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27 December 2019
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Story Ruan Bruwer
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Photo Supplied
Tanya Britz (left) and Liné Malan, former Kovsie and Protea teammates who are now both playing club hockey in Perth.
“Kovsies shaped me into the player I am now.” Two former UFS hockey players plying their trade abroad, attribute the opportunity for them to play in Australia to the foundation laid at the UFS.
Australia is one of the leading hockey countries in the world.
Tanya Britz and Liné Malan, former Kovsie teammates and both former Protea players (Britz reached over 50 test caps), are both playing club hockey in Australia. Malan represents the Hale Hockey Club and Britz the Aquinas Hockey Club in the Perth Premier Hockey League.
Between October and November, Malan also played for the Western Australian team, the Perth Thundersticks, in the professional league called Hockey1. It is Malan’s third season in Australia and Britz has been playing there for four years.
Kovsies a close-knit family
“I grew so much as a player at Kovsies, which shaped me into the player I am now,” said Malan, a former UFS captain. She and Britz were key members of the team that reached the Varsity Hockey final in 2015. The team did not lose once in the run-up to that final.
“The UFS is such a close-knit family setting, which gave me many opportunities to receive a lot of individual attention as a player and also opportunities to play in big tournaments. This all played a part in reaching my goals, representing my country, and ultimately ending up in Australia. I am very grateful,” said Britz.
Got to face each other in 2019
After playing in the lower division the past few seasons, Britz’s team was promoted to the Premier division, which meant that she and Malan faced each other (twice) in 2019.
“The standard is very high, the Australian players are drafted evenly into each club team to strengthen the team,” said Malan.
If not playing hockey, Britz is a hockey umpire, studying Marketing and Communication, and working in the same field.
Community engagement must be a core function of universities
2009-05-21
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Members of the NatCEMF Steering Committee are, from the left: Mr Jerome Slamat, Senior Director: Community Interaction, Stellenbosch University, Ms Beatrix Bouwman, Manager: Community Engagement, North-West University, Rev Kiepie Jaftha, Chief Director: Community Service, UFS and chairperson of the committee, Prof. Allan Femi Lana, Director: Institute for Rural Development and Community Engagement, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Prof. Seth Pollack, Fulbright Scholar, University of Western Cape (guest speaker at the meeting), Prof. Denver Hendricks, Director: Community Engagement, University of Pretoria, and Prof. Priscilla Daniels, Chairperson: Human Ecology and Research and CHESP Research Coordinator, University of the Western Cape.
Photo: Lacea Loader |
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It is important that all tertiary institutions in South Africa should work together and commit themselves to advance the cause of community engagement in the country.
This was one of the main outcomes of the second meeting held by the National Community Engagement Manager’s Forum (NatCEMF) at the South Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein recently. The meeting was attended by 34 representatives of 16 higher education institutions in the country.
“I am astounded at the interest in this matter. The representatives are committed to make community engagement a core function of their institutions and we all agreed that we should get more involved in expanding this across all institutions. A need for a formal structure for us all to work together and have a more collective voice was also identified,” said Rev Kiepie Jaftha, Chief Director: Community Service at the UFS and Chairperson of the NatCEMF Steering Committee.
“There is a growing need to expand and develop our engagement with communities – to share our experiences and best practices and to learn from each other. There are universities that are doing excellent work in this field and, by having a formal structure, we can do a lot more towards advancing community engagement,” said Rev Jaftha.
The meeting identified matters such as the coordination of higher education institutions’ involvement in community engagement, the facilitation of research about community engagement, promoting service learning as transformation, the establishment of a community engagement resource centre and the organisation of a national community engagement conference as some of its aims. A national steering committee was also elected. |