Social Development — Kgomotso Jongman

Motivational speaker

Kgomotso Jongman is a youth and community development specialist and director at Jongman’s Community and Youth Intervention Services consultancy.

His publications have been reviewed in professional journals and specialist media.

Jongman has come up with programmes that have uplifted the community. He says his radio segment on RB2, My family, my strengths, helped a lot of people discover their potential.

He adds that his regular motivational seminars are uplifting a lot of young people emotionally, socially and psychologically. He has done four motivational seminars with more than 100 people in attendance. The programme that stands out the most for him was one for orphans and vulnerable children in Tlokweng.

Jongman says the project started with the realisation that a lot of orphans and vulnerable children are not doing well at school. Research indicated that insufficient parenting, low self-confidence and self-esteem were the core causes of their poor academic performance. The intervention they decided on consisted of regular workshops, meetings and training for parents. The children were engaged in career fairs and self-confidence, assertiveness and social skills training.

The programme was successful, and at the end of 2013 most of the orphans involved managed to go on to tertiary institutions without needing to go through the government system, as they worked hard and obtained good exam results.

Making his mark as a motivational speaker, Jongman launched a new book last year, Persevere or Perish: Life Stories to Inspire, based on events in his life.

He notes that he has been to hell and back, but has persevered because “if you don’t persevere, you perish”.

He believes that people should take responsibility for their lives because “at one point the buck stops with you”. He adds that any positive change in the world begins with the individual.

He attributes his abilities as a motivational speaker to his passion for teaching and because he loves to inspire. He also tries to help young people to achieve success through extra-curricular activities. He recalls that when he started at the University of Botswana, he missed his first exam because he got drunk and overslept, and never made it to the exam. Someone who had been a major influence in his life when he was studying social work at UB was the late Log Raditlhokwa.

Jongman says the title of his book epitomises the life of someone who has seen it all and been through it all.

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