This is an outstanding achievement because the field of candidates is large and of exceptional quality! It has been an extremely successful year for Ntuthuko, as he has also won the 2010 Nedbank and Old Mutual budget Speech competition earlier this year!

The Mandela Rhodes Scholarship is more than a bursary. It aims to help in building leadership excellence in Africa and offers young Africans, who exhibit academic prowess as well as broader leadership potential, an unique educational opportunity. While pursuing their chosen post-graduate degree, each scholar benefits from access to leadership development programmes, rooted in the principles underpinning the Foundation.

In addition to the opportunity to interact with a diverse group of fellow scholars that spans the continent and academic disciplines, scholars become part of a wide-ranging network of young Africans of excellence who are expected to play leadership roles in their fields and societies in the years to come. Ntuthuko is also a tutor in the Department of Economics.

Mmatshepho, an MSc Student in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology also received the Mandela-Rhodes Scholarship for 2011 for her research project on the Intron architecture and genomics of the pine pitch canker pathogen, Fusarium circinatum. Her co-supervisors are Prof Brenda Wingfield and Dr Martin Coetzee of the Department of Genetics in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.