By Sbongile Sokela
In a country battling high unemployment and a developing literature industry, Lebogang Adams is pioneering change through innovation, education, and entrepreneurship.
“The 2 initiatives I have started and manage are key to both the growing literature industry in South Africa and the high levels of unemployment,” says Lebogang Adams, speaking about the projects he leads. These initiatives aim to equip 1 million aspiring authors with at least 50 copies of their own books upon completion of a tailored course. “As soon as they receive their books, they are provided the necessary skill to sell and manage their own businesses and teams. This gives them a stream of income,” Adams explains.
His model goes beyond book publishing. “Many authors also choose to use their books for what we call secondary sources of income; this includes public speaking gigs, poetry performances, TV gigs and radio gigs and even turning their books into movies.”
He also envisions a richer literary ecosystem for South Africa. “Seeing that we have a growing literature industry, we’d love to add diversity of different subject material in our society, libraries, book stores, media platforms and even podcasts,” Adams adds. “Our initiatives are aimed at adding content to the existing genres and subject materials that are available for the public to consume.”
Lebogang Adams holds a B.Com in Marketing and Business Management and brings with him three years of experience running PandA Digital Marketing Agency. His responsibilities have included content creation, developing market research methodologies, and executing email and SMS marketing campaigns.
Adams also brings eight years of experience in the afterschool, education, and NPO sectors, taking on a variety of roles that have shaped his deep understanding of community needs. Most notably, he is the founder and a current practitioner at the Adams Foundation, an initiative addressing academic shortfalls for Grade 6 and 7 learners in Mamelodi. “The organization currently has a partnership with Bophelong Independent Community School, where they host our afterschool programme and other projects,” Adams says.
His impact extends into the corporate world. He worked at ABSA as a Payments Processor from August 2023 to August 2024, handling international incoming payments for both business and personal clients. His time at ABSA furthered his passion for community work. “Through my experience at ABSA, I worked on numerous fundraising initiatives through the ‘Force For Good’ initiative, which helps different philanthropists in addressing needs for underprivileged communities.”
From this experience, Adams learned vital fundraising skills: “I learnt intricate details that can make a fundraising project successful including; developing specific goals and objectives, tools to track progress and time, and how to delegate tasks with a team to reach fundraising goals.”
Adams is also a published author of three books. His first, The Heart to Serve, released in December 2023, has sold over 153 copies. He followed up with a children’s book titled I Too, Can Read, launched on 20 December 2024, and most recently released The Greatest Success Secrets for Afterschool Practitioners in January 2025.
In alignment with his mission to empower others, Adams has founded two growing initiatives namely, the Ebook Writing Academy and the Virtual Mentorship Programme for Authors.
“The ebook academy helps aspiring authors to write their books within 10 days,” Adams explains. “The virtual mentorship programme helps authors publish their books, manage their finances, do marketing and advertising to their target audience and implement sales strategies to increase their income stream.”
These two ventures are targeting a massive goal, to help 1 million authors, with 22 already having benefited from the programs.
Through education, entrepreneurship, and empathy, Lebogang Adams is not just building a business, he is building a movement.
