A former street sweeper, Khanyisile Dlamini from Umbumbulu, south of Durban, hopes her remarkable journey to becoming one of the adaptive graduates from the Durban University of Technology (DUT), will inspire others to achieve academic success.
Dlamini (29) is happy to have taken the decision to enrol at DUT, six years after completing Grade 12. She was awarded her Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration at the DUT 2025 Autumn Graduation Ceremony, which was held at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban on Wednesday, 21 May 2025.
Providing insight on how she transformed her life from being a street sweeper to a DUT adaptive graduate who holds a postgraduate diploma, Dlamini said: “My DUT journey started in 2019 while I was a general worker at Durban Solid Waste. I decided to empower myself since I was young, working in the streets. After completing matric, I could not further my studies due to my poor background. When I got the opportunity to sweep the streets and collect waste, I took it as it was my only hope to supporting my family. The job served as my motivation to fulfilling my dream of acquiring a university qualification. I had bigger dreams than sweeping the streets of Isipingo.”
She is forever grateful to DUT for affording her a chance to empower herself and those around her. Dlamini shared that her first qualification from DUT was a Diploma in Business Administration and she was lucky to receive funding for her Advanced Diploma in Business Administration, which she also completed at DUT. After seeing it was possible for her to further her studies, she then enrolled for her Postgraduate Diploma, which she recently obtained from DUT and has since registered for her Master’s degree. Her aspiration is to achieve a PhD in the years ahead.
Dlamini recalled that she was 20 years old when she received the job to sweep the streets. She said some people used to tell her she was too young to be doing this job. She revealed that she enrolled at DUT while she was still a street sweeper, and it was tough juggling her daily duties with her studies. Most of the time, Dlamini indicated that she used to attend classes with her DSW cleaning uniform as her day started early at work and she would have to rush to classes.
“During my studies I had to work half days and start my shift early to accommodate my studies. It was not possible for me to go back home to change after my shift so I would go to class with my uniform. I didn’t care what others thought. I would explain my story to them. My focus was on empowering myself and transforming my life to support my younger siblings. They were relying on me as we had lost our parents at a young age, we ended being raised by our aunt who was not financially stable. Everyone knew me with my orange uniform on campus, people eventually got used to me attending classes with my work uniform. I was not willing to be late or miss my classes,” shared Dlamini.
She is currently employed as a clerk under Bidvest, which she also believes is a position that is her steppingstone to greater opportunities.
Her advice to those wishing to follow in her footsteps is to never use their background as a barrier to achieving their dreams.
Pictured: Khanyisile Dlamini.
Photographer: S’bonelo Dlamini
Simangele Zuma
