WORDS By Chanel Retief PHOTOS By Yeshiel Panchia



TOPLINE: After a tense week of public and violent unrest that left 117 dead across South Africa, reports of #CleanUpSA have come into effect since Thursday. South Africans have taken to social media to demonstrate how in some areas of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng provinces, which saw escalated lootings and lawlessness, volunteers are coming forward to help in rebuilding looted shops, recovering stolen goods and cleaning up the streets.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-in-photos">IN PHOTOS </h3>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-51871" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>



Volunteers and community members sweep the streets outside the looted and destroyed Pan Africa Mall in Alexandra, Johannesburg, 15 July 2021. The city was relatively quiet as community members and volunteers came out to sweep the streets and conduct repairs after days of unrest and looting. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-51872" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>



Construction vehicles collect debris outside the looted and destroyed Pan Africa Mall in Alexandra, Johannesburg, 15 July 2021. The city was relatively quiet as community members and volunteers came out to sweep the streets and conduct repairs after days of unrest and looting.



Key Facts



● Since the arrest of the former president, Jacob Zuma, South Africa has been in flames. Following his incarceration for contempt of court, there have been multiple outbreaks of public violence in parts of KZN and Gauteng. Hundreds of shops and businesses have been looted and the government says it is acting to prevent food shortages.



● The layers of this unrest look at Zuma loyalists who want the former president to be free. However, Government has commented that there have been “opportunistic criminals”. But there have been those who have also observed this could be people grabbing the opportunity to put food on the table while getting governments’ attention on service delivery issues in South Africa.



● On Tuesday, Ramaphosa deployed the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) “in support of the operations” of the South African Police Service (SAPS). About 25,000 more troops were deployed Thursday which has been reported as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/africa-south-africa-59f7817632563dcf19d7e212de8046c9">“one of the largest deployments of soldiers since</a>” the end of apartheid.



● This has also led to racial tensions breaking out in some parts of South Africa but predominantly in KZN. According to the <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/2568028/15-people-killed-in-phoenix-following-racially-charged-clashes-cele-confirms/">CITIZEN</a>, Police Minister Bheki Cele took to Phoenix, north Durban, where 15 people have been killed. This follows after several reports indicated that the attacks may have been racially motivated.



● Even though the unrest has slowed down, about 117 people have died and more than 2,000 have been arrested. The Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services on Wednesday in a statement



said that the alleged perpetrators of the unrests that “ravaged Gauteng since Monday” have appeared in various courts within the Gauteng Local Division.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-food-insecurity">Food Insecurity</h3>



South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday in his address warned that if the unrest continued, the situation could lead to food insecurity. According to a report released by<a href="https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/agriculture/071621-unrest-in-south-africa-disrupts-agricultural-logistics-raises-food-security-concerns"> S&amp;P Global</a>, the unrests have had an impact on agriculture in South Africa.



“Unrest in South Africa&#8217;s eastern provinces is posing a threat to the country&#8217;s already precarious food security situation by disrupting agricultural trade and transportation, and damaging infrastructure and planted crops in the region,” the report stated.



&#8220;The biggest risk in the short-term is the free movement of goods, including food and agricultural produce on the roads, specifically to and from the Durban port,&#8221; said Wandile Sihlobo, Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa.

15 July 2021 Alex Cleanup (1 of 3)

Rebuild And Repair: Community Members Unite To Clean Up South Africa After Days Of Devastation

