What's Yandisa's Thought Furniture?

My name is Yandisa Ngcuka. A rural Lusikisiki born 26 year old! I am now staying and working in Cape Town… This is mainly due to the prevalent economic condition in certain areas of our country – including Lusikisiki. If one wants to find work, s/he must either go to Gauteng, Western Cape or KZN.
I am very proud of my roots and I have embarked into a journey to establish the way our forefathers lived before colonialisation – religiously, materially and otherwise.

I obtained a N. Diploma in Tourism Management 6 years ago from the then Port Elizabeth Technikon. I now work as a Tour Consultant for Danish owned Albatros Africa here in Cape Town. The Tourism industry has done well for me, in 2002, I went to Germany for a year long training programme. I benefited tremendously from this programme, not only in terms of employment opportunities, but also for appreciation for divergent religions, cultures, and political views.

Perhaps it was inevitable that when I come back from Germany I’d understand the bigger picture of most of the human living elements. This led me to believing that I can add immense value into macro elements of our daily living through seeking to understand. This perhaps is attributed to the difficulty of being ignorant when faced with real issues like HIV/AIDS affecting and infecting family and friends, abject poverty in our immediate communities, abuse of women in our immediate communities as well as lack of willingness to go to school for children in our immediate communities. It is the seriousness of such issues that has triggered a life passion in me – "Learn how we lived in the past, how we currently live and how we could leave". Some call this Economics: this field of study offers some explanation of why the above pressing issues in our society are prevalent and how they can be best addressed.

STO rates, nice food, thatched 6 star lodges and so on are the major focus of in most people in the Tourism industry. Wittingly or unwittingly this focus on the superficial elements listed above causes the childhood dream and passion to slowly wane.
The pressing issues of our country (at least those I can identify with) are mainly developmental and I cannot keep on seating on the ivory towers, superficiality and the opulence of the tourism industry
As an attempt to understand and appreciate these developmental issues facing us better, I decided to study Economics. must admit, I do not imagine myself studying and/or occupying my thoughts with anything else – as far as my professional life is concerned. It is stimulating to learn about real issues!

That being said, I strive to surround everything that I do with integrity and humility. It is one of the most difficult things to so, but at least, it fulfills me because it gives me a sense of purpose in life: To continually practicing introspection so as to become the best son, boyfriend, father, colleague, friend and acquaintance one has ever had.