Turns out there is literally no difference between lab-grown diamonds and natural diamonds, well, apart from the price.



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Ever wondered what the difference between lab-produced
diamonds and natural diamonds was? Well, nothing. They are exactly the same. 



As with most things of value, a great deal of information
has been produced over the years about the price of diamonds. In short, many
believe the real price of diamonds is far lower than what ‘big business’ would
have us believe and that it is driven up by our insatiable hunger and the
social importance we place on the stones. 



In line with this, there is a widely-held belief that they
are not rare and the market is being deliberately controlled to create the
façade that they are difficult to produce. Therefore, their price is dictated
by the fact that they symbolize the most enduring of all human emotions – love.



&nbsp;With that out of the
way, in recent times, society has developed a pragmatic relationship with
diamonds, rather than a romantic one that has long sustained the industry. 



It might be that we live in the era of instant gratification
or that we have stopped romanticising the idea of waiting millions of years for
the precious stone, but more people have embraced the idea of purchasing
lab-grown diamonds.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wealth/2019/04/08/from-medicine-to-nanotechnology-how-gold-quietly-shapes-our-world/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="From Medicine To Nanotechnology: How Gold Quietly Shapes Our World (opens in a new tab)">From Medicine To Nanotechnology: How Gold Quietly Shapes Our World</a>



Unlike an imitation gem like cubic zirconia, it has the same physical characteristics and chemical components as a natural diamond but production time is much shorter, enabling producers to create it in a matter of weeks. 



Lab-grown diamonds producer Ross Reid offers FORBES AFRICA a very sobering perspective with the following analogy to describe man-made diamonds. 



“If a couple can’t fall pregnant using conventional methods,
they do IVF where the baby’s origin of life is manmade. Is that not a real baby
when it’s born?”



The room falls silent as all contemplate this question.



“So by that logic, it is a real diamond,” Reid states
emphatically.



Reid is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Inception
Diamonds, One of South Africa’s first Diamond companies to offer lab-grown
diamonds and fine jewelry.



The world’s leading diamond producer, De Beers, however, has
a different perspective.



“We view natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds as very
different products as they have completely different production processes.
Natural diamonds are created in the earth, under intense heat and pressure over
billions of years. Each diamond is rare, finite and unique,” says Bianca
Ruakere, a De Beers Group spokesperson.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="585" height="611" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Diamond2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40193" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Diamond2.png 585w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Diamond2-300x313.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Diamond2-287x300.png 287w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px" /><figcaption> De Beers Lightbox range. Picture: De Beers</figcaption></figure>



Reid says he recognizes the market potential for global
growth in being able to offer conflict-free, environmentally-friendly lab-grown
diamonds, especially to the millennial market.



“With the creation of laboratory-grown diamonds, it allows
you to offer the consumer the same thing optically, physically, and chemically
at a big discount. So you can have the same beauty, the same hardness, the same
look and the same feel for less money,” Reid says.



Large diamond producers have also recognized the same
potential.



De Beers Group has been producing synthetic diamonds for
industrial purposes for more than 50 years. “Last year, we launched Lightbox in
the United States to market a range of fun, fashion jewelry using lab-grown
diamonds. They are accessibly priced, and a distinct product offering compared
with natural diamonds,” Ruakere says.



&nbsp;Price is not the only
reason that encourages the market to opt for lab-grown diamonds. They are also
other ethical factors such as having a guarantee that the rock on your finger
is conflict-free.



&nbsp;Shogan Naidoo, who
proposed to his fiancé, Preba Iyavoo, on Valentine’s Day at the popular
independent cinema house, The Bioscope, did so with a healthy bank balance and
clean conscience. 



They were traditionally engaged in July last year, so by the time the ring engagement happened, Iyavoo was caught completely off-guard and was pleasantly surprised. 



“Shogan is the most endearing person, but he’s not romantic
in the slightest,” says a giddy Iyavoo, who recalls the proposal that happened
in a filled theater, with a movie Naidoo had created just for her. 



The couple are besotted with their lab-grown diamond. Naidoo
says after doing exhaustive research to find the perfect ring to propose with,
all conventional options had failed him.



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&nbsp;He says his final
ring choice far exceeded his expectations in price and design. Naidoo explains
that Iyavoo has a very specific preference and that he was not willing to
compromise in getting her the perfect ring but the one he initially wanted was
in the range of R80,000 ($5,500).



&nbsp; “We were planning a
wedding and we’d just bought a house,” he says. The exorbitant cost of retail
rings led him to search out of the box, and eventually the box returned with
the perfect gem.



&nbsp;The couple who lead a
very environmentally-conscious lifestyle, say they are especially proud to be
the custodians of this ring because they are guaranteed it’s conflict-free and
no miners were exploited.



&nbsp;Reid says he has to
grapple with a great deal of scepticism because many are not ready to fully
embrace the idea of lab-grown diamonds despite their advantages. 



“The Federal Trade Commission has changed the definition of
a diamond. It does not need to come from the ground.



“We have opened up the market for people to be able to
afford beautiful pieces without compromising on quality,” Reid says.



Change is inevitable and with that, there will always be
those resistant to it. But one thing is for sure, society’s relationship with
diamonds are changing.

diamond

Lab-grown Diamonds: Never Mined, It’s Man-Made

De Beers and Vast Resources will be allowed to explore for diamonds in Zimbabwe, which would make them the first listed companies to mine there in that sector for two years, Mining Minister Winston Chitando said.



