Sizwe Ndlela

Swaziland

Sizwe Ndlela was born at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Swaziland in 1971. He holds a diploma in Education and he is a teacher for the Deaf. Sizwe is also director of the Siteki Cultural Heritage Hub; a Heritage site, which was built by the first European settlers who assumed power in Swaziland in 1889.

Sizwe has served as an elected member of the Siteki Municipal Council in Swaziland for two terms. He established a Self-Help-Project called “Operation Prosper Thy Neighbour” which helps girls and women to start micro business at the same time integrate HIV and AIDS education and support.

Additionally, he is the director of Miss Deaf Swaziland Beauty pageant, and has accompanied Miss Deaf Swaziland to the Miss Deaf World Pageant at Czech Republic sponsored by His Majesty King Mswati 111. He is familiar with Deaf culture as a concept which depicts the holistic spiritual assets of the Deaf community, which includes the use of sign language as primary language.

At present, Sizwe is studying at Wits, completing his BA Honours in drama, through Drama for Life (DFL), a new international programme that aims to use Drama to improve the ravaging and devastating effects of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. He believes the DFL programme has the potential to create a more compassionate, caring and inclusive environment where the weak, the backward, the handicapped and the uncompetitive can gain the right to learn and be given equal opportunities to take full advantage of their God given talents, by demonstrating creative potentials to improve their situations in an enabling environment where right opportunities exist.