“I realised at a young age that problems in society can only be fixed if we dedicate ourselves to building a community and society in which everyone has an opportunity to thrive,” says Sicelo Ngwenya (22), who is doing a master’s in International Relations at the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Department of Political Sciences.

Ngwenya, who hails from the small rural town of Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria, is a societies officer in UP’s Temporary Student Committee. In this role, he ensures that special interest groups across 11 categories are affiliated and conform to the policies of the SRC and the University. His interest in student governance and movements was sparked by his grandfather.

Because his mother worked in Johannesburg, he was raised by his grandparents. This gave Ngwenya insight into his grandfather’s role as a councillor on the City of Tshwane’s City Council, a role he held until 2016 when he retired. Seeing his grandfather spend hours dealing with crises in the community – including water shortages, house fires, crime and assisting people with food and blankets – was inspiring to him.

“Witnessing this sort of engagement with society cultivated in me the importance of leadership and empathy,” Ngwenya says.

Many university students have similar backgrounds to Ngwenya, who is the first in his family to attend university. He wants to make the most of this privilege, and is determined to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather by helping those who cannot help themselves, giving voice to those who were systemically silenced by their historic disposition, and by making the university space and student governance more inclusive.

His role as a societies officer includes enabling students to join special interest groups and find a space in which they can express themselves and explore their interests. This can be political, religious or academic.

“My job is to ensure that students can find an organisation on campus, run by students and recognised by the SRC and University, to explore non-academic interests so that they receive a well-rounded university experience,” Ngwenya explains.

When it comes to balancing work responsibilities and his studies, he says effective time management has been his saving grace. He links all his calendars, and plans which meetings will be had on certain days.

“This gives me a sense of control over what I am doing,” he says. “I was once told by my high school maths teacher that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy’.”

Ngwenya says that youth in South Africa face two main challenges: unemployment and access to higher education. The current rate of unemployment raises alarm bells as even qualified youth are unemployed. He believes the barrier to accessing higher education contributes greatly to the shortage of skills in the economy and contributes to inequality as most students affected are historically disadvantaged ones.

The government needs to look at technical and vocational education and training institutions in a different light, he says, because they offer the technical skills that young people need in order to become contributing members of the economy.

“The government should prioritise the subsidisation of education for youth and in sectors that will yield benefits for the economy and fiscus in the long run,” he says.

Ngwenya’s hopes to obtain his master’s degree and a PhD while being active in student politics. He also plans to cultivate a culture of activism within the student body. Further down the line, he would like to dedicate himself to the service of South Africans by being involved at a policymaking level to ensure that the will of youth and other citizens are cemented at a structural level.

“I would like people to remember me as someone who did everything he could, studied what he could, and led where he could in the hope of helping others.”

He would also like to be remembered for the love he has for people and for his desire that one day we will all be truly equal and free.