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27 June 2018 Photo Supplied
Kovsie netball out to break drought
Former South African Under-21 representative in her fourth year as Kovsie player, Lefébre Rademan, is the new Kovsie captain for the upcoming national student champions

The Kovsie netball team is out to claim back its title at the University Sport South Africa (USSA) tournament in 2018. 

The tournament takes place from 2 to 6 July 2018 on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). It has been exactly 20 years since the event was last staged in the City of Roses. The last time the Kovsies were able to win the trophy was in 2013. Tanya Mostert, Kovsie netball goal defender who will play her sixth USSA tournament this coming July, is the only remaining member from the previous squad.

The Kovsie netball squad field a strong team comprising 12 players who have represented the province, and they are also considered the strongest contenders in the upcoming championships. The Free State Crinums are the only university team to field 12 players with senior provincial experience. Khanyisa Chawane, who was named Player of the Tournament at the conclusion of the Premier League, recovered sufficiently from her ankle injury and has been appointed as the team’s vice-captain.

Taking the reigns as the new Kovsie netball team captain is the versatile Lefébre Rademan.
 
The six teams in the Super league will compete from Monday 2 July to Wednesday 4 July, with the semi-final and final matches following on Thursday 5 July and Friday 6 July 2018.

The following players will form the team for the USSA tournament: Alicia Puren, Ané Retief, Gertriana Retief, Jana Scholtz, Khanyisa Chawane, Khomotso Mamburu, Lefébre Rademan (captain), Marétha van Heerden, Marna Claassens, Meagan Roux, Sikholiwe Mdletshe, Tanya Mostert.

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Penny Siopis recipient of the prestigious Helgaard Steyn Award
2015-12-15

Vanya Terblance (ABSA Trust representative) hands over the award to Penny Siopis
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

On Friday 4 December 2015, Penny Siopis, the well-known Cape Town-based artist, who has been exhibiting her work locally and internationally since 1975, was presented with the 2015 Helgaard Steyn Award and a prize of R 550 000 for her painting entitled Swarm.

A quadrennial award lunch was hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS) Johannes Stegman Gallery in conjunction with the Helgaard Steyn and ABSA Trusts. The Helgaard Steyn Trust was established by the estate of Dr Jan Steyn and was named after his father and his brother who was the last president of the Orange Free State Republic.

Swarm, a 2011 painting using ink and glue on canvas, depicts a swarm of bees in a complex, dynamic, and intense manner. It earned the prestigious award that is dedicated to the promotion of artistic culture based on the adjudicators’ unanimous decision. Angela de Jesus, curator of the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery at the UFS, Annali Dempsey of the University of Johannesburg Gallery, and Prof John Botha, Associate Professor in Art History at North West University, made up the 2015 panel of judges.

On receiving the award, Siopis thanked the Steyn family, the judges, and the people who nominated her. “I am struck by how fantastic it feels to be acknowledged. It is extraordinary when people are struck by what was your own world and the intensity buzzing in your head.”

According to Prof Botha, “Naturally the work of art is chosen on grounds of artistic merit and in the context of contemporary values with regards to both form and content.”

The award-winning painter studied Fine Arts at Rhodes University and Portsmouth University in United Kingdom. Apart from lecturing Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, she is an honorary professor at University of Cape Town Michaelis School of Fine Art. She has also taught at the Natal Technicon in Durban.

Siopis has received numerous awards for her work, including a British Council Scholarship, a Merit Award at the 2nd Cape Town Triennial, and the Atelier Award for a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, in addition to the Alexander S Onassis fellowship for research in Greece.

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