Supporting mentorship at grass roots

In this issue we publish the outstanding effort of the winner of the inaugural students’ essay competition. Entry was open to all undergraduate students from a Faculty of Health Sciences in South Africa. The remit was to craft a 1 000-word essay on the fundamental threat to global surgery: bacteria resistance to all known antimicrobial agents. The question posed was “how do you envisage the practice of surgery in the era of antimicrobial pan-resistance?” This innovative initiative originated from the enthusiasm of Hlohonolofatso Bookholane, one of the student leaders in the UCT Surgical Society. The advertisement last year attracted five submissions which were evaluated by our Associate Editors in a blind adjudication. The winner was Langelihle Mthembu, a first-year student from the University of the Witwatersrand. His biosketch and those of the joint runners-up are published in this issue while the latters’ essays are available online.