The achievement marks a milestone in Selomane’s career as an Engineering Geologist, notwithstanding the gloom over the lack of black female professionals in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields in South Africa. The University of Pretoria is making a tangible contribution to producing leading professionals and this also registers the calibre of graduates it produces.

Professor of Engineering Geology at the Department of Geology, Prof Louis van Rooy is Selomane’s supervisor who presented a motivation for the award. He described Selomane as a brilliant student who did her honours project on the back analysis of a slope failure at an open cast mine. “She did a short literature study but mainly focussed her project on the use of the method of slices to determine the rock/soil material strength properties for failure, and to propose future pit design parameters to prevent similar slope failure incident”.

Selomane has had a long and steadfast love for rocks. Her favourite subjects she enjoyed the most were related to the rocks. Her passion, determination and hard work are the key elements which are critical in succeeding in any field of study, particularly in a demanding field like engineering geology.

Selomane hails from Soshanguve, a township outside Pretoria and she currently stays at Tuksdorp, one of the largest postgraduate and international residence at the University of Pretoria.