Two East London-born comedians have been handpicked by Trevor Noah to feature in his first Showmax series titled Trevor Noah presents NationWild. Mbu Msongelwa and Old Rhodian, Virgil Prins were selected to feature in Noah’s 13-part, 23-minute comedy showcase, where each episode presents one of South Africa’s funniest comedians – as picked by Noah. The show will air for the firt time on Heritage Day, Monday, September 24.

Rhodes University has appointed Dr Zethu Mkhize as its first-ever Harassment and Discrimination Manager in the Directorate for Equity and Institutional Transformation. The highly qualified Dr Mkhize started in her new role at the University this week. Her responsibility includes transformation, advocacy and awareness-raising in respect of harassment, discrimination, sexual assault and violence. She is in charge of the coordination of all complaints and the development and monitoring of related policies, programmes and training.

Spring day brought with it a reunion and the 68th annual Rhodes University Convocation Meeting, held jointly with the annual General Meeting of the Old Rhodian Union, at the Gavin Relly Postgraduate Village at Rhodes University.

Cameron Bellamy’s attempt at swimming around Barbados is just a few weeks away and the highly anticipated event is causing a huge stir among the passionate swimmers and the wider community on the island. It’s estimated that about 70% of the population in Barbados are not proficient swimmers so the notion of someone swimming 96K around the island is mind-boggling to most of the residents.

At a Gala dinner on 28 June, the Mail & Guardian announced a list of 200 Young South African Achievers. Of these, 15 are graduates of Rhodes University, some currently registered for further degrees. Of the 15, 13 hold postgraduate degrees from Rhodes, and 10 were funded through the Postgraduate Financial Aid Office at Rhodes. This speaks volumes of the value of a Rhodes postgraduate qualification, and the financial support that our graduates receive to enable them to achieve high recognition.

Twenty-eight hard-working students received bursaries totalling R225 000 from the Old Rhodian Union this year.

The Rhodes University Faculty of Law has the pleasure of celebrating the award of the US Fulbright Foreign Student Program Scholarship to its alumnus and former Andrew W Mellon Lecturer, Mr Tladi Marumo.

Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza’s name is associated with land reform, which is appropriate given that he grew up in a rural area and was banished to the small town of Cala in the Eastern Cape during apartheid. He is now the holder of the National Research Foundation research chair in land reform and democracy in South Africa, as well as the AC Jordan chair in African studies and director of the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT).