Doctor earns NMMU huge contract (published April 2013)
DOCTOR in philosophy, Ian Wedderburn has landed himself a doctorate degree in Mechanical Engineering but also an R11-million research contract between NMMU and Eskom.
Wedderburn is the deputy director of NMMU's eNtsa research programme and has won the Eskom Chairman's Award for Innovation which secured the R11-million contract for the university. His doctoral thesis research formed the basis for NMMU winning the National Innovation Competition in 2010 and the National Science and Technology Forum's "Research leading to an innovation by a team" award in 2011.
NMMU Father and son celebrate double degree (published April 2013)
BARRY family celebrated the classic case of "like father like son" at one of the NMMU graduation ceremonies this year with well known Nelson Mandela artist Michael graduating with his master's degree in education and his son Mikale with a post-graduate degree in education.
Michael is currently the senior manager of Culture affairs, Arts & Culture at the NMMU where his tasks includes addressing diversity and integration at the institution through arts and culture. Mikale is currently a senior phase educator at St Thomas Senior Secondary where his father was an educator many years ago.
Single father cracks sensitive topic (published April 2013)
RED Location Museum's acting assistant director and researcher, Mpumezo Ralo, graduated with a master's degree in Philosophy in South African Politics and Political Economy from NMMU recently. He dealt with the inner workings of the ANC and its affect on Nelson Mandela Bay, finding that factionalism had a very negative effect on service delivery.
Ralo interviewed Bay politicians, senior officials and NMMU academics to establish the "extent to which internal contestation impacted on service delivery in the metro."
Quadriplegic defies all odds to earn degree (published April 2013)
Honours degree graduate, Sakhekile Zweni, despite being disabled, has defied all the odds to receive his honours degree in Group Dynamics from NMMU. A quadriplegic is a person who is paralysed in both legs and arms. The qualification Zweni holds pertains to enhancing production and improving relations within teams.
Zweni also hold two accounting qualifications and was working as an accounting specialist at Old Mutual when his car overturned in 2007 breaking his neck. After several months in hospital, Zweni realised that there is "definately life after disability" and picked up his studies last year. He uses an aid for note-taking in class and a voice recorder and a scribe to assist him with writing tests. He also made use of a computer with voice recognition software to complete his assignments.
Well-known fashion designer makes it big (published April 2013)
BA Hons graduate, Johan Wolmarans, is the talk of town, being the best thing to hit the fashion catwalk in the form of wedding gowns, matric ball gowns among others. Wolmarans, whose stand at The Herald Bridal Fair last year won best designer stand, designed the wedding dress of former The Herald Miss Port Elizabeth Di-Anne Qoto last month and will do the same for the winner of The Herald Win a Dream Wedding competition.
Wolmarans is a favourite for matric farewell dresses and was well represented last year at The Herald Wear Your Dream competition with nine of the 15 finalists wearing his designs.
Alumnus appointed as CEO of SABMiller (published April 2013)
Masters in clinical psychology graduate, Alan Clark, has been appointed as the CEO of SABMiller three months ahead of schedule prior to this he was Chief Operating Officer since 2012.
He joined The South African Breweries Limited (SAB Ltd) in 1990 as Training and Development Manager. He has since held a number of senior positions in the group, including Managing Director, SABMiller Europe, Marketing Director, SAB Ltd, Managing Director, Amalgamated Beverage Industries Ltd (SAB Ltd's soft drinks division) and Chairman, Appletiser South Africa (Pty) Ltd.