When I saw him approach, though we had never met, I knew it was him. He is a man who is small in stature, but has a look of integrity about him. When I approached him he smiled to show an impressive set of teeth. He was warm and friendly. As we made our initial introductions I realised that he is also a soft-spoken man.
As we commenced our tour of Constitution Hill I noticed so many things about him. He had abandoned all ego and approached everything with a child-like curiosity and enthusiasm. He was always willing to experience and listen. He didn’t talk too much - not what I was expecting. He was always ready and willing to smile. There in his smile was an unexpected quiet wisdom. Before I interviewed him, I already knew why he had occupied so many leadership positions in his very short life.
During his term as the SRC president, he became a better orator and writer. The best part about being the S.R.C president was that he was able to help people. This seems to be a running theme in Sibulele’s life: helping other people. He recalls a story where an elderly man from the Eastern Cape came to Johannesburg to sort out his daughter’s exclusion (this is when a University kicks you out for having bad marks or bad behaviour, or being unable to pay the tuition). Sibulele remembers being so touched by the elderly man because he was crying - for an elderly Xhosa man to be vulnerable in front of a young boy in University is not common place in Xhosa culture. Sibulele said to me that that man’s hopes and dreams were in his daughter. That man had hoped that his daughter would be the one to uplift the family and take them out of poverty. With her exclusion died the hopes and dreams of her father. This is when Sibulele realised that the university system isn’t always fair.
His spirit of servitude sets him apart. His dreams and his goals are aligned around serving South Africa - not as a president or a minister, but as a policy swaying DDG (Deputy Director General). He wants to be the foot-soldier of change. Sibulele has seen the effects of poverty and corruption first hand and he wants to be the vehicle of change.