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16 March 2023 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath
UFS Thought Leader webinar
The University of the Free State is pleased to present its first webinar titled, The threats to South Africa’s domestic stability and security challenges, which is part of the 2023 Thought-Leader Webinar Series. As a public higher-education institution in South Africa with a responsibility to contribute to public discourse, the University of the Free State (UFS) will be presenting the webinar in collaboration with the Free State Literature Festival. The aim of the webinar series is to discuss issues facing South Africa by engaging experts at the university and in South Africa. 

First webinar presented on 4 April 2023

South Africa is facing a security risk and the state is not complying with its social contract. High crime rates driven by unemployment and poverty, collapsing infrastructure, political insecurity and tension, and an appetite for lawlessness, pose real threats to domestic stability. South Africans are cynical about state intelligence agencies, and the ability of government to lead an effective response to potential crises is questioned. What are the solutions to the threatening domestic instability and security challenges facing South Africa?

Date: Tuesday 4 April 2023
Time: 12:30-14:00
RSVP: Click here  (no later than 3 April 2023).

For further information, contact Alicia Pienaar at pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za. 

Some of the topics discussed by leading experts in 2022 included, among others, Crime in South Africa – who is to blame; Are our glasses half full or half empty; What needs to be done to power up South Africa; A look into the future of South Africa. 

Facilitator:

Prof Francis Petersen
Rector and Vice-Chancellor, UFS

Panellists:
Chief Executive Officer
Business Leadership South Africa

Director: Strategy and Marketing
Clarity Global Strategic Communications

Senior Professor: Centre for Gender and Africa Studies
University of the Free State

Co-Founder and Director
New South Institute

Bios of speakers:

Busisiwe Mavuso

Busisiwe Mavuso is a Chartered Certified Accountant (CCA) who qualified with the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA – UK) and holds a master’s degree in Business Leadership, a postgraduate qualification in Management from GIBS, and a BCompt in Accounting from the University of South Africa (UNISA).  Mavuso is currently completing her PhD.

She is the Chief Executive Officer at Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), and Resultant Finance (a PIC investee company) and serves on the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC), the Advisory Committee of the Local Government Ethical Leadership Initiative (LGELI), The Alcohol Industry Advisory Council (TAIAC), the Drinks Federation of South Africa (DF-SA) Council of Members, and the Social Justice Council. Furthermore, Mavuso is a Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Wits Business School (WBS).

Mavuso is a member of the YPO (Young President’s Organisation), the IoDSA, and ACCA.

She was awarded the ‘2020 Influencer of Influencers Award’ by the Africa Brand Summit in October 2020, and was named second runner-up for ‘Businessperson of the Year’ by the Daily Maverick in 2021. In 2022, the Women in Economic Development Leadership Forum awarded her a Certificate of Acknowledgement to acknowledge the years of dedication to the field of business leadership and economic development in South Africa.

Palesa Morudu-Rosenberg 

Palesa Morudu-Rosenberg is a Director at Clarity Global, a strategic communications firm based in Cape Town and Washington DC. She is also a writer and a political commentator. She is currently writing a book on the limits of identity politics for South Africa and the United States.

Dr Ivor Chipkin

Ivor Chipkin is the Director of the New South Institute, based in Johannesburg. Before that, he was the founder and director of the Public Affairs Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town for ten years. In 2017, Chipkin – with several colleagues – wrote and released the Betrayal of the Promise report, a study of state capture that had a huge political impact in South Africa. Chipkin completed his PhD at the École Normale Supérieure in France, where he also did his DEA. Chipkin was an Oppenheimer Fellow at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Do South Africans Exist? (WUP: 2007) and Shadow State: the politics of state capture with Mark Swilling (WUP: 2018). His new book, The Shattered Vessel, is due to be published in 2023.

Prof Hussein Solomon

Prof Hussein Solomon holds a DLitt et Phil (Political Science) from the University of South Africa. He is currently Senior Professor in the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State. His research interests include conflict and conflict resolution in Africa; South African foreign policy; international relations theory; religious fundamentalism and population movements within the developing world. His publications have appeared in South Africa, Nigeria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Russian Federation, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Lebanon, India, Bangladesh, Spain, and Japan. Hussein is widely published and some of his recent books among others include, African Security in the Anthropocene (with Jude Cocodia, Springer, 2023), Directions in International Terrorism: Theories, Trends and Trajectories (Palgrave, 2021), Terrorism in Africa: New Trends and Frontiers (with Glen Segell and Sergey Kostelyanets, Institute for African Studies, Moscow, 2021). 

