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16 January 2025 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Supplied
Jurie Blignaut
Jurie Blignaut, top achiever in the 2024 matric exams for quintile four schools in SA and finalist of the UFS 2024 Matriculant of the Year competition.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to announce that the top achiever in the 2024 matric exams for quintile four schools in the country, Jurie Blignaut, will be studying towards an MBChB at the UFS from 2025.

Blignaut, a pupil of the Rustenburg High School, was one of the 14 finalists in the 2024 UFS Matriculant of the Year competition.

“Congratulations to Jurie on this wonderful achievement. We look forward to welcoming him and our cohort of 2025 first-year students to our campuses,” says Prof Anthea Rhoda, acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UFS. 

Boasting 11 distinctions and an average of 96,5%, Blignaut is not only an exceptional academic achiever but also participates in several cultural activities. He was the winner of the Kovsie Alumni Trust’s special award for personal cultural achievement in the final round of the competition. This head boy of his school is an excellent public speaker and musician. 

Blignaut’s highest achievement in public speaking was his national second place in last year’s ATKV public speaking competition in the section for Afrikaans home language. He plays the cello and has performed solo with the Pretoria Symphony Orchestra, was part of the school choir and band, and participated in the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival. 

“On behalf of the university management, I would also like to congratulate Dr Mantlhake Maboya, MEC for Education in the Free State, and her executive team on the Free State being the top-achieving province in South Africa,” says Prof Rhoda. 

Other finalists in the 2024 UFS Matriculant of the Year competition who excelled during the matric exams include Susan Bender from Voortrekker High School – top achiever in the Free State province – and Chris Goosen from Grey College Secondary School, who is also one of the top achievers in the Free State. 

News Archive

A struggle without documentation is no struggle – exhibition by internationally acclaimed Dr Peter Magubane
2014-08-06

 
The latest exhibition of one of South Africa’s most internationally acclaimed photographers, Dr Peter Magubane, has arrived on our Bloemfontein Campus. The exhibition features photographs taken by Dr Peter Magubane from 1954 – 1994. From the township streets to the hallways of power, Dr Magubane has spent more than half a century photographing the struggle against apartheid and significant social issues.

The Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, in association with Absa, are hosting the exhibition called ‘A struggle without documentation is no struggle’ from 13 August to 12 September 2014. The photographs are displayed in the Centenary as well as the Johannes Stegmann Galleries on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Dr Magubane has received numerous accolades for his dedication and outstanding contribution to the world of photography. These include:
• the Mother Jones-Leica Lifetime Achievement Award,
• the Martin Luther King Luthuli Award,
• a Fellowship from the Tom Hopkinson School of Journalism; and
• four Honorary Doctorates from various South African universities.

In the period from June 1969 to 1971, Dr Magubane spent a total of 586 days in solitary confinement and was later banned as a photographer in South Africa for five years. From the 1980s, he worked for Time magazine. In 1990 he was selected as Nelson Mandela’s official photographer to chronicle South Africa’s transition to a new political dispensation.

Today, Dr Magubane mainly focuses his lens on the diverse traditions and cultural practices of South Africans. 

Dr Magubane gave a presentation on 14 August 2014 in the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery.

For more information, please contact Angela de Jesus at dejesusav@ufs.ac.za  or +27(0)51 401 2706.

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