RECOGNITION FOR A JOB WELL DONE
Maties Rugby staff, student-athletes, alumni and the Club as a whole have been celebrated through a number of awards for 2024.
Maties Sport Awards 2024
We dominated at the annual Maties Sports Awards by winning Club of the Year, with Ezekiel Ngobeni being named Sportsman of the Year, and through Kabamba Floors winning Coach of the Year. Just to add more Maties Rugby flavour, Alumni Ben Jason-Dixon, was guest speaker.
Rector’s Awards of Excellence in the Sport Category
Receipts: Bianca Augustyn (studying Masters in Civil Engineering) with Maties Rugby since 2018, some of her accolades include being selected to be part of the Springbok squad at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 and captaining Maties Women’s Rugby to an inaugural Varsity Cup trophy in 2023. She currently represents the Springbok Women’s 7s team and is part of the coaching staff of Maties Women’s Rugby.
Andre Hugo-Venter (studying BCom Management Science) debuted at the Varsity Cup in 2020 and went on to play for the Stormers in 2021 and then he later won the United Rugby Championship (URC) with them in 2022. He recently also played for the Springbok ‘A’ side in Europe.
Responsibility Centre (RC) Awards
An essential component of staff recognition is to celebrate the vast diversity of contributions. In 2019 Maties Sport line manager Prof Stan du Plessis, Chief Operating Officer: Finance & Operations, introduced Excellence Awards aimed at recognising staff across his responsibility centre for outstanding performance. This year, our Head of Maties Rugby, Drikus Hancke, was awarded in the Sport category, along with Sport Manager, Wentzel Barnard.
Drikus Hancke
Photo: Curt Ruiters