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Respected UWC alumnus passes away
he higher education sector mourns the loss of one of South Africa’s leading scientists, UWC alumnus Professor Edmund Zingu. Zingu, 67, graduated with a BSc and honours from UWC in the late 1960s/early 1970s before obtaining his master’s in Netherlands and his PhD from the University of Cape Town. He was head of the Department of Physics at UWC from 1995 to 1997, after which he became Vice-Rector at the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) until his retirement. A former president of the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP), Zingu died in hospital in the early hours of Saturday, 20 April. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer in November last year. Zingu headed the physics department at the Medical University of South Africa, before taking up a Fulbright research fellowship at the California Institute of Technology in the US in the early 1990s. He was the first black scientist to hold the post of vice-president of the SAIP, appointed to the position in 2001, before becoming its first black president in 2003. He believed that local scientists needed to re-examine their role in society and determine how physics
could impact on the national development objectives, including keeping the country up to speed with international research and technology. Zingu, a father of three, was a member of the Council on Higher Education, and chaired a review on the training of physics undergraduates. He served as MUT’s acting Vice-Chancellor following the suspension of Professor Aaron Ndlovu. Zingu’s wife, Julia, former executive director of the Children’s Rights Centre in Durban, was quoted by The Mercury newspaper as saying that her late husband
was an honourable man. “We want him to be remembered as a man of integrity, a humble man, who was a private person, but a friend to all.” Simon Connell, President of the SAIP Council, said of Zingu: “Edmund was a pioneer for physics in post-apartheid South Africa, a visionary, a tireless campaigner for strengthening the discipline of physics and, above all, a true gentleman.” A memorial service for the late Prof Zingu was held at the UWC Library Auditorium on 25 April, ahead of his funeral on 27 April at the Methodist Church, Church Street, Wynberg.
Fresh out of the box teachers honoured
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WC’s BEd fourth-year Faculty of student Vanessa Education Haywood, who celebrated graduated from her the academic undergraduate studies achievements of summa cum laude its students when in 2012, took top it hosted its annual honours. Haywood Dean’s Merit Awards on has not had it easy – 23 April 2013. after matric, by then The awards are already a wife and aimed at recognising mother, she went to and honouring work. In 2009, years Education students at the Dean’s Merit Awards with Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brian O’Connell, students for their hard after finishing school, and Dean of Education Faculty, Prof Zubeida Desai. work throughout the Haywood decided to year. fulfil her dream of going to university and applied for a bursary Welcoming the recipients, Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor from the Funza Lushaka Bursary Programme, through which the Brian O’Connell said teaching is the future of South Africa. “If Department of Basic Education promotes teaching in public schools. South Africa is to become anything at all, the disadvantaged people At the award ceremony, senior lecturer in Language Education, need to take charge and understand the importance of education,” Dr Vuyokazi Nomlomo, said she was glad to be speaking to future said O’Connell. teachers. “You are the teachers that will go out there and change Among the 48 students awarded with certificates on the night, lives,” she told the winning students.