There is a spot of Thailand in a bustling Johannesburg suburb, and its owner, Chef Micky, is giving private dining a whole new meaning.



FAR, FAR FROM THE PADDY FIELDS OF HER HOMETOWN IN Surin, a verdant province in northeastern Thailand also known for its temples and elephant festivals, young Thitiporn Liu flew into Johannesburg one bright promising day in 2004, with nothing more than a business plan in her head, her year-old daughter in her arms and some homegrown spices in her suitcases.



South Africa was a decade-old democracy, just waking up to the prospect of talent jetting in from the other side of the world. But there she was, Liu, lonely in big bustling Berea, a suburb adjacent to the Johannesburg central business district (CBD), setting up a small roadside eatery with nothing but a cheap plastic chair. She laughs at the memory now, when we meet her at her five-table restaurant named Chef Micky’s Thai Dining, in Birnam, next to the swanky Melrose Arch precinct in Johannesburg.



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“But people wanted my food so they still came. At that time, I didn’t have staff and [I was] doing everything myself,” says Liu, popularly known to her loyal patrons today as ‘Chef Micky’.



The moment you walk into her restaurant, you are immediately greeted by the heady scent of spices and incense, and a warm smile from Liu.



“I don’t know how to not feed someone,” she says. “If I can feed you, I like you.”



Born in Surin, surrounded by lotus fields and rice granaries and regaled by ceremonial elephant processions, Liu grew up loving food. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-07-at-09.55.38.png" alt="" class="wp-image-51727" width="273" height="304" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-07-at-09.55.38.png 664w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-07-at-09.55.38-269x300.png 269w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 273px) 100vw, 273px" /></figure></div>



“To us, it is very normal. I would say about 70% of families in Thailand are in the cooking business.”



Having lost her mother at the age of three, her father, now late, influenced and cultivated her culinary skills.



“He would always take me to the best restaurants or take me places to try new things.”



Liu believes that her childhood played a prominent role in influencing her gastronomy which she showcases to her demanding clientele today. She studied home economics in Bangkok, the commercial heart of Thailand, and her loved ones had intended that she would take over the family business, which was incidentally, a restaurant. But little did anyone know that she would go on to create one of her own on another continent.



She started with a loan.



“If I tell you how scared I was to even use the money because I didn’t know how anything works…” Liu recalls about the early days in Johannesburg in 2004. “And I cooked one meal at a time… but my customers would not mind waiting. They would always say ‘oh no, don’t worry, we just want your food, take your time’.”



From a grimy corner of the CBD to Cyrildene, also a Johannesburg suburb, she worked as a chef at the Sai Thai Restaurant. Her skills got her due attention, as she won multiple awards, including the 2008 Dine Award and 2011 RASA Rosetta Award, both of which now adorn the walls of her restaurant in Birnam.



“There was even a point when I served people in my home,” she says, swiping through her phone to show you fond photographs of the private dining experiences she set up for customers in the lounge of her home.



Today, she continues to bring the soothing scent of jasmine rice, the swish of raw silk and the smell of the Surin coast to her culinary repertoire in Africa, which she has perfected over 17 years.



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It is this personal connection that brings discerning diners from near and far to her unpretentious restaurant, even during the pandemic. There are no recipe books here; everything is “made from the heart”.



“I don’t cook my crab curry without thinking of my father who loved crab curry,” she says. “I feel this connection with him and I think that’s what makes my curry a favourite… I know my father is very proud of me.”



Johannesburg boasts over a dozen different Thai restaurants, all of which serve the staple soups, stirfries and seafood. But how is Liu’s menu different? 



First of all, you need to place the order from the menu a day in advance, which is a unique selling proposition by itself. This is to ensure the food, especially the fish, is fresh, flavorful and authentic. In a 2019 review, EAT OUT magazine noted that although Liu’s specialty fish dishes are “understandably pricier”, they are “worth it”.



Liu sits in her small restaurant surrounded by photographs, newspaper clippings and award certificates.



“There is more I have to put up. I just haven’t had the time,” she points out. She stands up to walk out to the modest garden she has created in front of the restaurant.



“It’s also because I only serve fresh ingredients,” she says, deftly cutting stalks of lemongrass that she grows on the muddy patch. People stop by to stare. It is a strange sight on the side of the road but their curiosity does not deter the resourceful chef.



“You can’t serve Thai cuisine without fresh ingredients,” she says, smiling at them.



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A typical day for Liu begins at 6AM, when her 18-year-old daughter goes over the orders she has received on her phone the day before.Her daughter sits in the corner of the restaurant multi-tasking, doing her school work on the one hand as well as organizing the WhatsApp orders for her mother.



Liu’s staff can be seen hovering discreetly in the background, chopping vegetables, fish and meat for the dishes that Liu rustles up herself.



“I know what I want to put in my food. And remember, I cook everything from my heart,” says Liu again, stirring yet another signature dish of hers, a sweet and spicy prawn soup.



A normal day ends at 10.30PM, but she admits weekends are generally busier as people order up to seven dishes per table. The most sought-after items always are her crab curry and black pepper crab.



“People like coming to me for the seafood and I like making it more because it is fresher and that’s important to me.”



You can smell the spices and the fragrant lemongrass as she appears from the kitchen with a hot bowl of the soup she has been stirring up. The fresh prawn floating in the sumptuous broth is pink with perfection.



During the lockdown in Johannesburg, Liu says she missed the full-time action in the kitchen but pivoted to creating pre-packed recipes of some of her dishes for her customers to make at home. ‘This was fun because I got WhatsApp messages from people showing me what they cooked!



Walking out of Chef Micky’s Thai Dining as the late afternoon African sun begins to dip and the din of Johannesburg’s traffic starts to ebb away, you ask if she misses the tranquillity of her hometown in Thailand.



“No,” she says without blinking. “And I will tell you why. I feel like I bring something different here to Africa and South Africa.”

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The Chef Bringing Surin To South Africa

On June 1, CNBC Africa celebrates 13 years of relaying boundless stories of economic growth and prosperity on the African continent. It achieved its objective of changing the narrative and continues to do so with relentless reporting in the time of Covid-19.



There are mixed emotions as we celebrate CNBC Africa’s 13th birthday this year. There is untold joy in the reality that we have accomplished so much in the last 13 years. On June 1, 2007, there was a flutter of activity at Sandown Mews in Sandton in Johannesburg, as hundreds of guests came to witness the launch of the first pan-African business news television station.



The channel was born of a dire need to provide the world boundless stories of economic growth and prosperity on the African continent. All that was reported were stories of gloom, doom and despotic leadership; that was not representative of the paradigm shift of an Africa rising. CNBC Africa, under the ABN Group, achieved the objective of changing the narrative and is today a leading voice in telling the African story of economic prosperity; this is validated as we continue to receive glowing tributes from all captains of industry and policy-makers from across the continent.



This glory has not come without its challenges. The industry has evolved more rapidly and has been impacted by technology and the changing consumption patterns of its customers more than most other businesses. It’s indisputable that good and relevant content will always remain king but in order to remain ahead of the curve, the content also needs to be tailored increasingly to the customers’ (viewers) needs on the one hand and the clients’ (advertisers) needs on the other. While internet-delivered content will continue to grow, blended businesses like traditional TV provide an experience that will remain superior to digital-only businesses, as they have both features. The science of content creation and delivery will always be at the cutting-edge of our business.



