The 14-year-old Zinzi Mlotshwa isn’t your ordinary teenage girl.
Unlike many pupils, she is extremely smart and hard-working. In Gr. 7 she achieved above 80 per cent for all of her subjects – and she had 9 of them! For art, she achieved an unbelievable 100 per cent.
Zinzi also excelled at sport and culture and was bound to end up in a very prestigious school where she can build a successful future for herself, but this never happened.
Instead, Zinzi had to spend an entire year at their home in Alberton because she couldn’t attend school. Her bursary papers had ‘disappeared’ and her single mother couldn’t afford her schooling.
She sent a letter to 947 Xmas Wish in the hopes that they would bless her with a laptop that she can use to do her high school through an internet schooling programme.
On Monday morning, Zinzi was called to the studio where she was blessed with her Christmas wish. Not the one that she asked for, but the one that she really yearned for – to go to Girls High Potchefstroom.
Together, 947 and LottoStar decided to make Zinzi’s wish come true and change her life forever. All of Zinzi’s high school expenses are being paid for until she completes Gr. 12. This includes a laptop, her tuition fees, study material, uniform and hostel fees.
Zinzi’s wish, to the value of R450 000, has been granted.
She and her family visited Girls High on Wednesday, when the principal, Ms Eliza Meyer, received them and formally welcomed Zinzi with her Gr. 8 pack and her very own basher.
She was also assigned to her new hostel and will, from next year, be a proud resident of the Adventure Hostel.
Zinzi’s excitement could be seen as Mrs Meyer swiftly told her the ins and outs of being a Girls High girl.
‘There are no words to describe how I feel right now,’ she said, ‘I still can’t believe I’m coming to Girls High.’
Zinzi’s mother Thando said they are all still in shock, and she couldn’t hold back the tears as her daughter officially became a Girls High girl. ‘It’s going to be great having you as a Girls High girl and to see you grow and achieve your expectations,’ said Ms Meyer.
