The 2024 graduation ceremony that will be spread across four days – 16-19 April, will see at least three members of the Department of Marketing and Communications graduating for their senior qualifications which they be awarded by the University. Two of these members will be graduating for their Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing. These are Ayanda Bulose, a Schools Liaison Assistant Officer in the department, and Thandeka Ntuli, an intern in the department.
Bulose said he was looking forward to his third graduation, after working hard last year. “It is unbelievable that I will be graduating this year, looking at the number of challenges which I have experience during the duration of the programme. I feel that I have gained more trust and confidence in myself and believe that I can complete everything I start and put my mind into.”
When Bulose graduated for his Diploma in Marketing in 2015, and for his Advanced Diploma in Marketing in 2018, he went ballistic with the attire. It does not look like he will do the same this year, for a graduation that he is dedicating to his daughter. “I am undecided on what I am going to wear, I have three colours of suites I need to choose from, and at the same time I am undecided whether to wear a formal shoe or sneaker, but I can assure you that I will be on point. Bulose said both his parents, to whom he dedicated the first two graduations, were going to attend the event to see him filing past the University Chancellor for the third time.
The very quiet and reserved Ntuli from Ulundi, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, said this graduation was the high point of hard work. Explaining how she was feeling about graduating for the second time in person – the University could not have physical graduation in 2021 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Ntuli said she had mixed feelings. “I am very excited, and sad at the same time. I am sad because I would have loved to have my mom at my graduation, but she left too soon. And I am happy because postgraduate studies were a bit hard, but I pushed through. I was able to stick to my guns; I am not the kind of person that gives up easily. My father always tells us that girls can only be independent if they can support themselves. They can do that if they have enough education,” said Ntuli.
Unlike most students at the University, Ntuli will be the sixth in her family to graduate with a qualification from a university. “Well, I am from a family with many graduates. I am the sixth graduate from my maternal side, and fourth graduate from my paternal side,” Ntuli said.
Ntuli already has most of the details of the graduation figured out. “The weekend before my graduation I will go to the saloon to get my nails and eyelashes done. Then on the day before the graduation, I will return to the saloon to install my weave. On my graduation day I will wake up very early, take a bath, get my makeup done, then get dressed,” Ntuli said. “To be honest I’m quite indecisive, but I want to wear something simple like a nice formal wide leg pair of pants with a corset and heels. I have already bought hair and jewellery. I will fetch my graduation attire at the end of March,” Ntuli said.
Ntuli is likely to come alone at the graduation ceremony; her father is posted far away; there are not many chances he will be able to make it to Durban. Ntuli said she would celebrate with friends a week after the graduation date.
The third member of the department to graduate will be Nosipho Mfeka, another intern in the department. Mfeka, from Ndwedwe, in the northeast of the KwaZulu-Natal, will be graduating with her Advanced Diploma in Marketing. Mfeka, a young woman of few words, said she was “very excited” that she was graduating. Mfeka is the second one in her family to graduate from a university. Mfeka will be wearing a black suit and a white shirt with white sneakers. Her family will be in the University’s iconic Seme Hall to see her. Mfeka does not plans for now what she will do after graduating.