Celebrating a life..thank you Lord for the past six decades.

Standing on the threshold of my seventh decade, I am grateful for the divine guidance that has shaped my life. I am humbled by the Lord’s work through me, and I cherish the opportunity He has given me to make even the smallest impact on this world. 

Celebrating His glory through my life and the lives He has allowed me to touch is the greatest lesson I have learnt. I cherish the opportunity He has given me to influence people while He led me to the following institutions and places: The Tsako-Thabo friends and classmates, the TCE friends and comrades, the MATU-SADTU friends and comrades, the Mamelodi ANCYL comrades, the ANC Mamelodi Branch Comrades, the Japhta Mahlangu colleagues and students, the Vista University students and colleagues, the Gauteng Dept of Local Government colleagues, the SAFPUM colleagues, the  SAAPAM community, the University of Pretoria colleagues, the Harvard Business School’s SEP 2000 cohort network, the Fribourg University IGR classmates, the Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School’s colleagues, the TUT colleagues where I am research associate, the Madyatshamile Holdings colleagues, the FW De Klerk Foundation colleagues, the Charity and Faith brethren, the Thinc Complex community, the BPI patrons, the Tshwane ANC Political Education Training Unit, the ARENA Media colleagues, the Thinc Conversation production team, the Da Vinci colleagues, and the many other institutions and organisations I may not have the space to write about yet indelibly indebted. 

 

It was a very worthwhile journey to travel with friends. I cherish the individuals who have chosen me and assigned the titles of friend, mentor, and mentee. Their choice was among the many that could have been. To have made their list, gross, short, and ultimately selection is part of the life milestones recorded in my book of souls, to which I cannot claim to have had no ties. 

 

In the 6 decades I am completing today, and beginning the seventh decade on the 25th September 2025, there are those who spent 30 of these years in my father and mother’s house, which we both called home. These are my two sisters (Ausi Lilly and Palesa) and three brothers (Buti, Thabo, and Oupa), one of whom(Buti) has passed on. The opportunity God gave me to be what I was, became, and would still become to and for them is invaluable and priceless. The aroma, stench, and everything related to my sense of smell dominate my space as I reflect on the 30 years we shared, until the moment to do for our kids what our parents did for us arrived, which marked the end of the wonderful life we had together. For that, I give all the glory to God. 

 

For the 67 years I spent with my parents, I am in awe of their profound impact on my life. Their love, guidance, and unwavering support have shaped the person I am today, and I am forever grateful for the gifts they have bestowed upon me. 

 

My parents were not alone on this journey; I was a child of villages, Central Western Jabavu, Matshiretsane in Orighstad, Meadowlands Zone 1, and Mamelodi ko White City. There are men and women in the extended family who have, in their unique way, influenced my path choices. Those women I rode their backs when my last number back human vehicle, my mom, was either away or occupied. Bommangwane, bomalome, vahahani, vapapaholo, vapapantsongo, vamzala, and all who became manufacturers of all the don’t dos that shaped me to this day. Special mention is made to Sesi Banyamile in Soshanguve, Ausi Selina in Mpumalanga, Mzala Sannie (Manyuks), and the Manzini Family, with whom I spent three years of my life in Blompoort, Dennilton. Our neighbour, Sesi Tabatata (Mmago-Willie) and Mmadibaby, became the White City mothers when my mother was away. 

 

Beyond the inner and close family circle were teachers who taught me how to write, add, calculate, and be scholarly. These include my primary school teachers under MaLamola, who was the founding principal of Boikgantsho Primary School. The Šomišanang Teachers under Principal Motaung, MaBuns. The Tsako-Thabo cohort under Principal Vilakazi, the V, who managed us through our exit level grade, Matric. These men and women impacted matters my parents would not have been able to do, had it not been for them: they were parents of a special type. I thank God for their lives and contributions thus far. 

