By Benny Mojela
My name is Benny Mojela. I am a Maths and Science educator. I was trained as an Applied Behavior Analysis therapist and I worked with children who have ADHD, and Asperger’s and are on the autism spectrum. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry degree and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, both from Wits University. I was involved in student Christian leadership and political activism at Wits before, during, and after the #FeesMustFall (#FMF) movement. My message to reluctant Christian students during #FMF was “It is your right as a citizen to protest but it is your responsibility as a Christian to fight injustice”.
I spent the past 10 years in education research and curriculum development. I worked at the Wits School of Education for 3 years researching the role of language in teaching Maths in the foundation phase. Before the pandemic, I brought together young people speaking all 11 official languages to translate Life Orientation textbooks for the Department of Basic Education’s National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT).
During the Covid-19 pandemic, I led the same group of young people in translating Covid-19 government updates for all SABC Radio stations. Afterward, I worked at Mindburstwork.com as an educational consultant on curriculum development and educator training. In the past two years, I worked in market research in 3000 households in Gauteng.
I am from Polokwane but I spent the past 13 years in Joburg working and studying. Since joining Grocott’s Mail I have learned to listen to the excluded and underrepresented, as well as how to ask the right questions of those in power. My takeaway from this is to use the media to build a better society and give the downtrodden a voice. I intend on creating media in 11 official languages as well as in Swahili and Shona, with an aim of decolonizing the media and developing African languages.
(Benny Mojela is a 2023 Grocott’s Mail student journalist, studying for a postgraduate Diploma in Journalism and Media Studies).
