Miss South Africa 2025 Qhawekazi ‘Qhawe’ Mazaleni may be the country’s reigning beauty queen, but before that, she is a dedicated speech therapist. The former BONA cover star shared with fans how her encounter with a local man inspired her to pursue her career.
Also see: Inside Qhawekazi Mazaleni’s homecoming celebration
Qhawekazi Mazaleni on her journey to speech therapy
Taking to her Instagram account on 4 August 2026, Qhawe shared that she celebrated 80 years with the South African Speech Language and Hearing Association. The event allowed her to reminisce on her journey into the field.
Qhawe wrote, “Not many people know the story of how I ended up becoming a speech therapist. Long story short, in matric (Grade 12), I had no idea what speech therapy was.”
The Stellenbosch University alumna stated that she had accompanied speech therapists in East London to watch them work and see whether the career would be a good fit. She attended a session with an isiXhosa-speaking man in his mid-forties who suffered a stroke. His condition resulted in him being on the verge of losing his job.
“He had lost his ability to speak, but could understand some language. His speech therapist spoke mainly English and Afrikaans. Although she was trying her absolute best to build understanding between them, the language gap was too big to conquer in that session,” she said.
“From that day, I set off on a mission: To bridge the gap of language in healthcare and (later) education.”
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A multilingual and educated queen
The Amasele Amdaka author, who pursued her master’s in Speech-Language Pathology with a focus on Autism at the University of Pretoria, is eager to use her platform to advocate for more inclusivity in speech therapy services.
According to Stellenbosch University, she said, “Upon doing some career research in my matric year, I found a large gap in the accessibility and availability of speech therapy services in our country due to the abundance of languages we have and the gap in equality. I am eager to work toward creating resources geared toward addressing the identified gap.”
The beauty queen speaks several South African languages, such as isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans, and is learning Sepedi and isiZulu.
Also see: Miss SA Qhawekazi Mazaleni looks back at memorable night
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