ANC Women’s League Executive Committee member in Tshwane Virginia Lovers Matshoga is now a Masters degree graduate.
Matshoga graduated on Friday at the University of South Africa (Unisa) with a master’s degree in psychology.
“l am overwhelmed, I never thought I would graduate this quickly because it was really difficult,” she said.
“By day I had to work and by night I had to study until way after midnight,” explained Matshoga.
Besides being a politician, Matshoga works professionally as Senior Basic Education Specialist for the Department of Education in the Gauteng Province.
Her duties entail working with learners who have learning barriers and referring them to relevant special schools after assessment.
She works hand-in-hand with school-based support teams in an initiative called School Identified Assessment Support (SIAS) whereby they help learners with career choices after assessing their capabilities.
This will help learners to make correct choices when furthering their studies, according to Matshoga.
In the ANC Matshoga works is head of Education, Health, Science and Technology activities.
She reckons it is never too late for anyone to further their studies.
“Education is a key to success because it alleviates poverty in our households,” said Matshoga.
Matshoga was encouraged by her cousin Professor Sengane to take her studies seriously and she now intends studying for a PhD degree in Psychology.
Her role models are retired politicians Dr Naledi Pandor and Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Lovers Matshoga told Tshwane Talks that she started her primary education at Monare Primary School in Mamelodi and went to Lehlabile Secondary, also in Mamelodi, where she obtained her Matric before going to University of the North, now University of Limpopo, where she obtained her BA degree.
She then went on to obtain an Honours degree in Education from the University of Pretoria.
Matshoga also has a B.Com degree and is a former high school teacher at Tsako Thabo Secondary in Mamelodi, where she taught Accounting and Afrikaans.
She was born and bred in Mamelodi and revealed that her motto in life is: “Give one household a bursary to eradicate poverty.”
Congratulations Lover’s, you deserve it