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26 April 2018 Photo Supplied
Strong athletics team for USSA
The 800m athlete Rynardt van Rensburg is one of several Kovsies who is expected to win a gold medal at the national student champs this weekend.
With three Olympians in their midst and a number of athletes who are serious contenders for a first place, the Kovsie athletics team looks set to make a statement at the 2018 national student champs.

The University Sport South Africa (USSA) event takes place from Friday 27 April to Sunday 29 April 2018 in Sasolburg.

Kovsies finished fifth at last year’s USSA with four gold, four silver and four bronze medals.

There were initial concerns the team might be weakened by the loss of five of their top athletes who are competing at the CAA Southern Region Youth and Junior Championships that is also taking place this weekend in Boksburg.  

Luckily for Tsebo Matsoso (200m), Pakiso Mthembu (5 000m), Tyler Beling (1 500 m) and Lara Orrock (3 000m steeplechase), their events on the USSA programme are only scheduled for Sunday which will allow them to participate in both meetings. Michaéla Wright (SA U20 long jump champion) won’t be able to compete in Sasolburg either. 

Beling and Orrock, along with Ts’epang Sello (800m and 1 500m), Kesa Molotsane (5 000m and 10 000m), Lynique Beneke (long jump), Carien Sander (400m), Hendrik Maartens (200m), Sefako Mokhosoa (triple jump), Mthembi Chauque (20km walk), Peter Makgato (long jump) and Rynardt van Rensburg (800m and 1 500m) are all realistic gold medal contestants.

Van Rensburg, Sello and Beneke have all been to the Olympic Games in 2016. Van Rensburg’s 1:46.15 last month in the 800m currently ranks 21st among the best times in 2018 on the global stage.

Beneke defended her national crown last month with a winning distance of 6.22m and Sello came very close to running her personal best in the 800m at the Commonwealth Games.

News Archive

#Women’sMonth: Men should help change narrative on violence against women – Prof Solomon
2017-08-23

 Description: Issues affecting women Tags: Prof Hussein Solomon, Department of Political Studies, violence against women, Gender and Sexual Equity Office, Women’s Month, Embrace a Sister, Boko Haram 

The panellists at a discussion on Issues
Affecting Women at the UFS Sasol library were
Zane Thela, Head of the Gender and Sexual
Equity Office Programme, Pumla Mgobhozi, founding
member of Embrace a Sister, and
Prof Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor in the
Department of Political Studies.
From the left, are: Thela, Mgobhozi, Prof Solomon,
and Betsy Eister, Director: Library and
Information Services.
Photo: Jóhann Thormählen

The fight to eradicate violence against women is one which men should be involved in. According to Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS), men have to help change the narrative of physical abuse and sexual violence which they perpetrate against women and children.
“Let them (men who might be offended by the #men are trash) reject violent masculinities, and in the process let them redefine what being a man is about. Let fathers teach their sons that no means no.”

Panel discussion on Issues Affecting Women
Prof Solomon was part of a panel discussion on Issues Affecting Women, organised by the UFS library, in collaboration with the Gender and Sexual Equity Office and Embrace a Sister, as part of Women’s Month in the UFS Sasol library on 3 August 2017.
The other panellists were Zane Thela, Head of the Gender and Sexual Equity Office Programme at the UFS, and Pumla Mgobhozi, founding member of Embrace a Sister. Prof Solomon’s book Understanding Boko Haram, focusing on the kidnapping of 200 young women in Nigeria was also launched.

Don’t accept things as they are
Prof Solomon says that responses by the SA government have no credibility and a lot more could be done. “What is clear is that outrage alone will not end this violence.”
Even at SA universities there are many examples of how women are mistreated. “We need to ask: What more can we do as a university to assist these (female) students.”

According to Thela, it is sad that these issues are only talked about seasonally (like during Women’s Month).
Thela says people should raise their children differently in order to change the narrative. “Then men won’t think they have to prove themselves to women.”
And we shouldn’t accept things as they are: “The most dangerous statement in society is to say: ‘It has always been done this way."

Role of women in their fate
Mgobhozi emphasised that women have a hand in the way they are being seen and treated in society. She therefore asked: “What is the role of women in making sure that we dismantle patriarchy”.
According to her women, especially black women, should dismantle the status quo. She added that cultures and parents often influence the way women are seen.
“Women should fight these social problems together,” Mgobhozi says.

 

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