Ihsaan Haffejee

23605/12/2012Yusuf Essack a matriculant at The Hope School, passed his examinations and also obtained University entrance despite suffering from cerebral palsy. He will study clinical psychology at Wits University next year. Picture: Ihsaan Haffejee

Botho Molosankwe

IT TAKES guts to achieve against the odds.

Ask Yusuf Essack, 19, who is in a wheelchair and has cerebral palsy.

Ask Mulamuli Mkhaliphi, who had only the child support grant his mother was getting as an income.

Ask Mukhethwa Morodhovha, a Limpopo teenager, who left home at 5am every day and returned after 6pm.

These three achievers are just some of the country’s matric pupils who didn’t let adversity get them down.

Mulamuli and Mukhethwa were named among the country’s top 11 pupils and were honoured by Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga.

Yusuf did not get any distinctions, but he achieved a university entrance despite spending more time at home and in hospital than at school.

His school suggested that he drop out because he had missed so much, but he refused.

Yusuf uses a scribe (someone who writes for him) as he is slow, and was revived twice during prelims after passing out while writing his maths papers. While in hospital, he couldn’t study because of the drips.

But he still made it for his final exams, despite the pain in his body and the pills, whose side effects affected his short-term memory and his understanding of what he was reading.

“On average, the scribe had to read a question to me five times,” he recalled.

His results are an indication of his willpower and determination.

“I made it. This is one of the best days of my life,” the Hope School, Westcliff, pupil said.

Mulamuli, who attended Langa High School in Pongola, KwaZulu Natal, stays with his unemployed mother.

The 16-year-old has always done well at school and was promoted twice during his school career.

When he battled to pay R37 a day for extra classes at an education centre nearby, as his mother couldn’t afford it, his community and teachers pitched in to help.

Their belief in him paid off.

He scored seven distinctions and will study medicine at Wits.

“I come from a very poor and rural area where many people are unemployed and not successful. They motivated me to study hard and come back as a doctor to help them,” he said.

In a few weeks Mukhethwa will be embarking on his actuarial science studies at the University of Cape Town after getting eight distinctions.

The 18-year-old from Dzanani in Limpopo travelled 50km to and from Mbilwi Secondary School every day, waking up at 4am to get ready.