During the official reception for first-year students on the campus in Mahikeng, Prof Mashudu Davhana-Maselesele, the rector, welcomed nine top achievers, each of whom achieved three or more distinctions in 2016.

Prof Fika Janse van Rensburg, acting rector of the campus in Potchefstroom, welcomed 173 top achievers from 95 high schools across South Africa and Namibia. The student with the highest mark matriculated with an average mark of 95%.

Two of the new students, Jaco van Tonder and Mieke Pretorius, both from Pretoria, each had nine distinctions, while 30 students had eight distinctions each, 90 had seven each, 40 had six each and 11 had five distinctions each. Among them were Luné Smit, the top learner from North West (with an average of 95% and 100% for accountancy), and Walter Lemmer from Potchefstroom Gymnasium (99% for mathematics).

Fika awarded the “grit prize” to Samantha Pretorius, who passed with eight distinctions and a 90,67% average, despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the beginning of her matric year.

He said that most of the group of top achievers were enrolled for BCom degrees (45), followed by Engineering (43) and BSc degrees (38).

Cream of the crop

The acting rector of the campus in Vanderbijlpark, Prof Linda du Plessis, said their top achievers represented the top 1,6 percentile of the intake of first years at that campus. “We want to celebrate your success and encourage you to continue exercising your academic prowess during your time as a university student.”

The two top-performing students on this campus are Janke Westraadt from Drie Riviere High School in Vereeniging and Marcelle Samons from Driehoek Hoërskool in Vanderbijlpark. Janke shone with an overall average of 90,67% and Marcelle with an average of 88%. Collectively, the 30 top achievers had 119 distinctions.

All 30 top-performing students received a voucher from Van Schaik Bookstore and Janke and Marcelle were spoiled with brand-new tablets.