Biography

At the time of joining the KSAL programme, I had already been involved in another Kellogg Foundation initiative, the Leadership Regional Network Southern Africa (LeaRN), from 2002 to 2003, in which I was trained in Youth Leadership. After completing my A’ Level in 2004, I did not manage to pursue tertiary education due to financial constraints. I therefore took up a temporary teaching job in the Ministry of Education from 2005 to 2006. When the KSAL opportunity presented itself to me, I was doing temporary teaching at Embakwe High School in Zimbabwe and looking for an opportunity to further my studies beyond GCE Advanced Level. In 2006, I was invited to attend my first KSAL Leadership workshop in Johannesburg, facilitated by Prof. L. Mbigi. Then, I was recruited for the 2007 cohort. The aspect of the programme that made a big difference in my life was the leadership trainings. Their focus mainly on African leadership enlightened me on various aspects of life and made me start viewing the world from a different perspective. The KSAL programme’s emphasis on community ploughback, which formed the backbone of the leadership trainings, made me realise the importance of giving back to my community and my extended family. The other aspect that made a difference was being afforded the opportunity to do a university degree in Public Management at Durban University of Technology (DUT). Studying Public Management has broadened my horizon in the field of governance and politics which I intend to practically apply to my country when I get an opportunity to serve in government. Overall, the KSAL programme brought about a lot of transformation in my life. The emphasis on the importance of ploughback by our leadership facilitator, Prof Lovemore Mbigi, made me realise that my community needs me as a change agent. As a result, during my university vacation, I went back to my community and volunteered to teach at my local High School after realising that there was a serious shortage of teachers. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I was also a Host City Volunteer for the City of Durban for the duration of the tournament. My spirit of volunteerism has therefore been cultivated and this therefore benefits my community for which I am always ready and willing to serve.