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21 April 2022 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo Supplied
Lerato Mbongo and Opheleleyo
Double belted! Opheleleyo Qwabe and Lerato Mbongo revel in the moment.

Their friendship began in high school, where they were constantly told by teachers that they would not make it to university, but these best friends never gave up. On Thursday 21 April 2022, they received their honours degrees in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences together during the afternoon ceremony of the University of the Free State’s April Graduations.

Lerato Mbongo and Opheleleyo Qwabe, who have been friends since Grade 9, said being picked on in class for not being the brightest learners brought them together and motivated them to work harder.Mbongo obtained a Bachelor of Agriculture Honours majoring in Wildlife Management, and Qwabe received a Bachelor of Agriculture Honours majoring in Agricultural Economics.

“We’ve always dreamed big, but if you had told us back then that we would one day be two-time graduates, we wouldn’t have believed it. During one of our Maths lessons back in Grade 9, our teacher went around asking the ‘smarter’ kids what they wanted to study after matric, but when he got to us, he said there was no point in asking because we wouldn’t make it that far anyway,” Qwabe said.

The friends, who both started at the university’s South Campus, said they were grateful for the UFS Preparation Programme, as it boosted both their marks and their confidence. “The programme helped us to believe in ourselves again, and also played a big role in helping us discover what we wanted to study. The courses we enrolled in really unlocked an unstoppable passion in us and helped us realise that nothing is impossible. Today, here we are celebrating 10 years of friendship, and our honours degrees. We’ve conquered once again, and we're sharing our victories together,” Mbongo said.

News Archive

Free State University Choir wins competition in Prague
2009-12-15

This past weekend, the Free State University Choir, under the directorship of Mr Corné van Pletzen, won the Christmas Music Festival Competition in Prague in the Czech Republic. 25 choirs from amongst others Spain, Hungary, Slovakia and Russia also participated in the competition.

It is the first time in the 10 years that the Christmas Music Festival Competition is presented that an overall winner of the festival and the competition was announced.

The choir originally only participated in the festival part of the Christmas Music Festival. Later, at the end of the competition, they were asked by the judges to prepare a song for the prize-giving ceremony, not knowing that the judges were judging them for the competition.

Mr Van Pletzen said, “Finally, after all prizes had been handed out, a trumpet fanfare announced the Free State University Choir as the overall winner of the competition. Our choir was also requested to close the competition with a song; that we did, whereupon our students sang the National Anthem with pride and with tears in their eyes.

The choir’s presentation was unique as they included a great variety of songs in their programme, amongst others some of Mr Van Pletzen’s own compositions and a song from Africa, Wana Baraka.

According to Mr Van Pletzen, six of the choirs obtained more than 90% during the competition. The Free State University Choir was however overwhelmed with positive feedback on the standard of their presentation from the audience, other participating choirs as well as the judges.

Most of the 38 choir members have already been members of this choir for three years now and this is the third time that most of them are singing overseas.

They will bring home a beautiful glass trophy.


Mr Corné van Pletzen.

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