A spokesman for De Beers, an Anglo American unit, said in an email it was not mining in Zimbabwe and did not intend to. Vast Resources said it could not comment.



Zimbabwe has been working to rebuild investor confidence since long-term leader Robert Mugabe was ousted in late 2017.



This month its mining ministry said it would let in two new companies but did not name them.



On Wednesday, Chitando told Reuters De Beers and Vast Resources would be allowed to mine, but could not comment on any changes to ownership rules. “Those are the details that have to be thrashed out,” he said.



Vast Resources signed a memorandum of understanding with Botswana Diamonds in May to form a special purpose vehicle majority-owned by Vast to develop resources in Zimbabwe.



In November, Chitando said Zimbabwe did not plan to change radically its ownership laws for platinum and diamonds.



Few miners doubt the potential of Zimbabwe’s mineral resources and it is among the world’s leading diamond-producing countries. But some investors are concerned about how much money companies can take out because of dollar shortages.



Mugabe accused De Beers of looting the largest diamond fields in Marange in eastern Zimbabwe, where production is dominated by state-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company. De Beers denied the charge.



Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company is one of two firms currently allowed to mine diamonds there. The other, Murowa Diamonds, majority-owned by Rio Tinto until June 2015, is the only private company mining diamonds in south central Zimbabwe.



In early 2016, Mugabe’s government evicted all diamond miners from Marange, saying their licenses had expired after they declined to merge under the state-owned mining firm.



As part of its quest to attract foreign investment, Zimbabwe’s new government has liberalized indigenisation laws for many minerals but still limits foreign ownership of platinum and diamond projects to a minority, with the state holding 51 percent. -Reuters



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>MacDonald Dzirutwe and Barbara Lewis</li></ul>

mine

Zimbabwe Mining Minister Invites De Beers, Vast Resources to Return

Sheila Khama, Director of the Africa Natural Resources Centre at the African Development Bank (AfDB), has over 20 years of experience in Africa’s extractive industry. Besides serving as CEO of De Beers in Botswana, she worked as the compliance officer for 20 subsidiaries of Anglo American Corporation in Botswana.
The glass ceiling, however, is not confined to mining, she says, nor to Africa.
“Mining is no different from other industries, including the financial sector,” Khama explains, referring to various reports around the issue of African women at the corporate helm.
“Africa’s mining industry, in addition, is not very different from mining sectors elsewhere in the world. When looking at the world’s largest extractive corporations, you will find that only one – Anglo American – has ever been headed by a woman, namely Cynthia Blum Carroll,” says Khama.
Whilst she acknowledges a shortage of female top mining executives, Khama says this can’t just be blamed on the sector. In her view, it’s a symptom of society’s inability and unwillingness to grab the issue of gender transformation by the horns.
“The mining landscape can’t change faster than society does. Take the issue of education and what is expected of women. From what I know, more and more African girls are enrolling at primary and high school level, and many of them are outperforming boys,” she says.
“At university level, however, the number of African female students declines. This figure drops even further when girls are about to enter the working world, mainly because of societal pressures to get married and raise children.
“The mining sector can’t change these things. Like other sectors, we also depend on the willingness of society to release women from traditional roles and allow them to excel and break through the glass ceiling.”
That doesn’t mean mining companies should sit back. They certainly have a role in attracting and retaining women, and grooming them to become directors and executives.
“Companies should in fact profile and appoint women to strategic positions, draw up internal policies that deal with gender transformation, and use those policies to deploy women at the top and set other female employees up for success,” says Khama, adding this should not be a token.
“If gender transformation is a token, it has no future. It has to be embedded in a company’s business logic. Women need to be seen as an economic asset… They bring crucial skills to the table, skills as relevant in the mining pit and processing plant as in the boardroom.”

IMG_0201

‘As Relevant In The Mining Pit As The Boardroom’

