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01 June 2018 Photo Johan Roux
Springbok Ox Nche the ultimate example says coach
Ox Nche is the latest Shimla player to be selected to play for the Springboks. He represented the Shimlas in 2015 and 2016.
Ox Nche, the latest Kovsie to become a Springbok rugby player, is, according to a former coach, the ultimate example of what can be achieved if you set your mind to it.

Ox was named in the starting line-up for the Springboks’ opening fixture of the year when they face Wales on Saturday, 2 June 2018. He will become the university’s 76th Springbok.

Jaco Swanepoel, who coached Ox at the Young Guns (2014) and with the Shimlas (2015 and 2016) says the prop has proved that it’s possible to study and become a Springbok.

“He was still studying (BSc in Geography and Statistics) last year and stayed in the hostel. Ox is a very determined young man who knows what he wants in life and seems to find time for it. He is also humble and has his feet solidly on the ground.”

Many people felt Ox was good enough to be chosen for the Boks at the end of 2016, but Swanepoel believed that it kept Ox hungry to continue working hard.

According to Swanepoel, Ox’s talent was already evident at school (Louis Botha Technical High). “We tried hard to keep him in the Free State. I remember him standing his ground as a first-year against more senior players when he played for us in the final of the Young Guns competition, which we won.”

He is one of very few players to win Young Guns (2014), the Varsity Cup (2015) and a Currie Cup (2016) title. 

Also in Saturday’s starting line-up is Oupa Mohoje (Shimlas 2011-2014). The head coach (Rassie Erasmus) and assistant coach (Jacques Nienaber) are also former Kovsies.

News Archive

Faculty of Theology hosts annual meeting of Society for Practical Theology
2015-01-30

From the left are: Prof Yolanda Dreyer (Chairperson of SPTSA, University of Pretoria), Prof Johann Rossouw (UFS), Prof Hussein Solomon (UFS) and Prof Johan Cilliers (Stellenbosch University).
Photo: Michelle Nothling

The privilege of hosting the annual meeting of the Society for Practical Theology in South Africa (SPTSA) fell to the University of the Free State (UFS) this year. Delegates from across the country recently convened on the Bloemfontein Campus to attend the event from 21 – 23 January 2015.

The three-day congress saw several high-profile keynote speakers discussing the topic of ‘Power of religion and religions of power’.

Dr Johann Rossouw from the UFS Department of Philosophy presented a paper on ‘Power, the state and the church in South Africa’. Dr Rossouw regards the cooperation between theologians and philosophers as integral to help us understand the time we live in. Twenty years since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy, “the gap between the country we were promised and the country we received is bigger than ever,” Dr Rossouw said. “A South-African Church … cannot but make her voice heard regarding this gap.”

Expert on conflict resolution and fundamentalism, Prof Hussein Solomon from the UFS Department of Political Studies and Governance scrutinised the compatibility of Islam with democracy. He warned, though, against “the labelling of a conflict as religious on the mere basis of its religious overtones.” Prof Solomon’s paper, ‘Political Islam: trends, trajectory and future prospects,’ not only advocated tolerance and political pluralism, but also pointed to the fact that it is “in the common good of all humanity” to avert a “Clash of Civilizations”.

‘God in granite?’ – Prof Johan Cilliers’ paper – investigated the phenomenon of the monumentalization of religion. Prof Cilliers from Stellenbosch University explained that monuments often have “spiritual character and iconic value, in the sense that it offers a space for the formation or discovery of meaning.” In his presentation he showed, though, that monuments – even those connected to religious motifs – “seldom escape the lure of power”.

The event was organised by the University of the Free State’s Faculty of Theology, Department of Practical Theology.

  

For more information or enquiries contact news@ufs.ac.za .

 

 

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