Growing up in rural Transkei, now a part of the Eastern Cape, I was a big, big dreamer. Education was important to my mother who was a nurse, and who had developed herself in adult life from being a domestic worker. She designed the course of my education, and I never thought there was a different option but to pass well, go to university and obtain a degree to lead to a good job.
I remember thirteen-year-old me sitting on a red polished stoep after school, dreaming and drawing a table of my upcoming grades and years, imagining how at 21 I’d be an adult with a degree and a job. Today I see that this was natural foresight and scenario planning. I was the first to go to university in my nuclear family, though there were neighbors in the community who had degrees and who were deemed to be respectable members of society. When in December 2000 I graduated with a BSc Honors Degree in Geology from the University of Cape Town, a huge party was organized for me. It was called a double celebration because in October of the same year I had turned 21. I had achieved my teenage dream – I had executed my plan drawn on the red stoep eight years earlier.
I remember dressing up at a neighbor’s house so that I’d walk into my home for the party through a guard of honor along the gravel road, with school children doing majorettes, followed by two rows of local graduates dressed in their academic regalia. It was like I’m an academic bride. During the ceremony there was a local guest speaker who is an acclaimed academic, we sang the national anthem, and my mother cried. I remember it like it was yesterday, and it’s been another 21 years since that period because I’m 42 now.
I see now how that ceremony wasn’t just about me, but about the community where I grew up. Only much later would I understand what the impact of my education journey was to others younger than me. Directly and indirectly, I have been a positive influence in my community. Just a few months ago a successful mining engineer sent me this message (edited): “Hi Sisi, as a young boy growing up, I always wanted to be successful in life. I don’t know if you recall this but before my big brother went to Cuba to study medicine, he came to you for career guidance. Guess what, I was the little boy who he came with, and I listened to your conversation. In essence I am now in the mining industry because of you. And I am grateful… I think I was 12/13yrs old when you had your graduation ceremony. That day I did not go to the veld to look after livestock, I was seated on grass on the front row, wearing a white t-shirt. You’re my inspiration Sisi. I love you so much.”
I went to UCT in January 1997, armed with a good matric pass from All Saints College. I had never been to such a big city before, and my first memories are hilarious today. I still remember the noise of morning taxis from Mowbray to Cape Town. I remember the shock of people who spoke so many different languages. I will never forget the optical illusion of the mist-covered Table Mountain looking like it’s moving towards me as the mist drifted away from me. I had only R3,000 in my brand-new bank account on arrival, having been asked in a letter from UCT to bring R15,000. I would beg if it came to that, my mother had canceled policies to come up with cash, and R3000 was the most she could gather.
A few weeks passed and no one asked me for the money, instead I got to be a regular visitor at the Financial Aid office where I learnt that I qualified for TEFSA (now NSFAS) and some additional grants for the subjects I passed well in matric. I made good use of these opportunities and sent R1500 back to my mother while using the other R1500 to buy some clothes and my first radio. With the information from the Financial Aid Office, I also applied for bursaries. I applied to more than 20 companies and by June 1997 I had progressed to interview stages with Sasol and Anglo American. I was awarded a full scholarship by Anglo American starting in 1998 on condition I passed all my first-year subjects. This was probably my biggest motivator in my first year. I now believe that it helped me overcome the many of the challenges I had in Cape Town, from culture shock to language dynamics to missing my mother.
From 1998 my life basically changed, I was never home for long again as holidays were spent travelling the country for geology field trips and on December holidays I worked as a vacation student and sent some money home.
I started working formally on Monday 8 January 2001, and I’ve had an illustrious career in the mining industry and in other sectors as I explored my options as I got older. Choosing a career in the mining industry had been another successful strategy based on what was happening in the country at the time. I had read a newspaper article in January 1997 about the industry looking for black people, and for women. That article was how I made my choice of subjects; it was not through comprehensive career guidance based on my interests and passions. I didn’t have that luxury but today I’m glad I had a winning strategy.
Today I’m still closely associated with the mining industry as my peers and mentorship circles are from the industry. I have served in various non-geology roles, and I believe that my first degree was just the beginning. I have studied further and obtained an MBA from the UNISA Graduate School of Business in 2013, and I plan to continue until I find an area to work on my passions and advance myself towards being Dr Tetyana PhD.
Education never ends. Education is not just the degree, it’s everything that you think and do with what you’re exposed to. It’s your attitude to life, and it’s never too late to be what you might have been. Keep going.
I have also done amazing work outside my professional space and some of this can be seen here.
My LinkedIn Profile is Nqabakazi Tetyana.
The Small Things Fund 