Mary Bomela appears in the corridor of her office in Johannesburg, stopping every second to greet and speak to staff. It’s easy to see why she draws people to her – she’s assertive, forthright and has a ready smile.
“Okay, that’s enough, get back to work now,” she then tells them, laughing.
Bomela is CEO of Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC), a sustainable asset base for the benefit of mine, energy and construction workers and their dependants. She always knew she wouldn’t follow a traditional career path like her parents did. She knew a qualification in finance would enable her to work in any industry and break the glass ceiling. Thus she studied to become a chartered accountant and also acquired an MBA degree.
“In my previous life, I worked for the mines. Actually, it’s funny. The irony of it is that, as the Mineworkers Investment Company, we don’t invest in mines,” says Bomela.
A former Financial Manager at De Beers, Bomela worked both in mine operations and in the corporate office before discovering that her investment knowledge made her an asset to MIC. For Bomela, the male-dominated industry is easy game once you have the know-how.
“I don’t think it’s about being male or female. It is a bit daunting sometimes being a woman and there are only males but once you’re in your comfort zone, it’s just about being yourself especially if you know what you’re talking about. It’s preparation over everything. If you have your facts, it makes it so much easier, just stand your ground.
“Along my journey, I’ve always had mentors for different aspects of my life and stages of my life. I use men as mentors because they know how to manoeuvre this world – the political world, the inside stories that you sometimes don’t get,” says Bomela.
In spite of being able to hold her own alongside her male counterparts, Bomela admits that being a woman often poses other challenges.
“I’m a CEO, mother and wife, I just found that a lot of my counterparts have wives at home that they can lean on whereas as a mother if your child is sick, you have to make sure that you can take care of them or if there’s a dinner, you don’t want to drive alone. Sometimes our male counterparts don’t appreciate that challenge.”
Bomela juggles her many roles but is adamant that a balancing act is a myth. A strategist at heart, she broaches everything like an investment decision – options weighed and priorities set.
“Equal balance does not exist – where you want to be perfect at work and perfect at home. I just say as you go along your journey at different times in your life, your priorities change. There are times when other things have to suffer because you’re concentrating on another. But for me the important thing is never to compromise for too long. It’s a short-term sacrifice.
“Sometimes as women we have so many balls in the air that we think we can catch them all at the same time. If we do that, one is bound to fall at some stage. Juggle fewer balls and set your priorities, they will change as you move along – your commitments will change with your life,” she says.
Bomela is pioneering the work-life balance at MIC which focuses on prioritizing over balance. Research by Kenexa Research Institute in 2007 showed employees were more favorable towards an organization’s efforts to support work-life balance. For a woman, it’s a necessary model.
“Our office is about 70 percent women and it’s nice to have an environment where people can relate to each other and understand the problems and issues. There’s flexibility, you can work from home if you need to, you can rearrange meetings. There’s an understanding.”
For Bomela, her priorities are set, leading MIC and her family – all the other balls just fall in place.

Mary-Bomela-053

Work. Life. And The  Female Juggler

Botswana is no stranger to National Geographic photographers, but this is not the only reason why it is the third most-visited African country. In 2012, the number of annual tourists (2,337,998) surpassed the number of its citizens. While Kasane, Maun, and the Okavango Delta remain the country’s most visited regions, investors and entrepreneurs flock to the economic hub.
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The country is the least corrupt on the continent and FORBES rated it as the fourth best in Africa in terms of doing business. In November 2013, De Beers relocated its sorting and marketing headquarters to Gaborone from London. The capital will also host the second Youth Africa Games in late May, thus bringing with it enterprises connected with the event. But business aside, from the moment tourists arrive at the newly renovated Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, they are met with modern and innovative architecture. Since independence in September 1966, Gaborone has transformed from a mostly dry shrubland with haphazard buildings, to a high-rise metropolis that is peppered with towering cranes and glass-faced skyscrapers.
Despite its altitude of 1,005 meters above sea level, the capital city is looking to further elevate itself to greater heights. The new central business district is a playground for architects, as key government ministries and the private sector play a friendly game of architectural one-upmanship along the stretch called Government Enclave.
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iTowers, the city’s tallest building, is a recent addition to Gaborone’s skyline. This office and residential block is best known for Sky Lounge on its topmost floor. Businesspeople seal the deal over cocktails and Lebanese food on the 19th floor. While there, visit the Sophie Lalonde Art Gallery, which showcases African artists. But be warned, the 360 degree panoramic views of the burgeoning development below comes at a hefty price for non-members of this exclusive venue. The glass balustrades reveal the city’s blueprints for a second tower and similar feats of civil engineering.
The Botswana Ministry of Defense, Justice and Security evokes images of the hollow, cube-like La Grande Arche de la Defense in Paris with its mirror façades. The ministry can be seen from the city’s most visited attraction: the bronze Three Dikgosi Monument. It is a tribute to three tribal chiefs – Khama III, Sebele I and Bathoen I – who traveled to Great Britain to prevent the country from being incorporated into neighboring Rhodesia or South Africa. In the backdrop is Botswana’s new BWP500 million ($55.8 million) high court.
Down the road, the Masa Center – meaning a new dawn in Setswana – is more accessible, but just as trendy. Its two symmetrical towers are on either side of a piazza. It is home to the country’s first 3D cinema, boutiques, a luxurious hotel and spa, five restaurants, as well as the blue-themed Absolut Bar – a rooftop venue with a pool and five-a-side football pitch.
The dirt road away from the inner city towards Sanitas Tea Garden gives the impression that one is bundu bashing in Africa, but do not let that put you off. This idyllic eatery is located in the country’s oldest and largest nursery, and uses its own fruit, vegetables and herbs in its dishes. Birds rest in the immense fig tree that provides shade to its patrons in this sanctuary of calm. The nursery grows water-wise plants due to the ongoing drought.
And while in the area, the Gaborone Yacht Club (open Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays) is a must. During regattas it overflows with expatriates. This local watering hole offers splendid views of the sun sinking behind the horizon. Yet, these days it is also a stark reminder of the water shortage.
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Go for an early morning hike up Kgale Hill, nicknamed the sleeping giant. At 1,287 meters above sea level, the rocky outcrop is the city’s natural observation deck. There are three one-hour hiking trails to the top. Rusty’s Route, from Lobster Road, is the most challenging, the easier two start at the quarry entrance. Whichever way you choose to ascend, the views are well worth the trek. And who knows, perhaps you will meet the resident baboons along the way.
Upon descending, it will be breakfast time. Tuck into an English or continental breakfast at Savuti Grill at the Gaborone Sun Hotel and lounge around the pool deck before meandering through nearby Main Mall. While there are many modern shopping malls scattered throughout the city – such as Riverwalk, South Ring, African, and others – one can buy just about anything along this commercial strip. It is lined with stores that sell clothing, shoes, music, and stationery. The headquarters and outlets of various organizations, banks and service providers also call this pedestrian shopping complex home.
Meet some of the capital’s most colorful characters here. From the 68-year-old seamstress, who manually pedals her Singer sewing machine and has called Main Mall her open-air office for decades, to the inviting photographer, who takes passport photographs against a red bed sheet that is hung against a building wall.
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Vendors have makeshift stalls from which they sell a smorgasbord of curios and treasures, such as leather sandals made from buck, quirky bumper stickers, books and DVDs, and sports t-shirts. They gleefully wave for attention. If hunger sets in, countless mmas – a term of respect for an older Motswana woman – sell home-made meals, such as beef stews and roasted chicken with cooked vegetables. Do not leave without trying dried Mopani worms, a protein-rich and crunchy delicacy among the Batswana. Of course, there are numerous fast food outlets too, and the Cresta President Hotel never disappoints.
A mere 15 kilometers beyond the city center, Mokolodi Nature Reserve delights visitors with the prospect of a close encounter with nature and wildlife on a giraffe or rhino tracking expedition. Those that feel safer within the confines of a Jeep opt for a game drive, especially the night drive, which is followed by a barbecue in the bush. Otherwise, the seating outside the reserve’s restaurant draws large crowds as wildlife comes to find respite at the watering troughs positioned a few meters away.
No matter what experience you may be after, Gaborone is sure to deliver.

