The greatest reward of my job has been having the opportunity to study statecraft in proximity to President Ramaphosa.

Born into a family of lawyers, Khusela Diko says it is somewhat inevitable that she would ultimately pursue a career in law. Currently studying towards her LLB degree she says: “I had always known I would follow this path somehow. My father and his brother ran a law firm in the 1980s in the then Transkei that was a training ground for some of the country’s finest legal minds. The firm represented many anti-apartheid activists of the time. This ever-present awareness of the law as a tool for advancing justice in society, and for protecting the rights of the most vulnerable, was always with me. It is important to me that I use my skills, energies and education to be of benefit and service to others.”

Born and raised in Mthatha, the Johannesburg resident who holds a BComm degree from Unisa is also undoubtedly influenced by her proximity to “one of our country’s greatest minds”, President Cyril Ramaphosa. She refers to him as “a skilled strategist, negotiator, constitutionalist, businessman and an astute activist and politician”.

“The greatest reward of my job has been having the opportunity to study statecraft in proximity to President Ramaphosa. There have been no limits to all I have learned, and continue to learn, from the president,” she says.

As with any job, though, it is not without its issues. “All women, whether they are in the workplace, in the home or in society in general know that patriarchy is real and it is all-pervasive,”she says, adding: “Whereas competence is somehow automatically assumed in men, women are expected to prove that they have earned their seat at the table. I, like many women, have been on occasion told ‘not to be emotional’ – a loaded, not to mention sexist, term if there ever were one. They really have no idea that women are made of sterner stuff.”

Showing the world that she, like others, are indeed made of sterner stuff is what keeps the 40-year-old going. This, she says, and “knowing that I represent the progress this country has made, especially in changing the lives of black women. That I may have contributed in some small way towards young women affirming that they can be anything they wish to; that their dreams are valid and that they will not be cowed into submission. This, for me, is the greatest reward.”

— Carl Collison

Twitter: @KhuselaS