Advocate aims to be ‘voice for people’
Wesley recalled the challenges of moving from one household to another and how much he wanted to be a football player, but told himself that it would not stop him from getting an education.
Wesley Mthokozisi Sithole (27) still feels butterflies in his stomach when he is referred to as an advocate – he was admitted to the High Court of South Africa recently.
Born in Gamalakhe, Wesley recalled from his early LLB days that he always wanted to be an advocate and nothing else, drawing his inspiration and love for law from his father Gordon, a trade union official at NUMSA, a pastor and a former high school principal.
“I chose this journey of becoming an advocate because I always wanted to stand up for people, even back in my high school days at Marburg Secondary. I would mostly end up in trouble because I had what teachers called, ‘a big mouth’ not just for myself but for my classmates,” he said amused.
Wesley recalled the challenges of moving from one household to another and how much he wanted to be a football player, but told himself that it would not stop him from getting an education.
“After completing my grade 7 in Durban, I moved back home to Port Shepstone to live with my father in Margate. I remember in grade 10 I wanted to leave school and play soccer, but I didn’t because education still remained the goal,” he said.
The constant moving continued for Wesley – between Velimemeze and Uvongo during his senior high school years.
He pursued his studies in law and graduated with an LLB degree from the University of the Free State.
Upon furthering his studies and earning a Masters Degree in the process, he joined a law firm in Umhlanga and has appeared in various magistrates courts in and around Durban.
“I remember as a candidate attorney working in the litigation department instructing advocates, consulting with them and also watching them in court and I would say to myself, ‘this will be me one day’. I would think about it even when I appeared in the various magistrates courts in Durban, visualising myself as counsel”.
Wesley is now a PhD law student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is currently completing his pupillage in Johannesburg and is ready to make a change with his profession and be a voice for people.
Wesley’s interests lie in general litigation, tax law matters, commercial litigation and competition law.
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