From Concrete  To Rhinos

Sibongile Sambo spent most of her childhood looking up at the big tubes of metal in the sky. Each time she heard a helicopter or a plane, she would stop everything and imagine how it would feel to be 40,000 feet above sea level.
In her early twenties, Sambo applied to be an airhostess and it had seemed she had the job in the bag. She passed all the written and physical tests and impressed the panel with her knowledge of aviation, but there was one small problem.
“I was too short (1.5m) and at that time they were still really strict about the 1.6m height. I understand why. It’s because they needed people who could easily reach the cabin and be able to take out and pack in the clients’ bags.”
Sambo was later offered a position as crew on a smaller domestic flight, but she had just completed her degree and, after much deliberation, passed up on her dream for a desk job. Years later, while working at De Beers, she found just the opportunity to dream again.
“The position I was in allowed me to fly in their private jets, to all other operations to either Botswana or Namibia. That rekindled the actual love for private jets. And I liked the idea of private jets because you don’t have to wait in  queues at the airports.”
Sambo quit her job to focus on her new love of private jets. She registered her company under Sibongile Rejoice Sambo Aviation (SRS Aviation) and naïvely applied for a tender the government was offering aviation firms for cargo transportation.
“I took it very lightly. You know when you submit a bid, it’s your first time and you actually don’t believe you will get it. And in this industry, I thought it would take me much longer than it did,” she says.
Sambo won the bid and had to raise R1 million ($92, 890) to get the plane from Dubai to South Africa to move the cargo. She applied for loans, but was turned away from businesses that said aviation was risky and her lack of experience was a disadvantage. There was one person Sambo could always count on, her mother.
“She was working as a nurse in London. She came back, released her pension money and asked her sister to also assist with her pension money,” says Sambo.
The job went better than expected and Sambo managed to repay everyone. SRS Aviation began to generate a steady clientele and the money rolled in. She became the first South African woman to own an aviation company, which is 100% black female-owned. Despite her accomplishments, she was often criticized for her lack of experience and many thought she would not survive in the male-dominated industry.
In 2010, disaster stuck. Clients began to pull their planes from SRS Aviation, in what Sambo believes was a plan devised to sabotage her. So, when the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) came to inspect her operation, there were no planes in her hangars and no recorded flights, as she was no longer managing the planes that had  once operated under her license. Sambo lost her license.
“It has been such a roller-coaster. The business took off very well from 2004 to 2007. In 2008, we started seeing a little bit of a slowdown. In 2009, we saw the jet fuel hike, and in 2010 the recession came. So, we experienced a huge dip and I basically retrenched everyone.”
In 2013, Sambo reacquired her license and business began to boom. She currently has seven employees and generates an annual turnover of R5 million ($462,850), which she says is little in comparison to their R35-R50 million turnover during the good days.
Over the years, Sambo has received recognition for her achievements in the industry. In 2007, Fortune Magazine named her a ‘Leader of Tomorrow’, and in 2009 she was nominated for the Queen Victoria Memorial Award by the Europe Business Assembly in London. Last year, she was placed on the FORBES ‘10 Young Africans Millionaires to Watch’ list.
“I wish I could tell people that it doesn’t look as easy as you read about. It made me feel happy that I didn’t lose hope and just let my dream die. I persevered and I hung on to some of my investments, which helped me get back on track.”
SRS Aviation offers services that include: VIP charter, air cargo charter, tourist transfers and film work. It has expanded into supplying aircraft spare parts for Boeing and Airbus and is looking at handling ground equipment for airports.
“I still don’t own any airplanes. I still lease people’s airplanes, so they come and go on my license. That is a challenge because I can’t really be completely in control of the particular machine. Therefore, I can’t really control my time.”
Being in an industry that is not female-dominated has made Sambo a role model. She has proven that when it comes to dreaming, the sky is certainly not the limit.