The welcome change that we are going to witness is the alteration in the distribution models. Internet-based aggregators are likely to grow exponentially and will herald the decline of the monopolistic and highly inefficient subscription business currently prevalent. With further tariff reductions and alliances with telcos, we will see more value provided to customers through competitive pricing models and an equitable distribution of income to content producers, many of who are impaired by the incongruity of the current subscription model.



The current pandemic (Covid-19) has had a devastating impact on the media industry as a whole but on niche broadcasters in particular. On the one hand, media provides an essential service to all citizens by keeping everyone updated, revenue has all but dried up through this period, threatening the existence of a lot of businesses. We have made a humble appeal to all our advertisers and supporters to continue working with and supporting media companies through this crisis. We cannot succeed in our mission without the support of our viewers, advertisers and stakeholders to whom we remain eternally grateful for their backing over this long journey.



No tribute is complete without a thumping appreciation to our team that has worked endlessly to see this dream become a reality. In all parts of the continent, they have adapted to change, met challenges and continued to give their best under the leadership of Roberta Naicker, Sid Wahi, Chris Bishop, Jean Landsberg, Thameshan Sooriah, Fred VandeVyver and Denham Pons. I salute each one of them for their commitment and hard work.



The current crisis will see us coming out stronger, leaner and ready for the ‘new normal’ that awaits us.



– The writer is Founder and Publisher, FORBES AFRICA, and Co-Founder and Vice Chairman, ABN Group

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The Leading Voice In Telling The African Story

Six years ago a major development was announced in South Africa. Billed as a game changer, it was meant to alter the urban footprint of Johannesburg, Africa’s richest city, forever.



The Modderfontein New City project was launched amid much fanfare, expectation and media hype.



Zendai, a Chinese developer, bought a 1600-hectare site north-east of Johannesburg for the development, which it quickly dubbed as the “New York of Africa”. Early plans showed it was to include 55,000 housing units, 1,468,000 m2 of office space and all the necessary amenities for urban life in the form of a single large-scale urban district. The cost estimate was set at R84 billion.



The developers believed that Modderfontein could function as a global business hub and would become Johannesburg’s main commercial center, replacing Sandton. The project would also change Johannesburg’s international profile by strengthening relations with Asian corporate interests.



But, despite the release of futuristic computer-generated images which led to significant publicity for the project, it was never built. Instead, the land was eventually sold off. Another developer has since begun construction on a much more scaled down project, in the form of a gated-community style housing development.



Modderfontein has faded away from the public consciousness. The story of why it failed has never been adequately told in the media.



Our research, which took place over the course of several years, sought to understand the factors which led to the project’s demise. We also wanted to find out how Modderfontein’s failure relates to the broader African urban context.



We found that the project was hindered by conflicting visions between the developer and the City of Johannesburg. Moreover, unexpectedly low demand for both housing and office space meant the original plan for the project was incompatible with the city’s real estate market.



The project’s trajectory also shows how African “edge-city” developments, which are generally elite-driven and marketed as “eco-friendly” or “smart”, can be influenced by a strong local government with the means and willingness to shape development.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Conflicting interests</h4>



Zendai’s aspirations to produce a high-end, mixed-used development did not fit with the City of Johannesburg’s approach. Rather than a luxurious global hub, the city wanted a more inclusive development – one which reflected the principles outlined in its 2014 Spatial Development Framework.



At the heart of the framework is the desire to reshape a trend that saw capital leave the old central business district for affluent Sandton at the dawn of democracy in 1994. This was accompanied by an upsurge in securitised suburbs further north towards Pretoria, the country’s capital city.



These spatial trends were incompatible with the ideals of South Africa’s new democratic government and its strategy to mitigate the effects of apartheid-era planning. During apartheid, black people were prohibited from living in more affluent areas, which were reserved for the minority white population. Instead, they were forced into sprawling “townships” on the periphery of cities, far from work and economic opportunities.



To this end, the city demanded that Zendai include at least 5 000 affordable homes in its plans. It also wanted to ensure that the development was compatible with, and complemented, Johanneburg’s public transport system. The city was willing to contribute funding for the necessary infrastructure and inclusive housing.



Yet Zendai remained steadfast in its commitment to its vision, eventually deciding against fully integrating the city’s wishes into its planning application. This saw the city draw-out the planning process.



Meanwhile, problems were mounting for Zendai. The owner, Dai Zhikang, was eventually forced to sell his stake in the project to the China Orient Asset Management Company. Rather than continuing with the project, the asset managers sold the land to the company behind the new housing development on the site.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Smart cities in Africa</h4>



Over the last decade, a variety of developments like Modderfontein, including Eko-Atlantic in Nigeria, New Cairo in Egypt, and Konza Technology City in Kenya, have been touted by both public and private sectors as panaceas for Africa’s urban problems. The thinking is that as the developments are disconnected from the existing urban landscape, they won’t be burdened by crime or informality. However, these projects can take badly needed resources away from the marginalised areas of the city.



To make them more palatable to domestic and international audiences, the developments are usually marketed as “smart” or “eco-friendly”.



But these developments can fail at the point of implementation. This is because, as speculative projects, they generally don’t recognise the need to fit in with the wishes of the local authorities or adapt to the existing city. In the case of Modderfontein, the city government had the capability to push back against the developers and, in the <g class="gr_ gr_10 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="10" data-gr-id="10">end</g> tried to shape the project to better fit Johannesburg’s urban realities. &#8211; The Conversation



-Ricardo Reboredo; PhD Candidate in Geography, Trinity College Dublin



-Frances Brill; Research <g class="gr_ gr_5 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="5" data-gr-id="5">fellow</g>, UCL



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What A Failed Johannesburg Project Tells Us About Mega Cities In Africa

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The Sub City: What Lies Beneath Johannesburg

The small-town designer dressing up the rich and famous.

Matome waga Seshoka wants to take African haute couture to the world.
I meet him at his studio in the leafy suburb of Northcliff in Johannesburg. On this Monday afternoon, everything is running behind schedule. First, I am slightly late for the interview, and then, the model is delayed by an hour and the makeup artist has the wrong call-time.
Delays have always played a big part in Seshoka’s entrepreneurial journey.
He came to Johannesburg 14 years ago to study credit management at Technikon Witwatersrand, (TWR), now called the University of Johannesburg.
“It was difficult for my mother to understand this whole fashion thing. She questioned how fashion can be a career. Where we are from, you have to be a teacher, a doctor, or one of those careers. So I went to study credit management,” says the proud Sepedi-speaking designer.
Seshoka says he disliked it. He dropped out three years in. Although delayed, he swapped it for an education in fashion and has never looked back.
<div id="attachment_37600" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37600" class="wp-image-37600 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Antherline-842-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Antherline-842-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Antherline-842-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Antherline-842-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Antherline-842-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Antherline-842-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Antherline-842.jpg 1366w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Matome-waga Seshoka with model, Tholakele Mutjideni, in his studio in Northcliff Johannesburg. Photo by Motlabanna Monakgotla.</div>
<blockquote>“Straight out of school, I started my business. The first few years were a bit hectic, now things are starting to look up,” says Seshoka.</blockquote>
Born and raised in Ga-Matlala, a rural area in Limpopo, 370km from Johannesburg, Seshoka has defied all odds to build a successful fashion brand and dress the who’s who of the entertainment industry.
He named it Antherline Couture, after his mother. She raised three boys as a single parent.
It wasn’t easy. Seshoka had to walk about 45 minutes to school every day.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/05/07/from-football-to-fashion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: From Football To Fashion</a>
At the beginning of his journey, he says he didn’t know where to specialize. He started off doing everything, from street wear to menswear, until he fell in love with African print and haute couture. At the time, African-inspired wedding gowns were in demand. He grabbed the fabric with both hands.
“When I was doing my third year, I received an order for a December wedding. The client saw my work at the Sew Africa fashion show. By the time I graduated, I already had an order. It was a quite a big order and ended up having to ask people that I went to school with to help me, so I hired them. By the time it was done, I had a startup.”
The job paid Seshoka $2,805, enough to buy three sewing machines, one overlocking machine, pay the deposit and rent for a shop and staff salaries for two months.
Kamogelo Rankoko was one of his first employees.
“We were still struggling a little, we used a domestic machine and it wasn’t strong enough for the kind of work we were doing, but we got the wedding done, and they were happy,” says Rankoko.
After this exciting job, more delays. The next three years were the hardest. There were no clients and pockets were empty.
“I ended up having to look for a job, lecturing fashion in parts of Gauteng for a year. With my salary, I could cover rent and staff salaries, because [earlier], I would come back and the lights would be off or the doors would be locked because I didn’t pay rent. If there wasn’t a plan, there wouldn’t be a plan because I was the plan,” says Seshoka.
The big break came when he got his first celebrity client, Tokelo Rantie, a South African national and international football player.
“I remember my first celebrity wedding, I did Tokelo Rantie, then I did Sello Maake kaNcube’s wedding. That’s when people started knowing about us. From there forth, I started doing celebrity weddings,” he says.
The brand blossomed and everybody wanted to work with him.

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The business grew through word-of-mouth and nine years in, it has over 37,000 followers on Instagram and his clients have been named Durban July’s best dressed celebrities for the last four years.
His client list is rich with local and international stars such as Anthony Hamilton, Kenny Lattimore, Oleta Adams, Julius Malema, Nhlanhla Nciza and Khanyi Mbau.
“I met Matome through a friend a year ago; ever since I met him, I have been very loyal to him and he is the only one that dresses me for the red carpet. Matome is one of the people who believed in me when everybody thought I wasn’t big enough of a star to be dressed by them. But he welcomed me into his arms. So it’s Matome or nothing,” says Motsoaledi Setumo, a South African soapie star.
Seshoka’s career may have encountered delays but there is no stopping this small-town lad with international dreams.
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Antherline-876

Taking African Haute Couture To The World

The Nigerian vocalist and agri-preneur on everything from Obama to Mandela and being inspired by nature in South Africa.

On a cold July evening in Johannesburg, Nigeria’s leading vocalist, simply known as Waje, emerges on stage to thunderous applause from a packed room of 200 Africans. They have been selected from across the continent by former American President Barack Obama for the inaugural 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program.
Waje delivers a flawless note-for-note rendition of her trademark performance, which has won her accolades across Africa and secured her a place as one of the celebrity coaches on the The Voice Nigeria talent show unearthing undiscovered vocalists competing for the final prize.
Singing in near operatic fashion, her powerful vocals energize the room in South Africa, turning the night celebrating leadership into an impromptu concert.
For Waje, this performance was significant on two fronts.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/travel/2018/08/23/executive-travel-kwestas-senegal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Executive Travel: Kwesta’s Senegal</a>
As a member of the ONE Campaign, an international advocacy organization of more than nine million around the world taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, she has been a fierce activist in Nigeria, lending her voice to fight for better health. Through her work with the ONE Campaign, she is using advocacy and pop culture to drive that narrative and that is what brings her to Johannesburg tonight, to share the successes of the program.
The second reason for her trip, however, is a lot less selfless.
“My favorite destination at the moment is South Africa because I headlined the Africa Day Concert here and two years ago, I did something with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and I immediately fell in love with the country. I feel it has always taken something from me and I always feel like I am bringing something to the table, so that is why I love South Africa,” says Waje.
Amongst her favorite cities are Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
“I love the weather in South Africa; it is not always too hot. I love that it is Africa but it can compete with anywhere in the world. I think the culture here is deep and rich and I like that no matter how advanced they are with technology, you can still tell a South African either by the way they dress or their accessories. There is still something very African about them.”
Outside her advocacy work, which is her main attraction to the region, it is the warm reception she receives here that has also led to the place becoming a home from home.
<div id="attachment_37271" style="width: 211px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37271" class="size-medium wp-image-37271" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-148715146-201x300.jpg" alt="" width="201" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-148715146-201x300.jpg 201w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-148715146-300x448.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-148715146-600x896.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-148715146-768x1147.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-148715146-686x1024.jpg 686w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-148715146.jpg 1371w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px" />Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa</div>
“I get more of an ovation outside Nigeria so I enjoy performing more outside Nigeria in places like South Africa because it also teaches me to treat myself a little bit more. But I get more when I am here and I think people here love Nigeria a lot so they embrace me, embrace my style and embrace my music so I actually enjoy it.”
This July trip is special to the soulful crooner because it comes at a time when, according to Waje, there is a movement of young leaders from all over the continent drawing from each other’s energy to build the future.
“There is just something magical about this place and its ability to galvanize the younger generation. I think Mandela was the catalyst of that movement and that spirit still lives on. Many times people say young people are the future but the truth is we are the now, we need to start now. We can see the president of France who is so young and the things he is looking to achieve means all young people should start looking forward and making that happen wherever they are,” she says.
It seems Obama also shares her love for South Africa. The first convening of his cohort is in Johannesburg over a five-day period where leaders learn a range of skills-building and leadership concepts to help them impact their communities.
For Waje, her platform drives her to achieve more.
“The glitz and glam is great and people loving your music is great but then what? You have to go into the hearts of people by actually doing stuff for them; that is where true success comes from,” she says.
Traveling has become somewhat of a therapeutic experience for her. As a creative, it helps her overcome writers’ block that affects most songwriters. In addition, her travels have also unlocked new entrepreneurial pursuits.
<div id="attachment_37272" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37272" class="wp-image-37272 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-171579753-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="494" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-171579753-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-171579753-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-171579753-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-171579753-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-171579753.jpg 1654w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Multicolored lighting on Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg city.</div>
“Travel is good because when you travel, you pick bits and pieces of different cultures, which will help you. For a long time, outside of being a musician, I always thought about agriculture but I did not know how I was going to do it. One of the reasons I started my agriculture business was because I realized that nature was something I enjoyed and I did not realize that until I traveled to South Africa,” says Waje.
Her voice has taken her to places far and near where she has performed before kings and presidents. Many may call her lucky but she does not believe in coincidences. It is all part of life’s grand design according to Waje.
A design, which brings everybody together with a common purpose, and for her, that purpose is being a voice for the less fortunate. Luckily, her travels have helped amplify her message.

