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13 December 2022 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Supplied
Prof Mogomme Masoga
Prof Mogomme Masoga, newly appointed Dean: Faculty of the Humanities.

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the appointment of Prof Mogomme Masoga as Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities for a five-year term during its quarterly meeting on 25 November 2022. 

He is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zululand. 

“Prof Masoga has extensive and an impressive national and international research standing, established networks and partnerships, and substantive management experience. He is a visionary leader and a renowned scholar and will be able to lead and manage the faculty at academic, research, engaged scholarship, and community-service level,” says Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor. 

Prof Masoga holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of the Free State. He began his academic career with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he proceeded to complete two honours and a master’s degree. He received a second Master of Arts in Musicology from the University of South Africa.

Prof Masoga has an excellent record of research publication within the broad niche area of Oral History, Africanism, and Indigenous Knowledge System Studies. He has developed a well-grounded sense of autonomy and involvement, as he has been able to establish a number of research projects and has produced single and co-authored articles. He was able to synergise and sustain his research niche on Africanism and Indigenous Knowledge Studies, which has informed his research over the years. 

He has maintained a coherent research trajectory as a recognised NRF-rated scholar in Indigenous Knowledge System Studies. Prof Masoga’s participation in international collaborative projects has had a positive impact on his scholarly growth, as well as on other colleagues and departments in his faculty at the University of Zululand. 

“Prof Masoga will be able to sustain his existing networks and build new ones that will support research and postgraduate studies at the UFS. This will be particularly valuable in support of the university’s Vision 130, which expresses the institution’s strategic intent to position itself in the period leading up to 2034 when the university will be 130 years old. Vision 130 furthermore exemplifies our commitment to be acknowledged by our peers and society as a top-tier university in South Africa, ranked among the best in the world,” says Prof Petersen. 

Prof Masoga will assume duty on 1 March 2023.

News Archive

DiMTEC and insurance industry join forces to address the vulnerability of communal and commercial farmers
2015-09-18

At the workshop on index-based insurance for the
agricultural sector were, from the left:
Dr Andries Jordaan, Johan van den Bergh,
Bertus Kruger and Henk Vermeulen.

The United Nations identified climate resilience as a major focus for future development to ensure a safer world for all. Tailor-made insurance and financial products ought to address the needs of the most vulnerable.

Recent research done by the Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC) at the University of the Free State on the vulnerability of communal and commercial farmers to external shocks highlighted the importance of insurance as an important disaster risk transfer tool. Insurance is generally unavailable to most vulnerable groups, such as communal farmers, small-holding farmers, and new commercial farmers.

For these reasons, DiMTEC invited the insurance industry and other experts to a workshop with the purpose of investigating the development of risk transfer products, especially for drought. They were the hosts of a workshop entitled “Global Resilience through Insurance and Index-Based Risk Transfer Products (IBRTP)”.

Bertus Kruger from Agriseker and Johan van der Berg from SANTAM, together with other experts, attended the workshop facilitated by Dr Andries Jordaan, Head of DiMTEC.

The group attending the workshop, agreed on the following:

- Establishing a UFS-DiMTEC-led research team to investigate the feasibility of index insurance products.
- Mobilising government support to develop risk transfer products for the most vulnerable.
- Initiating forum discussions on risk transfer products.
- Promoting collaboration between the private sector, government, and research institutions with the focus on resilience-building through financial and insurance products.

 

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