The many Tshegos all wear red

PURPOSE AND DEDICATION: HER LOVE GOES OUT TO HER SON, THE EFF, POLITICS AND ACADEMIA

- Marizka Coetzer

Tshegofatso Mashabela, 32, left a village for the city to chase her dreams and join the EFF.

The EFF Tshwane regional secretary and City of Tshwane's MMC of health grew up in Ga-Mongatane village, named after Bapedi King Sekhukhune, outside Burgersfort in Limpopo. She is a politician by day, a student by night and a full-time mother to her five-year-old son.

"In the village, the narrative that it takes a village to raise a child is actually true. In the village, you are all a family.

"But in the city you look out for yourself. Children here are exposed to opportunities. We come from a rural mentality," she said.

Mashabela, who matriculated with distinctions in English, Sepedi and accounting, used a laptop for the first time when she started studying at university.

"My love for politics started in varsity. As a first-year student at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), there was the rebirth of the EFF student command.

"I was an academic mentor at the department before I fell in love with institutional politics.

"I got more exposed to politics and ran for faculty. When I joined the faculty, I joined the EFF student command as the deputy president and then as acting president at TUT," she added.

When Mashabela is not fulfilling her duties as a mother, she is furthering her studies.