"When I was seven years old, my brother devised a plan to keep me in the house and away from the bad influences outside. He offered me pocket money to spend my time drawing things such as cars and people in magazines. I found that drawing came naturally to me and I became so obsessed with it that I even resorted to drawing during breaks at school. I became very good at it and just knew that it was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life," Lwandiso says.

Lwandiso excelled academically and was able to secure a bursary from the Make a Difference Foundation to study art as a subject at Bridge House School in Franschhoek. The scholarship supported him until the beginning of his third year at Stellenbosch University (SU). Luckily, he found people around him, among them Dr Therina Theron, who assisted him to secure a bursary with the Hillensberg Trust, which supports academically achieving and financially needy students. He studied with the support of this bursary throughout the course of his undergraduate and master’s studies.

"The bursaries really changed my life for the better," he says. "It took away a lot of the financial stress and changed my perception about people, the world and how I see myself in it."

But with the good fortune, Lwandiso also experienced his share of bad luck. His Master’s degree got off to the worst start possible in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the higher education sector. The following year his sister passed away and he was thrust into the role of father for her three young children. But there was more to come. In 2023 his sister’s youngest child died in a fire while living with his aunt in the Eastern Cape. Lwandiso also lost his house in Kayamandi in a fire.

"I had to finish my Master’s in the midst of all this chaos," he says. "A tough course became even tougher because of my personal responsibilities and circumstances. I am quite adept at balancing things, but there was just so much more pressure that I had to deal with that I did not have to face prior to my Master’s."

But Lwandiso, who also lost his parents and two siblings in the space of just four years (between the age of 13 and 16), says he has become used to dealing with grief.

"It is tough, but I try not to be driven by emotion. I think in a weird way my hardships have sort of made me immune to the emotion that loss brings. I do what I have to do to deal with the grief as it comes, but I try not to let it take over my life."

However, Lwandiso is still inspired and influenced by his parents to this day. His research for his master’s, which focused on how African languages were affected by colonialism, Christianity, globalisation, modernisation and apartheid, is based on their teachings.

"My dad insisted that you had to know who you are: your identity and your clan name because that is how you trace your history in Xhosa culture. My mother encouraged me to get educated and to acquire knowledge from everything that inspires me and questions my thinking."

He adds: "So, for me it is important to pass on the knowledge I’ve gained through my parents’ teachings and my scholarships and education. I am always trying to give back to my community. I have been tutoring kids since 2014 because that is what my parents would have done. It is an obligation. It frightens me, but it also inspires me. It is a responsibility I am proud to bear."

Lwandiso has plans to become a freelance artist and to be his own boss. He is also considering pursuing lecturing opportunities.