After completing his schooling, he went to study at Cwaka College of Agriculture, Empangeni which was a college for black students during the Apartheid era. In 1981 he graduated with a Diploma in Agriculture and in 1982 started working as an agricultural extension officer for the Department of Agriculture until 1986. He was responsible for providing agricultural extension services for both commercial and subsistence farmers in arears of Mahlabathini and Ulundi. It was during this time where he felt a calling to the vocation of priesthood in the Anglican church.