Reach For  The Sky

To say Nicky Oppenheimer is understated is an understatement in itself. It is tantamount to saying his family – the third richest in Africa – is well off; or that Winston Churchill, another famous Old Harrovian, was a fair public speaker.
It must be tough suffering the stare and glare that goes with being the scion of a powerful world famous family, but Oppenheimer wears his eminence lightly as he sits opposite me for this rare interview. This Johannesburg office may be dressed lavishly, but the man himself, in a blue open-necked shirt, is not. He is measured, calm and guarded as he chats about everything from entrepreneurs and corruption to government and business. There is a glint of pride in the eye when he mentions, fleetingly at the end of the interview, his son’s first class cricket career as an Oxford Blue. Jonathan Oppenheimer bowled for Combined Universities against one of the world’s finest batsmen, West Indian Brian Lara.
“He bowled the first three and moved them away and then brought one back into the pad. Lara LBW Oppenheimer 0,” chuckles the proud father.
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The laidback calm belies a busy few years for the Oppenheimers and the two corporate giants that the family took generations to build: Anglo American and De Beers. In the next few years, the family will invest billions into Africa and her entrepreneurs with straightforward business philosophy.
“You have to learn to get on with people, you have to learn to determine the bullshit from the serious stuff, and then you have to have a good common sense and a vision of where you want to get to,” says Oppenheimer.
This no nonsense approach is driving the family forward in the business of private equity. The investment drive came after the wrench of selling out from De Beers, the largest diamond producer in the world. Along with Anglo American, De Beers may have survived political upheaval and two world wars, but the recession of 2008 proved a turning point.
“From a De Beers perspective, it came at a bad time. De Beers had just being opening new mines so we had to borrow money to pay for the mines – you don’t get a return very quickly – so we had to renegotiate our debt conversance with the bank, that environment wasn’t easy. We managed, we had to turn to our shareholders and get more money from them; this was post privatization. So both Anglo and the family put up more money, which was brave on both our parts,” says Oppenheimer.
“In my father’s lifetime, he talked about the great depression, where the situation was far more dramatic than anything I ever had to face, and you knew that people wanted to have diamonds, there was never any lessening of desire just that they didn’t have the income to do it. So you had to cut your cloth to suit that and wait for the times to improve… It never occurred to me that the business wouldn’t recover, there were times where you have somewhat sleepless nights.”
The emotional decision came in 2011. After 85 years, the Oppenheimers voted to sell their 40% stake in De Beers, the business that built the family fortune, for an estimated $5.1 billion. For the first time in decades, the family had no stake in any listed company.
“Not quite a difficult decision, the fact that there were three shareholders in De Beers, the family, Anglo and the Botswana Government was always in my view an unstable arrangement and I knew something was going to happen at some stage. Either Anglo would say it was not a business for them or they would say they really want to be in it in a much more serious way than we are at the moment and they came out on that side and made us a very fair and reasonable offer. And then of course I was in a difficult position because I had to deal with a business I had been in all my life on the one hand, and then the requirements of the family, my sister, her children, my children. We ended up in a situation where my heart made me say ‘look we should stay with De Beers’ but my head knew absolutely clear that this was the right deal to do.”
Analysts in Johannesburg will say Mary Slack, Oppenheimer’s sister, was a strong voice in the decision to sell.
“She (my sister) was not in the day to day running of the business… We all ended up wanting to sell,” replies Oppenheimer.
The parting broke a link with De Beers that dates back to Nicky’s grandfather, who led the family’s charge into Africa.
A London trading company posted 21-year-old EO Oppenheimer, the son of a German cigar merchant, to South Africa to buy diamonds. He took to the diamond trade like a duck to water and his knowledge of the stones was unparalleled; legend has it that Oppenheimer used to carry a note book around him to write down any useful business information. By the time he was 30, Oppenheimer was the mayor of the diamond town of Kimberly – no mean feat in an age when grey hair ruled the roost.
“I always remember him as a very quiet guy, I remember him as the sort of guy that if you bumped into him you rebounded,” says Oppenheimer.
The formidable Harry Oppenheimer was the next generation – a strident man who made his mark both in business and politics, as well as guiding his son in the art of business.
“No, I don’t think he was a tough man in business, he had a very good view of the right way to get to a point, to how to negotiate his way there. I would have thought my grandfather was a tougher business man,” says Oppenheimer.
“I always knew that my father was there and I could discuss business matters with him, and that gave you a head start, it never got you to the finishing line, so that was whether you could deliver or not. He taught me business went on and it was an assessment of risk and to be a successful business man you have to take risks. There is no good being risk adverse, then you go nowhere.”
Nicky Oppenheimer’s air harks back to the gentility of 1950s Britain, where he began his education at prep school at the age of seven. Harrow and Christ Church Oxford followed.
“I am of an age where going to university was the last holiday of your life and I thought that was absolutely fantastic. Politics, philosophy and economics was a good sort of all-round degree. I thought it was fantastic, wonderful life. I didn’t work very hard I got a third-class degree at the end of it all. But I had a lot of fun,” he says.
When Oppenheimer arrived home in South Africa, the army called him for national service.
