KANYAMAZANE – Samson Mashabane’s dream of being an ace scientist is slowly but surely becoming a reality. He recently attended a four-day science expo in Namibia, and because of his sterling performance, he walked away with gold and silver medals.
Mashabane, a grade 10 pupil from Sitintile Secondary School, was one of the participants from different countries with various projects. He was one of the top-10 pupils for physical science and mathematics in his grade.
He received a gold medal for participating, and a silver for his hydro-filtration project.
Mashabane was the only pupil from this province who represented South Africa.
He said, “Science is not difficult, it’s just that you need to pay more attention. It’s not something that you can learn in one day. You need to give yourself enough time to practise so that you can perfect it.”
The coordinator of the science expo at school level, who is also a science teacher at Sitintile, Ms Busisiwe Manzini, said she was over the moon when she heard that one of her pupils was victorious at the expo.
“I am happy for him and it’s such an honour to us as a school to have a young dedicated pupil who is not afraid to aim high and went an extra mile to represent our country,” said Manzini.
She indicated that Mashabane was one of a kind as he was always ahead with his studies. “His future is bright, I have no doubt about that, judging from his hard work and commitment.
“He is always ahead of his peers, in terms of starting a new chapter ahead of time.
“It’s a challenge working with dedicated pupils like him, because you have to know your story very well. He poses difficult questions since he likes to do research and prepare himself,” she added.