Sizwe Mkwanazi was born to a teen mom and raised by his farmworker grandparents. He became a part-time gardener to get himself through college, this is his incredible story…
Sizwe Mkwanazi was born when his mother, Delisile Mkwanazi, was just 17-years-old. At the time, this brought embarrassment to the family as his mother was so young and unmarried. Sizwe’s grandparents went in search of the father but were met with denial and shut doors.
They then chose to send their daughter back to school and raise Sizwe themselves. They gave him the best life they could with their farmworker wages. What they lacked in financial support, they made up for in encouragement and support for both Sizwe and his mother.
“It was very tough for a young girl in the community to give birth after having not married. It was so embarrassing when my grandparents went to the family of the boy who supposedly made my mom fall pregnant. There was a denial that he was the father. My grandparents had to take me as their child to ease the burden on my mother, who was already embarrassed among her peers to have fallen pregnant and having to go back to school.”
Sizwe finished grade 9 in 2007 and decided to enrol in a vocational college so he could get a valuable qualification sooner. He spent three years studying for a national vocational certificate in office administration. During this time, he also worked as a part-time gardener to fund his studies.
“My aim was to finish TVET and hopefully find employment but in my final year I applied to study at the University of Johannesburg.”
The academic bug had bitten and Sizwe became passionate about furthering his academic career. In 2011, he enrolled for a diploma in entrepreneurship at the University of Johannesburg, which he completed in 2013. Sizwe continued his education by completing a bachelors degree in technology.
He was then awarded a scholarship in 2015 to study towards a master of technology degree in Operations Management at UJ’s engineering faculty. He completed this degree last year. Along the way, he also did a correspondence course, earning a postgraduate diploma in management from the North West University. During his Operations Management degree, he lectured in Business Management at UJ.
This all led to the moment he was awarded a scholarship to attend Oxford to complete his doctorate. He applied to three different universities and was surprised when he got his Oxford acceptance. By September 2018, Sizwe will have completed his dream academic programme and will become Dr Sizwe Mkwanazi. From there, he hopes to become a professor and teach entrepreneurship.
“Being accepted at Oxford is a huge achievement for me, especially as I come from a family where I still find it difficult to say that I’m the only person with a degree,”
“My hope is, when I finish, I would have published enough and supervised enough masters students so that I can apply for a professorship in the field of entrepreneurship education.”
Sizwe’s hard work has made him, possibly, the first student in South Africa who studied at a vocational college to be accepted at Oxford. He is truly an inspiration! We cannot wait to see what his bright future holds.
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