Seminal is an odd word. It is a late Middle English word, from the old French, seminal or Latin seminalis, from semen, ‘seed’. Modern English has it meaning ‘a work, event, moment or figure strongly influencing later developments.’
Robert Kennedy’s visit to South Africa was seminal to my life, strongly influencing my later development.
Back in 1966 I was virulently anti-apartheid, a position difficult to explain to modern youth as it seems so obvious, ho hum, of course you were. But in those days most of South Africa’s whites thought you were a terrorist, communist or even a landsverraier (traitor) if you suggested blacks should get the vote. Especially in the Free State where I was born, grew up, went to school, matriculated in 1965.
When Bobby came to South Africa, I was fresh out of school, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, desperate to hear an American opinion of our politics. So I went to the airport to meet him, then listened intently when he spoke on campus. Please understand, I felt alone in a sea of white people who thought only whites should vote, run the government, have privileged jobs, use the beaches, walk on the pavements, travel first or second class on the railways. And never, ever, should white people mix with other races. Seems strange that so many people could live contentedly with such absurd beliefs, but trust me, they did.
And really, what could I, a nerdy-looking boykie from the Free State, in my first year at university, do to change it?
Robert Kennedy, after his rapturous welcome from students, started off:
“I came here because of my deep interest and affection for a land, settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which once imported slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage.
“I refer, of course, to the United States of America.”
Sustained laughter. Great start. But not seminal. Towards the end of his speech, in which he said South Africa could lead the world, he said the words now carved in stone over his grave at Arlington:
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
It changed my life.
Suddenly I thought perhaps my small contribution could make a difference. I didn’t have to change the whole world, did not have to eat the whole elephant myself, just do my bit, piece by piece, and each time I’d make a difference.
Helen Suzman’s famous report-back meetings to her Houghton constituency after South Africa’s parliamentary session were also seminal, making me believe there were others who believed as I did. I was not alone.
Time and time again I would go to the Kennedy speech when first I became a political journalist, and then in the turbulent 1990s when I edited The Star. I suspect had I not gone to that speech, not been inspired, I may have been a lesser editor of what was then Johannesburg’s biggest paper. The words guided me when times were dark and no light could be glimmered at the end of the tunnel. Every act counted, I told myself and, eventually, told my reporters, every single act that could bring down the awful edifice of apartheid.
They interviewed me for the movie A Ripple of Hope and asked me to read the relevant bits from the speech. I tried, but each time choked up, although it was four decades after I had first heard it.
At the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr, Bobby said: “Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”
He would have made a great president, Bobby. Humour, intelligence, compassion, a way with words and that special Kennedy magic.

A Ripple Of Hope At A Time Of Despair

On a rainy day in East London, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, boxing legend Vuyani Bungu is at the Downtown Boxing Gym. Always wearing a charismatic smile on his face, he looks around the walls covered with pictures of local boxing greats; he spots a photo of himself posing with his entourage, holding a trophy. Bungu looks long and hard and says “the good old days”.
The contrast is as bleak as this winter’s day. Bungu’s best day was 16 years ago on a spring day in London. Bright lights shone that night and over 10,000 Londoners were cheering, some jeering, inside the Olympia London. With all the pre-match hype, viewers were glued to their screens around the world. “Viva Bungu Viva!” praised traditional poet Zolani Mkiva, who had flown in from the Eastern Cape as Bungu entered the ring after a year and a half on the sidelines. Outside the ring, Londoners greeted him with hostility.
In the blink of an eye the atmosphere came to life; Londoners shouted “Naseem! Naseem!” as the defending champion ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed hovered over the crowd on a leopard-print magic carpet on wires. He was welcomed by Puff Daddy, as the hip hop artist was then known, as he landed ringside; that’s as cool as it gets. The bell rang, Bungu fought with his famous slouch stance connecting with infrequent punches that were no match for Hamed’s reflexes. A powerful left jab from Hamed sent Bungu to the canvas and referee Joe Cortez stopped the fight in the fourth round. Bungu’s eight-year unbeaten run was over.
“Naseem caught me, never in the history of my boxing career had I been knocked out and not known where I was,” says Bungu.
For Bungu the fight was a painful end to a painful dance with his promoter as he reached the peak of his career.
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“I sat for a year and a half not getting fights, you know promoters work in different ways, and then I got a chance to fight Paul Ingle for the IBF featherweight title in 2000,” he says.
While preparing for a fight with Ingle, his promoter Rodney Berman had negotiations with Hamed’s camp for a fight. Hamed’s representatives agreed, and replaced Ingle with their fighter.
“There was talk of fighting Naseem while I was still active, bear in mind in 2000 I was getting old and spent a year and a half not fighting. I got the fight; they fired my trainer and said he was drinking a lot,” says Bungu. “I knew very well the reason behind that but unfortunately I cannot dwell on it. I don’t want to go deep but it was not because he was drinking. Sometimes, these days, people sue you.”
Bungu says he wasn’t measured for the kit he wore for the Hamed fight. He kept quiet even as he couldn’t wear a protector because it didn’t fit his tight pants.
“That fight turned me off. I just went there because everything was already done,” says Bungu.
“Things went bad after the Naseem fight, you know when you come from a poor background like mine, in those particular years, I knew nothing about tax and the taxman caught me. I nearly lost everything. That’s when my marriage started to break. Tax caught me and took everything,” says Bungu.
Manager and trainer Mzimasi ‘Bra Mzi’ Mnguni had been with Bungu all his fighting life. He was at the iconic Sisa Dukashe stadium in Bungu’s hometown of Mdantsane when the boxer got his first professional fight and was nicknamed ‘The Beast’ by the crowd after they were reminded of the powerful punches of Ugandan John Mugabi who went by the same moniker.
With affection and respect, Bungu frequently refers to his mentor as ‘Bra Mzi’. However, Bungu was disappointed by Mnguni’s handling of his finances. Mnguni signed the deals while Bungu focused on his punches.
“When you don’t know something, and the people who are supposed to be telling you something are not willing to tell you, you feel like you are alone in a cage, they just leave you there. Though I don’t blame anyone, life goes on. I felt betrayed by them anyway,” says Bungu.
He never argued with the money that was put on his table after a fight. Bungu, with a record 13 IBF super bantamweight title defences, was never present during negotiations for a match. According to reports, he owed the taxman R900,000 ($67,000). Although he paid an accountant R20,000 ($1,500) to get him out of trouble, he was alone.
“People thought I was making millions, I never saw a million in my career. From my defences, if I can tell you I had R500,000 in my pocket I would be lying to you. That’s how boxing is, that’s the bad side of boxing.”
“After a fight, I would have R400,000, then deductions poured in, I was left with R200,000. Then you would hear sayings that there were no sponsors for a fight and all that, there were lot of excuses and I could not argue with them because it’s an area that I don’t know,” says Bungu.
Mnguni, however, says he always tried to get the best deal for Bungu.
“I paid [my fighters] according to the rates of South Africa, but once they got to international stages, I didn’t promote them. The only thing I did was negotiate on their behalf. I believe I tried to get the best for them,” says Mnguni.
In the gym, Bungu throws a few punches in the air and immediately catches his breath. Still wearing his charismatic smile, he gazes into the distance.
It all started in 1992 when stablemate and friend, Welcome Ncita, lost his IBF world title to American Kennedy McKinney and lost again in a rematch in 1994 in Texas. While in Texas, Ncita and Bungu, who was campaigning for fights abroad, were introduced to McKinney by their trainer. To Bungu’s astonishment, McKinney was helplessly drunk.
“I had a small prayer to myself and said, you know what God, we’re poor in South Africa, we can’t fall prey to someone who is wasting his talent, if one day I could get a chance to fight this guy, I would beat him,” recalls Bungu.
Four months later, Bungu received international recognition when he beat McKinney with a unanimous decision to win the international bantamweight title. The match was described by The Ring magazine as “the upset of the year”. Bungu received a call from South Africa’s newly-elected democratic president Nelson Mandela to mark the fact that he was the first boxing champion of a free South Africa.
“He wanted to see me, I couldn’t believe it. He said I am an asset of this country, that’s why I went on defending the title for this country 13 times,” says Bungu.
It all fell apart after the fight with Hamed in London. The next two years were spent without a fight, he divorced, and was in financial arrears; the beast was on its knees. Bungu’s last fight was in 2005 against Thomas Mashaba, in a tournament staged by Mnguni. He lost on points and decided it was a cue for him to bow out.
“I knew very well they were kicking me out of boxing, for me that was it. It was hard quitting because the people who you thought had your back weren’t on your side anymore. [My] manager and promoter just turned their back on me,” says Bungu.
Ncita was welcomed by scores of supporters in his hometown of East London when he became the first boxer from the Eastern Cape to win a world title. Ncita suffered the same treatment from his manager and promoter as Bungu.
“Their focus is to make as much money as they can and when your career is fading, they use someone else to make money. They don’t teach you to save it,” says Ncita
For Ncita, this all culminated before the McKinney fight.
“What happened there before the journey to that fight, it made me not be there psychologically. Physically I was ready for the fight, but psychologically I was not myself. I already took a decision before the fight, I told myself I am done with boxing,” says Ncita.
Mnguni says that Bungu and Ncita can only blame themselves for their financial difficulties.
“I used to say to both of them, if you were workers you would get this kind of money when you are 60 years old, but you guys get it at 25. I said they should give it to investors. To them it was like they should use it today, but it was for the next 40 years. To them it was like it is the end of the world.”
At some point, Ncita owned a Steers fast food franchise but financial difficulties forced him to sell after eight years.
In a quiet neighborhood in Rosebank, Johannesburg, Golden Gloves promoter Rodney Berman enjoys a strong cup of coffee in his office painted with boxing greats from Mdantsane, including Bungu and Ncita.
“In my 39-year boxing history, my two favorite fighters of all time are Welcome Ncita and Vuyani Bungu, not just because of their boxing ability but because of their humbleness,” says Berman.
With confidence, he states his partnership with Mnguni is the most successful in South Africa. He constantly gives credit to Mnguni for handling Bungu’s fight with Hamed. Berman says he never signed a written contract with Mnguni because their relationship is built on trust. He says had Bungu won the fight with Hamed, life would have been rosy for the boxer.
“Vuyani froze that night, if he had beaten Hamed he would have been the hottest property in world boxing,” says Berman.
He confirms the purse Bungu received after the fight was R2.5 million (around $190,000) and says he was convinced Bungu would have won the fight. Berman says he was never aware of the problems Bungu faced and he is unaware of the real reason his personal trainer Terry ‘Baba’ Stotts was fired.
“Nobody ever came to me and said ‘Rodney, I have these problems.’ I was never aware of anything,” says Berman.
“Vuyani was just a too nice a person, if you look at it logically he should have phoned me and said ‘Rodney I like Baba Stotts, this is the man I want to train me, I don’t want him fired’. Then it would have ended the whole story.”
Berman says he was aware of the financial difficulties Ncita and Bungu faced after they retired but refuses to believe Mnguni could steal money from his boxers.
“To bring up this stuff now against Mzi is a bit unfair, the right time to do it was when it was happening,” says Berman.
According to Berman, both boxers are using Mnguni as a scapegoat. He believes they blew their fortunes.
“I told them to invest their money and Welcome did it. Two minutes after Welcome invested, he came back and took it all out; they never tell you that side of the story.”
“Ask Vuyani how many times I begged him to let me help him invest his money,” says Berman
The estimated purse Bungu made from his title defences is R6 million (around $500,000) with all the necessary deductions.
Nothing is as hard as the road to the top. In 2012, Bungu and Ncita teamed up as promoters to assist emerging boxers from the Eastern Cape. Many saw this as a rivalry to their mentor Mnguni, and to add insult to injury, Berman is their ally.
Both Bungu and Ncita are based in East London trying to make the millions that slipped away. Bungu is a happily-married motivational speaker. He gives advice to the youngsters of Mdantsane as well as current boxers; cautioning them of the flaws he faced. Former IBF international bantamweight champion, and Mdantsane-born, Zolani Tete has embraced the advice given to him by the veterans.
“People like Vuyani used to say they don’t want what happened to them happen to us. He usually says what hit him the most was not paying tax. Today, before even receiving your cheque, you know you have to pay tax,” says Tete.
Both Hamed and McKinney have suffered the same straightened circumstances as the African boxers they fought. Hamed has doubled in weight since the fight in 2000 and is unrecognizable when he walks along the streets of London. He has also been in the news for the wrong reasons since his early retirement.
In 2006, Hamed was involved in a high-speed car crash that left the other motorist seriously injured, resulting in Hamed serving 16 weeks in jail and receiving a four-year driving ban. Meanwhile, McKinney is a boxing trainer in his hometown of Mississippi.
Sadly, Mnguni is ill after a car crash in November 2013 and a stroke in March 2014 that left him paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. His gymnasium, Eyethu, which produced many world champions, is struggling.
Life after the ring has been difficult for everyone.

