Perserverance Pays Off

PAYS OFF Koos Bhuda went from being a gardener to teaching isiNdebele. He overcame many obstacles on the road to success

- Qhama Dayile

HE DOESN’T look like someone who often endured 15-hour workdays over the past 12 years. He had to cram as much as he could into a day – he had great dreams to achieve, after all.

By day Koos Bhuda was a gardener, tending to the lawns of homes in Pretoria. By night he was a student who applied his mind to becoming a human resources practitioner then later a teacher.

And in between he also had to be a husband to Selinah and father to Sfiso, ensuring they were happy and healthy while he worked.

His hard work and determination paid off however, and his story is nothing short of inspirational. Even though it took more than a decade, the 36-year-old can proudly boast of his achievements.

When we meet Koos at Marhagi Secondary School in Verena‚ Mpumalanga, where he teaches isiNdebele to Grade 10 and 11 pupils, he’s practically beaming.

“I knew people who hadn’t finished high school but had better jobs than my garden job,” he says. “It then hit me that my only ticket to getting a better job would be for me to get an education.”

He certainly had the academic skill to hit the books. Koos, who was born and brought up in KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga, was a bright student who’d passed matric with an exemption. He also got two distinctions in history and isiNdebele in 1998.

His parents knew their son had potential. In 2000 his truck driver father, Jeremiah, and mother, Mariah, enrolled him into Pinnacle Business College, a computer literacy school in Pretoria “because my parents knew I’m passionate about learning”.

But Koos couldn’t just sit back – he had to play his part too. To help pay his fees, he found work as a gardener in Pretoria.

Yet it wasn’t enough for the young man with big dreams. “I was very happy to have a job but I longed for more. I wanted to be someone better.”