Mpumi’s aspirations sparked by IT and her love for the city of love, Paris

IT is so rare to find glittering, precious gemstones in the townships of Gauteng, let alone in South Africa that sparkle so glowingly as to beckon their destiny like NOMPUMELELO PRECIOUS MOTLOUNG is doing. Nompumelelo has her sights set on being the next Steve Job, the local Beyonce, or even fly to far-away Paris and live in the city of love. However, at the moment she is determined to get an education, become an IT specialist or be involved in bones and skeletons as a forensic expert. Here she tells Thembi Masser about hacking computers, lighting electricity fuses, singing and hockey.

Mpumi, as she is affectionately known, was born in Secunda, Mpumalanga, but relocated to Etwatwa in Ekurhuleni to chase her dream of becoming an IT specialist. She is now in her second year of her diploma studies at the Springs College, where she found solace in the fact that at least poor students are offered bursaries to enable them to obtain a tertiary education without fuss and red tape hampering their progress. And, most importantly, the college finds work for IT students immediately after successful completion of their studies. Students are placed with esteemed companies like Telkom, Transnet and Samsung. Mpumi is eager to be employed by Telkom above all others.

She is blessed to have an industrious father like Joseph who is indeed a jack of all trades. Joseph is a motor mechanic, a carpenter, a plumber, electrician and a number of many other trades.  And Mpumi has a hand in trying to do all those things while growing up, helping her father finish tasks. But it was the sparks of electricity that caught her attention. She developed a love for light, and life, “because electivity gives energy. I used to help him when growing up in Secunda,” she explains. In the beginning she fiddled with pistons and radiators but they proved be too much for her. “There are far too many components and parts under the bonnet of a car and, in the end, I scrammed away.” So she focused her sights on the electricity network instead. And for a while that proved to be a cinch she was looking for.

So when she finished her matric enrolled at the Brooklyn City College for a diploma in electrical engineering. She dutifully did and passed N3 but suddenly after that the lights went out and she dropped out of her course. Someone lite a spark and advised her to try her luck in IT. “This man saw my matric results even before I went to Brooklyn and advised me I was good for IT. At the time I did not listen because I saw myself as an electrical engineer and nothing else.” So she ignored him. It was only when she doing her N3 that it all became clearer for her. “So I went back to the drawing board to consider my options.”

After a period of much research and introspection she decided to do IT at Springs College. “The fact they find work for you after your studies did it for me. Apart from that IT offers so many possibilities.”  And I can also own a business in the future if I wanted to, she adds. “There is good money in the industry as not so many people are into IT.”  But even at Springs College someone nearly derailed her desires, but her focus never lost direction. During registration, a lecturer offered a word of advice that nearly threw her off the track. “He advised me to stick to electrical engineering because I did so well at Brooklyn and that I have a flair for it.” But, politely, she refused. Instead she secured herself a bursary and successfully registered for a three year diploma in IT. 

So far she has grown to love IT, especially as some components of electrical engineering are infused into her present course. “This is to my advantage as I did that before. I have also discovered that I like being behind the behind the computer. And everything is so much fun, interesting. I am studying to work under good conditions away from the harshness of the sun and other inclement elements. And I hate hard labour.” 

Mpumi says IT as interesting as it is ‘naughty’. “You can hack anyone to steal money. But look at me though. I am a sweet girl who habours no such thoughts.  My ultimate thoughts are to work for Telkom and, later, I imagine myself developing products for Apple, where there is a lot of moolah,” she laughs.

But far away in the beginning when she still at school she wanted to be in forensics. That is until her school, Sandra High, took her with her school mates to a career exhibition. She discovered that in forensics she will mess herself with blood-and that she had to do a basic course that covered everything forensics. So she shied away from it. “Imagine me fiddling with human stools and besides you, see I have a fragile heart and do not want to see people hurt.”

That sparked her decision to play with electrical components with her father. But long before IT, electricity and her father and forensics, she was keen to be a singer but her mother poured cold water on her ambition. ‘She said singers die paupers.” And that was regardless of the fact that that at school Mpumi was an established chorister. And a sport personality.

In the end she wants to go and live in Paris, “the city of love.”

FACT BOX

Primary School: Highveld Secunda

High Schjools; Highveld Park, Sandra

Subjects: Physics, maths, English, Afrikaans, LO, tourism, LS

Favourite subjects: English

Favourite sport: Hockey

Favoutite teachers Ms De Beer, Ms Davies and Ms Pretorious

Favoutite universities: UCT, Stellenbosch

Favourite careers/occupation: electrical engineering, IT, forensics, singer, dj  

Mpumi's college mates are as enthusiastic about life as she is

‘I am God-send to be with kids and to be the minister of education in SA’



Nothando believes that children are out future

NOTHANDO MASEMULA is an aspirant child psychologist who also eyes the prospect of the post of the minister of education. She runs the Sisonke After School project for learners in Etwatwa but, oddly, she plans to have no children of her own. Her mission is to help children reach for their dreams and to thrive in the world that promises so much but is littered with obstacles and variables. She opens her heart and talks to Thembi Masser about the state of education in SA and of the support her child psychologist aunt has given her from the very beginning.