‘I Knew Nothing About Tax And The Taxman Caught Me’

In the space of four months, a small group of athletes will have gone full circle – from the tough life in refugee camps, where sometimes food is rationed, to rubbing shoulders with the world’s most celebrated names in world-class facilities.
This is the strange reality for South Sudan’s Olympic athletes.
Being at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro for three weeks will be a completely new experience for these young athletes, who might never have got to the world’s largest sport event if they were not refugees.
Even their compatriots in South Sudan are stunned  how the athletes got access to an arena reserved for the crème de la crème of international sports.
Olympic Villages have world-class infrastructure, with beautiful apartments, paved roads, working sewerage systems, hospitals, and shopping centers.
For the five young men and women from South Sudan, this is a far cry from the refugee camps they come from. Here, the refugees live in tin-walled houses, with little sanitation. The camp is littered with long-drop toilets, although refugees prefer to use thickets and bushes, leading to the rampant outbreak of deadly diseases are rampant. They are conditions the majority of athletes at the Olympic Games will find unimaginable.
The civil war has destroyed South Sudan’s economy. Before the current bloodletting resumed in early July, the newly-formed Transitional Government of National Unity asked for international support to rebuild the country. The conflict has halved oil production which, coupled with the global decline in oil prices, has left the government short of cash.
Although better than living among warlords, life inside refugee camps is not for the faint-hearted. Roads are dusty and rough. Some schools within the camps have sports fields, but the lack of grass makes playing on them difficult.
These young athletes will leave these fields of dirt and be welcomed to Rio with roads lined with exotic flowers and trees. The Olympic Village’s gardens rivals those found in Buckingham Palace.
When those inside the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps heard their brothers and sisters would be at the Rio Olympics, they burst into ecstatic celebration. The five South Sudanese refugees were selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to form part of the first-ever Refugee Olympic Athletes team. The other athletes making up the 10-man team are two judokas from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a marathon runner from Ethiopia and two swimmers from Syria.
The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, says the team will raise awareness of the refugee crisis, which, according to the United Nations, stands at over 59 million displaced people.
“This will be a symbol of hope for all the refugees in our world, and will make the world better aware of the magnitude of this crisis. It is also a signal to the international community that refugees are our fellow human beings and are an enrichment to society,” says Bach.
Kenyan marathon legend Tegla Loroupe, who founded the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, identified the South Sudanese athletes that will make up the rest of the refugee team. They are Pur Biel Yiech (800m), James Nyak (400m/800m), Rose Nathike (800m), Angeline Nadai Lohalith (1,500m) and Paulo Amoton Lokoro (1,500m).
The athletes have tear-jerking stories. They fled to neighboring Kenya as civil war erupted in Africa’s youngest nation, where compatriots supporting rival leaders were tearing into one another with machetes and guns. Girls and women were raped, property vandalized and homes looted. Tens of thousands died and many more were displaced. The survivors, mostly orphans and widows, were forced to cross into Kenyan camps.
The athletes are unified in their call for peace. They say this would allow many more young South Sudanese to pursue their dreams – whether in academics, sport or business.
“I would be representing my country in the Olympics had there been peace in my country. While other athletes will be carrying their countries’ flags, which is an honor and prestige, we will be participating under the Olympic Flag. That is good, and we are grateful to the IOC for remembering refugees, but sometime in the future, I would wish to run under the South Sudanese flag,” says Lohalith, who left home in 2001 and reached Kakuma the following year.
Lohalith started running for fun while attending primary school inside the Kakuma camp. She was among those scouted by Loroupe and transferred to Nairobi for specialized coaching.
Lohalith believes the refugee team at the Olympics will inspire other displaced people, even if they don’t win medals.
“It will be the first time refugees are represented in the Olympics, which will inspire other refugees because they will realize that they are just like normal people,” she says.
Jackson Pkemoi, who is managing the team at the church-run Anita Children’s Home in Ngong, 20 kilometers south of Nairobi, says the athletes are not taking the selection for granted.
“It is never easy to make an Olympic team. These athletes appreciate that this is a godsend, an opportunity to join the rest of the world at the Olympics,” he says.
Lokoro is glad he will be able to represent the refugees he lives with in his camp.
“When the refugees, and our people at Kakuma camp, heard of this, they were proud and celebrated. They are happy for us,” says Lokoro.
Nathike, who escaped her war-ravaged country with her parents, is running to help those she left behind.
“My people are happy and praying that I perform well so that I can change their lives,” she says. “Since we have talent, this can help promote peace all over the world.”
Nyak sent a massage to warring factions.
“Fighting is not the right way for people to solve issues. The more people fight, the more young people who have talent run away from home. So those countries [that] have conflict have to sit down and see where the problem is because this affects so many countries,” he says.
While their competitors are running for gold, these athletes from South Sudan are competing for something more important – peace.

