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01 March 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer
Ruben Kruger
Ruben Kruger, one of the four Kovsie team members who helped his side to the second place at the national tennis club championship.

The impressive tennis team of the University of the Free State, the national student title holders, came very close to also being crowned as the national club champions on Monday (25 February 2019).

The team from the University of the Free State lost to Marks Park in the final of the Top guns national club tournament at Sun City by two games to one. Matches consisted of men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles, with optional rotation at the end of each set.

The team members from the UFS were Arne Nel, Ruben Kruger, Lienke de Kock, and Ester de Kock.

In the finals, the UFS won their one match in the mixed doubles thanks to the double pair of De Kock (Lienke) and Kruger.  

In the second version of the tournament 18 of the best clubs, including all the provincial tennis champs, competed for the honours as national club champions. The students’ second spot was an improvement on the fourth position the team achieved last year. That team also included Nel and De Kock. Last year they also lost to Marks Park, on that occasion in the play-offs for the third position.

On Saturday and Sunday, the UFS defeated both Aces (Limpopo) and Old Mutual (Western Cape) by 3-0 but lost to Brighton from KwaZulu-Natal in die final round-robin match.

In the semi-finals they were too strong for Kuils River of the Western Cape, winning by 2-0.

The team received prize money of R10 000 as runners-up plus R10 000 to be shared among the players.

News Archive

Professor from Cambridge University addresses young scholars
2017-07-18

 Description: Cambridge readmore Tags: : Young Scholars Initiative, International Studies Group, University of Cambridge, University of the Free State, Prof Gareth Austin 

In the first conference of its kind on the African continent,
the Universityof the Free State’s Bloemfontein Campus
was privileged to host the Young Scholars Initiative conference.
Photo: Siobhan Canavan


“It doesn’t matter where a concept originates from if it works. The problem arises when the concept does not work.”

These were the words of Prof Gareth Austin in his address at the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI). His keynote focused on the “Economic History in Africa’s Decolonisation and Development”.

The African economic history

Prof Austin, a professor in Economic History at the University of Cambridge, discussed how African economic history has always been about development, and also gave a brief periodisation of the economic historiography of Africa.

In his closing remarks he focused more on history and economics. “Economics is a sensible approach to take, where history matters because of the sense of context.”

Reflecting on the African experience

A total of 65 young and senior scholars from five continents attended the conference Decolonising Africa? The Economic History of Development, hosted by the YSI in partnership with the International Studies Group at the UFS.

The conference, held from 8 to 9 June 2017, provided an opportunity to reflect on the African experience from an historical perspective and to assess the current position of the continent in the global economy. It discussed new themes in development, such as the role of women, minorities, and entrepreneurs.

The conference focused on how the business community has operated in an Africa that still faces inequalities and unfair terms of trade and lacks a unified political will.

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