UKZN ‘distinguished students’ honoured
LUNGELO Mbatha was awarded one of two Distinguished Students’ Awards to thunderous applause at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s annual scholarship awards ceremony earlier this week. Mbatha was nominated because of “a combination of academic prowess, integrity, humility and sheer zest for life”.
True to form, he was all smiles as he made his way to the stage, stopping to shake the hands of his peers. But Mbatha, a philosophy honours student, has not always found social interaction so easy. Born with a congenital deformity of his right leg and left arm, Mbatha has limited mobility and struggled to “fit in” as a child.
“My friends used to like to play soccer and I just couldn’t join in,” he said.
But Mbatha learnt to see past the stares. “I learnt to understand that people didn’t look at me because they hated me, but because they were curious”.
He attended the Open Air School, where he was taught to “accept himself” and, after completing matric in 2007, he set off for the University of Cape Town to study accounting. “But that didn’t work out,” he said.
Mbatha took a sabbatical, doing odd jobs, but hanging on to his dream of pursuing a higher education. And in 2013, he was presented with the opportunity to study again, this time at UKZN.
He flourished, completing his BSc cum laude. In his spare time, he is an assistant coach to his local soccer team and works with Ability With Disability.
In addition to the Distinguished Students’ Award, described by the university as “for top performing students who have not only excelled academically but are displaying leadership in their communities and among their peers”, Mbatha also received a Talent Excellence and Equity Scholarship, awarded to top black African students intending to pursue an academic career at UKZN.
His ultimate dream is to become a philosophy lecturer.
Other big winners included Shannon Bennetts and Dimitrije Mamontov. Bennetts received three scholarships: the Brenda M Gourley Scholarship for being placed second overall among the more than 30 000 undergraduates at the university; the Townley Williams Scholarship, for the best student entering the final year of study in a first degree, and a College Deputy Vice-Chancellor Scholarship.
A visual arts student, Bennetts said she was encouraged to see her department – which was fairly small – receiving recognition. She was considering doing her Honours degree and ultimately wanted to get into animation.
Mamontov received the Lawrence and Constance Robinson Scholarship for being the single best student among all undergraduates.
A fourth-year medical student, he was stunned when he heard the news. “I was convinced there was a mistake and I had to go and check that it was true,” he said.
With so many people struggling financially, he felt blessed to have the scholarship. “It feels good and it’s motivation,” he added. Mamontov plans to specialise in internal medicine or neurology.
The ceremony saw 120 of UKZN’s best students honoured, and about 6 000 scholarships – valued at R150 million – were awarded. WARSAW: Treasure hunters’ hopes of finding a legendary Nazi ‘gold train’ in Poland were dashed yesterday when, after digging extensively, they admitted they had found ‘no train, no tunnel’ at the site.
The legend has sparked a gold rush, drawing treasure hunters from across Europe to Poland’s southwestern town of Walbrzych, and prompting the local authorities to dream about a great inflow of tourists and money.
The local legend goes that in 1945, the Nazis hid a train laden with gold and valuables in a secret tunnel nearby.
But treasure hunters with heavy excavation equipment say they have found nothing. – AP