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07 October 2024 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Stephen Collett
Global Social Innovation Indaba
Panel discussion during the 2024 Global Social Innovation Indaba held at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein Campus.

Insightful, thought-provoking and inspiring: These were some of the words used to describe the 2024 Global Social Innovation Indaba, which took place at the Centenary Complex on the University of the Free State’s (UFS’s) Bloemfontein Campus from 30 September to 2 October 2024.

The three-day conference was hosted by the global Social Innovation Exchange (SIX) in collaboration with the UFS, under the theme ‘People Powered Change’. The conference brought together leaders and innovators from South Africa and several other countries, including Louise Pulford, CEO of SIX; Markus Lux, Senior Vice-President at Robert Bosch Stiftung, and Desmond D’Sa from the South Durban Community Environment Alliance (SDCEA), among others.

In her opening address, Acting UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal Prof Anthea Rhoda welcomed the guests and described the conference as an opportunity to “deliberate, debate, and dissect ideas around the all-important topic of harnessing people-powered change in order to build successful societies”.

Powering social change

As part of the conference guests engaged in a series of panel discussions and activities, and attended presentations on various topics.

D’Sa was one of the first speakers, delivering a keynote address titled ‘An activist guide to people-powered change’. He referred to moments throughout his career in which he has actively worked towards change in his community and beyond, and highlighted some of the work the SDCEA continues to do. Guests were also treated to a spoken word performance by Napo Masheane, Artistic Director at the Performing Arts Centre of the Free State (PACOFS).

Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi touched on several points in his talk, such as what the law meant or means to indigenous people. He explored this by referring back to the colonialist era. Ngcukaitobi, who described law as the most ubiquitous and most stable concept that European settlers brought, indicated that it was brought in two faces: the face of justice, and the face of violence. Therefore, he said, “… the future of law that has been most enduring is the ability of the law to transform itself from violence to justice.”

Guests said they regarded the presentations and dialogues as insightful, and also highlighted their appreciation for being able to interact with the campus itself. This sentiment in large part stemmed from the attendees being split into smaller groups and taken to see different parts of the campus. They also got to see an exhibition exploring the role of art in social justice at the Department of Fine Arts.

Lessons from the conference

The last day featured a panel discussion titled ‘Challenging power dynamics and redefining global exchange’, which included an engagement session with the audience. Guests were able to reflect on the information they had acquired at the conference and challenged themselves to continue working towards change and innovation.

“What I learnt from these three days is that since we all want to do the right thing, we all know what the job that needs to be done is,” said Michael Ngigi, CEO of Thinkplace Africa. “As such, we need to be bold in going for that, and really push back on the status quo that is formed by the places we represent.”

News Archive

CD-ROM for learning Afrikaans as foreign language launched
2009-04-30

 
At the launch of the CD-Rom, Gesellig Afrikaans, are from the left: Ms Riana de Beer, Research Assistant at the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French, Mr Christo Steyn from Bare Creative who did the digitalisation of the CD-ROM, Prof. Van Niekerk, Prof. Engela Pretorius, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities, Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic Planning, and Mr François Marais, Director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies and Development at the UFS.
Photo: Lacea Loader
The Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently launched a CD-ROM course to learn Afrikaans as foreign language at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

For the past ten years the Department has been offering a course in Afrikaans as foreign language to small groups at the UFS. “However, the need for this course has escalated to such an extent on the Main and Qwaqwa Campuses of the UFS that we have decided to produce the CD-ROM. We have also found that not a lot of courses to learn Afrikaans were available. Those that do exist, do not recognise the needs of adult learners,” said Prof. Angelique van Niekerk from the Department.

“International students are often interested in learning new cultures and languages and staff members would also like to learn Afrikaans in order to understand the language better. Now they are able to master the basic principles and concepts of the language,” said Prof. Van Niekerk.

The course, which will be presented on the Main Campus, comprises a basic and an advanced course. Course attendants will receive both these CD-ROMs. English is used as the back-up language and translations of all the texts are available on the CD. Contemporary Afrikaans music is used to assist in fixing sound patterns, and the pronunciation of Afrikaans sounds, words and sentences is available through the sound component of the course. Uncomplicated language jokes, advertisement texts and cartoons are used to enhance the course content and a vocabulary list and list of idiomatic language uses will be kept updated by the learners. Explanations of basic grammatical constructions are given in both Afrikaans and English and learners are assessed at the end of the course. Aspects like word order, temporal indications, etc. are covered amongst other things.

“Mastering a foreign language is time-consuming and contact with the language is very important. Although there is a contact session with a facilitator of two hours per week, it is a handy course for people who cannot attend classes regularly,” said Prof. Van Niekerk.

The CD-ROM is available from at Prof. Angelique van Niekerk, vnieka.hum@ufs.ac.za, Tel. no. 051-4012339, at R150 per CD.


Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za  
28 April 2009

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