As with every journey, there is a beginning. This is how my walk with Montshepetja began. I joined Montshepetja Academy on 06 September 2004 as a football player. What was special about that event is that Montshepetja was a wholly boys soccer team and I was the only girl. But the executive management saw my interest as a breath of life into Montshepetja and their desired goals for the organisation.

Mmapula flanked by Master (left) and Kabelo. Her star qualities shone through and she was appointed general secretary soon after joining MoAc.

I played for about two months. In the meantime, owing to the fact that Montshepetja was a very young organisation, there was no operational management for the affairs of the team. There was only executive management in place. Then came the time when an official committee consisting of players was officially put in place by top management. I was offered the position of secretary and I accepted it with the greatest of joy.

Montshepetja at that time needed a management that would realize the plans set by the executive management. And I for one with other players played a very prominent role in building Montshepetja into what it is today. The objectives of this organisation are to provide many children with opportunities to learn and acquire essential life skills. And when I became part of the team`s management I had that opportunity to learn those essential life skills and to lead in a way or another.

Yes as with every journey there are ups and downs. Leading people is no child`s play and so I together with my colleagues have learnt. It was hard to lead my peers or team mates as there were a lot of objections promoted by negativity from other players or members. There was doubt as to whether I and my colleagues did really have the ability to lead this young organisation to greater heights. But with the executive management supporting us, we endured and achieved success for the organisation while also learning for the sake of our own lives.

I have learnt that with great power comes great responsibility. The leadership power vested in the then team manager, namely Kabelo Sakong, and I as secretary, together with the rest of the management, through endurance, was used to good effect to proved this and allow to achieve success.

To attract support for our organisation and to give children a chance to participate in soccer and learn, I as a secretary had to organise leagues that lasted between two and three months at a time. It was hard organising and keeping records of these games but after hard work comes success, which is what we achieved. These leagues exposed young Montshepetja to giants and also in the same process made her a stronger team which today walks side by side with these giants and it makes her a potential giant.

Montshepetja now hosts regular leagues and tournaments throughout the seasons of the year. In 2006 I was promoted to the position of secretary general where I was not only looking after soccer but was responsible for all the teams. Montshepetja today has these divisions: two soccer sides, a dance club, a netball club. There was only one soccer side at the time I joined the organisation.

Soccer gave birth to all that Montshepetja has grown into and I and others who were and are still part of the team have contributed something to the existence and success of the organisation.

Plans are useless without the best management and skills or knowledge to apply them. The Montshepetja executive management showed great management strategies along the way to this point as many would have given up the idea of empowering young stars into finding ways of building wealth for themselves in a quicker way.