Lordwick Kgatle: From dustbin digger to manager
On 16 July 2025 we kicked off a celebration of 20 years of Changing Lives for Good: Changing Lives Since 2005. Good Morning Angels' 20 years celebration kicks off with Lordwick Kgatle, who went from a recycler to a centre manager all thanks to Good Morning Angels.
When Good Morning Angels started in 2005, social media was just a concept—no Facebook, no Instagram, TikTok, or X.
Google made a big play and launched YouTube.
In South Africa, hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup was just a dream, and the Gautrain was a fantasy.
Good Morning Angels began as a weekly moment of small acts of kindness: someone would nominate a person they knew who needed help, and we would try to find a way to provide that help.
Since that first Wednesday morning, we've been able to do just that. It was clear that the Jacaranda FM family was up for the challenge and eager to lend a hand.
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Two decades on, Good Morning Angels has built a powerful community of changemakers and community builders.
The Angels have come together to support, heal, give hope, and change lives for good—building towards the future we all want for ourselves and one another.
More than R120 million has been raised and distributed because of this collective mission.
So, when we say "Changing Lives Since 2005," it is a testimony to everyone who has sent an email on another's behalf, listened, responded, put kindness into action, supported, donated, or sent a WhatsApp.
Because the change is not limited to the lives of those who have received - it’s also in the community of givers and supporters, and the communities of kindness we are able to build together.
One example is that of Lordwick Kgatle.
In December 2018, we met Lordwick Kgatle from Rooiwal, near Hammanskraal.
He was a self-funded first-year Business Management student at the time.
Despite working multiple informal jobs while studying, he was short R8,000 to be allowed to write his final first-year exams.
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Lordwick did haircuts, car washes, and gardening jobs—he also collected recyclable waste from dustbins to earn enough to keep up with payments.
As Lordwick says:
"When I received that letter from school, I reached my breaking point. I had no plan B. While pulling my trolley, I was listening to Jacaranda FM, and I heard Good Morning Angels. I decided to go to school and write an email to Good Morning Angels to ask for help."
What happened next is what Good Morning Angels is all about.
Lordwick is a shining example of how a community can come together, and the power of kindness to change a life for good.
Good Morning Angels: The Legacy
To quote Lordwick:
"I am, because you are. This is Ubuntu."
Good Morning Angels is Ubuntu.
Over the next 20 weeks, Good Morning Angels: The Legacy will revisit some of the people—like Lordwick Kgatle—who have benefited from the kindness of strangers.
They will share, in their own voices, how that moment of light impacted their lives in the most beautiful, sometimes unexpected, and inspiring ways.
Tune in every Monday morning at 8:10 on Breakfast with Martin Bester to hear the Good Morning Angels story—a celebration of 20 years of changed lives, in the voices of those who are living it.
And tune in every Wednesday morning, as we continue to change lives for good.
Listen to the full Good Morning Angels – The Legacy Podcast below: