You might recall the news story of Thabile Cynthia Dlamini-Bediako, the first Swazi female pilot to land an aircraft at Sikhuphe, in 2014. Besides Dlamini-Bediako not much has been said about any other Swazi female pilots. This is hardly surprising given that aviation is a highly male-dominated industry, especially in Africa. And women’s jobs in aviation are mainly limited to non-flying roles such as flight attendants, aviation security and air traffic control.
As a child I remember going to an airshow hosted at Matsapha Airport and was treated to a display of planes zipping through the sky performing aerobatic manoeuvres. But at some point during the festivities one of the planes that was getting ready to take off just didn’t make it off the ground and kept circling the taxiway. As we waited, some men who were among the spectators made the joke that: “Lendiza ishayelwa ngumfati”. The comment was met by unbridled laughter because this no doubt explained to all why the plane was struggling to take to the sky. Even back then, I remember being struck by society’s disregard for women.
It’s memories like these and the paucity of information concerning women in the local aviation industry that made me keen to meet Pepe (real name Zandile Sibandze). She is currently studying aerospace engineering, a course that is closely related to mechanical engineering, at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. This qualifies her for a career in the aerospace industry as a designer and manufacturer of aircrafts. This makes Pepe the first female in Eswatini (Swaziland) to study aerospace engineering. Admittedly, she has some reservations about this title as it is likely to draw unnecessary attention to her, although she admits it does push her to work harder.
“It holds me accountable; even at school I’m like, ‘I don’t want to give up, I don’t want to mess up’ because I know if things go bad then my reputation is messed up because already a lot of people know about what I’m studying,” she observes during our innerview.
Humble Beginnings
Pepe was born in Gundvwini (Manzini) on June 11, 1993. She is the fourth born out of eight girls. She describes her childhood as centering around doing household chores, going to the river to fetch water, looking after her father’s livestock and going to school. Her father (who passed away in 2004) used to work in the mines but retired when she was four years old. “I don’t know my dad working. I know him as a guy who was always around, staying at home. He was sick; he had pneumonia. So he had to leave work and come back home,” she recalls.
Her mother is a subsistence farmer who had to leave school after grade seven because of lack of funds. This was quite a misfortune as Pepe describes her mum as “quite brilliant”. Having missed the opportunity to complete her education, she refused to allow the same fate to befall her daughters. Hence she made sure that Pepe and her sisters acquired an education despite financial difficulties at home. At times it even called for them assisting their mum with various farming tasks so that they could raise enough money for school.
Thinking back she feels: “It’s kind of like a miracle to me that I was able to complete school because I grew up in an environment where I saw other parents give up on their children for the valid reason that they did not have a job or income. So I appreciate my mother, because my mum could have also made that excuse but she did not.”
Pepe’s fascination with aeroplanes started when she was very young, around the age of 5. “What fascinated me the most was how something that heavy, with a lot of people and luggage, could leave the ground and fly and maintain its position in the sky without falling…that was mysterious. It was the most beautiful thing a human being had ever created,” she remarks.
I’m interested to know what type of child she was. She explains that she was a bit reserved and kept to herself. Her family’s financial status made her a bit wary of reaching out to other children her age. Furthermore, her interest in planes and soccer also made her a bit different from other girls and recalls how they used to think she was weird. “When I told people that I wanted to be a pilot, the inevitable response was: ‘What is that?’ My primary school friends used to say pilots could only be white people. I did not know if this was true or not because I had never seen a black person as a pilot.”
Knowing how smart pilots need to be I ask how she performed in school, and to my surprise she admits that she was an average student. In fact, she should have repeated standard four but her teachers, knowing her parents and the family’s financial situation, decided to let her proceed with the hope that she would pass grade seven, which she says she passed with a “lousy second class.”
It was also during Pepe’s primary school years that her father sadly passed away. She recalls feeling the “heaviness of the responsibility” as she felt that she had to step into his shoes. “At that point I saw myself as a provider, I [felt] that I had the responsibility to take care of my siblings and my mum.” She further explains, “It also made me understand that as much as we have gender roles in our society, that should not disturb anyone; that should not make one think there’s a job that a girl can’t do; there’s a job a boy mustn’t do.”
This is in reference to how Pepe was mostly drawn to doing outdoor chores that are mostly done by the males in a family as opposed to the more womanly household chores. Seeing as how she had to balance her schoolwork with serious family responsibilities, it’s no wonder that she felt like an adult at a young age. Hence school almost became like her “hiding place” because that’s where she could actually feel like a child again and be a bit carefree. However, this did not mean education was her priority, rather it was soccer. She even became the captain of the school’s soccer team which earned her a bit of fame.
Despite her poor academic performance, she points out that her teachers at Gundvwini High School could see potential in her that she never really saw in herself. As such, their encouragement never really sank in and once again she got a “lousy second class pass” in Form Three. It was in Form Four when she woke up and remembered she had a dream, which was to be a pilot and to travel to the USA. That’s when she started studying very hard. Such that with her Form Five results she now stood a chance to go to university. “Actually in my family I was the first child to qualify to go to university without having to fix any subjects.”
