“After my mother’s passing when I was 13 years old, I vowed to pursue law,” says University of Pretoria (UP) alumna Tiyani Majoko, who is a Communications Officer at the  International Finance Corporation which is the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group.    

“It was my desire to follow my mother’s legacy and to partner with my dad in his law firm as a third-generation lawyer. My parents had their own law firm, I grew up seeing their influence in the community and I believe that is what inspired my passion for law.”

Majoko says UP’s academic content is rigorous, adding that one of her former lecturers, Professor Tshepo Madlingozi of the Department of Jurisprudence, was a phenomenal lecturer.     

“He was very concerned with how the law impacted the lives of everyday people”, she recalls. “I learnt that from him in a module called Street Law where we had to present a legal topic to communities to help them understand how legislation affects them. This made legal practice come alive for me and I still value that lesson. I always aim for my work to be accessible to everyday people.”      

Majoko was part of student leadership, serving as the Secretary General of the 2009 Student Representative Council and again as Deputy Chairperson on the 2010 Temporary Student Committee. “UP taught me about leadership and resilience, especially after navigating racial tensions on campus.”

The lawyer turned communications officer obtained an LLB degree in 2010. She started her career as a mining lawyer in a Sandton based international law firm. A few years later, she joined a small team of entrepreneurs who had a dream for Africa in terms of mining operations. The dream was to venture into other African countries like Mozambique, the DRC and Liberia. She joined him as a legal and business development expert, but sadly the deal went south.

“Working with the entrepreneurs opened my eyes to a world of Black business people that I didn't know existed while I was an associate in a law firm. I got exposed to wealthy and influential Black business people. When our time came to an end, I was confident that I could also start a business,” Majoko says. “In 2015, my best friend, Thokozani Dlongolo, (a UP graduate too) and I opened our own legal consultancy firm and I still maintain that we were the first black women to own a legal consultancy firm in South Africa. ”

Majoko believes that UP chose her. Having grown up and schooled in Botswana and Zimbabwe, she’s always known that she wanted to further her studies in South Africa.

“My father’s side of the family are South African, and I wanted to connect with my South African roots, I wanted to explore my South African identity,” she explains. “My plan was to study at the University of Cape Town. However, my uncle, who was studied law at UP took me on a campus tour in 2006 and convinced me otherwise. Fortunately, UP admitted me immediately.               

As a UP graduate, she believes alumni should give back to the school, especially financially, because that will help create space for the next generation. She says she’s glad to be part of the UP-US Foundation, which aims to give back to the UP community. I also want to teach young law students about careers beyond the usual paths of law firms, etc. I encourage them to explore entrepreneurship, or adoption of technology through legal operations, this will help with challenges we have in the country around accessibility of legal services.

“I am grateful that a UP alumnus gave me a scholarship to study abroad in the US to complete my master’s in law at Cornell University,” Majoko says. “Laurie Dippenaar [founder of the FirstRand Group] through the FirstRand Foundation provides scholarships for South Africans to pursue international postgraduate studies. In 2019, I was granted a scholarship to study in the US.”

When Majoko moved to the US, she could never have imagined becoming a resident of the country.

“I was certain that I was going to be in America for a year to complete my studies and return to South Africa to focus on our business. I was making good money and my life was great; the master’s was meant to assist me in growing my client base and improving the business strategies. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and although I had a choice to move back home I decided to stay in the US. I am continuing to pursue my interests and develop more expertise.”

Majoko expressed that living in America has its challenges- especially around building community and dealing with homesickness so she started a podcast late in 2023.    

“My podcast is called Home to Here where I talk to adult immigrants about their journey from their home country to wherever they are in the world today. I mostly talk to people who are in the US and try to find out their experiences of living far from home. The first season is available and it has received a positive response with listeners and guests. It is self-funded and it can get expensive, but these stories are necessary. I feel that we don’t often hear the story of adult, millennial immigrants who uproot their established lives for new opportunities. My other mission with this podcast is to increase the voices of the Southern African diaspora across the globe.” 

Apart from a world class education, the University of Pretoria, also provided me with some of my closest friends that have become family. When I was a struggling graduate living in New York City, one of my law school friends was in Connecticut, and she took me in for 4 months. I also had another friend in Paris, Belinda Kintu, who would send me money whenever she could. I am so grateful for the bonds UP allowed us to form.          

She says her dream for season two of the podcast is to get South African comedian Trevor Noah as a guest.

“He will be in Washington DC for a few days   in April, and I pray that he finds one hour for my podcast. I’m in the process of writing emails and gently stalking him online to find a way to contact him.”

Click here to access the podcast, which is available on YouTube and on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music and more.