our roots

Liepollo Lebohang has lived and worked
in the UK and South Africa as well as
doing consulting for governments and
companies regionally and is an academic,
columnist and public intellectual. She
was educated in the UK. On whether
any of his children has followed in his
footsteps, he had this to say, “not exactly,
they are all doing their own things, I believe
however, that in ideas and philosophy they
do follow in my footsteps.” “They have grown
up to be themselves, we have shared a lot,
agreed and disagreed on a lot, and I think
they are entitled to be who they are, I would
not want them to be under my shadow, ” he
affirms.
Mrs Pheko has been a key part in
building awareness on political issues
over the years, in addition to being an
accomplished teacher, accountant and
civil servant across many countries. She
now divides her time between South
Africa, UK and Johannesburg to visit her
children and watch her grandchildren
grow.
Asked if he still stood with the
vision he started for Daystar in the light
of changes in contemporary Africa, Dr.
Pheko affirmed this by explaining how
man is holistic in nature; both in the
spiritual and material. He says that one
cannot develop one without the other.
He notes how things are continuously
changing in Africa and insists that what
Africa really needs are leaders. He
emphasizes that Daystar University was
started to train people to be leaders, so
that they would in-turn train others to
be leaders, through their own leadership
actions. He relates the contemporary
issues taking place in African countries
and how these issues affect Africa as
a whole. ‘These 54 countries can be
compared to rooms in one house, where
for instance when one catches fire the
fire is most likely going to spread to the
rest, he said. He gives familiar examples
of crisis situations in various African
countries such as Somalia and Nigeria;
Dr. Pheko with his daughters, Mohau Pheko (left) and Mamello Pheko (right) after attaining
his bachelors degree
and how we are all affected as Africans.
He thus explains how such circumstances
require unity and how this unity requires
some very responsible leadership for it
to happen.
‘Daystar University is unique because
it trains leaders to look not just after the
material needs of a nation but also the
spiritual needs,’ he says, arguing that
this is the only way morality vices such
as corruption can be stopped in Africa.
‘We are rich in Africa yet we do not know
where our resources are and this is because
we lack knowledge,’ he says.
His daughters, Mohau Pheko (left), Mamello Pheko (centre) and Lebohang Liepollo (right)
12 • DaystarConnect 2015