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Siphilangenkosi Dlamini named one of South Africa’s 100 Shining Stars

11 November 2022 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Barend Nagel

Siphilangenkosi Dlamini, a fourth-year Governance and Political Transformation student at the University of the Free State (UFS), has been selected as one of South Africa’s 100 Shining Stars for 2022 by Inside Education, in partnership with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).

“I was more surprised than anything, but also very honoured,” he said. Dlamini, who made it into the Civil Society and Youth category, was chosen from a pool of 800 applicants for his remarkable work with the Help a Student initiative, and his services as the former secretary of the Southern Africa Scout Youth Forum. Although he could not attend the award ceremony held in Johannesburg on 20 October 2022 in person, Dlamini did receive a certificate. “What we do a lot of the time isn’t for recognition and it’s not necessarily for awards; but getting recognised motivates and assures me that the work we are doing has an impact,” he expressed.

The Help a Student Initiative

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dlamini recognised a rise in food insecurity among his fellow students. This set him on a path to source funding for the establishment of the project.

The Help a Student initiative aimed to curb food insecurity through the provision of food parcels to UFS students who were in need. The project, which ran from 2020 until early 2021, managed to distribute food parcels to nearly 250 students per month. The initiative did not only assist students who were on campus. The selected applicants who were at home or off campus also received digital food vouchers, which allowed for the purchasing of food items at Pick n Pay and/or Shoprite.

“Food security is something that I am passionate about. I grew up in a community where it was a massive issue.

However, in the past I was not empowered enough to know how to solve it. Therefore, when the opportunity presented itself to do something about it, I took it with both hands,” Dlamini expressed.

Although the recognition was not expected, Dlamini maintains that such platforms are imperative, as “they demonstrate that young people are doing something to improve the country in the different capacities they are in”.

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorate to global peace ambassador Dr Lakhdar Brahimi

2015-07-07

Professor Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies at the UFS and Dr Lakhdar Brahimi.
Photo: Mike Rose from Mike Rose Photography

The Faculty of the Humanities and Centre for Africa Studies rewarded the contributions of Dr Lakhdar Brahimi, a prominent global peace leader, with an honorary doctorate on Thursday 2 July 2015.

The conferment formed one of the highlights of the 2015 Winter Graduations. Dr Brahimi’s work as a United Nations’ (UN) envoy, and African peace leader of note, was deeply respected by the university. Professor Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies at the UFS, accepted the PhD on his behalf.

In his acceptance speech, read by Prof Hudson at the Chancellor’s Dinner the same evening, Dr Brahimi expressed his gratitude to the university. “I deeply appreciate your generous recognition, and even now, in the twilight years of my life, I shall try to be worthy of your confidence in everything I say or do.”

“My generation did its share: its successes and its failures are things of the past. We must accept to be judged by you, the graduates. You, the young graduates here at the University of the Free State, and your fellow members of the African intellectual elite, have an exciting opportunity to take on the challenges and fulfil the dreams you have. We must accept to be judged by you.”

Algerian-born Dr Brahimi was first involved with the UN in 1992 as rapporteur to the Earth Summit. Distinctively, he is the most-frequently appointed special envoy of the UN. Amongst many other countries, he has worked as a mediator for South Africa, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Burundi, Angola, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, and Côte d’Ivoire on behalf of the UN.

Significant peacekeeping efforts in South Africa (1993- 1994)

The ambassador– in his capacity as special representative to South Africa from December 1993 to June 1994 –played a direct role in South Africa’s democratic transition.

Prof Hudson expressed appreciation for the ambassador’s role in facilitating a peaceful transition from South Africa’s Nationalist government into the current democratic dispensation.

“One of the reasons we selected him as recipient of the honorary doctorate, is because of what he did for the African continent,” she said.

In addition, she commented Dr Brahimi for being a living testament of Ubuntu. “He has displayed an ethic of humanism in everything that he has done, in the way that he has mediated in certain conflicts - his main contribution is as a mediator.

According to Hudson, his humility, modesty, and generosity are the epitome of Ubuntu which states that “I am because we are.”

Dr Brahimi as a global peace practitioner

Dr Brahimi served as Undersecretary-General of the Arab League, Arab League Special Envoy for Lebanon, and Foreign Minister of Algeria.

The UN Peace-building Commission was established as a result of recommendations in his2000 Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (Brahimi Report).

Since 2007, Dr Brahimi has been a member in The Elders - an alliance chaired by Kofi Annan -of peace and human rights advocates including Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson, and Jimmy Carter. His passion for justice led to his membership in the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

In 2010, he was Laureate of the Special Jury Prize for Conflict Prevention, awarded by the Chirac Foundation (France), which promotes international peace and security.

Dr Brahimi’s influence in Peace Education

The Brahimi Report has had an indelible impact on scholars specialising in the broad field of peace operations. Dr Brahimi’s writings have also contributed to knowledge on post-conflict reconstruction and development (PCRD), a signification part of the African Union’s narrative.

He is a distinguished senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics. He has taught a postgraduate course on Conflict Resolution at Sciences Po, Paris (2011); is Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University; and is affiliated to the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, where he was a visiting professor from 2006 to 2008.

In addition, Dr Brahimi is a founding member of the French-language Journal of Palestine Studies, and a board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

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