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14 March 2024 | Story Kagiso Ngake | Photo SUPPLIED
Prof Petersen and Dr Thelma John David
Prof Petersen and Dr Thelma John David, the Consul General of India in Durban.

The University of the Free State (UFS) proudly welcomed Dr Thelma John David, the Consul General of India, to Durban, South Africa, on 27 February 2024. The UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Francis Petersen extended a warm reception to the distinguished guest.

Accompanied by Prem Sagar Kesarapu, Head of Chancery at the Consulate General, Dr David engaged in fruitful discussions with key figures at the UFS, including Prof Lynette Jacobs, Acting Director of the Office for International Affairs (OIA); Kagiso Ngake, responsible for the Partnerships portfolio in the OIA; Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor in the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, known for spearheading collaborative efforts across India; and Dr Jared McDonald, Chief of Staff in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and Principal.

The meeting centred on exploring opportunities for academic exchange programmes, research partnerships, and cultural exchanges. Concrete plans were devised to enhance and fortify collaboration between the UFS, the Consulate General in Durban, and higher education institutions in India.

Expressing gratitude for the visit, Prof Petersen underscored its significance in strengthening bonds between the UFS and India. He emphasised the pivotal role of international collaborations in academia to foster diversity and global understanding.

Dr David echoed Prof Petersen's sentiments, emphasising the role of education and collaboration in building bridges between nations. She commended the UFS for its commitment to excellence in higher education and expressed enthusiasm to explore future partnerships.

UFS Fosters strong collaborative ties with Indian institutions across diverse fields

The UFS takes pride in its extensive collaboration network with various Indian universities and research institutions, spanning diverse academic disciplines. This dynamic partnership promotes knowledge exchange, research advancements, and academic growth in physics, chemistry, health sciences, and social sciences.

Notable collaborations include ongoing projects led by the UFS Veterinary Biotechnology Group with Saife VetMed (India) on potential commercial products. Another project involves collaboration with Ventri Biologicals, India’s largest poultry vaccine manufacturer, focusing on developing effective vaccines against infectious coryza.

Additionally, the Department of Pharmacology, under the expertise of Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa in Indigenous Knowledge Systems, collaborates with the SRM Institute of Science and Technology in India on traditional medicines.

For more information on current and potential collaboration with universities and research institutes in India, please contact Kagiso Ngake at ngakekm@ufs.ac.za.

News Archive

Expert in Africa Studies debunks African middle class myth
2016-05-10

Description: Prof Henning Melber Tags: Prof Henning Melber

From left: Prof Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), Joe Besigye from the Institute of Reconciliation and Social Justice, and Prof Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor at the CAS and guest lecturer for the day.
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

Until recently, think tanks from North America, the African Development Bank, United Nations Development Plan, and global economists have defined the African middle class based purely on monetary arithmetic. One of the claims made in the past is that anyone with a consumption power of $2 per day constitutes the middle class. Following this, if poverty is defined as monetary income below $1.5 a day, it means that it takes just half a dollar to reach the threshold considered as African middle class.

Prof Henning Melber highlighted the disparities in the notion of a growing African middle class in a guest lecture titled A critical anatomy of the African middle class(es), hosted by our Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at the University of the Free State on 4 May 2016. He is an Extraordinary Professor at the Centre, as well as Senior Adviser and Director Emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Sweden.

Prof Melber argued that it is misleading to consider only income when identifying the middle class. In his opinion, such views were advanced by promoters of the global neo-liberal project. “My suspicion is that those who promote the middle class  discourse in that way, based on such a low threshold, were desperate to look for the success story that testifies to Africa rising.”

Another pitfall of such a middle-class analysis is its ahistorical contextualisation. This economically-reduced notion of the class is a sheer distortion. Prof Melber advised analysts to take cognisance of factors, such as consumption patterns, lifestyle, and political affiliation, amongst others.

In his second lecture for the day, Prof Melber dealt withthe topic of: Namibia since independence: the limits to Liberation, painting the historical backdrop against which the country’s current government is consolidating its political hegemony. He highlighted examples of the limited transformation that has been achieved since Namibia’s independence in 1990.

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