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24 March 2021 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Netball South Africa
Defender Refiloe Nketsa is one of four Kovsies chosen for the South African U21 netball team.

With no less than four Kovsies in the South African Under 21 netball team, the near future for this sport at the University of the Free State (UFS) is certainly on the bright side.

Chanel Vrey, Refiloe Nketsa, Rolene Streutker, and Boitumelo Mahloko will be in action for the Baby Proteas, as the team is known, in a challenge series. The team will battle the President’s XII (a South African A team) and Uganda from 25 March in Cape Town. 

They all played for the Free State senior side last year. Vrey and Streutker also played for the Baby Proteas against international competition in 2019.

Mahloko – a former Kovsie – and Nketsa have also represented South Africa at junior level in the past. They were team members in the national U16 team in 2017, and a year later Mahloko made the U20 team and Nketsa the SA U18 team.

Khanyisa Chawane will also be in action in the series, playing for the Proteas, while former Kovsie captain Alicia Puren has been chosen for the President’s XII.

Meanwhile, two hockey players, Saré Laubscher and Zimkhitha Weston, have been picked for the South African U21 women’s hockey team. They would have participated in the African qualifying tournament in Ghana at the end of March. This tournament has, however, been postponed to January 2022. 

This is the third consecutive year that Laubscher has made the team. Weston, a former Kovsie, played for South Africa at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.

The African Hockey Qualifier serves as qualification for the Junior World Cup, which is scheduled for December in Potchefstroom. South Africa has already qualified as hosts for the Junior World Cup, but the African crown is up for grabs in Ghana. 

News Archive

Former architecture student takes part in Archiprix in Moscow
2013-06-24

Jurie Swart in Moscow.
24 June 2013

 

“I am proud that I could honour the UFS’ name,” says Jurie Swart. He participated in the prestigious Archiprix in Moscow in May 2013.

Archiprix is an international competition where the world’s top architecture students are selected. Architecture departments, schools and faculties of 1 500 universities from 78 countries worldwide are invited to enter their top master’s students over two study years.

In 2012, Jurie Swart was honoured as regional winner of the Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Award and also received an honourable mention in the 2012 International Graduate Architecture Projects.

After several months of careful evaluation by a panel of five experts, his thesis, Borderline – mediated landscape, A water research centre for the University of the Free State, Qwaqwa Campus, was nominated as one of the world’s 25 master’s projects to take part in the Archiprix in Moscow. His thesis was also on display at the Central House of Artists in Moscow for a couple of months.

The judges were Yuri Grigoryan (architect and director of the Moscow-based Project Meganom, as well as director of educational programmes at the Strelka Institute in Moscow); Susan Herrington (professor of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada); Kristin Jarmund (architect and director of the Norwegian-based Kjark, an architectural house); Hubert Klumpner (architect, director of the Venezuela-based Urban-Think Tank, and professor of architecture and urban design at the ETH, Zürich ); and Lesley Lokko (architect, academic and author from the UK).

Jurie Swart was selected as the participants’ favourite. “From the top 25, seven winners were announced, and although I didn’t win, it is still an amazing achievement and I am proud to have honoured the university’s name,” he said.

During his visit to Moscow, he also attended a workshop with the rest of the nominated students. This project, with the theme Railroads, was an exercise to help solve Russia’s transport problems.

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