On the 22nd of August 2024, Sandile Ntethelelo Gumbi was awarded the Research Excellence Award for Next Generation Researchers by the NRF in recognition of outstanding academic performance by a final-year doctoral student. The prestigious National Research Foundation (NRF) Awards honors the country’s leading scientists and some of the next-generation researchers, emerging researchers, and best-performing researchers for excellence and achievement in knowledge creation and dissemination. The award was presented at the NRF Awards Ceremony that took place on Thursday, 22 August 2024 at Sun City – King’s Ball Room, Northwest Province.