collaborators
Professor Pitika Ntuli
Pitika Ntuli’s passion for language and the arts saw him win a number of South African pres.gious awards. These include the kykNET Fiestas - Best Achievement in Visual Arts Award in 2023; the South African Tradi.onal Music Award in 2022; the Living Legends Award from the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture in 2021; Global Fine Arts, People’s Choice Award in 2020; the Johannesburg Soccer Legends Award; Indondo Social Cohesion and Na.on Building Award; Arts and Culture Trust – Lifetimeme Achievement Award; and the City of Johannesburg – Living Legend Award. Prof Ntuli is a seasoned academic who has contributed immensely to the academic landscape. Throughout the years, he held various high-profile positions, including Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW); Professor of Fine Arts and Art History; Chairperson of the Mbokodo Awards for Women in the Arts; Fellow of the Mapungubwe Institute; Principal of the Pitika and Antionette Ntuli Academy of Visual Arts and Culture, and as a visual artist and commentator, amongst others. From 2003 to 2022, Prof Ntuli has also served on various national commissions. He is also a regular commentator on arts, culture, social and economic issues for a wide range of television and radio stations.
Mary Sebabatso Mofama
Mme Mary Mofama was a political activist and a freedom fighter her entire life, but realised that segregation remained alive after the legal fall of apartheid. She used her pension to buy land and build a cultural village which she imagined would bring different people together through its diversity. Through regenerative livelihood practices that focus on food security, housing and social entrepreneurship Mme Mary aspires to create and train community members in climate-resilient self-sustainable lifestyles that are accessible to all. The specific scope of work activities included are to provide research and technical assistance to marginalised communities to create regenerative livelihoods; to complete post-natural building units and permaculture garden based on the indigenous, innovative and appropriate technologies.
Dr Busisiwe Ntsele
Busisiwe Ntsele is an Engaged Scholar, Human Rights Advocate & Sociologist. She is a results-driven human rights advocate, sociology expert, and organizational leader with a strong background in Higher Education and Community Development in Non-Profit Organizations. Over a decade of experience collaborating with NGOs, development partners, and academic institutions to drive social development and capacity-building initiatives. Holds a Master's Degree in International Human Rights Law, an Honours Degree in Sociology and a Bachelor’s degree in law. She recently obtained a dual Ph.D. in Sociology & Organizational Science while actively involved in international teaching and local mentorship programs. Passionate about preserving cultural dignity and combating epistemic injustice. Proven track record in research, decolonization, community engagement, human rights advocacy and engaged scholarship locally & internationally.
Tshiamo Malatji
Tshiamo Malatji is a grass roots activist an organiser in Bloemfontein, South Africa, focusing on climate change, food sovereignty and post-natural building as modes of responding to ecological crises. As philosopher and activist, one of his main concerns is keeping people sheltered, building the local economy and creating sustainable solutions for problems such as hunger. Contesting ward 19 in Mangaung in 2021, Malatji has run as an independent candidate to ensure that he works for his people without any political alliances. Malatji wants to make sure that government resources are used to better the lives of people in his municipality especially after the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic where many people lost their jobs and housing in his community: “There are a lot of government resources that have not been used such as abandoned buildings and unallocated funds and vacant land." As an artist, he has founded an inclusive art centre in Bloemfontein in an abandoned building, which is powered by youth. It offers a library, an arts market and regular symposia.
Lenosa Mahapang
Lenosa Mahapang is a Mosotho Man, born in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, in the district nestled in the Malu. highlands of the country called Thaba-Tseka. He studies include architectural Draughtsmanship, and working in the architectural field for over 3 years. Lenosa is a multi-disciplinary regenerative public artist, designer, curator and artministrator with a special interest in the indigenous Knowledge Systems of the Basotho and the concept of decolonialism. He has worked very closely over the years on projects related to the above subjects within an artistic collaboration with legends such as Dr Anita Venter, Mme Dr Mary Mofama at Meraka Village and the Maphalane family. In partnership with long-time collaborator Dr Anita Venter in the Rapid Regenerative Artistic Intervention, the exhibition "Pixels to Perspectives" (Jagersfontein Meraka) was jointly co-created. Some of the most recent notable projects are the Living eARTherapy Lab at the OT spaces National Hospital, "Living Heritage", (Litema) heritage month celebration event together with FS Na.onal Museums, UFS Dept Architecture at Oliewenhuis Museum.
Maria Motaung
(Nofuka) Maria Motaung is a Litema muralist painter from the Free State. Living on a farm in her rural community, she tries to keep her traditional alive. It is a tradition that requires a traditional house to paint onto. Her muralist skills were passed down to her from her grandmother, to her own mother. Her work has been recognised internationally. In 2023 Maria was selected for the French-South African project called ‘Matrimoine’. Matrimoine is a project that explores traditional mural painting in South Africa. This project, curated by Bontle Tau, was done with the support of the French Ministry of Culture. The three-part exhibition, took place in three venues in France (the Château d’Oiron in Oiron; the Chapelle Jeanne d’Arc in Thouars; and the Palais-Royal in Paris). The project consisted of a three-month residency in France (May-July 2023), where Maria and muralist Joyce Ndimande created works in situ using earth and cow dung.
