DA councillor’s journey from hardship to politics
JOBURG – The youth can be a creative force – a dynamic source of innovation – and throughout history they have participated, contributed to, and even catalysed, important change in political systems, power-sharing dynamics and economic opportunities.
However, the youth also face poverty, barriers to education, multiple forms of discrimination and limited employment prospects and opportunities in South Africa.
Percy Morapedi Koji (31), who is a Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor for wards 60 and 123 in Joburg, has experienced such hardships. He grew up in Taung in the North West Province and was raised by both parents. Sadly, his mother died in 2009.
He has six siblings, five brothers and one sister. He moved to Johannesburg in 1997 and later went to Bophelo Private School in Mayfair where he completed his matric in 2002.
“We were poor and my parents worked very hard to educate all of us,” he said.
The bubbly and softly-spoken councillor said he then attended Birnam Business College to complete a diploma in tourism. He worked as a call centre agent, ticket consultant and in sales for various airlines.
He was awarded a scholarship in 2012 to complete a certificate in Intercultural Communications Gender and Globalisation at Fulda University in Germany.
“I’m also a Mandela Washington Fellow, which is President Obama’s flagship programme in grooming young African leaders and is called the Young African Leaders Initiative, where one get to spend six weeks at an American University,” he said.
“In this case I was at Howard University to complete a leadership programme and was awarded a certificate in public administration.”
He decided to join the DA as a volunteer, until the party offered him employment as community operations manager. Last year he was appointed as a DA councillor.
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