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One of the building projects Samukelisiwe is involved in
is already on her way to shaking up the world. She
makes it clear that women are now ready to take up
their rightful place in sectors previously dominated by
men. “I chose Building because now there are a lot of
women-empowering initiatives in this sector. There is
change in the balance of job opportunities,” she said.
As a student, Samukelisiwe resolved to do the best
she could, not just be one of the numbers. “I felt I
had to do well. I felt no one would do it for me,” she
said. She felt that her good performance would push
the door open so that other women coming after her
would find it easy to break into the ‘men’s world’. “I
studied with my friend, Ayanda Mkhize, who also did
very well in her exams,” she added.
Key to Samukelisiwe’ success is her drive. “You have
to have self-discipline. I had to put a lot of effort into
my studies. I was inspired by the fact that women had
been looked down upon. I wanted to show everyone
that there is no difference between men and women.
There are no limitations imposed by gender.”
Samukelisiwe is pursuing her dream to be a
businesswoman in the construction industry. She
already has a company that she owns with Cebile,
her 20-year-old sister, called S&C Developers. “We
do delivery for suppliers. At the moment there are just
the two of us. We are also both interested in livestock
farming, and farming in general. We want to do animal
farming, particularly pig farming. And goat farming. We
will use our father’s land,” she said. Samukelisiwe’s
chances of succeeding in this area are big; her mother
is also a farmer.
Samukelisiwe is also employed by Figgup General
Trading, a company where she did her work-
integrated learning (WIL), which does water pipelines
and earthworks. On top of that, she does paperwork
for her father’s company, Sinethando Construction.
Management Sciences awardee attributes success to family
Slungile Mkhize has received the Vice-
Chancellor’s Award for the top student
in the Faculty of Management Sciences.
“My family inspired me to excel. I come
from a very strict family. By strict I
mean ‘old school’ as they still believe
that when a girl goes to university, she
will eventually meet friends who will
mislead her and she may even end up
falling pregnant. So I had to invest hours
and spend sleepless nights in order to
prove to them that I honestly went to
university to be a better person tomorrow, not only for
me but for them too,” said Slungile, who graduated
with a Diploma in Human Resources Management.
The secret to her success is simple: time management.
She learnt early on that if she was to succeed, she would
have to manage the amount of time she spent with her
friends, or at least surround herself with good friends.
“I had to surround myself with the right people – not
only my friends, but also being able to socialise with
other classmates and form group
discussions with them,” said Slungile.
Her path to MUT was not a straight
line. Unlike her peers, she joined MUT
after two gap-years. “It was not easy at
first to get my mind used to the idea of
‘learning’ again,” she admitted. “It was
not easy to share a class with students
who had recently matriculated,
students who studied from privileged
schools, and multiracial schools.”
Besides having to re-orientate herself to being back in
the classroom with fellow students, Slungile also had to
contend with financial difficulties and the temptations
that come with being a student. “I had to remind myself
of who I was, where I came from and what my values
were. Of course, that came with surrounding myself
with people who challenged how I thought, and those
are the people that contributed significantly towards
my academic excellence,” she said.
Slungile Mkhize
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