BY Nkosazana Ngwadla
Precious Sibalo, she worked as a waitress and a flight attendant, before obtaining her qualification as a Commercial Pilot.
She was raised by her grandparents after her mother passed away. At age 17, she had a child and relocated from Zimbabwe to South Africa where she worked as a waitress, but all this could not stop her from achieving her dreams
Precious later moved to Dubai where she also a waitress, while in Dubai she applied for a cabin crew job at Qatar Airways. Among her six friends who applied for the job, she was the only one recruited and joined Qatar Airways. She worked for five years at Qatar Airways while she was saving money to train and become a Pilot which was her childhood dream.
In 2017, she enrolled at 43 Airschool South Africa for her Integrated Airline Transport Pilot License (IATPL) course and obtained a Commercial Pilot License on 24 November 2020.
Today, Precious Sibalo is a certified Commercial Pilot, Philanthropist and Motivational Speaker.
She is an Advisory Board Member at Women Power Africa and Founder of Precious Wings Foundation which aims at aiding and empowering marginalized children.
She is currently working on her Flight Instructors Rating and flying to build hours in an effort to achieve her next goal – flying big planes for Qatar Airways.
“People should never give up on their dreams. I used the job of a waitress as a stepping stone. Some people will always say ‘I will never take this job’. No, take it and use it as a stepping stone. The same waitress job, took me to Dubai and paved the way for my job at Qatar Airways,” said Precious Sibalo.
Image: Instagram
