Refilwe Mabula is a Communications Officer in the Wits Communications Department. She joined Wits in 2015 as an intern from the National Research Foundation. It was here that she reignited her passion for people and communications.

Mabula enjoys working with young people and positively contributing to their lives. Aside from her duties in the Wits Communications Department, she also serves as a warden at Sunnyside Residence (Wits) where she provides pastoral care to more than 250 undergraduate students. She is committed to the success of students under her care as well as their social and academic development.

Over the years, Mabula has developed a keen interest in the field of development having engaged with diverse groups of people from various walks has lives who conscientised her to the socioeconomic issues that people grapple with on a daily basis. She is currently pursuing a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Development and Management (PDM) at the University of the Witwatersrand, which she hopes will expand her knowledge and interest in development and governance.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Corporate Communication (with distinction), a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Corporate and Marketing Communications, as well as a Masters of Arts in Communication Science, all from the University of the Free State. In 2019, she completed a short course in Digital Marketing (with distinction) at the Wits Plus, Centre for Part Time Studies.

Education has been the cornerstone of her achievements and she constantly strives to improve her life by acquiring new skills and knowledge. She believes in the words of the late Nelson Mandela, “it is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”