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Executive Travel: Waje’s South Africa

The Wonders of Rock Art: Lascaux Cave and Africa exhibition is a recreation of the world-renowned Lascaux caves in southwestern France where an estimated 17 000 years ago, humans painted wild animals on the rocks of the caves. For the first time in Africa, the exhibition replicates these outstanding paleolithic masterpieces and the cave itself.
The Nave, seen here, is the exact replica of a chamber or cavern 66 feet long and 23 feet high. In this picture, a viewer peeps into the artwork.
There couldn’t have been a better setting for this exhibition than South Africa, with its own iconic prehistoric art, and famed for its Cradle of Humankind site and the deep, dark Sterkfontein caves in Maropeng.
The exhibition is on until October 1 at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Big Shots is a new section in FORBES AFRICA that captures offbeat moments in business, politics, art and life, using a single image to tell the story with a short blurb. These images throb with life and color.

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Cave Art From 17,000 Years Ago

Worldwide, the statistics on informal economies are as appalling as the conditions of the people in them.
About 61% of the world’s population earns its living in the informal sector, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations. Closer home, in Africa, 85.8% of employment is informal.
For many, this means substandard or inhuman living and working conditions, lack of social protection, unending suffering, abuse and no hope. And sadly, women are the most vulnerable victims in this cycle of pain and penury.
“Of the two billion in informal employment worldwide, over 740 million are women,” says ILO.
With educational opportunities lacking, and rising unemployment and cost of living, the low-income groups are the hardest hit. Women in the informal sector have no choice but to take on the onus as bread winners, compelled to start small businesses or trades for survival.
In the hustle and bustle of the grimy streets of Johannesburg’s Central Business District (CBD), it’s the survival-of-the-fittest-entrepreneur – and for the women, it means fighting every form of injustice.
They turn to the streets to keep their families off them.
Rosheda Muller, President of the South African Informal Traders Alliance, says the hardships female traders experience include isolation, vulnerability when doing cross-border trade, bribery, theft, rape and abuse of all kinds. All this as they try to put food on the table for their families.
“There’s no social protection for our women. We are working towards the formalization of the informal sector; to ensure informal traders have protection, maternity leave, and leave when they fall ill,” Muller tells FORBES AFRICA.
At 5AM on a cold Tuesday morning in Johannesburg’s CBD, this writer witnesses the sun awakening the streets, the immigrant traders and the pigeons flocking to scavenge off the remnants of the night. On Rahima Moosa Street, popularly known as Jeppe Street, the smell of piping hot magwinya (deep-fried doughnuts), pervades the morning air. It’s a filling snack at only R1 ($0.08).
Shops here sell everything from clothes to accessories and hair. Together, they contribute to the sights, sounds and smells of the City of Gold.
“Johannesburg is one of the most diverse places when it comes to informal trading,” Muller says.
In the pages that follow, FORBES WOMAN AFRICA speaks to three female traders from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Limpopo Province of South Africa, on how they have turned these street corners into their business hubs.
Sharon Muteto 
From Harare, Zimbabwe
<div id="attachment_36590" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36590" class="wp-image-36590 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9376-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9376-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9376-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9376-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9376-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9376-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9376.jpg 1366w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Sharon Muteto. Photograph by Motlabana Monnakgotla</div>
<blockquote> “They say a person working on the streets is someone who has no dignity.”</blockquote>
We wait by her tin stall on Jeppe Street. Muteto shares her space with a Malawian man and a Congolese woman. They watch out for each other’s stall at break-time. This time, it’s Jay Jay, the Malawian’s turn to watch Muteto’s stock.
Muteto’s stall is held up with crates, a wooden top and cloth covering. She sells clothes and magwinya. A few minutes later, she shows up, dressed in a woolen winter hat, black sweater and chitenge (African print wraparound). She welcomes us to her humble abode, offering the only chair.
Five years ago, Muteto decided to start her own business on the streets.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2015/07/01/a-phd-from-the-streets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: A PhD From The Streets</a>
“They will say that a person working on the streets is someone who has no dignity,” says Muteto.
The 33-year-old fled Zimbabwe due to the political instability. She had a business selling second-hand clothes in Harare but it failed. That’s when she opted to chase a better life in South Africa. But the barriers bewildered her.
“When I came here, I found out this is also becoming difficult for me. To work and gather up my finances and go back is difficult. I thought, ‘why can’t I just stock here and sell here’?”
Muteto’s first job in Johannesburg was as a saleswomen in an Indian shop. She worked for a pittance; she barely made enough money to send to her 12-year-old daughter in Zimbabwe. And she also had to support a sick mother.
“I knew I was making too much profit for them [her employers] because I know how to sell,” says Muteto.
After a year at the shop, Muteto garnered the courage to set up on her own. Although she has often had to keep criminals from stealing her stock, and deal with harsh weather conditions and low profits, Mutato wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Doing business is in my blood. I am satisfied making my own money, even if it’s small,” she smiles.
Muteto remains hopeful that one day her business will flourish and create jobs for others.
“Women must be very strong. They must sacrifice for their business. They must not lose hope too early because everything has got its own time.
Zanele Langa 
From Maputo, Mozambique
<div id="attachment_36591" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36591" class="wp-image-36591 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC_0175-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC_0175-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC_0175-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC_0175-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC_0175-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC_0175.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Zanele Langa. Photograph by Karen Mwendera</div>
<blockquote>“God gave me this skill to do hair so I love it.”</blockquote>
Five mannequin heads are lined up on a raised wall by a pedestrian walkway on Jeppe Street in the Johannesburg CBD. They are adorned with wigs and weaves of all textures. They all belong to Langa, a self-taught hair dresser from Mozambique.
The 33-year-old speaks fluent Shangaan, a Bantu language similar to Zulu, allowing her to blend in with the locals.
Langa knows the streets of Johannesburg like the back of her hand. But unlike the others, she does not have a permanent stand.
Every 30 days, she makes the five-hour trip to the border to renew her stay in South Africa, a technique many immigrants adopt in order to make a decent living without cumbersome paperwork. It’s a price she is willing to pay.
“God gave me this skill to do hair so I love it,” says the soft-spoken Langa, focusing on a mannequin head, but wary of her surrounds, and the omnipresent policemen.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2016/12/01/pythons-peacemakers-vilakazi-street/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Pythons And Peacemakers Down Vilakazi Street</a>
“They took two wigs of mine last week. We followed them and asked them to bring them back but they didn’t,” she says sadly. The wigs cost about R300 ($24) each.
It’s either fight or flight for these hair traders in the CBD.
Langa has to make ends meet somehow; she had run away from an alcoholic husband and has four children to look after. So she has to be street-smart. During the interview, she ably intercepts passersby, goading them to buy her wares.
Langa hopes to make enough money to one day open her own salon in Maputo, miles away from any intrusive metro policeman.
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Dollen Khashane 
From Limpopo, South Africa
<div id="attachment_36592" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36592" class="wp-image-36592 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9452-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9452-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9452-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9452-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9452-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TLH_9452.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Dollen Khashane. Photograph by Motlabana Monnakgotla</div>
<blockquote>“We sell [on the streets] because there aren’t any jobs.”</blockquote>
Born and raised in a small village in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, Khashane left her home at the age of 21 to seek work in big city Johannesburg.
In 2001, she got her first job in the informal sector as a domestic worker. Nine years later, Khashane decided to become a street vendor.
“You can end up the whole day without selling nothing,” she says when we meet her.
“Like today…yet I will come back in the morning and open my shop again,” she smiles, concealing her disappointment.
Khashane had no idea what she was getting into and sought guidance from her husband who had some experience selling on the streets. They sold socks for a living.
Back then, they didn’t have a stall; they would place their goods on a potato sack and lay them on the concrete street floor. The couple would lose out on thousands each time the police patrolled the area and forcibly removed their goods.
Khashane recalls the pain of having to wake up early, carrying a heavy bag of goods, every day. Their business has grown. Today, they own two stalls between them. She sells accessories, makeup, clothes, underwear, cigarettes and watches.
“When you are selling here in the street they think maybe you are not normal, but all of us went to school. We sell here because there aren’t any jobs,” she says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/homepage/2018/04/16/loud-lonely-streets-life-lagos-hawkwer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Loud And Lonely On The Streets – The Life of A Lagos Hawker</a>
The thoughts of feeding her five children keep her going. Four of them are in Limpopo with her mother while the youngest lives with her. Every day, she drops off her two-year-old son at a crèche.
Next to her stall, two Nigerian men sell fruits and clothes. They keep a close watch for thieves. A block away from us, metro policemen are patroling the street. For Khashane, it’s a sight she knows all too well. It’s time to quickly wrap up, run and return tomorrow.

