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UFS team shines at Southern African public administration conference

26 April 2024 | Story Athembele Yangaphi | Photo Supplied

Dr Tafadzwa Maramura and Christopher Strydom at 2024 ASSADPAM Ceremony at the University of Pretoria's Future Africa Campus.

A trio of 2024 University of the Free State (UFS) honours-degree graduates recently represented the UFS at the 2024 Association of Southern African Schools and Departments of Public Administration and Management (ASSADPAM) Conference.

Nameera Bade, Christopher Strydom, and Thato Tshabalala’s presentation was based on their 2023 honours research titled ‘Exploring the Influence of Loadshedding on Water Governance: A Case of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality’, which earned them each a distinction on their honours degree completion.

The 2024 ASSADPAM Conference was held at the University of Pretoria's Future Africa Campus and brought together academics and practitioners in the field of public administration and management.

The three graduates are currently continuing their studies by taking on master’s degrees in administration – Bade and Strydom at the UFS and Tshabalala at the University of South Africa.

“Presenting our study at the ASSADPAM Conference was an absolute honour,” Strydom said. “However, I did experience some imposter syndrome, because usually it is only PhD candidates and tenured academics that present their work at the conference, [not a] first-year master’s student presenting out of his honours mini-dissertation. But I quickly got over my imposter syndrome by reframing the situation.”

The trio’s conference presentation was preceded by their recognition for Best Presentation at the UFS second Library and Information Services Honours and Undergraduate Seminar (LISHURS) Symposium on 5 April 2024.

“Being awarded the best presentation at the second LISHURS confirmed how impactful our research is, how it resonates with people. And it was also satisfying to get credit for the hard work we have put in,” said Strydom, who also received two awards at the 2024 Faculty of Economic Management Sciences (EMS) Prize Function: Best Honours Student in the Department of Public Administration and Management, and Best Honours Student in the EMS Faculty – prizes sponsored by the Kovsie Alumni Trust.

Dr Tafadzwa Maramura, Senior Lecturer in the UFS’s Department of Public Administration and Management, co-presented the research with the students at the conference. “Working with Nameera, Chris, and Thato has been a great experience. All of them are talented and unique individuals,” Dr Maramura said.

Impactful research in public governance

He highlighted the significance of the students' research, stating, “[Their paper] has certainly had a profound impact on the EMS Faculty.”

Dr Maramura further emphasised the department's commitment to addressing real-world challenges through rigorous academic inquiry, praising the students for engaging in relevant and timely research initiatives.

The collaboration between the three students and Dr Maramura extends beyond conference presentations: they are set to write an article based on their honours research for publication in a journal, which will further establish their names within the water-energy sphere and contribute to ongoing discussions in public governance.

News Archive

Ghanaian academic speaks about next generation of African scholars

2013-10-08

Attending the seminar were from left: Adv Erika Cilliers, Sisa Mlonyeni (both from the Office of the Public Protector), Prof Adomako Ampofo and Prof Heidi Hudson, Head of the Centre for Africa Studies.
Photo: Jerry Mokoroane
08 October 2013

Prof Akosua Adomako Ampofo, one of the Centre for Africa Studies’newly-appointed advisory board members, addressed students and staff on 3 October 2013. Her topic Are you the scholar Africa needs?enthralled the audience with the passionate way in which she argued for nurturing activist-scholars rather than scholars who simply produce knowledge for the sake of it. “It is more urgent than ever before that … we do not simply see our roles as researchers and teachers, but that we are committed to impacting our communities” for the better – also by “making our knowledge production globally visible,” she argued. Africa is said to contribute less than 0.5 percent of the world’s scientific publications. The fact that most of these – and nearly all of the social science production – emanate from just three nations (Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) means that many countries are absent from the radar.

According to her, the next generation of African scholars will have to compete within a hostile terrain where private universities are proliferating and costs of higher education are on the rise. These scholars will have to possess 22nd century skills, but a 20th century heart and sensitivity for the continent and its people.

Drawing on Kwame Nkrumah, Prof Ampofo proposed three guiding principles for becoming the scholars Africa needs. Firstly, by having a passion for knowledge as well as an Africa-centred knowledge – “nobody can tell our stories better than we can.”. Secondly, to translate our research into outputs not only in the form of internationally-recognised publications, but also in popular sources that will be read by a much wider public. And lastly, to carrying the torch for teaching and learning in the classroom – preparing our students to serve Africa or, as Nkrumah said, producing “devoted men and women with imagination and ideas, who, by their life and actions, can inspire our people to look forward to a great future.”.

Akosua Adomako Ampofo is a Professor of African and Gender Studies, and Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. An activist-scholar, her current work addresses African knowledge systems; race, ethnicity and identity politics; gender-based expressions of violence; constructions of masculinities; women and work; and popular culture. She is currently co-editing a volume titled, Transatlantic Feminisms: Women and Gender in Africa and the African Diaspora.In 2010, she was awarded the Sociologists for Women in Society Feminist Activism Award.

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