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UFS empowers through Human Settlements Training Programme

01 November 2023 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Francois van Vuuren

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

Johann Naudé talks at first Beyers Naudé lecture for 2012

2012-08-02

At the event were, from the left: Ms Bontle Senne, Managing Director for the PUKU Children’s Literature Foundation, Mr Sipho Hlongwane, writer and columnist for the Daily Maverick, Prof. Nicky Morgan, Vice-Rector: Operations at the UFS, Mr Themba Mola, Chief Operations Officer at Kagiso Trust, Mr Johann Naudé, son of Dr Beyers Naudé, and Dr Choice Makhetha, Vice-Rector: External Relations.
Photo: Stephen Collett
2 August 2012

The University of the Free State (UFS) together withKagiso Trust, presented the first Beyers Naudé lecture for 2012 on its South Campus in Bloemfontein last week. Speakers like Dr Wilmot James, Member of Parliament, Mr Johann Naudé, son of Dr Beyers Naudé, Mr Sipho Hlongwane, writer and columnist for the Daily Maverick and Ms Bontle Senne, Managing Director for the PUKU Children’s Literature Foundation, all gave a lecture around this year’s theme: Collaborative partnerships for social cohesion: Building a nation with ethics.

Dr Beyers Naudé played a major role in the formation of Kagiso Trust. His contribution to the trust and the fight against oppression in South Africa, as well as his challenging of the establishment from which he came, makes him one of South Africa’s courageous heroes. Kagiso Trust thus saw it fit to celebrate the life of this clerical activist through a Memorial Lecture The Beyers Naudé Memorial Lecture is an effort by the Trust to engage South Africans into a dialogue about issues affecting our nation.

Mr Johann Naudé talked about the lessons they as children learnt from their parents as well as his father’s decision to respond to the needs of the people in South Africa. Even before the Sharpeville Massacre, Dr Naudé began a self-transformation that led to his rejection of apartheid. “Apartheid had no theological or scriptural grounds and my father decided to resign from the church. After that, he started to talk openly against apartheid and he also paid the price for that. For seven years he was under house arrest and we as his children also felt the effect of his decision. At the University of Pretoria in a residence where I stayed as a student I was called in and told that I would be treated as an outcast. Loans and jobs were also closed for us as children and as a result, we all started our own businesses,” Mr Naudé said.

“Furthermore, our parents taught us to believe in ourselves. He also said we have rights and we can only demand those rights if we take the responsibility that goes with it. My father also taught us to honour and to respect our fellow men, elderly people and the culture of people different from us. We were also taught to apologise for the wrongs to our fellow men and to acknowledge earnestly that we were wrong.”

Dr Wilmot James said that there were two things consistent in the life of Dr Beyers Naudé, namely justice and fairness. “There are many Nelson Mandelas and Beyers Naudés out there. It is the responsibility of political parties and institutions to motivate such leadership. We must ask ourselves: Are my actions and decisions ethical and will they have fair consequences?” Dr James said.

Mr Hlongwane focused his presentation on the ethics part of the theme. He said: “We in South Africa fall very short of ethics. We can start by respecting each other and taking care of one another. The Constitution will not mean a thing if we fail to respect and trust one another. We will have no cohesive society if we continue to treat those different from us like dirt. It is also our ethical duty to build up the disadvantaged.

In her discussion, Ms Senne emphasised the role of the youth in South Africa. “Our youth is failing our state because our state is failing our youth. Their role is to bring cohesion and acts of courageousness to the table. For them to contribute in a practical and sustainable manner, they need to start making the changes they want to see in society. They are young people and they can make it work because they do have access to the necessary means (social networks) to get things done. They must get involved,” she said.

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