Thapelo Teele’s success is partly credited to getting adequate sleep during the toughest parts of his thesis work.
- Thapelo Teele’s master’s degree was upgraded to a PhD by the University of Cape Town due to his thorough research.
- The 30-year-old credits his success to getting adequate sleep during the toughest times of his research.
- Teele graduated in July of 2023 and plans to continue his research.
A year after registering for his Master of Laws (LLM) degree, Thapelo Teele, 30, took two years to complete his thesis and was awarded a PhD in legal rhetoric studies.
This is a rarely-seen feat and is one of the many reasons he is one of the most inspirational graduates from the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The bubbly Teele spent most of his schooling years in the Eastern Cape, before trekking to the Western Cape to begin his journey in higher education.
In high school, he says he worked as a library assistant.
Teele recalls how he would often delay filing returned books because he would be so engulfed in the encyclopaedia and National Geographic magazines at his school library.
“Growing up, my dad and I would often play Scrabble,” he recalled.
“As a legal practitioner, his vocabulary was quite extensive and, as a way to try and beat him, I would read the dictionary to expand my vocabulary.”
He said:
When I look back now, Scrabble paved the way for me to venture into a world of research and also the law.
On pursuing studies in law, Teele said he understood that the law affects every aspect of life.
“I initially applied for my Bachelor of Arts and thought I was going to do law as a combined course in my second year.
I was a little scared … I kept putting it off, but I felt more and more drawn towards it,” he said.
READ | These South African medical students aren’t waiting until they graduate to save lives
He finally started his law degree in 2015 and, unfortunately, the pressures of law school and difficulties keeping up academically meant that Teele was academically excluded in 2018.
Rather than become discouraged, this setback served to steel his resolve to complete his Bachelor of Laws.
He appealed and applied for readmission – a process that gave him the tools he needed to eventually pursue his PhD.
He said:
Without realising it, that academic exclusion and appeal process was important because it got me to this point.
In February 2020, he enrolled for an LLM in Rhetoric Studies through a fully funded scholarship from the Mellon Foundation.
That same year, the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Teele said the lockdown helped him put his head down and work.
He read and wrote extensively until his supervisor, Professor Philippe-Joseph Salazar, noted that his work was worth applying for an upgrade at the UCT higher degrees committee because his master’s thesis pointed towards making an original contribution to knowledge.
The thesis, which was meant to be 40 000-words long, was sitting at 60 000 words.
Dr Thapelo Teele.
Photo Supplied Supplied
Teele partly credits his success to adequate sleep, saying that during the most intense parts of his thesis work, quality sleep got him through hours of reading, writing, editing and referencing.
“I’m a firm believer in not burning the midnight oil. Without adequate sleep, nothing is possible,” he said.
He submitted his thesis for examination in February of 2023 and graduated in July 2023.
Teele said:
It’s a wonderfully proud moment.
When asked if he is done with academia, he said with a chuckle: “A good researcher is never done. The world is my oyster, and I’m just getting started.”