Blind multilingual father graduates from CPUT
Cape Town - Ornette Danse from Delft, who is blind and works as a 10111 call centre agent, graduated with his Diploma in Public Management from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology on Wednesday.
He also speaks six languages (English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Tswana) which he picked up during his time at the Athlone School for the Blind and during his upbringing in the Free State.
After matriculating Danse’s biggest ambition was to work at SAPS as a switchboard operator. The blind father of three was so determined to realise this that he worked as a switchboard operator at a police station for free for an entire year and his hard work eventually paid off when he was recruited into the SAPS busy 10111 call centre.
Over a decade, Danse used the same level of determination to propel himself through a 3 year part-time diploma in Public Management.
While the journey has been tough for the 32-year-old he wouldn’t let the personal hurdles get in the way of completing his course on time and with at least 10 distinctions earned during his studies. In 2016 two of his children needed serious surgeries and the family even moved from Eerste River to Delft to make the commute easier for Danse who mostly attended night classes at CPUT’s Bellville campus.
“Being a call centre agent is a good job but I didn’t see myself doing that in the future and I wanted to better my education so that I can be a better father and husband and ultimately earn a better salary. I love current affairs and politics and Public Management was a way of using the skills I already have with my interest in news,” he said.
Danse says he was received with open arms and accommodated by fellow students, lecturers, the CPUT Disability Unit and even his employers who all went out of their way to make him comfortable.
“It was things like a security guard helping me to the bathroom, getting my notes saved in Word and not PDF format and my employers also arranged transport for me at night and made overtime arrangements for me,” he says.
“I knew I couldn’t fail even one subject because they believed in me and you often hear people complain that blind people just expect things for nothing. If I get promoted one day I want to earn it.”
Cape Argus