The Olympians Who Want Peace  More Than Gold

When entrepreneurs start their business ventures, they are known to seek for the best quality at the lowest price; a habit that sticks with them no matter how much wealth they accumulate along the way.
There are many untold truths in business, like the fact that everything, at the right price, is on sale. The industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, wanted to hold on to his steel empire for as long as he could. When the renowned banker JP Morgan first approached him to buy the business, Carnegie refused, but Morgan kept coming back, until he presented a number that convinced Carnegie to let go and become the richest man around at that time.
During deal negotiations there is a magic number that the seller needs to hear before a transaction can be made. How you arrive at that number is a skill that every entrepreneur needs to master. The general rule is that a deal hinges on the price that the seller and buyer are both willing to agree on.
Do not be timid when making a business deal. It is important not to agree with the first price offered; it should rather be considered as a starting point of your negotiation. If you are selling, hike the price above what you are actually looking for to allow space for negotiation. If they agree to your first offer, you will get more than you had bargained for.
Another crucial aspect of your negotiation is whether you go into the discussion with a mentality of win-lose or win-win. The problem with win-lose, where you get everything you want and your counterpart gets less than they wanted, is it might be the last deal you will do with them. The problem with win-win, where both of you get something out of the deal, is the likelihood that some sort of compromise will have to be made.
Often the one who is willing to walk away from the deal is the one who ends up winning. It is also important to prepare before the negotiation – study everything you need to know about your counterpart.
As you start the discussion, establish a common interest with the other person; this brings a sense of ease and familiarity to the talks. According to research, those who go straight to the point have around 50% probability of success. Those who first discover shared interests have a 76% chance of success.
Once the friendliness is established, try not to show too much emotion in the negotiation room. Similar to a poker player, Asian business leaders like to apply this rule. Part of not showing emotion is not letting your counterpart detect that you are desperate; even if you are, never show it.
A useful tool for negotiating is leverage. It is your weapon to help sway decisions in your favor. It might be that you are the only provider of a particular product or service, you might have the most qualified personnel, the lowest price, the credibility of being profiled by leading media platforms, or have respected celebrities endorsing your product.
A mistake often made by entrepreneurs is not realizing when to stop convincing and when to start closing the deal. This can lead to overselling, and losing, the deal, or the deal will take an unnecessarily long time to close.
With entrepreneurship, this separates the best from the average. The most successful know when and how to close a deal, while leaving the details to lawyers, accountants and other colleagues. A deal can die by dwelling on too many technical details; unless they ask for it, only highlight what’s necessary.
Avoid childish techniques, like walking out of a meeting, creating uncomfortable silences, and intimidating the other party.
More than anything, always remember what you are trying to achieve. Every move you make, should be a step closer to getting you there.

Deal or no deal

For over 15 years, I’ve raised money for, invested in, and advised the management of African companies. I’ve worked in sectors as diverse as transportation, agriculture and manufacturing. I’m an advocate for Africa, but I’ve learned some painful lessons along the way.
When I first started operating in Africa it reminded me of a Salvador Dali painting where everything warped and melted into each other. The turmoil wasn’t entirely unexpected though. I had read the negative press over the years: government corruption, widespread poverty, hunger and the aggressive tumors that would metastasize into Al Shabaab and Boko Haram. Even as someone who grew up in New York, doing business in Africa scared me. On Wall Street, Africa was categorized as an “exotic” market; erratic and unpredictable with a disproportionate risk/reward ratio.
You could win really big if you were smart and lose even more if you were unprepared. That was the opportunity. In those days, most emerging markets bankers in the United States (US) would only look at deals in some of the more popular countries, like Brazil or China. But Africa? An investment in Africa would have had many of the so-called experts rolling their eyes at you. The reality was that most folks on Wall Street could barely name five countries there. Asking them to find Djibouti on a map was like asking them to find the hair they had on their head 20 years earlier. That’s when I realized that operating there would differentiate me from everyone else. I was either going to be very right or very wrong. Surely, I thought, if I could operate in New York I could easily do business in Kenya or South Africa. Right?
Wrong.
In the early days, we just couldn’t get it right. As naïve Americans, we were culturally blind toward Africa. It slowly started to occur to us that Africans were unique, depending on the country they were from. Because of our naivety, we were ill-equipped to do business there. Almost every one of our early deals collapsed. Every conversation was misread. Everything we thought would happen, didn’t. And getting paid was as easy as trying to tie your shoes with your teeth.
As time passed, we gradually began to make progress. We congratulated ourselves on finally figuring out the “science” of doing business in Africa. We convinced ourselves that we had arrived – we hadn’t. Closing new debt and equity investments was almost impossible and we continued to struggle and question our methodologies.
Then the epiphany occurred. What dawned on us was that doing business in Africa is not a science, it’s an art.
The African market is full of abstractions and contradictions. It was nearly impossible to create an investment thesis or structure a capital raise like we did in New York. Projecting cash flows and investment returns was like shooting at a moving target. The traditional rules of investing didn’t apply in Africa. It became clear that, if you wanted to do business on the continent, it is more about the people than the transaction. Relationships and trust needs to be developed.
As they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So that’s what we did, except we did it in Africa. We started to adapt our thinking so we were seeing things through an African lens, not an American one. Though it may sound counter intuitive, my African education didn’t come from doing deals there or looking at income statements and balance sheets. It came from dealing with the people – one on one. But not as corporate executives or managers or board members, just as people.
There are a few truths that I Iearned on the continent over the years. In Africa things move slowly, very slowly. What you see is never what you get, you need to adjust as you go. Be ready to negotiate, and renegotiate. Remember, you are an outsider and are in their house. The world you come from and how you do things doesn’t matter. Lastly, respect their diverse cultures.
Africa is a complex continent full of idiosyncrasies most westerners don’t understand. But should you be bold enough to bring your business there remember this essential lesson: when in Africa, do as the Africans do.

