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Sharon Wilson Award for DUT’s Manjoo

Sharon Wilson Award for DUT’s Manjoo

This week, DUT hosted an annual luncheon to celebrate the awarding of the 27th Sharon Wilson Award for the Top Annual English and Communication Student, in which Noorain Manjoo, a second-year DUT Human Resource Management student, was announced as the winner for 2016.

She beat more than 5000 students for the prize and was awarded a cash prize of R2 600 by award sponsor, Clive Wilson.

“The award was established in 1989 after the death of my wife, Sharon, from a brain aneurysm in 1988,” said Clive during his speech before handing over the prize. “The award pays tribute to Sharon, who worked in the University’s English Department. When my wife died I thought, ‘what can I do to honor her memory?’ That is how this prize money got set up in 1989. I first started the prize-giving with only R500 and I increased it every few years until it got to the 10th year when I made it R1,000 and since then I increased it by R100 in line with the year 11th, 12th, etc. when I paid out of my own pocket untill the 20th year when I retired fully. I then instructed that from the 21st year onward, it be paid out of the Old Mutual Investment Fund Unit Trust. This fund has grown from the initial R2,000 to the +-R100,000 over the years mainly because the fund was not touched for the first 20 years and the fund was just allowed to benefit of the capital growth and all the dividends that were reinvested. So the awards will continue even when I’m gone,” he said.

DUT English and Communications Senior Lecturer and Programme Coordinator, Terry Herd, said she remembers Sharon’s devotion to her students. “This is a great commemoration in her honor, her passion to her work and dedication to the University,” she said.

This year’s winner, Manjoo, was ecstatic with her win. “I am very privileged to have won such a prestigious award and will definitely recommend other students to work hard and strive to win such an accolade,” she said. 

– Siphephelo Sibiya and Waheeda Peters

Pictured: Award sponsor, Clive Wilson with Noorain Manjoo, 2016 Sharon Wilson Award winner, at the annual luncheon.

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