Despite being a victim of the devastating KwaZulu Natal floods that left hundreds dead and thousands homeless, 17-year-old Ntombi Mbotwe passed her matric with flying colours. The April 2021 floods left thousands of homes damaged and critical infrastructure including major roads, bridges, transportation, communication and electrical systems broken.

HOUSE SWEPT AWAY 

Ntombifuthi Mbotwe from KwaSanti outside Pinetown in Durban is one of the many matriculants who managed to pass with Bachelor. In April 2022 Durban was mostly hit with heavy rains that saw Mbotwe's family house being swept during the deadly floods. She missed weeks of schooling as the heavy rains persisted for weeks.She told ZiMoja that on the day their house was swept away, they started seeing cracks and slowly and the rain started pouring inside the house. This led them to moving to a neighbour's house hoping that the heavy rain would calm down. "O urfamily house was swept away right in front of our eyes with everything inside.The floods were too strong for us to get some furniture out. All we could do was to get our documents and jerseys since it was also cold. We were left with nothing, absolutely nothing," she said.

AGAINST ALL ODDS

Mbotwe said that when their family house was swept away, she had been absent from school for two weeks as they had been given a break because of the floods. "There are kids that stays across the KwaSanti river that were unable to attend so at school they gave us a break until the rain slowed down. After our house was swept away, we were moved to a local hall where we stayed until December,' she said. Mbotwe said that she had to work extra hard at school since it was hard to study at the hall with a lot of different families occupying the place. "It was difficult to study there with no privacy, sometimes when you are studying, children would be crying, people would be giggling very loudly at night, and some arguing.It was not easy, so I made it a point that I concentrate when we attended evening classes. I made sure that when I was at school, I took my schoolwork very seriously because I knew that at the hall it was hard to study," Mbotwe said. "There was no privacy and to be honest I don't wish anyone to go throughwhat we went through. It's not healthy and it is not an environment to raise kids especially girls as there are also males,"

STUDYING FURTHER

Mbotwe further said that she wants to become a dental therapist, but she has no money to register atthe University of KwaZulu Natal where she has applied. "Both my parents are unemployed, and it will be unfair of me to think they can come up with a plan as they are old, and we are a family of 12 children. I was hoping I was going to get a bursary and probably NSFAS was going to assist. Yes, I am excited, but it will be useless when if I don't get a chance to study and change my family's situation,' she added.

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