orn as Thato Mokhuane on the 30th of September 1998 in the dusty streets of Itsoseng, a small township which is a 30 minute drive away from Mafikeng; T.J. Mokhuane was known as a hyperactive boy who left no stone unturned. His friends would mostly describe him as one of the weirdest and unusual kids in school. In primary school ‘T.J.’ was a kid with so much energy – he was outspoken, an extrovert and was in love with poetry. His peers said that he loved attention because he would love to stand on the fore-front everytime. He liked giving speeches and reciting his poetry at the school’s assembly. The Soul City Institute had an initiative known as the Soul Buddyz which was aimed at peer education and Thato joined in the club. Within a week, his club facilitator saw his immense leadership skills and he was promoted from being a ‘Club Member’ to being ‘Chairperson/President’ of his club. When he got to middle school he hanged with the wrong crowd and his grades started dropping because he was bunking classes and was not taking his school work seriously he failed two terms in a row until his mother said to him ‘This is not the Thato I raised’. Those words got to him and he thrived to get to the next grade that’s where he thought that he should speak to his peers about how they can turn their failures around and bounce back to winning ways; because he believes that if he could do it then his young friends can also do it too. By late 2012 he thought of joining the speaking industry and become a motivational speaker. He started taking some time, ocassionally, to motivate his peers at the school’s assembly. The teachers enjoyed having him on the stage because he was encouraging his friends to use the best of their abilities. His talks earned him a good reputation and credibility. In mid 2014 he was called upon to speak at a gala event which was held in a Mountain Resort in Rusternburg. The provincial facilitator of a peer education programme of Soul City called him in and offered him a three day stay at a hotel (all expenses paid) to attend a peer education workshop whereby he was trained to become a peer educator. He then took his newly found skills and implemented them at high school whereby they got the learners very active and helping the community with various social problems. Many of the kids at lower grades in school called him their role model, he was amazed and gave himself a pat on the back but he felt like he could do more. He pitched the idea of a motivational segment to DJ Lemonka who is a multi-award winning South African Hip Hop deejay, an entrepreneur and also the station manager of a youth community radio station known as Kopanong FM. Lemonka was impressed by this idea and he asked Mokhuane to submit a demo recording of his idea; when Lemonka heard it first utterance was the word “dope”. He gave Mokhuane the green-light and in March 2016 Lemonka gave him a slot at the station. He is currently an on-air personality – he’s the presenter and producer of a motivational segment which he named Motivation Powa and he also motivates teens and students on various platforms. Mokhuane gives props to not only Lemonka for his success but also to the rapper, Proverb, who told himp to focus his energy on “one thing at a time”. T.J says he will be continuing to partner with Lemonka on many of his projects because he says “Lemonka is a strict and hard business man who pushes him to be no.1”. Because of Lemonka’s exposure Mokhuane is rumoured to be soon working at Puk 93.6 fm in Potchefstroom. A lot of doors have opened for this young man but he says the road has just begun!