Interview with Ntsiki Dlepu for Women's Month 2024
Throughout August, in honour of Women’s Month in South Africa, we had the privilege of sitting down with a number of inspiring women to hear their stories of perseverance, leadership, and personal growth. In a series of interviews led by Tracy Dawson, a Partner at Millar Cameron, these women shared their journeys and the advice they would offer to their younger selves. Our series begins with Ntsiki Dlepu, a remarkable leader who rose from humble beginnings in a rural village in the Eastern Cape to become an Executive HR leader. Ntsiki’s story, and those that follow in the coming weeks, reflect the resilience and ambition of women shaping industries across South Africa and beyond.
Ntsiki was born and raised in a very small rural village called Ndwayana in Peddie (eNgqushwa), Eastern Cape. Both her parents were uneducated and unemployed, but her mother made sure that there was always food on the table for their six children. Her mother, who had a very limited education, started a journey as an entrepreneur. She sold everything from fruits, fried fish, meat including tripe and chicken etc. As a means to ensure that the household was financially sustainable, Ntsiki’s mother exposed her children to the business world (aka hustling) from an early age. She did so by sending Ntsiki and her siblings around the village to sell (balancing her wares on her head) before and after school. Like any girl growing up in the village, Ntsiki was also expected to clean, cook and fetch water from the dam, and firewood from the forest.
Recognising her potential, at the age of 15, Ntsiki’s parents sent her to Cape Town to pursue a better education, going to live with a very nurturing unrelated ‘aunt’, whom she referred to as ‘Gogo’. The transition from a rural village had its pros and cons, Ntsiki went from being top of the class back in the village to being a mediocre learner due to the language barrier, as she’d never been educated in English before or learnt English from a native English teacher. Ntsiki was not easily accepted by her schoolmates in Cape Town and this was foreign to her as she had a community around her in her village. Her school mates isolated her as she looked and spoke differently, compared to them, because of her rural village background. This affected Ntsiki’s confidence, but she persevered. Ntsiki knew that ‘education was her key to success’, as her parents would say.
Though her parents were uneducated, they prayed and were vocal about their dreams for their children. This inspired Ntsiki to soldier on to realise her parents’ dreams. Gogo encouraged Ntsiki to read newspapers, listen to the news and visit the library so that she could catch up. Despite initial setbacks, including initially failing a grade due to school riots, Ntsiki persevered and completed her matric at the age of 18.
When she was studying Marketing Management in Port Elizabeth, she saw a need to earn extra money as a domestic worker at weekends so that she could do a computer course which was not part of the curriculum at the time. One time she hid in the library and slept there overnight, because she didn’t have the money to get home and back to school for exams the next day! Her life in Port Elizabeth was somewhat foreign as she lived in informal settlements for the first time in her life. The shack she shared with her two siblings was very hot in summer, cold in winter and wet during rainy days.
After finishing the Marketing Management qualification, Ntsiki got a job at the Woolworths Distribution Centre where she worked as a casual Picker from December 2001. She was amongst the first cohort of females to be appointed into this role as the role was previously reserved for males due to its physical nature. Because of hard work and dedication, Ntsiki was recognised for her hard work and was placed in a permanent position within 8 months. Despite many challenges, Ntsiki was swiftly promoted in her career at Woolworths (the premium South African retailer), moving from Picker to HR Clerk and eventually to a national HR Administrator role at Head Office.
She’s since worked at three of the country’s most prestigious Universities and is now the HR Executive at an exclusive impact-driven academy for girls. In her 2nd year in HR, Ntsiki decided to enrol for a 4-year qualification in Human Resources which she attended on a part-time basis. For 4 years, she juggled between work during the day and school in the evenings and often struggled with transport from the university to Gugulethu in the evenings. She shared with us a story of how she was almost mugged by a group of young men while rushing from the bus stop the evening before she wrote her final exam and how she had to put her life in danger by standing in the middle of the road to get the attention of a motorist who hesitantly took her home upon realising that she was going to be mugged. Ntsiki took this risk to safeguard her books so that she could write her final exam the next day.
Ntsiki is the first in her family to graduate, first to buy a car, and first to purchase a house. She provides support to a large extended family while working and raising her own children. She has multiple post-graduate qualifications and is working on her Master’s degree. We asked Ntsiki, what advice she would give her younger self, and after some thought she shared;
Follow your heart. Don’t box yourself in.
The world needs out-of-the-box thinkers.
We’re really proud to share these inspiring stories that highlight the strength, resilience, and leadership of women like Ntsiki. Their journeys remind us of the importance of supporting and empowering women in every stage of their careers and we hope these stories will inspire the next generation of leaders to follow their dreams and break barriers.