In the tiny dining room of a dimly-lit home in Alexandra, Johannesburg’s oldest township, the only child of Davidson Moyo would sit transfixed on her father’s lap, usually in the wee hours of the morning, watching grainy images of boxing matches on the family’s small television screen. Those were the moments when the father, a big fan of the sport, and his daughter, Promise Moyo, bonded most.
“People said I should have been a boy because I was with my dad every time and everywhere,” says Promise, who is today one of two female boxing promoters in South Africa.
“But obviously at that age, I never thought I would work in boxing. Funny enough, when I was older and working, I would rather watch a boxing match than go out partying. I would go just about everywhere for boxing, be it Carousel [a hotel] or Carnival City [a casino]. It has been always like that.”
Promise does not fit the popular – and rather unfair – perception of a woman in boxing. For this feature’s photoshoot, she showed up in an elegant silk black blouse with matching pants and stilettos. On her left arm, she sports a small tattoo of a rose. Her immaculate red painted nails matched the color of her lips.
Promise’s other avatar is as an entrepreneur running a beauty parlor, the KP Salon in Wynberg, an industrial area north of Johannesburg. There is more to her career graph.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30858 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/boxing-009-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boxing-009-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boxing-009-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boxing-009-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boxing-009.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Prior to turning both boxing promoter and salon entrepreneur, Promise worked as a civil servant for 15 years for the City of Johannesburg, starting as a reception clerk and working her way up to become deputy director. In April 2012, three months before her employment was to be reviewed – she had no doubt her five-year contract would be extended owing to her success at work – Promise injured her back, falling down the stairs at her workplace.
The accident resulted in her being hospitalized for a week, and she had to take a month off work. While Promise was recovering at home with only two weeks left to resume work, her employers served her with a letter telling her, to her shock, they were not renewing her contract.
Promise was shattered and depressed; she couldn’t look for another job for months as a result. The only silver lining was that a few days before she had received the disheartening news, the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she was studying for a post-graduate degree in private management finance, informed her she had passed the course.
Fortunately, during her tenure with the City of Johannesburg, Promise had also opened her salon. It was when she lost her permanent government job that she decided to fall back on her childhood passion – boxing.
“My dad played a major role in influencing and encouraging my interest in boxing,” says Promise.
But it took years and several bouts of disappointment to realize her dream.
“I didn’t know I would end up in boxing. All I knew is I loved the sport passionately, I would be going up and down to fights. But if you were to ask me anything about boxing, I was on point, I knew what was happening where and how many knockouts a certain boxer had. Being a young woman, people just couldn’t understand ‘why boxing’. Some raised concerns that I would turn out a violent person. That’s a lack of understanding. Boxing is a gentleman’s sport. If you are a boxer, you are the most disciplined athlete. Those are the things we need to continuously educate the people [about],” says Promise.
Promise spent months researching boxing promotion and by the end of 2012 was registered with Boxing South Africa. This was entering a terrain with few women officials, except for referees. Mbali Zantsi, South Africa’s first female boxing promoter, was licenced in 2003, two years after women’s boxing was officially established. In 2011, Ntambi Ravele was appointed chairperson of Boxing South Africa. She replaced a former Minister of Sports, Ngconde Balfour.
A future for women in boxing seemed impossible but Promise held her own.
“My family tried to persuade me to reconsider my decision and look for other business opportunities. They reminded me I have the necessary qualifications and experience to work at any municipality in the country. But it was only my pastor who understood and encouraged me to pursue my dream.”
It was a long and arduous journey for Promise as she faced umpteen rejections from potential funders.
“There were times where I would put up a proposal and a person would look at it and say ‘this looks good but I don’t think boxing is something I can fund’. Quite a few people turned me down. They would say to me I could choose anything else but not boxing. They thought I was wasting my time because no one would take me seriously with my boxing project. They would ask why not [start a] catering business.”
By January 2013, Promise had registered her company Skylon Promotions which signed a veteran boxer and former South African WBA and international WBC junior lightweight champion, Phillip Ndou, as its first boxer. Ndou, in his zenith, had fought and lost to Floyd Mayweather, a recently-retired world champion with a record 49 undefeated fights.
“When my licence was due to be issued, I went to see Phillip Ndou in his gym in Hillbrow and there were many others I approached. I think that was a wise thing to do because I heard boxers’ issues, their limitations, their frustrations. Those were good boxers with good records but they were not happy,” says Promise.
When Promise met Ndou, he had not fought for almost two years, but in six months, he fought against Pius Dipheko, a South African. Ndou won with a knock out.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30857 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/boxing-033-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boxing-033-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boxing-033-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boxing-033-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boxing-033.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
On August 9, Women’s Day in South Africa, Skylon Promotions hosted an international event at Thohoyandou, in Limpopo province. This was a homecoming for Ndou who had never fought in front of his community since turning professional in 1996. Ndou fought a young Tanzanian, Ramadhani Shauri, and won by knock out.
Margaret Nemukula, Ndou’s mother, was there to see her son fighting for the first time at home.
“Here is the man with forty fights but he never fought in front of his people. His mother couldn’t believe it was really happening since there had been many speculations that Phillip is fighting at home but those ended up in disappointments,” says Promise.
She did not only realize Ndou had similar traits to hers, Ndou was among her favorite boxers in the early 1990s. Ndou, aged 38, is the only man standing among those pugilists.
“Despite his tribulations, Phillip was at the gym for over a year without fail and yet there were no fights forthcoming. I knew he was the perfect dream team partner.”
A week after the fight in Thohoyandou, Shauri became a Skylon Promotions signee and was due to have his first overseas fight in October in the United States. Lulu Kayage, a Tanzanian female boxer, is also with Skylon Promotions. Mimi Bwanamoya of the Congo who lives in South Africa, is the recent woman signee in the stable.
The sport around the world is administered by men of questionable ethics, but Promise says she wants to keep her business clean.
“Bwanamoya recently approached me, but I had to check if she’s clear from any contractual agreement with another manager. I don’t want to step onto people’s toes, I am for clean business. Also being a woman I have to lead by example, I have to give opportunities to sportswomen.”
Petite Promise is a 21st century African woman who knows her place is not limited to the salon; she’s the one calling the shots in a boxing ring.

