Name of Original teller: Abubaker Basajjabaka

Name of Listener/Understanders: Susan Kabokela

The year was 1999 in Pretoria, South Africa where I had visited after a lot of frustration in my home country Uganda.

After a couple of months in South Africa, I became accustomed to reading a tabloid that had a massive business pullout, which I would access from the Pretoria library where I had subscribed as a member for a year. This gave me a lot of eyesight as well as insight about business and how people actually conducted it. What attracted my attention mostly was the page on weekly auctions where IT equipment would be put up for anybody wishing to bid. But in the same library there was an information point where people would stick or call it advertise their services or products they wanted to get rid of.

In the city of Pretoria I had established my first contact in the name of Lerato. She was a very resourceful lady in a country where I knew no one at the time. She was working in an Internet Cafe. At some point she would allow me to access the Internet without paying a penny. She also advised that I come up with a flyer adverising what I could offer to a wider community of South Africans who didn't have skills in report, proposal and business plan writing. On the flyer I advertised myself as the ultimate expert for people that needed that kind of support.

One day, by what stroke of luck, Jimmy called saying he needed me to organise a very good business plan that would secure him some financial support from the bank. He chose computer training as his business line because at the time there was a good number of South Africans who were so deprived but needed training so that they could make themselves viable in the new South African job market.

Before we could discuss the basics, Jimmy was interested in knowing how much I would charge him. Being new, although I didn't know how much I would charge, I also didn't want to look money minded before the work was actually done. My business acument paid off. I wrote a business plan for him, which was approved within a couple of days. The bank offered him two hundred thousand Rands (R200,000.00). Out of excitement and appreciation, he gave me twenty thousand Rands (R20,000.00). At the time this was a lot of money that would set a young man like myself to indulge in luxury by either buying a car or cause inflation in one of those popular bars around town.

Without forgetting Lerato who had given me the opportunity and the advice, I decided to give her 50% of the proceeds. The most intriguing scenario was that she refused to take any penny on pretext that I needed the money more than she did. She had probably looked at a young fellow who was just arms and legs. I hang my head in shame!

Because no words could convince Lerato to retract from her position, I decided to get a decent place to stay and to also invest in IT equipment. The knowledge I had gathered from my time in the Library paid off. One day, I decided to attend one of those auctions. The good fortune was still on my side. The US Embassy was getting rid of their computers. Backed up by twenty thousand Rands, I decided to register. Although the registration amount was two thousand Rands, it was risk free unless somebody bidded and won something. In any case up to the amount of the value one bidded for the item would be deducted. If the value of the item exceeded that deposit, one was required to top up. However, if no purchases were made the deposit would be returned. Anyhow, I decided register.

After a series of what seemed like ping pong, with the auctioneer counting forth and back, at the final count of three, as a customary rule in auctioning, I became the winner of about fifty pieces of computers, printers and other IT equipment.

Although one would consider this as the turning point, more challenges were yet to come. My interest was to set up a Computer training centre. My motivation came from the various materials I had come across in the library but also the business plan I had written for Jimmy. The training centre would be based on the same model I had developed for him.

For my plans to materialise, I needed to fulfill a lot of things. I needed premises for the training centre, technical trainers who would do the training and a local South African assistant to do the administration. But the other intriguing thing was that when I left Uganda for South Africa in 1998, the only computer application I could use was MS Word because of my keen interest in writing.

Not forgetting where I was coming from before I would know where I was going, I thought that by involving Lerato in the actual running of the business would settle my conscience of wanting to reward her somehow. Although I would have liked Lerato to be part of the administration, when I returned to the Internet cafe where she was working, there was no trace of her. My feeling was that she could have been fired from her job because the owner of the business would not accord me the benefit of having her contact details. Whatever she could have done, I prayed that it was not a crime of a cardinal nature.

With these inadequacies I realised I needed to make more investment in Computer Training materials besides the human resource. Lackly, the South African bookshops were well stocked and had a very resourceful section on IT.

The premises were secured so was the South African girl -- Tembela, who was to double as the office administrator as well as an instructor later. With Tembela we came up with well packaged basic computer training courses and put the adverts all over the streets of Pretoria. The response was overwhelming. Whichever hurdle we jumped we would be faced with another challenge. This time, as my skills were lacking yet we had made a commitment in the ads, we had to deliver by all means. I hired the service of some competent Cameroonians although I had to do another audacious task of bringing myself up to speed with the various packages.

Launching myself on the South African scene was like a dream come true. I had studied the situation and also came to the conclusion that the only I could be of great service to people and especially the black South Africa--who had been deprived, was to engage in skills empowering and skills upgrade.

All the processes that I went through to set up a training centre were a learning experience for me. It is only to this day that when I look back I can see how far I have traveled on a journey or call it safari in improving my and other people's livelihoods.

Having qualified as a Political Scientist, I knew I wouldn’t go very far apart from becoming another victim of repression in a country where politics is almost an occupation. Having become a self-taught ICT ‘expert’, I contributed a lot in South Africa.

Although South Africa offered the stage upon which I made a grand entry to the ICT, I decided to return to Uganda where I am still doing the same.

4. CHALLENGE (problem or task that triggered the…)

It was the needs assessment I had made that black south African also needed some form of training at the time. They had been deprived.

5. ACTION (sequence of events before, during and after your turning point)

I had done a business for a South African fellow who paid me massively. Because of the niche I had discovered and because of the wide knowledge I had gathered as a result of reading the local newspapers, I knew where the auctions were.

The turning point came when I attended an auction where the US embassy was getting rid of their old computers. I happened to be the final bidder and I won over 50 computer, printers and quite a number of other IT equipment. With this I knew I would set up a training centre to empower deprived communities in South Africa with ICT skills.

6. RESOLUTION (ending including lesson(s) learned or message)

I have learned that it is through service that we recognize a simple but powerful truth about people. In my line of duty I have met very resourceful people who have enhanced my skills insurmountably. I also give back to the community by way of sharing what I have learned.

7. IMAGES AND OBJECTS (to act as an aid to memory when retelling the story in future)

Please add photos or illustrations here, note which are relevant to this story

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