By Praise Paida Tizora
Xolani Madlabathi has an Honours degree in music therapy and was a dedicated teacher for three years. But, in 2024, he returned to university to pursue a law degree.
I am meeting him in the Rhodes University Law Library to find out why.
South Africa has been facing a significant teacher shortage for several years. The problem is exacerbated by high attrition rates and challenges in attracting new teachers to the profession.
What is Madlabathi’s story?
He sports a fetching blue woollen hat, which he adjusts every few seconds, a black jacket, a white t-shirt, blue jeans and black, size 6 Nikes. The air conditioner buzzes above him, and all around, students are tap-tap-tapping their Law assignments on their keyboards.
“We should have met in a quiet place, right?” he quips, sitting comfortably in a green and black rocking chair. “The sound is disturbing.”
But we agree to stick it out.
Madlabathi explains that he has a romantic relationship with music. And with his deep baritone, he sounds like a choir man.
He says his infatuation with music – how music becomes music, how to read musical notes, and how to sing – led him to become a teacher. He wanted to give back his love and knowledge of music to others.
But, his first teaching job – at a no-fee school – was teaching Social Sciences, Life Skills and English to Grade 8 and 9 learners—nothing related to music.
“With the high unemployment rates in South Africa, you just apply for any teaching job, and you take whatever subjects you are given, as long as you are a teacher,” he says.
It wasn’t easy.
“The school did not have enough resources,” he says. Up to four classes would use the same textbooks, and learners would share these textbooks in class. It was hard to give them homework because they did not have the textbooks to take home.
There were no computers.
“In one class, there were about 40-50 learners. You have 45 mins to teach, but you spend most of the time shouting; it is very difficult to control them.”
He says it drains you if you aren’t a strong person.
“When you get home at the end of the day, you will be exhausted from shouting.”
In 2022, he secured a teaching spot at Victoria Girls, a high-performing public high school.
He taught his first love, music, to grade 10-12 learners.
“The experience was so different from the no-fee school. There were about 20 in a class; they had textbooks, computers, and even projectors, which made work easier.”
“If you teach something you like, you know what to touch on and what to leave out, and it’s even more exciting when you teach learners who are keen to learn”, he says.
It is getting colder in the library. Madlabathi takes out his grey coat and wears it on his jacket. He lifts his neatly knitted bag from the ground and takes out a book: “The Law of Contract”.
“You see, teaching was a temporary plan whilst trying to figure out what to do.” He flips the pages as he talks. “I realised that if I continued teaching, I would survive, not live.”
“I want to live, not survive.” Teaching pays you what you need to survive.
He has always harboured the idea of becoming a lawyer. “There is much injustice out there,” he says.
“The most successful people do not work for other people; they employ other people. That’s what I look forward to – having my law firm employ people.”
His respects Advocate Dali Mpofu. “One day, I will be arguing in court like him,” says Madlabathi.
Many teachers leave the profession due to challenging working conditions, low salaries, and better opportunities in other sectors or countries.
But, to those who plan on becoming educators, Madlabathi says, “Just go for it, don’t think too much about it and have big dreams”.
