GEORGE BUSINESS NEWS - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) George campus recently acknowledged the sterling examples of excellent leadership by students at the first comprehensive Achievers Awards.
The Campus Principal’s Leadership Award was made for the first time to acknowledge a female and male student who upheld the George campus and NMMU’s values of respect, excellence and humaneness.
Twenty Merit Awards were also made to students who had led by example in student residences, arts and culture, student governance and development and sport.
Nominations for awards were made by staff and student leaders in accordance with certain criteria.

The female recipient of the Campus Principal’s Award for Excellence in Leadership went to Fiona Koch, currently a master’s student in botany (MSc Botany) who completed her diploma in nature conservation and BTech qualification cum laude. She was acknowledged as being a role model and leader within the student community. Fiona also gives guidance to undergraduate students and is involved with several green initiatives.

Muedanyi Ramantswana was the male recipient of the Campus Principal’s Award for Excellence in Leadership. He was acknowledged for his leadership in being treasurer and chairman of the Christian Centre, class representative during all his years on campus, chairman of the Saasveld Forestry Association and a member of the George campus choir. Ramantswana is currently studying towards his BTech degree. He was also acknowledged for his exceptional academic achievement.
He received the coveted Schlich gold medal for academic performance last year.

Ramantswana received the first prize for a national competition on climate change for which he attended the Commonwealth Forestry Conference in Edinburgh Scotland.

Merit awards were as follows:

Residences
Made to residence students only: Mentor of the year - Nonkululeko Ntinga; House committee member of the year - Mphumzi Dodi.
Sneezewood / Kiepersol was named resi-dence of the year.

Arts and Culture
Student Governance and Development
Awards in the Arts and Culture category are made to registered members of NMMU societies, student council members or students occupying leadership positions at the university.

Society administrator of the year - Precious Mbuthuma.
Arts and culture society of the year -NMMU George campus choir.
Society of the year - SASCO.
Student Council member of the year - Mokgadi Maanaso.

Sport
Hockey - Marnus de Klerk, Christopher Elliott and Bruce Taylor.
Rugby - Karl-Hein Schuld, Zeke Jansen, Braam du Preez, Theunis Bercksen, Antonie Beswick and Raynor Becker.
Angling - John-Louis van Zyl.
Power Lifting - Hanno Lourens.
Sportsman of the year - Theunis Dercksen
Sport team of the year and sport club of the year - rugby.



Martin Loubser and Precious Mbuthuma who was named the society administrator of the year.



George campus principal, Prof. Christo Fabricius with the first recipients of the annual Leadership Awards Muedanyi Ramantswana and Fiona Koch.