A Bokkie with brains
If you try hard enough, you will get it, says graduate-to-be
AFORMER woman Springbok rugby player, who failed matric at her first attempt, will next week become the first person in her family to earn a degree. Nosipho Poswa, 30, says a rugby match in Port Elizabeth in 2005, four years after she failed matric, changed her life.
Poswa, who had already earned her Springbok colours at the time, was playing for a Vista University team in a match against UWC and was approached by the UWC coach and team co-ordinator afterwards.
“What happened was amazing. “They asked me to play for them and said they would help me to get my matric.”
Poswa jumped at the opportunity and moved to Cape Town where she boarded with relatives.
Through a special programme at UWC she earned her matric in 2007 and later enrolled for a higher certificate in education, which she completed in 2009.
Her rugby career was also growing from strength to strength and in 2010 she was a member of the SA team which participated in the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
She also continued with her studies and on Monday, on her 31st birthday, will graduate from UWC with a Bachelor of Education.
“I don’t even have the words to explain how I feel about the graduation.
“I would like to tell other young people who have also failed matric not to stop fighting for what they want in life. “If you try hard enough, you will get it.” Poswa recently started teaching at Zimasa Primary in Langa, where she has also started coaching rugby.
“I also started playing rugby while at school, so it’s very exciting for me to be teaching young girls and boys.”
She is now studying towards an Honours degree in education at UWC.
Meanwhile, SANDF member Mfundo Nkosi, who completed his Master’s degree during a peacekeeping mission, graduated on Wednesday night.
“In the middle of his research he was deployed to Sudan as part the SANDF troops to ensure security in the troubled Darfur area of Sudan.
“Mfundo served as part of the 15 000- strong Unamid ( AU/ UN operation) in Darfur.
“With limited access to the internet, in the midst of trying conditions, and with a war going on a daily basis, he managed to stay in contact with his supervisor, receive comments from external examiners and finalise the paper,” the university said in a statement.
“His determination and drive in finishing the MPhil despite the challenges of his job in the volatile, arid, and extremely hot Darfur terrain must be commended.”
His thesis was based on the law of war, and was titled “Inconsistency in the implementation of the responsibility to protect during humanitarian crises: The case of Libya and Sudan”.
‘I WOULD LIKE TO TELL OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALSO FAILED MATRIC NOT TO STOP FIGHTING…’