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A partnership to boost isiZulu and Sesotho has been penned

11 November 2022 | Story Edzani Nephalela and Dr Nomalungelo Ngubane | Photo iStock

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

Mosa Leteane introduces new era in student leadership

2014-10-02

The month of August belonged to South African women – in more ways than one. Not only did we celebrate Women’s Month, but our Student Representative Council (SRC) gained a female leader.

On 4 September 2014 Mosa Leteane became the first female SRC president at the UFS Bloemfontein Campus under the revised SRC constitution of 2011. Although her journey has been a hard and difficult one, it rewarded her with great insightful and invaluable experience.

Being elected to this seat is a milestone for female leadership as a whole at Kovsies. Having been the Prime of House NJ van der Merwe Residence, Marketing Officer of the premier Golden Key Society, Executive Committee member for the 2013/2014 SRC Legal and Constitutional Affairs – and being a legal student herself – Leteane brings a lot of experience to student governance.

Accountability is one of her core values– and that is exactly what she envisions to bring to the newly-elected SRC. Leteane also believes that having a moral sense is essential to the functioning of her SRC. Being a political science or legal student does not automatically imply high morals, Leteane adds. Rather, principles are fostered by the contribution that you want to make.

Something she is proud to have inherited from the previous SRC is the establishment of a blueprint for student governance and understanding team dynamics. These things define the success of any SRC.

With the amount of work lying ahead, Leteane says, she will draw strength from family and friends – and listen to some music.

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