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19 October 2022 | Story Jóhann Thormählen | Photo iFlair Photography
Kovsie Sport stars
The Kovsie Khanyisa Chawane was one of the big winners at the Free State Sport Stars. The Protea netball player was named Sportswoman of the Year and the Springbok rugby player Frans Steyn was the Sportsman and Sport Star of the Year. Here from left are Steyn and Chawane.

A big honour and motivation to work even harder. This is how Robert Summers summed up his emotions after being crowned University of the Free State (UFS) Sportsman of the Year.

The young South African badminton player walked away with the title – the first winner in three years, since KovsieSport did not name top achievers in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Protea hockey player Shindré-Lee Simmons was the KovsieSport Sportswoman of the Year, and the long jumper Joané Gerber the Junior Sport Star of the Year.

They were crowned at the Free State Sport Stars dinner, presented by Central24 and the UFS on 13 October 2022 in Bloemfontein.

Fellow UFS sport star, Khanyisa Chawane, also won a big award. The Protea netball star was the province’s Sportswoman of the Year, while the Springbok Frans Steyn was the Sportsman and Sport Star of the Year.

University appreciation

Summers, who reached the round of 16 (mixed doubles) and round of 32 (men’s singles and doubles) at the Commonwealth Games and won two bronze (men’s doubles and team) medals at the All Africa Championships, is grateful.

“It is a big honour to be part of an elite group – like Wayde van Niekerk, Heinrich Brüssow, Johan Cronjé and others – who have won it before me,” he says.

“I am really thankful to the university, as you are rewarded for you hard work. It is a good thing because it motivates an athlete to work even harder.”

Simmons won the Africa Cup of Nations as part of the South African team, and also played in the FIH Hockey World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

“It is overwhelming and super exciting. To walk away with such a prestige award is amazing. I am honoured and proud to be a Kovsie hockey player and to carry on the brand.”

Grateful and excited

Gerber took part in the World Athletics U20 Championships and achieved a personal best (6,42 m) at the Confederation of University and Colleges Sports Associations (CUCSA) Games.

The UFS first-year student loves life at the KovsieSport Jumping Academy.

“My season started great but then took a dip and I didn’t think it would work out this way.

“It is amazing to think what I could achieve with a new coach, new environment, and new people I train with. Here I am and I won Junior Sport Star of the Year.”

Chawane represented the Proteas at the Commonwealth Games, won the Africa Cup with the side, and played in the Netball Quad Series.

“I didn’t expect the award. There are lots of great athletes in the Free State.

“I feel really honoured and grateful.”

News Archive

Statement from Prof Jonathan Jansen regarding a misquote about Madiba
2013-04-10

08 April 2013

Comments made by learners who attended the Leadership Summit (pdf)

Prof Jonathan Jansen: Presentation about Great Leaders (pdf)

The news article that first appeared in Volksblad of Monday 8 April 2013 claiming that I wanted Madiba to die, refers.

This is a complete misrepresentation of what I said. My argument was that Madiba had done so much for South Africa, that he had served South Africa well, and that sometimes you just wish that people would leave him alone so that he can pass his final days quietly.

Like all South Africans, I want Madiba to live as long as possible, but without the constant glare and speculation of the media and others. He needs to be left alone to rest and die in peace. That was the content and context of what I said.

To misrepresent a lengthy statement on a talk which was entirely devoted to extolling Madiba’s leadership — alongside that of Luthuli, Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr (this was the main photograph on the screen) — is mischievous. The seven characteristics of leadership of Mandela, and the other three, were what the one hour and ten minute talk was about — something completely ignored in the misrepresentation.

It is true that I depicted the crises from Marikana to the Catholic Church as crises of leadership and not primarily military or religious blunders.

It is also true that I argued that the official representation of the hospital visits as ‘routine checkups’ was inaccurate for aged people, since at the age of 94 no hospital visit is ‘routine.’ That is what I said.

- Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, University of the Free State

Media Release
08 April 2013
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: +27(0)51 401 2584
Cell: +27(0)83 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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