Busiswa Sobahle and Shane Sass are on a mission to find funding to further develop their leadership skills and contribute to South Africa's future despite having faced various obstacles on the path to realising their own dreams.
Two students completing their undergraduate degrees at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University (SU) were recently selected to participate in a prestigious international leadership development programme "to inspire, develop and support a new generation of ethical South African servant leaders".
Busiswa Sobahle from Gugulethu and Shane Sass from Kuils River will form part of 20 students from South Africa, and five in total from SU who will depart for Washington in the United States on 12 June to participate in six weeks of professional exposure to various leaders in this capital and complete an intense leadership curriculum.
Busiswa and Shane are respectively completing their final year and third year of a BA degree in International Studies via the Extended Degree Programme (EDP).
The South Africa-Washington International Program (SAWIP) is an initiative of the Washington-Ireland Program for Service and Leadership (WIP) which has spent the last twenty years helping to develop the next generation of leaders in Ireland after decades of violent conflict.
"More than 400 university students from Ireland, both North and South, have graduated from WIP and many of them are now part of a rising generation of leaders who are taking their place in government and society at many levels," says Ms Sally Currin, Chief Operating Officer of SAWIP.
Since then SAWIP has focused on producing emerging leaders who will actively work towards bringing about social and economic transformation and justice within a sustainable democracy for all South African citizens. Its patrons are Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and world-renowned scenario planner Mr Clem Sunter.
In South Africa, 123 students have already graduated from the programme, which is officially endorsed by the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation and by the United States government.
Except for the Washington leg of their training, Busiswa and Shane will undergo a seven-month programme that includes a series of formal and non-formal development sessions and two community service components, followed by further development and involvement in SAWIP through its alumni network.
For now, the two students are focusing on generating the R9 000 each that they will need to participate in the trip to Washington.
"It is really important for us to participate in this part of the programme as well as we will not only be benefitting from a leadership curriculum based on a different perspective to our own ideas of leadership in South Africa, but will be exposed to professions and persons in professions that we are interested in pursuing in future and also network with leaders from all spheres of life," they explain.
Listening to the often difficult paths that both these students walked to become student leaders at SU, you would hardly believe that Busiswa is now Vice-Chair of the Huis Russel Botman House and Shane is the Metanoia House Committee member responsible for critical engagement and student development and the Metanoia Leadership course coordinator at the Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert Institute (FVZS) for Student Leadership Development at SU. The course is presented to first-years at Metanoia in the first semester of the year and has inspired FVZS to develop their own course for all SU students.
When they first arrived at university in 2013, Busiswa and Shane were both placed on the EDP, because their matric averages of 57% did not conform to the formal access requirements of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. "The EDP which was established to deal with systemic obstacles to equity and student success, allows educationally and historically disadvantaged students to do their first academic year over two years. During this period students also do additional academic support subjects that are not available to mainstream students," explains Ms Anita Jonker, Academic Coordinator of the EDP. "Both Busiswa and Shane are assiduous and resourceful students who made use of the additional academic support that is available in the EDP. It is great that they can eventually compete with the best students in the country."
While both students became aware of the unjustified negative perceptions about the EDP, they were resolute to achieve success by whatever means to improve their circumstances and to give back to the communities where they come from.
"I was fine with being an EDP student, because I knew I was changing my life course, so whether it would take three or five years to do that that was fine with me. When you come from a township, you tend to limit yourself subconsciously – you don't consider where you can go and what you can achieve. I was aware that someone with my frame of reference [with regards to what I could achieve in life considering what I saw around me on a daily basis] should not be at Stellenbosch University, but I was determined and committed to changing my status quo," explains Busiswa.
"I was quite excited to come to University. That in itself was a big opportunity and a privilege especially as I am a first generation university student. I was also not that strong academically in high school, so I doubted whether I would get into university in the first place, so when I did get the letter of admission I was excited to go," adds Shane.
Being able to complete his degree over a longer period of time he says, became a blessing as it would catapult him into overcoming another obstacle, a severe stutter he had developed in primary school after being teased about a limp he developed following an illness as a toddler which prevented his left leg from growing at the same pace as his right.
"As a first generation student, I was quite scared when I first came to university. This is a dynamic environment where you need to keep up with the pace to be successful and when I got here I knew I wanted a better life for myself as well as the economic and social benefits of having a degree. But I wanted more, so I started challenging myself to get involved in leadership positions. This is something I would never have done in high school because I am an introvert. I also used to sit out orals and tell the teachers I don't need the marks because I was so ashamed of my stutter."
