Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
04 April 2018 Photo SASCOC
Large Kovsie contingent at Commonwealth Games
Elmé de Villiers (badminton) is one of several former or current Kovsies who will be in action at the Commonwealth Games between 5 and 15 April.

The University of the Free State (UFS) will be well represented at the Commonwealth Games with 11 current or former Kovsies participating in Australia.

The Games take place from 5 to 15 April on the Gold Coast. For many of the sporting codes, this is the second biggest sporting stage after the Olympic Games.

The eight athletes are Ts’epang Sello, Juanelie Meijer and Karla Pretorius (current students) and former Kovsies Juanré Jenkinson, Elmé de Villiers, Nicole Walraven, Maryka Holtzhausen and Philip Snyman. 

In addition, three members of the management team, Neil Powell, Kate Roberts and Jan Wahl, all previously studied at the UFS. 

Holtzhausen and Powell at their third Games 
Sello will be competing in the 800m in the colours of Lesotho, her country of birth. 

Pretorius is the vice-captain of the netball team and Holtzhausen was the former captain before her serious injury in 2016. Pretorius is doing a postgraduate in Dietetics and Holtzhausen is a contract worker at Kovsiesport. She will be competing at her third Games. 
De Villiers is a member of the South African badminton team and Walraven is with the Protea hockey team. Snyman will captain the rugby team.

Meijer (long jump) and Jenkinson (shot put) will battle in the para-athletic programme.

Powell will coach the Blitzbokke who are the defending champions from 2014. It will be his second Games in charge. He also won the bronze medal as a player in 2010. 

Roberts is the manager of the triathlon team and a participant in 2006. Wahl will act as the manager of the para-athletics team.

News Archive

Two from the UFS selected to participate in USA transformation leadership programme
2009-11-29

Dr Choice Makhetha, Acting Dean of Student Affairs, and Prof. Aldo Stroebel, Director of International Affairs at the University of the Free State (UFS), have been selected by the US Embassy to participate in a Transformation and Diversity in Higher Education Leadership Programme in the USA during January and February 2010. Following a selection process in South Africa, Dr Makhetha and Prof. Stroebel are two of only five candidates selected, and the UFS is the only university in South Africa with two candidates.

Participants will meet with American scholars and experts on diversity in higher education, and visit various equity and diversity programmes at academic institutions. Discussions will focus on the real organisational implications of diversity, leadership, and changing the climate of an institution.

The programme will include investigations of campus diversity initiatives, public spaces and social forums where difficult dialogues about tolerance and social and cultural consciousness are facilitated in order to achieve acceptance and transform deep-rooted racial and ethnic conflicts. These dialogues will introduce future leaders to the practice of systematic dialogue as part of an effort to build constructive relationships.

Both Dr Makhetha and Prof. Stroebel have been involved in the conceptualisation and establishment of the Reitz Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice launched during November 2009, by inter alia facilitating the inclusion of four senior Fulbright specialists that will visit the UFS in 2010 to advise on transformation issues.

Photo: Supplied

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept