“I don’t have religion, but I believe in a higher power,” Siza Magubane says, sitting in a workshop in Durban.
Magubane is a differential mechanic doing an apprenticeship at Autogear while studying to become a fully qualified mechanical engineer.
It’s not easy work – differential repairs on vehicles are hard work even when you don’t need to dismantle many parts of a vehicle just to get to the differential. Once there, you need to completely dismantle this complex part in order to ascertain what’s wrong with it before you can even begin to fix it.
“I currently work as a diff mechanic. I’ve always wanted to become a mechanical engineer,” Magubane says.
“I am still working on becoming a qualified engineer. I’m currently studying mechanical engineering and am doing an apprenticeship at Autogear in Durban.”
Magubane is frustrated by the crime he experiences and hears about.
“One thing about Durban I don’t like is crime. I cannot take that the young and children and women are getting killed on a daily basis.”
The aspiring engineer is an avid musician, something he says not many people know about him.
“Something that people don’t really know about me is that I am a reggae artist, and that reggae music is my life.”
Magubane would tell his younger self to place more value on his academic endeavours.
“My advice to a 15 year old? Keep on studying and pushing no matter how difficult it is because they will eventually reap success.”
And what is it Magubane loves most about being South African?
“The food and the women,” he laughs.
* My Fellow South Africans is an editorial campaign powered by IOL which aims to build a more inclusive society by introducing South Africans to each other.