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12 June 2019 | Story Zama Feni | Photo Charl Devenish
Annatjie Bouwer
Annatjie Bouwer who is a Research Officer in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health.

The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Prof Hussein Solomon scooped a prestigious Best Published Book award for his critical analysis on the nature of environments, challenges, and opportunities facing the African continent in his book.

Titled African Security in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities, UFS Vice-Rector: Research, Innovation, and Internationalisation, Prof Corli Witthuhn, hailed the book as “An ambitious and in-depth study covering several regions, and with due regard for changing contexts and relevant historical legacies. This analysis is perspicacious, conceptually sophisticated, and based on a solid range of sources.”

UFS awards to stimulate staff creativity

Prof Solomon is a Senior Professor in the Department of Political Studies and Governance. The annual UFS 2018 Book Prize and Research Support Awards is aimed at recognising outstanding contributions by staff members in these focus areas.
Prof Witthuhn congratulated the winners and all the participants who spent time on their submitted work.

The other two entries in the Best Published Book category were Prof Philippe Burger, the Head of the Department of Economics and Finance, for his book titled, Getting it Right: A new economy for South Africa.

The other published book entry was that of Prof Jacobus Naudé, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Hebrew in the Faculty of the Humanities, titled, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar.

Winning author’s analysis impressive

Prof Witthuhn said the author of the winning book employed a human security approach which not only examined and analysed these challenges, but also assessed the effectiveness of solutions and progress in addressing these challenges.

“This approach is critical to understanding the true meaning and context of security in Africa, by asking questions such as: security for whom and security for what?”

Bouwer comes top in research support category

Ms Annatjie Bouwer, a Research Officer in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences, emerged victorious among the nine entrants from various faculties. 

Her award was for the support she offered to the broad community of researchers within the Faculty of Health Sciences.



News Archive

Free State University Choir wins competition in Prague
2009-12-15

This past weekend, the Free State University Choir, under the directorship of Mr Corné van Pletzen, won the Christmas Music Festival Competition in Prague in the Czech Republic. 25 choirs from amongst others Spain, Hungary, Slovakia and Russia also participated in the competition.

It is the first time in the 10 years that the Christmas Music Festival Competition is presented that an overall winner of the festival and the competition was announced.

The choir originally only participated in the festival part of the Christmas Music Festival. Later, at the end of the competition, they were asked by the judges to prepare a song for the prize-giving ceremony, not knowing that the judges were judging them for the competition.

Mr Van Pletzen said, “Finally, after all prizes had been handed out, a trumpet fanfare announced the Free State University Choir as the overall winner of the competition. Our choir was also requested to close the competition with a song; that we did, whereupon our students sang the National Anthem with pride and with tears in their eyes.

The choir’s presentation was unique as they included a great variety of songs in their programme, amongst others some of Mr Van Pletzen’s own compositions and a song from Africa, Wana Baraka.

According to Mr Van Pletzen, six of the choirs obtained more than 90% during the competition. The Free State University Choir was however overwhelmed with positive feedback on the standard of their presentation from the audience, other participating choirs as well as the judges.

Most of the 38 choir members have already been members of this choir for three years now and this is the third time that most of them are singing overseas.

They will bring home a beautiful glass trophy.


Mr Corné van Pletzen.

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