It’s a question that had to be answered sooner or later, the silent question in most entrepreneurs’ minds. It’s a topic I have  discussed privately, but now it’s something I think should be explored publicly.
If you look at the tech capitals of the world – Silicon Valley, Seoul and Tel Aviv – you won’t find any globally renowned black technology entrepreneurs.
It concerns me that a black entrepreneur has not come up with a major breakthrough in technology and gained a personal net worth of over a billion dollars as a result. Bear in mind, I did not say millions as there are many around today who are worth that.
Money is not the defining criteria though. To get to the bottom of this question we need to look at innovation, an idea that took the world by storm like WhatsApp.
Being African is also not in question, the continent has entrepreneurs such as Mark Shuttleworth and Elon Musk who have delivered powerful tech innovations and have billions in their pocket to prove it.
In order to answer the question, we need to confront three issues, cronyism, racism and nepotism. Firstly, they exist; we can’t run away from them.
Nepotism is a global issue. Everyone supports who they know, even people of color. This means that the success of a previous generation cascades to the generation that follows. This continues any race’s probability of success.
Many believe that racism is preventing black Africans from rising to the top. This belief is wrong. Asians and Jews at one point suffered tremendous discrimination, but they succeeded despite that challenge. Today, those two ethnicities are leading the business world.
Another challenge faced by many tech companies started by black entrepreneurs is the moment they come up with an idea, they are immediately thinking of ways to monetize it. You have to make money because you have bills to pay and there is the pressure of friends and family members wanting to see the fruit of what you have been working on.
At the main goal of the most successful tech companies, like Google, Quora and LinkedIn, their main goal was to get  as many people to use their technology as possible. Once that was achieved, they started to figure out how to make money from them. WhatsApp and Quora are still trying to figure this out, but they have millions of users to work with.
Investors in the United States encourage that. You need to attract interest first, monetization will be figured out afterwards and together. The message is that they will give you money if you can show your users have an active interest. Unfortunately, this is not the case in all countries around the world.
I believe Africans are brilliant. We, however, need an ecosystem that can be supportive for all ethnicities on the continent, not just black people. Nairobi and Cape Town are beacons in Africa for the vibrant tech ecosystem they have enabled in their cities. These ecosystems were largely built by the entrepreneurs themselves.
There are two black entrepreneurs who started major technology companies that should be mentioned, David Steward from the United States and Mike Adenuga from Nigeria. Steward runs World Wide Technology, the largest black-owned company in America, with revenue of $7.4 billion in 2015. World Wide Technology is tech service based.
Adenuga, with a personal worth of $3.8 billion, runs telecommunication company Globacom, with over 30 million subscribers. It is not a global brand and it doesn’t have to be.
My point is Africans are created equally and have conquered almost every industry. Competing with the rest of the world should be a challenge, not a competition. Let’s collaborate, with each other and counterparts of all backgrounds, to advance this world technologically.

Where Is The Black Mark Zuckerberg?