Business In Africa Is An Art Not Science

South Africa’s renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) with the United States (US) a few months ago seemed to be about local poultry, when in fact negotiations were about a wider range of exports from 39 predominantly sub-Saharan African countries.
All had to meet the criteria of good governance, sound democratic values and protection of property rights. Countries such as Zimbabwe and Swaziland did not make the cut. It also did not go unnoticed that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for around $1.6 trillion of Africa’s $2.4 trillion GDP. AGOA therefore gives the US economic reach into countries where it would ordinarily have no influence.
AGOA is not a gift. As South Africa discovered, its economic strength on the continent does not guarantee its AGOA membership, and the accompanying eligibility to trade at preferential rates with the US. If South Africa did not loosen its stance on the anti-dumping tariffs imposed on chicken imports from the US, it would feel the costs in more lucrative areas, such as motor vehicles and parts, and wine and citrus exports. In the end, South Africa agreed to take 65,000 tons of bone-in chicken imports per annum, free of anti-dumping duties, from the US. Concessions could, however, have been as high as 300,000 tons, threatening an industry in which almost a billion chickens are slaughtered each year for local consumption.
The arrival of 16,000 tons of US chicken, a few weeks ahead of the deadline in mid-March this year, allowed South Africa to retain its preferential access to the world’s biggest market, and benefit from the latest version of AGOA, which was extended until 2025.
The arm wrestle between the US and South Africa may have been prompted by pressures the Americans were facing elsewhere. The dollar was strong at the time and the US needed to find export markets for its chicken. There was also the issue of a trade war looming with its neighbors, Mexico and Canada, over meat-labeling legislation, where the World Trade Organization ruled in favor of these countries being allowed to retaliate with $1 billion in punitive tariffs.
Another plausible reason was Russia imposing its own sanctions on the US in retaliation for economic sanctions it suffered while attempting to Balkanize the Ukraine. With threats to its industry coming in fast and furiously, pressuring South Africa to make the concessions must have seemed an easy option.
With the focus on what concessions the South African poultry industry had to make, it was easy to lose sight of the shortcomings in South Africa’s domestic trade policy. The concessions shed light on the lackluster performance of the manufacturing sector, caused by the political economy tilting left, protectionist trade policy, restrictive regulation, and labor disruption.
The pending Private Security Bill on the local security industry, which could see 51% of US-based companies, like Chubb, G4S and ADT, sold to South African participants, was also a worry, as were plans to limit foreign ownership of property. While the knee-jerk response may have been to assume that greater local ownership translated to black economic empowerment, a more significant interpretation is that no private foreign entity has an equity interest in South Africa’s state defense and protection services, and by extension, neither should they have controlling equity interest in private security establishments.
Land restitution may also fall short of AGOA legislation. The still-to-be promulgated Regulation of Land Holdings Bill will not affect foreign ownership of residential property, but will prohibit ownership of agricultural land, which could instead be leased for between 30 and 50 years. A ceiling on land ownership would be set at 12,000 hectares, regardless of nationality.
The potential overhaul of intellectual property laws, which could impact the pharmaceutical industry, is also concerning. While it makes socio-economic sense to roll out cheap generic drugs to as many South Africans as possible, foreign-owned multi-nationals may see this as an infringement of patents on their own more expensive medication.
Although the controversy surrounding the chicken industry seems to have settled, South Africa is still vulnerable to the vagaries in US trade policy. Should the US feel aggrieved by any of its preferential offerings, they may be withdrawn much quicker than what was allowed under the older version of the agreement. South African policymakers should be more cautious when making decisions, especially those that affect US interests.

Playing Chicken  With The US

Kenya’s attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) has no doubt been impressive in the past few years, buoyed by demand in consumer and real estate sectors.
East Africa’s largest economy for instance received an estimated $1.9 billion in FDI in 2015, a 65% climb from 2014, data by the African Development Bank (AfDB) shows, cementing its unique position among countries with no significant natural resources that are receiving significant FDI inflows targeted at their consumer-oriented sectors.
In its medium-term economic framework, Kenya actually aims to tap FDI proceeds to help boost its economic performance amid wobbly returns from agriculture that has for decades been its mainstay in terms of GDP contribution.
A new regulation sneaked through the East Africa nation’s Parliament requiring foreign companies to allocate 30% shareholdings in their operations in Kenya to local investors. This threatens to reverse gains in FDI attraction.
“It may be very expensive, if not impossible, for Kenyan individuals to purchase or invest at least 30 percent in a foreign company. The process of carrying out due diligence in a company in another jurisdiction to effect the share sale or allotment would not only be time consuming, but also expensive,” says a lobby of United States investors, the American Chamber of Commerce, in Kenya.
Investors who fail to comply with the fresh ownership rules will be slapped with a fine of KSh5 million ($50,000), so states clause 975(2b) of the Companies Act 2015 that was adopted last November.
“This requirement may do more harm than good to the Kenyan economy. To start with, this 30 percent rule flies in the face of Kenya’s goal of being a regional business hub. A major concern is the conflict between this rule and the fact that Kenya is a liberalized market economy which embraces the free-market ideology. This rule is a form of protectionism,” says Lois Musikali, a legal expert at the Nairobi-based Centre for Applied Research in Law and Policy (CARLP).
Several leading foreign firms, including Vodafone, Coca-Cola, Diageo, General Electric (GE), and Bharti Airtel, have operations in Kenya and authorities should strive to maintain a friendly and predictable business profile that would attract more investors.
“There are concerns that foreign companies will look elsewhere for an investment partner. It is also true that many Kenyans will find it almost impossible, in terms of cost, to acquire a 30 percent stake in a foreign company that wants to register in Kenya,” says Musikali, noting that the absence of guidelines for foreign companies on how or where to find these Kenyan citizens creates a loophole for rent seeking, whereby corrupt public officials could acquire stakes in foreign firms seeking registration in Kenya using taxpayers money thereby advancing crony capitalism.
These resentments are weighty and Kenya has no option but to expunge the regulations from its laws to prevent polarizing investment.
Kenya’s Attorney General Githu Muigai says the regulation will be repealed through the Finance Bill 2016 that is currently before Parliament.
“The clause was unilaterally inserted and does not reflect the investment policy of the Kenyan government. The rule will be repealed through the Finance Bill 2016 that is at the committee stage in Parliament,” he says.
Nonetheless it is baffling that the regulations were allowed to see the light of day because Kenya has previously unsuccessfully tried to introduce a local ownership rule in its telecoms industry after it emerged hat foreign firms were facing difficulties in securing local partners with the right expertise and financial muscle to support the business.
Under this rule foreign companies investing in the telecom sector were required to reserve at least 30% of their shareholding for local partners. This shareholding was reduced to 20% and eventually reviewed for discouraging foreign capital flows in the country.
Kenyan authorities must pull off this path or risk causing ripples among foreign investors given the realities of other outlier factors such as the prevailing global economic slowdown.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that Kenya’s FDI will fall by nearly a quarter this year, thanks to declining inflows into hydrocarbons exploration and an adverse global economy. According to the latest IMF update on the Kenyan economy, FDI could fall by 23.7% to $981 million.