boxing-021

Trading Punches In A Male Bastion

For 96 years, Richard Maponya has been battering down barriers of prejudice and proving that a black man can do anything.
His journey began in the dusty streets of Lenyenye, a township in the Limpopo province of northern South Africa, where he was born. He moved to Polokwane, where missionaries trained him as a teacher. With a qualification under his belt, he moved to Johannesburg, in 1948, in search of a teaching post and greener pastures. This was during the early days of apartheid and it wasn’t easy for a black man to do anything.
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“Back in those days, you had to register your presence if you moved to a new area. I had moved to Alexandra township and I went to the pass office to register,” says Maponya.
There, he found an Afrikaner man looking for people to work at his potato farm in Delmas, 65 kilometers north east of Johannesburg. Little did he know he was going out of the frying pan into the fire.
“He asked for my documents, looked at my pass and all my documents and said ‘this boy would fit in well with the group I am looking for’. I told him I was there to just register in the new area but he took my pass, paged it and he spoke in Afrikaans with another gentlemen with him and said ‘this man is 28 years old’… He took my pass and altered my birth year from 1920 to 1926. He also took my birth certificate and never brought it back to me. I think he wanted a group of people who were about 20 to 22 years old or so.”
On that day, Maponya lost his identity forever.
“I have employed lawyers to fix that but even in the archives of our government, they don’t have any records, so I walk as a man everyone thinks was born in 1926 yet I was born in 1920. This is one thing I never talk about, you are the first journalist I’ve ever disclosed this to,” he says as he reveals the pain of his past.
Like the bags of potatoes they were going to carry, Maponya and a group of young black men were loaded in a truck and taken to the fields to work.
“During those days, black people were terribly ill-treated. We had no rights whatsoever; I was lucky my uncle worked for a liberal Englishman who rescued me from being abused while digging and loading potatoes. They gave me a small job of washing dishes and my uncle’s boss came to pick me up a week later… I stayed with him for a few days and then went back to Alexandra.”
As we meet, 69 years later, Maponya has swapped his matchbox room in Alexandra for five mansions in Africa’s richest square mile, Sandton. When we compliment his beautiful Victorian-style home, he says, “Have you ever been to my other homes?”
It is hard work, smart decisions and some laughs, like this, that have helped him make millions. Even though he is suffering from flu, he talks to us.
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Maponya’s journey into entrepreneurship began 70 years ago when South Africa was no country for budding black entrepreneurs. The tough times steeled him for his long journey to become a legendary businessman.
Rattling along in the back of the potato truck, he never thought of a life in retail but then came an interview for a job in a department store.
“They were offering me more money than a teaching post would and the gentleman who interviewed me liked me from the word go,” he says.
Even more money was coming his way. Within months, he was promoted to a fashion buyer for the store. His boss, Mr Bolton, a kind and intelligent businessman, he says, taught him about fabrics, how to select clothes, and customer service. The two worked hand-in-glove for three years; turnover increased and Bolton was promoted to CEO of the group in 1951. Maponya thought he had struck gold.
“When he got promoted, he called me to his office and thanked me for helping him reach that point. He said ‘unfortunately I can’t promote you because you have a ceiling over your head, you cannot oversee white people. All I can do is maybe make you baas boy but that doesn’t really help you with anything,’” says Maponya.
The dapper looking 31-year-old Maponya nodded his head and muttered a courteous response, expecting little else to follow.
“I was very surprised because Mr Bolton continued to speak. He said ‘I am going to let you buy clothing samples here so that you can sell them after hours and on weekends so you can make a bit of money’.”
And he did. Before long, Maponya began to recognize the budding businessman in himself. His after hours hustle paid off.
“I realized people didn’t have money to buy upfront and I started a wear and pay system and it worked so well. People would take clothes and pay for them at month end and I was making a lot of money,” he says.
After a year of good business, Bolton was diagnosed with a brain tumour and was forced to retire. With him, he took Maponya’s business.
“The person who took over from him didn’t want to hear anything about it. He redirected the stock they gave me and gave it to Indian hawkers.”
It was a blessing in disguise. Maponya was angry. To be big, Maponya thought he had to risk big. He resigned from his job to pursue the uncertain world of entrepreneurship. He started buying clothing from wholesalers. The business flourished.
