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12 March 2024 Photo Supplied
ARU2024 Conference
SAMC2025 (scheduled 17 to 20 March 2025 at Champagne Sports Resort) will build on the highly successful First Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022) held in March 2022.

On 5 March 2024, the first announcement went out for the Second Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2025). SAMC2025 will take place next year from 17 to 20 March at Champagne Sports Resort. The theme for the upcoming conference is: Southern African Mountains – Overcoming Boundaries and Barriers. 

This event will once again bring together academics, researchers, early career professionals, practitioners, policy makers, postgraduate students, and government officials to engage and exchange experiences, research findings, problem solving, and to foster partnerships regarding the transboundary and transdisciplinary sustainability of Southern African mountains. 

The SAMC series is conceptualised by the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) at the University of the Free State (UFS), the African Mountain Research Foundation (AMRF), and Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS) – a joint initiative between EURAC Research and the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security) and implemented by the Peaks Foundation.

Prof Ralph Clark, Director of the ARU, says “SAM2022 was a wonderful event that greatly encouraged regional collegiality around Southern African mountains. We hope that SAMC2025 will be even more impactful in growing our regional community of practice for a stronger transboundary agenda, and for attaining real solutions to the problems facing mountain ecosystems and mountain peoples.”

With Southern African mountains comprising those situated south of the Congo Rainforest and Lake Rukwa – including the mountainous islands of the western Indian Ocean – SAMC2025 is encouraging participation from Angola, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion, South Africa, southern Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. 

According to the organisers, the SAMC series is purposefully multi- and trans-disciplinary, with a strong impetus to link science, policy, and practitioner realms, and thus all approaches are encouraged. A first of its kind in the region will be a Royal Mountain Indaba, bringing together customary law, mountains, and the Sustainable Development Goals, given that vast tracks of mountain-scape in Southern Africa are directly under traditional governance.  

SAMC2025 will build on the highly successful first Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022) held in March 2022. This, the first of its kind in Southern Africa, attracted 259 participants from 21 countries, with 168 papers delivered and four sponsored special sessions. SAMC2025 will include plenary sessions, parallel oral paper presentation sessions, poster sessions, panel discussions, and sessions for special interest groups – with separate review tracks for abstract submissions from the science, policy, and practitioner sectors that accommodate those sectors to their best advantage. 

The following useful resources are available and can be downloaded:

1. Invitation SAMC2025.

2. Announcements and Call for Abstracts – document includes access to

  • call for abstracts with link to online submission system;
  • call for proposals for workshops and/or panel discussions; 
  • publication of selected conference papers; 
  • registration information; 
  • student and early career academics summit; 
  • important dates; 
  • venue details; 
  • information for international travellers; and 
  • information for directing enquiries. 

3. Guidelines for the submission of abstracts – document includes access to

  • presentation categories and types;
  • review of abstracts;
  • style guide for abstracts submitted for oral or poster presentations;
  • conditions; and
  • other considerations with regard to formatting, style, and technical details.
  • review of proposals;
  • style guide for proposals for workshops and/or panel discussions; and
  • conditions. 

News Archive

Champion Shimlas coach takes charge of Dream Team
2015-04-14

 

UFS Shimlas rugby team thrashed North-West University (NWU) Pukke 63-33 to claim their first ever Varsity Cup title at Shimla Park on Monday 13 April 2015.

And the good news keeps coming for the undefeated 2015 Varsity Cup champs as their coach, Franco Smith, will be in charge of the Varsity Cup Dream Team to face off against the Junior Springboks at Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on 21 April.

Four Shimlas players will also join their coach for the clash in Stellenbosch. Shimlas wing, Maphutha Dolo, and flanker, Henco Venter, are set to be in the starting line-up, while Gerhard Olivier (also flanker) and Mthokozisi Mkhabala will be on the bench.

Smith will be head coach for the Dream Team, and will be assisted by Hendro Scholtz (also from Shimlas staff) and David Manual (University of Pretoria Tuks). Quintin van Rooyen will be team manager and Tanya Green, the physio, both from Stellenbosch University Maties. UFS sport scientist, Timothy Qumbu, will see to the Dream Team’s fitness and conditioning.

Varsity Cup Dream Team:
 

15 Rhyno Smith (NWU-Pukke)
14 Maphutha Dolo (UFS-Shimlas)
13 Rowayne Beukman (NWU-Pukke)
12 Daniel Kriel (UP-Tuks)
11 Jean-Paul Lewis (Maties)
10 Innocent Radebe (UKZN-Impi)
9 Dillon Smit (NWU-Pukke)
8 Jeandre Rudolph (NWU-Pukke)
7 Henco Venter (UFS-Shimlas)
6 Wiaan Liebenberg (UP-Tuks)
5 Reniel Hugo (captain) (UP-Tuks)
4 Irne Herbst (UP-Tuks)
3 John-Roy Jenkinson (NWU-Pukke)
2 Chad Solomon (UCT-Ikeys)
1 Johan Smit (NWU-Pukke)

Replacements:
 

16 Nqobisizwe Mxoli (UP-Tuks)
17 Jaco Visagie (UP-Tuks)
18 Dayan van der Westhuizen (UP-Tuks)
19 Walt Steenkamp (NWU-Pukke)
20 Gerhard Olivier (UFS-Shimlas)
21 Mthokozisi Mkhabela (UFS-Shimlas)
22 Johnny Welthagen (NWU-Pukke)

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