No one encapsulates 20th century Indian Hindu spiritual leader Swami Sivananda’s quote, “the harder the struggle, the more glorious the triumph” better than Nkosinathi Nkabinde.
When he was only seven years old his mother died, leaving the raising of him and his younger brother, only two years old at the time, to his father.
As Nkosinathi got older, the responsibilities of taking care of his brother fell on him. Then, when he was 15 and in Grade 10, his older brother was arrested and sent to prison.
His son, who was five at the time, went to live with Nkosinathi, his father and younger brother.
This meant that not only did the young Nkosinathi have his younger brother to take care of but his nephew too.
Nkosinathi, who was a pupil at Unity High School in Daveyton, said that he had to make major sacrifices in order to create a balance between excelling at school without neglecting his household responsibilities.
“I would usually wake up at around 5am in order to give myself enough time to iron school clothes for the kids, as well as preparing them breakfast and school lunch. Then I would also go to school to attend my classes, which began at 7am,” the 17-year-old said.
“So, I never had time to socialise, including on weekends, because I still had a lot of work to do. When there was work I had not completed during the week, I would complete it on Saturday. I also attended Saturday and Sunday classes at school.
“There just was never time to socialise - I was always doing my work,” he explained.
Despite having to juggle his studies with being a “parent” to his brother and nephew, Nkosinathi obtained eight distinctions - in English first additional language; Maths; Physical Science; Life Sciences; Business Studies; Religion Studies; IsiZulu and Life Orientation.
Nkosinathi acknowledged that growing up without a mother was extremely difficult for him, saying his mother could have assisted with a lot of the household work he had to do.
“But I have never blamed my mother because she didn’t choose to die. My tough upbringing was a big motivation to me because I wanted to be a role model to my younger brother and nephew.
“When I eventually succeed, I want them to see that it is possible for them to also succeed, so we can all be successful,” he emphasised.
Nkosinathi is hoping to get a bursary and pursue a degree in chemical engineering this year at either the University of Pretoria or University of Cape Town where he has been accepted.
He has been provisionally accepted at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he would like to attend because of the university’s close proximity to his home town. On why he chose chemical engineering, Nkosinathi said he thoroughly enjoyed chemistry at school, especially the practical experiments.
His father, Gift Nkabinde, expressed joy at his son’s achievement, saying Nkosinathi was a good boy who hardly gave him any problems.
“You know sometimes boys can do naughty things here and there, and he (Nkosinathi) was no different. But Nkosinathi never did anything that gave me problems - he is a good son,” the proud father said.
Nkosinathi has been invited to the Gauteng Department of Education’s results announcement today, where he’s in line to receive an award from MEC Panyaza Lesufi.
Nkosinathi credits the teachers at his school for his success, adding that the teachers were dedicated to their work.
He arrived at Unity in Grade 11 from another school in Daveyton, saying the school’s reputation for producing great results was the reason he went there.
Unity’s principal, Wandile Makhubu, was proud that the school achieved a 96.3% pass rate, with 51% of its matriculants achieving university entrance passes.
On Nkosinathi, Makhubu said his achievement was especially welcome as Nkosinathi also assisted other pupils in maths, science and English.
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