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Maponya applied for a trading license for a shop in one of South Africa’s biggest townships, Soweto, but was turned down. He went to Mandela and Tambo, a law firm run by South Africa’s struggle heroes Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. At the time, it was the only black-owned law firm in the country.
“Nelson was still a very powerful speaker. He was so powerful that, I would say, he could say to a mountain, move and it would move. They fought for my license but we didn’t succeed in getting a clothing store. But, they got me a license to trade daily necessities,” says Maponya.
At the time, there was no milk delivery in Soweto. There was also no electricity for fridges, so people bought milk for the day. Maponya saw a gap.
“I was shocked. People ate breakfast with milk everyday but had no place to buy close to them. I opened a little dairy there. I started with 10 boys cycling the neighborhood on bicycles everyday selling milk, cash, door to door.”
It was from these humble beginnings that his empire grew. The business moved extremely fast from 10 to 100 men cycling and selling for him; then, big business woke up.
“Clover saw the potential of selling milk in the townships and they started coming with big trucks to sell. They took the bulk of my clients and I realized I couldn’t compete with them,” says Maponya.
With the wisdom of knowing when to let go, Maponya gave up the milk-selling business for Maponya’s Supply Stores, a backstreet store that grew into a massive retail empire that was to make him a household name.
“I started with a butchery, then a fruit and vegetable store, and then a grocery store with two tables inside where we sold cooked food,” he says.
Maponya’s Supply Stores expanded across Soweto.  Growth meant problems.
“I struggled with getting the right people to manage the stores. The only stores where people were making profit are the ones where my wife and I were operating. The other stores would break even or run at a loss.”
It became frustrating, again, he knew he had to let go.
He closed the stores he and his wife couldn’t manage. This encouraged him to look for other opportunities. There was a long list because there were no services in the township. So, he built Mountain Motors, the second black-owned garage in Soweto.
“It surprised everybody. Some say it was the biggest in the southern hemisphere. We were selling petrol in an unbelievable manner. We were getting support from every black person in Soweto. We were selling over a million liters per month,” he says with a smile.
Mountain Motors became the first black-owned garage to have a motor vehicle dealership. Like all his other businesses, it took off.
“Later on, I was invited by BMW to take over a dealership in Soweto. That made history. I would get orders from people from America. It was history that a black man would sell cars those days… I would get an allocation of about 30 cars per month and I would sell all of them in a week… I would borrow cars from other dealers and sell three times my allocation per month,” he says.
It meant, when new stock arrived, he would return the cars he borrowed and would spend two months without stock. He tried and failed to get his allocation of cars increased. Paying staff, when there were no cars to sell, was hard.
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“As an entrepreneur, you should always know when you have made money and the business won’t be worth your energy anymore. It doesn’t mean it has failed, it means you have dug everything you can from it and it is time for something new that may make you more money,” says Maponya.
Again, following his own advice, he closed down the motor business and went on the hunt for a new venture. It ushered in some of his worst days in business.
“I applied for a casino license. I qualified for everything they required [besides the skin color] because it was still during apartheid. When we went for an interview, they asked me if I have R10 million, a lot of money at the time, and I told them I don’t have it in my pocket but I can make means… they said its either you give it now or lose the license… the licence was awarded to white brothers. This is a frustrating and terrible thing I chased and never succeeded.”
As painful as it was, Maponya used his canny and shrewd characteristics to go after his lifelong dream – a world-class shopping mall in the heart of Soweto. It took him 27 years of sweat, court applications and fundraising.
“You won’t believe it if I tell you I started building it on the 28th year… I even went to Parliament to make a presentation but I kept being turned down… They said the people of Soweto would never support a mall in Soweto because they want to shop in the city where there are brighter lights and I told them it’s not true… I have been fighting and fighting but I said as long as they don’t put a bullet on my forehead I won’t stop,” he says closing his eyes to emphasize his point.
In 1979, Maponya acquired land for the mall, in Soweto, on  a 100-year lease and, in 1994, the year South Africa got its independence, after several attempts, he acquired it outright. But the battle was only just beginning.
