Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
18 April 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa
Geben van Niekerk
Gerben van Niekerk was recognized as a Bright Star at this year's Liberty Radio Awards.
In 2019, Kovsie FM was recognised by the Liberty Radio Awards as one of the radio stations that secures the future of the radio industry by employing excellence and motivating the consistent raising of standards. 

The Liberty Radio Awards is a transparent awards programme that promotes and highlights excellence by recognising and honouring South Africa’s outstanding radio talent, from in-front-of-the mic presenters to behind-the-scenes producers. The awards have the objective of ensuring that radio remains one of the country’s leading media choices.

The station was nominated in categories including the Best Community Project for the Kovsie FM Cool Kid takeover initiative, and the 2019 Bright Star award, of which University of the Free State (UFS) Student Media Manager and OFM Before Dawn radio presenter, Gerben van Niekerk, was inaugurated as one of the 2019 Liberty Radio Awards Bright Stars. 

Thabang Moselane, UFS alumnus, former OFM radio anchor on A Touch of Thabang, social-media manager for online publication, The Journalist, and freelance researcher, writer, and director for a Johannesburg-based film production company, was also recognised and inducted as a Bright Star at the 2019 Liberty Radio Awards.

2019 Liberty Radio Awards’ Bright Star winner, Van Niekerk, explained that the essence of his job at Kovsie FM is to ensure that the student talent that is produced and groomed in their studios daily, morphs into an array of folk who possess the unquestionable skill and aptitude that is widely sought in commercial South African radio.

A great testimony of Van Niekerk’s mission for Kovsie FM, is former Kovsie FM presenter, Smash Afrika, who has moved on to hosting Live at Night on 5FM, and co-presenting Massive Music on Channel O, and Mzansi Magic with Lalla Hirayama. Former station programme manager, Sam Ludidi, is another gem that was cultivated through Kovsie FM, and now works as rugby presenter on SuperSport TV, and also forms part of the OFM team. 

News Archive

First-years at South Campus step into a bright future
2015-02-05

Photo: Stefan Lotter

This is the first step to a bright future.

This was the resounding message that welcomed first-year students to the South Campus. “Remember,” Tshegofatso Setilo, Manager of the University Preparation Programme said, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” But please do not get discouraged on your way, she urged, because “this is your first step to a bright future.

In his welcoming message, Prof Nicky Morgan, Vice-Rector: Operations at the UFS referred to the South Campus as the giant of the south. “This is one of the trailblazing campuses of the university,” he said. “No doubt what you’ll experience on this campus, you’ll never forget.”

This year, the South Campus boasts with 1 200 first-year students taking part in our University Preparation and Extended Programmes. These programmes allow students – whose matric marks did not reach the required total – the opportunity to study at the University of the Free State (UFS). The result? An astounding rise in pass rates. Some of the students on the South Campus outperform their peers studying at the Bloemfontein Campus, Prof Morgan remarked.

“You’ve got it in yourself. You’ve got the potential to unleash yourself on the world,” Prof Morgan said. You do not always realise the value of something that has come your way, he said. So, every moment you get an opportunity, he advised, use it to shape your future.

Addressing the newcomers’ fears, Prof Morgan urged each student to open themselves to the good and new experiences waiting for them. “When you find yourself in a new space, it always begins with you,” he said. Learn to understand how to live in harmony in different spaces.

Prof Morgan placed great emphasis on his closing remark: “At university, the more questions you seek to have answered – they’re worth more than the answers you have.”

 

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