Cape girl gets 10 distinctions

2008-12-30 17:47

Cape Town - For the second year in a row, the Western Cape has produced a student with 10 matric distinctions.

This year's prodigy is Zanelle van Zyl, 18, of Cape Town's DF Malan High School.

"It's very, very, hard work," she said at an awards ceremony in the city on Tuesday.

"It's many hours of studying, many nights of going to sleep late, and a great deal of support from parents, friends and family.

"Without that, I would probably not have managed this year. And all the teachers, who were always prepared to give me extra help."

Van Zyl came in at joint number 11 on the province's top 20 list of matriculants.

She took 11 subjects: Afrikaans and English home language, mathematics, life orientation, accounting, information technology, applied computing, physical science, life sciences, Xhosa second language, and "additional programme" maths.

Though she did not have her detailed results when she was interviewed, she said it was probably the last subject that did not yield a distinction.

She also wrote an optional extra maths paper on geometry and probability theory.

But her matric year was not all work: she said she had played for the school's first hockey team for the past two years, in both of which it had won the Western Province League title.

She sang in the school choir, and had been a member of its wind orchestra.

She had also been chosen as a South African youth representative for climate change conferences in England and - just before the exams started - in Kobe, Japan.

"I was pretty busy... it was a wonderful year," she said.

She said she planned to study accounting at the University of Stellenbosch next year.

"I hope I get a bursary... I hope the 10 As and being in the top 20 will help with that," she said.

Her mother, Lennie, works for a bank, while her father Anton is an advocate.

- SAPA