Leader of leaders
When COVID-19 first appeared, disruption was felt across South Africa. That included UCT, where Mastercard Foundation Scholars were quickly moved to new residences. For Owen Mwaura, then a 2019 honours scholar in Geographic Information Systems, it was an opportunity lead his fellow scholars through the uncertainty of Covid 19 Pandemic.
“This was one of the moments where I felt my leadership endeavours were being pushed to a point where I had to explore my full potential,” he says.
As a member of the UCT Mastercard Foundation Scholars Council, it was up to him and the rest of the council to help scholars move to new housing while navigating the worries that came with the onset of a global pandemic.
“In the residences, we had a system taking care of us. When we moved out of that system, we were on our own and had to create systems for ourselves,” he explains. “That pushed us as the Scholars Council to work harder and figure out ways of engaging students to make sure everyone stayed in touch, and didn’t get depressed by what was happening, for example.”
Mwaura and his council colleagues devised creative ways to keep students active and to monitor mental health. Among their initiatives were online exercise sessions, social catchups and even a “stay at home” musical performance from 2017 cohort scholar, Bredah Musili
“Owen and I came up with several ideas on how to carry out engagement online, as he was always keen and curious in that field,” says Keagetswe Alex Kgotlaetsile, from the 2018 scholar cohort and then Chairperson of the UCT MCF Scholars Council.
During their time on the council together, Kgotlaetsile says Mwaura was a keen and dependable leader. “Owen is more of a transformative leader,” he says. “Though he often doesn’t want to be on the forefront, he is always creative with ideas. He leads from the back and is always committed to see progress on the work that needs to be done.”
The weight of leadership during a pandemic wasn’t always easy. Mwaura says there was a lot of confusion and more than a few voices adding their views on what should be done.
“Having this role during COVID pushed me so that I was able to ensure equity and that people felt good about my leadership,” he says. “I cultivated the resilience to be able to show up in those moments and make a decision and have confidence that I was making the right decisions for the group.”
That leadership development paid off when, in 2020, Mwaura was recognised by the UCT Plus leadership award programme. In his gold-winning application, he reflected on his leadership journey and how the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program prepared him for the challenges of COVID-19.
“We attended leadership seminars and workshops, which played a big role in shaping me,” he says. But the scholarship goal to grow Africa’s ‘leaders of leaders’ had the biggest impact.
“We are scholars from all over sub-Saharan Africa, and we have a lot of diversity of cultures and backgrounds,” he says. “Learning to engage with all of this diversity, that’s a huge opportunity to build your leadership capacity that the programme gives you.”
Now, Mwaura is a member of the 2020 cohort, studying towards a master’s degree in Civil Engineering. He’s also in a new a leadership position as residence unit coordinator. “I manage a residence to represent issues of the students and direct link to the wardenship team at 3rd Tier Residence at UCT,” he says.
It’s just the next step in a leadership journey that Mwaura says isn’t going to end soon. “In leadership, one thing leads to another. I imagine I’ll find a new position in the future and develop my leadership experience further.”