Mxolisi Hoboyi has become an embodiment of the old African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child.
Having been born in Mbutho village in the dusty outskirts of Tsolo 47 years ago, the former mineworker-turned-mining mogul has made it his mission to help residents of his beloved Mbutho which helped raised him as a young boy by ploughing back through a series of robust community initiatives.
Hoboyi, the youngest of 10 children, was only nine years old when his father, Nani, a retired schoolteacher, died in 1985.
“It was the community of Mbutho, elderly men who played the role of a father figure, disciplining me if I went astray, instilling moral values and respect, and applauding me on my achievements,” he said.
“In an African context, your child is my child. Teachers also instilled discipline in me and shaped me for the future, hence now I am ploughing back to the community that raised me.”
Hoboyi is also partnering with various traditional leaders in developing their communities.
“I am sharing the little I have with the needy,” he said.
Since both of his parents were schoolteachers, he reckons he could have enrolled in the best schools in the country.
But it was his mother, Margaret, 88, who insisted he should attend school in his birth village.
“My parents had all the means, but while children of other teachers were schooling in town, my mother decided that I should be schooling in Mbutho so that I could feel and understand the suffering of Mbutho. I know and experienced poverty and suffering,” Hoboyi said.
His father retired in 1976, the year Hoboyi was born. He then became a traditional leader until his death.
Despite spending most of his time in Mpumalanga and Johannesburg, Hoboyi and his wife Simanye, were back at Mbutho last week, donating 126 blankets to elderly people.
My parents taught us the values of giving and serving and looking after one another irrespective of status.
— Mxolisi Hoboyi
Tsolo and Qumbu leaders including AmaMpondomise King Luzuko Matiwane, Nkosi Pakamisa Tyali, Nkosi Mnoneleli Ranuga, Bhisho legislature chief whip Loyiso Magqasela, Mhlontlo mayor Mbulelo Jara and Rev Vusi Mabo not only joined Mbutho villagers to celebrate their hero, but came to testify about Hoboyi’s mission of assisting the development of Mhlontlo for the past 15 years.
As part of his philanthropic work, he has donated, sporting kit, flushing toilets for schools, computers, school uniforms and sports equipment.
He has also offered study bursaries to young people to further their education.
In 2013, he established the Mhlontlo Education Trust Fund, which gives bursaries to top pupils from schools in Mhlontlo. It was officially launched by higher education minister Blade Ndzimande.
For Hoboyi, it is his way of thanking the village elders for showering him with blessings.
“My parents taught us the values of giving and serving and looking after one another irrespective of status,” he said.
The 126 blankets were handed over at Leppan Junior Senior Primary School, where he passed grade 9 in 1996.
His mother was a teacher at Leppan, where Hoboyi in February donated R500,000 for flushing toilets and is to donate such to other schools.
He said some of the blanket beneficiaries, Linah Ndevu, 94 (who has since died), Nzongwana Mthengi, 90, and his former schoolteacher, Thozama Goso, 67, had blessed him as they received their blankets, their eyes filled with tears of joy.
“It is through these blessings that I am what I am today,” he said.
“I am where I am because of the prayers of the elderly people in my village. I will never forsake them.”
The idea of an annual winter blanket drive started in 2016.
Despite the respect he has gained countrywide as well as becoming a cult hero in Mbutho, Hoboyi, a married father of four, considers himself an ordinary resident of Mbutho.
In mining circles and in Mpumalanga, he has proved to be an adept leader who commands the respect of both mine owners and workers as a groundbreaking mine boss, unionist and skilled negotiator.
To Hoboyi, chair of the Mxolisi Hoboyi Foundation, the Mbutho and Tsolo community is everything.
“It’s now my turn to take care of the community that raised me,” he said.
“I will continue sharing the little I have with those less fortunate. We must never forsake our communities, never forget the sacrifices they made for us.”
In 2022, his foundation also partnered with former Bafana Bafana star and PSL legend Fabian McCarthy in unearthing the next generation of soccer talent in schools around Tsolo.
The partnership is set to last until 2024. Hoboyi said it was important to invest in young people to produce better leaders.
Every December he donates goodies to the elderly.
“These donations are to restore their dignity and appreciate their wisdom and contribution they made to me and the community.”
His mother said she was very proud of her son, whom she described as a beacon of hope for Mbutho village.
With no prospect of tertiary education or even matric, Hoboyi who dropped out at Dilizintaba High School in grade 12, left Mbutho in 1999 for Mpumalanga, looking for a job.
At first, he worked at Game Store as a stock controller.
From 2004 he worked as an underground machine operator at the Arnot coal mine.
From 2008 he was elected National Union of Mineworkers branch secretary for three consecutive terms and served on the board of the Mineworkers Provident Fund, managing assets worth more than R28bn.
However, his world came tumbling down in 2016 when he was retrenched.
But alongside seven other colleagues, they invested their pensions into setting up their own company, Innovators Resources, which later became part owners of the coal mine where he once worked.
The company owns 25%, with another 25% owned by 1,200 employees and 50% by Wescoal.
Hoboyi is the founding chair of the Arnot Opco Coal Mine and a board member at Innovators Resources.
King Matiwane said Hoboyi was a living testament to the popular phrase “home is where the heart is”.
“His good deeds confirm him as our community builder and hero and his inspirational story from being a general worker to now co-owning the business that retrenched him, makes him our proud ambassador,” the king said.
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