Testimonial by Tshepang Mogotsi
We live in a world of uncertainty. Perhaps that fact is more apparent today than it has been in a long time. Societies throughout the world are grappling with self doubt and important questions are being asked about the certainty of our economic future. Those questions are no different in our country. How do we ensure stability, growth and social cohesion in South Africa? More importantly, whose responsibility is it to shape South Africa’s future? Well, when faced with uncertainty, we can only be certain of our own personal and collective decisions. Therefore the outcomes are dependent on us. We are accountable.
Those questions of national significance have become ever more important to me in light of the 10 year relationship that I have with the Student Sponsorship Programme. Being a 13 year old boy that had spent much of his childhood up to that point in inner city Johannesburg, I don’t think that I quite understood the uncertainty that lay ahead of me. In many ways that’s the beauty of youth, that total disregard of the impossible. As children, although we see the difficulties around us, we seldom think that they are limitations because we don’t quite understand the concept of inequity. It is for this reason that as I grew older, I appreciated the relationship with the Student Sponsorship Programme evermore.
Now that I am older, I can clearly see the limitations that so many of my peers around me face. Uncertainty in terms of employment and education are pervasive realities among those I grew up with. Within my own community, I am one of the very few who has completed any form of tertiary education, let alone any form of post graduate study. As a knock on effect even fewer of the young men and women I grew up with are gainfully employed. Having something that can be called a career is an extreme rarity. The status quo is alarming not only because many of those individuals are highly talented, but because limitations of education and economic opportunities are a South African norm. It is truly a sad reality that the fact that I have a good job as an IT consultant and an education makes me incredibly unique.
When I think about what distinguished me from many of my peers, many differences come to mind. Those differences have much less to do with talent than they have to do with having educational opportunities and educational support - both of which are intrinsically linked. Looking back, I realise that that is something that the Student Sponsorship Programme understood from its inception. Not only did the Student Sponsorship Programme assist with providing me with education itself, but through its various structures, I was held accountable for my own future. I learned to take the resources at my disposal and turn them into real outcomes. I was supported every step of the way, whether it was when I was struggling with a particular academic subject, or when I needed guidance in terms of my career choices. The limitations that I could identify as a child but now only truly understand as an adult were greatly reduced. There is indeed a greater degree of equity in my life because of SSP.
So many of my successes - whether it be in landing jobs at prestigious companies or providing leadership and services in various community initiatives - have been influenced in some way by the many positive experiences that I had through the Student Sponsorship Programme. As a young man, I understand that my successes are juxtaposed against a future of limited opportunity for many of those around me. I understand that the personal and collective decisions that have led me to where I stand today, call me to be part of the decisions and contributions that will allow for many more to share in the certain reality that will be a prosperous Africa.
