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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

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.


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