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No Cutting Corners When It Comes To Business For These Women

About 81 kilometers from Africa’s richest square mile and the concrete jungle that is Sandton, we are on a gravel road that stretches as far as the eyes can see.
It’s a Wednesday afternoon and around us, on this stretch in the tiny town of Meyerton in South Africa, is nothing but dry earth and rolling vistas, until we come upon a signpost that says Rooijakkals Street – it’s an indication we are not lost.
Up further on the rocky road, in the distance, we see a horse. It’s the first tell-tale sign of our destination.
Past an open gate and another electric wired-fence with a gate, we approach the single-storied home of Scott Borland, an entrepreneur and professional farrier, in other words, a smith who shoes horses.
At the door, a lady, his wife, dressed in black, emerges, followed by at least a dozen dogs.
But we are here for the horses.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/homepage/2018/04/10/south-african-horse-industry-potential-billion-rand-market/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The South African Horse Industry: A Potential Billion Rand Market</a>
Borland welcomes us – as we gingerly sidestep the scary canines – and shows us to the four horses in his stable. He says he has been looking after them ever since his children went overseas leaving them in his care.
Borland has been working from home for the last 15 to 20 years, he tries to recall, as we share a bench outside the stable not far from his work truck on the farm.
The gentle afternoon breeze fans his memories.
In 1981, he started his apprenticeship at the Newmarket Farrier School in Alberton, south of Johannesburg. The school shut down 15 years ago because there was suddenly a glut of farriers in the market and not enough jobs.
“I have been around horses all my life,” says Borland, “when I left school, it was a natural progression to move on to the horse industry and that’s how I took up my apprenticeship.”
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<div id="attachment_35947" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35947" class="wp-image-35947 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-892-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-892-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-892-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-892-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-892-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-892.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Borland demonstrates the process of shoeing a horse. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
Horseshoes are metal-fabricated products attached to horse hooves to prevent hoof wear and injuries to the foot. The shoes keep the horses balanced and their feet maintained.
Professional farriers need to be skilled, so Borland has also trained apprentices, been on the South African farrier team representing the country in Canada, and has also shoed horses in Scotland, Turkey and America.
“Horseshoes are probably one of the things that changed the history of the planet,” Borland says grandly, going back in time to when horses were the prime mode of transport.
“There was a man called Henry Burden. He was a Scotsman who moved to New York before the start of the American Civil War, he was an engineer and developed the first machine to mass produce horseshoes in 1835. That machine can produce a shoe per second,” says Borland, with an intent look in his eyes.
He then references the Boer War in South Africa from 1899 to 1902. The reason the Boers used to blow up trains or hijack them were to steal horseshoes from the British, he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/06/04/ready-to-race/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Ready To Race</a>
“The horse industry had about 300 registered farriers in South Africa and a number of unregistered ones as well,” says Borland.
Today, it’s a specialized skill.
Horseshoes are made of different metals: steel – for work, aluminium – for performance, and plastic – for negotiating slippery surfaces.
Borland’s customers are mainly private clients who own horses for both pleasure riding and competition. He also shoes the horses used by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) who have been his clients for the last 25 years.
Is it a lucrative profession to be in, I ask.
“A partner and I have recently started a horseshoe manufacturing plant on this very farm and it’s the only horseshoe manufacturing in the southern hemisphere; prior to that, all horseshoes were imported, so there isn’t really any revenue for the country out of it,” offers Borland; the only other countries producing horseshoes are India, China and Europe.
Borland and his partner started their business, Mustang Horse Shoes, in 2013, producing horseshoes locally and employing three people. They had to mostly learn by trial and error as there was no existing frame of reference for them in South Africa.
A fact they are proud of about the business is that they also sell their products in the coal yards based in the townships. This is where horses are used to pull carriages filled with coal, going street to street selling or delivering it.
<div id="attachment_35948" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35948" class="size-medium wp-image-35948" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-852-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-852-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-852-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-852-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-852-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Horseshoes-852.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />In early times, Horseshoes were initially cast from iron and bronze, were synonymous with good fortune, and even used as talismans. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
“Ninety percent of those shoes are our shoes. We make a very good shoe for their type of work. It’s a hard shoe and provides a lot of grip; most of these horses work on tar,” says Borland.
Mustang Horse Shoes uses rolled mild steel, produces its own plastic and will be using aluminium for its horseshoes.
The company services about 400 horses a month and makes a little over $8,000. The prices for shoeing horses range from $50 to $400 depending on the area and the type of horses they visit. Their business model is a mobile workshop, as they travel to the clients.
“We try to keep our traveling distance down to an 80km radius every day; we probably do 20 horses a day, depending on how far we are traveling,” says Borland.
I have never seen the process of shoeing a horse, except in the American cowboy movies I watched as a youngster, but Borland was surely able to throw more light on his unusual skill.
But now, each time I hear the clip-clop sounds of the JMPD horses, I know them to be of the horseshoes made by a humble farrier on a farm far from the sights and sounds of Johannesburg.
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The farrier who shoes horses for the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department

