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Peter Makgato - from despair to medals

22 December 2022 | Story Jóhann Thormählen | Photo Anja Aucamp

If it wasn’t for Peter Makgato’s UFS support system, he would have been lost to South African athletics. The road of recovery after a serious injury can be lonesome, but he was never alone.

The promising long jumper had to learn to walk again after the injury to his Achilles tendon and could only compete more than a year after his dreams were shattered in November 2020.

Only months after returning to jumping in 2022, he was winning medals again.

Keeping me focused

“Without KovsieSport, I believe I would have hung up my spikes after that injury,” says Makgato. “Throughout the entire journey back, I had support from my coach (Emmarie Prinsloo; Head of KovsieSport Jumping Academy) and Oom DB (Prinsloo; Head of Athletics at KovsieSport).”

He also praises “the expert medical help” from Kovsie Health and says he went through nothing alone. “My progress was monitored by a team that knew me before the injury and this meant they were able to keep me focused on the progress and not on the injury.”

Although he had injuries before, Makgato says the emotional challenges were much bigger. “What really helped me were a few words from Wayde van Niekerk days after my operation when I went back to the track on crutches. He told me not to lose my head.

“That is the best advice you can give someone in my position. Physically I was broken, I had to make sure that mentally I fought to stay above the waters.”

Bigger goals in mind

He was only able to walk again from May 2021, started rehab in August 2021, and was running properly by December 2021.

He was only able to jump competitively again in March 2022, and a month later claimed a bronze medal at the South African Championships (7,47 m). This was followed by a USSA bronze in May 2022 (7,46 m).

“I had bigger goals in mind. Now that I look back, I realise that for a person who could not even run properly five months before and who had little preparation time, I was doing pretty good.”

And now the Master of Laws student has his sights on bigger things again: The World Athletics Championships next year and the Olympic Games in 2024.

News Archive

Council votes on appointment of senior staff

2004-11-18

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) today voted on the filling of three senior vacancies, including one post at Dean level and two at the level of Vice-Dean.

The Council voted as follows:


Dr Natie Luyt will be offered the post of Dean: Student Affairs	Prof Engela Pretorius will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities	Dr Choice Makhetha will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Student Affairs

“There are special challenges for the UFS in the short and medium term regarding transformation of our residences, and a certain combination of management qualities and skills is desirable. As a result of the diversity of the UFS’s student community it is therefore important to us to follow a team approach to deal with the challenges. With the combination of Drs Luyt and Makhetha, I believe we will be able to manage student affairs effectively and skillfully,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

“It is wonderful that we are able to celebrate the outcome of this process that has brought forward such excellent candidates who reflect our country’s diversity. It shows that we can achieve the goals of quality and diversity at the same time,” says Prof Fourie.

Prof Pretorius obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) from the UFS, except for the Certificate in Gender Policy Management (cum laude) which she obtained in 2000 from WITS. She joined the Department of Sociology at UFS in 1980 and has headed the Department since 2001. She acted as Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities since July 2004. She has some thirty publications to her credit, published both nationally and internationally and has delivered 20 national and international papers. She is a member of the South African Sociological Association and is a member of the Council of the association and of the Editorial Board of Society in Transition, the society’s journal. She is also a member of the South African Academy for Science and Art and the Federation of African Women Educationalists in South Africa (FAWESA). Project involvement includes the Australian Women’s Executive Development Programme and the project Executive Development of Senior Women in South African Higher Education Institutions. She is also an NRF panelist.

Dr Luyt obtained his qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) at the UFS and started his career at the same institution in 1980 as lecturer in Political Science. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1983 and appointed as Director: Student Affairs in 1997. He has been acting as Dean: Student Affairs since 2003. Dr Luyt completed several work-related training courses, among others a course in ethnic and multiculturality at the Swiss Institute for Federalism and a course in conflict management at the South Tyrolean Economic and Social Institute.

Dr Makheta also obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons), MA in Political Science and Ph D in Political Science) at the UFS and started working as a student assistant in Political Science at the same institution in 1999. She was promoted to junior assistant in 2000, coordinator and facilitator of Political Science in 2001, assistant/acting Director: Student Affairs in 2001 and acting Director: Student Affairs in 2003. Dr Makhetha is currently a Senior Political Analyst at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The UFS Council also approved the promotion of nine professors to the rank of senior professor. They are Proff Louise Cilliers (Department English and Classical Languages), Dap Louw (Department of Psychology), Philip Nel (Department Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice), Dirk van den Berg (Department of History of Art and Visual Culture Studies) Dingie van Rensburg (Director: Centre for Health Systems Research and Develoment), Andries Raath (Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law), James du Preez (Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology), Johan Grobbelaar (Department of Plant Sciences) and Louis Scott (Department of Plant Sciences).

This is the first group ever of senior professors at the UFS. The post level was created to provide better career and earnings opportunities for high quality academics and to increase the attractiveness of an academic career to young people.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

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