 

Not least among the above were college lecturers at the Transvaal College of Education (TCE), the Masha Ramagoshi cohort under IJ Bingle. Because their mission was to make us teachers, they taught us how to learn and, by default, how to unlearn and relearn. The seeds of how to learn propelled me to pursue knowledge until I couldn’t get any further acknowledgement than what is available as the ultimate for a South African. Together with the Vista Cohort of Academics, one of them, the polyvalently legendary JJN Cloete, arguably an influence in the Public Administration discipline, made me appreciate the discipline. Many authors in the discipline stood in several classes as I was a student to unravel what the discipline meant in its context. To them, this was a journey they had to be a part of. 

Crowning the parenting of a special type beyond the rest was Professor Vil-Nkomo, Sibusiso. A brother, mentor, supervisor, friend, and academic destiny helper. He defined the reality of professorship when there were few in proximity, like he had become. If there is anything like academic fathering, it couldn’t be anyone else but him and Prof Jerry Kuye, who presented me as having fulfilled the requirements for the Doctor of Administration. Only the God I serve could have dropped them when we met. Thanks to them for not disappointing my God. 

It became clearer on that fateful day at the SOS Children’s Village, the orphanage where many found Christ at Charity and Faith Mission Church, when Pastor Senokoane preached about the Bible verse ‘Thy will be done’. I responded to an altar call, feeling that my path to a bigger and better destiny was laid out. The Charity and Faith Mission Church became the family I needed, just as much as the many experiences I had had above. I am grateful for the guidance all the sermons provided in shaping this eventful, less-than-perfect yet child-of-God life. The grace bestowed upon the founding Pastor, Titus Sithole, and the anointing upon the Church are undeniably significant contributors to a life I often struggle to explain, except to say, ‘If you want to know how I reached six decades and am poised to conquer more, it can only be God’s grace.’

Of the 60 years I have lived, some people immensely contributed to the time and moments they were part of. They sharpened my vision, redefined horizons, and shifted paradigms. The longest serving of them all, officially, and the numbers are there to account for, is my wife, the mother of my three kids. My parents made me a man; she made me a father and husband. No one could have prepared me for these roles, except through memories of what my parents modelled. She became one of the practical teachers within a ‘each-one-teach-one’ context. She told my kids I am their father and taught them to relate beyond my experimentations. My kids would call me motho-o-wa-gago (this person of yours), she would remind them that I am their father, ndza khensa n’waMvelase.

 

Whatever menus my mother created a habit for, she chose and decided what to continue and what to discard. She became a friend, a sister and a mother. The best of my memories over the sixty years is the competition for her attention in the morning with my kids. She would give us all the answers to our questions, and as she prepared herself for the day, she asked none of us what it required. She made the 30 years of being full-time together the most rewarding, and though still intricate, the journey continues. He who finds a wife indeed finds a good thing and a good companion. 

 

In good time, more on this life will be recorded. As I enter the seventh decade, I will endeavour to remember and record for posterity’s sake what more this life has become. 

 

It rained through me. I can only remember the abovementioned men and women as the clouds or rainmakers. It will still pour. As I close, let me say this prayer.

Father, in the name of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, I thank You for the decades that have passed. I receive the blessings from You for protecting me against past life challenges. I thank You for communicating with me through the Godly dreams and visions that I dreamt.

I thank You for the decade ahead of me. I thank You for the friends, colleagues, teachers, and people I have met in the past decade and those I will be meeting in the next. I thank You for the blessings You have deposited in them for me.

I agree that ‘no weapon formed against any of my portion shall prosper’. I agree that ‘You are my shepherd, and I shall not want’ because your will must be in my life.

As I face the next decade, lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen

I invite all the angels assigned to me in Heaven to be with me throughout the following decades.

Holy Spirit, I invite You to be my light, guide, protector and decerner for the next decades.

May the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with me, now and forever more, Amen. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me, all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord, Amen.

Ke o monnyane, thakafatsa pelo yaka, Jesu fela, a dule mo pelong yaka, Amen. (I am small, purify my heart so that only Jesus Christ lives in my heart. Amen)