South African youth are diverse people who come from different backgrounds and have unique challenges but continue to forge a successful life for themselves. One of these young South Africans is Nokuzola Kakaza from Tembisa. What makes Nokuzola unique is a medical condition called scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine that can lead to deformities.
Nokuzola, who was raised by her loving grandmother, had to deal with a debilitating change in her life as her scoliosis resulted in her using a wheelchair. Since then, she has had to deal with the unfair discrimination that People with Disabilities face daily from society.
However, with encouragement from her grandmother, and Nokuzola's resilience, she decided not to let her condition define her, and has since lived a fruitful life.
The 27-year-old has an IT qualification and completed a learnership at DVG Media Training, which helped her save enough money to buy herself a wheelchair.
Nokuzola was assisted by a Social Worker when applying for the learnership, and that same Social Worker became a significant part of her support system as she provided "words of encouragement" to her. "She also helped me with accepting my disability and helped my family understand my condition better", says Nokuzola.
Despite her colleagues not treating her well, Nokuzola said she is empowered through and completed her learnership, earning her a N5 level in system development. Today she works under transformation for a major energy equipment supplier in South Africa.
She is responsible for handling B-BBEE Certification, a legislative framework that seeks to help previously disadvantaged groups with economic empowerment. Nokuzola urges government and its stakeholders to provide more support to People with Disabilities. She would like to see more workshops that focus on educating society about disabilities and the support needed by People with Disabilities.
She would also like to see a "prioritisation of the funding of foundations and ventures owned and run by Youth with Disabilities" such as herself. Her foundation, UniAfrica group, focuses on providing entrepreneurial skills, assists with charity work, and offers trainings on pageant modelling.
The pageant queen encourages young people with disabilities to "believe in themselves" and concludes that "it is a person's personality and dreams that makes them who they are".