Matriculant makes history at Peak View

Liyabona Zungula is a name that won’t be easily forgotten, as she is the first matriculant in the history of Peak View High School’s 46 years to obtain seven distinctions.

Liyabona, 17, from Gugulethu, lives between two taverns and at times the noise levels were too much for her to focus on her school work. For this reason she would often be found at the creche where her mother, Nonkosi Zungula, works. She would study there until 9pm at night.

Her consistent hard work throughout the year resulted in her achieving distinctions in all her subjects, which include English, isiXhosa, Life Science, Geography, History, Maths Literacy and Life Orientation. This is despite the challenges in her community and her family’s financial situation. There were times her mother had to borrow taxi fare from their neighbours for Liyabona to get to school.

Her sister, Michelle Zungula, 31, said she moved back to their family home in 2016, when their mother’s health was impacted.

“Our mom's health is not so good. She was diagnosed with lymphoedema (which is a chronic condition). This is why I moved back home to assist our mother,” Michelle said.

Speaking about her sister’s outstanding results, she added: “We are very proud of Liyabona’s accomplishment. She is so dedicated to her work. She even started a study group for her class, and one of the parents actually came to thank us, because the learner’s work improved so much because of the study group. That is just who Liyabona is - she is always considerate of others. As her sister, and our mom, we are very blessed to have Liyabona. We are so grateful for her.”

When the soft-spoken Liyabona received her results at the school on Friday January 20, she said she was in shock.

“My results are a surprise to me, especially my history mark,” she said.

Apart from the study group and studying at the creche, Liyabona also attended Saturday classes at school, and went over past examination papers.

Her history teacher, Jonathan Mangwiro, said he is not surprised at her results at all.

“I knew she had the potential and her hard work has paid dividends,” Mr Mangwiro said.

Principal Laetitia Philander also expressed her immense pride in Liyabona and the rest of the 2022 matric class, whom she said, exceeded all expectations.

“We are super proud, especially since we know that the circumstances for many of our learners are difficult. They were still part of the group who had to do their schooling during the Covid-19 period, and not all of them had access to wifi or even cellphones. Some downloaded their work while at school,” Ms Philander said.

Liyabona hopes to study biotechnology and has already received an acceptance letter from the University of Johannesburg.