Teen mom refused to give up on life
Determination sees communicator triumph
Though it is a regrettable thing for a young woman to experience, Nthabiseng Motsepe has shown that falling pregnant when you are still a teenager is not the end of the world.
A communication specialist, Motsepe, who is head of corporate communication at Nissan Africa, was able to turn her misfortune around.
“I had my first daughter when I was a teenager, and what really drove me and made me who I am today was the determination that I was not going to be another failure in the community I grew up in,” Motsepe told Sowetan.
“I decided that once my child was born – and thankfully my mother was around to look after her – I would put my best foot forward and keep my chin up.”
Motsepe, 42, boasts 20 years of experience in the field, and has worked in different industries from farming, arms manufacturing, mining to the automotive sector.
She studied information science at the Tshwane University of Technology. Motsepe also holds a diploma in management development programme from the University of Pretoria.
“I started in the Land Bank in the farming industry, then arms manufacturing industry with Denel during my 20s after I had graduated. That was in 1995, the year after democracy. Here I was, a young black female going into what was a male-dominated organisation, so I was really thrown into the deep end,” Motsepe recalled.
One of the greatest challenges she faced was having to craft positive communications content for the arms manufacturing company at a time when the country was highly politicised and militarised. Motsepe also worked for mining company Lonmin as a communications specialist.
Though she spends much of her time working in other African countries, Motsepe still sees the need to give back to the community through motivation talks.
“I give motivational talks ... because society has shown us that it takes a village to raise a child. If we leave youngsters, who are exposed to so much today, we will end up with uneducated children, burdened with raising their own children,” Motsepe said.