I was born and raised in a small village called Lubisi, 53 km away from Cofimvaba- a rural area deep inside the Eastern Cape. At an early age, we moved to Mthatha were I did my lower grades up to grade 12 were I obtained my Matric certificate at Zingisa Comprehensive High school. During that time, I was still a student at Zingisa CHS where I was exposed to many opportunities such as debate, leadership and sports, arts and culture activities furthermore to give service to my fellow community members. As part of my journey, leadership and communication is one of my strong points and I am passionate about and have a longing to help young people, more especially in high schools in disadvantaged communities to acquire these skills, self-worth, importance of investing in yourself, be your own leader not a follower and help them transform into better citizens who are driven by the vision to serve their communities.

The most important thing in becoming an exceptional leader is the ability to lead oneself, the ability to make right calls for your own life, not just for those that maybe considered you a leader. I believe self-leadership starts first and foremost with integrity within the leadership context. Leadership integrity is about making the right decisions and living with them while taking full responsibility of the consequences that will follow after whereas, the majority both young and old are not ready to man-up and face the outcomes of the decisions they have made all blame this and that but not themselves, hence it triggered me to start looking on how can we can address this issue in our society. I believe many of our great leaders’ struggles with oneself. Although some of the leaders that we look up on for guidance and wisdom struggle publicly they do so in much bigger ways. Issues such as anxiety, confidence, pride and the personal time management are the things that dictate how decisions and knowing the difference between managing and leading which is another topic for another day.

My calling for leadership has allowed me to serve in many organisations and structures such as – Area Director 2015/16 and Division Director 2016/17 serving Toastmasters International District 74, serving in student political formation as chairman and secretary Pasma KSD TVET College also being in debate society of the above mentioned college lead by Honourable Madam Chairperson Zilungile Zimela who fosters the articulation skills, stage presences and most of all the importance of communication and language to students and varying audiences. All leaders need some mentors such as Tobo Tabede who is a life coach, Dr Zoleka Ndamase an innovation and development specialist, Paul Jensen a communications and leadership expect to guide and lead them to the right direction and not to lose focus also to be invited to be part of global youth network Activate! Leadership as an ACTIVATOR, a change driver.

My greatest achievement to date is seeing someone that I have interacted with the kind of impact I have had on their life in making them the best possible versions of themselves in comparison to our first encounter contact and lastly to see my brother and sister grabbing every opportunity they come across acquiring and developing skills that will help them and sustain them to be better citizens.

Photo credit: Miles Welch