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05 February 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Moeketsi Mokgotsi
KovsieAct Eco Cars Read More
Kovsies weld their way to a sustainable environment

The 2019 group of first-year students can look forward to a fun and adventure-filled first two weeks (28 January–9 February) of varsity life, as a number of projects and activities await them.

Kovsie ACT’s main theme for 2019 revolves around building ‘awareness’. This includes a tree-and-traffic-signs project which entails old T-shirts/material being sewn/crocheted together to make different patterns to be fitted around the trees on campus in order to create a beautiful piece of art portraying a message of ‘awareness’.

A canvas painting will also form part of the events, as first-years – with the help of their seniors – will be required to put together a painting that addresses environmental, crime, gender-based, and other societal issues that will later be placed on the wall at the Thakaneng Bridge.

On the morning of 9 February 2019, seniors will tackle the community-engagement leg of the Kovsie ACT line-up, working in their respective teams to decorate an eco-vehicle from waste materials. Each team has their own Pit stop – decorated in F1 style. This eco-vehicle race will take place on Saturday morning from 09:00 – 12:00 in Academia road (in front of Emily Hobhouse Residence).  In addition, art sculptures will be built to form part of the Eco-vehicle race. These art pieces - if approved – will after the Eco-vehicle challenge be assigned a spot on campus where it can spread the message of awareness and be appreciated by fellow students.

The abovementioned projects are expected to withstand adverse weather conditions and last for a minimum of six months.

To close off the Kovsie ACT activities, students and the public can see forward to exciting performances during the Kovsie ACT music festival on the evening of 9 February. This will include musical sensations such as the likes of Sho Madjozi, Bittereinder, Busiswa, and many more.

Tickets for the festival are available at the UFS Bloemfontein Campus Rag Farm and the Food Zone store. For more information on Kovsie ACT, visit https://www.ufs.ac.za/rag or contact Esmé Wessels at WesselsE@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

An out-of-this-world experience
2015-12-14

Film premiere hosts Professor Matie Hoffman, manager of the Naval Hill Planetarium and the planetarium’s operations manager, Tina Mangope.

The Naval Hill Planetarium in Bloemfontein premiered two new short astronomy films on 4 December 2015, with marvellous cosmic visuals explaining how the earth and all the planetary formations in our galaxy and the universe were created.

The two films, aptly titled ‘Cosmic Collisions’ and ‘Journey to the Stars’, were both made to enhance people’s knowledge about the universe and the vast dynamics within it. They were donated to the Bloemfontein-based planetarium by the American Museum of Natural History in collaboration with several other US space science intuitions, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

“These two fantastic state-of-the-art films are scientifically accurate and very expansive,” said Professor Matie Hoffman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of the Free State. Hoffman is also the planetarium’s manager.

Nestled in the bushy landscape of historic Naval Hill - also home to the iconic statue of Nelson Mandela and the Franklin Game Reserve - the Naval Hill Planetarium was opened in 2013. It is the first digital planetarium in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is situated at the old Lamont-Hussey Observatory Building, which was closed in 1972.



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