LEBOGANG LUVUNO,

38, CEO of Motopi Consulting grew up in a home where lending a helping hand was a nonnegotiable. She says that she doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t feel the urge to help others.

Why this initiative? While working as a marketing strategist at Unilever, Vodacom, and GlaxoSmithKline, I always wanted to make sure that the companies gave back. My involvement in Corporate Social Investment (CSI) is what birthed Motopi Consulting in 2011. Growing up, my family would go to the N4 bridge (as you enter Pretoria) and enjoy a meal with homeless people on Christmas Day. I didn’t just want to give people food parcels, or have only one day where a big corporate paints schools – I wanted to equip the disadvantaged with lifelong skills.

How did you get started? I got training to secure a BBBEE score-card, which now allows me to connect big corporates with those who need help the most. We do CSI, BBBEE and marketing projects or initiatives that Motopi undertakes, with the aim of adding value and making a positive contribution to the development of South Africa.

What keeps you going? I feel so much still needs to be done, and often wonder if I’m actually making an impact. But, I lean on my solid base — my parents, husband and kids — because one can only give from a full cup. Now I try to look at every life that I’ve touched and not get bogged down by the overwhelming unemployment stats. In the last seven years, we’ve invested R65 million in community development programmes, created more than 120 jobs as well as placed 72 people in learnerships. In total, we have touched 2 million lives through the assistance of our clients.

What experience touched you the most? Thinking back to the kids

I’ve assisted through our tutoring programme and how one of them — during a farewell braai just before I left to be part of the 2016 Mandela Washington Fellowship — came to my house, driving. He now owns a car and I remembered how I had nurtured this person – I shed tears of joy.

The world would be a much better place if… we all tapped into our power to make a difference.