Various attempts to finance construction failed, until Maponya’s holding company entered into a joint venture with Zenprop Property Holdings. The sweat and pain paid off and on September 27, 2007, Nelson Mandela, the man who had been in prison for as long as it took Maponya to build the mall, cut the red ribbon to open Maponya Mall.
“It was the highlight of my entire life. It was a tough exercise to get money. I could have met about half of that but I needed help. To see this come to life made all the pain I have ever gone through in business worth it,” he says.
Today, the R650-million ($48.7-million) mall has more than 200 stores and a cinema; it is also one of the largest shopping centers in South Africa and one of the growing Johannesburg attractions.
“I am very proud of the mall. It can stand anywhere in the world and compete. I am proud I have built something for the people of Soweto because I have always wanted it to be an economic hub.”
A world-class mall was not the end, merely a milestone. The Maponya Group is also in the poultry industry. They count Pick n Pay and 24 hospitals, in Gauteng, the province of Johannesburg, among their customers for eggs. They also grow vegetables.
Maponya still has filling stations. He also intends to build another mall in Soweto. Maponya Group’s ventures also include property development, horse racing, retail, automotive sales and liquor.
“I wasn’t born to be an entrepreneur, I learned to be one. I don’t think anyone is born to be an entrepreneur, you learn. I looked at the young boys of my age, when I was young, managing their father’s businesses and I had to go and say ‘baas’ to small boys like that? No, I was not going to allow it. I told myself I am going to create a business for myself and also create jobs like they do,” says Maponya.
While this unfair advantage inspired him, he was also inspired by many black small businessmen; among them was the late Richard Baloyi.
“When I was staying in Alexandra, Baloyi was the only richest black man I had ever known. He owned buses. That man inspired me, he was my role model. When I looked at him, I said ‘I want to be rich like that man, one day I will be richer than that man and indeed I did it. If he was still alive, he would shake my hand and say ‘boy you have done it’.”
Maponya’s success has earned him many friends. Apart from being married to Mandela’s cousin, Marina, he calls Mandela, his lawyer back in the early 1950s, his greatest friend.
“Mandela asked me to pick him up at the airport when he was released from prison because he knew I owned a car dealership. I picked him up at the airport and that was the most frightening time of my life. We were chased by people on foot, helicopters, motorbikes and cars. Everyone just wanted to touch Mandela. They could kill him just trying to touch him,” he says.
According to Maponya, Mandela was scheduled to sleep at one of Maponya’s houses in Sandton but there wasn’t enough security. They booked a place to sleep for the night. He says the most frightening part was when he drove Mandela to FNB Stadium, in Soweto, the next day. People were streaming from all areas for a chance to meet him. The stadium was packed.
“We managed to go in but coming out was a nightmare. There were more people outside than inside. We realized they will squash us and never allow the car to move.”
Mandela was picked up by a helicopter bound for Orlando Stadium, where there was another crowd waiting.
“When we were on our way to Orlando Stadium, we could see all the people from FNB Stadium running to Orlando Stadium.”
“I drove him after that to a few meetings but I realized I can’t cope with his schedule… I gave him a BMW 7 Series as a gift and a driver who drove Mandela from that time until he died,” he says.
To top that, Maponya has dined with the Queen and calls Bill Clinton and the Oppenheimers friends.
At this time of his life, Maponya has a lot to be proud of but still has more up his sleeve.
“I am 96 years old now and I am not going to retire. The day I retire would be the day you say to me ‘lala kahle’ (rest in peace), then that would be my retirement. I would know I have done my piece. People who retire are lazy people. You retire and do what? Bask in the sun? I am not that type of a man,” he says.
Mentoring young people is a big part of Maponya’s life. Monalisa Sam says she was lucky to be mentored by Maponya. The two crossed paths when Sam was a general manager for Maponya Mall Property Trust in 2007. A friendship was forged in the two years she worked there, before she left to co-found Tungwa Retail Holdings in 2011, a company run by black women.
“Mr Maponya has been such a big part of my journey. I think he is probably one of the most underrated elders in business in the sense that young people don’t know the lessons they can learn from him. There is so much pressure on achievement and success that we forget to build a legacy which is what Maponya did. His life story is so important for young people in business,” says Sam.
You have to admire Maponya for doing what many can’t. He could have chosen the easier path instead of pushing his way into business in a white man’s world. Easier still would have been to stick with what he was trained to do – and teach.
Maponya has been the first in many things, but this is not the last we will hear of him.