Shane also decided to see a psychologist at the Centre for Student Counselling and Development and thanks to her support, he has stopped stuttering completely. In 2014, he was appointed class representative for Decision-Making and Value Studies and appointed to the Voting Committee of Metanoia, became a member of the Black Management Forum and the Stellenbosch chapter of the United Nations Association of South Africa (UNASA). By 2015 Shane had completed the Emerging Maties course at the FVZS and was elected to the House Committee for Metanoia. At the same time he was an academic mentor, and a member of the Constitutional Committee and Community Interaction Committee of the residence. Despite his responsibilities, he also excelled academically and attained two distinctions at the end of 2015.
"If I had a full academic timetable cramped into three years of study, I would not have been able to do all this and develop myself beyond only having a degree," says Shane.
"I never understood fully back in the day why I was being subjected to teasing about my stuttering problem on a daily basis and why this was happening to me, however, I now realise I was being prepared to become more purpose driven. The leadership development opportunities and my experiences as an individual prepared me for anything I want to achieve in my life. The stuttering and the limping actually built and developed my strength of character as an individual.
"My parents also played a big role as they have sacrificed so much for me over the years, despite not having much to give and have encouraged me to finish my degree and to go on to postgraduate studies."
Busiswa feels the same about completing her degree over a longer period of time. In her first year, she dived straight into a range of leadership courses – Democracy and Active Citizenship, Women Leadership, Leadership through Community Interaction, and Facilitative Leadership – presented by FVZS and would later be selected to live in a Listen, Live and Learn (LLL) house in 2014 and 2015 and further expand on her leadership skills. The LLL initiative is offered to a select few senior students who want to live in one of its themed houses and engage with fellow students, a house guide (a staff member with expertise/interest in the theme), and invited guests around themes like gender equality, sustainability, technology and innovation, ethical leadership, and education and community amongst others.
As part of her degree programme, Busiswa also decided to pursue Chinese in her first year and did so well that she was selected to participate in an exchange programme to Xiamen University in China for the 15 top students in her second year of studies. She also completed her third-year of Chinese in two years.
While living in Huis Russel Botman House, she served as the student leader responsible for the Constitution Portfolio in 2015 and in 2016 became Vice-Chair and a facilitator for the first-years' Welcoming Programme. She has also been a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society since 2014, an "academic recognition which testifies to her excellent academic results, her leadership qualities and her constructive approach to life in general" says Jonker. At the same time, she has made a difference in the lives of individuals from disadvantaged communities through the mentorship programme of Media 24's Rachel's Angels since 2014.
Asked about what they hope to gain from participating in the Washington leg of SAWIP, Busiswa says: "I think the value that I am going to take away from SAWIP is a reignited passion for deepening justice in South Africa. It will definitely empower me and equip me with the necessary knowledge and skill set to tackle or to address social justice issues in South Africa. It will give me a broadened and informed outlook on how we go about addressing the challenges of transformation, because currently when we speak of transformation in South Africa we forget that we are not only talking about race transformation, but gender and socio-economic transformation too. I definitely want to continue with postgraduate studies, either International Relations at Stellenbosch or Development and Policy Studies at Wits University, after SAWIP and finishing my undergraduate degree because at the end of the day all of this will help me to pursue a career in economic policy implementation."
Says Shane: "This opportunity will definitely assist me with improving my leadership style and as an individual. It will also help me to look at South Africa with all its complexities and all of its injustice of the past from a different perspective and to focus on creating hope and the great potential we still have to work towards the South Africa we want. My aim is to work in socio-economic policy development and implementation in future, so hopefully when I get to Washington, I will be working with people in those fields already and can learn from them and bring that expertise back to South Africa and make a contribution in that way."
Anyone who would like to support Busiswa and Shane can do so by making a contribution to SAWIP, Standard Bank, Brooklyn, 051001 (code for electronic transfers), account number: 137380917 and use their full name and surname as reference. For more details, the Chief Operating Officer of SAWIP, Ms Sally Currin can be contacted at 083 447 7909.
Photo: Busiswa Sobahle (left) and Shane Sass have received an opportunity of a lifetime to participate in the prestigious international SA-Washington leadership development programme and will be departing for Washington in the United States in June to complete a part of the programme there. (Anton Jordaan, SSFD)
