The Division of Corporate Relations and Marketing in collaboration with the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Centre) and Faculty of Humanities (Department of Setswana) will be hosting the virtual Africa Day event.
Africa Day is commemorated annually with the aim of celebrating progress made by the African Union to advance the continent and to reflect on challenges that the continent still has to deal with. The theme for this year as announced by the government is “SilencingTheGuns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development and Intensifying the Fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Short Bio of Dr Aunkh Chabalala
Dr Chabalala is the Director for Indigenous Knowledge Based Technology Innovation at the Department of Science and Innovation..Read more
Short Bio of Dr Thabo Ditsele
He was born on 14 September 1971 at Tlhabane, Rustenburg. He obtained his UDE.S (English & Maths) at Tlhabane College of Education in 1991, a BA (Setswana & Communication) and a B. Admin Honours (Industrial Relations) at the Mafikeng campus of North-West University in 1998 and 1999, respectively. In 2003, he obtained an M Phil (Second Language Studies) at Stellenbosch University, then a D Tech (Language Practice) at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in 2014. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD (Linguistics) at the University of Cape Town.
Dr Ditsele is a senior lecturer at TUT where he mainly teaches Socio-linguistics, and supervises post-graduate students working on Socio-linguistics topics. His research interests are: contact languages; language and identity; language attitudes; language policy and planning; and multilingualism. He is a leading researcher on Sepitori, and has read nearly 30 papers at conferences, seminars and workshops in South Africa, Kenya, USA, UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Japan and Indonesia. He has published more than 10 journal articles, one Setswana novel titled: Maile maila boganana, and two Setswana short in an anthology titled: Pelo e ganne molora. His latest book is titled: From an obscure village to around the world – it is a non-fiction book written in English, and about his visits to 29 countries in five habitable continents; it is scheduled to be published soon.
Dated: Wed, 20 May 2020 (for my alma mater, NWU)