Grade 11 Usasazo High School pupil Wanda Tshuma, bagged a third place in the annual Financial Literacy Speech Competition.
Wanda was the only Western Cape pupil in the final of the competition, organised by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), which was held in Cape Town last Friday.
This year’s competition saw thousands of Grade 11 pupils from just over 300 non-fee paying schools testing their knowledge of finances.
In order for a pupil to book a place at the national leg of this competition, one is required to win at the district level so that he could qualify to compete at the provincial level.
The shy and softly-spoken 17 -year-old pupil did just that and, having won the provincial leg of the competition, was awarede a bursary worth of R500 000 to study at any university of his choice.
He also received an investment amount of R30 000 which would go towards his school needs including a tablet and 500MB of data.
He also received another R30 000 which would go towards the school needs.
The provincial competition was held in September, and at the national competition, he was pitted against eight other top young financial minds.
While this was not the first time that the school had represented the province at the national competition, it was the first time that they made it into the top three.
Wanda said he had been over the moon when he won the provincial leg of this competition as he knew that his parents would no longer have worry about how they were going to fund his university studies.
He doesn’t consider himself a great talker, he decided to give the competition a go, and worked hard to refine his speech-making skills, sometimes practising as many as three times a day.
“I feel grateful for the opportunity afforded by our teacher who believed in me even though at times I doubted myself.
“’He pushed me beyond my limits and made him believe that I was capable of achieving this.
‘’I mean I have definitely put the school on the map but most importantly I know for a fact that I have a bursary to cover my studies and I just need to focus on my studies,” he said.
Wanda said he had not yet made a final decision about what to study, but his interests included chartered accounting and business studies.
Teacher, Kadima Eddy Kayembe, said due to the magnitude of this competition it was crucial that they identify pupils who will benefit from the competition.
He said he was extremely proud of what Wanda had achieved through his hard work.
