Training and Development: David Lebusho on the right track as a trainer

DAVID lEBUSHO

Working for a small company earlier on in your career really helps you to come to grips with certain fundamentals. This is how DAVID LEBUSHO, an accomplished training trainer, feels about preparing for life’s rigorous career paths.  Lebusho is one of the few people who moonlights in daylight; he works for the mother company and also draws a salary from the sister company. He is a trained teacher and all his life he has trained people through many disciplines. He talks to Thembi Masser about his exciting career in between conducting a waste management course  in Daveyton, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. 

Lebusho, who lives in Waverley, Bloemfontein, was born in Selosesha, in Thaba Nchu. He works for KMHRC-short for Kagiso Management and HR Consultants as a training manager and at the same time is also employed by Mission Point, a sister company to KMHRC, as an operations manager.

At KMHRC (david@kmhrc.co.za) he trains organisations on diverse fields of topics and disciplines. He says you have to do thorough research before presenting and conducting training.  “It is so exciting because you have to research before going into that classroom to train, “he says. "In that way you become so knowledgeable about so many things. you become a walking search engine," he laughs.

Meanwhile, at Mission Point (david@missionpoint.co.za), he manages all divisions at that company; HR, the training division, policy development and so on. “You could say I am the CEO if you like.”

The two companies have an SMME arm that aid troubled and struggling small business entities to hook up with big mentoring companies.

He has been fortunate, this David, having to travel the world on a free ticket. "I have been to the whole world,"  he remarks gleefully.  "I traveled to attend business meetings and of course, I went on sightseeing excursions, combining business and pleasure.” He knows South Africa like the palm of his hand, having slept in almost all the luxurious hotels Mzansi could boast of.   

En route to KMHRC and Mission Point Lebusho worked at a bottle store as manager while completing his degree and also dabbled as a manager at a restaurant out in Mahikeng, formerly Mafikeng. 

“While at high school in Mahikeng I dreamed of being a mechanical engineer, but I think lack of concentration during my adolescent years played havoc with my decision making- I floundered and in the end failed matric.” It was only while he was repeating matric that he came to his senses and opted for a career in teaching instead.  So after passing matric he trotted out to Mankwe Training College in Rustenburg to major in English, Biology and Library Science. There he was also taught how to discipline learners, how to mark papers and how to compile tests and examinations and many other things that shaped his adult occupation.

After that he taught for a year but then abandoned the chalk board to study social sciences at the University of the North. It was during this period when he masqueraded as a manager at the bottle store and the restaurant, not aware that they were shaping his future for him.      

He then went on to teach in Bloemfontein at Atlehang High, at Tlotlanang High in Thaba Nchu, and at Kgololosego in Dealesville. In Mahikeng he taught at Danville Secondary.

Surprisingly, his favourite subject at Letsatsing High where he completed his matric was biology, which almost always leads to studies in human and plant anatomies. His other subjects in matric were English, Setswana, Afrikaans, physics and maths. Born in Thaba Nchu, Lebusho did his primary schooling at Selosesha Primary.

For Lebusho it seems training people and organisations to better their activities has exotic fringe benefits, an indication that if  one trains better to do the right career like Lebusho the world becomes their oyster.