By Thabo Monyela
TZANEEN- The Bolobedu fashionista and teacher by profession, Poloko Malatji gets the Zambians tongues wagging on social media after his ‘Degree Hustle’ trend hits the shores of Zambia social media.
Hashtag Degree Hustle has been making rounds since the weekend across Zambian social media platforms after Peza Wako, Zambian personal coach blog, and other renowned social media influencers recognized Malatji over Zambian Allan Gregson as the brain behind the Degree trends.
Malatji coined the Degree Hustle trend in 2019 upon completing his education degree (BED) as a celebration of his academic achievement, after a challenging journey.
” The #Degree Hustle is all about the celebration after acquiring my hard-earned education degree.
Trending across the shores of my country is something I never imagined, however, it left me inspired and motivated that I used my degree to disseminate a positive message in and beyond my native country”. the excited teacher said.
Malatji’s academic journey towards acquiring his degree was met with great challenges from academic exclusion to financial exclusion, however, the Relela-born soft-spoken teacher remained optimistic for seven (7) years to achieve his degree mission.
Speaking to Tzaneen Voice, he mentioned that he began his post-matric studies with the University of Venda in 2014 and was financially excluded in 2015 from the institution and went on to study at the University of Limpopo and got academically excluded and went back to Univen to continue with his degree in education until completing it in 2020.
“I had a hefty fees credit that I could not settle, while NSFAS was settling below my fees credit, fortunately in 2019, things started to shape up academically when I got funding from Funza Lushaka bursary.
This hard-earned degree gallowed me to better my situation” he said.
The Univen alumni has also introduced himself to the music industry after releasing two hip hop songs titled, “Make It and “top of my game” under his stage name Degree Hustle.
