Success can look messy, say the women grads of Milpark

Pam Ngwenya knows what it means to reinvent herself. At a time when most people who have spent their adulthood running businesses and navigating the corporate world might be fantasising about never setting an alarm clock again or sipping cocktails on a tropical beach, she was planning her next career move: growing vegetables on a 32,000 sqm farm.  

She knew that farming was only part of it though – she’d also have to grow a successful business. At 50, Pam joined her daughter at Milpark to do a Bachelor of Business Administration studies while also juggling her corporate admin job. “My studies gave me the academic foundation, the guts and the confidence to pursue this journey,” she says. “When I started studying, I was also embarking on the farming venture. I would be learning about accounting and doing books and practically implementing my studies into my work, so I really got to see and understand the bigger picture,”  

Then Covid-19 and an unexpected retrenchment pushed into farming full time. “I think it was a nudge for me; it seemed to me like I was being driven or pulled towards where I’m supposed to be.” 

A few years later and Pam is stocking the produce aisles at regional supermarkets. It’s been hard work and a steep learning curve, but she’s certain that her time at Milpark was instrumental in keeping her going: “When I started studying, I was also embarking on the farming venture. I would be learning about accounting and doing books and practically implementing my studies into my work, so I really got to see and understand the bigger picture.”  

She insists that farmers are also entrepreneurs, and that more farmers should be encouraged to be as devoted to their business as they are to their land. 

No one expected Regina Witbooi to attend university. Raised by her grandparents following the death of her parents, she grew up in a household with nine other children in a small Northern Cape town – money and food were scarce. Nevertheless, Regina worked hard in school and then went on to graduate cum laude with a BA in Education. She got a good job and then studied further and added a Bachelor of Accounting Sciences in Financial Accounting to her resume – also cum laude.  

Still, Regina yearned for more and realised that what she really wanted was to be a chartered accountant, an insight which led her to Milpark’s PGDA programme. 

Regina’s focus and work ethic always ensured she excelled in academics, but the PGDA was different. She found she was failing more tests than she was passing. Instead of being defeated, she managed to identify the small wins as she tried and tried again. “Even as I was failing, I was looking at the incremental gains I was making,” she said. “I was always failing by less each time – my marks would go up from 38% to 42% to 46%, and I would see it was almost 50%.”  

Like Victoria, Regina was inspired by her lecturers to reframe her experience, while continuing to visualise her goals of becoming a CA. This year she passed her ITC exam and realised her dream. 

The seeds of Kgomotso Moraka’s business, Manolo Flowers, were planted when she was a child, watching her mother grow a garden and, through small but deliberate acts, make beauty a priority. “Flowers have always been a part of my life,” she says. “And creating a business that pays tribute to this has been rewarding.” 

But before it occurred to Kgomotso to start her own venture, she first went to work in retail at high-end boutiques and then later as a university advisor. Both experiences gave her some skills to navigate the working world, but largely served to galvanise her imagination for what else was possible. As student advisor, Kgomotso would walk into stark and soulless company reception areas and boardrooms and think how floral display could enliven them, which was where the idea for Manolo Flowers was born. 

To better equip herself, she decided to undertake a Bachelor of Business Administration degree through Milpark while she continued to work as an advisor. “Small businesses are not usually equipped enough,” she says, adding that her degree gave her the essential tools and understanding of finance and budgeting. 

With a team of just three florists and a driver, Manolo Flowers maintains an impressive client database, including Community Investment Holdings, Wiphold Holdings, Holiday Inn Rosebank, Ithuba Lottery. They have created arrangements for events hosted by South African celebrity Amanda Dambuza, and one of the country's leading majority black-owned professional services firms SekelaXabiso, to name a few. 

Too often our profiles are flatly drafted as struggle-failure-success narratives, emphasising the exceptional ability of the individual – glossing over the inward journey and the importance of support. 

In sharing their authentic stories, these women grads are inviting others to see the true shape of achievement – that it often looks messy and encompasses disappointments. 

“Failure can be part of your story of success,” insists Regina. “Don’t be afraid to fail; use it to learn and do better in future.” 

Victoria also views setbacks pragmatically: “Life happens, demands change and distractions happen along with their delays,” she says. “The important thing is to stay committed – decide from the beginning, or now, that you will stay committed until the finish line.”