There was pomp and ceremony, when the best in Musina shone above the rest during the seventh edition of the Mayoral Awards, which have become the premier event in Musina.

The event to honour the more than thirty persons and organisations and was held at the Venetia Recreational Hall last Friday.

Addressing the event, Mayor Caroline Mahasela said that the municipality found it fitting to reward and recognize the men and women who have prove themselves to be shining stars and examples in the communities. "These are the unsung heroes and heroines who travelled the extra mile in reaching out to their communities". The mayor said that the municipality felt duty bound to recognise these people in order that their commitment, perseverance, humility and selflessness should not go unnoticed. "We are very proud of your work and we hope the exposure will be a way of making your good works seen by all, so that others can draw lessons from them," she said.

Mahasela said that education played an integral part in today´s life and it was therefore the duty of her municipality to play an active role in the development of the children. She said that to show how committed the municipality was to education, it was giving away 24 bursaries to the needy and deserving students ranging from R3 000 for diploma programmes to R4 000 for degrees. She took advantage of the occasion to thank learners who managed to shine against all odds in the 2007 matric exams.

She also thanked Venetia Mine, whom she called social partners for helping 12 grade 12 learners to realise their dreams of furthering their studies at tertiary level by awarding a once off grant of R10 000 to each of them.

People were awarded in the categories of community building, artists, NGO, sports, entrepreneurship, agriculture and education. The community builder merit award went to Mr Follie van Zyl, best student is Patson Ngwenya of Musina High School and the De Beers Field Band snatched the best artist group.