It’s a hot summer’s day in Sandton, Johannesburg. As we meet, the sun blazes bright like Titan’s fiery wheels. Brightness has played a big part in Johan Botes’ journey to entrepreneurship. On this day, the future is even brighter; he has just opened an office in Fourways, Johannesburg, 254 kilometers away from Mokopane, in northern Limpopo, where he took his first breath in 1962.
“I am so happy that the company is growing from strength to strength and most importantly providing jobs for young people who deserve every opportunity,” he says.
Botes employs 55 permanent staff and 12 contractors in five countries. The average age is 27. The company merges accounting and IT to make businesses quicker and reliant on fewer staff.
“The drive and energy of our team is one reason we’re growing so fast. We recruit entrepreneurial, self-motivated people at a young age and embed them into our business. They’re adaptable, quick to learn and ready to work overseas independently. We’re very strategic in our recruitment process – we’ll only take people with the right cultural fit, business acumen, and energy level to succeed in a global workplace,” he says.
Building a successful business was hard and sweaty. For three years after high school, Botes came face to face with rifles and drill in the army as a conscript.
With teachers for parents, he was inspired to save for university fees. Hard work earned him a career as a chartered accountant, working for Deloitte, before going into private practice as an auditor and then returning to Deloitte for a five-year stint. Here he learned about the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market. Botes swapped his well-paid job to start Consilia Technology Investments – a company that provides technology for business – in 2012.
“First we started the business as Consilia Consult; after a year, we realized we are not a consulting company but a technology business and we changed it to Consilia Technology. We can take all your database services; optimize it to make the business work,” he says.
According to Botes, the management information system integrates areas such as planning, purchasing, inventory, sales, marketing, finance and human resources. He started the business after realizing that clients in South Africa were finding the existing high-end ERP packages expensive and complicated. He decided to build a business around Sage ERP X3 software – a solution designed to be more flexible and affordable.
“Our view is that accountants are a dying breed. Systems are taking over. You can automate almost all the accounting systems in a business today through, for example, barcoding and scanning. It changes the fundamentals of business completely. One of our clients is a logistics company that requires daily costs per vehicle everyday per component such as tyres, fuel and maintenance. We give them a report per vehicle in different categories so they can see which vehicles are making profit, without having to capture one thing. Everything is available on a phone, iPad or computer. You can sit in front of a TV and authorize payments,” he says.
Botes says that the immediate priority for Consilia is to bed down its businesses in its new offshore territories before looking at other markets.
“We’ve been cash-generative since the start and have not had to take on debt to grow our business. We believe that if we offer a skill that is in demand worldwide, and do good work at a good price, we’ll continue to grow strongly in the years to come.”
He says there is a market for businesses like his in the continent and entrepreneurs should take note and keep employees smiling.
“As a young person, to start up a business and get funding is difficult. Since we started, 21 people have gotten shares. They haven’t paid for them yet but they pay from dividends. They have three years to pay up. We give them a discount of 80 percent. If you show someone that you trust them and you give them something, they become involved and want to see the business grow. One of the young guys said to me no one in his life has ever given him anything,” he says.
The future seems bright for Botes.

‘Accountants  Are A Dying Breed

It’s a warm day in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. As we park, an empty can dances merrily down the street, leaving a sticky trail behind. The streets are packed with the ambitious, in the city of gold. Mpendulo Dlamini wants to leave a big mark with his little kingdom – Umbuso Lubricants.
“I love the name Umbuso because it is kingdom in siSwati and I want to create a kingdom for myself. It doesn’t matter where the business is, but people want to know where you are located because when you say you work from home, sometimes people don’t take you seriously,” says Dlamini.
The lubricants company is Dlamini’s hope of a multi-million-dollar empire.
“I got tired of reporting to a superior and I had to make a decision to be my own boss. I had always had a dream that one day I will start my own company. Entrepreneurship is what Africa needs because it creates more jobs and contributes positively to the economy.”
Dlamini quit his job as a banker at one of the world’s largest banks for this dream. It was a risk.
“It is very difficult when you start your own company and you don’t know how things will go. There is no longer the comfort of a monthly salary to pay the bills and take care of the family. It was tough but sometimes you have to stick with the business even though you have nothing. It takes time for anything to grow,” he says.
“When we started, we wanted to sell diesel and lubricants but diesel was a bit problematic and we have since stopped and are concentrating on lubricants alone.”
The lubricants market is segmented into different sectors, mainly automotive, industrial power and general industrial. Dlamini hopes to grow his business to be a major supplier to big companies.
“I have had an opportunity to supply a lot of products before. Someone wanted a lot of lubricants from me but I didn’t have enough money for stock and I lost him as a client. As a banker, I had a lawyer and a support system. I don’t have that now. Everything becomes a hustle because I have to do things myself but that is the beauty of business. You can be put down but you can always rise again and that keeps me going until you get to where you want to be.”
Like many who come to Johannesburg to make money, Dlamini might just make it as a king of oil.

From Investment Banker To Oil King?

It’s a cold winter day in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Chills run through the body like a quiet ghost, coming and going, making your hair stand on end. The cold has played a big part in Oyama Dyosiba’s journey to entrepreneurship. On this day, he is feeling a little under the weather; despite this his personality is like hot chocolate and marshmallows on a cold day.
As we meet, he sips hot water and feels the warmth of success born of years of struggle. The 31-year-old was one of GQ’s 2014 best-dressed men, is the founder of Oyama Management Agency; a social entrepreneur, and actor.
This is a world away from the cold and unwelcoming arrival in Johannesburg from East London in the Eastern Cape province. He was bewildered and penniless.
The problem was he had nowhere to go. So, it was a cold bench in Johannesburg’s Park Station.
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“I didn’t know anyone or where I was going. Every morning, I would sit on the benches and pretend as if I’m waiting for a bus. I would go to the bathroom, wash my face, brush my teeth and then go and look for a job. I wanted to be here so I had to be strong and resilient,” he says.
Dyosiba landed a call center job and moved into an apartment in Braamfontein. In the months following this breakthrough, he scored a full time job as a marketing manager for City Varsity, a media and art school.
After a few years, he lost motivation and was unhappy in the job.
“I started thinking that I didn’t want to work for anyone. If I can turn City Varsity to what it is today surely I can do something of my own. That’s when I decided to start my own business.”
There was soul searching and research. Out of it came Oyama Management Agency in 2010.
“Starting a business is not easy. There are a lot of struggles, hard work and effort needed in order to be successful,” he says.
Thinking he had made it was dangerous. A second tragedy struck and he found himself homeless for the second time in four years thanks to his new business venture.
“I lost my apartment because the business was not making money as often as I needed it to. Sometimes clients didn’t pay on time and I was in trouble.”
With nowhere to go again, he moved into a tiny storeroom and slept on boxes.
“It was difficult. I put my things in the small storeroom of a building I used to stay in. The building manager was kind enough to let me keep all my things there. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom at night. I was forced to hold it in, [urine] in a container or run to the roof of the building,” he says.
“People in Johannesburg only like people when things are well. I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me so I pretended as if everything was okay.”
The pressure of survival in the big city and the confines of a storeroom did not stifle his dream.
“No one ever knew I had no place to stay. I even hosted the launch for my company and I was hungry in the stomach but my brain was full of hope.”
“I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t about to stop.  I would go to a gym, close by, to bath every single day and no one knew. If you have a vision you have to keep going no matter what.”
Hard work prevailed and five years later he has swapped the storeroom for an apartment in Kyalami, north of Johannesburg.
Dyosiba not only hosts events packed tighter than two coats of paint but he is a businessman and TV actor. He has featured in TV shows such as ‘Tempy Pushas’ and ‘My Girl D’.
Oyama Management Agency has 37 fulltime employees and many more on contract.
When the agency first started, it concentrated on model and artist management. The company has grown over the years to include event planning and hosting events such as polo matches, brand activations, fashion shows and the music festivals.
He works with models such as Devon Muir and fashion designers who dress celebrities such as Weza Solange, Nomuzi Mabena and Dineo Moeketsi.
He knows the industry and is streetwise.
“I have turned down five clients this month alone because where there is no money there is no Oyama. In business you have to be strict. If you want the best job then you have to pay for it,” he says.
He counts Vodacom, Coca-Cola, MTN, beMOBILE and Peroni among clients.
“When clients trust you and know that you will deliver, it becomes easier because you get to a point where you don’t have to approach them and they approach you,” he says.
Fashion designer Quiteria Kekana of Quiteria&amp;George says Dyosiba is a shrewd businessman who never gives up.
“There are a lot of artists he works with. He also organizes a lot of events around Africa and they are always a success. He hosted a Fashion Without Borders event and people in the industry were all talking about it. It was a success, a big success.”
According to Kekana, Dyosiba’s models score big contracts and some of them appear on national TV.
If nothing, Dyosiba’s story proves that with a brain full of hope you can fill the stomach, no matter how cold it is on the bench.

