Raised by parents who worked as cleaners, and later became one herself, Millicent was driven by a single vision: to break the cycle of poverty for her family. Pushing through dreams delayed, she has embodied resilience and risen through the ranks to become “Dr Millicent Motheogane” and one of the heads of Wits University’s academic departments.
Johannesburg, South Africa (19 August 2025) – Raised by parents who worked hard day in and out as cleaners, Millicent Motheogane always knew she wanted to be the one to break the cycle of poverty for her family.
Millicent had ambitious aspirations for her future, believing that the key to achieving them lay in pursuing a qualification that would open doors to a better life.
After high school, her parents’ savings allowed her to get a certificate in Information Technology, but when the funds ran out, she found herself joining her mother on cleaning jobs. Through a fortunate connection from one of her mom’s clients, Millicent landed a secretarial job, which provided the stable income she needed to return to school.
She enrolled for a Diploma in Information Technology at the University of South Africa in 2003 and obtained her qualification in 2010, before earning a BTech and an MTech in Information Technology from the Tshwane University of Technology.
As many can attest, studying while working came with its challenges and sacrifices, but Millicent’s survival strategy was to ‘close her ears to outside noise’ and keep the vision.
Today, the Deputy Head of the Academic Information and Systems Unit (AISU) at Wits University, after initially being appointed as a Projects and Proposal Officer within the Development and Fundraising Office at the university, Millicent has risen through the ranks guided by resilience and the unshakable belief that no dream is out of reach.
“I used to pass by the AISU offices at Wits and say to myself, ‘One day I will be here’,” she tells Wits.
Motivated by her own experiences and the challenges students faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, she pursued a PhD to understand how digital technology impacts students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
She walked the graduation stage in her red gown last month, and although the journey has been far from easy, nevertheless straightforward, Millicent wants every young woman to know that their dreams are within reach and that anything is possible.
Sources: Wits University
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