From Restrooms Floors to Doctoral Gown: TUT Spokesperson’s Extraordinary Journey

There are moments when a woman stands in a red doctoral gown and the years collapse behind her like a long, heavy breath finally released. That was Dr Phaphama Tshisikhawe on 14 October 2026 - mortarboard straight, eyes bright, voice steady - telling the story of a doctorate earned through lonely nights of research and quiet sacrifice. A degree that, against every odd, almost never happened.

She grew up in a house where eight children shared dreams bigger than the walls around them. In Chiawelo, Soweto, with deep Venda roots, money was scarce but belief was not. Her parents, who had so little, still managed to give their children the one thing they valued most: the quiet, fierce instruction to stay in school, to finish, to rise. Education, she would later say, did not just open doors - it fed her siblings, lifted her family, and rewrote the limits of what was possible.

Her formal academic journey began in 2006 when she left a secure post at The Creative Counsel, one of South Africa’s leading branding and advertising agencies, to study journalism. At TUT’s Soshanguve Campus the money ran out. She slept in restrooms and auditoriums, enduring cold winter nights with nothing but determination to keep her going. That experience has since become a powerful story she shares with students and learners across the country, urging them never to abandon their dreams. 

Through sheer perseverance she completed her journalism diploma in 2008, earned a BTech in 2009, an Honours in Media Studies, a Master’s in Organisational Leadership, and finally a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Tshwane School of Business and Society.

In 2008, a young journalism intern walked through the gates of Tshwane University of Technology. She stayed. Year after year she climbed - from intern to trusted communicator, from staff member to the official voice of Africa’s largest contact university of technology. 

Over the years, Dr Tshisikhawe has held positions as journalist, Alumni Communication Specialist, Brand & Communication Specialist, and Spokesperson of the University. Externally, she interned at the SABC and worked at Power FM. In this way, she became the face that spoke for thousands of students, the steady presence at every major announcement and crisis communication, the woman who led the TUT media team, who introduced dignitaries and carried institutional pride with quiet grace. The responsibility was enormous. “You’re the face and the voice,” she admitted. “I can’t mess that up.”

Her media relations work operates at a strategic level. As Spokesperson and Head of Public and Media Relations, she leads the university’s brand and reputation management, safeguards institutional positioning across national and international platforms, and oversees the university’s radio stations, TUT FM and Tshwane FM, as well as its digital platforms. She provides strategic direction on communication best practices and has represented Tshwane University of Technology on continental platforms, including most recently at the African Association of Universities Media Seminar for higher education institutions. Through these engagements she has advanced the institution’s profile across Africa and strengthened partnerships through strategic communication. Whether managing high-stakes institutional messaging, guiding reputation strategy, directing the media operations of the university’s broadcast and digital platforms, or setting standards for professional communication practice, she has consistently carried the responsibility of speaking for Africa’s largest contact university of technology with professionalism and authority.

Yet while the university leaned on her, she was quietly carrying something else: a doctoral dream.

By day she was the university’s Spokesperson and Head of Public and Media Relations. By night and on weekends she returned to her books, driven by the demands of rigorous research. The sacrifice was real and often lonely. While friends went out and life continued around her, she chose the quieter path. “When you knock off from work you hit the books,” she said. “It’s not that you can’t do those things. You choose not to.” Time became a scarce currency she spent carefully and deliberately. There were moments of deep exhaustion, when the weight of the dual responsibility threatened to overwhelm her. Yet she never broke.

Her thesis is titled A Framework for the Integration of Artificial Intelligence into Digital Marketing at Selected Universities of Technology in Gauteng. In addition, two articles from the research have been submitted to DHET-accredited journals.

She treated both her career and her studies as projects that had to be finished. And she finished.

This October the red gown finally settled on her shoulders. Reflecting on the moment, Dr Tshisikhawe said: “This doctorate is not just a personal milestone. It is the fulfilment of a promise I made to myself and to my parents - that education would open doors no circumstance could close. Every late night, every sacrifice, every cold night on a toilet floor led here. I am deeply grateful.” 

The research she completed now carries her name and her title: Dr Phaphama Tshisikhawe. The girl from a crowded home in Chiawelo, Soweto. The intern who stayed. The woman who spoke for a university while writing herself into its academic history.

She still stands at the same podium, still represents the same institution, still greets the same students and staff. But something has changed. The voice that once carried only the university’s story now carries her own as well - a story of a daughter who kept her promise to her parents, a professional who refused to choose between duty and growth, and a woman who proved that even the heaviest load can be borne if the heart refuses to set it down.

In the soft light of graduation day and with the weight of years finally lifted, Dr Tshisikhawe did not simply collect a degree. Instead, she claimed the right to be called Doctor - earned in the quiet hours, paid for in sacrifice, and worn now with the quiet radiance of someone who never stopped believing she would get there.