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22 February 2018
Photo Thabo Kessah
Pakiso Mthembu will be representing South Africa in Mauritius and Algeria.
This year, the University of the Free State’s Qwaqwa Campus will unleash a running sensation that is equally comfortable on track, cross-country, and road running and is on a mission to conquer the world. His name is Pakiso Mthembu from Tweeling in the Eastern Free State. Pakiso has recently qualified for the Junior Men’s Southern Region cross-country championships that will be held in Mauritius on 24 February and in Algeria on 17 March 2018.
“I am glad that I managed to run my personal best time of 24:02 during the qualification trials held in Bloemfontein in January, which set me on the road to Mauritius and Algeria,” said Pakiso, a BEd FET first-year student.
His personal best in the 10 km road-running category and in the 5 000 m track are 30:55 and 14:29, respectively.
Praise for Soke
“It is only through dedication, hard work, and listening to my coach that I can achieve my dreams of representing South Africa at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Junior Championships (IAAF) to be held in Finland in July, and at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I have one of the best coaches in this part of the world and it gives me great pleasure to work with him, having grown up admiring him during his days,” he says in reference to Boy Soke, who identified his talent and recruited him to the Qwaqwa Campus.
Pakiso has already represented South Africa in Uganda.
Varsity Cup rugby match between FNB Shimlas and FNB NMMU Madibaz disrupted
2016-02-21
State of our campuses #7
The Varsity Cup match between the FNB Shimlas and FNB NMMU Madibaz, which took place on 22 February 2016 at Xerox Shimla Park on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), was interrupted in the 17th minute when a group of protesters moved onto the field to disrupt the game, which was already in progress.
The rugby players of both teams, as well as the match officials, immediately cleared the field as the protesters moved across the field towards the halfway line. Members of the UFS Protection Services gathered around the protesters, but were outnumbered. After a few minutes, spectators ran onto the field. The protesters were chased off the field and beaten by the spectators. Injured persons were treated by medical personnel. It is clear at this time that both the protesting group and the spectators included non-students in their ranks.
The senior leadership of the UFS condemns in the strongest terms possible the violence against the protesters; nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands. An urgent investigation is underway, using footage from the event, and no stone will be left unturned to identify those who acted violently, whether students or not.