She is a strong-willed person and believes that the sky is her only limit.
“I love challenges – throw me in the river and I will swim,” says Nokuthula Rose Chavula, the newly appointed acting manager for the Matjhabeng Local Municipality’s fresh produce market.
Chavula hails from Welkom and completed her primary education at the Moremaphofu Primary School in Thabong. She finished her senior schooling at the Teto High School, where she developed her love for accounting. Chavula was raised by her mother, Mosebatho Chavula, who earned a mere R250 a week to support herself and her daughter. Chavula says her mom and family have always support her, and this ensured that she did not give up on her dream to became a qualified accountant.
Chavula has had a few hiccups in life, one of them being finances.
She was offered a chance to further her studies at the University of the Free State (UFS ) and University of Witwatersrand (Wits) to study BCom (Accounting), but could not be due to finances.
Her uncle also contributed to her success by saving money for her registration, allowing her to continue her studies through funding by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Chavula ended up pursuing a BCompt (accounting science) degree in 2004 at the Vista University in Welkom and graduated in 2009. In 2013, she completed her South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) articles at the Auditor-General in Bloemfontein.
While working at the Afgri company in Centurion, Johannesburg, in 2013 she was promoted to senior accountant within three months as the only female in a male-dominated space. She was responsible for Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda,Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
After completing her Saica articles, Chavula wrote her board exams in 2015 and qualified as a professional accountant.
Chavula later obtained a master’s degree in business administration in May 2023 through the The Management College of Southern Africa (Mancosa). This year she completed a middle management programme via Duke Corporate Education which was funded by the Finance and Accounting Services Sector Education and Training Authority (Fasset).
In February, Chavula visited Tanzania with the International Women’s Forum of South Africa, engaging with other women in the corporate world to learn how they operated and to acquire the skills to implement in Welkom. She been thriving ever since.
Chavula now serves as a senior accountant, acting manager for the Matjhabeng fresh produce market, as well as the deputy general-secretary at the national executive committee of the South African Union of Food Markets (Saufm).