“The army had a terrible problem with me and that was that I had a degree, and so if you have a degree you did your basics and then became an officer. So, I became an officer and then they had no idea what to do with me. I had no skills that were of any use to them at all. I was sent to a great big parking lot just outside Pretoria and I signed my name every time a vehicle came in and I signed saying the vehicle had four tyres and two headlights. I always say that the army taught me how to sign my name very fast,” he smiles.
Then, Oppenheimer took his seat on the board, which he was to occupy for 37 years.
“It is what I saw myself doing; I had a particular love within the Anglo business, the diamond business. I was lucky enough to achieve what any diamond person’s primary ambition would be and that’s become chairman of De Beers. I’ve been extraordinarily lucky,” he says.
Not too soon after the De Beers exit in 2011, the family set up its investment arm Tana Africa Capital with the investment company E. Oppenheimer &amp; Son and Temasek, a sovereign wealth fund from Singapore. The partners put up $150 million each and sources say the family is also ready to invest the billions from the De Beers deal. The investment company will look at agriculture and consumer businesses. It will also consider deals in media, healthcare and education up to $50 million.
“We are Africans and we would like to invest in Africa. So we are busy looking for things to do, we have some investments but we are constantly on the lookout,” says Oppenheimer.
Tana Africa Capital has already invested in Promasidor Group, a company founded in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1979, that sells everything from powdered milk to tea in 30 African countries. Regina is Egypt’s second largest pasta manufacturer and owns the country’s only durum wheat flour mill. It has an expanding export business into Africa and the Middle East.
Oppenheimer has faith in African entrepreneurs.
“People are pretty entrepreneurial in Africa and growing so and that is very encouraging, a constraint in Africa is bureaucracy,” he says.
“The problem rests on the fact that, so many African economies are mineral based. The thing with minerals is that you can’t pick them up and take them anywhere and that allows government, wherever they are, to be bureaucratic, which is not business friendly, because a business can’t simply say I don’t like you I’m going to go somewhere else, you’ve got to deal with it. As a continent we’ve got to learn that you’ve got to be business friendly and find ways to create an environment for business to flourish and that means a bit of a mind change. The important thing is they (governments) have a huge role to play in controlling the environment. The less they have to do with the actual business, in my view, the better.”
I venture that, in the words of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to keep government out of business.
“What one has to realize and what governments have to understand is, they are missing an opportunity. The penny will fall and then they must do much more than you talked about. They have to create the environment, they have to set the rules and regulations and tax rates but actually running of business is something short term that government is really bad at.”
And corruption?
“You have to stand up for what is right, corruption is an extremely insidious and dangerous thing and very difficult to eradicate once it starts… I often ask people once you’ve become a corrupt society, how do you stop being a corrupt society? And you don’t get very satisfactory answers. I think you have to demonstrate that you can be successful and contribute to society while being ethically sound, and it will be a long and slow process.”
More legislation, I venture.
“I always worry about legislation and what is does. When legislation comes forward, it is designed to catch the crooks. To my mind the crooks are always too clever to be caught. What is does is make honest people’s lives intolerable. So there has to be legislation but there has to be a drive to get people to believe in business ethics and doing the right thing.”
Then there is the struggling mining industry, which Oppenheimer spent more than half of his life working in. South Africa was shaken by a costly four-month strike in the platinum mines, followed by sapping and unprecedented power cuts. The Energy Intensive User Group that represents 32 of the country’s biggest energy consumers – including the smelters and mines – says 97% of its members are cutting back on capital projects because of a fear of power cuts.
“I think [mining] has a huge contribution to make. People talk about it like it’s a curse, which it certainly isn’t. Minerals have a future, if you’re blessed with minerals that’s a fantastically good start – you’ve got to use them. I think what happened in Botswana is a good example of a country that has taken its diamond revenues and put it to a good cause. You’ve got to find a way of encouraging mining, and mining is more long term than almost anything else. So you’ve got to create an environment where somebody is going to invest billions of dollars with a view that the first return will be seven to ten years away and the confidence to believe that the deal you have and environment you’re dealing in will still be there in seven to ten years. Then you will find people who will invest and companies and businesses will do… It is going to depend on the mining legislation, which is a bit up in the air at the moment. If you want to invest in a mine, you have to say ‘am I confident that the environment that the government creates for me will stand the seven to ten year test.’”
Oppenheimer concedes that the battered image of mining, in the land of his birth, has made foreign investors think twice.
“I think that people are looking at South Africa and waiting to see – that’s a bad situation. You want them not to be in wait mode, you want them to be in invest mode. The key thing in South Africa seems to be the creation of jobs. The government task I think should be to do everything in its power to create jobs so that the huge number of unemployed youth we have in the country can get jobs, get wages, fair proper wages and that needs to color every decision they make,”
says Oppenheimer.
As for the man himself, he is throwing himself into a number of philanthropic projects including the effort to save the endangered pangolin. Apparently, the long-tailed, scaly mammal is prone to electric security fences in the bush and is dying out.
If the pangolin survives and corruption dies, surely anything is possible in Africa.

