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Mboto Obtains 21 Distinctions Against All Odds

Mboto Obtains 21 Distinctions Against All Odds

The 22 year-old Sanelisiwe Mboto from Phoenix, Durban said losing both her parents as a 12-year-old, taking a two-year gap post matric and working at a call centre in order to finance her studies, inspired her to strive for academic excellence.

Mboto graduated with a National Diploma in Public Relations and Communication Management from the Durban University of Technology (DUT), obtained with Cum Laude and the Deans Merit this morning at the FJ Sithole Hall, Indumiso Campus in Pietermaritzburg.

The emotional Mboto who is the last born amongst two sets of twins as her siblings, shared the story of how losing both her parents had an adverse impact in her life. “The sad part is that I barely knew my dad, and to be honest – I’m not sure what really happened between him and my mom. When my mother passed away, I was in grade 7. She passed away on 15 June 2008 – exactly a week after my birthday. Ever since that day, my entire life had changed. My sisters were turning 21 in that year and they were already faced with the harsh reality of having to take care of a 12-year-old while planning a funeral. My brothers were only 26. In simple terms – we all hadn’t found our feet yet,” she said.

The difficulties for Mboto didn’t end there as she struggled to obtain the required marks in her matric in order to enrol at a University, which meant she had to upgrade her matric with limited financial resources. “Well because of the ‘diploma pass’ I lost conditional acceptance that I had secured at Rhodes University to study towards a degree in Journalism. What made things worse is that my family spent a lot of money with the application process, using money they didn’t have – and it at all went down the drain. Turns out I failed Mathematics dismally, which resulted in me not obtaining a Bachelor’s pass. After that huge slap in the face, my ego was crushed and my confidence towards anything academic had gone to the dogs,” she said.

“Despite everything, my sisters still believed in me and decided that I should take a gap year and upgrade my maths mark at a matric school called ICESA located in Durban CBD. And guess what? I made a mess of that too. Unfortunately, that meant that I had wasted another year, and more money. Before I knew it – it was the year 2015, and at this point I still had no idea what was going on in my life. My family’s funds were exhausted and here I was faced with another gap year. In February 2015, I began job hunting and immediately landed a job at a call centre. When I got this job, I told myself that this is the job that is going to fund my academic career. I opened my first bank account and began saving. I earned R3750 a month, and every month when my salary was deposited into my account, the bank would deduct R1 500 and have it transferred into my savings account,” Mboto elaborated.

In 2016 Mboto finally managed to enrolled at DUT’s Riverside Campus in Pietermaritzburg. “When I got to DUT, I was fuelled with the hunger to succeed. For me attending every lecture and tutorial was of vital importance because I knew the sacrifices that I had made to earn a seat in this institution. I began to regain my confidence. At that moment I reminded myself that I was born to be great,” she said.

Mboto’s hunger for success eventually paid dividends as she went on to maintain an excellent academic performance, which also earned her an exchange programme to Germany in 2017. “I managed to walk out with eight distinctions out of the 10 modules that I completed in my first year. In the year 2017, something even bigger happened. About two months into my second year, I received a call from my Head of Department, Dr Dlamini. He called to inform me that, based on my excellent academic performance in the year 2016 – I had been shortlisted as one of the students who may be chosen to be a part of the exchange student programme that would allow be to study for a semester in Germany. I was absolutely excited as my interview was successful, and I was the chosen candidate,” she said enthusiastically.

The same Mboto who lost her parents at the age of 12, messed up her matric, had a 2-year gap post her matric – has travelled to Germany and is now graduating Cum Laude with a Deans Merit.

The resolute Mboto said she is currently furthering her studies with a BTech in Public Relations and Communication Management while seeking employment. She is also running a blog (Told in Bold) and plans to start a PR Consultancy soon. “I have also started an initiative of donating bread to students on campus who are in need, I began this initiative in 2018 because I know what it’s like not to have anything,” she added.

Pictured: Sanelisiwe Mboto

Nduduzo Ndlovu

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