Sifiso Jele

Empowering Sifiso's engineering dreams

My name is Sifiso Jele, a third year Mining Engineering student at Wits University from eMalahleni.

Coming from a mining town, I’ve always dreamt of contributing to the community that shaped me.

In my matric year, Glencore visited my high school, Phillip Ndimande Secondary School, and introduced us to their bursary programme. That’s when I knew I wanted to pursue mining engineering. The transition from high school to university was challenging, but Glencore’s support, covering tuition, accommodation, and mentorship, has given me a boost and helped me thrive.

At Wits, practical vacation work is essential. Each year, I undertake this work with Glencore Coal at one of their operations, gaining hands-on experience, which has been invaluable to my education
and career aspirations.

Glencore’s investment in my education has fuelled my ambition to become an operations manager in the near future.

To high school students in my community: focus on your studies, seize opportunities, and never give up.