While most youths can only gaze to the heavens for inspiration, one girl literally lives in the sky nurturing her zeal and deep love to be a pilot.
Barring the occasional youthful distractions, 20-year-old Boipelo Moraka’s career is already mapped out and she is determined to achieve it by her 23rd birthday.
By then, Moraka wants to have her Air Transport Pilot licence and wants to have accumulated the necessary hours to claim her seat in the cockpit of either South Africa Airways or SA Airlink en route to major international destinations.
Despite her slim body, Morake is a fitting role model to many youths struggling to overcome their adversity. Born and bred in Alex, she said the first hurdle to achieving one’s dream is to conquer the negative tag of failure and crime associated with the township.
“Regardless of where you come from, only your mind determines your destiny. One of the ways is to think about a career you are emotionally attached to from early on in life, keep faith in the career and speak to and take advice from as many respectable people and role models, and not to be shy,” she urged.
Moraka said she realised this after matriculating with good marks and had to resist the lure to only look at tertiary education as the answer to a better future.
“I had been interested in law but drifted towards the airlines after my parents and siblings encouraged me to pursue my dream first as a cabin crew member. This opened me up to a whole new world of diverse opportunities in the industry and I settled for a career as a pilot. I have done cabin crew training and currently attend commercial pilot training to be followed by the Air Transport Pilot training and I will be on my way to flying the big ones.”
She said this career was, unfortunatel,y closed to, especially, black women. “Only one black woman owns a charter airline and this ought to change first by breaking the myth that shapes the stereotype of male domination of this and other industries.”
Moraka wants to pioneer the change by exposing girls from Alex and rural areas to opportunities in the industry, which include engineering, avionics, air traffic control and attendants.
“To be a pilot, they should have good passes in physics, mathematics, English and geography and a passion for a profession like mechanics.” She intends to do this through road shows and career expos and highlighted that youth advisory centres were appropriate platforms to facilitate this process.
