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UFS to host inaugural ‘Sanlam and Santam Economist of the Year’ gala event

16 October 2024 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Supplied

The Department of Economics and Finance, within the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) at the University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with Sanlam and Santam, will host the inaugural ‘Sanlam & Santam Economist of the Year’ competition gala event on 18 October 2024. The event, to be held on the UFS Bloemfontein campus, marks the exciting conclusion of this prestigious competition.

About the competition

Prof Johan Coetzee, Chairperson of the Department of Economics and Finance at UFS, explained that the competition, launched in July 2024, is an initiative of the department, sponsored by Sanlam and Santam. ‘’The competition aims to equip our graduates with the essential skills required for the modern workplace, including presentation, communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills,” said Prof Coetzee. He also highlighted plans to extend the competition to schools, saying, “We are looking forward to broadening the platform to include school-level participants.”

In addition, Prof Coetzee noted that the competition is designed to train students to become highly skilled economists capable of navigating the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

The competition sees students - ranging from first-year undergraduates to those pursuing master's qualifications within the department - competing against each other by making predictions on key macroeconomic indicators. A schedule of these indicators is provided, and students must predict their values on an online platform before the official release of each indicator. Points are awarded based on the accuracy of their predictions, with the top 10 competitors progressing to the final stage.

Gala event highlights

Representatives from Sanlam and Santam, the Department of Economics and Finance, the top 10 finalists, and the department’s top academic performers from each year group will attend the gala event. “Besides recognising the competition winners, we will also honour our top academic achievers. As a department, we acknowledge the importance of recognition, and we are proud to be the academic home of these outstanding students,” Prof Coetzee added.

The top 10 finalists will each deliver a six-minute presentation to a panel of four economists from the department, after which the top three finalists will be announced. These finalists will then answer an additional question, and the final judging will determine the winner of the ‘Sanlam and Santam Economist of the Year’ title. The winner will also receive the largest cash prize.

In addition to the awards, Sivuyile Nzimeni, a data analyst within the EMS faculty and the developer of the competition platform, will address the audience. Nzimene will discuss the development of the platform and plans for its expansion.

News Archive

Eugene de Kock, FW de Klerk and forgiveness – Prof Gobodo-Madikizela’s take on gestures of reconciliation

2015-02-06

What Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State, found over the years talking to Eugene de Kock, was a man tortured by his past. By the deeds he has committed.

“As a result he was confronting these – not as a cog in a machine – but as a person who actually did the deed himself,” Prof Gobodo-Madikizela said during an interview [https://soundcloud.com/primediabroadcasting/dr-gobodo-on-de-kock-parole] with Pippa Hudson on Cape Talk. A man taking personal responsibility.

Against the backdrop of De Kock recently granted parole, what, then, is the nature of forgiveness?

“Often people think when they forgive, you forgive and forget. That’s not the point,” Prof Gobodo-Madikizela says. “Forgiving, in fact, I found is the wrong word. We are using forgiveness for a range of responses. What I find useful in this kind of work is to think about how people change, how people are transformed. In other words, to think about our empathic connection to people who are our former enemies.” In other words: to reach a place where both parties can see each other as fellow human beings. “Somehow when a person expresses remorse – in the way Eugene de Kock has done – it opens a door for the different kinds of relationships to that traumatic past,” Prof Gobodo-Madikizela says.

In an article for the Sunday Times, Prof Gobodo-Madikizela refers to the motion to immortalise F W de Klerk by renaming Table Bay Boulevard after him. In this piece, she clearly points out that De Klerk is not without blood on his hands. She agrees with Mayor Patricia de Lille’s support of this tribute to De Klerk, though, when De Lille refers to ‘the spirit of reconciliation that Tata Madiba believed in’.

Justice Minister Michael Masutha – who granted De Kock parole – and De Lille “are right in evoking the memory of Nelson Mandela through these important gestures of reconciliation,” Prof Gobodo-Madikizela remarks. The need to return to Nelson Mandela’s vision, she adds, remains urgent.

Read Prof Gobodo-Madikizela’s full article, published in the Sunday Times, here.
For Prof Gobodo-Madikizela’s response to Eugene de Kock, FW de Klerk and reconciliation, read here.

For more information or enquiries contact news@ufs.ac.za

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