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20 February 2023 | Story Gerda-Marié van Rooyen | Photo Supplied
Nthabiseng (JahRose) Jafta, a Publishing Coordinator at the University of the Free State (UFS), recently received the Silver Medal Award and other accolades at the Eurasian Literary Festival held in Egypt. She says writing is a way of life for her and she writes anywhere and anytime.

Nthabiseng (JahRose) Jafta, a Publishing Coordinator at African Languages Press in the Library and Information Services at the University of the Free State (UFS), recently received the Silver Medal Award and other accolades at the Eurasian Literary Festival held in Egypt. Jafta, an MA scholar (Creative Writing) at Rhodes University, describes herself as an international performing poet, artpreneur, teacher, festival curator, content developer, and creative strategist born in the Free State.

Being an introvert, she says her love for writing gives her a voice. “I can echo my thoughts and colour my grey sky,” she explains poetically. She feels writing is as natural to her as breathing. She is comfortable writing anywhere and anytime. “There’s no physical area needed. We type on WhatsApp in the taxi. We catch brainwaves whenever they appear.” Jafta's creative juices seem to be overflowing, as she confessed to even getting an idea while contemplating her love for writing. “Life throws you prompts from all spheres, but you have to be present to recognise its call. And sometimes the piece decides if it wants to be happy, erotic, or sad.”
 
Her literacy cap serves Jafta's career as a publisher and her creative writing when time allows. “I read and write. Publish what I read or write. I also happen to recite, read, and sing what I write. It’s all in alignment.” This Deputy President of the National Writers Association of South Africa and founder of the Poetic Blues Virtual Festival writes in her mother tongue, Sesotho, and English. She also has additional experience in the poetry industry, as she was previously the Curator of the Macufe Poetry Festival. She also attended the International Writing Centre at Beijing Normal University part time. Her poems have also been translated into Mandarin and published in Chinese literary magazines.

Jafta says besides the growing catalogue of more than 40 publications, she also has an upcoming multilingual poetry compilation featuring Spanish, Danish, Mandarin, Arabic, KiSwahili, IsiZulu, and Sesotho translations from English. This poet believes poetry is a gift that feeds lyrics to melodies. “And that song carries us to humanity's highs and lows. Prose is how we navigate that gift daily. They are rainbows on melting clouds, events plants rejoice on their rhythmic drops.”

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Vote for Kovsies’ achievers!
2011-03-29

Two Kovsie students are finalists in two very prestigious competitions and need your support to pull them through into the home stretch!

Marelize Visagie and Roeline Strauss are finalists in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) 50th Anniversary Video Competition and the Miss Varsity Cup competition, respectively.
 
UFS students and staff and the general public can help them win these competitions by voting for them on the respective competitions’ websites.
 
To vote for Marelize, please go to http://www.oecd.org/videocontest and vote for her video entitled: Progress is sharing the burdens. The video deals with progress through sharing of individual and group burdens and could win her a trip to Paris, where she will represent South Africa at the final ceremony of the competition.
 
The closing date for voting is 14 April at 12:00.

To vote for Roeline, log in to www.varsitycup.co.za and click on the pink rose at the bottom of the page. Then click on the link which reads: click here to vote. Then vote for Shimlas’ Roeline Strauss to make sure she stands a chance of being crowned as the national Miss Varsity Cup, who will be announced at the finals of the tournament on 11 April.

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