Busisiwe Mbatha

I am Busisiwe Goodness Mbatha. I was born on 17 March 1971 at Emondlo Township in the small town of Vryheid. I am the sixth child of the late Mr. and Mrs. Mbatha in the family of nine. I am the coordinator of the Ntuzuma Youth Parish and the executive member of the Durban and District Council of Churches. Academically I am a third-year student in UDW, presently doing a B. Admin. Degree. As I have mentioned above, I come from Emondlo Township at Vryheid where I am the active member of the Mondlo Youth Association mostly know as Moya.

My family background dates back in the early 1940’s when my mother and my father married each other. But to mention about them, they were both coming from the lower class family that were most educationally, economically, politically and socially backwards. Above all that they were characterized by poverty. However my parents did emerge from those conditions and build a family of nine, out of which I am the sixth daughter. Therefore my family emerged seeing no need to struggle towards their future or for their education. As a result my elder brothers and sisters were affected by customs, thus they are illiterate. But fortunately they have been able to build their families. My father has been attacked by heart attacks at his early 30’s, leaving the burden to my mother to be the only breadwinner, wince he was interrupted by illness and he was treated in different hospitals for this but there was no change. This brought him to an end of his era on 18 August 1976. My mother was left alone as a sole provider of this family with my brothers having no assistance to her. Due to financial constraint and the seriousness we have been forced to move to Matubatuba in Aululand where our grandfather and grandmother stays, they were forced to take us as their responsibilities. My two elder sisters have been married but they have no support to us. Whereas my three brothers are married and working as labourers, earning the wage to support their families only. I and the other three girls, we are living with our relatives who are able to support us educationally and socially. I am the first in my family to reach at this standard of education. I thank God for all his provision, He is the Great. My mother passed away on 15 April 1989.

I think my family background has got all details in connection with my financial circumstances in my family. But to add on that, my family has no inherited wealth, as such they are financially backward. I do not know anything about my father’s previous job, since I was born at the time when he had a high blood pressure characterized by the heart attack. Therefore he spent most of his life in hospitals than his family. About my mother, she was a labourer earning a little wage on which we were able to survive until she decided to send us to our grandmother at Matubatuba. Up to this point in time we have beer helped by our relatives to obtain living, since my grandmother passed in 1986, also leaving us in bitter conditions. I have been helped by my cousin, Mr. Ndlovu who picked up in 1989 to pursue my education in this institution of UDW. But at the present moment his financial circumstances are not good because he has to support his daughter in ML Sultan Technikon. Moreover he had to amputate his leg due to a diabetic disease. Therefore in his work, he works for fewer hours than the normal hours leading to a decrease in his wage. Just to mention he is the only breadwinner in his family, therefore responsible for his seven children and his wife who has been fired out in Eagle Taxis last year. About my brothers and sisters, I can’t comment about them, but what they earn as their wages is enough for their families.

I started my lower primary schooling in 1977 at the age of 6 in Roman Catholic School at Nryheid, together with my higher primary schooling. My family background motivated me to aim for a high and better future through any education. Though conditions were hot and bitter I was able to struggle for my secondary education which I did at Matubatuba in Ikusasalethu Secondary School. It is in this school that I passed my standard 6, 7, and 8, and in 1986 my grandmother passed leaving us in a serious problem. All this did not discourage me from my aims and for that reason I did go to one of my relatives who was staying in Nongoma-Zulu area, to help me financially and with a place to stay to continue with my schooling. All happened as I wished. Then I registered for my High School at Phumanyoua for Standard 9 and 10. I did achieve my goal at that time. The problem now was to get a financial support for further training. Therefore in 1989 I did some temporal jobs to overcome my financial disaster. But fortunately at that time I found my cousin who was prepared to assist as to further my education.

Then in 1990 I registered as a full-time student in UDW, doing my first year courses in B. Admin. Degree. Though I find it so tough, unlike in schools I used to get C’s and B’s without doing any strenuous work, but I managed to pass my four courses out of five. Also in 1991 I’ve been able to pass my courses due to more effort which I did put in order to achieve my goals. Therefore this year 1992 I hope to make the best for the rest.

My struggle and the help which I have received from other people taught me to have a willing to other people. Then now I’m highly interested in working with other people. This can be one of the reasons why I chose B. Admin as a course. This course is for those people who are interested in working with people and serve the interests of those people to promote their community welfare. To mention about my involvement I can say that in 1989 I became the member of Education and Renewal Ministries and its focus is based on education and bursaries, health and welfare, children’s rights and the youth problems. Under education our focus has been on the education crisis and our project deal with students of all levels of education but our emphasis has been on matric student. On this matric project I’ve been of the volunteers to teach those students I also take part in matching campaigns.

On youth problems we dealt with problems which affect their different societies. To highlight, we came across with the problem of marginalized youth which means those youth members who are unemployed and who has been ejected from school as a result of apartheid and violence, therefore found themselves on the outer margins of the society; thus alienated to discover the nature and extent of this problem, we have held workshops and conference so as to tackle the problem. I have been in the Planning Committee as well as Steering Committee of the workshops and conferences. So far we have organized workshops for skills development. Above from that I also take part in our local community structure to resolve crisis facing our society. Though these has been a demanding and challenging task, it has not turn me down because my intention was to help my community.

I am not going to mention any detailed statements about how I am going to spend the grant. By the way I intend to spend the grant on tuition. If the grant would exceed my tuition, I could spend it on books and on transport fare. But all in all, this grant would be so helpful in paying for the tuition because I do not know what I could have to pay for the next installment fees.

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