Murendeni “Musanda” Nndanduleni
Opinion By Thabang Mokoka
Is it just me, or does your earth smell a certain way after the first rains? It’s this trademark down to earth quality that also characterises Murendeni “Musanda” Nndanduleni’s role as a leader. Not the fragrance of political speeches or corporate buzzwords, but the soil of nature that sustains life. And here today it isn’t a bouquet of metaphorical flowers we are collecting, but a real recognition of a man who has made education and touching lives of ordinary citizens, blossom in places where many had given up.
From the Red Soil of Venda
As he recalls in one of his engagements, Musanda says, “I remember visiting Mangaya Village decades ago, the red earth coating my shoes as I walked paths as a child. That earth works its way into your blood stubborn stuff, that and sticks with you long after you’ve left”. This same tenacity, this same deep connection to his roots, carries Musanda, even as his influence sweeps the provinces. His doctoral quest at Wits is not just a personal academic achievement but it’s a revolution of sorts, evidence that red soil is as capable of yielding scholars as it is of maize and marulas.
“When Musanda speaks to our learners, they don’t only hear words they see a living example that their dreams are not foolish,” a teacher at Tshilidzi Primary School confided to Murendeni. Here the are one of two take aways for many of us to learn that the beauty of authentic leadership is, it not only inspires but it reflects back to people their own potential.
The Jasmine Hours: The Least Of Leadership
The real deal on the significance of Musanda doesn’t come in boardrooms or awards ceremonies, and it’s what I’ve dubbed the “jasmine hours”, those early mornings and late nights when work gets done. Much like a jasmine that exhales its strongest aroma at dawn and dusk, Musanda’s most endearing leadership takes place in the spaces where cameras don’t record but experianced and real life changes happen.
Take that VUT graduation he had recently attended, while the focus on that day was on the graduates (and rightfully so), what I did notice was Musanda’s on his various social media platforms that has a big following, of quiet exchanges afterward on how he took time with every single young person who approached him, the patient answer to jittery questions. The way he made them feel like the only person in the room, those are the moments that statistics don’t capture but that change lives for good.
The Protea principle: How to flourish under constraints
The protea from South Africa doesn’t just survive under our harsh conditions and it requires them to flourish. The same paradoxical truth lies within Musanda’s Micah leadership with the Musanda Foundation. Where others observe deficiency in Limpopo’s rural schools and the rest of the country, he notices promise. Where others lament resource challenges, he discovers inventive resolution. His academic tournaments aren’t competitions at all, they’re celebrations of intellect that remind the student that learning IS an exquisite privilege.
In his country trotting on roads far and wide, Murendeni reflects how he experienced this majesty first hand at a mathematics olympiad in Sekhukhune last year. The charge in the air, learners huddling over problem sets, shoulders back in pride, alighting the fact of academic excellence as a thing to cheer for this is the alchemy Musanda performs every day.
The Aroma of Partnership
The work that Murendeni does with Kagiso Trust, and many other various progressive parters, smells of the layered pungency of true potency indigenous plant-life mixed to compose its prime dimension. It is the wisdom of four decades colliding with the creativity in new sight. But the most remarkable aspect of this partnership is how Musanda’s grassroots approach has been amplified rather than diluted. The resources have increased, yet the personal touch persists.
As one principal in Botshabelo described it, “When the Foundation comes, it’s not just bringing books or just talking. They bring belief. And that changes everything.”
Working with the Soil: The Gauta BMX Boys Test
Yesturday, Murendeni said “I’m going to join the boys tomorrow (to appreciate and congratulate them)”. Everything about Musanda’s leadership philosophy was revealed in what he did by travelling to Cape Town to support the Gauta BMX Boys. It wasn’t about publicity, it was about presence. About knowing that sometimes to lead is to stand in the dust alongside the people that are testing their limits.
Murendeni travel is as that of family coming to help complete the journey. That’s the distinction between performative supports and true solidarity.
Why We Can’t Wait to Celebrate
In our culture we generally reserve our loveliest flowers for funerals. But Musanda’s work today is alive, breathing, evolving daily and deserves celebration now. Every time a child in Ga-Mphahlele picks up a textbook with renewed zeal, every time a learner in QwaQwa sees university as an attainable goal, every time an educator feels a sense of renewal following a Musanda Foundation seminar, these are living petals in a bouquet that never stops growing.
His message to the Class of 2025 resonates as not theoretical. When he talks about failure being just a step, not the final destination, he’s speaking from his own experiences of falling down a few times and getting back up. This hard won wisdom may be his greatest gift to our young people.
The Unseen Garden
The cruelest irony of true leadership is that the leader seldom gets to witness the full harvest. Musanda might never know just how many lives he’s altered, careers he’s launched, hopelessness he’s turned to ambition. Like a farmer planting mango trees whose fruit he might never taste, he works for a future he has faith will arrive.
But here’s what I’ve taken away from watching him do his work since defying description by other but himself, that leadership is not about having 20/20 vision and being able to see the entire garden. It’s about doing the right thing, faithfully planting each seed, taking care of each sapling, believing in the fertility of the soil and even when you can’t be present to see the bloody thing flower.
And so, today, we give Musanda his flowers, proteas for his strength, jasmine for his quiet resilience and sunflowers for how he turns always toward the light to share it with others. Not as a last testament but as a mandate, to continue to grow, continue to plant, continue to lead in a way only he was able to do.
Because South Africa needs more than just leaders, we need more of this style of leadership. The kind that smells like rain on parched ground, like hope sprouting, like the future blossoming in unexpected places.
Here are your flowers, Mrieks, my brother. Ndo livhuwa….
Disclaimer: Thabang Mokoka writes in his personal capacity
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