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#ElectionsCountdown: Active citizenship needed to unlock South Africa’s potential

10 May 2024 Photo Supplied

Opinion article by Dr Harlan Cloete, Department of Public Administration and Management, University of the Free State (UFS).

I know that there is great hype around the upcoming national and provincial elections on 29 May, some going as far as calling this our second 1994 – I get that. But I think that we might be making too much of this and forget that what counts is what takes place between elections. For some reason, we seem to think that voting is enough to bring about change, and we can then sit back as citizens and not wait for services to be delivered to us. Or we think that the coalition government will be the saviour. That we have left it to politicians to decide our fate and we simply capitulate to their whims is beyond me. Sometimes I even hear the argument from academics that ‘I do not vote because it will legitimise the current corrupt system’, or ‘I want nothing to do with politics’ – yet politics has everything to do with you, every day.

Performance of municipalities

South Africa is blessed with a three-tier democracy. Constitutional democracy spells out the Bill of Rights and the governance framework. Representative democracy allows the space to elect political leaders through the ballot, and finally participatory democracy calls for active participation between elections. Locally, this is expressed in the co-creation of an integrated development plan with communities and ward committees – real grassroots governance. However, this process has not been without fault, with many officials simply using this process as a tick-box exercise that makes a mockery of genuine participation that would bring dignity to contested spaces. What is worse is the performance of our municipalities. Let us take the Free State province as an example. As reported by the Department of Cooperative Development, all 23 municipalities in the Free State are deemed dysfunctional. Consequently, it is no wonder that not a single municipality has managed to attain a clean audit from the Auditor General in the past decade. Ratings Afrika earlier reported that the financial situation of the Mangaung Municipality is so dire that it is struggling to pay its suppliers on time; the capital was also rated the worst metropolitan performer in the Good Governance Africa rating for 2023.This is an inditement on the entire local governance system.

Active citizenship

The National Development Plan identifies active citizenship as the key ingredient to ensure that this democracy works. Eve Ensler reminds us that an activist is someone who cannot but help fight for something. That person is usually not motivated by a need for power, money, or fame but is in fact driven slightly mad by some injustice, some cruelty, some unfairness, so much so that he or she is compelled by some internal moral engine to act or make it better. Through my Great Governance ZA podcast, I found that there is no shortage of active citizens in our country. Over the past three years, I have conversed with more than 100 passionate people. In Bloemfontein, I crossed paths with Boeta Swart – his organisation Anchor of Hope gets the job done; in the Winnie Madikizela municipality, ethical leader Luvuyo Mahlaka runs a tight ship; and youth development champion and author, Frank Julie, generously shares his gifts and talents throughout the land. There are so many untold stories.

Activists – need I remind you – are not just active during elections but work passionately in concert with others to make the world a better place. The 2024 elections are important, yes, but the watershed election will be the 2026 local government elections when we will elect new ward councillors and ward committees. And coalitions are here to stay, it is a natural consequence of the electoral system, says Prof Jaap de Visser of the Dullah Omar Institute. The Sustainable Development Plan – specifically goal 16 – speak to peace and justice and strong institutions through partnerships (goal 17). Our future is partnerships – coalitions of people with the right heads, hearts, and eager hands. And yes, sometimes we will be tested and called to work with people that we do not like, agree with, or trust as Adam Kahane puts it. But that should not deter us. Democracy is difficult work, a contact sport.

Make an even greater impact

Voting or participation in elections is a first step, but I am afraid this is not enough. As an academic community specifically, we must use our privileged position in society to make an even greater impact, as advocated by the late Prof Bongani Mayosi, who argues that what matters most is service to society.

The National Development Plan concludes that a comprehensive, coordinated, multi-sectoral approach to development is required. Such an approach must include partnerships between civil society, the private sector, government, and academia. To make this coalition work will require buckets of good(will) and activism. We are on the brink of the new. God helps us as we do and dare.

*Dr Harlan Cloete is a pracademic and research fellow in the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State. He is the founder of the Great Governance ZA podcast and founder member of community radio KC107.7 in Paarl in 1996.

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State of our campuses: UFS closes campuses until Friday 28 October 2016 to readjust academic programme

2016-10-15

UFS announces strategy for completion of the 2016 academic year

Agreement between UFS management and student leadership in relation to residences

After almost four weeks of student protests about fees at the University of the Free State (UFS) and the subsequent suspension of the academic programme and closing of campuses, the senior leadership announced on 14 October 2016 a strategy to ensure that students will be able to complete the 2016 academic year.

The university on 13 October 2016 announced that it will shut down its Bloemfontein and South Campuses until 28 October 2016 for crucial and complex arrangements to be put in place to readjust the academic calendar and ensure that all students can complete their studies. The senior leadership did, however, make it clear that the university will not be shutting down for the remainder of 2016.

No teaching and learning activities at undergraduate and honours level will be offered between 17 October and 28 October 2016. The university will re-start teaching and learning at undergraduate and honours level in the first week of November 2016.

