South Africa: Freedom through education – triumph over loss
Allan Kalau might look like a typical University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (GSB) student – young, ambitious and filled with vitality and good ideas about how to improve the world of business – but his journey in getting there has been radically different from most of his fellow students.
Ten years ago he was a promising young medical student with a scholarship and bright future ahead of him: then the Second Congo War broke out, and set him on an entirely new course.
“Everything that happened after war was declared felt like I was watching a movie,” he recalls. Chaos erupted and rebels entered the hospital, shots were fired and Kalau and 12 of his fellow students were forced into prison and faced with a tough choice: to join the rebels or die.
Fortunately he did not have to make this choice. After two months of imprisonment, Kalau was able to obtain a fake Zambian passport with the help of a former lecturer, and flee the country eventually ending up in South Africa.
“I knew no-one, and had no friends, no plan and could barely speak English. The hopes I had to finish my studies had crumbled – I had no certificates, no proof that I had reached second year medical studies, let alone my matriculation certificate,” says Kalau.
He took a job as a car guard and then a waiter, and was eventually able to save enough money to bring his girlfriend over, all the while working to improve his English and create new opportunities for himself and his growing family.
This strategy paid off. His good English eventually helped him to make the transition from car guard to an office job. With the help of good Samaritans Derek and Sue de Hutton, he got a job at a call centre Derek de Hutton was head of. “This incredible couple have become like parents to me. They supported me when no-one else could, and I don’t know where I would be without them,” he says. The De Huttons have since helped him secure his current position at Direct Axis where he has risen through the ranks to team leader. Hardly surprisingly, Kalau has named his son Derek in their honour.
But despite his new-found success in business, Kalau was always thinking about continuing his studies. “Before the war broke out that was to be my future, and I did not want to abandon higher education. But even after I managed to have my matriculation certificate sent to me, the fees were just too high,” he says.
A friend mentioned the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) to Kalau, and he scoffed, thinking the fees and admission requirements would be too demanding.
But it turned out to be the perfect fit; Kalau realised he needed a programme to bridge the gap between his experience in the workplace and theory, and he found that the GSB’s Associate in Management Programme (AIM) offered the ideal solution.
AIM is a postgraduate general management programme that accepts students who have solid work experience under their belt – rather than just a piece of paper. Applicants do not have to have an undergraduate degree to qualify. It develops essential skills and knowledge, financial fluency, self confidence and personal awareness in young and emerging leaders – often while they are – as Kalau is – on the job.
The funding problem was sorted out thanks to financial assistance from the business school and Direct Axis and so Kalau took up his latest in a long number of roles: business student. As with all other challenges in his life so far he has taken to it like a duck to water.
“As I learn more about the ins and outs of my business, it continues to become clear how AIM is ideally suited to me. It has an especially practical approach that is fantastic, and I’ve already been able to apply it in my job. Besides my initial desire to further my education – it is obvious to me AIM will further my career,” he says.
He describes the lecturers as incredibly supportive, and says the way the programme is structured, to allow him time for work, and to apply his new knowledge ‘on the job’, is ideal.
Today Kalau is married with three children and despite the journey he has taken to get to here, he continues to carry more optimism than most who have faced less.
“It has been a tough time, certainly. I miss my parents terribly – it has been 12 years since I have seen them, but the thought of going home is just too painful. And while I would have loved to have finished studying medicine, I am thoroughly enjoying the world of business and my studies at the GSB. I love my family, and I’m happy. What else is there?”
