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Five UFS netball players selected for Proteas

23 August 2021 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Netball South Africa

Refiloe Nketsa copy — Refiloe Nketsa, one of the latest Kovsie Protea players in action for the South African U21 team earlier this year.

No less than five players out of the 16 chosen for the Protea netball team hail from the University of the Free State (UFS).

They will travel to Jamaica for a tri-nations series in October. This is the first time since 2007 that the UFS have five members in a team or touring squad.

In 2007, seven Kovsies (Annari Store, Anchen du Plessis, Karin Venter, Adéle Niemand, Elzet Engelbrecht, Maryka Holtzhausen, and Doretha Joubert) were in action for the Proteas.

The five 2021 Proteas – Karla Pretorius (first-year student in 2009), Khanyisa Chawane (2015), Lefébre Rademan (2015), Boitumelo Mahloko (2019), and Refiloe Nketsa (2020) – all started their senior netball careers at the UFS.

This is a first call-up for Mahloko and Nketsa. Mahloko left the Free State at the end of last year. Chawane is still enrolled at the UFS, Rademan is doing her master’s, and Pretorius is an alumna.

Rademan was recently named the Members’ Player of the Season at London Pulse where she played in the European Super League. Karla Pretorius, with 94 caps, could possibly become only the fourth Protea ever to reach 100 test caps.

Nketsa was a member of the South African U21 team in 2020 and 2021. She said it was her dream since she was a child to be in the Protea team. “To be called up and given a chance to showcase my talent is a blessing. It still feels surreal. I’m really thankful.” She changed position from goalkeeper to wing defence/centre last year.

Burta de Kock, UFS coach, describes herself as a blessed coach.

“I’m blessed with an amazing calibre of players who are willing to change positions (such as Nketsa) and who are eager to grab every opportunity.

“It is a fortunate position to be in. We work hard to help players reach their maximum potential.”

News Archive

National accolade for Dr Philemon Akach

2013-10-21

Dr Philemon Akach
Photo: Sonia Small
21 October 2013

Excellence in Teaching and Learning is highly regarded at the University of the Free State, with our academics recognised on national and international platform.

Earning yet another accolade for the university, Dr Philemon Akach, Head of the Department of South African Sign Language, has been awarded a National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award. The award by the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) and Council on Higher Education (CHE), recognised Dr Akach as a “leader in the field of teaching and learning – with impact beyond the classroom and the institution.” Recognising his pioneering work within deaf education, HELTASA and CHE commend Dr Akach as an “inspirational practitioner who recognises the inclusion of the marginalised in education.”

Dr Akach is one of five recipients, selected out of a total of 22 candidates from across South Africa that will receive the award. The other winners are from the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Pretoria. The five winners will receive the awards at a gala dinner at the annual HELTASA conference, which takes place from 26 to 29 November 2013.

Dr Akach, who will retire at the end of 2014, says the national recognition is the cherry on top as he prepares to return to his home country. Kenya. “How good can it be?” “This is my life calling,” he said about the 37 years he worked within deaf education.

The academic also received an Alumni Award for Outstanding Service at the recent Kovsie Alumni Awards.

Pioneering work by Dr Akach:

With Dr Akach steering the process, the UFS became the first university on the continent to offer Sign Language as an academic course in 1999.
Dr Akach was part of a nine-member task team that handed over the South African Sign Language (SASL) curriculum to the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga. A member of the ministerial task team since 2009, he helped to coordinate the development of the curriculum that will soon be offered as a school subject to Grade 0–12 learners in all 42 schools for the deaf in South Africa.

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