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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

Symbolism and naming in spotlight at NSSA conference
2016-10-06

Description: NSSA LN Read More Tags: NSSA LN Read More

From the left, front: Prof Nhlanhla Mathonsi,
President of the NSSA, and Prof Thenjiwe Meyiwa,
Registrar at DUT.
Left, back (from the UFS): Prof Peter Raper,
Research Fellow at the ULFE and executive
member of the scientific council and paper
selection committee, Prof Theodorus du Plessis,
Director of the Unit for Language Facilitation
and Empowerment, and JC van der Merwe,
acting Director of the Institute for
Reconciliation and Social Justice.
Photo: Supplied

The 19th Names Society of Southern Africa (NSSA) International Conference saw delegates from around the world make their way to the University of the Free State (UFS) Bloemfontein Campus to study names as well as naming systems.

The conference took place from 20 to 22 September and was organised by the Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment (ULFE) at the UFS, alongside the NSSA. Delegates from South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Germany, and Taiwan attended.

The NSSA is a society dedicated to the study of names, naming, and naming systems. Members of the society come from a variety of disciplines, but all share an interest in names and their meaning.

Symbolism and naming in public sphere

The topic of this year’s conference was Symbolism and Instrumentality in Naming with categories of research which included anthroponyms, geographical names, names in history, literary onomastics, brand names, and politics of naming in a public sphere.

Issue of gender in naming systems

Keynote speakers included Prof Thenjiwe Meyiwa, Registrar at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), and Prof Peter Raper, Professor Extraordinaire at the UFS, Research Fellow at the ULFE, and executive member of the scientific council and paper selection committee.

In her address entitled, Naming is to gender as gender is to naming: Emerging Onomastics Scholarship, Prof Meyiwa noted that analysing names using gender enquiry is a potentially useful tool for identifying various communities’ values, belief systems, and perceptions as it relates to sexes.

“The talk called for the development of what I refer to as ‘feminist onomastics theory and research practice,’ which should primarily seek to bring about change and/or reimagine onomastics research."

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