Xoliswa Bekiswa went through the first six months of her first year at university with two skirts and one pair of jeans donated by a family member.
Xoliswa Bekiswa went through the first six months of her first year at university with two skirts and one pair of jeans donated by a family member.
Today, she is one of only 15 female marine pilots of the 70 pilots in South Africa.
Of these, she's the first to navigate the MSC Sola, one of the biggest container shipping vessels on the continent – and in the world.
Bekiswa grew up in Mthatha, attended a Roman Catholic boarding school and, as a young girl, had profound love for the sea.
However, she didn't have any notion that it would become such an important part of her life and career.
The turning point for her was Scifest Africa 1999 in Grahamstown.
It was during her last day at the event that she happened upon the Portnet exhibition on marine vessels.
The person in charge explained everything that there was to know about ships and shipping.
That lit the spark for Bekiswa and she continued to research the area when she returned to school.
After her matric, she applied to applied at the then Natal Technikon (now Durban University of Technology) and was accepted.
Through hard work, patience, perseverance, strength and faith, she achieved her unrestricted licence and steadily moved up to the rank of junior pilot, becoming the fourth black female marine pilot in South Africa.
This is when she achieved one of the highlights of her career so far, piloting one of the biggest vessels on the planet into Africa’s deepest port, Port Ngqura, in 2012.
She says her main challenge is proving her worth in a male dominated industry – which means she gets to work twice as hard to stay at the top.
Her hard work has definitely paid off.
