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Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture

26 September 2023 | Story Supplied

The University of the Free State is pleased to present the second Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture, which will be delivered by award-winning biographer and professor of English literature, Stephen Clingman. Well-known author and advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi will respond.

The lecture, titled Bram Fischer, Or What Happens When the World Becomes Inhospitable, will consider the continuing importance of Bram Fischer in a South African and global context. Bram Fischer was born in Bloemfontein in 1908 into one of the most prominent of Afrikaner families. While never surrendering his Afrikaner identity, he also transformed it by identifying with the struggle for liberation of all South Africa’s peoples. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he faced an inhospitable world, yet his commitment was to make the world more hospitable to all.

Date: Wednesday 11 October 2023

Time: 18:00 to 21:00

Venue: Equitas Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus, UFS

RSVP here to attend this lecture by 6 October 2023.

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

The Speaker

Stephen Clingman is Distinguished University Professor of English and former Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has held several fellowships internationally and written widely on a range of topics. His books include The Novels of Nadine Gordimer: History from the Inside, The Grammar of Identity: Transnational Fiction and the Nature of the Boundary, Birthmark (a memoir/autofiction), and William Kentridge (the catalogue of Kentridge’s exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, 2022). His biography, Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary, was co-winner of the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award, South Africa’s premier prize for non-fiction.

The Respondent

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi is a South African lawyer, public speaker, author, and political activist. He is a member of the South African Law Reform Commission. Ngcukaitobi has authored the books The Land Is Ours: South Africa's First Black Lawyers and the birth of Constitutionalism and Land Matters: South Africa's failed land reforms and the road ahead.

News Archive

UFS mourns passing away of pioneer

2005-09-30

Prof Dudley Vermaak (76), founder and former director of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Research Institute for Education Planning (RIEP), passed away on Friday 23 September 2005 in George as a result of a stroke.

Prof Vermaak was associated with the UFS for about 23 years. A Centenary Medal was awarded to him in October 2004 by the UFS for his pioneering work in transformation through his initiatives, during the apartheid era, to empower education officials, teachers and postgraduate students from disadvantaged communities in South Africa.

He did pioneering work in the eighties with the training of black teachers, especially senior officials and managers in black education, and with the research and training on the improvement of education in the black community.

“Prof Vermaak was a visionary person who understood the changing South African context in the eighties and started at an early stage with work to improve black schools and the training of black leaders in the education sector. He was a true pioneer at the UFS. We are thankful that we could honour him for this with a Centenary Medal last year,” said Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

RIEP originally started off as the Research Unit for Education Planning in 1974 under the guidance of Prof Vermaak. During the apartheid years the institute was intensely involved with research about education in the former homelands. It was also the only organisation that could provide complete education statistics, which was necessary for planning, about the former homelands.

RIEP was also involved with service delivery to the so-called independent and self-governing states regarding training in management and planning and support. Several education officials from these areas undertook their M Ed and D Ed studies with the help of RIEP. Some post-1994 education and political leaders include e.g. Lionel Mtshali, premier of KwaZulu-Natal in 1999-2004.

Prof Vermaak was cremated in George. A memorial service will be held at 10:00 on Saturday 1 October 2005 at the Berg-en-Dal Dutch Reformed Church in Dan Pienaar. Prof Vermaak is survived by his wife, Marietjie, four children and grandchildren. He lived in Kiepersol Retirement Village in Bloemfontein for the past six years.

Media release
Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel: (051) 401-2584
   Cell: 083 645 2454
   E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
29 September 2005

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