Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
12 January 2024
|
Story Nonsindiswe Qwabe
|
Photo Sonia Small
Since joining the UFS in 2008, Dr Grey Magaiza has worked extensively on approaches that can foster the socio-economic transformation of societies.
“The future should be one where communities can decide on their development agenda and futures. That’s the most important for me.” Dr Grey Magaiza, Deputy Director of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) and Head of the Community Development programme on the Qwaqwa Campus, is passionate about capacitating communities to be agents of change and advancement. His vision for the future emphasises the empowerment of communities to take charge of their development by actively participating in decision making and the implementation of development projects that can improve their lives.
Since joining the UFS in 2008, Dr Magaiza has worked extensively on approaches that can foster the socio-economic transformation of societies. Over the years, he has crafted his research speciality into one that he is most proud of – being an interdisciplinary scientist immersed in the development of communities.
“I’m in a fortunate position of researching what I like. I say ‘fortunate’, because I’ve taken the time to understand what I’m passionate about, which is the overall field of rural livelihoods and livelihood futures – in short, community development. My research starts from an engaged university, understanding the elements that a university must use to enhance transformation and relevance to its immediate community in terms of development.”
One of the ways he has done this is by looking at social entrepreneurship as a development approach for young people in a rural setting. Through workshops with non-profit and civic organisations in Qwaqwa, Dr Magaiza has been helping these organisations to map out their needs and actively meet them through the involvement and support of external role players.
“We understand that communities are part of the national development agenda, but even that national agenda respects community knowledge and intentions and allows communities to shape their identity. A critical enabler of this is community organising. You bring back the capacity in communities to have dialogues on issues affecting them as spaces for engagement, knowledge exchange, and for people to just talk about their way forward.”
By enabling communities to define their development agenda, they can address their specific needs, challenges, and aspirations, he said. “When I look at livelihood futures, it’s quite an exciting aspect of my work – it’s like looking into a fortune tellers’ globe, because you’re not deciding for communities what they should do, but the communities themselves take those decisions.”
Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French impresses at conference
2010-02-24
 |
| The five staff members from the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the UFS who recently made history at a conference held at the University of Pretoria (UP) were, from the left, front: Ms Swart, Prof. Steyn, Dr Van den Berg; back: Mr Senekal and Prof. Van Coller. Photo: Supplied |
Five staff members from the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently made history at a conference at the University of Pretoria (UP). The department presented the most papers coming from one department and university at a conference entitled “Patryspoort na buite”. Ms Corlietha Swart, Prof. Jaap Steyn, Dr Cilliers van den Berg, Mr Burgert Senekal and Prof. Hennie van Coller all presented excellent papers at the conference.
According to Ms Swart, three of the five papers focused on different aspects of the author and linguist, G.R. von Wielligh. The Von Wielligh papers took up a full session of the conference.
With Von Wielligh’s 150th commemoration in 2009, the National Afrikaans Literature and Research Centre (NALN), under the auspices of the curator Mr Otto Liebenberg, decided to research this underrated figure’s contribution. Swart’s paper titled “Landmeter Von Wielligh op ongekarteerde taallandskap”, took a look at this figure as a linguist. Prof. Steyn focused on “G.R. Von Wielligh as historikus van die ‘eerste’ Afrikaanse taalbeweging” and Prof. Van Coller’s paper concentrated on “G.R. von Wielligh se bydrae tot die voorsiening van Afrikaanse leesstof en die kweek van ’n leeskultuur: ’n literêrhistoriese perspektief op sy skeppende prosa”.
Dr. Van den Berg read a paper on “Die transmissie van trauma: ‘Tralievader’ deur Carl Friedman” and Mr Senekal’s paper gave an overview of “Die representasie van vervreemding in hedendaagse Afrikaanse protesmusiek”.
- Lize du Plessis