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30 October 2024 | Story Jacky Tshokwe | Photo Bram Fischer
BRAM FISCHER MEMORIAL LECTURE 2024

Join us as Prof Premesh Lalu from the University of the Western Cape presents this year’s lecture, with a response from Prof Steven Friedman of the University of Johannesburg.

Lecture title: "Bram Fischer's Briefcase: What's Left of Apartheid?"

In a compelling narrative of historical irony, a briefcase exchanged between Bram Fischer and Sydney Kentridge after the Rivonia Trial was later reimagined in the 1997 theatre production Ubu and the Truth Commission, created by Jane Taylor, William Kentridge, and Handspring Puppet Company. Repurposed as the ‘Dogs of War’ puppet, this briefcase transformed into Brutus, Brutus, and Brutus – embodying apartheid’s enforcers and the unspoken tensions beneath South Africa's political history. Through the theatre lens, the lecture will explore whether Bram Fischer’s briefcase revealed apartheid as a tragicomedy that needed dismantling to foster genuine reconciliation.

Date: Thursday 14 November 2024
Time: 18:00 to 21:00

Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, UFS Bloemfontein Campus

Click to view documentClick here to RSVP before by 10 November 2024.

The Speaker

Prof Premesh Lalu is a prominent researcher and former Director of the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape, which was awarded flagship status by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSTI) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) in 2016. His books include The Deaths of Hintsa: Post-Apartheid South Africa and the Shape of Recurring Pasts (2009) and Undoing Apartheid (2022). He is a respected voice in publications such as History and Theory, the Journal of Southern African Studies, and Critical Times, and serves on various international advisory boards.

The Respondent

Prof Steven Friedman is a Research Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg. A widely published authority on South Africa’s democratic transition, his work focuses on democratic theory and practice. His notable publications include Good Jew, Bad Jew: Racism, Anti-Semitism and the Assault on Meaning, and he writes a weekly column, Against the Tide, offering critical insights into South African democracy.

For further information, please contact Alicia Pienaar at pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za.

News Archive

Kovsie conquers Googlefest Zurich pitching competition
2014-07-29

  

Marlize Holtzhauzen
Photo: Supplied

Marlize Holtzhauzen, a final-year Business Management and Leadership student at the UFS Business School, was recently awarded the 1st prize at the Google pitching competition in Zurich, Switzerland.

Holtzhauzen’s winning entry, Rapid Response, is a mobile application for use in emergency situations. In an emergency the application allows the phone to be used as a panic button which contacts emergency services and notifies the family of the user. The app, co-founded by Gerrit Cloete, was selected as one of 10 South African technology start-ups. These were part of the Swiss South African Business Development Programme under the auspices of the Swiss South African Joint Research Programme.

Since its launch on 1 July 2014, the Rapid Response app has had over 400 downloads and is available on app stores. It has also stirred interest in Europe and the USA and is already in use in Southern and East Africa. Holtzhauzen says good team work and a great product will ensure the success of this start-up in the future.

Other South African entries included Drew van der Riet from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN): Advanced Prosthetics Engineering. Gavin Jones of the University of Cape Town (UCT) also entered. He is a Technology Commercialisation practitioner candidate working on the commercialisation of a UCT innovation for the rehabilitation of stroke patients.

For more information contact Marlize on +27(0)83 3270 177 or visit the website www.rapidresponse.co.za .


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