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06 April 2021 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah
Ntebohiseng Sekhele is the Associate Guest Editor of the recent Special Issue of the African Journal of Range & Forage Science.

The Director of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU), Dr Ralph Clark, and researcher, Ntebohiseng Sekhele, recently became part of a guest editorial team for the African Journal of Range & Forage Science. The Special Issue titled, ‘Montane rangelands in a changing world’, was published on 3 March 2021.

“I feel privileged to have been part of the team that assembled this special issue. The experience was daunting at first, as I had never been part of an editorial team before. However, with the support of the guest editors and the journal’s administrator, I was able to overcome the imposter-syndrome feeling and allowed myself to learn and enjoy the ride. My ‘aha’ moments were the critical comments from the reviewers on each paper. It was amazing to witness how this feedback would enhance the quality of an article,” said Ntebohiseng Sekhele, Geography lecturer on the Qwaqwa Campus.

Journal focus

This issue focused on the applied management of montane rangelands for production in Southern Africa and the broader world. Submissions could include original research, reviews, and meta-analyses. This has culminated in contributions that centred on the impact of policy on pastoral practices by montane communities, fire management regimes, cumulative effects of poor governance on rangeland degradation, and sustainable grazing systems – including in ecological infrastructure such as montane wetlands and communal rangeland. 

“The process took almost a year, as the first call for abstracts was made in December 2019 and final revisions of accepted papers were concluded in November 2020. There were 32 submissions with only 12 articles and one book review of Prof Rodney Moffett’s book, A Scientific Bibliography of the Drakensberg, Maloti and Adjacent Lowlands. Of the 12 contributions, nine focus on the Maloti-Drakensberg, with papers on Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Free State,” she revealed. 

Submitted papers

“All papers advocate for the sustainable management of sensitive montane systems, which ties well with my own research that makes a contribution to the limited scholarship of natural resource-related conflicts between montane communities and their adjacent protected areas, as well as climate change impacts on natural resources,” said Sekhele, a PhD candidate through the ARU’s US-SA University Staff Development Programme (USDP). The special issue allowed for a closer link between the US and SA USDP through the involvement of Dr Kryan Kunkel – Ntebohiseng’s US co-supervisor – as one of the guest editors. 

News Archive

Kovsie tennis team wins gold at nationals
2012-12-12

 
Members of Kovsies winning tennis team.
13 December 2012

For the sixth time in a row, the tennis team of the University of the Free State won gold at the tennis championships of the University Sports South Africa (USSA) tournament. The tournament was held from Monday 3 December 2012 until Friday 7 December 2012 at the University of Pretoria, where 21 teams from 20 tertiary academic institutions participated.

The team participated in a round robin during the first three days where they beat the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of Johannesburg, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus). On Thursday, the team played in the semi-finals against the University of Pretoria and won the tiebreak 8-2. Friday’s final was against the Stellenbosch University and after eight singles matches, Kovsies was already 8-0 up. There was thus no need to play the doubles and mixed matches.

After the USSA tournament, four Kovsie players were included in a training group to take part in training camps, tournaments and trials in preparation for the World Student Games (Universiade) in Russia in 2013. These four students are Duke Munro, Christi Potgieter, Elizna Barnard and Hendri Steyn. The coach and team manager of the Kovsie team, Marnus Kleinhans and Janine de Kock, were also appointed coach and manager of the South African Student team for the World Student Games.

At the Annual General Meeting of USSA Tennis, Janine de Kock was re-elected as chairperson and Marnus Kleinhans as technical advisor. The captain of Kovsies, Christi Potgieter was also selected as vice-chairperson.

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