Years of immense pain and strife dissipated into insignificance, at least for a moment, as an orphaned WSU graduate ascended the graduation stage recently to attain her diploma in journalism.
It was a day of great joy for now advanced diploma student Sandla Chuleza who was effectively orphaned in 2006 due to the untimely passing of her mother with her father never having stepped up to perform his duties until his death in 2005.
Even darker times had previously visited the family as Chuleza had lost two of her sisters in 1999 and 2001 respectively, before she would much later lose her brother in 2021 due to a car accident.
“Though my father wasn’t around to take care of us, I’ll always be eternally grateful to my mother taking care of us. She used to tout for passengers to board buses in Mount Ayliff going to Durban just so we could put food on the table. ” she said.
Following the death of their mother, Chuleza would shortly after move in with her aunt and uncle who’d raise her for almost nine years as her brother would go on to acquire work as a policeman in 2011.
After passing her matric in 2011, her aunt and uncle stepped up and showed incredible support as Chuleza struggled to access tertiary education due to lack of funding and subsequently dabbled in ventures of very little consequence – doing odd jobs as a bartender in Durban in 2014 to a six-month basic computer course in mid-2015.
“Though my new family pushed me and showed love and support, I felt my life was stuck and I definitely felt I just really wanted to give up. It was only when I moved back to the family home in late 2015 with my brother that things would start to look up.”
“Looking at my family history, I knew I wanted to be different. I trusted that education could be my ticket to a better life. I was born poor but I told myself that I’ll not die poor,” she said.
It was in 2017 when a ray of sunshine would penetrate the darkness that had befallen Chuleza’s existence as she’d be accepted into WSU’s versatile broadcasting programme – a springboard from which would she’d catapult herself to enrolling for her preferred programme, journalism.
She heaped praise upon WSU for being a source through which she could open and access the doors of learning -
Speaking moments after being capped by the VC at the Buffalo City Campus in East London, she described the moment as “one of release”.
“Graduating felt like I was breaking a generational curse of bad luck and misfortune, a curse that almost saw me fade into obscurity and nothingness. It exhibited a willingness to fight against all the odds and a determination to not let my past define my future,” said Chuleza.
By Thando Cezula