‘Corruption  Is An Extremely Insidious And Dangerous Thing’

From a confiscated briefcase at Heathrow Airport to being lambasted by the press over his business with the tax man, Christo Wiese has no airs about him. Only his gold Rolex watch gives you a glimpse of his wealth.
There is no doubt that Wiese is a formidable businessman, who has made a meaningful impact in the South African retail industry. As he sits in his boardroom—which is larger than his family’s first store—overlooking Industria, Cape Town, he’s either on the phone making arrangements, giving assurances or chatting to his broker. This is a far cry from his childhood in a small South African farming town, a place he calls an oasis.
Wiese’s father was a farmer and businessman in Upington in the Northern Cape, like many in his family before him, armed with basic informal schooling and his entrepreneurial spirit. Wiese is proud when he talks about how his parents never worked for anyone.
“I grew up in a household where that [entrepreneurship] was the way one approached life, which I found was a great benefit to me,” says Wiese.
<div id="attachment_1566" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1566" class="size-medium wp-image-1566" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Lanzerac-Main-Entrance-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />Lanzerac Wine Estate</div>
Wiese shows much affection towards his late mother, referring to her as a woman of great wisdom with a lot of drive, who had a strong influence in his life. She was a housewife who eventually owned her own business too.
Unlike his father, Wiese spent his last two years of high school at the prestigious Paarl Boys High school and moved to Cape Town to study further at UCT. After a year, he dropped out and moved back to Upington to join his father in business.
At 21, Wiese left Upington to study law at the University of Stellenbosch, whose alumni include some of South Africa’s wealthiest: Johann Rupert, Koos Bekker, GT Ferreira and Jannie Mouton. Wiese’s parents co-founded Pep Stores in 1965 and were its second largest shareholders. He worked for the company during his vacations, driving around the country with the major shareholder looking for locations to open new shops.
Wiese graduated in 1967 but returned to the family business instead of practicing law. There, Wiese dealt with administrative duties such as keeping minutes and updating share certificates. He got stuck in it and did what needed to be done.
In 1973, law came calling and Wiese practiced at the Cape Bar until 1979. During this time he bought a stake in a diamond mining company, the largest in South Africa not belonging to De Beers.
A businessman at heart, Wiese bought the controlling stake in Pep Stores from the founder in 1981, at the age of 36, and renamed it Pepkor Limited.
The decision to expand Pepkor’s footprint to Europe in the early ‘90s came about as Wiese realized that international brands would be coming to South Africa to compete with them. Once again, proving to be a savvy businessman, Wiese made the choice to take the competition to the rest of the world, with what he deemed a good formula that could be transferred to developed economies.
“We realized that as South Africa was opening up to the world, the world was opening up to South Africa,” says Wiese.
Pepkor’s business model is simple: high volume, low margin. If you look at the group’s history all the businesses follow this model except Stuttafords. The premium department store caters to the high-end customer and was a default acquisition when Pepkor bought Greatermans Department Stores in 1991. This was not the business the group wanted; their target was the Checkers supermarket chain, Stuttafords was sold a few years later.
Wiese’s Shoprite became the first of the group’s companies to expand into Zambia. The old OK Bazaar chain was bought from the government after being nationalized and run into the ground by the Kaunda government. The chain was rejuvenated and Pep opened in Zambia in 1994.
In 1999, Pepkor delisted from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, at $331.4 million, after being listed for 27 years as Pep Stores. Pepkor had been approached by Brait, a private equity company, which advised them to delist. Brait proposed that Pepkor would do better at that stage as an unlisted entity. Following this, management acquired a substantial stake in the company. Brait owns a 37% stake in Pepkor. Wiese says the group, or parts of it, could be listed in the future.
Pepkor’s success has led it to have 
John Craig and Shoe City in its stable.
As cut-throat as business can be at times, those that are successful have spent years building and maintaining good relationships. Wiese and South African investment millionaire Jannie Mouton go a long way back. The two sit on the board of KWV Limited and Wiese used to sit on the board of Mouton’s PSG Holdings. Mouton has nothing but admiration for Wiese.
“I think what’s important is that he understands risk. He’s not scared to take risks. He believes in himself and he will back it, he’s not scared to raise money for a good business proposition,” says Mouton.
Wiese’s investment strategy is three pronged: get the best possible returns; invest in ethical businesses and remember that investing is a long-term game. This is the philosophy of the chairman of Pepkor, Shoprite, Tradehold and non-executive chairman of Invicta Holdings and Brait SA.
Tradehold is an investment holding company listed on the main board of the JSE, its main interests lie particularly in property in the United Kingdom, which is hoping to expand. Wiese owns around 80% of the company, with a market capitalization of around $137.5 million.
Invicta is an investment holding and management company with a market capitalization of around $770.6 million. The company controls and manages assets of $934 937 and finalized an acquisition in Singapore, its first outside Africa. Wiese owns around 37% of the company.
Wiese feels that the driving force of any entrepreneur should be to build businesses and help people develop. This, he says, is the true measure of success.
“The objective for people like myself is not to see how much money you can make because there’ll always be somebody richer than you. So what the heck?” says Wiese.
“I often say to people that I know a lot of people who’ve made a lot of money in different businesses, in different formats, with different styles but the one golden thread is that to make money takes decades.”
