Raymond Tshuma was honoured as the best student in maths and natural sciences at the graduation ceremony at the University of Venda at the weekend.

On the way to where he is now, he faced many obstacles, but persevered to achieve his goals. The rural boy, however, overcame all challenges and today he is a master mathemati-cian.

He walked away with three awards, which included the Best Overall Student in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. He was one of the more than 1 500 students whose labour paid off and they received degrees, diplomas and certificates during the ceremony.

Qualifications that were conferred were from eight schools, with the school of Management Sciences having the highest number of 305, followed by the School of Human and Social Sciences with about 250, School of Environmental Sciences 200, School of Educa-tion 176, School of Health Sciences 147, School of Law 144, School of Agriculture, Rural Development and Forestry 95 and School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences 92. Out of the 1500, one received a Doctorate (Curationis) about 20 Masters, 65 Honours and more than 1400 are first degrees. A small number of students also received diplomas and certificates.

“I was inspired by my poor upbringing, and the harsh conditions I found myself under made me more determined to change my situation,” said an ecstatic Tshuma. He said his being born at rural Muledane outside Thohoyandou where unemployment and poverty are rife led to many of his peers’ resorting to crime as a way out of their situation but he chose a different route altogether, using education as a weapon to fight poverty and bring development in his area.

Tshuma said it was hard at the beginning as he hardly had any uniform, no pocket money to school and sometimes went hungry for days, as there was nobody working at home. He said he was very thankful for what his parents did in supporting him, even though they did not have any money. “The support I got from them built and nurtured me to become the strong-willed person I am today. They taught me to persevere and to be dedicated to my school work and it is hard to find such parents,” he said.

His mother, Joyce Mahafha, said her boy had made her proud. “When he did not have a uniform like other kids, he understood the situation. I am happy he endured and he has now gone somewhere in life,” she said.

Speaking at the ceremony, the principal of the University, Prof Peter Mbati, said the university would continue to grow into a quality-driven, financially sustainable rural-based comprehensive university. “We are actually aware of the heavy responsibility we carry to ensure that we contribute in a tangible manner to various programmes of action of government, and in particular to rural development and poverty alleviation. Our new redefined Centre for Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation and the new Directorate of Community Engagement are a demonstration of our firm resolve to deal in a coherent and coor-dinated manner with this important issue that we face on a daily basis,” he said.