Beating The Odds

She didn’t allow anything to stop her from getting her matric – not failing the first time,a rape ordeal or two family members being struck by lightning.

- Zama Chutshela

SHE could hardly believe her eyes when she saw her name on the list of matriculants – like thousands of other learners who sweated blood and tears through last year’s final exams, she was related at having passed. However, for Nkosingiphile Mbatha,achieving this goal felt like nothing short of a miracle.

The badge on the blue blazer of her school – Bagibile High School in Eshowe in KwaZuluNatal – is especially apt. “Ora et Labora”, Latin for “prayer and work”, the motto reads and this is something Nkosingiphile knows all about.

Unlike her classmates this was not Nkosingiphile’s first time writing matric – she first wrote the critical exams when she was 20 years old – and that was seven long years ago.

She was gutted when she learnt she had failed back then. She would’ve been the first in her family to complete high school but it wasn’t to be.

Her dream of becoming a teacher stalled – until she summoned up the strength and courage to return to the classroom. This was no easy feat: she was 26 and had been out of school for many years.

She also bore the scars of the many horrific events that had prevented her from returning to school but, like a true survivor, Nkosingiphile can proudly show off her matric results today.

A day after the matric results have been announced the DRUM team visits Nkosingiphile at home in Mhlahlane, Ulundi, in northern KZN.

It’s not easy for her to talk about her journey to success and she weeps quietly as she recounts her story.

She didn’t return to school after failing matric because she subsequently became pregnant and stayed home to raise her daughter, who is now seven.

It was at the insistence of her aunt, Gugulethu Mbatha, a teacher at Bagibile High School, that she eventually decided to return to high school.