USB director Prof Piet Naudé talks about the three forms of excellence that is needed to make South Africa thrive. This summarises Prof Naudé's speech which he delivered at USB's recent 2016 Top Achievers Awards function.

Watch the full video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diHYHKTD0Fk

For South Africa to succeed as a country we need to be a country of excellence. The question is: What do we mean by the word excellence?

It firstly requires us to understand excellence as a competitive notion. In athletics, ten people will start the race and only one can be the winner, and one in second place and third place. In that way we allow people to excel in what they do because they compete against each other and in the end we crown the winners and reward them.

It is very important that in South Africa we keep that notion of excellence. We need people who excel, we need people who can compete with the best in the world, and we need a spirit in our society where those individuals are rewarded with our positive affirmation. ​