Precious Sibalo: The sky is NOT the limit for her
WHEN a girl tells her parents or guardian that she wants to be a pilot, they might admire her drive, but perhaps deep down they might think she is a bit over ambitious. If she went on to say she wanted to become one of only three female commercial pilots in the entirety of Zimbabwe in future, they might even begin to question her sanity.
So when Precious Sibalo thought of it and then told her grandparents about her ambitions, little did they know she would eventually become just that and more. Born in Plumtree and raised in Magwegwe in Bulawayo, not much was expected or even seemed possible for a young girl growing up in a rural and township set up. For obvious reasons, entertaining the thought of sending a child to pilot school would be enough to give any and all parents a coronary! But Sibalo banished all thoughts of failure or inability to follow her dream to becoming one of only three female commercial airline pilots in the country.
And it took years working as a waitress and flight attendant for her to achieve her ultimate goal. The daughter of a single mother who worked in South Africa as a maid, Sibalo’s early life was overseen by her grandparents in rural Plumtree, attending Kungubo Primary School where her now 85-year-old grandfather, Mr Kimbi Godfrey Ndlovu Sibalo aka KG, taught before moving to Bulawayo where she enrolled at Mhali Primary School in Magwegwe, the same primary school that spawned her love for the skies. A field trip to what was then called Bulawayo International Airport with classmates gave Zimbabwe its third female commercial pilot after the two Chipos — Chipo Gatsi and Chipo Matimba.
“When I went on that field trip while I was at Mhali (Primary School), I asked if there were any female pilots and at the time there were none, and I decided I was going to be the first or among the first. I was going to fly aeroplanes!” Sibalo told Sunday Life.
And fly she did! She is now a licensed pilot, a holder of the world’s highest level of Aircraft Pilot Licence from 43 Air School in South Africa and has already accumulated 320 flight hours. She is now a holder of an Integrated Airline Transport Pilot Licence (IATPL) and completed an Airbus A320 MCC course.
To fly as a commercial airline pilot, one needs about 1500 hours of experience, which can be earned in two years. But our girl has a plan and very soon you may hear voice over the captain’s microphone welcoming you onto a flight.
“You need anything between 500 and 1 500 hours of flying before any of the reputable airlines hire you. But this can be achieved via getting an instructor’s licence which will guarantee one the flying hours needed. It’s a six-month programme and that’s the route I have taken. I have only one more examination to sit through and I am almost there,” said Sibalo who turned 36 today.
Driven to achieve, the road has not been all rosy: she moved to South Africa and worked as a waitress and a part-time model before moving to Dubai where she also worked as a waitress. After three months in Dubai, she took advantage of an opportunity to work at Qatar Airways as a cabin crew member and the rest as they say is history.
“After a few years of working as a cabin crew member, I was about to get promoted to senior cabin member but I had raised enough to pay for flight school so I decided to start my studies towards becoming a pilot in 2017,” says the mother of one.
But she is not just a beauty who can fly planes — Sibalo has her rural community at heart and is doing her best to help mitigate health and education concerns in her village, more so at her former school. She is also hell bent on making sure that girls from Kungubo Primary School are exposed to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and are able to pursue dreams such as hers.
“I want those girls at Kungubo Primary School today to be able to aspire for the skies like I did. I want them to be able to have access to STEM and have the same chance at grasping life by the scruff of its neck like their urban peers. I want these girls to have more than a fair chance at life,” she said.
So, after waiting on tables, airplane passengers and getting her pilot licences, Sibalo has some philanthropy in her. Last week, she went to her old primary school and spent time with kids there.
There she donated shoes, sanitary pads, satchels and food to pupils. Through initiatives such as the Precious Wings mentorship programme, she is striving to ensure that disadvantaged children are exposed to STEM, encouraging them to explore their strengths and talents at a tender age.
“For me to go and do that for those children was humbling. I saw kids there that have never known a shoe and girls who have never known a sanitary pad. But more important for me was the career guidance that was offered to these rural children. Normally no one bothers with helping these kids identify what they could do after school or what careers they can choose and work towards. So, eventually all that’s left for them is to get married or move to South
Africa. And having been born to a teen mother and become one myself, I would like to change their lives and hopefully save one girl from such a move,” said Sibalo.
After today, after tomorrow, Precious Sibalo will forever be entrenched in our hearts and minds as that village girl who flew a plane and took a child to school! — @RealSimbaJemwa