Top national matric achiever, Given Malaka. Picture Supplied.
An 18-year-old partially blind pupil from Setotolwane Elsen Secondary School in Limpopo is among the national top matric achievers in the special schools. This is despite writing his 2024 final matric exams in a classroom with holes in the floor and a ceiling with exposed electrical wires.
Given Malaka who hails from a small village called Ga-Malaka in Limpopo, is among the 259 pupils from Setotolwane Elsen who were taught in dilapidated mobile classrooms. Some of the mobile classrooms and the dormitories had no doors. The school water challenges led to Given, his peers and staff fetching water for drinking, bathing and flushing toilets from a pipe at a nearby cemetery when the water tanks and the single tap used by the entire school had dried out. Toilet seats were also broken.
However, Given did not allow such conditions to deter him from excelling in his studies.
“Studying in such an environment was very stressful,” Given divulged just two days before the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube announced the 2024 top matric achievers at Mosaïek in Randburg Gauteng.
Although he is a top achiever, he is still not sure about the position he has attained or the marks he scored.
“I am not excited, I am just okay,” said a future lawyer. He hopes to study law at the University of Limpopo, but he is still awaiting feedback from the institution.
Given is the first in the family and at Ga-Malaka village to receive a top achiever’s award and to dine with the Minister of Basic Education. The brothers are royal, and the village is named after their family name.
His older brother, Tshepo (33) said, “We are four boys in the family, and we have all gone to university, but none of us got this far. The whole family is very excited about his achievement. We believe that the whole village will also be excited when they see him on TV because no one in our village has ever achieved this. He has made us proud.”
Tshepo said Given began losing his vision at the age of five.
“He was born seeing but he started having problems with his vision at the age of five. So far, one of his eyes cannot see completely, but the other side can partially see,” said Tshepo.
North West Province top matric achiever. Picture Supplied.
Meanwhile, far from Limpopo, a family in Tsakane in the Gauteng province is also rejoicing over their 17-year-old deaf daughter’s achievement, who is among the top 2024 provincial achievers in the North West Province.
Sisipho Danisa who studied at the North West Secondary boarding school for the Deaf is the first in her family to pass matric and pursue a university degree.
Her mother, Khanyisa Danisa said:
Sisipho said, “I knew that I would pass, I expected it. I was not worried at all about my results. At first, I wanted to be a doctor but I'm doing commerce subjects. So, I have decided to be a lawyer because I do not have a choice. I want to study law and business management at the University of Free State because I heard that it has a union for the deaf and there is an interpreter. It [university] is good for learning and there is no pressure for deaf people.”
This reporting is a collaboration between Diary Series of Deaf People and the Sunday Times.
