Although Khaya's brothers played a variety of sports, particularly association football, Khaya's father kept him focused on cricket. He was viewed as the most talented of the Majola children, and the family would sometimes rise at 5am to bowl at Khaya. As a pre-teen, Khaya occasionally played for his father's New Brighton Cricket Club when they were short of players. Majola first attended Jarvis Gqamlana Lower, and then Johnson Marwanqa Higher primary schools; neither had significant sport schemes, and Majola continued to primarily develop his cricketing ability at home with his family. By the age of 11, he was already described by the "Evening Post" as "a star in Port Elizabeth"; by his teenage years his performances were noteworthy more weeks than not. He attended Cowan High School, where they played an inter-school cricket schedule against five other schools. Khaya recalled that during his time at Cowan, most weeks he was "scoring a fifty or taking wickets," playing for both school and club. Despite his talent and success, Khaya developed a dislike for the game, partly due to the strictness of his father with regards to his development. Despite his antipathy towards cricket, Majola continued to thrive and took part in the John Passmore schools week, for black Africans, in 1971. Majola represented Eastern Province, who won the tournament, but he reflected on the competition as being of a poor standard, saying that "some of the guys couldn't even play the game." This view was mirrored by Passmore, who admitted that some of the players "had no idea about cricket." Majola was subsequently selected for the South African Schools XI. He was once again part of the victorious team at the Passmore tournament in 1972, and was the only batsman to score two centuries. In late 1973, Majola was chosen to play for the South Africa African XI against Derrick Robins touring side, which included England Test players. The match was an exhibition, and part of the South African government's policy of multinationalism, in which black and white sportspeople could compete against each other, representing their own 'nation'. Although the match was given "big-billing in the media", it resulted in a easy victory for the touring side, in a single-innings match. Majola took two wickets, and scored seven runs in the match, in which he was selected as his side's primary all-rounder. In later life, Majola described the game as "clearly a show for the government and the white cricket board."