Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
15 June 2018 Photo Supplied
Kovsies dominate SA students athletics team
Marné Mentz is one of six Kovsie female athletes in the South African student team to the CUCSA Games.

Students of the University of the Free State (UFS) are well represented on the South African student teams for this year’s CUCSA Games.

The competition that takes places biennially is staged from 18 to 22 June 2018 in Gaborone, Botswana.

The Confederation of University and Colleges Sports Associations (CUCSA) comprises of the Africa Zone VI countries with its members being Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, who will all be a part of the action. 

The South African men’s and women’s teams will compete in athletics, basketball, soccer, table tennis and volleyball.

After UFS female athletes won the women’s competition at the University Sport South Africa (USSA) championships in April, it came as no surprise that they had produced the most athletes, with six out of the 17, in the national women’s athletics team. 

The athletes chosen are: Ané Erasmus (hurdles), Lynique Beneke (long jump), Marné Mentz, Tsepang Sello, Lara Orrock and Tyler Beling (all middle distances). Emmarie Fouché from KovsieSport will be one of the four athletics coaches at the games. Tsebo Matsoso (sprints), Ruan Jonck and Pakiso Mthembu (both middle distances) will form part of the men’s team.

Kovsies’ Gauta Mokati will captain the men’s football team. Jeranimo Power had initially been selected to play, but had to withdraw due to injury. Thabo Lesibe is another UFS player selected for the men’s team and Godfrey Tenoff of KovsieSport will serve as the assistant coach. Noxolo Magudu will represent Kovsies in the women’s football team.

Although there aren’t any UFS players in the CUCSA basketball teams, the men’s team will be managed by Clement Kock, an assistant coach for the Kovsies basketball team.

News Archive

UFS researcher explores the future cost of cancer
2017-01-10

 Description: 001 Dr Alicia Sherriff Tags: 001 Dr Alicia Sherriff

Dr Alicia Sherriff, Head the Department of Oncology
at the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences, co-authored
an article in the South African Medical Journal.

Photo: Charl Devenish

Cancer is on an exponential rise globally, and the cost of treatment is a growing international problem. South Africa alone is expected to see a 78% increase in cancer cases. Dr Alicia Sheriff, Head of the Department of Oncology, collaborated on and co-authored a research paper for the South African Medical Journal on the future of oncology treatment in the country, along with doctors from various universities across South Africa. The article, titled "The future cost of cancer: interdisciplinary cost management strategy", looks at the prognosis of cancer management in the country.

Cancer is on the rise

There is a visible growth of the cancer disease in the developing world. Rapidly changing lifestyles, uncontrolled urbanisation, pollution, and population ageing are some dynamics that provide a lethal cocktail of infectious and lifestyle risk factors that leave people at a higher risk of developing cancer.

The simultaneous increase in cancer incidence has increased the cost of treatment exponentially. The cost of cancer treatment is multitiered, making the provision of care for cancer patients a high-risk business. A combination of treatment delays, limited resources, differently skilled personnel, high patient volumes and advanced disease stage on presentation all place a bigger burden on the delivery of optimal cancer care outcomes.

Adoption of new strategies

According to the doctors, innovative thinking to embrace technology, combined with a preventive approach, as well as lowering the cost of treatment drugs should be prioritised. So should the commercialisation of new technologies that will diagnose and treat cancer in its early stages. They also encourage interdisciplinary research funding in South Africa as a way to better understand the demographic and molecular dynamics of cancer in the country, along with retaining more oncologists in the public health sector.

Efficient solutions to curb cancer mortality

The doctors assert there is a need to continue to look for more efficient measures to best treat the disease, and hopefully bring about a change in mortality levels in South Africa.

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