No Choice But To Drop Contentious Rule

I won’t lie&#8230; writing any story on Ferrari is intimidating. Ferrari drivers don’t own a car, they find a passion. Their blood is not Springbok green – it is pure Maranello red.
They feel the spirit of Enzo Ferrari, the famed driver who founded the automaker and the Scuderia racing team, every time they slide behind the steering wheel.
Although red was the color originally assigned to all Italian Formula One (F1) cars by the International Automobile Federation, nearly half of all Ferrari’s sold today are that distinctive color.
What I admire most about the people of the Prancing Horse – an emblem which was handed down by the aristocratic family of a First World War flying ace – is that they hold their heads high despite dark times on the F1 circuits.
Just pass your eyes over these names&#8230; Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, South Africa’s Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen. They have won a record 15 drivers’ championships for the team.
Now, unless their luck has changed since writing this story, the fans are surviving on memories of the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix.
Ferrari chairman and newly appointed CEO Sergio Marchioness expected the Scuderia to start winning races some time back.
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The Ferrari boss said: “I’m very satisfied with both [Sebastian] Vettel and Raikkonen. The only thing that hasn’t worked well is luck.”
So, if the Scuderia aren’t exactly scorching the circuits, how is this reflecting on sales and profits?
Well, ironically, 2015 was their best year ever. Total sales are up 6% to 7,664 and profits up 9% to €290 million ($324 million). This year they’re gunning for 7,900 units, including supercars. Modest growth yes, but there just aren’t that many new Ferrari customers each year.
Sure, Lamborghini figures have spiraled but that’s mainly due to the modestly priced Ghibli. And remember Ferrari don’t see themselves as a car company. They are positioned as a luxury goods company. About half of Ferrari’s current assets consist of its brand value.
Hard to argue against when a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO is bought by American communications magnate Craig McCaw for $35 million! A 1957 Spider Scaglietti, which won the 1958 Cuba Grand Prix, was also snapped up at a Paris auction for $35 million.
Ferrari rings up approximately $1.5 billion in worldwide retail sales every year. The specialist shops stock clothing, watches, sunglasses, shoes, mobile phone covers… you name it. And the fans will pay top dollar for the Ferrari logo. Even a scale model of the Ferrari F14T fetches $5,400!
The brand is even more independent now after a complicated series of transactions, including an IPO and listing on the New York Stock Exchange, has established Ferrari N.V. separately to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Closer to home, South African new vehicle sales have sunk to a seven-year low with an analyst calling the figures “horrible”.
So how is the supercar segment, Ferrari in particular, weathering the storm? Well, new models always provide a solid lifeboat and the replacements for the highly successful 458 Italia have been nicely timed.
There is nothing cosmetic about the new 488 lineup. Apart from breathtaking design inside and out, we are into the new generation of engines. It’s a blueprint for all the industry leaders&#8230; smaller turbocharged engines developing more power, using less fuel and coughing out less noxious gasses.
First out of the blocks was the 488 GTB coupé. As you might know, the GTB stands for Gran Turismo Berlinetta and the sales have certainly been grand.
Today, the pride of the showroom is the turbo-fitted open-top version, the Ferrari 488 Spider. The lightweight Retractable Hard Top (or RHT) hardly dents the heart-stopping performance. You will hit the 100 km/h mark in three seconds flat and clock 325 km/h on a good day.
We didn’t quite hit those figures on the test drive, but whistling topless along the N1 “concrete highway” with the back window lowered to hear the purring 3,902cc V8 turbo is not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
This is when you take your hat off to technology. The smaller engine develops around 20% more power than the previous 4.5-liter naturally aspirated V8. As Scuderia South Africa CEO Mervyn Eagles says, the 488 Spider has been designed to set new technological benchmarks for the sector.
“Following the success of the 488 GTB both locally and internationally, the 488 Spider promises to surpass the expectations of any open-top V8 sport car.”
The technophobes will tell you about the Variable Torque Management system guaranteeing progressive delivery in the higher gears. It is, very simply, smoother than silk – the very antithesis of the exhilarating but neck wrenching Alfa Romeo 4C. It is all translated through the remarkable 7-speed F1 dual-clutch transmission.
The interior is a perfect blend of functionality and understated style from the Blu Corsa livery, apparently to meld with the overhead sky, to the concise instrument panel and multi-media positioned on two wings straddling the main display. I can’t verify the improvements, but a former 458 owner tells me the controls and multi-media options have been incredibly simplified.
Then we come to that crucial element of supercars that will always be hotly debated – sound. And I’m not talking about the 12-speaker JBL professional sound system. This is where Ferrari get rather esoteric.
“In line with Ferrari tradition and drawing on the harmonics typical of Prancing Horse cars with this kind of architecture, this eight-cylinder has its own absolutely distinctive soundtrack, thanks to exhaust headers with longer, equal-length piping and the flat-plane crankshaft.”
“The sound was crafted to be seductive but never invasive when the top is dropped,” the brochure oozes.
Distinctive it may be, but possibly missing the rumbling roar of the normally aspirated engine.
Which raises the question – is the 488 Spider too perfect? It is ultra fluid and easier to drive with special dampers for comfort and a “Side Slip Angle Control system” to help non-professional drivers to reach the limit.
But will petrolheads find that it has lost some of the raw appeal of the Ferrari marque, despite the blistering performance?
Possibly. Yet Ferrari is not alone. The trend is to offer a machine that is as content to poodle to the corner café as it is to take on all comers on the racetrack. Although some of the throbbing adrenalin may have faded, the era of gearsticks and oil spills is over.
The Ferrari 488 Spider is the supercar you want to make it. All you need is a spare $407,000… and a good contact to get on the waiting list.

Can A Ferrari Be Too Perfect?

John Fredericks had a tougher childhood than most. While food in his house was scarce and gang members terrorized him, it was a traumatic rape that convinced him to form a gang. It led to him spending time in the notorious Pollsmoor Prison and his friends later being sentenced to death.
Fredericks, along with his childhood friend, spent three years in prison for trying to steal a radio from a shop. While behind bars, Frederick’s friend was inducted to one of the infamous number gangs and forced to be a concubine. Fredericks, whose storytelling ability was loved by those close to him, managed to stay out of a gang by telling the prisoners captivating tales.
<div id="attachment_5239" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5239" class="wp-image-5239 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/noem_my_skollie_PR_stories-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />A shot from the film, Noem My Skollie. (Photo supplied)</div>
Today, his story is being told to the rest of the world. Fredericks used one finger to write the script for Noem My Skollie, based on his life in the 1960s in apartheid South Africa.
Based in the gang-riddled Cape Flats, in the Western Cape province, the movie stays true to its roots. Along with Fredericks, the director, Daryne Joshua, and many of the crew are from this area. It’s a film that resonates with many South Africans and summons a tide of emotions.
“I ran out because I was crying, it brought back so many memories, it was hectic,” says Fredericks at the film screening in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The three childhood friends that Fredericks formed a gang with were hanged for killing a taxi driver. In 1968, all four stood trial together; Fredericks escaped the death sentence when his friends told the judge he was not involved. Fredericks is fortunate to be able to tell his tale; he was supposed to be with his friends on the fateful night they committed murder. He missed their rendezvous after deciding to spend time with his girlfriend instead.
His friends were initially persuaded to pin the murder on Fredericks but their brotherly bond proved stronger than their will to live.
Fredericks forgives them for trying to frame him. Before their lives ended, they wrote a letter to Fredericks asking for his forgiveness. They were dead by the time he read it and he still weeps every time he reads the letter.
“On each corner of the page, there are two bunches of flowers with tags which read goodbye with the date of birth and date of death; they knew which date they were to be hanged,” says Fredericks.
While in prison, storytelling was Fredericks’ escape. Reading and writing letters killed time. Years later, as he approaches the age of 70, Fredericks educates youth on the dangers of gangsterism in the Cape Flats, where he still lives. He also teaches reading and writing at Pollsmoor.
The producers of Noem My Skollie, David Max Brown and Moshidi Motshegwa, say they used as few actors and locations as possible as money was tight. Despite the travails that the producers never gave up because the story and script was too strong.
“We made a really big film with 50 cast and 47 locations, everything was bigger than the money and we still found a way to make it work,” says Brown.
The whole film is in Afrikaans to better represent the people of the Cape Flats. Brown also says they tried to make the movie as South African as possible. He hopes the film’s uniqueness will help it win international awards. More than anything though, he hopes it will win the hearts of South Africans.

