Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
29 June 2023 | Story Kekeletso Takang
UFS EMS Faculty hosts Coalition Governance Leadership workshop

In light of the rise of local governments being run by coalitions in South Africa, the upcoming national elections in 2024 might present the country with its first multi-party governments. However, with recent events in some of these coalition governments, questions regarding the stability of this form of government are mounting.

Through its Vision 130, the University of the Free State (UFS) seeks to positively impact society by using empirical knowledge to make a real difference. It is to this end that the UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences recently hosted a workshop with the theme Coalition Governance Leadership: a social innovation approach with inspiring ideas, inclusive institutionalisation, and impactful implementation, aimed at deliberating the need for an academic programme focusing on the governance and public management of coalition governments.

This comes after Prof Erwin Schwella, emeritus professor of Public Leadership from Stellenbosch University (SU), and currently Dean at Hugenote College – also well-known for his work in public management and public policy – approached Dr Maréve Biljohn, Head of the Department of Public Administration and Management, and the Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Prof Philippe Burger, to discuss such an academic programme.

Coalition governance part and parcel of South Africa’s landscape

The workshop was attended by Prof Schwella, Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal, and academics from the faculties of Economic and Management Sciences and The Humanities, especially the Department of Governance and Political Transformation.

Speaking at the workshop, Prof Petersen highlighted that coalition governance seems to have become part and parcel of South Africa’s landscape. “It is highly likely that we will see a significant increase in coalitions during the national elections next year. Coalition governments enable small parties to participate in government and even hold important positions of leadership. As a higher education sector, our role is to draw on the insights and expertise of specialists in public management and public policy to develop academic programmes that guide the governance and public management of coalition governments.”

As a responsible global citizen, the UFS is not only working towards developing an academic programme that addresses both governance and management pillars but is also committed to addressing the needs of the country.

Functionality and stability of coalitions are critical

Dr Biljohn believes that the current political landscape in South Africa predicts that political party coalitions will have a seat at the governance table across the three spheres of government.

“Since the last local government elections, we have seen the formation of political party coalitions across several municipal councils. The functionality and stability of these coalitions are critical for, among others, decision-making related to sustainable service delivery, the adoption of a council’s budget, as well as by-laws and policies.”

“Where these coalitions fail, the consequences are detrimental to the municipality from an operational as well as a governance perspective, and this could affect communities adversely. The current state of local governance in some South African municipalities requires an administration that is skilled to provide a stable environment for service delivery, while managing and navigating the dynamics of coalition governance,” said Dr Biljohn.

Moreover, she continued, after the 2024 elections, national and provincial administrations should be equipped to deliver on their mandate in a governance environment that could be subject to the demands of political party coalitions. With the new norm of coalition governance, it is incumbent upon political and administrative office-bearers to have the professional skills and knowledge to lead and manage coalition governance from a political, executive, and administrative level.

Fostering more cohesion among coalition partners

“Therefore, the Department of Public Administration and Management, in collaboration with the Department of Political Studies and Governance, aims to contribute to the professional development of political and administrative office-bearers in the three government spheres to navigate this new governance environment. In this regard, the development of short learning programmes that will be targeted at these office-bearers is currently under discussion,” concluded Dr Biljohn.

Prof Burger said as an institution of higher learning, “we want to focus on the creation of programmes that can assist in fostering more cohesion among coalition partners, while also training officials on how to handle coalitions”.

For more information on the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences’ offerings, click here: https://www.ufs.ac.za/econ

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorates during spring graduation ceremony
2004-09-20

The University of the Free State (UFS) will award three honorary doctorates this week during its spring graduation ceremony.

The graduation ceremony will take place on Wednesday 22 September 2004 and the honorary doctorates are Dr Calvin Seerveld (D Phil (hc), Prof YK Seedat (MD (hc) and Dr Mary Seely (D Sc (hc).

“The doctorates come from a wide spectrum of specialty fields and serve as proof of the UFS’s policy to give recognition to people who stand out and make a difference,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

Dr Calvin Seerveld (D Phil (hc) will receive an honorary doctorate for his academic leadership at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and the wide international recognition he has received throughout his career in various subject areas, eg philosophical aesthesia, the theory of art, the methodology of the description of the history of art and continental philosophy.

Prof YK Seedat (MD (hc) will receive an honorary doctorate for his extraordinary contribution to medicine in South Africa. His research in the field of hypertension in blacks received international recognition and significantly contributed to the understanding of the pathophysiology of this condition.

In the mid-eighties Prof Seedat was instrumental in supporting the bid from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the Orange Free State (UOFS) to host the first Colleges of Medicine of South Africa examination in Bloemfontein. This started a tradition that is still being maintained. Prof Seedat is a researcher at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

The Executive Director of the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, Dr Mary Seely (D Sc (hc)), will be honored for the impact she has made on the development of environmental management in the drier parts of the southern African subcontinent. Though her research has been concentrated in Namibia, she has affected the professional lives of large numbers of ecologists, environmental scientists and environmental managers.

According to Prof Fourie the three doctorates form part of the greater group of 18 who will be honored by the UFS during its centenary year. The last group will be receiving their honorary doctorates in October 2004.

 

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
20 September 2004

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept