Cape Town Opera welcomes FirstRand intern Fundiswa Mrali

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About FirstRand’s FirstJob Partner Programme

About three years ago, FirstRand successfully launched the FirstJob Partner Programme initiative to the NGOs supported by the FirstRand Foundation and FirstRand Empowerment Foundation. This programme is intended to create meaningful work experiences for unemployed youth for 12 months.

The model is simple – FirstRand seconds unemployed youth as FirstRand employees into selected partners, paying the employees’ annual stipends and providing a limited amount towards specific training. In return, the partners host these interns by providing meaningful work experience and physical resources (e.g. computer, phone, workspace).

Cape Town Opera is very proud to host three interns from the FirstRand FirstJob Partner Programme and is exceptionally grateful to FirstRand for this initiative. 

An introduction to intern Fundiswa Mrali:

Fundiswa Mrali was introduced to Cape Town Opera when she completed an internship at the Artscape Theatre. The connection between Fundiswa and Cape Town Opera was instant, and five years after that internship she’s now an intern as an assistant stage manager at CTO. “I’ve been applying for this internship for three years. I’ve always wanted to work here because it is an international company and it works with big shows. I wanted to learn from that,” she says. 

Trained as an actress, Fundiswa was born in Mbekweni, a township in Paarl. Now that she works on productions instead of performing in one, her perspective has shifted. “I’m focused on the production side of everything so outside of stage managing I would love to get the opportunity to direct,” Fundiswa says. Fundiswa hopes her foray into opera will foster her growth as a creative, already with an eye on directing, writing and producing.