Despite a February heatwave, hundreds of students in the colours of their university residences have been gathering on the rag farm of the Fanie du Toit Sports Ground to build floats for this year’s RAG contest that will take place on February 14.

“It’s constant hard work, there are only a few breaks…We take a break now and then and drink water and stuff, but it is constant work and the sun is so warm,” said Ivan van Heerden, who is in Hombré. Dylan Viljoen from De Wilgers said what he liked about RAG was to see “how everything comes together”.

RAG is the acronym for ‘reach out and give’ in English and is also known as JOOL in Afrikaans, which means ‘jou onbaatsugtige opoffering vir liefdadigheid’.

It has been part of the Potchefstroom campus’ social calendar since 1942 and is aimed at fundraising for Student Community Engagement initiatives that the university is involved in within the broader Potchefstroom community. For the last few years, the parade of floats, which used to make their way through the city’s streets, remained on display at the Fanie du Toit Sports Ground, where residents can visit it on this Saturday when RAG takes place.

The preparations for this year’s float building began before classes for the first semester commenced; some residences even started as early as last year. Alec Andranotos from the Over de Voor men’s residence told Potchefstroom Herald,

“We started over the holidays around January 6.”

Some residences started preparing even earlier. Caput, for instance, already started planning in October last year. Rina Jacobs from the Eikenhof women’s residence said that she enjoyed socialising with the people she was working with:

“I think being with your residence, your ‘sleep’ [the male residence you partner with] and getting to know each other better is what makes RAG worth it.”

Written by Thato Bosiu, Sibusiso Moledi, Ntombikayise Mahuma, Delphinah Sibanyoni and Angelique Rossouw