This is it! I made to the top!

This is Stellenbosch University (SU) in South Africa (SA)'s oldest town Stellenbosch that lies in the picturesque Jonkershoek Valley in the heart of the Western Cape Winelands. Today, as an internationally recognised institution of excellence with more than 24 000 students, 800 lecturers and some 50 research and service bodies, eleven faculties the campuses of SU make up a vibrant melting pot of different cultures. The University takes pride in the fact that it has one of SA’s highest proportions of postgraduate students of which ten percent are international students.

To be a 'Matie' (as a student of Stellenbosch is affectionately known) is, in fact, a privilege for other reasons: according to the University of Leiden’s ranking, SU ranked 454th out of the top 500 universities worldwide in terms of international publication output and 415th in terms of the impact of citations from SU scientific publications. In 2009 Webometrics ranked SU third in African continent behind the University of Cape Town and University of Pretoria.

Maties 2010 Graduation:

On 9th March 2010 came ‘Maties 2010 Graduation Day’, which officially brought me the good news that I passed the Postgraduate Diploma in HIV/AIDS Management in the DISTINCTION division, and being the only student who passed in this division I stood TOP in the class

As extensive as the AIDS epidemic itself is, this course attracts 360 plus students from all around the world, from China to Canada and from Afghanistan to South Africa. I was, and still is, exhilarated for this unexpected but ‘deserved’ achievement of mine. This success paves way for me to register for the subsequent MPhil (HIV/AIDS) programme, and for which I indeed already registered.

A class of Postgraduate Diploma in HIV/AIDS Management 2009, photo taken during Summer School January 2009

Thank You:

A huge portion of my gratitude goes to the extraordinary Chikankata team. This is indeed possible because of your enduring and unfailing support. I promise, together we will do better still in our encounter with the worst epidemic the world has ever known. There are individuals to whom I’d like to extend my grateful acknowledgements. But some obscure reasons prevent me from mentioning your names, and I’m sure you know yourself. Thank you so much.

To my lovely wife, thank you for not only being patient with me, but also for being a good teacher to me editing and proofreading my work assignments. My beautiful kids, your understanding and sacrifices means a lot to daddy. Thank you for giving daddy a reason to be proud of once again.

Oh! How I feel like one of the brightest colours in this part of Nelson Mandela’s beautiful Rainbow Nation!! Thank you God Almighty! You never fail me. I pledge my allegiance to You once again.

See me: On page 6 of list of graduande in the faculty of Economic and Management Sciences where our course belongs.

My Children's Recent Preoccupations

Of late, I have been noticing that our daughter Melissa, 5+, grade 2 student at Baama Academy and our son Marcus, 3+, who is still in pre-school, have totally different obsessions. The following pictures tell it all!

Melissa has a newfound interest in Biology, of course botany to be specific. After learning about 'GERMINATION OF SEED' at school, she insisted that she carry out the experiment about the subject on her own. During the weekend, she sowed three bean seeds in our backyard garden all of which successfully germinated after a week-long anticipated waiting and watching. That Monday morning, she took her three young plants with her to school and proudly displayed them to her science teacher and her friends. Here you can see our daughter tending her young plants, with the ground behind her covered with mosses (bryophytes). An ideal ecology, climate and season for a budding biologist!

The three young beans. If you ask her what external factors are important for germination, our daughter can very well tell you that they are temperature, water, oxygen and sunlight.

The bean plants after 2 weeks. They will soon be planted apart to enable each one of them to grow with more freedom.

Our boy Marcus is obsessed with automobiles. You can see how happy he is when he managed to get one of the latest models like this one which is quite popular here among his local African friends. The other night, he woke me up at 04:00 hours to get such one for him!

Fortunately this weekend, Mboozi Jr. age 8, a son of my friend made this truck for him from recycled container of Maheu (a local drink made from sweetened fermented maize flour). The good thing about this engineering marvel is that all the components are made of recycled materials. The capacity is another plus point because beside its actual payload, it can carry two additional toy vehicles - a bus and a car. It is environment-friendly automobile with zero carbon emission.


The wheels are made of the lids of plastic bottles. The left front wheel is even more unique, it is made of a maize cob after the kernels have been removed/eaten!

Our son is different from his sister to the extent that he would even turn flowers into a push-on vehicle!!