising their own biases. 

Prof Mary Kay Blakely – Short Bio:

Prof Mary Kay Blakely is the author of the critically-acclaimed books Wake Me When It's Over, American Mom and Red, White and O So Blue. Her essays on social and political issues have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, LIFE, and Vogue, among others.

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