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INLSA<\/p>\n
FILE PICTURE<\/p>\n
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Collin Mbanjwa doubts that he would now be a second-year Master\u2019s student had he not been jailed more than a decade ago. For the former \u201cprofessional criminal\u201d, an existence \u201con the outside\u201d, beyond the walls of Westville Prison, posed \u201ctoo many disruptions\u201d. <\/p>\n
Convicted of murder and robbery, and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001, Mbanjwa then had only a matric certificate to his name. <\/p>\n
As part of his rehabilitation, which included reconciling with his victim\u2019s family, he pursued a BA through Unisa, majoring in adult education. <\/p>\n
Yesterday, Mbanjwa was recognised as one of the prison\u2019s top students at a ceremony held by the provincial Correctional Services Department and the Education Department. <\/p>\n
Mbanjwa, 40, who has also studied Islamic law through the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said he had learnt that \u201cyou won\u2019t get anywhere in life without hard work\u201d. <\/p>\n
With his sentence reduced to 13 years, he\u2019d like to get into community development once free, but realises that a criminal record will only impede his chances of employment. <\/p>\n
For fellow inmate Renisha Pillay, studying has both fed her ambition and been a way to help pass the time. <\/p>\n
Murder <\/p>\n
At 38, the diminutive aspiring caterer still looks like the 23-year-old who began a life sentence for the murder of her husband 15 years ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou occupy yourself with everything they have to offer,\u201d she said. Pillay, who has a Master\u2019s degree in theology, was singled out yesterday for achieving multiple distinctions in the national certificate for hospitality. <\/p>\n
Admitting that she had made the \u201cwrong\u201d life decisions, the mother of one hopes to qualify for parole next year. <\/p>\n
At the prize-giving, provincial education head of department Nkosinathi Sishi expressed his gratitude to the tutors who made access to learning possible for the inmates. One such tutor is Buhle Mkhondo, 26, who teaches economics to a class of 20 women prisoners. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just like any other teacher. I have a classroom with stuff on the walls, I carry my chalk, we have a library and computers. But sometimes I\u2019m also a mother and a counsellor,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Mkhondo added that her students, who range from 19 to 52, were \u201cvery intelligent\u201d and still giggled about boys. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had problems with attendance, but when we got two male teachers, class was full again,\u201d Mkhondo laughs. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost of them have been born again,\u201d she adds. \u201cThey are just normal people.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA FILE PICTURE Collin Mbanjwa doubts that he would now be a second-year Master\u2019s student had he not been jailed more than a decade ago. For the former \u201cprofessional criminal\u201d, an existence \u201con the outside\u201d, beyond the walls of Westville Prison, posed \u201ctoo many disruptions\u201d. Convicted of murder and robbery, and sentenced to life imprisonment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-11920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}