Figuring out the Next Step
Pepe was accepted at Limkokwing University for an IT degree, but decided not to go to the institution. Also, the acceptance letter came late, after she had given up on the prospect of going. Despite attaining good grades, she knew that they were not good enough to enable her to go and study abroad, especially not aviation. Hence she decided to take a gap year and “stayed home doing nothing, just trying to figure out life.”
It was during this period, in 2012, when she was connected by someone at church with a Swazi woman based in Johannesburg who was recruiting maids for people in South Africa. She recalls that the whole setup happened quite fast; after informing her mother about the job prospect, the two of them worked fast to get her a travel document and she subsequently left the country without further delay. The recruiter then arranged work for her with a Xhosa family that was based in Kempton Park.
She points out that they were a nice family that was made up of a married couple with two grown children. However she says she hated doing the housekeeping chores and the family had some reservations with her being so young. Pepe also struggled to reconcile herself with the fact that this might be her life for the next ten or so years. The man of the house, who happened to be a mechanical engineer, also noticed that she did not like doing the job. He also noticed how excited she would be when he invited her to the garage to assist him with some mechanical tasks. She recalls that she could stay there the whole day.
To further attest to her mechanical orientation, there is an incident where she fixed her employers’ broken pool pump. When her employer returned and noticed that it working, he asked if someone else had come by the house to fix it. Pepe told him that she had been fiddling with it and then the motor started working. One can just imagine his shock when he realised that this young girl managed to get this basically dead appliance up and running.
One day he asked Pepe how far she had gone with her schooling and she told him that she had actually finished her high school education and showed him her results. Upon seeing them, the couple encouraged her to further her education and to apply at UNISA for a part-time course or at least do Matric so she that could qualify to go to tertiary in South Africa. They were even willing to take her in and find someone else to do the housework. But Pepe stuck to her guns and told them that she wanted to return home and redo high school here.
Back to School…Again
In 2013, Pepe returned to Eswatini with some money saved up to redo Forms Four and Five. This time around she was determined to attain the marks that would enable her to study the course of her dreams in the USA. Talk about having a vision! Initially, she targeted some of the country’s top high schools, but none of them accepted her due to the fact that she had been out of school for two years and she had already passed Form Five at Gundvwini High School. So she settled for Lozitha High School. Much to her surprise, things turned out for the best as she formed some treasured friendships. She and her school friends also came up with the idea of forming a study group and a debate club at the school. Meanwhile, Pepe was also elected deputy head girl (after declining to be the head girl).
Now here’s the interesting part: Pepe recalls not really studying for the final exam; rather it was through leading the study group sessions and tutoring her classmates that she managed to take in all the knowledge she needed. She even mentions doing prep before assisting her classmates with their schoolwork — just like a real teacher. She assisted them with Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agriculture and SiSwati.
In 2014, Pepe graduated from high school, and obtained 6th position in the Form Five examination. That accomplishment led to her being awarded a scholarship by the Ashinaga organisation which changed her future. Ashinaga is a Japan based non-profit organisation that offers scholarships and support to orphaned young people. According to Pepe, the organisation only selects one student from each country. “There were so many students lining up for that scholarship. Being selected was like a dream come true,” she remarked.
From Gundvwini to the Daytona Beach
Today Pepe is living her dream after having started her studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach campus in August 2016. She is enjoying the course, although she admits it can be intense and hard. As a freshman she struggled with the computer-related aspects of the course. Coming from an under-resourced high school where there was not much interaction with computers or sophisticated software programs, she felt unprepared for this new technologically advanced world. She remedied the situation by forming good relationships with her lecturers and putting in extra time to equip herself with computer skills.
Meantime, she is also trying to figure out how she can get more people in Eswatini interested in the course. “It’s my understanding that it doesn’t help you to say, ‘I’m the first person to do this in my country’ if you’re going to remain the first person and nobody else follows you because you need that team of people in case you want to implement something,” she observes. This is in line with how other barrier breakers feel, for example Asnath Mahapa — South Africa’s first black female pilot — opened an aviation college in 2012 to inspire more black women to be pilots.
Like Mahapa, Pepe’s ultimate goal is to become a pilot; meanwhile, she is also looking for additional funding to enable her to pursue pilot training as an academic minor. Despite it being an expensive training programme, she feels it is a necessary addition to her degree as she notes that there is a high demand for African pilots on the continent. With the increased effort in the country to expand the aviation industry, as demonstrated by the building of the King Mswati III International Airport she may possibly find herself playing a prominent role in the local aviation industry.
She also dreams of one day starting a sports academy and establishing a sports NGO in Eswatini that will scout students who are gifted in sports. She believes sports can go a long way in helping young people become better members of society. She argues that sports has opened careers for others, given how in other countries young people are awarded sports scholarships which have advanced both their academic and sports careers.
Last Thoughts
My takeaway from my innerview with Pepe is her attitude towards challenges. It’s like all the hurdles she’s had to overcome thus far in her journey are just proof that: “No challenge is insurmountable”. May anyone with dreams that feel too big be inspired by Pepe’s story and take heed that the biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams!