‘As Long As They Don’t Put A Bullet On My Forehead  I Won’t Stop’

Kgomotso Mautloa dropped out of college. The nerdy former web-design student says it was not laziness, but the entrepreneurial spirit, that drove him to do it.
“You can’t teach someone to be creative, you can’t say this is how you become creative, it comes from the heart. A lot of guys who are designers are very passionate about their work because it comes from the heart. Every time you design something, you put a piece of your heart in it,” says Mautloa.
It all started with a chat with college mate, Ashley Moetlo, in 2006. Both from Alexandra, a township in northern Johannesburg, the pair saw a niche market for web design in the growing South African music industry. They couldn’t wait another year to qualify. That year, they quit and started a company named Green Robot Design.
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“The first client was a rap group from Daveyton, east of Johannesburg. They were about nine guys, really passionate about their stuff. They paid us for the first project and we bought a printer with the money. It was an awesome feeling,” says Mautloa.
But things did not turn out well, after a year, Moetlo left the company to return to university. Moetlo was the strategist, aligning and planning; Mautloa was the designer.
It was tough for a while and he had to work extra hard, Mautlao says.
“I started juggling both our roles so that the work could still be done. To some extent, that made me much stronger and more resourceful,” he says.
Mautloa took a day job with another company for a year and a half, while building his own business from home.
“I used to work tirelessly during the day and at home I worked on deadlines. It was not easy because I had to try and maintain a certain standard for myself… It’s always difficult to run your own business while working for someone else,” he says.
Mautloa says it was difficult but he made sure he delivered. After a year and a half, things started taking off for Mautloa, he had enough money to revive his own business, Green Robot Design. He then quit his job.
By 2009, Mautloa says more business was coming in. Today, Mautloa is the creative director in his company with seven people working for him, providing services in animation, brand activation, application development, print and online design as well as strategic planning, exploring different mediums of communication.
“For me, being an entrepreneur means being a thinker and a solutions provider. It also means to be a role player in the community, but more importantly, building the economy. We all have a role to play in building sustainable communities and companies that will change South Africa,” says Mautloa.
“We have been able to avoid complaints and we are efficient. That is one constant feedback that we have from our clients,” he says.
Mautloa says Green Robot Design helps small businesses develop their brands. He has also worked with South Africa’s big artists, like popular radio and ‘house’ jock, Mo Flava, and multi award-winning rapper, Khuli Chana.
“With the start-up people, our team can easily exchange views, they are open to our ideas and strategies, and they are hungry for success,” says Mautloa.
For his hard work and determination, Mautloa was nominated for the 2015 Vodacom Rising Star Award. He says there are opportunities to grow elsewhere. His next mission is to branch out on the continent.
“South Africa has an influx of many designers, there are a lot of us who want to get a piece of the big pie and I guess there is enough to go around. But that’s not where our focus is. Let’s look elsewhere, there are other countries that need our services,” says Mautloa.
So watch out Africa, Green Robot Design is coming.

