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Well done to Kovsies GradStar top 11!

08 October 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Charl Devenish

Gradstar UFS — The 2019 GradStar programme is all about producing well-rounded students and providing them with opportunities in the world of work, explained Head of UFS Career Services, Belinda Janeke.

Congratulations to the Kovsies top-11 students who made it into the GradStar top-100 programme for 2019!

Each year, 100 South African students are selected through a rigorous four-phase judging process to become part of the GradStar programme. The programme is designed to offer opportunities for employment to previously unrecognised students.

What makes the top 11?

According to the UFS Head of Career Services, Belinda Janeke, the GradStar programme is all about producing a well-rounded student. Approximately 6 000 applications were received from Kovsies, of which 500 were selected based on a personality test. Another test was given to the 500 students who passed the personality test, after which interviews were conducted to determine the top 100 from the UFS.

The students who were selected to represent the UFS exhibited the most potential as future leaders in their respective fields. Apart from academic achievement, contestants were evaluated according to their individual soft skills such as motivation, discipline, altruism, and attitude. This combination promised to deliver top candidates for future employers.

2019 GradStar programme experiences

Throughout the competition, Kovsie contestants were exposed to new people and opportunities to network with various companies in their preferred career fields, where they had the opportunity to share their CVs with potential employers. Contestants were also afforded the opportunity to develop critical problem-solving skills in the world of work. The GradStar top-100 students also have a WhatsApp group where jobs are advertised.

The programme was valuable for the Kovsies; not only did it prepare them for employment, but also provided them with an opportunity for learning and recognising their own strengths and weaknesses as individuals in the working world.

Congratulations to the Kovsies who made it into the GradStar top 100:

Mariné du Toit: Bachelor of Social Work
Nyiko Maluleka: Bachelor of Arts, Corporate and Marketing Communication
Bianca Malan: Bachelor of Accounting, Financial Accounting
Boitumelo Mancoe: Master of Business Administration
Kabelo Mashego: Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB)
Kananelo Moletsane: Bachelor of Agriculture
Mudzunga Mukwevho: Bachelor of Accounting, Financial Accounting
Neo Roberts: Bachelor of Science, Information Technology
Refilwe Maimane: Bachelor of Commerce, Accounting
Themba Makhoba: Bachelor of Public Administration
Mpolokeng Mmutle: Bachelor of Commerce, Accounting

News Archive

From peasant to president; from Samora Machel to Cahora Bassa

2015-03-25

Prof Barbara Isaacman and Prof Allen Isaacman
Photo: Renè-Jean van der Berg

When the plane crashed in Mbuzini, the entire country was submerged in a profound grieving.

This is how Prof Allen Isaacman, Regents Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, described the effect President Samora Machel’s death in 1986 had on Mozambique. In a public lecture, Prof Isaacman spoke about the man, Samora Machel, and the influences that shaped Machel’s life. The event, recently hosted by the UFS International Studies Group on the Bloemfontein Campus, was part of the Stanley Trapido Seminar Programme.

Samora Machel: from peasant to president
Born in 1933 into a peasant family, Machel was allowed to advance only to the third grade in school. “And yet,” Prof Isaacman said, “he became a very prominent local peasant intellectual and ultimately one of the most significant critics of Portuguese colonialism and colonial capitalism.” Machel had a great sense of human agency and firmly believed that one is not a mere victim of circumstances. “You were born into a world, but you can change it,” Prof Isaacman explained Machel’s conviction.

From herding cattle in Chokwe, to working as male nurse, Machel went on to become the leader of the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) and ultimately the president of his country. To this day, not only does he “capture the imagination of the Mozambican people and South Africans, but is considered one the great leaders of that moment in African history,” Prof Isaacman concluded his lecture.

Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007
Later in the day, Profs Allen and Barbara Isaacman discussed their book: ‘Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007’ at the Archives for Contemporary Affairs. As authors of the book, they investigate the history and legacies of one of Africa's largest dams, Cahora Bassa, which was built in Mozambique by the Portuguese in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The dam was constructed under conditions of war and inaugurated after independence by a government led by Frelimo. The dam has since operated continuously, although, for many years, much of its electricity was not exported or used because armed rebels had destroyed many high voltage power line pillars. Since the end of the armed conflict in 1992, power lines have been rebuilt, and Cahora Bassa has provided electricity again, primarily to South Africa, though increasingly to the national Mozambican grid as well.

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