Skollie-005

From Prison Cell To Red Carpet

Uncle Ebo Whyte is a six-foot-tall, unassuming looking man. You could mistake him for a steward of the theater rather than the father of it. He speaks in a soft but confident manner but has an attention to detail that is slightly intimidating as we sit down in his cosy office to discuss his journey as one of West Africa’s best known playwrights. Surprisingly, the love of his life arrived by accident.
“I didn’t have the confidence to join the drama society because it had all the popular boys and I suffered from inferiority complex in those days, so I couldn’t enter their circle. One day they needed someone to fill in during their rehearsals and I happened to be the only person standing in the window watching them. What the director didn’t realize was that I had memorized the lines. It took the director only five minutes to realize I would be able to give a better performance than the previous actor he had cast for the role,” says Whyte.
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In 1974, Whyte wrote his first play. It was called ‘Man Must Live’ and depicted the struggles of two sisters whose father died and left them penniless. The story had echoes of his life. As the first of five boys, Whyte grew up in a competitive household. When he was 15 years old, his father passed away and his family lost everything.
“I was devastated when he died, I think for a year or two I was totally lost. Those were the days before the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) law came into place, for when a man died intestate, which protects the widow and the children. So, all the extended family took everything from us apart from the house we were living in,” says Whyte.
After studying statistics at the University of Ghana, Whyte almost got chartered but decided last minute against accounting. He wanted a life of spinning stories into gold.
“Roverman Productions started in 2008. The problem was that there was no template for me to know how I could make theater production into a business. My first three attempts of making this work were financially disastrous because I came from the background where drama production was free, hence putting together plays you had to sell was difficult, thank God I learned how to do it,” says Whyte.
He began alone and now employs 15 permanent staff and an 80-man production team.
Getting an audience for the plays was the easy part. The difficulty for Whyte was securing money for the quality of production he wanted. Whyte wanted his production house to produce quarterly plays and to become big enough to be a name in Africa.
Tourists are a big market. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Ghana attracted 925,000 international tourists in 2015. In 10 years, international tourists are forecast to total 1.38 million. He reckons about 45% of the holidaymakers in Ghana come to his plays.
Then there was the tougher nut of corporate Ghana to crack.
“Gatekeepers in corporate Ghana could understand musical concerts but they could not understand how theater would work. We were the first company to pioneer theater in Ghana. When they saw how many people we were able to pull, they came easier and it became a much easier sell,” says Whyte.
“We have huge goodwill in the various boardrooms in Ghana. What is happening now is that a lot of the big companies are being controlled from outside Ghana and because the people pulling the strings are not in Ghana, they do not care about spending money here because they do not know about what is on the ground. So it is usually a budgetary issue with companies.”
Eight years on and there are still problems. Like the rest of Ghana, the theater is hampered by another drama – power cuts.
“One terrible moment was last quarter when the lights went out at the national theatre in the middle of the production. We were using a generator, which stopped an hour and half into the production. I think I died inside. Not because we couldn’t solve the situation because we got the power back in 30 minutes, but because of the excellence I look to achieve. I do not want my patrons to take certain things for granted. They should expect to pay for their tickets and nothing will go wrong. They do not need any excuses and I do not want to give them any. The fact that I could not deliver a production without a hiccup was very bad,” says Whyte.
George Ofori runs an art gallery in Accra. His family owned a theater business in the late 70s when stage productions were popular.
“The theater business died during the military rule where there were widespread curfews. My father and a lot of other production houses had to find new ways of making money back then. After that, the theater business has never really bounced back and a lot of people have struggled to make the business viable,” says Ofori.
“The theater business in Ghana is still very much at an evolving and developmental stage with a gradual effort towards audience cultivation. The potential for growth into a viable, consistent and highly rewarding industry is very high. Presently, Roverman Productions is the most identifiable theater entity owing to the consistent quality productions over the last eight years,” says Kabutey Ocansey, Head of Business Development for Roverman Productions.
For those closest to Whyte, his passion for the business is palpable.
“He is a perfectionist and passionate about theater and feels that Ghana has the talent to compare with any theater group in the world if we so desire and are willing to work diligently,” says Felicia Mensah, Customer Relations Coordinator at Roverman Productions.
For Whyte it is not just about business. It is about families dressing up and sharing in their cultural heritage. The golden tradition of families sitting by the fireside and sharing stories may be long gone in the world of the cell phone, but there is a renaissance of storytelling in Ghana and Whyte is responsible for this. As he recounts his journey, the quiet and reserved man is clearly in his element.

The Father Of Ghanaian Theater

It’s a story as ripe and rare as vintage wine, also an unlikely story of an entrepreneur who spent most of his life without laying eyes on a vineyard, but now he owns one.
He grew up among poor farmers in Zimbabwe’s dry province of Masvingo. This is the life and times of Tongai Joseph Dhafana, a Zimbabwean winemaker.
“My parents farmed to pay my school fees. After I completed my ordinary levels I moved to Gweru to work at Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company,” says Dhafana.
“My first salary in Zimbabwe was 1,099 Zimbabwean dollars but by the time I left in 2009, it was in millions,” he says of his country’s decline.
His rise was difficult and often he felt as crushed as his grapes.
“I relocated to South Africa in 2009. I stayed at Musina refugee camp for two weeks looking for documents that would ease my travel. In Johannesburg I stayed at the Central Methodist Church.”
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The Central Methodist Church in central Johannesburg is famous for sheltering refugees. The church opened its doors under the leadership of Bishop Paul Verryn during the xenophobic violence of 2010. It was one of the few refuges from violent mobs roaming the streets looking for Africans from other countries.
Like many in the church, he came up with a quick idea to get out. His destiny lay in Cape Town, a place that would teach him the trade and thrust him into the global stage on his way to becoming a millionaire and a bon viveur.
“In Cape Town I worked as a gardener and was promoted to washing dishes and soon became a bartender. It is in the bar that I would taste my first glass of wine on my birthday.”
This sip of wine was the foretaste of a new life.
“Seeing smiling faces sharing a bottle of wine triggered my curiosity and interest to explore the miracle of wine,” he says.
“Other than smiling faces, I was also fascinated by the vine and the journey the grapes travelled from the winelands to some of the most expensive hotels across the world.”
In 2015, he entered a wine competition that would transform the unknown Zimbabwean into a wine ambassador of Africa’s most industrialized economy.
Dhafana was part of Team SA, which won the 2015 South African Wine Tasting Championships, and travelled to France to compete in the World Blind Tasting Challenge.
“I competed in the blind wine tasting competition with 200 others and booked a spot in the top 20 at Taj hotel in Cape Town. In the finals, I was in top three which secured my ticket to France for the world blind wine tasting championships. We came 12th out of 20, the best result South Africa has ever scored,” he says.
Now he has his own company, Mosi, which make the Mosi Rouge and Fraternity. His wines are sold in Sweden and the United Kingdom. The name Mosi is derived from his home country’s Mosi-oa-Tunya waterfalls – meaning the smoke that thunders – the original name of Victoria Falls.
He has also gone to school to improve his knowledge of winemaking.
“I am balancing my studies with my business. I thought I had found wine when I started the business of wines and with each day I am realizing that wine found me.”
The optimism that took him from his home of Chirumhanzu, one of Zimbabwe’s forgotten districts, is still with him as he looks to a future of wine and millions.
“Our prospects are very positive, and for the 2017 vintage, we are estimating numbers in the region of 10,000 bottles.”
A single google search for his name will take you to a number of wine websites demonstrating his growing influence.
His success has not alienated him from his countrymen who are also seeking fortune in South Africa. The Zimbabwean community in South Africa recently honored his toil with an upcoming entrepreneurship award.
His passion stretches to his closing signature of his email: “In water you see your own reflection; in wine you see the heart of another”.
In an industry dominated by white males and household names, this means a lot for a former refugee who once looked into water and saw only despair.