It Was Tough  For A While

Not everyone gets a second chance to do things over, least of all presidents. But two rem-arkable former leaders are doing it again, out of office.
The first is former US president Jimmy Carter, who managed to reinvent himself through his philanthropic work with Habitat for Humanity.  A renowned peace-broker, Carter recalibrated his image, which had been severely dented during the Iran host-age crisis, through his dedication to providing affordable, low-cost housing to poor Americans.
Carter has also played a pivotal role as a member of the Group of Elders, former heads of state who speak out on issues of global leadership.
The second is former South African president Nelson Mandela. While in office, Mandela was hemmed in by numerous global factors that inhibited his new government from undertaking fundamental change.
When he retired from active politics and executive office, Mandela dared to tread where he had been unable to as the country’s first democratically elected president. Through his altruism, Mandela has managed to re-engineer his legacy and is today recognized as one of the world’s greatest philanthropists.
Known affectionately by his clan name, Madiba believes in fundamental change rather than charity. It is an outlook which is embraced by the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF), which was formed in 1999 to support the causes that were close to the statesman’s heart, especially those he could not focus on while he was in office.
However, attaching the Mandela brand to projects is a risky undertaking, especially as many are keen to profit from the icon’s name, including those who would use the brand for selfish ends.
Sello Hatang, who is the CEO of the NMF, says the foundation, has to be mindful of what is considered peer-based philanthropy. This occurs when projects are undertaken for financial benefits, such as tax breaks, instead for bringing about long-term change.
The NMF also guards against encouraging consumerism and instead focuses on building skills and knowledge within communities.
“Communities must be empowered… and assisted to see what they can do for themselves. Of course it is done with help of others from the outside,” says Hatang.
“It is important that whenever you do a philanthropic program you don’t throw money at the problem, but you find out from these communities what they need the most.”
He cites an example in which the NMF visited a community in Limpopo that wanted a library. While his colleagues were on-site, they realized that while there was no library in the area, there was a greater need for ablution facilities at a local school.
“What my colleagues found was children washing their hands in buckets and then because there is no fresh water, they also drink from that. So it is important that you don’t come in and impose what you think is best for communities, but rather find out from them what they need. We are now going back to the drawing board and we are now addressing the issue of water and a library.”
The foundation believes that for its philanthropic work to have value, community members must have a sense of ownership over the projects. The NMF encourages locals to be part of its initiatives by chipping in, financially or otherwise.
“So we would say for example (to a school): ‘You have to pay something towards the library.’ So for example they would raise R20,000 ($1,900), and the library is R220,000 ($21,000). They give it to us, we don’t collect that money. We give it back to them and say: ‘Now you use this money for a sports field or to improve something in the school.’ But there is a sense that they paid for it,” he explains.
Sustainability has to be at heart of philanthropy if it is to transcend charity, something Hatang is keenly aware of, and which saw the work of the foundation undergoing a shift from its initial remit.
As the Mandela brand continues to grow, it has massive clout, especially with corporations and businesses keen to be associated with it. The foundation is no longer a philanthropic organization that gives money to projects, but is itself is a donor-funded organization.
“Whenever we find a new partner who comes in who wants to work with us… we do ask that they submit their founding records, check they are registered and that they do things above board,” says Hatang.
Because the NMF does not deal with money directly there is little chance of it being swindled of cash. However, there still are chancers who want to make a profit off the Madiba brand.
Hatang cites an example from early in 2013, when a pizza company was bust for lying. It claimed that for every pizza sold, R1 ($0.10) was don-ated to the foundation.
Something else Hatang says the NMF has to be acutely aware of is building the brand of Mandela instead of denuding it.
“We always have to strike a balance between managing the brand, protecting the brand, and making sure that people can use it for good. That balance is what we always struggle with. We try to have people concentrate on giving for Mandela day and doing it genuinely and in a sustained way. Not necessarily for their grand enhancement.”
Nelson Mandela International Day, which falls on Madiba’s birthday on July 18 and which is recognized by the United Nations (UN), is where the foundation focuses most of its philanthropy.
“The rallying call is: Take action, inspire change. Make every day a Mandela day. Because we believe you have to bring about structural changes (to make a real difference),” says Hatang.
Mandela day is theme-driven, and education has been the main focus over the past three years. Events are decided on in consultation with the UN and the South African government.
This year the foundation prioritized literacy, school feeding programs and housing. The latter included bringing in corporates, with the help of local aid organization Gift of the Givers, to build homes in Johannesburg’s impoverished Alexandra township. The year before, Habitat for Humanity helped the foundation provide homes for residents of Orange Farm informal settlement in Gauteng.
With its literacy initiatives, the NMF has received a lot of help from international charity group Breadline Africa. The organization has helped build libraries across South Africa and fill them with books.
“We believe a learned community is an empowered community. We have young people who are still struggling. And with the kind of education we have at the moment, we want to build on it. Instead of pointing fingers, do something about it. And sometimes it’s minimal where you just build a library,” Hatang explains.
South African packaged goods company Tiger Brands and mobile communications giant Vodacom have been brought on board to help supplement the school feeding scheme.
“Tiger Brands, with the Department of Education, have a program where they feed the kids. I think it is breakfast and a lunch. This one that we have introduced is different. We launched it in July where kids are given food parcels when there is a long break. They get fed at school, but because of the levels of poverty, for some of the kids that is the only meal they have the whole day. Now what happens when they are on school holiday? They get the food parcels to take home on the last day of school,” says Hatang.
The program was launched in
Alexandra and is being rolled out to the rest of Gauteng, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
When the NMF was launched, the philanthropic projects it undertook were infrastructure-heavy, as most of the communities that Mandela visited asked for clinics and schools. In 2004, the foundation realigned itself, focusing on  philanthropy, dialogue and preserving the memory of Mandela.
Hatang says these elements are vital to build South Africa, as they help to create social cohesion.
He is particularly proud of a new project that sees South Africans and international players assessing how communities have moved on from repressive pasts and how they deal with that oppression.
“This is us venturing into the international community. This is the first project where we are spreading our wings. It is important that South Africa learns from others. We tend to think that we know it all and that we have done it all. There are communities that have gone through what we went through, maybe for not as long as we have, and they are still learning. There is room for us to learn,” he says firmly.
The foundation is also spreading its wings on the continent and has started to look at projects in other African countries that complement its values and objectives. Cooperation in trade and industry and greater intra-African trade between South Africa and her neighbors create the ideal context for branching out. One of the initiatives the foundation is currently considering addresses how African countries are moving away from alienation toward more cooperation.
In a similar effort to encourage social cohesion, cooperation and tolerance, after the drastic rise in xenophobic attacks in 2008, the NMF used its Dialogue for Change program to get people talking. South Africans often blame foreigners for taking ‘their’ jobs, as many migrants are willing to work for less money and under unfavorable conditions.
“We shouldn’t always just be pointing fingers to make excuses sometimes for our own failures,” Hatang points out.
He says the next dialogue series will focus on young people. The highest unemployment rate in South Africa is among the youth, and as a result, many of them turn to crime and other social ills.
“It is really needed. It is clear that young people feel alienated because of the level of unemployment hitting them very hard. You have alienation because of political processes where young people don’t feel included enough; also because of the fact that they didn’t live through what the older generation lived through. Young people also need to feel included in terms of decision-making processes.”
A resource that will prove invaluable to future generations is the NMF’s memory archives, a collection of Mandela’s papers that capture a sense of his life and the times he lived through. Hatang says the archives include various books and publications, including a graphic novel to teach pupils about Madiba’s life.

