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Dr Munyaradzi Mushonga appointed to lead global network on decoloniality

28 June 2022 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studios)

Dr Munyaradzi Mushonga of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) at the University of the Free State (UFS) has been appointed Global Academic Director of the Decolonial International Network (DIN). Dr Mushonga, who is a senior lecturer and programme director of CGAS’s Africa Studies programme, says his vision for DIN is “to work towards a new world civilisation that is opposed to the militarism and war, lawlessness and genocides of other civilisations.”

Dr Mushonga, who is a leading voice and scholar on decolonialisation, will formally assume his role at DIN in 2023.

The duality of new technology and scholarly work

Dr Mushonga says it is important for our minds to be decolonised, and he is therefore planning to establish a Centre for Decolonising The Mind (CDTM), which will use 21st-century technologies to achieve the ideal of decolonialisation. “Here pluriversal decolonial chapters and centres will be driven towards developing a decolonial history app,” he says. The aim is also to work towards a decolonial textbook on the history of Africa.

He says it is commendable to employ technology to address decolonisation, but the real work to achieve the ideal of a decolonial mind lies in the scholarly work done by academics. At the CGAS the entire Africa Studies programme addresses decolonial theory and praxis through several approaches. “These are informed by our identity, which is anchored on two pillars, namely the interdisciplinary nature of all our engagements, as well as the exploration and critique of what it means to be ‘human’, but also in relation to the ‘non-human’ world.” He adds that the Centre’s teaching, supervision, and engagement with its students also challenges academics to think beyond the binaries of ‘coloniser’ and ‘colonised’, ‘white’ and ‘black’, and to reject all forms of fundamentalism.

UFS’s commitment to decoloniality is a great asset

Dr Mushonga's tenure at DIN will also reinforce the commitment to decolonial education made by the UFS, which has been noted by DIN. “I am convinced that DIN, the CGAS and the UFS can become the great vehicles to drive the decolonial agenda from the global South in general, and South Africa in particular,” he says. He says the commitment to the ideals of decolonisation displayed by UFS and the CGAS played a large part in his appointment to his new DIN role.

The CGAS and the UFS will become key players in the DIN project, and Dr Mushonga hopes that more individuals and groups will come forward to join forces with DIN. “I hope this will enable DIN to push for new ethics in living.”

News Archive

Another boost for sport at the UFS

2005-10-13

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has officially appointed Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd, which has former Springbok rugby captain Morné du Plessis as managing director, to manage its Centre for Exercise and Sport Science Services (CESSS) on the Bloemfontein campus.

According to Prof Teuns Verschoor, Vice-Rector: Academic Operations, the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is another step in the implementation of the UFS’s wide-ranging sport strategy to improve sport facilities and elevate formerly marginalized sports such as soccer, hockey, netball, tennis etc.

Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is the manager of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and coordinates and manages the national basketball high-performance programme of SA Basketball, as well as the Boxing Academy on behalf of Boxing South Africa.

“It is also actively involved with the sports plans of several tertiary institutions like that of the University of Johannesburg and the University of Stellenbosch,” said Prof Verschoor.

“Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was also appointed by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation to manage the allocation of sports codes to high-performance centres and to oversee the allocation of monies received from the National Lottery to these centres – this includes the CESSS at the UFS,” Prof Verschoor added.

In unfolding its national sports plan, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has already identified the UFS-based CESSS as the high-performance testing centre for the national basketball teams whilst the national boxing teams are also earmarked to be trained at the UFS.

“We are glad to be associated with a company of this stature and look forward to work with them in the further development of sports at the UFS,” said Prof Verschoor.

According to Prof Verschoor, the CESSS will act as a centralised body that is responsible for the coordination and management of joint initiatives between professional service providers, research projects and KovsieSport.

“The centre will also coordinate and manage joint initiatives between various academic programmes in different academic subject fields such as sports medicine, bio kinetics, physiotherapy, dietetics, etc. ,” said Prof Verschoor.

These initiatives will help the UFS to become a centre and catalyst of sports development, to become internationally recognised in the field of exercise and sports science research and to become a centre for high quality sports performance enhancement.

Some of the objectives of the CESSS are:

To provide sports science services like to athletes, students, the general public and other stakeholders including certain national sport teams.
To provide the necessary teaching and training facilities and internship opportunities for UFS students in sports related fields of study will also be provided by the centre like human movement science.
To present skills-transfer programmes directed at the broader community like development of skills in various sporting codes.
To continue and extend the current chronic risk reversal programmes presented by the Department of Human Movement Science such as obesity management, cardiac rehabilitation and other lifestyle related conditions.

The centre was founded in 2003 and was until now managed by Dr Louis Holtzhausen, from Kovsie Health and a consultant, Dr Gary Vorster.

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed today by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The manager of the centre appointed by Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is Mr Charles Store, an alumnus of the UFS, previously employed at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town and by the SANDF at 3 Military Hospital, Bloemfontein.

Media release
Issued by: Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
072-207-8334
12 October 2005

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