Prince Thulani Gatsha Mrhetjha
Prince Thulani Gatsha Mrhetjha was born in Allemansdrift C in Mpumalanga Dr JS Moroka Municipality. In 2005. Thulani the military working as military specialist in rigging. Later, he became an Environmental Manager. In 2013 he obtained his Human Resource Diploma at Central University of Technology, pursuing his studies to graduate with a Master Degree in Disaster Management at UFS (2018). Thulani specialises in Business Continuity and served in the Logistics Division South African National Defence Force at strategic level before resigning in 2024. In essence, he is a community builder, scientist and a healer/ spiritual practitioner with a wide experience in arts, heritage and culture worked and managed many stars in South African arts scene.
Sophie Msoziswa Mahlangu
Sophie Msoziswa Mahlangu is an Ndebele bead master, painter, cultural entrepreneur and educator. She is also a viewed as a key educator in the traditional Ndebele arts. As a custodian of Nzunza Ndebele heritage, she is also a professional performing artist, she sings and dances traditional songs at major celebrations and cultural festivals with her performing group uNosinki Nabomma Bemvelo. Together with long-time friends Dr Esther Mahlangu and Esther Mnguni, Sophie teaches painting and beadwork to teachers and learners through non-profit company Africa meets Africa’s ongoing Ndebele Women designing Identity project. From a shop at her home, Mahlangu’s co-op, Nomhlekhabo CraU Africa, she produces and sells beadwork for local ceremonial use and for the visiting tourist trade. Her work has been bestowed with ‘The Order of Ikhamanga’ by President Cyril Ramaphosa, for ci.zens who have excelled in the fields of arts, culture, literature , journalism or sport.
Nkosenathi Koela
Nkosenathi Koela is a cultural custodian of African indigenous knowledge systems and sound technology. Koela is a Ph.D. candidate specialising in indigenous music therapies at the University of Cape Town. Koela’s trans-disciplinary practice encompasses being an Afrikan indigenous sound medium, artist, specialist and teacher. Koela as an instrument maker and multi-instrumentalist, explores how healing practices through sound, creates space that manifests spiritually and materially. Koela has been a performer and instrumentalist for over 18 years and plays multitude of indigenous instruments from around the world. He also teaches others how to make and play traditional instruments with strong emphasis on the instruments h’story, spiritual significance and importance. Koela is a co-founder of Kwasukesukela Arts Collective. Most importantly he has worked to retain the ancient songline of Africa.
Seretse Moletsane
Seretse Moletsane (b. 1981) in Soweto, lives and works in Pretoria, South Africa. He is a multi-disciplinary artist and curator at (MAPSA) Modern Art Projects South Africa since 2018. Seretse’s work is conceptually rooted in intuitive art and tapping into the mundane, spirituality and ancestry. He describes himself as a man who saunters around observing society, in order to experience it. Seretse works in the medium of photography, printmaking, painting and drawing. He obtained his B-tech degree in fine and applied Arts in 2008 at Tshwane University of Technology, with Printmaking and painting as subjects. He was also a participant of the first MTN young curators Program in 2002. In this project, Seretse will lead as co-curator.
Jemima Kola
Jemima Kola (b. 1999) fell in love with portrait photography during her one-year Commercial Photography certificate at Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography in 2019. She has worked on multiple projects with visual artist Sonya Rademeyer. She was the main photographer and content creator for two of Rademeyer’s projects Sound and Soil (2021) and NEXXUS (2023), where she also designed the projects’ websites and managed all social media accounts. Additionally, she contributed to designing a photo book for the Creative Research Lab and NHISS. After earning her BA (Visual Communication) from Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography (2023), Jemima was permanently employed as a content creator at the well-known lifestyle farm, Babylonstoren Farm in the Western Cape.
Mafusi Violet Ntsane
Mafusi Violet Ntsane is the head woman of Nogas Post, a rural community in the Free State that remains disadvantaged and almost forgotten. The Nogas Post village community (part of the 42 villages that are connected to Thaba Nchu) has joined hands with The University of the Free State (UFS), CUT and GULL to accelerate skills in agriculture, economics, education, infrastructure, health and social development.
Dr Anita Venter
Anita Venter is a Post-Natural mentor, a researcher, a lecturer and an artist. As a climate activist, she focuses on research related to housing, informal settlement upgrading, culture, socioecological development, regenerative design and art. As lecturer and researcher at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein,her post-natural research primarily focuses on designing survival shelter models for the future. She aspires to address the gap between academic theories, research and policy through change-engaged practices applied in post-natural projects that respond to a climate crisis world. Anita is co-founder of the Meraka concept, as well as the founder of the Qala Phelang Tale / Start Living Green initiative.
