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Four universities to walk 200 000 km in ten weeks

12 April 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish

“May the best team win the 2019 BestMed Pedometer Challenge!” said LJ van Zyl, Pedometer Challenge ambassador.

Participants in the 2019 BestMed Pedometer Challenge will start improving their health step by step after the University of the Free State (UFS) challenged the Stellenbosch University, Central University of Technology, and North-West University (NWU) to an eight-week walking competition.

South African 400-metre hurdles record-holder and the Pedometer Challenge ambassador, LJ van Zyl, embraced the initiative as an alternative method to achieve fitness. “I am so tired of running and this is great way to stay fit,” he said during the official launch on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on 5 April 2019.

Inter-institutional fight for fitness

Last year, the UFS Division for Organisational Development and Employment Wellness in the Department of Human Resources led a UFS-only challenge that saw 60 teams of staff members log a total of 54 606 km in eight weeks. The division then challenged the NWU.

Together, the NWU and UFS walked 132 000 km. This year, the UFS is taking it one step further by challenging two more institutions.

Leading the way

“We aim to get South Africa active – starting with the UFS – by embracing fitness and health ourselves,” said Arina Engelbrecht, UFS Employee Wellness Specialist.

Participants on all fitness and activity levels will gun for a 200 000 km target over 10 weeks.

The challenge kicked off on the Bloemfontein Campus with a 3-km walk at the launch, leaving 199 997 km between the four universities for the rest of the eight-week challenge.

News Archive

UFS to establish Sesotho language research and

2004-12-01

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the establishment of a Sesotho Language Research and Development Centre.

The centre will be established on request of the national Department of Arts and Culture and will be situated at the UFS’s Vista campus.

According to the Dean: Faculty of Humanities at the UFS, Prof Gerhardt de Klerk, the national department has committed itself to make available R1-million for the project. An amount not exceeding 3,5 percent will be paid to the UFS in payment of costs incurred in terms of the housing of the centre.

“The tasks of the centre will include the promotion of indigenous languages and terminology development; the research, development and maintenance of a terminological data base and the writing and publishing of various genres of literature in co-operation with relevant and interested parties,” says Prof de Klerk.

Other tasks include the establishment and maintenance of a language museum, outreach to the community and the mobilisation of support for the use of African languages.

“The centre will be managed by a management committee consisting of a representative of the Department of Arts and Culture, the academic registrar, head of the Department of African Languages, chief financial official of the UFS, a member of the UFS Senate, a senior lecturer/professor from the School of Languages/ Faculty of the Humanities, the head of the provincial language unit and a representative of PANSAD,” says Prof de Klerk.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
1 December 2004

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