By Thato Mgoma
It took Morena Mohale sheer determination to rise above the rest and become a sought after computer technician in his adopted hometown of Galeshewe in the Northern Cape.
Morena was born and bred in section H2, Botshabelo in the Free State province. He attended primary school at Rohang Primary School then Sebabatso Primary school and matriculated at Sechaba Se Maketse High School in 1998.
Mohale unfortunately failed Mathematics. This meant that he did not qualify to study his dream course which was studying Computer Systems. In 2000 he worked on a contract for African Bank as a consultant. He then decided to do security grades when his contract with the bank ended.
In 2004, Mohale got his first job as a security guard. He felt that his workplace was not a conducive environment. Without a plan, he quit the job.
This was a point in his life where he lost everything and had to live in the streets until he got a shack. “It was a struggle but what was fascinating about this whole journey was that… I had hoped that things would be better tomorrow.” said Mohale. He then got an idea to attend and learn how to make entrepreneurial workshops.
He had a plan in place to buy a mobile network outlet but the deal went off because he was not able to accumulate collateral money for the bank to complete the purchase in 2008.
He got his first job as a Social Entrepreneur in the year 2009 where he was giving computer literacy training to the community in Galeshewe, Kimberley.
In the process he was also learning more about computers. Mohale is a self-taught computer programmer as he grew up fascinated by computers. In 2011 he got nominated for the “Community Builder of the Year” award.
He then decided to study to formalise what he has been teaching himself and obtained these certificates over the years from amongst others: University of Pretoria: Faculty of Business Administration for Entrepreneurship, Google Africa: Android as a Software Development, University of Stanford Online: Machine Learning, University of Alberta: Software Architecture, and Cisco Networking Academy CyberSecurity and International Telecommunications Union Academy :IoT Deployment and Compliance.
He was nominated as one of the “Top 25 Young Entrepreneurs” in South Africa by National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) in 2013. He continued to build his business and started to teach older people computers as well.
In 2017 he was one of the five entrepreneurs who went to South Korea International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to represent South Africa. This was an expo for innovators across different countries.
He left the social entrepreneurial space in 2019 and started a software company called FinFex. The word “FinFex “originates from finding a problem and fixing it.
FinFex is supported by MLab South Africa through various accelerator programmes which help early start-ups. In September 2022 FinFex was rated among the “Top 25 Innovators in South Africa ” by the South African Innovation Summit which manages innovators in South Africa.
FinFex has three team members working remotely doing what they call “bootstrapping”.
Morena continues to inspire the community and encourages the youth to do their utmost by telling his life journey on various platforms.
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