The Refugee Turned Winemaker

It’s easy to momentarily forget about the company closures, job losses and business failures that have become all too common in Zimbabwe in the past few years when you look at the entrepreneurial success of Zimbabwean pastor, Shingi Munyeza.
Gifted with a passion for the services industry, Munyeza has shuttled from being the biggest investor in African Sun – the largest hospitality group in the country – to a new franchised restaurant venture that is thriving.
His choice to sell his stake in African Sun may appear to lack logic, especially considering that he was chief executive officer of the hotels venture for 13 years.
“There are three reasons why I exited African Sun, namely to allow for a new anchor shareholder who had deeper pockets to both invest in the company and expand the business – I did not have such deep pockets – and to allow a new management team to bring fresh ideas,” says Munyeza.
But it is the third reason that really compelled him to exit the business that runs hotels including Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and the iconic Elephant Hills Resort in Victoria Falls.
“I wanted to pursue other entrepreneurial opportunities without the limitations of a corporate office, hence why I started the current ventures and more to come.”
The idea to move into the franchised restaurant industry sprouted in Munyeza’s mind in 2008 “after seeing a niche market in this sector of hospitality” when he was still CEO of African Sun. This led to the creation in 2013 of franchised restaurant units under regional and international brands such as Mugg &amp; Bean and News Cafe.
“I funded the initial stores from personal equity and then brought in two regional banks to co-fund this through debt instruments. In total, we now have nine outlets and are working on another three over the next 12 months,” says Munyeza.
This area represents a niche market for Munyeza and he says this is for the high-end market that has been exposed to these brands in other countries, such as South Africa. The approach is to have “regional and global standards and to ensure that these are maintained at all costs”.
Munyeza appears to have done his homework and many reckon that his efforts have been aided by his vast experience in the industry.
“My worst day was my best day since I started these ventures in food franchises. It was on November 3, 2013, when we opened our first franchised store, Mugg &amp; Bean. We had such an overwhelming response from the market that we ended up closing the shop because we could not cope.”
“The worst part was we failed to deliver to customer expectation because we underestimated the demand from the market on both our service and product. It was the best day because without any above-the-line advertising the shop was continuously busy from morning ‘til we had to close at 4PM, when we should have closed at 10PM,” he says.
But being a Christian businessman, whose ventures count alcohol among the products offered, has led to critics saying his business goes against Christian principles. He, however, shrugs off the criticism, saying the business is for the greater good of the community as it employs people and offers services that are required by society.
Since he is a man of the cloth, he must know the passage in the Bible where Jesus admonishes a rich young ruler, telling his disciples: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”
“It is very possible for a rich man to enter heaven. The point is always the love of money which hinders people to heaven. Money must always resource the purpose that God gave you and in itself must never be the purpose that God gave you,” says Munyeza.
He gives examples of some of the richest men in the bible, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Joseph of Arimathea, as well as some the disciples during Jesus’ time. He believes that he has been predestined to be both an entrepreneur and an evangelist.
But he has not been spared the struggles of any other entrepreneur and this includes the economic hardships in Zimbabwe. But, he believes that entrepreneurs are born to emerge out of difficult situations and he explains that he has failed more than he has been successful in his entrepreneurial life.
“I have failed seven times out of the 10 times I have tried to get into ventures. I’ve always had the faith and hope to get up and try again,” says Munyeza.
At the start of each day, Munyeza reads from the Bible and prays before reviewing the previous day’s sales reports. He then moves on to digest and watch news headlines before sitting in meetings. “From there on it becomes a fight in the jungle,” he says.
It’s a fight he seems to be winning.

It Is Easy For A Rich Man To Enter Heaven After All

Aquaculture could be Africa’s next big thing in business. But it could also be a difficult catch.
“Before anyone goes into Africa, you need to take off the enthusiasm, take off the crazy entrepreneurial hat and get the fundamentals right, before they come back to bite you.”
This is the warning from veteran Gavin Johnston, Head of Aquaculture Consulting and Management Services, who has spent 20 years in the game across Africa. He has seen it all.
Johnston’s journey began in 1994 where he worked in South Africa’s abalone industry in Hermanus. At the time it was little more than an experiment to see if the snail-like delicacy, in high demand in Hong Kong, could be farmed on Africa shores; it grew into a million-dollar industry
“Abalone is a niche within a niche. It’s the high-end of society that wants our species. There is lots of different species. The market is complex. The price can fluctuate by as much as 200 percent depending on how it was dried or its slight color differences. With a capacity of 80,000 tons a year, [South Africa] is currently producing 1,300 tons. We are a small fry that supplies a small portion,” he says.
When it comes to aquaculture in Africa, abalone has shone. It remains to be seen if similar pilot projects such as South Africa’s Operation Phakisa, launched by President Jacob Zuma in 2014, will be as successful.
“It is looking at ways of exploiting the coastal and marine environment to create jobs. Aquaculture is there and it’s kind of the new buzzword. But here are the graves of so many failed projects&#8230; Government is seeing something interesting in that aquaculture has the ability to be seen in a remote area. It has constraints, access to markets and infrastructure,” says Johnston.
Phakisa streamlines marine-based business by creating industrial hubs. The hubs plan to cut time consuming environmental impact assessments as well as setting up infrastructure. In short, it means getting fisheries up faster and getting your legal documents signed off quicker.
The government plans to unlock the ocean economy in four areas: marine transport and manufacturing activities; offshore oil and gas exploration; aquaculture and marine protection services and ocean governance. In 2010, the ocean contributed around $4 billion to South Africa’s GDP and supported approximately 316,000 jobs. Government says the ocean has the potential to contribute up to $13 billion to the GDP and up to a million direct jobs. That’s more than twice the number of people in mining which creates more than half of South Africa’s exports.
The latest data released in the Aquaculture Yearbook 2014, by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, shows businesses in the seas are on the rise. In 2013, the value of the aquaculture sector, based on sales of products, grew by 38.1% to R696 million ($51 million). Of this, abalone production accounted for 76% of this at R529 million ($39 million). It’s a drop in the ocean compared to South Africa’s agriculture production, which was almost R188 million ($13.8 million) in 2013.
Johnston is a farmer at heart and looks like one – he wears a working shirt, shorts and shoes – and he has plenty of ideas to bring down costs. In the comfort of a coffee shop in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, on the outskirts of Hermanus, around 120 kilometers from Cape Town, we are in farming country. A hundred meters away is a farm that supplies half of the Western Cape with lettuce. On this farm Johnston is testing a new irrigation system that could produce even more. It’s a good place to muse about food, the sea and the future.
“The population is growing, [fish] catches are going down and the middle class is expanding. If you do the numbers you get a massive apparent basket of demand. That’s what’s driving the market. What’s missing is the economics behind it.”
“What people are talking about is 3,000 tons [of fish] a farm. That’s approximately 65 percent of the total wild catch of line fish in one year, in one farm.”
As we sit sipping coffee Johnston speaks passionately about a river fish in the Congo that lives off pig manure; he thinks it will feed millions of Africans by 2033. This hardy fish, called tilapia, can survive in sea and fresh water, it also feeds off algae and is cheap.
“This business is bigger than any farming operation in South Africa, and it’s a backyard operation. [African fisheries] are likely going to be lots of small guys who go and dig a dam; fill it up with water from the local river and throw in some pig manure so it goes green. I know guys who will harvest three tons a day. They have a pump; take it down to the market and just down the road, there is no ice, and they sell the whole thing. Gone,” says Johnston.
But, the rough South African seas make it difficult to farm large scale offshore.
“Most farming on large scale is done offshore, in those big fish cages. The reason is you have 100 tons of fish in one cage. You’ve got one boat that pumps feed in. The sea washes away the waste and thanks for coming.”
High density farming in tanks onshore is also a problem.
“You can have a disaster with water and in 10 minutes you will lose your product&#8230; But, the thinking at the moment [about Operation Phakisa] is there is going to be this large scale global market stuff. Whether it’s going to be the next mass production line, like chicken, I don’t know?” says Johnston.
You also need to choose the right fish to cover your costs. Farming hake, a fish that ends up on most South African plates, is pointless when it is far cheaper to catch.
“People are not going to pay R100 a kilogram for hake, and that’s the market that eats a lot of fish. The market that’s eating that nice little plate of fish, the upper tier market, that’s on MasterChef, that’s the market that will pay for the stuff. Those are the people will pay R150. So yes the equation is very nice. There are more people and there is less being caught. But there is a price point where people are saying that’s my limit.”
South Africa is a late entry into the game that has been played for centuries. It could take years before South African varieties appear on plates in international hotels.
“A lot of the fish producers have had to go big to get over that economy of scale. South Africans will only eat so much, so let’s export them. The question is to whom? Cod doesn’t exist on the international markets. They know all the international species. The Norwegian government must have spent so much money to make their salmon a dietary component of middle class citizens.”
Then there is the wild caught market, that is fish caught in the sea and not farmed, that can lower the price of your fish fillets in an instant.
“It’s a bit of a tragic assumption, because aquaculture is like any farming business. It thrives under a standard price, put a 20 percent mark-up and there’s your price. But the capture market isn’t like that. You don’t know what’s coming in tomorrow. Pilchards are caught in their millions of tons, can cost about R3 a kilogram. The cost of a kilogram of food to feed them in captivity is R20.”
Africa needs to get in on the action and one of its drawbacks is infrastructure, or the lack thereof. Johnston found out the hard way – he lost out on a $50-million cob farm in Mozambique when the gas came in.
“In Mozambique we got beaten out by oil and gas. We got there first. We got set up. It was unbelievable. The lead-up to it was amazing, and then it suddenly turned on us. The minister said that Mozambique was going to produce 70,000 tons of fish for $25 million. Then the gas came and unfortunately we were just in the same area, you can’t say no to $75 billion over the next 10 years.”
The problem in Africa is the supply chain and the local markets are few and far between, except for tilapia.
“Local markets are not going to support a high-value species. You need to build infrastructure, from roads to water, electricity to sanitation. You still need to have the same quality of high-level sanitation, whether it’s coming out of France or Djibouti.”
“Where farmers buy in seeds, in aquaculture you can’t buy eggs. You can’t just bring in seed stock. You need to have your own little hatchery, which adds its own little complexity.”
“The real nail in the coffin for most places is the regulatory requirement, intergovernmental agreements on health certifications. [Governments] just don’t set it up. [In Mozambique] everyone was ready. But the local government hadn’t done their paperwork. You can’t send [stock] out of the country. It can be as simple as your country’s veterinary authority not having done the health checks before it gets sent to Europe. Currently South Africa has the same problem. So you can farm your fish but you can’t sell them to Europe.”
Aquaculture may be a stormy business, but at least it’s in the swim.