Sonya Rademeyer
Sonya Rademeyer’s work as a visual artist primarily explores notions of empathy through gestural drawing, often linked to collaborative performance-based work. At the core of her artistic endeavours, Sonya consistently works towards cultural healing within Southern Africa which she explores from a personal anti-colonial perspective. Graduating from Willem de Kooning Academie (The Netherlands) she has shown work nationally and internationally, as well as representing South Africa at the DAK’ART Biennale in Senegal (2008). In 2023 she was the lead artist to the collaborative projects Sound and Soil (funded by FORD Foundation), and NEXXUS (funded by The Kingdom of The Netherlands). In this project, Sonya will lead as co-curator.
Dr Karen Venter
Dr Karen Venter is Head: Service Learning, Directorate of Community Engagement at University of the Free State. She is a Community Engaged Scholar-practitioner with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Community Engagement, Service Learning, Appreciative Inquiry, Appreciative Leadership, Qualita.ve Research (Participatory Action Learning Action Research - PALAR) and Lecturing. Education professional with a PhD focused in Higher Education, specific Service-Learning as pedagogy (UFS). Also Vice-President of the Global University for Lifelong Learning (GULL). Karen believes that engaged scholarship aims to co-create new ac.on-oriented knowledge, and that it integrates, shares, applies, and mobilises knowledge for positive social change towards the common good and well-being of people, profit, and planet for establishing a caring, democratic, socially just, and responsible future for all.
Prof Gerhard Bosman
Gerhard Bosman is an associate professor and engaged scholar in earth architecture and natural green building techniques at the UFS since 1996. He has formulated a decolonised, flipped classroom approach that was first realized as an engaged scholarship investigation while gathering new data on the prac.ce of tradition Sesotho litema wall art decoration in the eastern Free State. This new approach supports UNESCO’s Art Lab for Human Rights and Dialogue. Few similar studies have successfully celebrated the rights and dignity of rural litema art on a national or international stage.
Dr Pieter Madibuseng Odendal
Dr Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal is a poet, playwright, translator, and musician. His debut poetry collection, asof geen berge ooit hier gewoon het nie (Tafelberg), won the 2019 Ingrid Jonker Prize. In 2024, his second collection, Ontaard, received the Eugène Marais Prize and the NIHSS Award for Poetry, while his play Droomwerk was nominated for the Hertzog Prize for Drama in the same year. Odendaal was also named one of the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans in 2024.
Dr Keith Armstrong
Keith Armstrong is currently a Senior Lecturer in QUT Visual Arts (part time), researcher at the Centre For the Environment Research Group, the More Than Human Research Futures Group, and a Senior Research Fellow, University Free State, Centre For Development Support, South Africa. He was formerly Associate Director of the QUT Creative Lab Research Centre (2016-18) and a Senior Research Fellow in media arts for 12 years. He is also an actively practising and exhibiting freelance new media artist, beginning in 1992. Keith Armstrong is an experimental artist profoundly motivated by issues of social and ecological justice. He has specialised for 19 years in practice-led collaborative, hybrid, new media art with an emphasis on: art-life sciences collaborations / ecological art practices / socio-political art praxis / art-international development collaborations / innovative performance forms / site-specific electronic arts / networked interactive installations / alternative interfaces / public arts practices. Keith’s research asks how insights drawn from scientific and philosophical ecologies can help us to better invent and direct experimental art forms, in the understanding that art practitioners are powerful change agents, provocateurs and social catalysts. Through inventing radical research methodologies and processes he has led and created over sixty major art works and process-based projects, which have been shown extensively in Australia and overseas, supported by numerous grants.
Five Six Tambo
Five Six Tambo, a local movement rooted in the radical idea that the means are the ends. Prefiguration is about embodying the world we want to see, not just dreaming about it. It’s about living our values so deeply that they become the foundation of a new society, one small, intentional step at a time. In a world often defined by inequality, crisis, and disconnection, it’s easy to feel powerless. But prefiguration reminds us that we have the power to shape the future—not through distant promises, but through the way we live right now. Every act of solidarity, every experiment in equity, every moment of care is a brick in the foundation of a better world.
Meraka Cultural Village
Meraka Cultural Village serves as a regenerative and cultural hub for the broader community. The research focuses on appropriate technology and post-natural construction methods that focuses on international and local best practices related to regeneration in the built environment. Local and international volunteers have the opportunity to participate and learn from the leading grassroots pioneers in innovative easy building technologies. Grassroots vulnerable groups are taught how to be self reliant with innovative low- to no-cost, low-skilled and environmentally sound building and permaculture methods. Learners gain practical building experience, which they in turn can use to better their livelihoods through self-help building activities in informal settlements. This a best practice example of how appropriate green building technologies can act as a catalyst for social change in creating climate change resilient communities. The Meraka project will never be complete, because we learn from each other and constantly experiment with different building methods.
Oliewenhuis Art Museum
Oliewenhuis Art Museum is a satellite of the National Museum in Bloemfontein which was built in 1877. Oliewenhuis Art Museum is committed to building a representative collection of South African visual art on behalf of the people of South Africa with the aim to enrich the people’s knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of our cultural heritage, to reflect its full diversity, to provide a cultural and educational resource, to encourage involvement in the visual arts and nurture a culturally diverse but shared national identity.