Rhodes prize will honour murdered maths student
FROM next year Rhodes University will annually award a Lelona Thembakazi Fufu Memorial Prize at its graduation in honour of a student who was murdered on the day she was to have graduated with an honours degree.
The prize will be awarded to a student graduating in science with a BSC or BSC Honours who has overcome educational hardships to achieve very good results, said dean of science Professor Ric Bernard.
Fufu, 23, of Motherwell in Port Elizabeth, was murdered while hitch-hiking to her graduation ceremony in Grahamstown in April. Her murder shocked and devastated family, friends, students and staff at the university.
She was described as a hardworking and dedicated student.
The university decided a memorial prize in her name would be an appropriate way to remember her and what she brought to the life of the campus, said Bernard.
“Preference will be given to a student who has come through the Foundation Programme and who has majored in the mathematical or statistical sciences.
“Where there are suitable recipients at both BSC and Honours levels, two awards may be made,” said Bernard.
Fufu had come through the Science Foundation Programme to complete a BSC in maths and mathematical statistics and in 2011, a joint honours in maths and mathematical statistics.
Bernard said the prize would be in the form of cash.
The university has invited individuals, departments, halls and houses to contribute to the fund so that it could support this award in perpetuity.
Police have linked a 28-yearold Motherwell man, arrested in connection with an unrelated rape case, to Fufu’s murder.
Police were yesterday unable to give any update on the arrest.