COMPUTER LITERACY – A TICKET TO A BETTER LIFE

MUSA Tshabalala stands at the front of the room, punctuating his instructions with decisive taps on the touchresponsive smartboard at the front of the room. Among his students, eyes track and fingers clack on the keyboards of clean and well-maintained desktop computers, just over a year old.

This is not a corporate conference room. This is the Hillbrow Computer Centre and most of the people at the computers are residents of the surrounding areas in Joburg’s inner city.

“We’re repositioning to be the centre for the community,” says Wiseman Ngobese, who manages the facility. “We get people fresh from matric, as well as people fed up with their current job and wanting something better.”

A look around the classroom backs up his words. During one of the centre’s free computer literacy courses, machines seldom stand unused and the faces behind them reveal a wide range of ages.

Oscar Dlamini, 25, has been coming to the centre for seven months and studies graphic design.

“I had the opportunity to learn how to use a computer – you don’t get this opportunity most of the time,” Dlamini says, adding that the fact that the centre gives certificates when people have mastered certain skills was important to him.

“This was my first certificate in my life,” he says.

Tholakele Moyo, 38, hopes to pass her programme with flying colours and views the certificate she hopes to receive as her ticket to a better job.

“Now I’m working as a domestic worker but I want to work in offices,” she says. “Even if I fail, I am going to repeat.”

According to Tshabalala, the skills taught at the centre go beyond simple computer literacy.

“Ever since I’ve become a teacher, I’ve realised a different aspect that I didn’t know I had.

“I didn’t know I could stand in front of people and talk,” he says.

Funding for the facility comes from a variety of sources, according to Ngobese, and although the centre has existed since 2007, the computers it uses today have only been there for a year. –