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12 August 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah
Siyabonga Nkonyane, Raphael Nunguiane, and conductor, Sipho Khumalo.
Award-winning UFS Qwaqwa Campus Chorale’s Siyabonga Nkonyane, Raphael Nunguiane, and conductor, Sipho Khumalo.
The past few months have been good for the UFS Qwaqwa Campus Chorale, as they managed to dazzle their competitors across the length and breadth of South Africa. 
“Our performances have improved quite a lot over the past two years; hence we can safely say that we can now compete with the best in the choir music fraternity,” said Siyabonga Nkonyane, a tenor-soloist conductor.

Notable performances

“We have become a permanent feature in the top-three choirs of all the competitions we have entered so far, and we can only improve from here. We dazzled the audiences during the Old Mutual National Choir Festival in Bloemfontein last year, where we won a trophy and a cash prize of R10 000. We continued our good performance during the Lengau Choral Music Association (LECMA) festival in Bethlehem in June this year, where we were placed third in the large category and won R25 000. It was the first time we ever competed in this category,” he said. 

Nkonyane further revealed that the choir took part in the South African Tertiary Institution Choral Association (SATICA) festival in July, where they were placed in second spot in the ‘Own Choice’ category. “It was tough in Port Elizabeth, as all the universities and colleges brought their best choristers to the competition. However, with the dedication of our conductor, Sipho Khumalo, and the support of the Campus Management, we managed to do the best we could.”

The immediate future

The choir will be competing in the 2019 Old Mutual National Choir Festival, which is to be hosted yet again in Bloemfontein from 25 to 26 October.

News Archive

Equipment worth R23 million to carry out research at nanometer level
2009-05-28

The Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS) has just received equipment to the value of R23 million that will be utilised for research at nanometer level.

By purchasing the NanoSAM and VersaProbe XPS systems, the UFS also became the only university in Africa that has both these instruments at its disposal.

This also places the UFS at the forefront of surface characterisation at nanometer scale.

Prof. Hendrik Swart, Head of the UFS’s Department of Physics, described the acquisition of this research apparatus as an amazing event for the department. Prof. Swart said this meant that the department would now become a national facility for research on surface characterisation, and that this would also help to ensure that the department’s publication contributions would be included in higher-impact publications.

According to Prof. Swart, this apparatus would not only be valuable for fundamental research on nanophosphors and segregation, but in particular would also assist in the industrial development of better catalysts to synthesise petrol and chemicals from gas or coal supplies. Prof. Swart continued to say that Sasol was one of the industries that would benefit from this, and that Prof. Jannie Swarts from Chemistry was closely involved in the latter.

The equipment was purchased with funds donated by the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, the University, the National Research Council and Sasol. Technicians from the manufacturing company are currently visiting the department to assist with the installation and to train staff.

Media Release:
Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za
28 May 2009

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