I am Simphiwe Plessie, I resided in Khayelitsha, Site-B – Cape Town. The ASF have provided me with an amazing gift, the gift of not giving up on myself and my education even if the odds were totally against me at that time. I was sponsored by the ASF from standard 6, from 1995 till matric in 1999 when I was a learner at Matthew Goniwe High school. They encouraged me to complete my matric and I got an Eskom Engineering Bursary to study Electrical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. I completed my BSc Elec Eng with a second class Thesis pass in Electrical machines in 2005. I worked for Eskom as High Voltage Planning Engineer and got promoted in a year and half to become a Senior Advisor in Electricity Pricing. I spent four years in Pricing growing very fast and I was spotted by Siemens Energy Services and they offered me what I call “my dream job” as a Generator Specialist Engineer. Currently I have completed half of my Engineering Masters degree at Wits University. I spend most of my time in Germany training and learning more about my dream job. I want to tell you that without the support of the ASF I would definitely not be where I am at the moment. It is eighteen years down the line, but I am finally in a position to help someone who finds themselves in similar circumstances I did so many years ago. I am finally able to reach out and support someone else on their road to success.
