Luyanda and Lwanele Hoho. Image: Shelley Christians/UWCIt’s not often that a set of twins graduate from university, and earlier this week, the University of the Western Cape (UWC) celebrated two brothers from Langa who have been at each other's side since before they were born.
Luyanda and Lwanele Hoho, 22, had the Jakes Gerwel Hall on its feet, applauding rapturously, as the audience realised the two—having received their Bachelor of Arts in Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science Cum Laude—were twins. The youngest of four children, they were raised mostly by their single mother after they lost their father at the age of three.
“We are the first of our siblings to go to university. Our father, who was a teacher, really loved school and it was his dream for us to be educated because he graduated from Fort Hare,” said Lwanele.
The twins were accepted to UWC but did not have funding, and for a moment, it seemed that their father’s dreams would end up being just that.
But the brothers persevered even when money was tight. Starting university post-COVID with no trains, the two became regulars at the Langa taxi rank as they commuted to the Bellville campus daily.
“When we started at UWC, we knew we had to study something that aligned with sports. In Langa, we played football and also participated in indigenous games,” said Lwanele.
For youngsters dreaming of studying, he had one message: “Anything is possible, although we had the odds stacked against us. You just have to keep going forward.”
Dressed almost identically, Luyanda said that passing Cum Laude took a lot of hard work. “We have advantages because we have each other. We work together doing the same thing. If I don’t understand, he can explain it to me, and if he doesn’t understand, I can explain it to him,” said Luyanda.