It was a touching story, even inspiring; the sad part, most of it wasn’t true.
Thirty-year-old Thulani Khoza told FORBES AFRICA, plus a clutch of television shows, radio and national newspapers, his plausible story of building a smartphone in Africa. He even had a snappy name for it, T-Touch Mobile. His former partner alleged that he bought the phone at a shop in downtown Johannesburg.
At our offices in Sandton, Khoza said he would be on the cover of FORBES AFRICA one day.
Khoza told us of his transition from Bushbuckridge, a small town in Mpumalanga, to obtaining a degree in computer science from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2006 and earning honors in software engineering from the University of Nottingham, in Britain, and a master’s in business administration at Baker University in the United Sates.
“The university can find no record on its database of a Mr Thulani Khoza having graduated from the university with a BSc degree in 2006,”says Carol Crosley, the Registrar at the University of the Witwatersrand.
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Emma Rayner, a Media Relations Manager at the University of Nottingham, said: “I can confirm that our alumni team and our student services department can find no record of Thulani Khoza ever being a student at the University of Nottingham.”
Khoza said he worked as a systems analyst for South Africa’s public broadcaster, the SABC. But the SABC’s human resources confirmed it doesn’t have a Thulani Khoza in its records as an employee or even a freelancer.
In his company profile Khoza claims to have registered with Neotel, a national operator for fixed-line telecommunication services.
“Neotel is unaware of, and cannot locate, any records relating to Thulani Khoza or the company, Thules Communications,” says Sandra Sowray of Neotel.
It also appears that Thules Telecoms, a company Khoza claims to be his, belongs to his ex-girlfriend Beatrice Mashego who grew up with him.
“We attended the same primary school in Bushbuckridge Shatale Township. In 1998, we were doing grade six, he left to stay with his mother in Vosloorus until he invited me on Facebook in November 2015.”
According to Mashego, the company was registered in September 2016, under her name, but no more.
“It was registered under my name until I approached the CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) to deregister after hearing that he used me to get government funds.”
Mashego says the company wasn’t registered with any trademark association.
“I am not sure if the phone is there or not but I can confirm that there are no technicians whatsoever. I only know the one phone he’s been showing everyone.”
Khoza told us that he has 89 employees and has received orders from as far as the United States, Britain, Mexico, Portugal, and Ghana. His former business partner, Karabo Masenyadiloana, says no.
“He’s been promising jobs; that once this factory is up and running he’s going to employ 2,500 people. Thulani is too calculated to be mentally sick because someone who is mentally sick would have dropped the ball but this guy is always on his game. It is deliberate,” says Masenyadiloana.
According to Masenyadiloana, there is no such thing as T-Touch Mobile that was supposed to be registered with the regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).
“I was submitting paperwork for my phone at ICASA, so I was having a conversation with the staff so I was like, ‘have you guys ever heard of T-Touch?’ They searched their system and there was no record of T-Touch. I then asked about Thulani Khoza, they searched again and there was no Thulani Khoza in their system. This guy doesn’t even know where ICASA is and what the paperwork looks like,” says Masenyadiloana.
“Thulani’s phone is cracked, don’t you think that if he really had a phone company he would have fixed that crack or got himself a new phone? &#8230;For him to go to a shop and buy a phone and tell media that he manufactured it himself shows that he has a skill in lying,” he says.
In November, Khoza received the government’s SA Man of the Year for Science &amp; Technology award that &#8220;acknowledges an individual that has played a significant role in ensuring community development in science and technology&#8221;. Khoza was going to be handed a R15,000 ($1,100) cash prize, but not anymore.
“He did lie to us. We withdrew the award in December as he failed to come forward to explain himself. We have also decided not to act in a way that would destroy him but to rehabilitate him,” says Bongani Ngomane, Chairman of the awards.
When FORBES AFRICA called Khoza on January 12, he said: “I’m in Mpumalanga and I cannot respond to your questions right now because you’ve caught me off guard. I will ask my PR company to send a statement and I have addressed everything in the statement.”
We phoned him repeatedly and, at the time of going to press, nothing, not a call nor a statement.

