Growing up in Northern Cape’s agricultural town of Warrenton, Refilwe Motshaoane was quite sure which career path she wanted to follow.
Having aced her matric in 2011, the following year, 30-year-old Motshaoane went on to pursue a diploma in civil engineering at the Vaal University of Technology.
Now a candidate technologist at the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral), Motshaoane’s journey, is a shining example of government programmes that have changed ordinary South African lives over the past 30 years of democracy.
Born in 1993, she is a mirror reflection of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s narration of Tintswalo, the child of democracy.
Motshaoane was raised by her single mother and grandmother. Her father passed away when she was in Grade 2.
Looking to secure a better education, Refilwe’s mother enrolled her at a boarding school with the meagre resources at her disposal. Thanks to her academic excellence, Refilwe secured a scholarship that saw her through high school from grade 10.
“We lived in my grandmother’s house where there was a lot of us. My mum, my aunts and my cousins. So one didn’t have space to themselves. It wasn’t easy,” she recalled.
While her ambitions and career aspirations changed at regular intervals, it was later in high school that she settled on pursuing engineering.
After completing her national diploma in Civil Engineering, she did an internship with Knight Piesold Consulting Engineers in 2017 before tackling her B.Tech degree at Central University of Technology, for which she received a bursary from Sanral.
“From the end of 2019 I was expecting to get a call from Sanral to start work, but due to the effects of COVID-19 and the lockdown, work formally started in August 2020,’’ she said.
Her journey began on a project on the N12 in Victoria West, from where she moved to a project on the R510 in Thabazimbi before heading to Sanral’s Southern Region in Gqeberha.
“Since coming here I’ve been involved in three projects on R63, N2 along the KwaZulu-Natal border near Kokstad and N2 near Tsolo.’’
As a Candidate Technologist, Refilwe is now involved with pavement evaluation, hydraulics, geometric design on the N2 outside Tsolo, under Mhlontlo Local Municipality.
‘’When we go on site we work with Resident Engineers as Assistant Resident Engineers. We manage day to day administration, supervise work done on site and assist with site correspondence.’’ Her five-year contract has just over one year left. Despite this, she is full of praise for the opportunity Sanral gave her.
She said she was grateful for all life’s opportunities, since her life and that of her family gradually improved over the past 30 years.
Motshaoane said she plans to pursue a qualification in business administration as he has ambition of one day running her own business. She expressed gratitude for all the opportunities that had been presented to her and had brought major changes to her life thus far.
The DPWI bursary programme is advertised annually in October. Interested applicants should visit www.publicworks.gov.za
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