Case Study 1

Siyasanda is a 17-year-old student who attends Ithembu High School. She is

decide which career to pursue particularly since her academic grades are
average and she is

not able to pursue tertiary studies due to finances. Siyasanda has a small
group of friends

whom she engages with at school and chooses to not really engage with
others socially or

attend any of the school’s social functions. Siyasanda finds it difficult to

a person without resorting to describing her personal circumstances.

When asked, Siyasanda will tell you that she was raised singlehandedly by
her mother after

her father died tragically in a mining accident when she was one year old.
Her mother,

Boniswa, is a domestic worker/nanny and has to leave the house at 4:30 am

been working for the Humphreys for the past 11 years and her duties
included cleaning the

house and caring for her employers’ children. Boniswa has to wake up and
prepare the

children for school. Because the Humphreys cannot accommodate her stay
on their property,

she has to travel in the early morning and leave late in the evening.

Boniswa struggled a great deal after her husband’s passing and often found
herself staring

out the window for hours. Her husband was the breadwinner in the house
and took good

care of her and the baby. After he died, she had to adjust her lifestyle and
struggled to hold
steady employment because she frequently broke down crying and was so
unhappy.

Boniswa reports that raising Siyasanda on her own was a challenging task,
but she did her

best. She reports that Siyasanda would often cry and that reminded her of
the loss of her

husband, so she would find herself staring out the window with her baby
crying in the

background.

Whenever Boniswa looked for work, she would leave Siyasanda with her
mother, who also

cared for three of her other grandchildren. At two and a half years old,
Siyasanda would

frequently not make it to the bathroom in time, resulting in teasing by her

her underwear. When Siyasanda started high school, she struggled to make
friends at first.

She did her best to work hard academically, especially because she knew
that her mother

was not in a position to help her with her homework. As such, she spent very
little time

socialising with her friends. Siyasanda feels that she is unsure of which
career path to pursue

and is feeling anxious because she does not know if she will be able to get a
job due to her

average academic grades.