Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
03 January 2023 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Evert Kleynhans
Dr Dolf van Niekerk
Dr Dolf van Niekerk.

The University of the Free State (UFS) would like to express its condolences to the family and friends of South African author, Dr Dolf van Niekerk, on his passing.

Dr Van Niekerk, the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the UFS, passed away on 31 December 2022. The UFS awarded a Doctor of Letters to Dr Dolf van Niekerk during its April 2021 graduation ceremony. 
 
Dr Van Niekerk was a celebrated author who also achieved fame as a dramatist and radio presenter. An alumnus of the UFS, he received a BA degree from the university cum laude in 1949. He also played a role in academia and was an emeritus professor at the University of Pretoria until his retirement in 1994. His work includes 27 books in philosophy, poetry, fiction, drama, and memoirs, for which he has received numerous awards. These include the Eugene Marais Prize, the MER Prize, and the Scheepers Award for Youth Literature.
 
“Dr van Niekerk is a Kovsie alumnus with a deep connection to the Free State. He played a significant role in the country’s literary history, and it was an honour for the university to award him with an honorary degree. A wordsmith of note, Dr van Niekerk’s contributions to South African literature, radio, and stage will live on," says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor.

News Archive

Nation-building projects the focus of 26th Sophia Grey memorial lecture
2014-09-01

 

Jeremy Rose

This year, the University of the Free State’s (UFS’s) Department of Architecture had the privilege of hosting the renowned Phil Mashabane and Jeremy Rose from Mashabane Rose Associates as guest speakers at their annual Sophia Grey memorial lecture. 
 
Mashabane Rose is known for the numerous awards they won for their work on nation-building projects, such as the Hector Pieterson Museum, the Apartheid Museum, Lilliesleaf Museum, the Nelson Mandela House Museum and several other cultural and heritage projects. They also have the design of commercial, tertiary education, school, community and health projects on their record. 
 
“It isn’t only the visual side of architecture that is important to architects. It is also the story behind the story that matters,” Phil Mashabane said. 
 
“We used architecture to communicate history, as in the case of the Hector Peterson Museum. The building becomes the interpreting device to help people understand history,” Jeremy Rose said. 
 
“Good architecture is not only a product, but also a process,” Mashabane said.

An exibition of Mashabane Rose Associates' major projects can be viewed in the Oliewenhuis Art Museum for six weeks.


We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept