“If you have a problem with anything on campus, there's someone responsible for that, so go talk to them, and figure a way out,” says Jonas Ndlovu, a first-year political studies student at UP, who is on the road to achieving success and making a difference, undeterred by his visual impairment.

Jonas Ndlovu walks his own path. Very little he says or does is expected; everything is a fresh about-turn. No wonder the 21-year-old political studies student stood for the University of Pretoria’s (UP) 2024 Student Representative Council (SRC) elections on an independent ticket. Ndlovu is not one to acquiesce to someone else’s philosophy.

He reckons he is one of about 20 blind students at UP – as opposed to those who have various levels of visual impairment – and says, matter-of-factly, that the sighted do not just make up the majority of people on campus but in fact “everybody else is sighted”. This does not bother Ndlovu, though, he says, sighted people are bothered by him.

“Some individuals have never interacted with somebody who is entirely different from what they are physiologically,” he says. “Even though everybody thinks that you, as a blind person, has to be accommodated, you also have to accommodate people's ideas about visual impairment or disabilities.”

Judging by the way he uses language, Ndlovu is clearly an avid reader, but even here his taste sets him apart.

“I like reading official documents,” says the BPolSci student. “You know, UN documents, International Monetary Fund papers – they have some interesting reports. And I like policy papers.”

And why did he choose to study at UP?

“One could say UP chose me. My matric marks on their own don’t qualify me to even be a UP student. It’s astonishing for many, however, because it was still a bachelor's pass,” he says, adding that his marks reflect how he’d become “a bit disconnected to his studies” because of a rebellious phase.

Unable to be accepted for a degree, Ndlovu looked at diploma options. Most of the university diploma courses that he could apply for based on his matric marks didn’t interest him – subjects such as marketing or human resources.

“Those do not really align with me. Sport and politics align with me. I am a sports person. I believe that blind people’s sporting codes have to be professionalised and I was willing to make a difference in that space. So I did UP’s Higher Certificate in Sports Sciences last year.

“If you pass the certificate with more than 60%, you can do a Bachelor of Education, to be an educator while developing and training children to become athletes. But I wrote to UP’s Department of Political Sciences and, given my track record at high school and some of the things I've been able to achieve in life, combined with my grade point average of 66% for the certificate, they gave me the opportunity, and I’m here now.

“Politics is in my blood. Whenever I stay away from politics, part of me feels like it doesn't exist, and there’s a missing part of my soul. When I interact with politics, I'm alive.”

Being at UP has been quite a different experience for Ndlovu. He went to a primary and high school for the blind where he read everything in braille. Unless you specifically chose computer application technology as a subject, you didn’t have contact with screen readers, a software that converts text into speech, which is the norm for visually impaired students at university.

After school, Ndlovu decided to go to an FET (further education and training) college for the visually impaired “to hone digital literacy and computer literacy skills”. It paid off in terms of easing the transition to using a computer almost exclusively for reading at UP, where his only adjustment then was in terms of “social and psychological differences”, he says.

He says UP’s Access, Disability and Inclusion Service (ADIS), formerly known as the Disability Unit, has helped him a lot, primarily by granting him a concession for extra time to write exams and tests. It also offers the resources of screen readers to do all his exams and tests at its offices.

ADIS is the platform to raise problems of accessibility that might arise on campus, and also helps to communicate with lecturers about the design of their slides.

“Sometimes lecturers use a lot of graphics and images, but through the disability unit, they get to learn that if they at least add a bit more of text, a visually impaired student can get a better idea of what it is about.”

So does Ndlovu think UP is inclusive? And as a blind person, is he given a fair chance? He thinks the University does give disabled people a fair chance but wonders if people take advantage of those chances.

“To some extent, I don't really make use of the resources and facilities we are afforded. It’s a residential university, so if you have a problem, don't sit there and think about your problem. Just go talk to your lecturer. If you have a problem with anything on campus, there's someone responsible for that, so go talk to them, and figure a way out.”

One activity Ndlovu particularly enjoys is chatting to people.

“When you talk to people, you find out that the world doesn’t revolve around you. I like talking to people, especially people who have problems, because it gives me an idea of how to deal with a lot of things.”

He is so enjoying being at UP that he decided to take a more active role in university life. He stood as one of four candidates for the position of SRC president in the recent elections. He also stood for the portfolio of transformation and student success. Undaunted that he didn’t make it, he thinks he might give it another bash next year. He is also looking at the many other ways he could be involved.

“It’s not really about making it onto the SRC for me; it's about carrying on with the mandate of making a difference. So it's just about the platform through which you're doing that. I've still got various other student committees that I can participate in; they make as much of a difference.

“There also is the Blind SA Youth Committee, which is very much an instrumental committee to play a role in.”

Ndlovu is already very active. He holds the economic empowerment portfolio in the Blind SA Youth Committee until October and is now nominated to be chair of the committee.

His other involvements include helping to coordinate and being the speaker of the first national youth parliament for visually impaired learners last year.

And at UP, he was the community outreach and engagement officer for the organisation Vita (Valuing Inclusion, Transformation and Awareness), “which fights for disabled students’ rights”, he says. And he has been appointed as transformation and student success officer on its incoming committee.

It’s not for nothing that alongside informatics, coding, surfing the internet, playing blind cricket, gaming, chess and travelling – he is set on visiting Egypt, Morocco and other North African countries for their historical appeal – he lists “adventures” under his interests on his CV.

Life is always an adventure when Jonas Ndlovu is around. His adventurous attitude towards everything pretty much guarantees that.