By Celani Sikhakhane
Simlindele Khumalo, a 19-year-old rural matric student from Ondini High School, has beaten the odds to become a celebrated hero in his village of kwaCeza in uLundi.
He has been invited by Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga to be part of a ceremony at Mosaïek Church in Randburg on Thursday evening so that he may be honoured as one of the country’s top achievers.
Simlindele has worked tirelessly for the last year, refusing to be held back by over 300 days blighted by load shedding.
Simlindele’s home, where he lives with his single mum and siblings, was a hive of activity on Tuesday after he received the invitation from the minister.
Simlindele told Scrolla.Africa that his love for education and the advice he received from his uncle Phakamani Mtshali, who is a teacher at the James Nxumalo School of Agriculture, helped him to work hard for his examinations.
“I’m grateful to my uncle and my teachers for their hard work which resulted in this celebration. I also thank my fellow matric students. We work hard to be the top achievers of our school,” he said.
“With my fellow students, we put God in everything that we do because we believe that it is not our intelligence alone that helps us to excel in our studies.”
Although he hasn’t received his test scores yet, he said his subjects were Mathematics, Life Science, IsiZulu, English, Physical Science and Accounting.
His proud mother, Scelokuhle Khumalo, 43, said that this is the first of her children to complete matric.
“He is the eldest of three children. His siblings will have to take a leaf from his book because they are still in lower grades. I raised him alone as a single parent because his father left us when Simlindele was doing Grade one.
“His father is alive but is living somewhere else. After this news I didn’t even receive a call from him to congratulate his son,” she said.
Ondini principal Ntombifuthi Cookman said that they are proud of Simlindele and his class of matric 2023.
Ulundi Mayor Wilson Ntshangase and the executive visited Simlindele and handed him spending money to use on his trip to Randburg.
Simlindele took his first-ever flight on a plane on Wednesday to go to Gauteng with his mother and uncle to attend Thursday’s matric result ceremony.
Next stop: UCT, one of three universities that accepted his application. He plans to study medicine and specialise as a neurologist.
Pictured above: Top matric achiever Simlindele Khumalo (front centre), pictured alongside his school principal, Mrs Ntombifuthi Cookman (left) and the Mayor of Ulundi Local Municipality, Wilson Ntshangase (right).
Image source: Supplied