At only 26 Nothando is determined to be a champion and a God-send for children. Her project, Sisonke, which she started running from August 2015, aims to work with learners right from grade 1 right up to grade 12. That project holds tutorials at a public  library every afternoon during week days. Sisonke helps learners with their homework, subject improvement and providers assistance in career advancement.

“At present,” she points out, “the education system is in shambles.” She says there is a lack of communication between teachers and learners. “Teachers are not adequately trained in the curriculum and therefore there is a vacuum between them and the children.”

Nothando has completed a teacher’s diploma at Unisa. She is currently busy with an advanced certificate in the discipline. “Later I will do child psychology because that is where it all leads.”

She explains that her diploma and certificate will be converted into a degree and then she will do her honours in psychology. But she is also a logistics drop-out. “You see I was pressured to do logistics after completing my matric because I was indecisive about my next move at the time.”

Her mother, Lillian, an ex-nurse, and her aunt, a child psychologist and an ex-teacher, wanted her to do something worthwhile. They were keen that I become someone ‘important’. “My aunt suggested logistics.”  So Nothando enrolled at Unisa for a three year diploma in logistics. But after only a year she quit. “It was not for me. When I looked in the mirror I saw a vast difference between Nothando and logistics.”

However, logistics did not fade into thin air as fast as she hoped it will. She went on a learnership at Germanlogistics company Dachser as an import controller. But that did ignite a spark to continue with her short-lived career.

She also did an internship with glass company PFG as a training administrator. In between, she did her teaching practicals at Creative Foundations and Training. “And now I am a qualified facilitator.”   

Although training as a teacher was the one thing uppermost in her mind, she had other things that she had to do off the classroom after she dropped out of the logistics studies. In that ‘gap year’, she, among other things, ventured out to explore life in Mozambique. There she intended to open a gym. However, it did not materialize. “But I enjoyed the beaches.  I was particularly intrigued by the scenery in Shama-Nkulu and Alton Maje and Costa do Sol and Maputo. It was heaven on earth.”

“But mosquitos spoilt the fun, they are a problem there,” she frowns, “and they seemed to bite only me instead of the locals,” she says, laughing.     

 

Establishing Sisonke has not been an easy ride. It was hell, she says. Even now, she continues, parents are skeptical of her. “I can assure you it is only because of my age. They take one look at me and then look at me in wonder.”

Sisonke also has no credible meeting place, a home, a venue. At present they operate out of a public library where they have to make a payment every month. Most parents do not pay every month, so she has to use her personal savings to augment whatever parents pay in that month. Lack of qualified staff also hampers proceedings. “People look at me in astonishment when I say I need qualified teachers.” That the curriculum changes every now and then also put the skids on the progress of her project. “That frustrates me big time. On top of that the kids are a headache.” Because the venue is problematic, she cramps all the learners from all the grades into one room. I help them with their home work in the first hour and in the second we do maths and other subjects.”

Surprisingly, Nothando says money, or the lack of it, is the least of her worries. “Not at all,” she quips.

But she is adamant about the poor state of the education in South Africa. “It is shambolic,” she asserts. “I wish to, and will be the minister of education one day just to sort out the mess one and for all,” she continues.

She feels secure in the company of children. “I am not sure why, but there is some serenity when I am surrounded by these lovely angels. Many kids are affected and infected by crime and abuse. Most of them do not access counseling and because of this they become scarred for life. When I am with them I know they will do well and this fuels my ambition to be a child psychology.”

Child psychologist, she says, help children realize their potential. They also help children deal with stress. “Children do sometimes feel isolated, forlorn and then end up not sure of themselves. They do not do their homework and they often throw tantrums to attract attention and sympathy. Then you need to hear them out to try and solve their problems.”

But she has no plans to have her own children. “I think, as a career woman, you will never have time for your kids. But, who knows, things can change as life moves on.”

In the meanwhile, she plans to shake Sisonke up. She dreams to turn it into a fully-fledged school one day and hopefully conduct training for teachers and parents. And, ultimately, possibly run the country’s education department.

Fact Box

Primary schools: Benoni West, Lee Rand, Vetkenner, Halfway House, Germiston Junior, JS Mdlaza

High school: Wordsworth

Favourite subjects: accounting, business studies, computer studies, maths literature, English, LO

Favourite subjects: business studies

Favourite teacher: Ms. Tempest