Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
07 March 2018 Photo Supplied
Kovsie athletes ready for Varsity athletics TSepang Sello
Ts’epang Sello, one of the Kovsie contenders for a medal at Friday’s Varsity athletics meeting.

Ts’epang Sello, one of the Kovsie contenders
for a medal at Friday’s Varsity athletics meeting.
Photo: Supplied

The University of the Free State will hope to start developing their next Wayde van Niekerk when the first Varsity athletics meeting takes place on Friday at the Tuks Athletics Stadium in Pretoria.

The second meeting is on 23 March, also in Pretoria.

Thirteen members (five men and eight women) of the Kovsie team of 25 are still under the age of 21.

The hope for medals among the men would be on Sefako Mokhosoa (triple jump), Hendrik Maartens, and Tsebo Matsoso (both 200 m). Mokhosoa, who represented South Africa last year at the Southern Region Championships, is in red-hot form and achieved a personal best of 16.13 m at the Motheo/Xhariep meeting two weeks ago. This is currently the third best distance in the country for 2018.

Maartens would like to go one step further. In last year’s final Varsity meeting, he finished second in 20.62. Great things are expected of Matsoso, a first-year student who competed at the African Junior Championship in 2017. Last year, he was one of the top athletes at school level by winning the SA title in a time of 21.14. 

Ts’epang Sello (800 m) and Elmé Smith (100 m and 200 m) will lead the charge for the women. Sello already came close to her personal best (2:09.8) this year, while Smith has also been running fast times. Her best this year was 11.88 (100 m) and 24.53 (200 m). 

Tyler Beling (1 500 m) is another first-year student who is showing great potential. She obtained a fourth position at last weekend’s CAA Southern Region Cross-country Championships. Maryke Brits (100 m hurdles and long jump) is a possible medallist, despite running her first event for the year on Wednesday night.

The meeting starts at 17:15 and will be broadcast on SuperSport 5.

News Archive

Trevor Manuel and Max du Preez among the recipients of honorary doctorates at UFS graduation
2016-07-02

Description: 4 Hon Docs Tags: 4 Hon Docs

The UFS awarded four honorary doctorates
at its Winter Graduation ceremonies.
The recipients are from left Max du Preez,
Dr Reuel Jethro Khoza, Prof Joel Samoff
and Trevor Manuel at the UFS Chancellor’s
Dinner on 30 June 2016.

Photo: Johan Roux

He is excited about the young minds he saw and interacted with at the graduation ceremony of the University of the Free State (UFS). This is what Max du Preez, one of South Africa’s leading journalists and political analysts, said after receiving an honorary doctorate.

According to Du Preez (Humanities), he was inspired by the Winter Graduation ceremony on 30 June 2016 in the Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus. He is happy to finally also call the UFS his alma mater. He grew up in Kroonstad and is a true Free Stater, but previously graduated at the Stellenbosch University.

The UFS awarded four honorary doctorates – the others to Prof Joel Samoff (Humanities), Trevor Manuel and Dr Reuel Jethro Khoza (both Economic and Management Sciences) – and two Chancellor’s medals at the morning ceremony on 30 June 2016. Chancellor’s medals were awarded to Antony Osler and Marguerite van der Merwe (née Osler).

Manuel impressed by amount of soul

At the Chancellor’s Dinner, which was held in the Centenary Complex on the Bloemfontein Campus on 30 June 2016, Du Preez said he feels honoured. He said South Africans must embrace the diversity of the country, and the UFS is a good example. “If the University of the Free State can make it, South Africa can make it.”

Manuel, a former South African Finance Minister, said he is honoured by the amount of soul he experienced from Dr Khotso Mokhele, UFS Chancellor, and Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS. “We cannot tolerate what is wrong (in the country) and need to push the boundaries of what is right,” he said.

UFS stands out regarding understanding


Dr Khoza, a distinguished thinker and businessman, also thanked the UFS at the Chancellor’s Dinner. “We shall strive to be known less for what we say, but rather more for what we do,” he said about the country.
According to Prof Samoff, Professor in Africa Studies at Stanford University (USA), “South Africa has committed itself to building a democratic, non-racist, and non-sexist society”. “Where the University of the Free State stands out, is in its understanding that societal change – ‘transformation’, to use the current terminology – is not an outcome, but a process. A difficult process.”

 

Media Enquiries

Contact person: Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Brand Management)
Tel: +27(0)51 401 3422/2707 or +27(0)83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27(0)51 444 6393

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