The Buzzword That Could Change Africa Or  Crush Its Investors

While on my first late Monday morning subway ride, from 34th Street to 125th Street in Harlem, New York, it felt like I was traveling from Soweto to Park Station in Johannesburg, with a few notable exceptions.
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Just like back home, the coach was jam-packed, but there were no young men train surfing and the construction workers wore clean and bright work suits, without the odor that comes with long hours and back-breaking work. Some passengers jammed to music coming from their headphones; the dapper executives were fixated on their iPads held in one hand while the other grasped the overhead rails. Initially, feeling slightly paranoid, I was vigilant and clung to my valuables. After a while, I loosened up as I realized how chilled my fellow passengers were.
Amid the frantic activity of New York, I was flooded with memories of Johannesburg as three African women sat opposite me. The women, each of them hawkers, had two oversized plastic bags between their legs. They wore identical black headscarves and matching flat shoes. Taking no notice of the commuters squeezed around them, the women chatted and passed kente cloth, a traditional Ghanaian interwoven material, among themselves. Kente has become an integral part of African-American graduation attire.
While a handful of passengers were annoyed, the hustle of the hawkers, and the ‘gibberish’ coming from their tongues, left the rest amazed. I came to realize that the women left their village in Africa for the dream of a better life in the land of the free. Not a word of English was used in their conversation, but they know the basics of the language to make ends meet. I have met many other African foreigners like them who told me they learned English in the United States (US).
Soon after, I stumbled upon a 10-foot bronze statue of Harriet Tubman, the African American anti-slavery activist. Like the hawkers on the train, Tubman’s head was covered with a head wrap. Unlike the hawkers, Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland around 1820. In her late 20s, Tubman, along with her two brothers escaped the plantations; her brothers got cold feet and returned, leaving her to flee to the free state of Pennsylvania alone.
Later on, Tubman returned to Maryland to free slaves with the help of other freed African Americans. She carried out her mission armed with a shotgun. She never fired the gun because nobody tried to stop her. For her work, Tubman was called ‘Moses’ by her people.
Once slavery was abolished, Tubman joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The former slaves took African Methodism across the Atlantic to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and later southern Africa.
Tubman’s statue, on Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem, overlooks an array of African restaurants in an area dubbed ‘Small Africa’. The owner of one of these eateries, Patisserie des Ambassades, is Gorgui N’doye. This Senegalese engineer opened the first restaurant in the south Harlem 16 years ago, with less than 10 employees. Today, Patisserie des Ambassades has 50 staff and opens for 20 hours every day.
N’doye started the restaurant in 2001 when Harlem was notorious for being a gangster’s paradise. The area underwent gentrification in 2005 and business started to boom.
N’doye has since returned to Senegal where has expanded his business to exporting peanuts to Asia and South Africa. In his absence, Patisserie des Ambassades is managed by another Senegalese, Ahmadou Ndiaye Jean.
Harlem’s facelift, however, hasn’t benefited everyone. Eric Fraska, a 31-year-old Liberian financier at MoneyGram in New York, laments the displacement of black folk due to the rising cost of living in the area.
Fraska came to the US as a 20-year-old to study. Over the years, he witnessed a lot of change. Like Ndoye, Fraska is saving money to start a business in Africa. He says he’s certainly going back.
“My education and skills are no longer needed here. There’s nothing more to do here. Africa is the future,” Fraska says over a frothing cappuccino.
I have no doubt the next time I catch up with Fraska will be in either Johannesburg or Monrovia.

‘There’s Nothing More To Do Here.  Africa Is The Future’

It has been half a year since 195 countries came together in Paris for the adoption of the first-ever universal and legally binding global climate deal. In short, the accord, which will enter into force in 2020, aims to limit global temperature increases to below two degrees Celsius. While some are skeptical, Adnan Amin, the Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), is optimistic.
“Paris has made a huge step-change in people’s expectations regarding the reality of energy transformation,” says Amin.
Amin predicts that the agreement will be a turbo boost for the world’s renewable energy sector.
“The political ambition we achieved in Paris was only possible because renewable energy solutions have become mature enough to be implementable and viable,” says Amin.
The growing value of renewable investments prove this.
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“Between 2014 and 2015, global investment in new renewable energy capacity jumped from $270 billion to $330 billion. This was before the Paris Agreement. In addition, renewables installed capacity has jumped by 120 percent since 2000, and the costs of technology has fallen dramatically.”
When it comes to alternative energy, Africa is expected to be on the forefront of what Amin calls an energy revolution.
“Renewables deployment in developing and emerging economies has overtaken that in developed markets, including fast-growing economies like the United States,” he says.
“As the electricity demand in mature markets has more or less stabilized, it is soaring in the developing world. The energy demand in Africa for instance, is expected to double, or even triple by 2030,” says Amin.
Amin points to South Africa, Morocco and Kenya as countries to watch.
“The commitment South Africa is making to renewable power generation, and the fact that some projects are delivering solar and wind power that price-wise are more or less on par with coal-generated power, is remarkable.”
While solar PV uses solar panels to capture the sun and convert it into energy, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) uses mirror structures, known as heliostats, or lenses to concentrate the sun’s rays onto a central point. This concentrated light is converted to heat, and then into electricity.
“South Africa has started to integrate storage components in CSP plants, which is reducing prices even further. CSP is not competitive with coal, South Africa’s main source of electricity, but it is getting there,” Amin says.
He notes that the country is also proving itself in terms of policy innovation.
“I have spent some time with officials there, going through their procurement process. All I can say is that these processes are some of the most rigorous, effective, and transparent I have seen.”
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Then there is Morocco, which recently inaugurated the first phase of the Ouarzazate CSP plant. Upon completion, it will have a 2GW power generation capacity.
“Morocco has gone from very little to no investment in renewables four years ago to $2 billion last year,” says Amin.
“The country has produced some of the most interesting wind and solar projects in the world. Their latest utility-scale wind investment is yielding power that costs $0.03 per Kwh. That is the lowest we have seen anywhere so far,” he says. “The government has bene very clear that this was achieved without incentives and subsidies. Morocco is a game changer in Africa, and is beating everyone else hands down.”
Kenya is doing well too.
“We will see geothermal development move very fast, with very cheap base-load electricity. Kenya is also investing in wind, with the wind farm in the Turkana District going online hopefully later this year,” says Amin, referring to the 250MW wind project, which is the largest in Africa.
Apart from individual countries tapping into renewable energy sources to improve national energy levels, what is more important is the formation of a so-called renewable energy corridor.
“Interconnections have been realized and are being built between markets in eastern and southern Africa,” he explains. “If we can achieve integrated markets with strong regulatory frameworks and transparent policy, we will start attracting financing and investment at a scale we have not seen before in Africa.”
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Tag: September 2016

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

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The Buzzword That Could Change Africa Or Crush Its Investors

‘There’s Nothing More To Do Here. Africa Is The Future’

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