South African Spirit of uBuntu makes another Dream come true
Yesterday SAPeople and other facebook pages shared a photo that had been uploaded to FB by Mbali Ndhlovu showing an entrepreneurial homeless guy on a street corner, offering Zulu lessons in exchange for cash (at the very reasonable rate of R1 per word!). Some people suggested “give that guy a Bells”. Well today he’s been given […]
Yesterday SAPeople and other facebook pages shared a photo that had been uploaded to FB by Mbali Ndhlovu showing an entrepreneurial homeless guy on a street corner, offering Zulu lessons in exchange for cash (at the very reasonable rate of R1 per word!).
Some people suggested “give that guy a Bells”. Well today he’s been given even more than that. He’s been offered a R60,000 bursary to study for his dream profession…which actually isn’t to become a teacher, but to be a sound engineer (which may come as a relief to those who got stuck on his ‘pronunciation’ spelling error!)
Within 24-hours Moses – the 25-year-old “Traffic Light Teacher” from Soweto – has become a household name in South Africa. But this has not been an overnight success story.
It was back in May last year that Veli Moses Mackenzie and his Zulu lessons caught the attention of Afrikaans teacher ‘Danie Teach’ (aka Danie Boneschans). Danie, who according to his Twitter status is a teacher and eLearning Developer, began uploading videos of Moses’ Zulu lessons.
On the first video he wrote that “Moses is a homeless man who lives under a bridge in Johannesburg. Everyday he writes a Zulu-word-of-the-day on his board. He calls himself The Traffic Light Teacher. This video is to help him create a following. He is young and enthusiastic and is very excited about his next lesson.”
In other videos he revealed that Moses is from Soweto and is “teaching isiZulu words to the world” and that he teaches these words to “bypassing traffic at a traffic light nearby 44 on Stanley” in Jozi.
The videos were watched by a handful of people and the following did not grow as fast as perhaps DanieTeach had hoped. Until a week ago when Mbali Ndhlovu uploaded the now famous photo.
Speaking to SAPeople, Mbali said she uploaded the photo because “the guy had put a smile on my face and I wanted to share the feeling with my online network- I had no idea that it would end up changing someone’s life like this!”
Although it has been reported that Mbali uploaded the photo yesterday – she actually uploaded it on 14 January, not even realising that Moses was in Gauteng when she wrote “he’s in the streets of KZN, wish he was just here on the 011.” A day later a facebook friend told her he was indeed in Joburg, and could be found on the corner of Empire Road and Owl Street.
And then suddenly yesterday Mbali’s photo took off and went viral, creating an overwhelming response of support and encouragement for Moses.
By the end of the day DanieTeach had got back together with Moses to record a short video in which Moses thanked everyone for their support.
Today he had even more to say thank you for when the Jacaranda FM team surprised him with the bursary gift.
Jacaranda FM explained: “The Complimentary Breakfast caught wind of the story [of Moses and] decided that he needs to be rewarded for his outstanding initiative and went out to meet him. While chatting to him about his “R1 a word” concept, it emerged that although he never finished matric, it is his dream to go and study sound engineering.
“The team contacted George Hattingh Jnr, National Sales & Marketing Manager and Lecturer at the Academy of Sound Engineering and he was more than excited to get on board with changing this young man’s life and offered Moses a bursary for their 1 Year (NQF5) Higher Certificate in Audio Technology valued at almost R60 000!”
On hearing the news, Mbali – who had shared the photo first – wrote to all her followers saying “thanks for liking, sharing and commenting, we caused viral havoc and the dude’s just been given a sound engineering bursary!!! F**king cool!!”
Moses on the other hand was so delighted and blown away by the uBuntu of his South African people that he was rendered speechless when he heard the news!
In a message to SAPeople, Mbali says that “seeing so many people moved by this and coming together to make a huge difference in someone’s life is humbling. Truly. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about his bursary and I wish him the very best, it’s good to know and see first hand that there are people that care out there.
“He should be proud! He has earned his future by educating and mostly entertaining, he did it the honest way, creatively and with a smile on his face even at the hardest of times.”
There will be updates tomorrow morning on The Complimentary Breakfast.