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15 July 2022 | Story Lacea Loader

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the lifting of the institution’s COVID-19 Regulations and Required Vaccination Policy with immediate effect.

“Since the declaration by the Government on 22 June 2022 that the COVID-19 regulations will be repealed, the UFS has conducted a risk assessment to determine the risk of exposure to staff and students. From the assessment, it was clear that the university’s COVID-19 infections are currently a low risk,” said Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

Factors that contributed to this low risk include the following:

  • No COVID-19 positive cases among UFS staff and students have been reported in the past month.
  • The high number of vaccinations among UFS stakeholders. In addition, the current national immunity level of the total South African population is high.
  • Certain faculties and postgraduate students are currently proceeding with hybrid/online learning, which minimises the risk of possible COVID-19 infections on the university’s three campuses.
  • In its correspondence of 23 June 2022, the UFS urged all staff and students to continue wearing masks should they have comorbidities and/or symptoms of illness, thus safeguarding other stakeholders.

“We believe that COVID-19 no longer poses an immediate threat to the safety of our staff and students, and that the pandemic is at a stage where they should take responsibility for their own safety. This can be mainly ascribed to the success of the implementation of the policy. Staff and students who still wish to wear masks are urged to do so at their own discretion. Those who have not yet been vaccinated against the virus and have no

known condition preventing them from doing so, are advised to get vaccinated for their own safety and protection,” said Prof Petersen.

The UFS COVID-19 Regulations and Required Vaccination Policy was approved by the University Council on 26 November 2021 and implemented on 6 December 2021. The university commenced restricting unvaccinated individuals from accessing its campuses as of 14 February 2022.

“If the national regulatory environment with respect to COVID-19 is changing to such an extent that the policy needs to be re-implemented, the university’s executive management will act accordingly, and hence the COVID-19 Regulations and Required Vaccination Policy remains a policy of the university as approved by the UFS Council on 26 November 2021.” said Prof Petersen.

 

Uplifting of the COVID-19 vaccination policy - mitigation strategies of the University of the Free State.

News Archive

Lecture focuses on how Marikana widows embody the transformative power of art
2015-08-11

Makopane Thelejane

"When I got the news of my husband is dead, I put my hands above my head, as you see me in this picture. I could not bear the ache in my heart." - Makopane Thelejane

A woman looks down on a canvas covered in thick layers of red, dark shadows falling across her face. A brief moment that captures the silently-devastating aftermath of the Marikana massacre that bled into the lives of 34 widows.

It is this silent trauma that was at the centre of the last instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series for 2015. “These stories of the Marikana widows are important. It is these stories of silence that live behind the spectacular scenes of the violence,” Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) said at the event.

Panel
The lecture, which took place on Monday 27 July 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus, took the form of a panel discussing the theme of “Speaking wounds: voices of Marikana widows through art and narrative”. The panel consisted of members from the Khulumani Support Group, including Dr Marjorie Jobson (National Director) and Judy Seidman (Sociologist and Graphic Artist), as well as Nomfundo Walaza, former CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.

Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

"Then this dark time came, a dark cloud over me. It made me to have an aching heart, which took me to hospital, from losing my loved one, my husband, in such a terrible manner. " - Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

Trauma made visible
In a project initiated by Khulumani, the Marikana widows were encouraged to share their trauma through painting body maps – in which the widows depicted their own bodies immersed in their trauma – and narrating their personal stories. Throughout the workshops, the focus always remained on the women. As Siedman put it, “the power of this process is rooted in the participants. The statements of what the participants experienced is what’s important.”

Initially silenced and isolated, this group of women has now moved “into a space where they have become connected to each, and stand up for each other in the most powerful ways,” Dr Jobson said. “Our work is conceptualised in terms of giving visibility and voice to the people who know what it takes to change this country; to change this struggle.”

The transformative power of art and narrative
During her response, Walaza pointed out “how art and narrative can transform traumatic memory and become integrated in the survivors’ life story.” This gives individuals the opportunity, she said, “to step into a space of mutual listening and dialoguing in which people bond together.”

Co-hosted by Prof Gobodo-Madikizela and the UFS Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, the lecture series forms part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

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