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11 March 2022 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo Supplied
Dr Ralph Clarke
Dr Ralph Clark, Director of the Afromontane Research Unit.

The African Mountain Research Foundation (AMRF), in association with the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) of the University of the Free State (UFS), and the Global Mountain Safeguard Research Programme (GLOMOS), is hosting the first-ever Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022). The theme of the conference is Southern African Mountains – their value and vulnerabilities.

The conference will bring relevant people together into one space for networking and information sharing, leading to more robust regional and international collaborations and comparative mountain studies with an increase in research activities, student capacity, researcher capacity and academic outputs that feed into policy and action. 

The conference will take place from 14 to 17 March 2022 in the majestic Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa and Lesotho. 

According to the SAMC2022 website, this is a truly Southern African regional mountain conference, targeting the African region south of the Congo rainforest (DRC) and Lake Rukwa (Tanzania), but including Madagascar, the Comoros and the Mascarenes (i.e., Angola, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo [southern mountains], Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, La Réunion, South Africa, southern Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).

Dr Ralph Clark, ARU Director, said the conference would be a high-level international event with UNESCO patronage and very valuable sponsors.

“The programme will have six parallel tracks (one being dedicated to postgraduate students), with about 200 papers being delivered. In addition, we have some very high-profile special sessions, such as an MRI special session on long-term monitoring activities and associated data availability for climate change-related applications across Africa’s mountains, as well as a UNESCO special session on regional collaboration. We also have Prof Julian Bayliss, described as the man who discovered an unseen world, as the guest speaker at the closing event.”

The conference will bring together relevant people in one space for networking and information sharing, leading to more robust regional and international collaborations and comparative mountain studies, with an increase in research activities, student capacity, researcher capacity, and academic outputs that feed into policy and action.

The GLOMOS team, one of the long-term partners of the ARU, spent the week of 8 to 11 March 2022 on the Qwaqwa Campus to strengthen collaboration and pave the way for new research opportunities in Phuthaditjhaba and the Maloti-Drakensberg.
GLOMOS represents an interface between the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and Eurac Research. Postdoctoral fellow, Dr Stefano Terzi, said: “It’s very interesting for us to look at the Maloti-Drakensberg area because of its diversity. We are in the process of really exciting collaborations.”
Their projects include an understanding of the root causes of land degradation and improving decision-making processes for current water management within the context of water scarcity in the Maloti-Drakensberg.
• For more information on the speakers and the programme, click here 


News Archive

Private screening of Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa by Abby Ginzberg
2014-03-26

Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa, a film by Abby Ginzberg, was recently screened at the Odeion. The film is based on the life of Albie Sachs as lawyer, political activist, writer and art lover. 

Judge Sachs’ career in human rights activism started while studying law at the University of Cape Town. In 1955 he attended the Congress of the People at Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was adopted. At age 23 he started to practice as an advocate at the Cape Town Bar and defended people charged under the racial statutes and security laws of apartheid.

The film captures his tough life experiences, ranging from political imprisonment and torture, life in exile, to being a judge in the Constitutional Court and his ability to communicate human dimensions about legal matters. This same quality is highlighted in his judicial opinions on topics such as capital punishment, the rights of homeless people and same-sex marriages.

The screening of the film was hosted by the Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Jonathan Jansen, with the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice and the Archive for Contemporary Affairs.

Judge Albie Sachs attended the screening and was be available to answer questions afterwards.

For more information, contact the Archive for Contemporary Affairs: Mrs Huibre Lombaard huibre@ufs.ac.za or Mrs Ernene Verster ernene@ufs.ac.za.

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