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Africa Month: Celebrating unity and positive futures at UFS

14 May 2025 | Story Tshepo Tsotetsi | Photo Supplied

Africa Month 2025 — Africa: Our identity, our journey, our future.

Each May, countries across the continent mark Africa Month, reflecting on the formation of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 (now the African Union) and the shared vision for a united, thriving Africa. In 2025, the AU draws attention to justice and reparations for Africans and people of African descent. At the University of the Free State (UFS), the commemorative period invites reflection on African identity, futures, and connectedness through learning, dialogue, and cultural expression.

Throughout the month, a range of campus events will celebrate African identity, highlight voices from within the UFS community, and foreground indigenous knowledge systems and the arts – all integral to the institution’s vision of shaping a future grounded in African values and global relevance.

Prof Lynette Jacobs, Acting Director of the Office for International Affairs, believes the continent’s greatest potential lies in its people, cultures, and ways of knowing. “Africa is the heart of humankind … What excites me most is the growing recognition that Africa’s richness lies not only in its resources but also in its people, cultures, and knowledges, both ancient and contemporary,” she says.

Prof Jacobs highlights the university’s role in fostering ethical leadership and driving innovation rooted in African priorities. “We need to produce locally grounded graduates who can hold their own amongst the world’s best; we need to foster ethical, service-oriented leadership; and to serve as hubs for interdisciplinary research. By nurturing innovation, collaboration, and critical thinking, institutions like UFS can help shape an Africa that is not only self-reliant but also a key contributor to global progress.”

Portia Mtawarira, the SRC representative for international students on the Bloemfontein Campus, echoes this belief. “I envision Africa as a continent where we embrace and celebrate diversity – a future where people come together for a common goal: to improve access to quality education, fight social injustice and corruption, reduce unemployment, and promote globalisation and internationalisation,” she says.

She adds that UFS provides a space where this kind of leadership can grow. “The university has created platforms where students can develop the skills needed to become ethical leaders, problem-solvers, and change-makers … It’s now our responsibility to go back into our communities and put into practice the knowledge we’ve acquired here.”

From international collaborations and mobility networks to the everyday spirit of mutual support on campus, Prof Jacobs says she sees interdependence as the African spirit embodied at UFS. “It reflects the deep awareness across African societies that our progress is bound together, and that solutions emerge from solidarity, not divisiveness.”

As UFS continues on its Vision 130 journey, Africa Month affirms the institution’s enduring commitment to connection, celebration, and co-creating a future shaped by African excellence.

Africa Month Events Calendar:

Intercultural Sports Day

The offices of SRC International Students and SRC Sports will host an Intercultural Sports Day that will celebrate cultural diversity through sports.

Date: 16 May 2025

Time: 13:00–17:00

Location: Bloemfontein Campus

Africa Day Memorial Lecture

The Centre for Gender and Africa Studies will host its annual Africa Day Memorial Lecture presented by Prof Cyril Obi, Program Director at the Social Science Research Council, New York. The theme of the lecture is ‘Caught between De-Democratisation and Re-Democratisation: Grappling with Africa’s Complex Conjunctures through the Lens of Political Dialectics’.

Date: 21 May 2025

Time: 18:00

Venue: Equitas, Bloemfontein Campus

Livestream: https://livestream.ufs.ac.za/

Africa Day commemoration podcast panel discussion

The Office for International Affairs will host its annual Africa Day commemoration podcast panel discussion featuring UFS Chancellor Prof Bonang Mohale and the former Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor. The theme is ‘Africa’s Future: Higher Education and Global Impact’.

Date: 22 May 2025

Time: 19:00–20:30

Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein

Click here to RSVP

News Archive

Council votes on appointment of senior staff

2004-11-18

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) today voted on the filling of three senior vacancies, including one post at Dean level and two at the level of Vice-Dean.

The Council voted as follows:


Dr Natie Luyt will be offered the post of Dean: Student Affairs	Prof Engela Pretorius will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities	Dr Choice Makhetha will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Student Affairs

“There are special challenges for the UFS in the short and medium term regarding transformation of our residences, and a certain combination of management qualities and skills is desirable. As a result of the diversity of the UFS’s student community it is therefore important to us to follow a team approach to deal with the challenges. With the combination of Drs Luyt and Makhetha, I believe we will be able to manage student affairs effectively and skillfully,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

“It is wonderful that we are able to celebrate the outcome of this process that has brought forward such excellent candidates who reflect our country’s diversity. It shows that we can achieve the goals of quality and diversity at the same time,” says Prof Fourie.

Prof Pretorius obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) from the UFS, except for the Certificate in Gender Policy Management (cum laude) which she obtained in 2000 from WITS. She joined the Department of Sociology at UFS in 1980 and has headed the Department since 2001. She acted as Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities since July 2004. She has some thirty publications to her credit, published both nationally and internationally and has delivered 20 national and international papers. She is a member of the South African Sociological Association and is a member of the Council of the association and of the Editorial Board of Society in Transition, the society’s journal. She is also a member of the South African Academy for Science and Art and the Federation of African Women Educationalists in South Africa (FAWESA). Project involvement includes the Australian Women’s Executive Development Programme and the project Executive Development of Senior Women in South African Higher Education Institutions. She is also an NRF panelist.

Dr Luyt obtained his qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) at the UFS and started his career at the same institution in 1980 as lecturer in Political Science. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1983 and appointed as Director: Student Affairs in 1997. He has been acting as Dean: Student Affairs since 2003. Dr Luyt completed several work-related training courses, among others a course in ethnic and multiculturality at the Swiss Institute for Federalism and a course in conflict management at the South Tyrolean Economic and Social Institute.

Dr Makheta also obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons), MA in Political Science and Ph D in Political Science) at the UFS and started working as a student assistant in Political Science at the same institution in 1999. She was promoted to junior assistant in 2000, coordinator and facilitator of Political Science in 2001, assistant/acting Director: Student Affairs in 2001 and acting Director: Student Affairs in 2003. Dr Makhetha is currently a Senior Political Analyst at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The UFS Council also approved the promotion of nine professors to the rank of senior professor. They are Proff Louise Cilliers (Department English and Classical Languages), Dap Louw (Department of Psychology), Philip Nel (Department Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice), Dirk van den Berg (Department of History of Art and Visual Culture Studies) Dingie van Rensburg (Director: Centre for Health Systems Research and Develoment), Andries Raath (Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law), James du Preez (Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology), Johan Grobbelaar (Department of Plant Sciences) and Louis Scott (Department of Plant Sciences).

This is the first group ever of senior professors at the UFS. The post level was created to provide better career and earnings opportunities for high quality academics and to increase the attractiveness of an academic career to young people.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

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