Johannes Nkabinde Success Story – There’s no such thing as impossible

“She encouraged me to apply for a switchboard position. I didn’t take her seriously at first because female employees dominated the department at the time, I had an outdated idea that it was a women’s-only job,” he said. But Vicky was relentless and eventually got Johannes to apply for the job.

He didn’t have enough experience to get the job at his first try, but the idea had seized hold of him and he couldn’t shake it off. He trained with the switchboard manager every day after his shift until he was skilled enough to apply for a vacancy on the switchboard team two weeks later – a year after he had started working as a security guard.

My friends have given me the courage to study by reminding me that nothing you want is impossible to achieve when you put your mind to it.

But the switchboard position wasn’t the ceiling for Johannes. He went on to join the Call Centre in 2003 where he worked in the Credit Control department, eventually becoming the team lead by 2008. He relied on his vigilance as a security guard to help him spot vulnerabilities that could put MultiChoice at risk. He worked proactively and diligently, seizing every opportunity to improve his skills set until he joined the fraud team in Billing and Collections in 2015.

Johannes always strives to challenge himself and to aim higher. He says: “My friends have given me the courage to study by reminding me that nothing you want is impossible to achieve when you put your mind to it.” He cites skills development tools such as MultiChoice’s MyAcademy as instrumental in his growth. He holds a risk management qualification from Unisa and is studying for a degree in forensic accounting.

Johannes is just one man with a dream who beat the odds. But he’s also more than that. He’s a lesson for all of us not to limit ourselves to our circumstances and to be daring in our pursuit of success. Or as he puts it, “find your purpose, define your goal and start pursuing it”.

It’s not often that a Cinderella story plays out before your eyes, which is why Johannes Nkabinde’s journey with MultiChoice is so inspiring.

find your purpose, define your goal and start pursuing it

There’s no such thing as impossible

The MultiChoice Group

SA Social Report 2020