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UFS launches Greener SA: planting the seeds of a sustainable future

17 September 2025 | Story Martinette Brits | Photo Martinette Brits and Kaleidoscope Studios

The University of the Free State (UFS) launched Greener SA, a five-year initiative to plant 400 000 trees across South Africa, at the Paradys Experimental Farm on Friday 12 September 2025. Backed by the Mastercard Foundation through the TAGDev 2.0 programme and RUFORUM, the project brings together government, industry, students, and academics around a shared commitment to sustainability and food security. The launch was marked by the planting of the first 100 trees, a symbolic act that set the tone for the years ahead.

Prof Jan-Willem Swanepoel, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, reminded the audience that the UFS is one of 12 African universities entrusted with a $100 million investment in agricultural transformation. “This project is not a hit-and-run – it’s about sustainability, inclusivity, and building value chains that empower farmers and entrepreneurs,” he said. He ended with a parable of a farmhand who could ‘sleep when the wind blows,’ urging everyone to be proactive in preparing for inevitable challenges.

Responsibility and partnerships

That call for responsibility was echoed by Elzabe Rockman, Free State MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, who linked Greener SA to the presidential One Million Trees Programme. She cautioned that planting without accountability leads to wasted effort. “If we plant trees, we want to be sure someone takes responsibility for them,” she said, highlighting the need for fire-resistant species, fruit trees in community gardens, and natural borders to replace vulnerable fencing. Looking at the students from Kovsie ACT who joined the launch, she added: “Jobs are not going to fall from the sky. They will come from agriculture and the environment. Harnessing youth energy is the way forward.”

Industry also pledged its support. Representing Empact Group – the sponsor of the trees – Helena Prinsloo described tree planting as an investment in legacy. “At Empact Group, we believe that doing right by our community and our planet is not just a responsibility. It’s a value that defines who we are and how we lead,” she said. Quoting the proverb that societies grow great when people plant trees whose shade they will never sit in, she added: “Today we are sowing seeds of hope, resilience, and opportunities for generations to come.”

Science, vision, and practice

Prof Corli Witthuhn from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences placed the launch in a global context, pointing to conflict, inequality, and climate change – and the sobering United Nations report showing that only 20% of the sustainability goals have been achieved. For her, the Greener SA project is a response to urgent global challenges. “We want our students to be globally work-ready,” she said. “That means beyond textbooks, and this farm represents exactly that. We don’t want to produce graduates with degrees, we want to produce graduates who can walk into a lab, into a policy meeting, into a business anywhere in the world and make an impact.”

Her message was supported by expert voices. Guest speaker Prof Ben du Toit from Stellenbosch University explained that agroforestry systems can simultaneously provide timber, food, biodiversity, and resilience. “Agroforestry is not planting trees over here and grazing over there – it’s about integration, so that benefits reinforce each other,” he said.

At the Paradys Experimental Farm, this integration is already underway. Johan Barnard, Farm Manager and Junior Lecturer, described how shaded tree pockets will improve grazing fields and protect water resources, while fruit trees planted in partnership with Kovsie ACT will contribute to student nutrition and new food value chains. “We’re capturing value chains and taking it to the next level so that our students have research opportunities and the farm delivers real outputs,” he explained.

The launch of Greener SA showed that tree planting is about much more than beautification. It is a collective commitment – to resilience in the face of global challenges, to science applied in practice, and to building partnerships that prepare the next generation to make an impact.

News Archive

SA cannot sustain momentum - Boesak

2010-09-02

Photo: Stephen Collett

South Africa finds it increasingly difficult to live up to the challenges facing it as a nation because of its failure to meet its democratic ideals and possibilities, peace and lack of self-belief.

This was according to renowned cleric and former political activist, Dr Allan Boesak, who recently delivered the CR Swart Memorial Lecture, the oldest memorial lecture at the University of the Free State (UFS). His lecture was on the topic Creating moments, sustaining momentum.

He said South Africa had plenty of opportunities to show the whole world what was possible if all the people of this country joined hands and worked together to build a truly united society. However, he said, the country somehow invariably contrived to find its way out of these wonderful possibilities.

He cited events of historical significance like Codesa, the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first democratic president of South Africa, the assassination of South African Communist Party leader, Chris Hani; and the rugby and soccer world cups.
To drive his point home about this dismal failure of the country to “sustain momentum”, he alluded to the current public servants’ strike that is gradually crippling public service.

“The public servants’ strike was neither unexpected nor is it completely unjustifiable. Most of us have understanding for the frustration of teachers and health workers. Their demands resonate with most of us, and I think that it is scandalous of SACP fat cats to tell workers to “stop crying like babies,” he said.

He also added to the criticism of the much-maligned decision of the government to spend billions of taxpayers’ money to purchase weapons when there was “no discernible military threat” to the country. He said the greatest threat to the security of the country was poverty, inequality and social cohesion.

“As for the argument that arms sales bring in foreign exchange – how can we be instrumental in killing the poor elsewhere with the intention of feeding our poor, and then our ill-gained profits feed only the already well-fed?” he asked.
“Can we see the hopeless contradiction, the total impossibility of being both the apostle of peace and a merchant of death?”

He also lambasted the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy of the government which he said benefited only those connected to the political aristocracy.

“It couples with the unashamed, in-your-face display of wealth by the privileged elite in this country, the crass materialism of the so-called “bling generation”, and the casual carelessness with which promises to the poor are given and treated. It is only the public symptom of the deep-seated scorn our political elites feel for the poor,” he said.

He said the government’s disdain to the poor was “setting fire to our future”.

“The anger of people on the ground can no longer be denied or ignored, and little by little, the leadership articulating and directing this anger is being estranged from politically elected leadership, and even more disturbing, from our democratic processes,” he said.

He concluded that the country’s difficulty in dealing with race and racism was putting the reconciliation process kick-started by Mandela just over a decade ago, under a threat.

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