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27 September 2018
KovsieSport crowns their best
The University of the Free State honoured their best sports achievers on Wednesday night. The major winners are, from the left: Tyler Beling (best junior sportswoman), Raynard van Tonder (best sportsman),Lynique Beneke (best senior sportswoman), and Rynardt van Rensburg (best senior sportsman).
The athletes Rynardt van Rensburg and Lynique Beneke walked away with the two major awards at the KovsieSport honours function on Wednesday 26 August 2018.

The two were announced as the Kovsie Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. Both of them represented South Africa at international level in the past 12 months and were the national student champions in their items.

Van Renburg’s major achievement was the 1:45.15 he ran in the 800 m at the Hengelo World Challenge meeting, which is the 32nd fastest time in the world in 2018 and also his personal best. Beneke, among others, earned a bronze medal at the African Senior Championships in the long jump and won the item at the National track and field championships for a sixth consecutive year.

Tyler Beling, another athlete (middle distance), was named the Junior Sportswoman of the Year while cricketer Raynard van Tonder was the best Junior Sportsman. Van Tonder captained the South African team to the U19 Cricket World Cup, where he scored the third most runs at an average of 69.6. Beling is the country’s best junior in the 1 500 m.

Juanelie Meijer, Louzanne Coetzee (athletics), and Johann van Heerden (swimming) received special awards for their achievements as athletes with a disability.

Other nominees on the night were:

Senior Sportsman of the Year: Ox Nche (rugby).

Senior Sportswoman of the Year: Kesa Molotsane, Ts’epang Sello, Yolandi Stander (all athletics), Khanyisa Chawane, and Meagan Roux (both netball).

Junior Sportsman of the Year: Pakiso Mthembu (athletics), Lubabalo Dobela, and Rewan Kruger (both rugby).

Junior Sportswoman of the Year: Casey-Jean Botha (hockey) and Michaéla Wright (athletics).

News Archive

Nigeria’s Boko Haram: Why negotiations are not an option
2014-10-23



There has been much speculation if the recently announced ceasefire in Nigeria as well as talks with Boko Haram will indeed secure the release of about 200 girls kidnapped by this religious militant group.

Talks already started between the government and Boko Haram but there are still doubts if the girls will be freed and if the Nigerian government can successfully negotiate with Boko Haram. Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor at the University of the Free State, regards this current negotiations as a terrible idea.

“At a time when Boko Haram’s strength is escalating, the correlatory weakness of the Nigerian government is increasingly exposed. As Nigerians prepare for the next presidential elections, embattled President Goodluck Jonathan is increasingly desperate to negotiate with Boko Haram to secure the release of schoolgirls seized by the terrorists earlier this year and to negotiate a ceasefire. This is a terrible idea. It makes a mockery of the rule of law and of the thousands of innocent victims of the militant violence. More importantly, it will only serve to fuel the terrorists’ ambitions further as the powerlessness of the government is exposed.”

Prof Solomon says religious intolerance is on the rise on the African continent, with a concomitant rise in terrorist incidents. In Algeria, extremist terrorism carries the name of Jund al Khilafah or Caliphate Soldiers in Algeria. In Mali it is Ansar Dine or Defenders of the Faith. In Somalia it is Al Shabaab (The Youth). But none of these organisations come close to the carnage wrought by Nigeria’s Boko Haram (literally meaning Western education is forbidden).

Boko Haram has carried out more than 1 000 attacks since 2010, which has resulted in the deaths of 10 000 people and a further 6 million affected by this terrorist violence. The 300 000 Nigerian refugees who have fled this tsunami of terrorism and have sought refuge in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, provide adequate testimony to the human costs of such terrorism. Boko Haram, meanwhile, has formed tactical alliances with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al Shabaab and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which means that the groups are sharing intelligence, tactics and material support. This cooperation has also resulted in increasingly sophisticated terror attacks mounted by Boko Haram.

Read more about Prof Solomon and his research.


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