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11 November 2022 | Story Edzani Nephalela and Dr Nomalungelo Ngubane | Photo iStock
Language
The UFS and UKZN have formalised an agreement on a Language Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance the development of the Sesotho and IsiZulu as academic languages.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has forged an exciting new partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) to promote the two provinces’ most widely spoken languages, Sesotho and IsiZulu.  

This historic collaboration will see these institutions employing their skills, expertise, and resources to advance the development of the Sesotho and IsiZulu as academic languages through the development of terminology for various disciplines and research collaborations among other activities. 

The UFS formalised the agreement by signing a Language Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UKZN. The MOU process, facilitated by Dr Nomalungelo Ngubane, Director of the UFS Academy for Multilingualism, and Nikile Ntsababa, UFS Registrar, was sealed by Dr Engela Van Staden, UFS Vice-Rector: Academic. 

The objectives of the collaboration are to: 

• allow the UFS open access to all the UKZN isiZulu materials and UKZN open access to all UFS Sesotho language terminology, corpus materials, terminology banks, and applications for various disciplines; 
• develop the Sesotho terminology for various disciplines;
• assist in identifying and closing any gaps in the UFS’s development of isiZulu terminology and in the UKZN’s development of isiZulu, and further develop the relevant language terminology of various disciplines in order to fill any existing gaps;
• share expertise through hosting webinars, seminars, colloquia, and workshops on Sesotho and isiZulu terminology development;
• explore research opportunities regarding the development of Sesotho and isiZulu terminology for various disciplines; and 
• share expertise and resources in all human language technology development initiatives.

“The UKZN has championed the intellectualisation of IsiZulu over the years. We do not want to reinvent the wheel,” Dr Ngubane said. “Our focus now is on the acceleration of the development of Sesotho. Our vision and mission is to be the hub for the advancement of Sesotho at regional, national, and international levels. Collaboration with UKZN is instrumental in achieving this mandate.”

The Academy for Multilingualism said it considers this collaboration historic and groundbreaking because resources will now be invested in the development of Sesotho.

News Archive

Best Sêr yet!
2012-09-04

Marjolein
Photo: Albert van Biljon
3 September 2012

The best Sêr yet. This was the opinion of those who attended the ATKV’s national Sêr competition on the Bloemfontein Campus on Saturday 1 September 2012.

The competition, an annual event between the universities of Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Johannesburg, the UFS and the North-West University, had the social network Twitter abuzz and was one of the trending topics on this network.

“Sêr is coming home,” presenters of the TV programme MK Kampus Sêr told the audience in the Callie Human Centre before male and female groups from the participating universities took to the stage. The competition was first presented at Kovsies in 1997, with university residences showcasing their singing and entertainment talents.

On Saturday evening the Stellenbosch University took top honours. The male and female groups from this university’s Hippokrates residence took the top spots.

The Kovsies name was held high by Marjolein (female) and Veritas (male) who obtained a second and third place respectively. Marjolein further impressed by winning the prize for the best own composition in the female category. 

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