Inspired by human rights lawyer George Bizos to succeed

T he first thing Meshack Mabuza, 39, did after passing his bachelor of law degree through Unisa was fall to his knees and pray.

Then, he called his long-term partner and his children.

“They were so happy,” he says, as his gaze shifts into the distance and a soft grin cuts across his face.

The former security guard has wanted to be a lawyer for as long as he can remember.

After the loss of both his parents – first his father in his early teens and then his mother in his early 20s – his dream began slipping away.

Then, in 2015, a chance encounter with world-renowned human rights lawyer George Bizos set him back on track.

Mabuza’s parents always had high hopes for their youngest son.

“My father wanted me to be a doctor. He always said I had a very beautiful heart. But I can’t stand hospitals. So then my mother suggested I become a lawyer instead,” he says.

Meshack Mabuza speaks to The Citizen at the Sisonke offices in Gandhi Square, 25 May 2021. Picture: Neil McCartney

He speaks about his parents with deep reverence and fondness.

“They were very beautiful, very loving people. I was blessed,” he says. “I grew up in a very peaceful home. My mother loved my father and my father loved my mother so dearly.”

His father, a bus inspector, built the home he and his 10 older siblings grew up in, in the picturesque village of Schoemansdal in Mpumalanga.

“It’s a very beautiful place and the community is very vibrant,” he says. Mabuza’s father died when he was just 14, leaving his mother as their family’s sole breadwinner.

“She tried her best to provide for us,” he says. It wasn’t easy but she managed to support her family by selling clothes. And after Mabuza finished school, she was even able to enrol him for a national certificate in law at Unisa.

But then tragedy struck and she was killed in a horrific taxi accident.

“I had to drop out,” Mabuza says. He was left with no option but to start working and found himself a job as a security guard.

His passion for law continued to burn, though, and in 2015, fate swooped in and he was posted to the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) where he and Bizos met.

The two became friends and developed a special bond, spending countless hours discussing everything from law to family to food over coffee. It was during these discussions that Bizos started encouraging Mabuza to study law.

“At first I thought it was impossible, but he convinced me it wasn’t and that I could do it,” says Mabuza.

Trying to balance his job as a security guard, being a partner and father, and studying was tough. But with Bizos’ support and guidance, Mabuza managed to stay the course.

“I can still remember his words. He said to me: ‘No matter how difficult life might be for you, never give up on law. It will open your eyes, it will change the people around you’,” he says.

Meshack Mabuza speaks to The Citizen at the Sisonke offices in Gandhi Square, 25 May 2021. Picture: Neil McCartney

Bizos’ death in September last year, age 92, hit Mabuza hard. “It was a huge loss for me. I miss him,” he says.

“He taught me so much.” He pressed on with his studies, though, and wrote his last exams in December. And earlier this year, he received the news that he had passed.

The dedicated father wants to inspire his two daughters and his son to follow their dreams.

“I don’t want my children to look elsewhere for a role model,” he says.

He also wants to give his long-term partner, Hleziphi Nkosi, the kind of life she deserves.

His eyes light up when he speaks about Nkosi, whom he calls “the love of my life”.

“She’s got beautiful, long hair. She’s very beautiful,” he says.

The two met in high school and it was love at first sight, but Mabuza was just about to finish matric and head off to study and Nkosi was only in Grade 8.

“I said to her: ‘When I come back I will marry you. So please don’t date anyone in high school. And she listened to me’,” he says.

The past months have been tough for Mabuza and his family. He had been working as a store manager. But after the pandemic hit, he was retrenched.

Nkosi stuck by his side through it all. And they’ve emerged on the other side.

He has recently taken up a post as the national project officer for Sisonke, a national organisation which lobbies for the rights of sex workers.

His mentor would, no doubt, be bursting with pride.

“He always told me that whatever I do, I must give back to the community,” Mabuza says.

“And that’s what I’m doing now.”

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za