From poverty to a master’s degree
● Malefetsane Letsika’s world fell apart when his mother Agatha died.
He was in grade 11 and his single mother had been using her earnings as a hawker, selling clothes bought in South Africa to customers in Lesotho, to give him the best education she could afford at Calculus College, a private boarding school in the Free State.
“They buried her on Christmas Day. I don’t know if it was my soul not accepting that she was gone, but I dreamt about her for years afterwards,” he said.
Letsika’s journey from growing up in Maseru, losing first his father and later his stepfather, to enduring poverty, working in cold rooms and finally obtaining a master’s degree in structural engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT), is a tale of fortitude and inspiration.
He grew up in an abusive household and after his parents divorced, took on his stepfather’s surname, Letsika. His stepfather died when he was nine. And in 2010 he suddenly lost his mother to a stroke while he was deputy head boy of his hostel.
He returned to school to complete matric but the money had dried up and he had holes in his shoes and tattered underwear. Teachers collected money to buy him new shoes and he was given a cake on his 18th birthday by his hostel parent, Sasha.
“I never got to enjoy my high school journey because I got R50 pocket money a month. I would buy noodles or sometimes toiletries and I didn’t understand because my schoolmates were getting a lot more money,” said Letsika.
But he added: “It’s one of those schools that is not just about education, they teach you leadership skills and ways of living and surviving as well,” he told the Sunday Times.
After matriculating he returned to Lesotho to the house he and his sisters had inherited from Agatha. “There was no furniture, no electricity. Nothing. I had to grow up suddenly and start working to afford food and clothes,” he said.
Letsika registered for a three-year degree in industrial technology at Lerotholi Polytechnic in Lesotho but the fees were R9,000. At the age of 19 he got a job at a pizza franchise kneading dough and working in the cold room, which he says toughened him.
“I never gave up and [the hard life] contributed to me surviving all those years,” he said. He enrolled for the diploma and was later awarded a bursary to study for a BSc in civil engineering at UCT.
One of his main reasons for studying there was to meet Prof Alphose Zingoni, who specialises in shell structures (structures with curvature, such as Katse Dam back in his homeland).
He went on to graduate with his master’s in December, celebrating with his family from Lesotho, and now works at consulting engineering firm Zutari in Cape Town.
Aside from fulfilling his passion for engineering he has his own YouTube channel which he uses to help students who struggle with structural engineering problems.
“I’ve received so many messages, people thanking me. Last year I helped a student thrive in his mathematical and vector calculus course and he called me to say he got 90%,” said Letsika.
“I’ve been able to look outside the box when tackling difficult situations. Life has trained me, and engineering also teaches that,” he said of his arduous life journey. He is confident that his mother would have been proud of the man he has become.
“She taught me to never measure success with the materialistic things you achieve. Success is being able to make changes in other people.”
He used the money earned as a tutor at UCT to pay lobola in full for his wife Penelope, and they are expecting their first child later this year. His adopted stepdaughter, Oyena Lindi, is eight.
Letsika says he endorses Nelson Mandela’s mantra that education is the most powerful weapon one can use to transform the world.
“Education is all you need. Whatever life situation you are going through, you can make it. I strongly believe in Mandela’s words.
“My dream one day is to make a difference in other people, being able to help others as I have been helped,” says Letsika.
I never got to enjoy my high school journey because I got R50 pocket money a month
Malefetsane Letsika