Businessman Bongani Skosana is on the road to somewhere better

A plethora of opportunities exists for poverty-stricken young girls seeking to better themselves, but not so many for young boys. This is why Pretoria accountant and businessman Bongani Skosana, 40, took it upon himself to change this.

Skosana was born and bred in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria. At the time, the township was crime-ridden, with no positive role models, he said. At the age of six, he lost his father.

“Being a boy growing up without a father was very tough but luckily I had my grandfather and the community around me. As a boy who loved soccer, I sometimes wished my father was still around.

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“However, this encouraged me to work extra hard because being raised by a grandmother in her home with cousins and aunts there was a lot of commotion. I decided there and then that if nothing changes then I am going to be part of the cycle.”

‘I had to be the best’

Like many in townships, Skosana grew up in a family which was not well off, which he desperately wanted to change as a young boy.

“I knew I had to be the best so that somebody could recognise me and give me an opportunity to make something of myself.”

Although he had the drive and desire to become better, Skosana recalled the challenges he came across, including choosing a different path when crime was seen as the way to go.

“In Mamelodi, the crime was so rife that it was really easy to get influenced to join. So one needed some form of protection.”

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In a bid to protect himself and avoid wrongdoing, Skosana joined a local soccer team and followed his family to church.

“When you play soccer, you are busy and when you come back, you are tired, so you don’t have time for the streets. Another thing that helped me was church because you go to school and church, so you don’t have time.

“The danger is once you become idle, then you do not have a plan and people will give you a plan and the streets will give you a plan.”

Skosana also ensured he did well academically, passing Grade 12 with distinctions which earned him the title of best pupil in his district and second best in the Pretoria district.

This, he said, opened a number of doors for him. It secured him awards and scholarships and he enrolled at the University of Pretoria. By this time, he was able to assist his family financially.

Skosana recalled how he would be invited to schools and events to motivate young pupils and this led him to become a life coach.

Skosana’s first love

His love for accounting started by watching his grandmother run a little stall that sold “kipkip” or popcorn for as little as R2.

“She used to own an amakip kip business and she used to send me to get stock. I used to make sure that when I bought a packet of amakipkip, let’s say for R10, I had to make sure that we got R10 as profit.”

His grandmother’s business helped him develop a love for accounting and business.

“I’ve always been a businessman at heart, I ultimately knew I’d be a businessman, I knew I would become an accountant. My first love is accounting.”

Years later, he is an established businessman with his own consulting firm, Umceceshi Coach Accountancy.

Speaking about his business acumen, Skosana said: “Never put your eggs in one basket, I respond to anything that has opportunity. I respond to a crisis. if there’s a crisis, there’s an opportunity to make money, I position myself to respond to the crisis each time.”

Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation

He said in memory of his late father, he established the Dlalisa Moyeni Foundation, which offers counselling, mentorship and bursaries to young boys.

“Dlalisa Moyeni is the name of my late father. I understand the challenges of growing up without a father and I do not want other people to go through what I went through.”

The foundation this year is helping 70 boys.

“We travel the journey with them as a sounding voice that will help them become better husbands, better leaders in the future. This does not just happen. It must start at an early age.”

In mentoring the boys, not only does Skosana hope they become good members of the community, but that his deeds also help to tackle the issues of overcrowded prisons.

“The reason you go to prison is that you are engaging in crime and all those things so we want to reduce that. We also want to curb gender-based violence. We need to teach boys how to treat a woman. They need to know women are equal human beings who must be treated with respect, so we instil that at an early age.”

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– lungam@citizen.co.za