Recognising excellence but celebrating diversity

Excellence and diversity with the Vice-Chancellor Award winners Sendi Gandidzanwa, Sam Beynon and Alexander West

The student bounces towards the stage to the catchy refrain of Pharell Williams’ I’m so happy, while the next gracefully strides forward to the lyrical strains of a waltz …

It’s the 2014 Achievers’ Awards Dinner at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University where students are honoured for their achievements on the sports field, within societies and for their leadership.

It’s about excellence.

But at NMMU, it is also about celebrating our wonderful diversity.

I mean, from a:

• 2013 pop hit to a wedding dance classic (the students chose their own music)
• Tiny female cricket scorer to a three majors BSc academic achiever from Zimbabwe
• National sports representative with grey hair to another who is one of only two students in the South African hockey tea and
• White girl who speaks fluent isiXhosa

Such diversity is worth celebrating when you know how far we have come from those dark days of Apartheid when you were prejudiced simply because of the colour of your skin.

The 2014 winners are of all colours and of both sexes and their taste in clothing and music is as diverse as their achievements in sport, leadership, societies and residences.

But each one of them – through “competition and collaboration”, to pinch Vice-Chancellor Prof Derrick Swartz’s phrase – is deserving of recognition

His Vice-Chancellor’s Award for leadership coupled with academic excellence went to two male students and determined political science student Sam Beynon.

The first male student Sendi Gandidzanwe is a Zimbabwean BSc student who completed three majors cum laude in 2014, and has been shortlisted for the Mandela Rhodes Foundation Scholarship Fund.

He has served on the SRC since 2013 and won the ALICE award for going above and beyond in community outreach in the university’s successful voluntary leadership programme called Beyond the Classroom.

Sendi has supported many societies and is the outgoing president of the Golden Key International Honour Society. (As an aside, he’s also a dapper dresser and the nicest of young men.)

His co-winner is Alexander West, a Pharmacy student, whose name is synonymous with academic achievement and great dancing. He’s the man behind NMMU Ballroom and Latin Dancing Society whose team did so well at the 2014 Intervarsity Social Ballroom and Latin Dancing Nationals in Cape Town, winning six bronze, four silver and three gold medals.

Like Sendi, he is involved in innumerable societies and obtained a 76.7% aggregate for his academic results in 2013. He’s also from Zimbabwe.

Then there’s Sam Beynon, most recently known for her success as runner-up in SABC 1’s One Day Leader competition. She is completing her honours in political science as part of her journey towards full-time politics. Oh, she’s the white girl who speaks like a black person and lives in Melodi Residence which, co-incidentally, won the Residence of the Year Award.

2014 winners’ list

• Art and Culture Committee member of the Year: Siboniso Dlamini 
• Arts and Culture Administrator of the Year: Alexander James West 
• Arts and Culture Society of the Year: Ballroom Society 
• Arts and Culture Performing Society of the Year: Le Strada choir 
• Sportsman of the Year: Ignatius Malgraff 
• Sportswoman of the Year: Zanela Vimbela 
• Sport Team of the Year: Spar Madibaz Netball A Team 
• Sport Club of the Year: Spar Madibaz Netball Club 
• Residence of the Year: Melodi 
• SGD Developmental Society of the Year: NMMU Toastmasters International 
• SGD Society Administrator of the Year: Sarah Lynn Everett 
• SGD Academic Society of the Year: Law Students Society 
• Sport Administrator of the Year: Lisa Benjamin 
• Sport Coach of the Year: Baakier Abrahams from the Mecer NMMU Cricket Club 
• Sport Technical Official of the Year: Laiken Abrahams 
• House Committee Member of the Year: Thuso Silepe 
• SGD Society Person of the Year: Reynold Solomons 
• Residence All Rounder of the Year Lunga Mfeketo 
• SGD Society of the Year: Law Students Society 

Well done to all our students!

Enjoy more photographs  on Facebook! They were  all taken by our NMMU photographer Leonette Bower. Thanks Leonette!

Ashley Nel accepts the Academic Society of  Year trophy on behalf of the Law Society. It is the fifth consecutive year the Law Society has won this award. They also won a second award.

Melodi represented by Sam Beynon, Wendy Reeves and Qaphela Ngcobo took the Residence of the Year trophy

NMMU Sportswoman of the Year Zanele Vimbela

Zanela Vimbela and coach Dumisani Chauke accept the Sports Team of the Year trophy for Madibaz Netball. The team has won the local league for nine consecutive years, never losing a match in all that time.