By Gofaone Motsamai

The road from Kagiso, where she sold second-hand clothing under the scorching Gauteng sun, to the lecture halls of North-West University (NWU) was long, bumpy and deeply personal for Dr Salphinah Vuloyimuni Ubisi.

Now a senior lecturer in the subject group Public Administration and Local Government at the NWU, Dr Ubisi’s story began in hardship and determination. “The money generated from selling old clothes became my main source of income and this provided the core finance for my studies.”.

Her entry into the jumble sale trade began in 1995, when financial challenges stood in the way of her accessing tertiary education.

Assistance came from an elder sister already involved in the trade. “She promised to borrow money from a transport owner to help me start my own business,” recalls Dr Ubisi. The strategy involved purchasing flowerpots, transporting them to Cape Town, exchanging them for old clothes and selling those clothes at Bungeni Village in Limpopo.

This life was far from glamorous. “We slept at petrol stations and had to use wet face cloths to wipe our bodies in public toilets,” said Dr Ubisi. “It was my first experience of this kind, and it was quite painful.”

Sun blemishes tell a story

The harsh weather conditions she endured left their mark on her.

“Selling old clothes took away my natural beauty by exposing me to the extreme heat of the sun,” she says. “I have been left with dark sun blemishes. I sometimes use these blemishes to encourage people to strive to work hard to improve their lives rather than rely on help from the government.”

On the flipside, the income she earned was enough to register for a National Diploma in Public Management at Unisa in 1997.

“Fortunately, I passed all my subjects and I qualified for tertiary education financial student assistance (the equivalent of today’s NSFAS), which funded my studies until I completed my B-Tech degree,” says Dr Ubisi.

Volunteering to gain experience

After qualifying, she volunteered at the Limpopo Department of Finance and Economic Development to gain work experience, and was then accepted as an intern at Economic Development, Environment and Tourism.

She broadened her government experience by working in arts and culture, transport and the Office of the Public Service Commission.

All the while, Dr Ubisi continued studying and, with the aid of a government bursary, completed her doctorate in Public Administration at Unisa in 2017.

In 2024, she published her autobiography, Vuloyimuni: How Research on Hostels, Housing and Intergovernmental Relations Took Me to My Roots, an autoethnographic account of her personal experiences and an analysis of the struggles poor South Africans face in accessing the basic right to housing.

“The name Vuloyimuni, which is my second name and means ‘What kind of witchcraft is this?’, clearly bears significance for both my paternal and maternal families,” says Dr Ubisi. “And yet, I have moved beyond this name. It was my old clothes business which produced Dr SV Ubisi.”

Dr Ubisi at the streets of Kagiso where she used to sell second-hand clothes. 

Dr Salphinah Vuloyimuni Ubisi.