“I Was Hungry In My Stomach But My Brain Was Full Of Hope”

Its 4PM on a Friday in Johannesburg and the traffic is building up. All of Johannesburg is going home, but the night is young for Cindy Mashao, a Uber driver. She picks us up from our Sandton offices, and lets us ride with her.
Uber is a technology company connecting riders with drivers through a smartphone app. Mashao owns a hair salon in Alexandra, a black township in Gauteng, but now, as part of the Uber network, she has, like her counterparts worldwide, the opportunity to be the CEO of her own taxi.
Mashao was one of Uber’s first female drivers in South Africa when she joined the network late last year. In just under two years of its operation in South Africa, 4% of Uber’s drivers are women. In the United States (US), the corresponding number is 14%.
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“Given that the US as a country is significantly bigger than South Africa and Uber has been in the US for five years, South Africa being at this level is really exceptional and the growth possibilities are very exciting,” says Samantha Allenberg, Uber’s spokesperson.
Mashao expertly navigates the back roads to get out of grid-locked Sandton at this peak hour.
“I stay far away from Sandton [as far as possible] when I’m working,” she says. With most businesses operating in this affluent part of Johannesburg, traffic is always a nightmare.
Mashao is a live wire and brimming with stories. As we drive to her usual spot, which is a petrol-station in Morningside, she tells us that drunk customers are her favorite because they make driving exciting and the ride eventful. There is never a dull moment. Her passengers in the morning are usually stressed office-goers, so there is little room for friendly banter.
Its 4.30PM and we start in Morningside at the end of the ever-busy Rivonia road where she waits for ride-requests.
“Morningside is like home for me. It’s where I started,” she says as she greets other drivers, mostly male.
Listening to the radio on the commute all day ensures she’s clued in on the latest music and current affairs.
It helps her find common ground with her passengers. She learns a lot from them too.
“I got a recipe for beer from one,” she tells us excitedly.
Her phone has been unusually silent and we decide to drive around the area. She shows us her Uber app, there are four other cars in the area.
“You’ve got to be sneaky and clever to get requests,” she says cheekily.
An alert goes off on her phone and we’re off to pick up her first customer, in Bryanston.
Our first rider tells us of his amusing Uber mishaps as we drive to the upmarket Sandton City mall. He had once drunkenly requested an Uber van, which seats six and is used for larger groups, only to be greeted by a very confused driver looking for the rest of the passengers. We drop him off and Mashao jokingly tells him not to make the same mistake tonight.
We head to Mashao’s usual Friday night spot at The Waterford Shopping Centre in Fourways. As we pull into the center, a request goes off on her phone and we’re on the move again.
It’s 6PM and we pick up a teacher on his way to a school play. He’s in high spirits after a long week. “It’s Friday night so I thought why not? Uber always has your back,” he says.
There’s a power cut and the area is dark but Mashao expertly maneuvers through the traffic.
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The calm and collected Mashao says her scariest moment was picking up a passenger from a wedding at The Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site located 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. It was 2AM and the road to the venue was a dirt track.
The Uber app had alerted the passengers about the driver’s profile. Seeing that they had a female driver arriving to pick them up, they had a bouquet of flowers waiting for Mashao.
“It made it worth it,” she says.
We stop at a garage in Honeydew as she reapplies her lipstick land freshens up in the restroom. It’s the only break she has had. We’re in a quiet area and there are no alerts on her phone.
Its 7PM and we head to Melville, a bustling area cluttered with bars and restaurants.
She makes a sudden U-turn as she receives a request. We fetch two 12-year-olds on their first date. We get off as they get in.
They hold hands in the back seat and steal coy glances at each other. We agree to meet Mashao in Melville after she drops them off.
“Fridays are usually busy, you guys must be bad luck,” she says with a laugh. It has been quiet but every moment is an adventure for Mashao.
The night is still young, filled with umpteen possibilities.

