The high unemployment rate in South Africa is making it very difficult for young people to further their education. While some hang onto the hope that a degree or diploma will secure them decent positions in the corporate world, many drop out altogether before completing their studies as they feel doing so has no point if they will not get employed anyway.

Then there are those who are really serious about making a life for themselves, despite the situation in the country, and their determination and will not only to survive but to succeed get them there – even if this might take some time.

When Selby Nenweli (33) from Itsani Tshitavhani village completed his matric, he enrolled at Makwarela TVET college for his diploma in mechanical engineering. While he was still studying, though, he joined his uncle, who ran a company that made tombstones.

“I had already come to realise that it is not easy to get any form of employment – even with a diploma - so I decided to prepare myself for life after my studies,” said Nenweli.

Completing his studies in 2015, he went into the tombstone-making business full-time the following year. Today, he runs his own business, Tsetsetse Tombstone, from his backyard at home. “With limited capital at hand, I could not afford to establish the business at a business centre. But my dream is to see my business grow, so that I can relocate to a bigger place where my customers can freely and comfortably access us.”

Nenweli says his biggest challenges are that customers do not take his business seriously, as he runs it from home, and that he is unable to put in bigger orders for granite to make more tombstones, because of limited space.

His business is already benefiting the community as he currently employs four permanent and two part-time workers. At the moment, he delivers his tombstones to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.