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28 December 2020 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Supplied
Karla Pretorius Gsport Awards
Flying the Kovsie flag high: Kesa Molotsane, Raynard van Tonder, Karla Pretorius, and Sikholiwe Mdletshe.

While there hasn’t been any student sporting action since the end of March, this didn’t prevent a couple of Kovsies from making the news.  

Three former Kovsie sports stars, Kesa Molotsane, Raynard van Tonder, and Karla Pretorius, as well as current student, Sikholiwe Mdletshe, received recognition. 

At the Gsport Awards (for South African females in sport), Pretorius won the Global Woman in Sport trophy thanks to her stellar 2019 performance for which she was named the Player of the Tournament at the Netball World Cup. 

Getting credit for hard work 

“I see the award as a reward for your efforts and sacrifices. I am grateful for the wonderful platform that Gsport provides women,” said Pretorius.  

The athlete, Molotsane, is one of the digital education publication Inside Education’s 100 South African shining stars. Seven individuals were recognised in the sports and recreation category for contributing to their communities through excellence in their career fields. 

“This award is not just for me, but for the community that I’m impacting. I want to continue making a change in the society through my athletics career.” 

Van Tonder won the category Four-Day Domestic Player of the Year at the Knights cricket awards function. He finished the competition as the leading run-scorer with an average of 70.25.  

“It was a very big honour to receive the credit for your hard work. It wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible support of my Knights teammates and the great work of our coaching staff.” 

Mdletshe, captain of the South African U21 netball team in 2019 and 2020, feature among the newspaper Mail & Guardian’s 200 young South Africans. She is one of six winners in the sports category. “I see this as an opportunity to keep learning, growing, and using what I have to make the changes that we as young individuals want to see. The change we want to see starts with us.”

News Archive

Community engagement must be a core function of universities
2009-05-21

 
 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
 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.

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