Uber-driver-080

Friday Evening With A Female Cab Driver

Hardship was clear before a shot was aimed at a basket at Wembley Arena in Johannesburg. This should have been a great day for basketball in Africa. The pride of four nations battling it out in bright-colored kit. As they trained, the South African players, who hoped the game would pay their way, were not happy. Aside from a lack of money, they were told to play at their own risk.
Contracts said players would be liable for their own medical expenses, or death, or loss of property. Each was to get a $336 package for the camp, an extra $168 if they reach the final and $168 for winning. The money was not in the contract and the players had to ask.
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But, after two days of negotiations, the management failed to broker an agreement. They sent aggrieved players home and scrambled for a second-string team.
Neo Mothiba, one of the senior players with more than 10 years in the national team, was among those sent home. Only three, out of 15, returned.
“We were emailed contracts on March 13 at around 4PM and we were to sign and hand them in upon our arrival on Saturday (March 14). I went through the contract and I was obviously not happy with the clause that says there was no medical insurance and there was no clarity how much we (were to) get paid,” says Mothiba.
He denies the players asked for more money.
Ali Mokoena, the Deputy President of Basketball South Africa (BSA), after long deliberations, agreed to modify the medical aid clause, scratching it out and writing ‘full paid’, in pen.
“But I wouldn’t sign a contract written by hand, I work with contracts all the time. And even worse, they wanted us to sign there and then,” says Mothiba.
Mothiba, whose mother is a lawyer, says his contractual battles with the organization dates back more than a decade. He says he’s fed up.
“Last year November, the team went to Bulawayo for All Africa Games qualifiers but unfortunately I was left out because I questioned the contract and how much I was going to get paid. I work and I have a business on the side, I can’t leave everything behind for something I don’t know. I need to be clear with what I commit myself to,” says Mothiba.
Mothiba says BSA merely tweeted that the players were suspended. He is concerned this dispute could hurt his day job playing for Tshwane Suns and his training of youth in Pretoria.
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Solomzi Ngonelo, a manager of the Duzi Royals club in South Africa’s Basketball National League (BNL) and who also runs an amateur team in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, was one of negotiators for the players. He corroborates Mothiba’s claims.
Ngonelo says in a separate meeting, on the second day of the camp, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula promised to get to the bottom of the problem and admitted the players were being treated unfairly. Despite this, Mokoena went ahead and called off the camp the next day.
“A player, Lucky Loate, was a victim when he was injured at the All Africa Games qualifiers in Madagascar in 2011. He needed an operation on his ankle but was given the run around by BSA until he gave in… basketball players need to stand together. This is bigger than basketball, it is a matter of principle,” says Ngonelo.
BSA does not offer long term contracts, players sign up per event. There has never been a fulltime coach. George Makena of Tshwane Suns was appointed coach for this tournament.
The furore ignited when players went to a national radio station to air their grievance.
Solly Malatsi, a member of parliament who is in the sports and recreation portfolio, listened and contacted the players. He wrote to his chairperson, Beauty Dlulane, and South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) executive officer, Tubby Reddy.
“Young professional athletes have been victimized and bullied for simply asking to be treated fairly… It is totally unacceptable the national team players are (treated) this way by their own federation. The risk of injury is a serious threat to the career of athletes. The federation should at all times cover this. It is common practice in other sport codes,” Malatsi wrote in the letter.
Reddy, in a reply, says Sascoc was investigating. BSA was restructuring, after Sascoc placed it under administration, because it was found to have financial mismanagement, he says.
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“It would appear that as a result of this, the current executive of BSA was not prepared to place the association at financial risk again, and thereafter withdrew the selection of the individual members concerned, and re-selected a further group of players to represent the association and the country in this tournament,” says Reddy.
This dispute is a small part of a bigger and more depressing picture for basketball in Africa’s second biggest economy.
Graeme Joffe, a senior commentator in South Africa and former CNN sports presenter, also weighed in.
“Surely, the players had every right to ask for those amendments. Why should any athlete have to pay out of their pocket if injured when representing the country? But the bully boys of South Africa basketball didn’t like to be challenged,” he says.
Sibongile Fondini, a BSA executive council member and provincial administrator in Port Elizabeth, a city in the east coast of South Africa, argues the sport in his province is still amateur and lacks sponsorship.
“The fact that we managed to host the event is a sign we are progressing but there are so many challenges in our way. A SuperSport program Siyadlala is piloting a basketball broadcasting program in the Western Cape and Gauteng provinces. I hope that reaches out to other provinces and the sport will surely grow as well,” says Fondini.
Joffe disagrees.
“Just drive through Port Elizabeth and see what most of the basketball courts are used for these days. Certainly not basketball. Sunsport (a basketball training program) reported, as of March 31, BSA had accumulated losses amounting to R5.7 million (around $482,000) and the association’s total liabilities exceeded to the tune of the same amount. Sascoc were left to probe the missing funds,” says Joffe.
A former BSA president and politician, Malesela Maleka, admitted in 2012 that the association was bankrupt but complained that the national lottery – which funds many South African sports – did not respond to a BSA application for money two years before.
In June 2013, before the sports and recreation portfolio committee in parliament, BSA said a lack of credibility, poor leadership, low morale among players and dysfunctional provinces were among their problems. It was then $500,000 in the red.
All four teams in Johannesburg admitted their fair share of financial problems. Nigeria’s coach, Sani Ahmed, and his captain, Olumide Oyedeji, lamented the lack of money but did not want to say more. At least the South African players are free to speak.
Nigeria, called D’Tigers, won the tournament, beating Mozambique 72-59 in the final. South Africa was third and Kenya last. If it was an administration tournament maybe South Africa would have come last.

Basketball Bully Boys

Five minutes, we are told, is all we will get with Dr Deepak Chopra, and there is a gaggle of journalists waiting to meet him, one by one, at the Michelangelo in Sandton, Johannesburg. The ballroom where he is seated, on a lone high-backed, jacquard-print chair at the far end, is somehow, unwittingly, reminiscent of the private durbar of an Indian guru. But the Los Angeles-based Chopra says he is no Indian mystic – “I do not buy into labels”. He is unassuming in a black shirt, jeans and red trainers, and has a calm, gentle voice:
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<h4>The New York Times has called you ‘a controversial new age guru’. Why controversial?</h4>
I wouldn’t have a career without controversy. If nobody criticizes you, you go unnoticed. I owe my career to my critics, I think of them as my best friends.
<h4>People have accused you of selling false hopes and that your methods are unscientific. How do you react?</h4>
I used to react [at one time], but not anymore. Over the last 35 years, I have been in a way vindicated. There are newer sciences like neuroplasticity and epigenetics, and the mind-body connection is well-established. My courses are recognized by the American Medical Association. I have a faculty position at the Medical School in the University of California. I lecture once a year at Harvard, we have medical students coming for training, the Chopra Center University California is recognized…
You use quantum mechanics for healing. How has that been accepted?
It’s very controversial [and] very highly criticized, but I am rewriting and updating quantum healing now after 30 years because of the new science. Everything I said before is true but there is more science.
<h4>The brain seems to now be a focus in management discussions. Why?</h4>
Because of the findings that you can wire your brain for optimum wellbeing and leadership. You can learn through various techniques mindfulness, self-awareness, contemplation, meditation…you can rewire your brain in a way you feel more connected, but you can also harness intuition, insight, creativity, imagination and leadership skills.
<h4>What about prayer and spirituality in wellbeing?</h4>
When your mind is quiet, and with focused awareness, you can harness the power of intention. What people call prayer I would call focused awareness. There is a chapter in the Yoga Sutras (sacred Indian text) of Patanjali that deals with that. It’s called Dhyan, Dharna, Samadhi – dhyan is meditation, dharna is focused awareness and samadhi is transcendence.
When is emotional and financial wellbeing truly achieved?
Ten percent of your daily happiness experience comes from your bank account, 50% comes from your attitude to life and the remaining comes from the daily choices you make…People in Cuba are more happy than the people in the United States. Because when people focus on relationships, they are much happier.
<h4>Do you see more of that now?</h4>
No [shaking head]…less and less. On their dying day, they would say I wish I had worked one extra day and made more money.
<h4>What is your own net worth?</h4>
If you know your net worth, then you are not wealthy enough. Honestly, I don’t look at my bank statements, I have never seen one. My wife and accountant take care of everything, and they make sure all my taxes are paid. I only carry $300 in my pocket, one credit card and have $30,000 in my bank account. I don’t need more than that for my needs.
<h4>What do you have planned for the year ahead?</h4>
I have written 81 books, and the next is a book of fiction [released in March], called The 13th Disciple. I have done 12 fiction books, out of which four were New York Times bestsellers. I have a book [coming up] at the end of the year called Super Genes; it’s a book about how you activate your genes for optimum wellbeing.

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