As the Class of 2025 matriculants in SA’s villages and townships work through their final exams, I want to remind them that this year isn’t just about passing papers. It’s about unlocking gates long bolted by circumstance and equalising a playing field that’s never been fair.
Your matric certificate is a key forged in resilience, ready to open doors that lift you, your family and your community out of poverty. Don’t let anyone — a sceptic, a statistic or your own doubt — claim your education is inferior. It’s not.
Delivered in resource-constrained environments, in classrooms where roofs leak and lights flicker, your schools are sustained solely by the state, without parental fees or corporate support. These are not your failings; they indict a system scarred by apartheid’s legacy.
Yet, on the other side of matric lie opportunities that set you apart, not by luck but by unbreakable spirit. We who walked your path are living proof. We stand tall, still challenging the machinery of exclusion. And in doing so, we’re writing your story beautifully. Go out there, give your all and claim what’s yours.
My journey began in the late 1990s at George Khoza High School in Dobsonville, Soweto. A township boy in under-resourced corridors, with survival as the curriculum and uncertainty as the teacher.
Success felt like a foreign language, spoken only in tales of Mandela. Yet matric became my rebellion. I passed with fire, not fanfare, and entered the University of Zululand in 2000.
KwaZulu-Natal was alien, culturally and academically. Competing with privileged peers, imposter syndrome roared. Could township instincts hold? But education equalises. It dismantles barriers.
In 2006, persistence won me the Nelson Mandela Scholarship, sending me to Durham University in the UK for an MBA. From Soweto’s pulse to England’s spires, the shock was seismic. Yet amid global strategy essays and ethics debates, I saw my story not as a footnote but as a chapter of triumph.
By 2024, I had earned a doctorate in entrepreneurship from Durham. From township matriculant to Gordon Institute of Business Science senior lecturer, pan-African bank executive and founder of Youth Leadership Enterprise Development (YLED), empowering youth since 2004, my path proves that constraints are a prologue, not destiny. Your environment doesn’t define your endpoint; your resolve does.
Sheldon Tatchell, the force behind Legends Barbershop, is from Eldorado Park’s hardships. Tatchell’s matric year had no tutors or extras, just raw drive in a strained state school. Self-doubt shadowed him, but he turned clippers into a thriving brand by mentoring young barbers. “I took the cable car — lessons from those before,” he quips. Today, he doesn’t just cut hair; he shapes futures.
Nomso Kana is a trailblazing nuclear scientist and founder of Simsciex Technologies, who is bridging the digital divide one fibre optic cable at a time. Hailing from the rural Ngxwalane village near Qonce in the Eastern Cape, Nomso’s matric unfolded in a township school where labs were fantasies and STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] dreams felt worlds away.
Inspired by sci-fi tales of spaceships on candlelit evenings, she devoured maths and physics textbooks, her resolve outshining the resource gaps. No private labs or sponsors. Just the state’s basics and a fire for the stars. At the University of Fort Hare, the urban leap amplified her doubts, competing in a “foreign world” of polished peers.
Yet, she channelled it into breakthroughs: qualifying as a medical biology scientist, leading nuclear research at Pelindaba and earning accolades like a TechWomen fellowship. Defeating cancer at 23 only sharpened her edge.
Post-matric, Nomso pivoted to entrepreneurship, founding Sun ‘n Shield 84 Technologies for fibre optic manufacturing and Simsciex for broadband infrastructure, tackling rural connectivity head-on. As co-founder of Taungana STEM, she’s empowered over 900 rural girls across Africa with STEM expos and coding camps.
Now a governor at the Nuclear Energy Foundation and a Mail & Guardian Powerful Woman, Nomso proves women from the margins don’t just rise; they redefine the horizon.
Ntuthuko Shezi from eNdwedwe township emerged from overcrowded classes, street temptations, no safety net, just state support and belief. Post-matric, self-doubt nearly derailed his tech dreams, but a Mandela ethos prevailed. His livestock wealth platform now connects farmers to global investors, creating jobs and proving innovation blooms in competition.
These aren’t anomalies. They’re blueprints. Your constraints today will celebrate your ascent tomorrow. They amplify your edge: resilience from necessity, empathy from community, and innovation from limitation.
To every village and township matriculant: believe in your year. Go conquer. Let’s meet on the other side, standing tall.
- Dr Zwane is a Nelson Mandela scholar and founder of YLED.
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