Bongani was first enrolled in pre-school at the Siteki School for the Deaf in 2005, at the age of 7. He graduated from grade 7 in 2015. He is a consistently responsible and mature individual who was determined to do better by himself and truly valued education. In 2016, Bongani was accepted into the De La Bat Skool and was enrolled in grade 8, where he overcame the language barrier, learning South African Sign Language and excelled throughout the year. He is now completing grade 9 and was recognized for his academic success at last month's Speech and Prize Day.

Bongani is the eldest son of his parents, and has a younger brother who is also Deaf. He lives with his grandmother who is incredibly proud of him.

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Bongani has incredible leadership skills and values being a role model. He initiated starting a boy's health club at his former primary school, where he ran and organized meetings and activities with the support of Anthony and Pamela. He took this role very seriously and co-taught with Mbeketeli and Buhle.

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In addition to all of his other talents, Bongani is also gifted in miming, and recently was recognized for his skills at the 2017 Zwakala Deaf Drama Competition organized by Deaf TV in South Africa. Check out a video of his performance here.

 

He won first place in his category, and will be using his prize money to buy a computer. He is interested in IT and will be enrolling in the Computer Applications Technology (CAT) courses next year. It has also been Bongani's life-long dream to be a Police Officer.