From the dusty streets of Mqanduli to a PhD

In 2015, Lwazi Ncoliwe arrived at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he enrolled for an MCom in Development Finance. He had the acceptance letter. What he did not have, however, was money – not for tuition; or a place to sleep. 

So, he did the only thing he knew how to do: he knocked on doors. “One of them was the Doctoral Degrees Board (DDB) Office, where I was offered a three-month contract as a student assistant. The office was run at the time by Dr Karen van Heerden, then deputy registrar. She took a chance on a young man with nothing but willingness, and she gave me the opportunity,” Lwazi said. 

Three months later, budget constraints meant his contract could not be renewed. She had no choice but to let him go. And she did something she did not have to do: she wrote to every faculty manager at UCT, asking whether anyone had a vacancy that could accommodate him, and she strongly recommended him. 

“I understood that someone had vouched for me.” 

“Within days, my phone rang. It was Devar Pillay, then manager of the Faculty of Commerce, offering me a two-year contract in the faculty office. I worked on the GetSmarter programmes as a data capturer, and I was also the delivery guy – carrying certificates from campus to the GetSmarter offices in Woodstock. There was nothing glamorous about it. But I gave it everything, because I understood that someone had vouched for me,” Lwazi explained. 

“In 2016 and 2017, National Research Foundation (NRF) funding covered my tuition, and in 2017 I was permanently appointed at the School of Economics. That permanence was a relief I struggle to put into words. For the first time, my fees were paid, my job was secure, and I could breathe. I grew into the role of finance assistant, working directly with the head of department, Professor Lawrence Edwards, and later Professor Justine Burns who sadly passed away earlier this year.”  

A call that changed everything 

Then came the phone call that changed everything. 

The School of Management Studies had an opportunity for Lwazi to pursue a PhD, with residence and fees fully covered. All of his expenses would be taken care of. But there was one condition: he would have to resign from his full-time, permanent post – the very security he had fought so hard to earn. 

“I cannot pretend that decision was easy,” he said. “I had financial commitments. I had family responsibilities. I had no guarantee that a PhD would lead anywhere at all. I sat with it, and then I took the leap of faith.” 

His dissertation is titled: “The experiences of South African and Somali Spaza shop owners operating in Orlando West, Soweto: Lessons for local entrepreneurship in economically deprived areas”. 

“I will forever be grateful to Professor Ines Meyer, who supervised my master’s and later my PhD, and who made certain that funding came through from her NRF South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) chair. The School of Management Studies, under Professor Suki Goodman – now faculty dean – provided additional funding, which meant I could resign without the fear of falling into a financial hole.” 

Support that opened doors 

That support opened the world to him, he added. He travelled and presented his research at national and international conferences. In July 2025, he presented his work at the International Labour Organization (ILO) conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Standing in that room, he said, thousands of kilometres from home, remains the highlight of his career. 

“Most PhD graduates continue into postdoctoral study, because a doctorate guarantees nothing. I was fortunate: I was appointed to a lecturing post at the University of Johannesburg this year. Every sacrifice was worth it,” Lwazi said. 

“A boy from the dusty streets of Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape has made it this far, and I am telling this story for the ones who cannot yet see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“And here is the part that still moves me. I began my UCT journey as a student assistant in the DDB Office. A few years later, that same office awarded me my PhD. I started out helping to process other people’s doctorates, and I ended up receiving my own – a full-circle moment I could never have scripted.” 

Lwazi said he’s grateful to the NRF, and he still needs to thank them properly for the funding that carried him. “I owe a debt to Dr van Heerden, Devar Pillay, Professor Meyer, Professor Goodman, and to UCT itself – an institution that did not just admit me but invested in me. 

“I never envisaged becoming an academic. But a boy from the dusty streets of Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape has made it this far, and I am telling this story for the ones who cannot yet see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. 

“Somebody once opened a door for me when I had nothing. That is the whole story. And it is why I will spend the rest of my career opening doors for others.”