Pepkor is testament to this in its 57 years; Wiese has been part of 47 of them. As the man behind this growth, Wiese points out that it was a step-by-step process that had its ups and downs. His worst knock happened in 1985 when the rand collapsed. The company bled money, when the rand lost 50% of its value in a few months because of its significant dollar exposures. The balance sheet was under strain and the company had to be restructured. Shoprite was listed separately and some of the non-core assets were sold off. In one year, the company went from interest bearing debt of R140 million to having R110 million in the bank, at the time.
Getting out of a corner is something, Wiese says, only experience can teach you.
As a man who has done business across the continent for decades, Wiese calls himself a committed and optimistic African. He feels that Africa is shedding its old image; that a new Africa is emerging. He marvels at how people can still look at the continent with, what he calls, “old eyes”. He says that whenever something negative happens in Africa the “afro-pessimists”, as he calls them, turn it into a catastrophe but if the same were to happen anywhere else, it would purely be a setback. He considers the events at Marikana, where Lonmin mine strikes turned violent, a prime example.
Although Wiese is best-known for his business interests in retail, he has also tested other waters. Wiese was not looking to get into the hospitality industry when he bought the Lanzerac Wine Estate in 1991, on the outskirts of Stellenbosch. With a five star hotel on the premises, Wiese bought it as a new home for his family but as much as they loved the estate they loved their Clifton beach house even more.
Wiese chose not to walk away from Stellenbosch when his family did, simply because the place gave him too much pleasure. The wine estate was run down and the vineyards had been neglected for 25 years. But he saw something in it. Wiese spent a lot of money refurbishing the hotel, replanting the vineyards, building the cellars and developing the property. The magnificent 300-year-old estate was sold in 2012. The billionaire now owns Lourensford Wine Estate in Stellenbosch, bought in 1998.
On the rare occasions when Wiese isn’t too busy buying companies and making deals worth millions, he enjoys hunting, clay pigeon shooting, playing with his dog, catching up with old friends and spending the last three weeks of the year at his beach house.
None of this compares to his private game reserve in the Kalahari. Wiese always dreamt of owning a farm close to where he grew up but never spends more than two or three days at a time there. It’s his way of giving back through conservation, while running it as a business to keep it sustainable.
“If it pays and washes its own face and gives a little of a return on the capital employed, then it is sustainable,” says Wiese.
Wiese is no stranger to making headlines. In 2009, Wiese was stopped by customs official at London’s Heathrow Airport where he was carrying a briefcase filled with just over a million dollars. The money was confiscated and the matter went to court. Wiese insists that he acted on the advice that it would not be an issue. Wiese’s advocate stated that the money was less than what his client made in a week. The courts ruled in his favor and the money returned.
“It’s my money. I didn’t steal it from anybody. I didn’t defraud anybody. It’s my money and it’s certainly my right to do with it as I please,” he declares.
The media criticized the earnings of Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson, who topped the list of top earning executives in 2010, which was released by the Business Times. Basson earned more than $82.7 million that year but dropped in rankings to 20th the following year. He did however earn the largest bonus of $4,398,470 in 2011. Wiese counters that Basson is underpaid for the work he does and all he has produced for Shoprite’s stakeholders. Wiese says it’s too big a job for him to ever be tempted to do it himself.
Shoprite was bought in 1979 for R1 million, with fewer than 500 employees and eight stores. Basson was put in charge and the company is now Africa’s largest food retailer with a reported turnover of more than $9.25 billion for the year ended June 2012. Shoprite has a market capitalization of more than $23.23 billion and 2,033 stores across Africa, including the group’s subsidiaries. Wiese is the largest shareholder of Shoprite.
“I’m not an entrepreneur… You could best describe me as an entrepreneurial financer or investor,” he says.
But he understands entrepreneurs, which is exactly why he thinks so highly of Basson. He has brought others into businesses who are the opposite of Basson. These individuals, however, either didn’t grow the business or ran it down, despite their impressive credentials and promises.
In return Basson thinks highly of his boss.
“Christo Wiese is probably the most respected businessman in South Africa. He has the ability to dissect problems and opportunities without emotions or personal complexities. As non-executive chairman of Shoprite and a close personal friend we not only respect his judgments but also seek his advice,” says Basson.
Another painful media experience for Wiese was about his tax payments. He was reported as owing the South African Revenue Services, SARS, $274.905 million in unpaid taxes. While it’s unlawful to disclose a person’s tax affairs, he says that he doesn’t settle his legal matters in the press and that SARS has not dragged him to court regarding this.
“Personally I don’t have, as an individual, any taxable income because my income comes from my companies and that income comes from dividends, which are not taxable. If I owe you money, sue me,” challenges Wiese.
Wiese’s company Tradehold won a court case against the commissioner of SARS regarding additional assessment of $48,533,200 on the company’s capital gains in 2003.
This newsworthy 71-year-old billionaire is not looking to retire anytime soon. He wouldn’t know what do with himself if he did. He is, however, grooming his eldest son, Jacob (30), to take over the business. Wiese also hopes that both his daughters, one a non-practising lawyer, like her father, and the other a recent graduate from the London School of Economics, will join the family business someday.
“I asked Rob Walton, of the Walton family, whether their children are in the business and he said: ‘No’ and I said: ‘Well, what do you teach your children then?’ and he said: ‘We teach them to be responsible owners.’ And maybe that’s a good thing,” says Wiese.
The next 10 years for the Pepkor Group are said to be very much like the last 10: a continued high growth path focused on plugging into technology.

Tag: De Beers

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