Masakhe 02_DIGITAL PAPERTURN - Flipbook - Page 69
LEGENDARY STUDENTS
as finance and management. This
creates well-rounded scholars who
are well-equipped for the workplace.
In the modern, digitised world, more
companies are seeking out potential
employees who tick all the boxes.
“In the near future, I see myself
being registered as a professional
quantity surveyor, but I don’t see
myself practicing as a traditional
quantity surveyor,” says Khali. “I’ve
been exposed to people who use
their technical skills to find ways
to make housing affordable for
everyone.” In this way, some of the
quantity surveyors in the market
right now go above and beyond to
meet with different stakeholders,
making sure that there’s a bridge of
communication between all different
parties.
For Khaya, the end-goal is slightly
different. Much like Khali, she wants
to focus on housing, but she finds
herself leaning more towards the
sustainability sector. “At one of the
departmental networking events,
I spoke to several people in the
sustainability space and that really
stood out to me,” says Khaya. “One
thing I like is serving people – I like
giving back, leaving an impact.”
For both twins, however, their
background is an important motivator
for where they see themselves in
the far future. When asked what
their dream research projects would
be, both had very similar answers.
The key component for them was
how settlement planning greatly
impacts productivity, drawing from
their own experiences of growing
up in a township. For them, the way
townships are laid out does not make
them necessarily geared towards
maximising productivity, particularly
because of the lack of third spaces
that are easily accessible.
Recently, Khaya and Khali ended
up co-authoring a conference paper
after being encouraged by one of
their lecturers. The paper has been
accepted and will be presented in
mid-November at the South African
Council of the Quantity Surveying
Profession. The co-authoring of this
paper was made possible because of
the twins’ similar schedules and their
innate knowledge of one another’s
work ethics. Their unlikely journey
to the CEM department at UCT had
led them to many unexpected and
exciting discoveries.
ISSUE 2
67
DECEMBER 2 025
