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20 August 2018
Alicia Puren captain of the Kovsie netball team
Alicia Puren, captain of the Kovsie netball team, will play in her fifth Varsity Netball series.
Now is the time for Kovsie Netball to claim gold again, says their captain, Alicia Puren, ahead of the Varsity Netball series.

Alicia explained that they are hungry for success, and that it’s been too long since they last won a title. “We don’t only want to win gold for our coach Burta de Kock, but also for ourselves,” said Alicia. Some of the veterans could possibly play in their final tournament, so fellow team members want them to finish on a high note.

The Kovsie Netball team won the first two competitions in 2013 and 2014, but since then could not progress further than the semi-finals. They have very favourable draws, with five of their seven matches in the group stages being played in Bloemfontein, including the game against the finalists of the previous two years, Tuks and Pukke.

They also have a very experienced team. Tanya Mostert will participate in her sixth series, Rieze Straeuli and Alicia Puren are playing in their fifth, and Khomotso Mamburu, Maryke Coetzee, Khanyisa Chawane, and Gertriana Retief are all playing in their fourth. Lefébre Rademan is playing in her third series. Jabulile Mabina, Bianca de Wee, and Petro Coetzee are the only newcomers in the squad of 15 players.

“We have a lot working in our favour; we have to make it count,” says Alicia.
Kovsie Netball will start their campaign on 26 August in the Callie Human Centre against the defending champs, Tuks.
 
Their match fixtures are as follows: 26/8 vs Tuks in Bloemfontein; 27/8 vs the University of Johannesburg in Bloemfontein; 2/9 vs the Vaal University of Technology in Bloemfontein; 3/9 vs the University of the Western Cape in Bloemfontein; 9/9 vs the Madibaz in Stellenbosch; 10/9 vs Maties in Stellenbosch, and finally 24/09 vs Pukke in Bloemfontein.

The Kovsie Netball squad players are: Alicia Puren (captain), Ané Retief, Gertriana Retief, Jana Scholtz, Khanyisa Chawane, Khomotso Mamburu, Lefébre Rademan, Meagan Roux, Sikholiwe Mdletshe, Tanya Mostert, Maryke Coetzee, Rieze Straeuli, Jabulile Mabina, Bianca de Wee, and Petro Coetzee.

News Archive

Nigeria’s Boko Haram: Why negotiations are not an option
2014-10-23



There has been much speculation if the recently announced ceasefire in Nigeria as well as talks with Boko Haram will indeed secure the release of about 200 girls kidnapped by this religious militant group.

Talks already started between the government and Boko Haram but there are still doubts if the girls will be freed and if the Nigerian government can successfully negotiate with Boko Haram. Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor at the University of the Free State, regards this current negotiations as a terrible idea.

“At a time when Boko Haram’s strength is escalating, the correlatory weakness of the Nigerian government is increasingly exposed. As Nigerians prepare for the next presidential elections, embattled President Goodluck Jonathan is increasingly desperate to negotiate with Boko Haram to secure the release of schoolgirls seized by the terrorists earlier this year and to negotiate a ceasefire. This is a terrible idea. It makes a mockery of the rule of law and of the thousands of innocent victims of the militant violence. More importantly, it will only serve to fuel the terrorists’ ambitions further as the powerlessness of the government is exposed.”

Prof Solomon says religious intolerance is on the rise on the African continent, with a concomitant rise in terrorist incidents. In Algeria, extremist terrorism carries the name of Jund al Khilafah or Caliphate Soldiers in Algeria. In Mali it is Ansar Dine or Defenders of the Faith. In Somalia it is Al Shabaab (The Youth). But none of these organisations come close to the carnage wrought by Nigeria’s Boko Haram (literally meaning Western education is forbidden).

Boko Haram has carried out more than 1 000 attacks since 2010, which has resulted in the deaths of 10 000 people and a further 6 million affected by this terrorist violence. The 300 000 Nigerian refugees who have fled this tsunami of terrorism and have sought refuge in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, provide adequate testimony to the human costs of such terrorism. Boko Haram, meanwhile, has formed tactical alliances with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al Shabaab and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which means that the groups are sharing intelligence, tactics and material support. This cooperation has also resulted in increasingly sophisticated terror attacks mounted by Boko Haram.

Read more about Prof Solomon and his research.


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