Until 2022, he was Academic Head of Department in the Department of Political Studies and Governance at the University of the Free State. Hussein has vast experience -his previous appointments include Executive Director of the International Institute of Islamic Studies; Professor and Director of the Centre for International Political Studies at the University of Pretoria, Research Manager at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, Senior Researcher: Institute for Security Studies, and Research Fellow: Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of the Western Cape, among others. 

 

News Archive

Inauguration of Prof Francis Petersen as 14th Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS
2017-05-23

Description: Prof Petersen Inauguration Charl Devenish photo Tags: Prof Petersen Inauguration Charl Devenish photo

Dr Khotso Mokhele, Chancellor of the UFS, robes Prof Francis Petersen as Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS.
Photo: Charl Devenish

“At the UFS, we want to produce graduates for the world, and we need to ensure that we use our knowledge to uplift society”
— Prof Francis Petersen, 14th Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS)

On Friday 19 May 2017, the University of the Free State (UFS) celebrated the inauguration of its 14th Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Francis Petersen. The formal inauguration was held in the Odeion Theatre on the Bloemfontein Campus. The ceremony was preceded by a week-long welcoming programme on the three UFS campuses.

The guest list included representatives from local and provincial government, vice-chancellors and rectors from across South Africa, and senior members of the university’s executive management.

During the inaugural address, Prof Petersen paid tribute to his predecessors for the role they played in making the university what it is today. This included former rectors and vice-chancellors who attended the ceremony, such as Prof Francois Retief and Prof Frederick Fourie, and Prof Stef Coetzee and Prof Jonathan Jansen who were unable to attend.

Prof Petersen characterised 2015 and 2016 as watershed years for the South African higher-education system. “The Rhodes Must Fall, and subsequent Fees Must Fall student and staff protests challenged us, and re-energised a critical engagement around the purpose of the university in an equal society, both as a site of complicity and as a potential agent for social change,” said Prof Petersen.

He committed himself to developing the UFS into an institution that will have an even greater impact than before.

“This institution I am striving to establish will be one that responds positively to inclusivity, diversity, and transformation, and which can incorporate these values into our curriculum, scholarship, and research in a productive way,” said Prof Petersen.

Prof Petersen emphasised the importance of the three-campus model. “The University of the Free State is ONE university with three campuses: the Bloemfontein Campus, our South Campus, and the Qwaqwa Campus. I am committed to align the activities of the three campuses, and to integrate our activities to a greater extent.

“We must work together to infuse each campus with the values we have identified as essential if we are to make our mark as a united University of the Free State: academic excellence, diversity and inclusivity, and innovation.”

The Chancellor, Dr Khotso Mokhele, had the honour of handing over the gown to Prof Petersen. Prof Lis Lange, Vice-Rector: Academic, explained the relationship between the university and the Basotho people, and how this relationship is honoured through the official procession gowns of the UFS. The Basotho blanket is worn by kings, and the university therefore hopes that the symbolism of the gown would be a source of inspiration to Prof Petersen.

The event was concluded by congratulatory messages from former colleagues and the President of the Student Representative Council on the Bloemfontein Campus, SK Luwaca. The event was elegant and graceful – the inaugural address was thought-provoking and inspiring.

 

Official Inauguration Ceremony:

19 May 2017
Bloemfontein Campus

 Description: Official Inauguration photo small Tags: Official Inauguration photo small


"I challenge you to dream big and do big." - Prof Petersen

 

Photo Caption: Dr Khotso Mokhele, Chancellor of the UFS, robes Prof Francis Petersen as Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS.
Photo: Johan Roux

Short biography of Prof Francis Petersen
Inaugural address: 19 May 2017
Transcription of the ceremony
Photo Gallery
Video

 

Welcoming Ceremonies:

The week of 11-19 May 2017 was one of the highlights in this year’s calendar for staff and students of the University of the Free State (UFS), with various ceremonies taking place to welcome Prof Francis Petersen – who assumed his duties on 1 April 2017 – as the 14th Vice-Chancellor and Rector. The festivities culminated in the official inauguration ceremony at the Bloemfontein Campus on 19 May 2017.
 
The Qwaqwa Campus welcoming ceremony took place on Thursday 11 May 2017, attracting a wide spectrum of community leaders from the area. Prof Petersen was welcomed by representatives from the two trade unions, National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and UVPERSU, as well as representatives from the Student Representative Council (SRC), the Thabo Mofutsanyana Education District, and the House of Traditional Leaders. Paramount Queen Mopeli of the Bakoena Royal House bestowed a special honour upon Prof Petersen by clothing him in a traditional Basotho blanket and hat. She said, "From our heart of hearts, welcome, Prof Francis ..., and all Godspeed during your tenure."
 
The South Campus in Bloemfontein hosted a welcoming ceremony for the new Vice-Chancellor and Rector on 18 May 2017. The ceremony included a number of vocal performances and messages from various stakeholder groups. The same afternoon, the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ) also facilitated a panel discussion, titled Diversity, inclusivity, and social justice and the renewed call for decolonisation, in the Albert Wessels Auditorium (AWO) on the Bloemfontein Campus.

The welcoming ceremonies culminated in an event in the Callie Human Centre on Friday 19 May 2017 at the Bloemfontein Campus, with a number of performances by musicians associated with the UFS, marimbas, drum majorettes from Jim Fouche Secondary School, the Grey College Gumboots, and school choirs from Eunice Secondary School, Brebner Primary School, and Willem Postma Primary School. Representatives from key stakeholders such as Nehawu, UVPERSU, the Campus Ministries Forum, SRC, Alumni, Convocation, and the UFS Council had the opportunity to convey their messages of welcome to Prof Petersen.
 
The formal inauguration ceremony took place in the Odeion Theatre on the Bloemfontein Campus the same day.

 

Qwaqwa Campus ceremony:

11 May 2017
Qwaqwa Campus

 Description: Prof Petersen with the queen 2 Tags: Prof Petersen with the queen 2

 

"Qwaqwa Campus is the perfect laboratory for sustainable sciences.” – Prof Petersen

 

Photo caption: Paramount Queen Mopeli of the Bakoena Royal House with Prof Petersen and his wife, Cheslyn.
Photo: Mamosa Makaya

Photo Gallery
Video

Read the full story
Transcription of the ceremony

 

South Campus ceremony:

18 May 2017
South Campus

 Description: South Campus welcoming Tags: South Campus welcoming

 

"South Campus: you aspire excellence, adding to diversity and you are innovative in what you do." - Prof Petersen

Photo caption: Flag bearers and drummers walking to the Madiba Arena.
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

Photo Gallery

Read the full story
Transcription of the ceremony

 

 

Bloemfontein Campus panel discussion:

Panel discussion: Diversity, inclusivity and social justice and the renewed call for decolonisation
18 May 2017
Bloemfontein Campus

 Description: Panel discussion 18 May 2017 Tags: Panel discussion 18 May 2017


"The UFS should be a place of belonging for everyone." - Prof Petersen

 

Photo caption: from left: SK Luwaca (SRC President, Bloemfontein Campus), Prof Elelwani Ramugondo (UCT), Prof Francis Petersen (UFS), Prof Melissa Steyn (WITS), Prof Andre Keet (UFS)
Photo: Lelanie de Wet

Photo Gallery

Read the full story
Transcription of panel discussion



 

Bloemfontein Campus ceremony:

19 May 2017
Bloemfontein Campus

 Description: Bloem welcoming ceremony on 19 May 2017 Tags: Bloem welcoming ceremony on 19 May 2017


"I can just say, Wow! I've experienced a lot during the welcoming functions on all three campuses." - Prof Petersen

 

Photo caption: Prof Francis Petersen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

Photo Gallery

Read the full story
Transcription of the ceremony


 

 

Description: Inauguration and welcoming of Prof Petersen combined gallery Tags: Inauguration and welcoming of Prof Petersen combined gallery

Photo gallery of Inauguration and Welcoming Ceremonies

 

 

 

 

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