Family comes first for star matric pupil
ONE of the Eastern Cape’s top performing matrics has waivered a R100 000 scholarship for one of R89 000 so that he can help his family financially. Born on the Preston Park Farm in Paterson, Azola Kana, 20, always dreamed of making it big. With his stellar results, the newly matriculated pupil is looking forward to making waves in the financial sector.
“I see myself as a very successful chief financial officer and having my own accounting firm,” the former Sandisulwazi High School pupil said.
Kana opted for the lesser scholarship as the R89 000 one comes with a stipend, which he will use to assist his family.
Kana, who is the son of farm workers, grew up with his grandparents in Paterson.
Despite weathering a difficult final year with a lack of teaching staff, Kana managed to achieve a 100% pass for accounting and 83% for maths. For his achievements, he was offered a R100 000 scholarship after ranking among the top 20 matrics in the province.
He was also recognised as the top achiever in the Uitenhage education district under the historically disadvantaged individuals category.
“My family are very proud of me and my grandparents even cried,” he said.
Kana was also offered an R89 000 vice-chancellor scholarship from NMMU.
“It was tough to decide between these two scholarships but I ended up choosing the VC scholarship,” he said, adding that he was disappointed to learn he could not take both.
He said the R100 000 scholarship did not come with a personal allowance, which made him opt for the lower one.
“My parents are only getting the Sassa grant so I’d ideally try to give them the remaining balance or part of the allowance when they don’t have money at home,” he said.
Kana said he mostly enjoyed accounting and mathematics at school “because they are very easy and very challenging at the same time”.