Through LIMA, Thato Moraka empowers youth with access to industry opportunities.
It was Mahatma Gandhi who said, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” and South African actor Thato Moraka is living evidence of those words.
As an actor, Moraka, who appeared on popular shows such as Generations, realised some of the issues affecting the industry. Moraka was among the 16 actors dismissed by Generations in 2014.
“I’m a believer that we must lead by example. If you tell young people to go to school, we ourselves as leaders must also show the importance of education,” Moraka, who is formerly known as Molamu but changed his surname last year, tells The Citizen.
Moraka is currently doing his Global MBA while running Leaders In Motion Academy (Lima).
“I really would love to go back to TV, but it’s a struggle to balance doing what I love. I love TV, I really do. I love theatre, I love performing, but I think one of my biggest peeves was, if this sector doesn’t get assistance, it might die.”
Leaders In Motion Academy (LIMA)
In 2018, Moraka founded Lima after noticing a gap and a need for many young people trying to enter the creative industry.
The creative industry organisation focuses on filmmaking, gaming, animation, virtual reality, graphic design, and advertising.
“We looked at just the cost of education to enter into education spaces, your higher education learning institution. The cost is too high. Part of the research that we did, it indicated that to go to a private institution to do, like a three-year degree, it would cost a normal family about R750 000,” shares Moraka.
The number above excludes accommodation and other expenses such as food and transport.
“We wanted to bridge that gap, which looked into skills training, business incubation and market access. Those are three key pillars that the institution serves.”
When Lima started in 2018, they had around 30 students.
The following year, they collaborated with the department of Communications and Digital Technologies and the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT Seta), under the 4iR skills for Africa.
Through these partnerships, they did content creation training for about 100 youngsters.
“One of the biggest challenges is that the creative sector isn’t looked at as a viable industry and I think no one really asked the critical question of ‘why’?”
He says the creative industry itself is big, but the issue is how the same players are being rotated in the space.
“We’re setting up a succession plan, we’re not bringing in the next talent of the future, so for us we wanted to bridge that gap.”
Between 2018 and 2025, Lima has built partnerships with various stakeholders. More than 500 young people have been trained during this period across several creative spheres.
“Around gaming, we’ve graduated I think 10, in animation for NQF five and in film it’s been over 400 youngsters nationally,” he shares.
The organisation is funding-dependent.
They’ve worked with the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), the Gauteng Film Commission, Rand Mutual Assurance (RMA), and the SABC, among other partners.
The students are aged 18 to 35.
“We don’t rule out those who are beyond the 35 mark because we understand the history of our country had blockages that ensured that other communities weren’t represented.”
“Not to make it sound like it’s been an easy journey…it’s had its ups and downs. We’ve kept firm to the promise to build a creative sector.”
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16 short films
Next week, Lima will host a screening of 16 films by some of its graduates, part of the 16 Filmmakers Project launched in 2019.
“When we launched it in 2019, the objective was to train and then have a live understanding of how things work, how to do budgets, understand how to produce, understand how to direct and also understand how to write compelling content that can be globally competitive.”
The shooting was done in 2023, and they chose the theme of Gender Based Violence (GBV).
Some of the films aired on SABC and Cape Town TV last year and have also been shown at a film festival in Kenya.
“So this will be our first public screening that we will be doing,” he says of the screening at Killarney Cineplex.
Moraka says each of the 16 films had a budget of about R1000.
“That is the idea right, you look at what Nollywood has managed to do with very little resources. We’re trying to teach youngsters to say, it’s not always about having big budgets,” he sagely says.
“We’re also teaching them the art of negotiation, strategy, financial management because when you have little resources, you actually become a more astute business person.”
The films are rated 18 due to their sensitive content.
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