The Spirit of Giving

Johannesburg entrepreneur Chris Pienaar was hungry for profits and it was bread which fed this hunger. He set up Straight to Your Door bread deliveries in Alexandra—one of Johannesburg’s oldest townships, which is affectionately referred to as ‘Alex’—more than two years ago. He started out with just R20 ($2.40) to buy stock and made a R2 ($0.24) profit on his first sale. In July, those numbers grew to around R23,000 ($2,756).
“In Alex people can wait up to 40 minutes in supermarket queues just to buy fresh bread every day. That’s when I realized bringing bread to people’s doors would be something Alex residents would be happy to pay for,” he says.
But closing this gap and turning it into a business opportunity only became a reality when Pienaar joined forces with the Awethu Project, an entrepreneurs’ incubation program based at Constitution Hill.
Awethu, meaning ‘ours’ in Nguni languages, was launched by Yusuf Randera-Rees, a Harvard and Oxford graduate, who cut his teeth working for a Swiss bank and returned to South Africa in 2009. His objective was to merge his Harvard training and insights with the entrepreneurial potential of South Africa’s townships. He wasn’t out to establish a charity but a business model that would see entrepreneurs and Awethu’s partners make mutual profits. Entrepreneurs have to give half of their new profits to Awethu.
“At Harvard and Oxford I saw an almost proven record of success but it wasn’t necessarily because the students were all exceptional,” says Randera-Rees.
What was exceptional, Randera-Rees noted, was that his peers had access to quality education, mentors, infrastructure and the halo effect of being associated with the world’s most respected business schools.
“I was angry that so much entrepreneurial potential in South Africa was being wasted just because people didn’t have access to opportunities.”
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By 2010, Randera-Rees had secured corporate sponsorship, funding from treasury’s job fund, staff members and a heavyweight list of patrons and advisory board members. He could pilot the project, which he and university friend Ryan Parker had first conceived as Oxford students when they entered the university’s 21st Century Challenge. The winning social-entrepreneurship projects had to be sustainable, show financial returns and produce social and environmental benefits. The pair’s business incubation idea got top 10 spot in the competition.
Pienaar joined the first Awethu workshop held in Alexandra and the match was obvious from the start.
“Chris was great at every problem solving exercise we gave to the entrepreneurs. And when he did undergo the testing process we had devised he scored in the top percentages of anyone in the world,” says Randera-Rees.
Pienaar, who was a less-than-successful beer seller when he joined the workshop, recognized Awethu’s fresh take on hackneyed buzz phrases of job creation and poverty alleviation.
“This was about getting practical business training, partnering with Awethu to use their networks and then having the guts and initiative to make it happen,” he says.
It is about steady growth and making real profits that also factor in Awethu’s cut. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. That is why Awethu’s key to success is to select the right entrepreneurs with which to partner.
Over the next 18 months they aim to have 1,000 thriving entrepreneurs. It all begins with the workshops, which aim to reach around 13,000 entrepreneurs who will be provided with a free two hour business course. Applicants don’t need a minimum level of education, business experience or capital. Like Pienaar, they don’t even need an investable idea. They only need to come from an underprivileged background and prove, after the workshop and testing process, that they have what it takes to become entrepreneurs. From the 13,000 a core group of 1,000 will be identified to partner with Awethu’s mentors to start on the incubation process.
Pienaar has become a mentor and trainer himself. He says his success disproves that township youth are doomed to fail. Straight To Your Door works because he understands his market and his customers’ needs. It makes money because the ideas are polished by mentors; have the confidence of acquired business skills and the thumbs up from those who are part of powerful business networks. Pienaar has not stopped doing the grunt work and he is constantly adapting the responsiveness of his business strategies.
“I know me and I know Alexandra. The bread deliveries work because we’re doing them in the afternoon when people are at home, not rushing around and trying to find change to pay. We can also do deliveries quickly because the homes are close together and this means you save time, you keep your customers happy and so you can sell more bread and make more profit,” he says.
Today, Pienaar has six employees and is looking to partner with other entrepreneurs who want to sell door to door. He’s been able to piggyback on Awethu to seal significant deals with large established brands that now recognize his successful track record.
“My granny is so proud of me. She sold fatcakes for a living but we lived from hand-to-mouth, now I’m a person who gets respect and people come to for business advice,” says Pienaar.
Randera-Rees is also proud. Pienaar is exactly the kind of success story Awethu needs to reach their target of 1,000 ace entrepreneurs and to prove the strange but beautiful alchemy that can happen when Harvard and ‘Alex’ meet.

Tag: Alexandra

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