Cape Town - The Western Cape province has honoured scores of top notch learners and schools for their 2011 National Senior Certificate examination achievements.
The learners, some of whom had to overcome disease and harsh studying conditions, were acknowledged at an inspiring event hosted at Premier Helen Zille's residence in Cape Town.
Some of those in attendance included Members of Parliament, school principals and parents.
South Africa's top student Ashraf Moolla, 18, from Rondebosch Boys' High School took the lion's share of the prizes. He achieved eight distinctions - including 100 percent in Maths and Physical Science.
The other top three matrics in the province who were honoured by Zille were Charl du Plessis and Jani Marais both from Hoerkool Stellenberg, who were tied in second position and Caitlin Anna Hayward from Herschel Girls School, who came in third.
An excited Moolla said he had been overwhelmed by both his results and the honour.
"There is no secret to success," he said, adding that hard work, self-belief and getting help from others were key.
"I had lots of people who helped me," he said, highlighting that he liked "playing with numbers" and planned to study actuarial science.
Wesley Paul du Plessis, who comes from an impoverished background, was honoured for scooping six distinctions.
He said that while studying was difficult at home, he did not see himself as a victim of circumstances as he kept his focus on achieving his goals. Du Plessis planned to study medicine full-time at the University of Cape Town while pursuing his dream in theater and acting on a part-time basis.
In the Learner Subject Awards, Mandiwakhe Ntlabati (from Dr Nelson Mandela High School) and Shariska Muller of Hoerskool De Kuilen clinched awards in IsiXhosa Home Language and Accounting respectively.
Rustenburg High School for Girls was honoured for coming first in the excellence in academic performance category, while Khayelitsha's Centre of Science and Technology made history for being the first school from a poor community to be in the top 10 of this category and was placed at ninth position.
In her remarks regarding this achievement, Zille said: "This is a very, very big deal... a spectacular story."
She said this was the first township school to make it to top 10 on merit.
The school's pass rate was over 95 percent and had a 99 percent pass rate in Maths.
