Legendary Morta was a pickpocket in his youth
VINCENT Morta went from being a child pickpocket to director of quality assurance and management information (MI) at UWC.
More than four decades after joining the university, Morta has retired, but his story remains legendary.
Born in Cape Town, his life quickly spiralled into trouble. The “uncontrollable” youth counted gangsters as friends and pickpocketing was just one of his bad habits.
At the age of 11, he was sent to a reform school in Pretoria for seven years.
In 1966, after completing Grade 7 at the reformatory, he joined Ferguson High School in Marabastad.
A year later, because of the Group Areas Act, the school was moved to Eersterust High School, where he did his matric in 1970.
One would never imagine this by just looking at “Mr Morta”, as he is affectionately known on campus, because he was always eager to please and serve.
At his farewell party last year, the 67-year-old from Kraaifontein was surrounded by colleagues and friends who bore testimony to the enduring place he holds at UWC.
In many aspects, he heeded his adoptive mother’s advice: “Vincent, those who come from the slums can rise above others…”
He has achieved that at UWC. After school, at age 18, his first job was typing addresses for a fencing company in Pretoria for R9.20 a week. Then he worked as a teller at Trust Bank.
But as was common during apartheid, Morta quickly experienced exclusion because of his race.
In 1972 he was allowed to transfer back home, where he reunited with his adoptive parents in Kraaifontein.
A year later, he started working at the Department of Coloured Affairs. He discovered that his matric certificate was issued erroneously and his new employer kept him on temporarily as an unqualified grade two clerk.
“I thought: ‘Am I going to be the underdog all my life?’ I decided to re-enrol for matric – it was a life-changing moment for me,” he said.
After matriculating again in 1974, Morta enrolled at Pentech – now the Cape Peninsula University of Technology – for a National Diploma in Administration. It was during this time that UWC appeared on his radar.
He heard about a vacancy for a clerk in the exams office and found himself employed at UWC, where he would remain for the next 44 years, occupying different roles.
Morta recalled the day a billionaire businessman asked him at a meeting: “Do you have a car?”
“No, I don’t,” the young man replied.
Shortly afterwards, the tycoon had a Chevrolet Rekord refurbished for Morta at a give-away price. When Morta arrived at the next meeting in his new bright red vehicle, the tycoon quipped: “I see you do have a car.”
In 1999 Morta became deputy registrar: quality assurance and MI, where he stayed until 2001. Then he became director: quality assurance and MI in the institutional planning office.
He went on to obtain a Bachelor’s, Honours and Master’s in administration at UWC, with a certificate in total quality management from Unisa.
A final piece of wisdom from him: “People must appreciate where they are working. The world out there is cruel.” |