Nomsa Mazwai
Nomsa Mazwai was born at the Florence Nightingale hospital in Johannesburg on the 2nd of January in 1985. She was the third daughter born to Thami and Belede Mazwai. As a child she attended St Katherine's school for Girls in Park town until Std 3 (Grade 5), and then St Patrick's School in Kokstad for her Std 4 (Grade 6) year and moved back to Johannesburg for Std 5 until she completed her matric and St Andrews School for Girls in Senderwood.
Her Leadership journey began at St Andrews school for girls. She was a public speaker and represented the school at public speaking competitions. She served as the deputy head of Minerva, the Chairperson of Public Speaking and the Head of SRC. During her final year at St Andrews she achieved full colours for Drama, Full colours for Art, and a re-award of Full colours for public speaking, won the schools creativity in art Prize and the cultural participation prize.
Along with her leadership activities she also participated in the Arts. Her art was a main piece being exhibited at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD South Africa). She also made it to the final top 10 in the annual ABSA public speaking competition. Nomsa also completed levels A1 and A2 of the Delf exam which is an internationally recognized exam for reading, writing and speaking French.
After matric, she went to the University of Cape Town to study Architecture. During her time at the university, which was short, she served as the Deputy chair of the African Film Resource Organization (AFRO) and was voted in by students at the University of Cape Town to be part of the Students Representative Council. She was excluded from the university, which she reflects on in her book Little Girl, and then went to study at the university of Fort Hare.
At the university of Fort Hare she founded the Young Entrepreneurs society, which was responsible for the cleanup campaign which took place in the town of Alice in 2005, 2006 and briefly in 2007.
She was also a member of Habitat for humanity, through a friend and colleague in the UCT SRC, Dominique Pitot. While a member of Habitat for Humanity she participated in a corporate build, headed by Kenneth Kaunda in Mamelodi. Here she was part of a team that built 25 homes for people living in Mamelodi in one week.
In 2005, she was awarded the Abe Bailey travel bursary which is a bursary for young African Leaders. She was chosen to represent Fort Hare along with another remarkable young leader, Briggita Albrecht.
During this year she also served as the Transformation officer at the university of Fort Hare in the SRC lead by SRC president Sheppard Muzamba.
In 2006 she continued with the Young Entrepreneurs society and during this year the society received support from the district municipality. This support ensured the campaign could increase and more work was achieved by the society. The society, which when it started had only 9 members grew to over 200 members.
In 2006 Nomsa continued with her work and in that year she ran for the SRC. It was in this year that she was voted in by the students of Fort Hare as the first female SRC president at the university of Fort Hare. She ran as an independent candidate. In that year over 70% of students voted for the SRC she then went on to lead.
In 2007, during her term in the SRC, she and her team started the Funda Mfundi campaign, which was an innovative way in which to raise funds towards increasing student debt. Throughout her term she stressed the importance of ensuring that students had all the resources they required when studying at university. The campaign was an effort to augment the low level of funding for previously disadvantaged students.
During her term she was a member of the South African Union of Students when it was under the leadership of Sibu Sibiya, also the first female president and first president of this structure.
She was also part of the Biko 30/30 campaign which took place during 2007.
Throughout this journey Nomsa has always been an avid writer. She has been writing poetry since matric. She has also performed her poetry on many platforms including university wide incoko, for organizations such as the New Unity Movement, the Nelson Mandela Institute and with her peers in poetry sessions around the country.
She has also featured as a singer on her sister, Ntsiki Mazwai's debut album Mamiya on the song 'sweet poison'. She performed alongside her sister at the Grahamstown arts festival 2008, a song entitled 'ndaphiwa ngumama'.
She is also an artist and has been exhibited at the Anne Bryant art gallery in East London and at the WSSD (World Summit for Sustainable Development) as previously mentioned.
In 2007 she began writing the book Little Girl which was completed in January 2008 and launched on the 10th of October, 2008 on Freedom Square where she says her 'journey as a leader who understands the dynamics of diversity', began.
She has worked at Nelson Mandela Institute which deals with schools in rural areas. She has been promoting and taking part in ilima. During an ilima, students go to schools in Mqanduli and refurbish the dilapidated buildings over the weekend. She is also working with the NMI team with learner camps where young citizens are engaged on issues affecting their lives. They are assisted with reading and writing and Nomsa has participated with assisting young pupils with poetry writing and recital.
Nomsa is also coordinating the implementation of the 'grounding program' at the university of Fort Hare. She has been part of the curricular renewal process since it began in university wide incoko. She lead the team which organized the curriculum Jamboree which was a festival of ideas and the Great Debate.
She completed and earned her first degree in Commerce majoring in economics and management and completed her modules in development studies honours. She must still complete her mini dissertation. She is currently working for ASPIRE, the development agency for the Amathole district municipality. She works in small town regeneration for economic growth and development. She is also studying towards a second honours in Economics, specializing in financial markets.
She was a guest on the TV show, 'Late night with Kgomotso' and performed for when life happens, live at the baseline in Newtown JHB. She is also a featured Author in the 2009 Big Read alongside talented authors Mandla Langa, Alice Walker, Lebo Mashile and Paulo Coelho to mention but a few.
She is young, vibrant, eager to learn and a social activist.
