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24 November 2023 | Story Jóhann Thormählen | Photo Rooistoel
Sikholiwe (Sne) Mdletshe
The former Kovsie captain Sne Mdletshe still loves fitness and is nowadays a netball conditioning coach at the Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje.

If she is not using her talent, she is wasting it.

This conviction is one the reasons why Sikholiwe (Sne) Mdletshe has been inspiring those around her at a young age.

She believes in using the talent you are gifted with. The former Protea has not only excelled on the netball court, but maximises her talents as an academic, conditioning coach, working professional, and lately a Springbok women’s sevens player.

And it was with the assistance of the University of the Free State (UFS) that Mdletshe (24) was able to develop holistically and strike a balance between her studies and sport.

The first-year audit trainee at Ernst & Young is an ambassador for the UFS Sporting Legends project, which celebrates current and former Kovsie sports stars by featuring their journeys in a video and story series.

The series looks at the impact the UFS has had on their careers, how it has uniquely shaped them, and helped them to excel – whether in sport or the world of work.

Proud Kovsie

She represented the UFS from 2017 to 2022, captained Kovsies in 2020 and 2021, and won Varsity Netball twice (2018 and 2021).

In 2019, Mdletshe was the UFS Junior Sportswoman of the Year, and in 2020 – at only 21 years old – she was named one of the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans.

The former Free State Crinums player is not only a role model on court, but also an academic example.

She was a candidate fellow in the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation from 2018 to 2021 and graduated to being an Allan Gray Fellow in 2022. Mdletshe obtained BCom Accounting, BCom Accounting Honours degrees, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Chartered Accountancy at the UFS.

“It’s special to be a Kovsie, because you are part of a family – at KovsieSport and just at Kovsies as a whole.

“Even outside of university, you still connect with the people you met at the UFS,” she says.

She is grateful for the support to pursue a sporting and academic career.

“I wrote about seven tests in a hotel conference room being invigilated by my coach.

“That was only possible because the UFS is interlinked, and the faculties understood that we are sports people within an accounting faculty.

“Studying is hard, but at KovsieSport they understood that I am an academic as well.”

Protea dress

She has also been a leader on court and captained the national under-19 and under-21 netball teams.

And in November 2020, she made her Protea debut against Malawi in Sun City.

The former Kovsie captain, who played two tests, says when you make your senior debut, you receive your Protea dress from the seniors about an hour before the clash.

“That is the first time you put it on, with your surname on the back and everything.”

“At that moment, I was like: Wow!”

“To stand there and sing that anthem in that dress, was amazing!”

Fitness fanatic

It was early in high school (Middelburg High School) when a pivotal moment took place.

She remembers one of the pastors saying: “If you have a talent, the talent is not yours, it is God’s.”

“I thought: ‘If I’m not using my talent, I’m wasting it’.”

This was also when fitness started to play a bigger role in her life. She says in high school her friends would think she was crazy, as she would go for a run on a Sunday afternoon when they just wanted to sleep.

“Fitness gave me a break. It gave me a space where I was allowed to be in my own world.”

Although she is not currently playing netball, Mdletshe still trains diligently before sunrise and work.

And she lives out her fitness passion as a netball conditioning coach at the Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje.

Life after netball and Springbok rugby

Mdletshe says she is now focusing on life after netball and her goal is to be a chartered accountant.

She enjoys her work at Ernst & Young: “It is audit, it is accounting, and I love it. I feel like I am in the right place.”

In 2023, she started playing women’s rugby to do something social after work. Only a few months later, she was scoring hat tricks and helped the Free State win the national First Division.

The outside back says things escalated quickly, and soon she was starting for her club Bloemfontein Collegians.

“My body and mind can’t understand that we are doing social (rugby). It needs to be serious. It is either that you are all in or not.”

She was invited to a national women’s sevens pre-season camp and has quickly taken her rugby career to the next level.

Mdletshe was selected for the South African side that competed at the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens Olympics 2024 Qualifier. She would have made her debut for the Springbok sevens team in Tunisia in October 2023 but unfortunately picked up an injury.

Watch the video featureto get a glimpse of Sne Mdletshe’s journey and life.

News Archive

Research into surrogate milk important to wildlife conservation
2017-05-08

Description: Prof Garry Osthoff Tags: Prof Garry Osthoff

Prof Gary Osthoff from the UFS Department of
Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology,
will soon work on a milk formula for elephants.
Photo: Supplied

Research is being done at the University of the Free State (UFS) to analyse and synthetically imitate the unique milk of various wildlife species. This research is not only of scientific value, but also serves the conservation of South Africa’s wildlife species. At the forefront of this research is Prof Garry Osthoff from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology.

Orphaned rhino calf pulled through with surrogate milk
“There is still a lot of research to be done. Naturally the research is of scientific importance, but with surrogate milk having the same composition as the mother’s milk of a specific species, orphaned calves or cubs of that species could be pulled through during a difficult time of weaning. Bearing in mind that exotic animals fetch thousands and even millions of rands at auctions, it goes without saying a game farmer will do everything possible to provide only the best nourishment to such an orphaned animal. In such a case, synthetically-manufactured milk would be the right choice,” says Prof Osthoff.

The fruits of his research were recently demonstrated in Germany when a rhino calf was left orphaned in the Leipzig Zoo. Prof Osthoff’s article: “Milk composition of a free-ranging white rhinoceros during late lactation” was used as a directive for applying surrogate milk for horse foals (which is already commercially available), since the composition of horse and rhino milk largely corresponds. The surrogate milk was used with great success and the rhino calf is flourishing. He mentions that such an orphan is often given the wrong nourishment with the best intentions, resulting in the starvation of the animal despite the amount of cow’s milk it devours.

With surrogate milk having the same
composition as the mother’s milk of a
specific species, orphaned calves or
cubs of that species could be pulled
through during the difficult time
of weaning.

Milk formula for baby elephants in the pipeline
With baby elephants left orphaned due to the increase in elephant poaching for their ivory, several attempts have been made to create a milk formula in order to feed these elephants. To date, many elephants have died in captivity from side effects such as diarrhoea as a result of the surrogate formula which they were fed.

Prof Osthoff recently received a consignment of frozen milk which he, together with researchers from Zimbabwe, will use to work on a milk formula for elephants. They are studying the milk in a full lactation period of two years. During lactation, the composition of the milk changes to such an extent that a single surrogate formula will not be sufficient. Four different formulas should probably be designed.

Prof Osthoff says that of the different species he has researched, elephants are the most interesting and deviate most from the known species.

Although his research to develop surrogate milk is adding much value to the wildlife industry, and although he finds this part of his work very exciting, his research focus is on food science and nutrition. “What is currently authentic in milk research is the study of the fat globules with content, the structure and composition of the casein micelle, and the prebiotic sugars. The knowledge which is gained helps to improve the processing, development of new food products, and development of food products for health purposes,” says Prof Osthoff.

 

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