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01 November 2023 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Francois van Vuuren
UFS empowers through Human Settlements Training Programme
At the graduation ceremony for the Free State Provincial Department of Human Settlements, were from the left, front: Caren Somiah, Director: Housing Capacity, Building and Partnerships in the Free State Department of Human Settlements; Kagisho Motlhanke, Housing Coordinator at the Mangaung Metro; back: Thomas Stewart, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Department of Urban and Regional Planning; Dr Kgosi Mocwagae, Head of the UFS Department of Urban and Regional Planning; Adv Moferefere Dhlamini, Chief of Staff in the Office of the MEC; Sello Senoge, Matjhabeng Municipality; and Cyril Monyela, Deputy Director-General in the Free State Department of Human Settlements.

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted a certification ceremony for the Free State Provincial Department of Human Settlements on the Bloemfontein Campus on 30 October 2023.

A group of 40 officials from municipalities and the Provincial Department of Human Settlements were awarded certificates for completing four short learning programmes (SLPs) in Human Settlements, offered by the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The training was conducted between November 2022 and May 2023.

Sustainable human settlements

“The overall aim of this training was to equip the participants to play a constructive role in human settlements in their respective places of employment,” said Dr Kgosi Mocwagae, Head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the UFS. 

This is in line with the mission of the department to deliver – through excellent teaching and scholarship – competent urban and regional planners who will contribute to the creation of sustainable human settlements and improve the quality of life, particularly in Africa.

Dr Mocwagae reflected on the training presented, stating that it aimed to achieve several key objectives, including enhancing participants' understanding of the institutional framework governing the development and management of human settlements. It also sought to nurture a sensitivity to the principles of sustainable human settlement development, considering factors such as climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), local legislation, and best practices. Additionally, the training placed significant emphasis on the importance and processes involved in upgrading informal settlements. Furthermore, it aimed to empower participants with the necessary skills to structure a proposal for the enhancement of informal settlements within the current legislative and administrative frameworks applicable in South Africa.

Building capacity

Cyril Monyela, the Deputy Director General in the Free State Department of Human Settlements, delivered the keynote address, congratulating the cohort of officials on their remarkable achievement.

In his address, he referred to the various pieces of legislation that have emerged over the years and emphasised the need for capacity to implement human settlement sector programmes, ensuring that millions of informal households in South Africa have access to decent shelter. Enhancing sector capacity by developing the skills of staff is one of the department's primary institutional objectives.

“It is the first of many skills courses designed to enable and ensure that practitioners in the Free State Department of Human Settlements execute the department’s mandate,” he stated.

The event concluded with an address from Advocate Shirly Hyland, Director of the Kovsie Phahamisa Academy. According to her, it is important to remember where one comes from, but it is also key to focus on our future. “Witnessing plans that originated in the 1950s coming to fruition, while not perfect yet, is encouraging and instils hope in South Africans regarding the progress being made,” she remarked. 

Adv Hyland referenced a quote from a corporate giant, ‘You are not your work, and your work is not you.’ “For you, this is not the case. Those of you who work in human settlements – your work literally follows you home. Human settlements affect every person from every sphere of life. The right to adequate housing is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and with the expertise you have learned in these programmes, you have been equipped with the knowledge and power to bring this human right to life.”

“In completing this short learning programme, you have been entrusted with a critical task. You get to contribute to an environment in which citizens live and thrive. The environment where a veggie garden can feed a community; the environment in which the Protea or Bafana Bafana national teams can nurture their talents; and the environment in which the leaders of tomorrow are born and raised,” she said. 

In her final remarks, Adv Hyland referred to a quote from former President Nelson Mandela about education being the most powerful weapon one can use to change the world. “And this is exactly what you are doing. You have worked hard,” she said, urging the group of practitioners to change the world, one human settlement at a time. 

News Archive

Record number of students to graduate at UFS
2017-06-19

Description: Day 2 Mid-year Graduation Bloemfontein Campus Tags: Day 2 Mid-year Graduation Bloemfontein Campus

Eleven graduation ceremonies will form part of the
mid-year graduation ceremonies at the
University of the Free State.
Photo: Charl Devenish

Livestream of Graduation Ceremonies

Six days, eleven ceremonies, and more than 5 000 degrees. This all forms part of what is the biggest set of graduation ceremonies in the history of the University of the Free State (UFS).

The mid-year graduation ceremonies, taking place from 19 to 26 June 2017 in the Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus, will see the most students graduate during a week. A total of 5 258 degrees, which includes 460 master’s and doctoral degrees, will be conferred – including 72 doctoral degrees.

First graduation ceremonies for Prof Petersen
It will also be the first ceremonies that Prof Francis Petersen, new Rector and Vice-Chancellor, attends on the Bloemfontein Campus. Students from all seven faculties, as well as the South Campus, will graduate.

Graduates per faculty are (without master’s and doctoral degrees): Faculty of Education (488), Faculty of Health Sciences (345), Faculty of Theology (29), Faculty of Law (686), Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (1 029), Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (1 044), Faculty of the Humanities (826), and the South Campus (354).

Guest speakers include three judges
Guest speakers for the ceremonies include Dipiloane Phutsisi, Principal and Chief Executive Officer of the Motheo TVET College in the Free State, Dr Susan Vosloo, UFS Council member and founder member of the World Society for Paediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery, and Prof Petersen.

Three judges will also act as speakers. They are Justice Ian van der Merwe, Judge of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal and former Chair of the UFS Council, Justice Mahube Molemela, Judge President of the Free State Division of the High Court and Acting Justice of the Supreme Court of South Africa, and Justice Connie Mocumie, Judge of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Graduations ceremonies:

19 June 2017:
09:00: Faculty of Education, except educational qualifications in Open Distance Learning –  South Campus
14:30: Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Theology and Faculty of Law (including the School of Financial Planning Law)

20 June 2017:
09:00: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: All Bachelor’s degrees
14:30: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: All Diplomas and Bachelor Honours degrees

21 June 2017:
09:00: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences: All Certificates, Diplomas, Bachelor’s degrees and Bachelor Honours degrees, excluding BCom degrees
14:30: Faculty of the Humanities: Social Sciences and Communication Sciences only

22 June 2017:
09:00: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences: BCom degrees only
14:30: Faculty of the Humanities: All qualifications except Social Sciences and Communication Sciences

23 June 2017:
14:30: Educational qualifications in Open Distance Learning – South Campus

26 June 2017:
09:00: All faculties except the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: Master’s and Doctoral degrees
14:30: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: Master’s and Doctoral degrees


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