Students’ long walk

It’s mid-December in the Karoo. The temperature is around 40 degrees. You’ve just spent a gruelling few weeks preparing for and writing exams. Some of your friends are relaxing and having fun on holiday. So what are you doing pounding the near-melting tar of the N10? Giving someone a future, that’s what.

Feet4Fees is the initiative of a group of young bursary recipients, most of them from Wits, who decided to walk from Wits to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth to raise funds for other students. They raised R7-million, an effort noted even in Parliament.

Group member Andries Kgokane, a second-year student from Mabopane, said: “There is nothing that feels greater than knowing you are doing something for the benefit of others.”

Shadrack Khorombi, a BSc student from the Venda village of Phadzima Dzumbathoho, said: “I was given a helping hand and now it was time for me to lend a helping hand.”

Some of the group of 15 did the long walk as a tribute to their parents.

“I never thought the first time I would get to the beach would be by walking there,” joked Tshiamo Sebolai, a biological sciences student from Soweto.

Feet4Fees initiator and Wits student Reuben Oosthuysen said: “I have learned so much, and my eyes and heart have been opened to so many more things than I imagined. To every person who donated and helped us to reach our goal: thank you for making a difference. Your contribution also changed the lives of the 15 students who walked the 1000km; it was an experience of personal growth and joy. We are certainly better equipped to continue ‘paying it forward’.”

He added: “There will be numerous obstacles on the road to accessible education in South Africa. But together I believe there will be no distance we cannot cover.”

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