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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

What if we put it to you that Barry Roux is to visit Kovsies?
2015-08-20


Advocate Barry Roux in action at Oscar Pistorius' trial.
Photo: Supplied

The SRC Legal and Constitutional Affairs office, in conjunction with the Law Faculty, are launching the Student Court this week.

 

Barry Roux, the renowned South African legal representative who served as the defence advocate in the trial of Oscar Pistorius, will be the keynote speaker.

 

Guest speakers include Judge Lebotsang Bosieloof the South African Supreme Court of Appeal. Prof Caroline Nicholson and Prof Teuns Verschoor are to represent our Law Faculty as Dean and Lecturer, respectively.

 

In 2014, when Lindokuhle Ntuli occupied the Legal and Constitutional Affairs office within the Student Representative Council (SRC), the concept of this Judicial Branch of Student Governance was conceived.

 

“I established the Student Court because I strongly believed that we needed a student forum, beyond the University’s Disciplinary Committee,” said Lindokuhle. He added that such a forum allows for dealing with disputes between students and testing the validity of the Student Court’s constitution and the regulations of the university.

 

The Student Court’s aim is to administer justice according to these documents. It intervenes in decision-making matters between students, associations, or any part of the student body, at a student level. Other functions of this legal body involve regulating irresponsibly behaviour among students in order to uphold the integrity of the University of the Free State.

 

You are invited to the launch event:

 

Friday 21 August 2015

17:00

Economic and Management Sciences Auditorium (EBW), Bloemfontein Campus

 

For more information contact Lindokuhle Ntuli on 051 401 2082 or ntuliL@ufs.ac.za

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