Thabang Manamela shares his career journey with Tukkievaria.

Where were you born and raised?

 I was born and raised by both my mother and grandmother in Ga-Mashashane, just outside of Polokwane in Limpopo. When I was around six years old I was diagnosed with glaucoma, which is how I lost my eyesight.

My parents have always taken education very seriously, and when it became clear that I would lose my eyesight, education acquired an even greater significance. They invested time and emotional support to ensure that I would not fall behind my sighted peers in all aspects of life. Their consistent teaching was to believe in God and: ‘Kodumela moepathutse, ga go lehumo le letjwago kgauswe’, which basically means persist and persevere; valuable treasure is never within easy reach. 

In 2014 I joined the University of Pretoria and later graduated with an LLB, after which I joined a legal firm to do my statutory Practical Vocational Training as a candidate attorney. I now await admission to practice as an attorney.

I returned to the university in 2021 to pursue my LLM studies in Law and Political Justice in the Department of Jurisprudence. The title of my project is #Black Lives (could) Matter: Azania as Remedy for the State of (Dis)ease. My reading is around the idea of how to repudiate the dominant given order of knowledge. I understand my work to pursue oppositional Black critical thought on how (else) would we know our own  history were it not for the corrosive colonial-apartheid regime. Because this pursuit is in the post-1994 South Africa, the 1996 Constitution is necessarily implicated in this critique, but principally, the object is to factually and conceptually recall the Africanist vision for Azania, and contend that the #Black Lives Matter Movement is a contemporary register of the Azanian tradition, a still understated liberatory outlook.      

Share your background with colleagues?

In 2022 I joined the Department of Jurisprudence as Academic Associate. My responsibilities range from teaching assistance, marking of scripts, tutorial assistance et cetera.

What do you enjoy most about your job and why?

I enjoy the constant encounter with how first-year students, in particular, grapple with some of the most contentious issues in South Africa. Their (mis)understanding of colonialism, apartheid and the ever-fashionable discussion about land expropriation with/out compensation. Their enthusiasm and drive to unpack the role and complicity of law in society always leaves one empowered, and yes, entertained!  

How would you motivate/ encourage colleagues to handle pressure?

The most important thing is to break one’s responsibilities into smaller manageable tasks and set timelines for each, keeping in mind factors such as urgency and importance. 

What is your least favourite part of the job?

My least favourite job is administration. But administration makes things move, and so I have a love-hate relationship with it.

What do you do in your free time?

When I do get time, I love to sing; on a good day I even play the piano

What are your personal likes and dislikes?

I like some quiet time. Time away from the computer, phone, and (especially) human beings. It is important to take time to recharge and say a prayer.

I seriously dislike having to arrange cake for my own birthday, I still think it’s an injustice! Somebody else should take care of that. 

Quick quiz:

Sport: Soccer

Food: Any and everything that does not have pork

Movies: Game of Thrones, The 100, and Pitch Perfect 

Actors: Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage and Kerry Washington    

Musician: Bra Hugh Masikela, Earl Klugh, Andy Narell, Sibongile Khumalo, Sello Galane and Selaelo Selota.