SOUTH AFRICA: Student battles robbers over thesis

The prospect of losing the only copy of her master’s thesis during a robbery was just too much for one South African student to bear. Noxolo Ntusi, 26, grappled with armed attackers to hold on to it during the incident in Johannesburg on Tuesday. “There’s no way I will let them take it,” she said. […]

The prospect of losing the only copy of her master’s thesis during a robbery was just too much for one South African student to bear. Noxolo Ntusi, 26, grappled with armed attackers to hold on to it during the incident in Johannesburg on Tuesday. “There’s no way I will let them take it,” she said. But she also said her actions were “not very smart” and advised others to give robbers what they ask for. “You can always write again,” she said.

Ms Ntusi, a medical scientist at the National Health Laboratory Service, had her molecular zoology master’s thesis on a hard drive when a car drew up beside her and two men jumped out, one brandishing a gun.