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Kgalalelo Motlhabane: Master of her own destiny

09 October 2020 Photo Supplied

One of the success stories of this year’s virtual graduation is Kgalalelo Motlhabane, a graduate and funding officer at the Postgraduate School, University of the Free State (UFS), who was presented with an award from the National Research Foundation as the best designated authority for 2019.

Motlhabane, who lost her mother when she was in high school, didn’t just have to overcome poverty on her way to her first qualification, but also the fear of ending up on the street. On Friday 9 October she received a Master of Commerce degree with specialisation in Industrial Psychology.

A lot of challenges

“I had a lot of challenges during my first-year undergraduate studies. I could not afford textbooks and stationery. I spent most of my time in the library studying. More often I would be without food and proper clothes to wear.

“I would get warnings from my landlord when the rent was late. Sometimes I would find my room locked and my personal stuff removed. Not being able to pay outstanding fees restricted me from receiving my final results at the end of semesters and exacerbated the situation,” says Motlhabane.

Regardless of all these challenges, she was determined to not give up and return home to the impoverished community of Itireleng village near Pampierstad in the Northern Cape.

Overcoming the challenges

It was actually the distress, poverty and the difficult situation at home, together with her daily struggles that kept her focused. Through hard work, she managed to receive funding from NSFAS for her second and third years and despite the hardships, she obtained her BSocSci degree with distinction at the end of 2012.

“I was then selected to enroll for an Honours degree in Industrial Psychology in 2013. Without any funding prospects for my studies, I wrote to the former university rector Prof Jonathan Jansen, seeking financial assistance.

“Prof Jansen was very impressed with my exceptional academic performance and offered to pay my fees. He also offered me a position to work as a student assistant. I worked for three hours every day before going to the library to do my assignments and prepare for classes, presentations, tests and exams. I completed my Honours degree in 2013.”

In 2014, Motlhabane was employed as an intern at the UFS Human Resources Department and also enrolled for a postgraduate diploma in gender studies, which she obtained at the end of that year. The following year she joined the postgraduate school and started with her Master’s degree in late 2016.

Obtaining a Master’s degree

This was no easy task as she was employed full time which left her with little time to work thoroughly on her thesis, her limited knowledge about research, work pressures and demands, rejections, lack of support, discouragements, accidents and the inability to cope also played a role.

“I would like to thank God for the strength he gave me to cope throughout my journey, my family for their prayers and continued support, as well as Prof Jonathan Jansen, Prof Petrus Nel and Prof Ebben van Zyl for their kind support and contribution towards my studies. Indeed, the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” says Motlhabane.

News Archive

Lecture focuses on how Marikana widows embody the transformative power of art

2015-08-11

Makopane Thelejane

"When I got the news of my husband is dead, I put my hands above my head, as you see me in this picture. I could not bear the ache in my heart." - Makopane Thelejane

A woman looks down on a canvas covered in thick layers of red, dark shadows falling across her face. A brief moment that captures the silently-devastating aftermath of the Marikana massacre that bled into the lives of 34 widows.

It is this silent trauma that was at the centre of the last instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series for 2015. “These stories of the Marikana widows are important. It is these stories of silence that live behind the spectacular scenes of the violence,” Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) said at the event.

Panel
The lecture, which took place on Monday 27 July 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus, took the form of a panel discussing the theme of “Speaking wounds: voices of Marikana widows through art and narrative”. The panel consisted of members from the Khulumani Support Group, including Dr Marjorie Jobson (National Director) and Judy Seidman (Sociologist and Graphic Artist), as well as Nomfundo Walaza, former CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.

Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

"Then this dark time came, a dark cloud over me. It made me to have an aching heart, which took me to hospital, from losing my loved one, my husband, in such a terrible manner. " - Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

Trauma made visible
In a project initiated by Khulumani, the Marikana widows were encouraged to share their trauma through painting body maps – in which the widows depicted their own bodies immersed in their trauma – and narrating their personal stories. Throughout the workshops, the focus always remained on the women. As Siedman put it, “the power of this process is rooted in the participants. The statements of what the participants experienced is what’s important.”

Initially silenced and isolated, this group of women has now moved “into a space where they have become connected to each, and stand up for each other in the most powerful ways,” Dr Jobson said. “Our work is conceptualised in terms of giving visibility and voice to the people who know what it takes to change this country; to change this struggle.”

The transformative power of art and narrative
During her response, Walaza pointed out “how art and narrative can transform traumatic memory and become integrated in the survivors’ life story.” This gives individuals the opportunity, she said, “to step into a space of mutual listening and dialoguing in which people bond together.”

Co-hosted by Prof Gobodo-Madikizela and the UFS Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, the lecture series forms part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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