By Katlego Rammusa:
Childhood and upbringing
Marcus Makeketlane was born in a village called Botlokwa in Limpopo, situated between Polokwane and Venda. He stayed there with his grandparents until he had reached kindergarten stage before they relocated to Lebowakgomo.
There they stayed in Lebowakgomo until he started Standard 1 or grade 3 in today’s language. Then the big move came when they had to relocate to Braamfontein, Johannesburg, in December 1995. It was just the three of them – his mother, brother and himself. Moving to Johannesburg meant a new school, new friends and basically a new life in the big city.
It was his first time coming across Zulu-speaking people, which was quite a challenge for a Sepedi-speaking person. Marcus was in a totally new environment, having Zulu-speaking classmates, so he had to speak either he spoke isiZulu or English. To make matters worse, the following year, the government introduced IsiZulu as a subject at his school, which became a very big crisis for him.
That subject was his worst nightmare because he struggled with it as he was the only Mopedi in the class. He and his English-only speaking classmates struggled with the subject. Time went by, and passing grades and miraculously passing also isiZulu.
One day, during a guidance class, he was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?“ He had to give a speech in front of the class about his future vocation, and no one had ever asked him that question before. At the time, he had no idea what a ‘vocation’ was.
So he heard some of his classmates saying they want to be firefighters, bus drivers, or doctors and so on. He just opted for a bus driver. He presented his speech and gave reasons for choosing to be a bus driver, but there was nothing much for him to say at the time.
How his passion for aviation began
One day, during a lunch break at school, as they were playing soccer, all of a sudden a humongous noisy aircraft flew over, and it was flying so low that it caught everyone’s attention. The whole field became so silent with amazement, including the teachers. At that time, he could not tell what type of aircraft it was and from that day up to now, those memories have stuck in his mind.
During the school holidays, he went to spend time with his family relatives in Thembisa, but was unaware that it was where the passion was going to grow even bigger. The section he visited and stayed in Thembisa was a stone’s throw away from the then Jan Smuts Airport, now renamed as Oliver Tambo International Airport. So, every single day, he would see different aircraft coming to land and some leaving the airport.
The planes were flying so low and every minute he would see an aircraft flying low over their home. Every time an aircraft was approaching, he would run out of the house to view it. On some days, he would just sit outside watching them and that is when he realised that it was his wish to be a pilot. Every school holiday, he would spend it in Thembisa just to fuel his passion and dream.
In matric and when it was time to apply to enrol at tertiary, then reality kicked in. Although he wanted to be a pilot, his single mother could not afford to take him to an aviation school because it was just too expensive for them.
Also, there were no bursaries or some sort of funding at the time. It was either you had the financial means to proceed to being a commercial pilot or to the Air Force. His marks were not so good, so he did not qualify to enter the Air Force either and just like that, his dream of becoming a pilot seemed to be shuttered.
The third option paved the way
He could have gone back to matric to upgrade his marks; however, something in him said NO. So, he enrolled on an Information Technology (IT) course. As his dreams seemed to be shattered, however, his vision was not dispersed. There he was studying IT and telling himself that he should just forget about aviation.
He did so well and passing his modules with flying colours was easy until he graduated and got a job in 2008. As the salary was coming in and he had options to move out of his home and find his own place to be independent, he opted to stay put.
During that period, he had given up on the aviation dream until this one day when it was revived in a big way. He was at work and watching some YouTube videos on his computer when he came across a show called ‘Mayday’, about aircraft crashing, similar to the Air Crash Investigations series.
It is not like he loved seeing aircraft crashes. But that show brought him even closer to aircraft and that influenced the young man to make the ultimate decision.
Finally getting into aviation
In 2009, he could have used his salary to move out of his mother’s house and go out there. However, he decided to stay once more and take that money and enroll at an aviation school. He took the pay-as-you-fly option, which allowed him to study while working.
This worked out best for him, although it took longer because he could only attend classes during weekends or whenever he was on leave or days off from work. He had met all the requirements and that is when he realised that his dream did not die; it was just on hold. The revival of his dream came about the day he stepped inside the training aircraft with his instructor.
The introduction flight went very well and just like that, his first step to the skies had begun. With more time and training, he had obtained his Private Pilot License and his first stripe on his epaulette, which was a major milestone for him. This fuelled his love for aviation even more.
As time went by and with more sleepless nights of training, tests and exams, he obtained his Commercial Pilot License and this meant he was a few steps closer to flying those humongous commercial jets that he had seen back then flying past his home in Thembisa.
The final license, the final boss
Indeed, his dream did come true and he became a commercial pilot; however, that was not enough. He needed the highest license in aviation – the Air Transport Pilot License, which required more money. This meant that he had to take some time out and save some money.
His instructor advised him to do Bush Piloting while he was saving some money. And he did some research and found out that there was no bush piloting in South Africa. Instead, it was specifically available in Botswana and Congo. But neither of those two countries was hiring bush pilots at the time.
So the only option that was available to him was to volunteer in Botswana, and he went for it and they agreed. It had to work in his favour to secure his job, so that meant he could only do it during weekends. Every weekend, he was in Botswana doing bush piloting (talking about following your passion and chasing your dream), flying the Caravan while building hours and experience for free.
Four months went by and he had secured the funds to do his Air Transport Pilot License which was the final license. Even after obtaining the license, he would still go to Botswana to volunteer; that was how he had built his hours of experience.
The journey is a great teacher of discipline
This journey has taught him a lot of discipline, having passion, hard work, dedication, sheer determination and patience. With his IT salary, he could have focused more on the things he wanted more than what he needed. He could have bought a luxury car or top fashion brands. However, he decided to invest in his dream.
Patience is a virtue and it is rewarding; it is the fastest way to get there. One thing he always says and adopted as his motto is that “the more I get to fly these amazing machines, the more I believe in Jesus”.
Marcus’s journey has shown that if you want something in life, you can actually get it; there is nothing stopping you or holding you back. You just have to work hard at it and have passion. Today, he is a First Officer because of his discipline, patience and hard work. According to Makeketlane, in his words: “There is nothing special about me, my matric marks were bad, but I still made it. Hopefully, some kid out there who aspires to be a pilot one day will read this and get even more inspired and realises that if you want something in life, you can get it, the only obstacle standing in your way is you.” – @NewsSA_Online
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