However, teaching and learning will not take place in the classrooms during November 2016, but through a different mode of delivery that consists of a combination of printed and recorded lectures, study materials and learning aids that will be provided by the university and delivered through Blackboard. In this manner no attempts at disrupting the rest of the academic year will affect our students’ academic programme. Students, however, will sit for the exam on campus.

Students in residence accommodation can return to campus as from 29 October 2016 and it is recommended that students who do not have off-campus internet access return to campus in order to access study material to complete the academic year.A new timetable for exams is still being developed and will be communicated as soon as the arrangements have been finalised.

Faculties have been differently affected by the loss of teaching time. Some faculties like the Faculty of Law have completed their curriculum, while other faculties like the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences require more teaching time. Some faculties, like the Faculty of Health Sciences, cannot do teaching through alternative modes of delivery.

The needs of the different faculties have been taken into account for developing a rescue plan to complete the 2016 academic year.

The Faculty of Health Sciences will continue its classes and clinical rotations as normal for all three schools on the Bloemfontein Campus and in the relevant hospitals. All students registered in programmes in the Faculty of Health Sciences will stay in residences for the full period of their studies and exams. Final-year medical students will graduate in December 2016 as expected.
In the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, final-year students for the Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (CTA) will stay on campus during October through to December 2016 and their classes and tests will not change.
Arrangements for all other faculties and programmes are being prepared and within the next week, students and parents/guardians will receive communication about how curriculum content will be completed and when the final exams will take place.
The university is extending the academic year so that we can recuperate all the lost teaching and learning time. The qualifications conferred on the 2016 class will be of the same quality and standards as all UFS qualifications.

The UFS is and will remain a fundamentally contact teaching and learning education university. However, under the current circumstances faced not only by the UFS, but higher-education institutions across the country, the best way of ensuring the integrity of the academic programmes in most faculties is by using an alternative way of teaching and learning. Other South African universities have chosen the same approach to be able to complete the academic year.

Instead of students going to class, they will have content delivered to them where they are (library, computer labs, their own computers, etc.) through Blackboard and printed and electronic material. This is a different way of learning but students will be carefully guided and supported.

Faculties are currently preparing all the necessary materials and instructions to support student learning.Standards and quality will be the same as if students were attending classes. Some faculties require practical laboratory work as part of their curriculum. The exam timetable will be adapted for these students to be able to complete their practical work when the academic activities commences in November 2016. The relevant faculties will communicate the schedule of practical work directly to the students.

Students in their final year will complete their studies during 2016. It is possible that in some cases the graduation ceremony for these students will be in June 2017 instead of April 2017. This will not prejudice students with bursaries, or committed employment in law firms or other businesses. The university will provide the necessary academic transcripts as proof of the completion of the relevant qualifications. None of these changes will affect postgraduate students.

The university will maintain regular communication with students and parents/guardians to update them on the new exams timetable.Faculties will communicate directly with students about issues related to their programmes.

“One of the areas in which significant progress was made, is that we were able to agree on a basis for stability with student leaders. The student protests occurred during an important time in the university’s academic calendar and the readjustment of our academic programme has put tremendous pressure on academic and support services staff, and created anxieties for parents,” said Prof Nicky Morgan, Acting Rector of the UFS.

“The senior leadership restates its commitment to free education as well as its willingness to stand together with students and other public universities to impress on government the urgency to decide on a time frame for the roll-out of free higher education for the poor and missing middle. We will use the next two weeks to meet with the leadership of Universities South Africa to coordinate collective action in this regard. We will furthermore also roll out a series of activities to inform and educate students and the general public on different models and experiences of providing free higher education,” he said.

The strategy to readjust the 2016 academic year is applicable to students on the Bloemfontein and South Campuses.

Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Brand Management)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27 51 444 6393

State of our campuses #15: UFS closes campuses until Friday 28 October 2016 to readjust academic programme

State of our campuses #14: All academic activities on UFS campuses remain suspended on 13 and 14 October 2016

State of our campuses #13: Availability of information about plans for remainder of UFS 2016 calendar year

State of our campuses #12: All academic activities at UFS campuses suspended for 11 and 12 October 2016

State of our campuses #11: Academic activities on UFS campuses continue

State of our campuses #10: Impact of non-completion of the 2016 academic year on UFS students

State of our campuses #9: Academic programme on all UFS campuses to resume on Monday 10 October 2016

State of our campuses #8: UFS extends vacation as from 28 September until 7 October 2016, 28 September 2016

State of our campuses #7: All three UFS campuses will be closed today, 27 September 2016.

State of our campuses #6: All UFS campuses reopen on Tuesday 27 September 2016

State of our campuses #5: UFS campuses to remain closed on Monday 26 September 2016

State of our campuses #4: Decisions about the UFS academic calendar

State of our campuses #3: UFS campuses closed until Friday 23 September 2016

State of our campuses #2: UFS Bloemfontein and South Campuses closed on Tuesday 20 September 2016 (19 September 2016)

State of our campuses #1: Academic activities suspended on UFS Bloemfontein Campus (19 September 2016)

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