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19 March 2019 | Story Dr Cinde Greyling
Dr Mutana and Prof Mukwada
Many people enjoy spending time in the mountainous Drakensberg region. Prof Geofrey Mukwada’s involvement with the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) sparked an interest in sustainable tourism in the area. Pictured here are Dr Sarudzai Mutana with Prof Mukwada.

Not only is the Qwaqwa Campus situated in a beautiful region – its researchers also contribute to keeping the area pristine. Recent research by Prof Geofrey Mukwada and his PhD student, Dr Sarudzai Mutana, focused on indicators monitoring sustainable tourism development in the Drakensberg region.

Dr Mukwada is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography on the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus. 

Our majestic mountains are fragile

Many people enjoy spending time in the mountainous Drakensberg region – either as adventure seekers exploring the many trails, or just relaxing and reconnecting with nature. Prof Mukwada’s involvement with the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) sparked an interest in sustainable tourism in the area. “Mountains are fragile but attractive environments which continue to attract tourists,” he said. “Tourism is one of the major business sectors in the Drakensberg region, with promising growth opportunities and proving to be an anchor of green economy in the future – if practiced correctly.” Unfortunately, the issue of monitoring sustainable tourism has not been widely researched in African mountains. 

According to international standards

“We specifically looked at the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC), which is an international best-practice framework to help destinations monitor and ensure that tourism is developed in a responsible manner,” Prof Mukwada explained. “South Africa’s Manual for Responsible Tourism was designed according to some of the recommendations of the GSTC. But we found that, while the tourism and hospitality operators in the Drakensberg region appreciates the need to monitor and ensure sustainable tourism in the area, there is limited use of indicators as a tool for monitoring.” 

Forward together

There are competing demands between land-use and development practices and alternatives in the region – unless the focus shifts to sustainable practices, the short-term gains could be followed by dire consequences. “We suggest an integrated monitoring of tourism development, with a pro-poor focus that involves more local community leaders. Going forward, we would like to see the industry adopt the indicators proposed in our study.”

News Archive

UFS to compete in Varsity Football
2013-07-22

 

19 July 2013

Kovsies have been chosen as one of the eight teams that will compete for the honours in the premier university football competition. The competition is hosted under the Varsity Sports endeavour, responsible for frantic university athletics and hockey competitions earlier in the year.

The football competition will take place at the various stadia of the participating universities – the University of Pretoria (UP Tuks), North-West University Mafikeng Campus (NWU Mafikeng), Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), University of the Western Cape (UWC), University of Cape Town (UCT), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) and the UFS.

Certain matches promise to elevate the status of university football stars even further, as matches will be broadcast live on SuperSport. The tournament gets underway on Monday 22 July 2013, with the final to be played on 16 September 2013.

Luckily for UFS football fans, Kovsies will play their first match of the campaign against UCT with home-field advantage at Shimla Park. Kick-off on Monday 22 July 2013 is at 19:00.

For information on other features, schedules for the rest of the competition and information on televised matches, please click here.

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