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09 May 2018 Photo Varsity Sports
Maryke Coetzee is the new captain of the Crinums netball team
Maryke Coetzee is the new captain of the Crinums netball team.
Despite being a very young team the Free State Crinums are packed with Kovsie players, who will start the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League as one of the strongest contenders and will hopefully be crowned the country’s best netball province.

The five-week long competition starts on Friday (11 May) in Johannesburg. The Crinums is a de facto Kovsie team with all 15 squad members currently doing a course at the university. Eleven of them were in action for the Kovsies in the Varsity Netball competition in 2017. They have only lost four players from last year which, along with the defending champs, the Jaguars, is the fewest by any team. They also boast experience in every position. The four newcomers in the squad are Sikholiwe Mdletshe, Jana Scholtz, Rykie Venter and Marétha van Heerden. Mdletshe and Venter have played for the Kovsies before. 

After winning the trophy for three years in a row, the Crinums were unable to defend it in 2017 when they finished fifth. It was, however, with a team that was officially the youngest, with an average age of 21 years and five months. This year it has increased to 21 years and six months. 

The team is coached by Kovsie netball coach, Burta de Kock, and skippered by goalkeeper Maryke Coetzee. She and Tanya Mostert (goal defender) will participate in their fifth Premier league.

The Crinums start with two matches against teams they haven’t lost to before. On Friday night they tackle the Sunbirds from Mpumalanga and a day later the Baobabs from Limpopo.

The Crinums squad: Alicia Puren, Ané Retief, Gertriana Retief, Jana Scholtz, Khanyisa Chawane, Khomotso Mamburu, Lefébre Rademan, Luscha Pienaar, Marétha van Heerden, Marna Claassens, Maryke Coetzee, Meagan Roux, Rykie Venter, Sikholiwe Mdletshe, Tanya Mostert.

News Archive

UFS launches a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Observatory, first of its kind in South Africa
2013-12-04

In cooperation with its partners, the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State (UFS), launched the SME Observatory at a function on the Bloemfontein Campus. This initiative is the first of its kind in South Africa. 
 
According to Willem Ellis, Director of the Centre for Development Support, this is a public-private partnership between the UFS, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (detea), which aims to gather information for research on small and medium enterprises. “With this research we will endeavour to empower policy formulators to make the right decisions in terms of development on a local, provincial and national level,” Ellis said. 
 
Presentations and the panel discussion at the launch covered topics such as: 
  • How many enterprises can survive in a town?
  • Are entrepreneurs being set up for failure? 
  • Is SMEs the answer to the unemployment question? 
  • The cost of red tape: is SMEs being tied down? 

To demonstrate the applicability of the enterprise architect for issues relating to enterprise policy, as well as entrepreneurship strategies, it was decided to focus the pilot phase of the observatory on towns in the Free State. Dr Daan Toerien, research associate at the Centre for Development Support, and Johannes Wessels, Project Manager of the SME Observatory, compiled the report: “50 Towns in the Free State: What the Enterprise Architecture of these towns is telling us about Entrepreneurial Space.” 
 
In his presentation at the launch, Dr Toerien said: “The Enterprise Observatory’s prime goal is to present valuable facts and insights about enterprises in the domains it is observing.” He has developed a database that contains information on a large number of South African towns. He said that studying the enterprise architecture of towns will contribute significantly to inform the policy and strategy debate on LED and enterprise development. “These activities will add valuable data and insights to approach entrepreneurship in the Free State and, after the pilot phase, also in other provinces in South Africa. The Free State government, district and local municipalities, and the consultant fraternity serving them, should find the SME observatory’s activities of value,” he said. 
 
Wessels said that the SME Observatory of South Africa is dedicated to base its arguments on sound theory, science and applied research; to engage policy and decision makers on an evidence-based approach; operate in a politically non-aligned mode in order to mirror truthfully the impact of policies and decisions and to partner with policy makers, entrepreneurs, public administration, think tanks, research institutions, business representatives and NGOs on building networks and alliances to promote an open and competitive enterprise environment.

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