The Diocese of Grahamstown Development Trust in the Eastern Cape was approved R21 million funding from September 2016 to March 2019 for the department’s workplace programme that is funded by the National Skills Fund (NSF).
Lee-Anne Ngwane (49) from Mdantsane is one of the 300 people who benefited from this funding support.
By March 2019, Ngwane was at advanced stages of opening her own law firm, VL Ngwane Attorneys, in Mdantsane.
Ngwane reinvented her life in her late 40s. She had been working in the financial services industry when she enrolled part time for the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree in 2011 through the University of South Africa (Unisa).
She holds a four-year LLB degree from Unisa and had gone through legal school in East London for six months. After completing her LLB degree in 2015, she took a leap of faith and resigned to pursue her Masters full time through Unisa. She has completed her coursework for her Masters and is currently at work on her dissertation.
“I was working for financial institutions and was exposed to legal issues that often rose in my industry. I saw law as something that influenced our daily lives. As I was thinking about my retirement, I thought I needed a qualification I could lean on in my retirement and that was what motivated me to pursue a legal career”.
After completing law school, she needed to do practicals to be accepted as a candidate attorney. However, she could not get placement at any law firms. As a result, she volunteered her services since, considering her age – nearing 50 –, time was not on her side.
“It was during my volunteering phase that I came across one of the directors at The Diocese of Grahamstown Development Trust, who told me about the upcoming workplace programme that would assist people like me”, she explained.
“I applied and through God’s faith I was awarded an internship and the Diocese paid me a stipend for my articles. I was first placed at Rubeshe Attorney’s in East London and also at Road Accident Fund (RAF) for six months”.
“When my RAF contract expired I decided to open my law firm. I am almost 50 years old, which means I have 10 years to build a sustainable business venture”.
While laying a foundation for her firm, she is beginning to get referrals from RAF and some of her old contacts from her financial services background are reaching out to her for legal counsel.
The firm will be opened in Mdantsane to avoid competition in East London and reduce transport cost for her clients. She is also getting assistance from the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) for branding, but the business is still in need of marketing.
“Within a year, I will be out there, and in five to 10 years, I will be having another branch”.
On the value of work-integrated learning (WIL), Ngwane said: “The NSF stipend I received through the trust assisted me to go month-to-month for daily transport, paying bills including tuition for my Masters and looking after my two children who are still at school”.
“To young people, choose careers that will sustain your lives. Be open minded though, even if you have not made the right career choices. Look at me, my Masters is a cushion in the eventuality that my business does not do well so that I can teach law to sustain my life. I also encourage the youth to get mentors and surround themselves with peers who make a positive contribution to their lives”.
“The NSF must keep on assisting people like me. Even law firms benefit from such funding support. The firms are enabled to accept more people to practise while their overhead costs are covered, and which is often the deterrent for many law principals creating entry-level opportunities”, she ended.
This article was published in the NSF 2018/19 Annual Report
