SMag Women of the Year issue | Nombulelo Sepeng dares to dream

Living up to her nickname, Toro, which translates to “dream”, Prof. Nombulelo Sepeng has turned her childhood aspirations into reality.

“My late maternal grandmother, Sekgabo Maqungela, believed in me so much that she gave me the nickname Toro,” she says. “I always believed that I would be successful. Most of the people with whom I grew up knew me by that name. So, I currently live in my ‘dreams do come true’ era.”

Sepeng is the first in her family to pass matric and graduate from university. At 36, she is also the first PhD holder and associate professor in her small village of Ga-Mothakga in Mahikeng, North West.

“I am currently the youngest associate professor in the Department of Nursing Science at the University of Pretoria,” she says, proudly. “I grew up in a three-room mud house with my seven siblings, my parents, Kesaobaka and Bokie Zulwayo, and my grandmother. My mother worked as a domestic worker and my father was a bricklayer.”

Her love for education and science bloomed during her childhood, when she had to make most of the few resources available at her school. “I started attending school in grade one at the age of six. I went to school in surrounding rural villages called Matlhonyane and Matshepe, which required us to walk a long distance. Sometimes we had to walk to school barefoot,” she remembers.

With the support of her family, she focused on her strengths at school — mathematics, physics, and biology — because she dreamed of becoming a scientist.

“My passion for teaching began a long time ago when I would help my younger sisters, nieces, and nephews with homework. At school, I used to teach and assist my friends with mathematics and physical science because most of them felt that those were the difficult modules,” she says. “This passion for helping others and seeing them succeed in life inspired me to pursue further nursing education after completing my master’s degree in nursing science. The two focus areas of health and education complement my personality because I am empathetic, compassionate, and love to learn new ways of doing things.”

In her day-to-day role as an educator and nurse she has to balance many responsibilities, including doing community work and research, teaching, publishing academic articles, and supervising postgraduate students. She describes herself as a multi-disciplinary academic and has a strong interest in working with teenagers, sexual-assault survivors, and people living with HIV/Aids.

Her focus on sexual-assault survivors began after receiving a scholarship funded by North West University through an Atlantic Philanthropies grant to study for her master’s degree. Her supervisor, Prof. Mashudu Davhana-Maselesele, and her collaborators were working on a research project focusing on rape survivors. After much deliberation, they decided that Sepeng’s dissertation would focus on women’s post-rape experiences.

“When I first went into the field, I realised that rape is a serious public-health issue that can affect anyone. It has a negative impact on the mental health of these women, so I continued studying rape with the aim of developing interventions that can be used to promote access to mental-healthcare services for these women,” she explains. This work has led her to becoming an advocate for sexual-assault survivors on social media and at her church.

Her years in academia have been marked by numerous highlights. “I have received multiple awards at the university. I received Emerging Research Award Winner in Publications in 2019, another mid-Level Research Award Win in Publications in 2022, and overall Award Winner in Publications in the senior category in 2023,” she says.

She was also a finalist in the HERS-SA Emerging Women Leaders Programme in 2022. In addition, she is a board member and director of projects and resources at the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

“I got the Golden Key International Honour Society award, which is granted to the top 15% of the class, after completing my PhD degree, which I studied concurrently with a postgraduate diploma in nursing education and a postgraduate diploma in nursing management. I travel the world by attending conferences nationally and internationally to share my research with peers,” she says.

“I earned a pre-doctoral Tirisano fellowship and spent three months at the University of California Los Angeles, in the US, learning how to conduct studies on vulnerable populations, writing for publication, and grant writing. I also received a National Research Foundation grant for the teenage-pregnancy project that I am leading.”

Her long-term aspirations include becoming an NRF-rated researcher and a full professor in nursing and academic leadership. “I am inspired by Prof. Davhana-Maselesele, who is the deputy vice chancellor for teaching and learning at the University of Mpumalanga. She was my master’s supervisor. Her career progressed quickly, from deanship to where she is now,” says Sepeng.

“She believed in me, and I am now ascending the academic ladder, something for which I will always be grateful. I am applying some of the skills I gained from her to teach and supervise students. The words used by Prof. Davhana-Maselesele to inspire young people like me was that being rural and poor does not mean one is incapable of studying.”

Sepeng says most nursing professionals are women. It is a dynamic career that allows individuals to advance in clinical, leadership or educational focus areas. To attain their goals, nursing professionals should establish mentor-mentee relationships and surround themselves with supportive individuals.

“I’d like to continue motivating the community members where I grew up, whether young and old, to keep making education fashionable because most of them went to school after witnessing me graduate,” she says. “I believe that they saw how education changed my life. I’d like to urge them to focus on their studies, seize every opportunity, seek help where available, and take care of themselves, and they will succeed in life because, as a born-again Christian, I know that with God nothing is impossible.”