Cape Town – Xolani Hadebe, from Piet Retief in Mpumalanga, faced numerous hardships before obtaining a degree in medicine from Stellenbosch University after graduating yesterday.
From being a till packer, he received rejection letters from various medical schools in the country, but never gave up.
Hadebe said he had his heart set on becoming a doctor, although he had no idea how tough getting there would be.
“After being rejected so many times, I knew there was no way my mom, who has been a domestic worker all her life, would be able to afford my university applications, so I secured a job as a till packer at our local supermarket.”
He said it was a difficult time for him as his peers were moving on and he was embarrassed about his job.
“Working at the supermarket was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Sometimes I could see how former classmates would pity me.”
Hadebe was overjoyed when he got accepted at Stellenbosch, and ensured he would graduate and fulfil his dream of becoming a doctor.
For Amanda Kotze and her family, it was a bitter-sweet moment at her late son’s graduation yesterday.
She received Gerbrandt Kotze’s, MSc degree in inorganic chemistry.
Gerbrandt, 26, died of colon cancer earlier this year – two weeks before getting his results notifying him he had passed his thesis.
“It’s a big honour to receive such a special degree on behalf of our son. It would be wonderful if he could receive it, but unfortunately he can’t.
“He worked hard for it, and his perseverance panned out. Although he felt ill, he was still working hard to complete his Master’s.”
“As a child, he was always curious. I also took him to the library to read and get books. He liked autobiographies of people who struggled to get what they wanted. He was very sharp with his humour and he was very caring.
“He loved to take care of underprivileged people, especially children. His dream was to go to teach in underprivileged schools and to give children love for science.”