POLOKWANE – Kgopotjo Motlalepula Lebepe is the epitome of beauty and brains.
The 23-year-old Unisa law student, who is originally from Lebowakgomo, is currently based in Polokwane and will start to work at Moabelo Attorneys soon.
Kgopotjo has a mobile salon called Lavish Mary and is also a content creator who vlogs her travel experiences on her YouTube channel.
“The mobile salon is named after my mother, Mary, who was also once a salon owner. I had to learn how to braid hair so that I can get pocket money and sustain myself as a university student,” she explained.
She told Polokwane Observer her mother has been her biggest cheerleader and always pushed to never give up.
In 2019, Kgopotjo was elected deputy chairperson of National Democratic Association of Lawyers Student chapter at Unisa and in 2021 she was elected as the deputy speaker of the North Eastern Region of Unisa student parliament through Unisa Law Students Association.
Kgopotjo is determined and, despite the many hats that she wears, she remains focused on her academics.
“I completed all my 40 modules of my law degree with 20 distinctions. I got eight distinctions from 11 modules in my final year with an average of 77,5%,” she said and added that she hasn’t always been an A-grade student.
She failed a couple of modules, wrote a couple of supplementary exams and missed a whole semester due to financial constraints.
She plans to be an excellent candidate attorney in the law industry as well as expand her business and create employment for young women.
She wants to change the perception that Unisa is an old people’s school.
“It is possible to get a great job with a Unisa degree. I, for one, will be forever grateful towards my university for accepting me when most universities rejected me,” she said.
