Johnny Philander is a qualified teacher that completed his studies at the University of the Western Cape in 1990, majoring in Zoology and Education. He was born and raised in Oudtshoorn, where he completed his primary and secondary school studies before moving to Cape Town in 1985. He started his teaching career in Willowmore where he introduced Physical Science as a subject at Willowmore Secondar
y School. The school did not have a cricket team but soon applied for membership to the South Western Districts (SWD) Cricket Union after Mr. Philander became the first coach of the school’s U19 cricket team. Two players from the school represented the SWD high schools team after only two years of competition. Johnny also played a big role in developing the Christian student body. In 1994, he moved to Oudtshoorn and joined Morester High School in July. He taught Physical Science and Biology and in 1997 became the Computer Coordinator at the school. Johnny resigned in September 1999, to work full-time at a community centre, where he spent most of his after-hours since its establishment in 1989. He worked as a volunteer for a year and a half before the Club Coffee Bar Community Centre received funding for their projects from Metropolitan in 2001. He was appointed Programme Manager with his primary duty of
Designing and Executing the HIV/AIDS strategy & Education Programmes for the NGO. In October 2003, Johnny joined a big and dynamic Non Government Organization in Cape Town, WC-NACOSA (Western Cape Networking Aids Community of South Africa). He was offered a Training Officer position, but was soon promoted to the Regional Training and Mentoring Manager. In 2005, Johnny resigned from WC-NACOSA to focus entirely on developing ClimbX, a company he established in 2003. He is currently completing his final year B.Comm.(Human Resource Management) at UNISA, majoring in Financial and Human Resource Management.
