Enzokuhle Sabela, 21, is a programme facilitator and head of social media and marketing at Tomorrow’s Leaders in Training (TLT South Africa), an organisation that guides young people through a critical point in their lives. In his work, Enzokuhle, who is studying journalism at Durban University of Technology, combines his desire for helping young people with his media and journalism skills to help the organisation.
The TLT programme helped him when he was still in high school and as a young man who has navigated the same tricky waters, he became a TLT facilitator to assist others. Enzokuhle’s biggest challenge is juggling his responsibilities and commitments, but “quickly learned that juggling things isn’t effective because, at some point you lose control”.
He says having three of his articles published by the Mail & Guardian was a huge accomplishment, particularly as the second one, “Voter education should be included in the school curriculum”, was rejected when he first submitted it. But he reworked it and it was accepted — and it gained huge traction on other platforms. Enzokuhle is also studying through the Historically Black Colleges and Universities – Africa Correspondents Corps, an initiative of the Center for African Studies at Howard University to further his professional development.
Bachelor of Journalism (current), Durban University of Technology
Getting published in the Mail & Guardian three times as an undergraduate journalist is a huge accomplishment. My second opinion piece taught me the most as a journalist and as a person. This piece, headlined “Voter education should be included in the school curriculum”, got the most attention; I was invited on the biggest news platforms in the country to discuss the topic. But getting that piece published was the hardest. I had sent it to the M&G and other publications towards the end of last year, but I did not get any responses. I saw this as a wakeup call. I reworked the article until I was more than 100% sure that it was ready for publication. This taught me lessons that I’ll carry for the rest of my life: sometimes your best may not be good enough and you need to do more to achieve your desired result; always go the extra mile, always aim for greatness; throwing yourself a pity party never helps; get up and work harder. Most importantly, when you feel like giving up, remind yourself why you started.
My late uncle, Phumelela, and my mentor, Fidel Hadebe, have influenced me. My uncle taught me how to be strong and resilient. He was battling two forms of cancer and I never heard him ask ‘Why me?’ He was in excruciating pain for years, but he was always the light of my family. At times, he would see that my family and I were in pain because we could not stand to watch him suffer, but he would be the one to encourage us, when we were supposed to comfort him. He loved people, people loved him. Fidel has taught me a great deal about the media industry and taught me how to find my voice as a writer. But he encourages me to always be humble, stay disciplined and to never stop learning.