Rewards of dedication
HARD work is essential for students who want good marks, and that comes from one who knows.
Uviwe Mbombela, 18, the Girls’ High School and Queenstown district matric who produced the top results, was nowhere near the top ten before Grade 11, when she decided that she needed to work really hard. “I really did not apply myself and just cruised along before the last two years,” she says.
This effort was rewarded when she got her first cum laude scroll in Grade 11 and continued to receive re-awards throughout the rest of her school years.
Uviwe is the daughter of Bandile and Qheleka Mbombela, both nurses in the Whittlesea area where the family has lived all her life. She has been out of bed by 5.30am every day to catch a taxi by 6.30 and dropped sport in matric as it meant she only got home between 6 and 7pm. Even so, she only arrived home at 3.30pm most days. She has an older brother in Johannesburg, her younger brother goes to Selborne this year and her sister is at Stepping Stone. Uviwe did Grade R at Southbourne and all her primary schooling at Balmoral before proceeding to GHS for high school. Up to Grade 11 she was a member of the running club and Interact and she was an accounting tu- tor, but she was not a prefect. In the final matric exam Uviwe obtained six A symbols, beating the average of others who had seven. This was because she scored well over 90% for those six subjects and only narrowly missed a seventh A…for English. Her favourite subjects were computer application technology and accounting. No wonder, then, that she will go on to the University of Cape Town to study for a BComm and hopes to eventually become a chartered accountant. After the results were announced Uviwe attended the premier’s awards ceremony at which she was awarded a scholarship that will cover her accommodation, tuition, registration fees, books and so on, up to R80 000 a year.
She says, “I was privileged and am proud to have attended GHS and I’m so grateful to my parents for sending me there. It gives one such a good grounding and I have wonderful memories – in fact I’m quite nervous about leaving.” Uviwe also gives credit to her teachers, in particular Cynthia Lentoor, Carol Millington and Thea Putzier who she says were helpful and encouraging, although she admits that once she had decided to change her work ethic in the last two years, she was never punished. “I just got on with my work.” Her friends also gave her support and she is pleased that three of them will also be going to UCT this year. Asked for a final comment, this dignified young woman said, “I’m so glad that I gave my best and my best was enough.”