The Charlatan Who’s No  Longer  Taking  Calls

East Africa is fast emerging as an important investment destination going by the recent Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), according to the 2014 Africa attractiveness survey by Ernst &amp; Young.
Four East African countries were ranked in the top 10 countries by FDI projects in 2013, showing the regions increasing attractiveness among investors. FDI projects into the region increased by 7.4% in 2013 compared to the previous year, second only to West Africa which registered an improvement of 20.5%.
Also for the first time, the region overtook North Africa in terms of FDI projects. The region that includes Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi accounted for 17% of FDI projects flowing into sub-Saharan Africa between 2007 and 2013, which according to the survey have grown at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23.4%, the second highest in Africa.
East Africa’s main attraction lies in its growing market potential which is made up of 210 million people, an improving economic environment, infrastructure development, political stability, ongoing integration through the East African Community (EAC) initiative and the recent discoveries of gas and oil.
Rising disposable incomes have seen financial services, retail and consumer products (RCP) and technology, media and telecommunication (TMT) become the three most targeted sectors in the region. Banks have seen the usage of their mobile phone services by their more than 50 million subscribers increase  more than six-fold in the past five years, making East Africa the world’s fastest-growing market. Notable investor countries include Kenya, United States, Britain and India. Kenya leads the pack as the biggest investor increasing its investments by 9.5% in the 2012-13 period according to investment specialists fDi Intelligence.
Kenya, being the biggest economy in the region, has naturally seen plenty of interest directed its way. The country attracted the second-highest number of FDI projects last year behind South Africa. In addition, FDI projects into the country have been increasing at a CAGR of more than 40% in the past seven years. With such high interest, it’s not surprising that Nairobi is home to some of the biggest international organizations such as HSBC, Bank of China and IBM. The latter even established its first African innovation hub in the capital, further shoring up the city’s status as a telecommunication hub.
The attractiveness survey that tracks FDI in the region shows Nairobi’s share of FDI projects in Africa has increased fivefold from just 1.5% in 2007 to 7.5% in 2013. Nairobi is now listed third as the most attractive city to do business in sub-Saharan Africa.
Tanzania is not far behind, especially following its recent natural gas discoveries. The country, which also ranks as Africa’s third largest gold producer, has seen FDI projects grow at a CAGR of more than 23% in the past seven years which is impressive considering its need for more infrastructure. Dar es Salaam is set to become Africa’s fifth-most populous city in Africa by 2030 and will see the greatest expansion of middle class households with incomes between $5,000 and $20,000 every year by 2030.
Uganda which debuted in the ranking of the top 10 countries in 2013 also grew its FDI projects by more than 20% since 2007. Recent oil discovery may keep the momentum of double-digit growth for a long time to come. Neighboring Rwanda has equally enjoyed impressive growth in the past few years underpinned by huge investments in IT infrastructure &#8211; the country laid fiber-optic cables covering the whole country in 2010 &#8211; and increasing ease of doing business, which has seen the country ranked 32nd on the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings in 2014 and third in sub-Saharan Africa for its favorable business environment.
The remarkable progress in FDI inflow shows the improving perception toward the region. Ongoing work toward a common currency by 2023, together with the plans to make the region operate as a common market, should further boost East Africa’s attractiveness in the coming years.
Already the common market protocol which came into force three years ago, and set to be fully implemented by 2015, is expected to achieve the four freedoms &#8211; free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the region.
This should help grow East Africa’s intra-regional investment and encourage regional integration. With such progress, it’s undoubtable that the future is bright.

The Investment Hotspot

Growing up was not easy for Daphne Mashile-Nkosi, but it prepared her for the troubles of mining. The manganese tycoon had a tough time breaking through the sector, especially as a woman. She was ousted from her own company, Kalahari Resources, but has since returned to reclaim her rightful throne and is recruiting more women to join her.
Born in Pilgrims Rest in Mpumalanga, South Africa, as the youngest of four children, Mashile-Nkosi lived with her grandmother until she moved to Soweto in Johannesburg, to join her mother. Her family moved around constantly and rented backrooms in the township. Her mother, a seamstress, would go hungry to ensure that she could provide as much as possible for her children, who she was raising single-handedly. It was from her that Mashile-Nkosi learned the power of staying. Her father, a general dealer who owned a football club, was quite the opposite and had little to do with his family.
The children at school looked down on her because she once brought a soggy sandwich for lunch, had a second-hand uniform and walked for kilometers to get an education. Poor families, such as hers, received a parcel of peanut butter and powdered milk from the government. Because of her humble beginnings, she vowed to rise above poverty.
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“I think those are the things that actually shaped me and made me the strong person that I am,” says Mashile-Nkosi.
There was much she would have to endure first. Teachers called her an ugly duckling and kept her from certain activities because her clothes were worn. But Mashile-Nkosi was a bright child who soared through school. In 1976, she needed $0.17 (R1.80) to write her final exams. She did the washing and ironing for her neighbor to pay the exam fee.
“What you put in is what you get out, there’s no manna that is going to fall from heaven,” says Mashile-Nkosi.
These humbling experiences made her conscious of her words and actions. Today, she has an undisputable love for clothes that stems from growing up in a time when, as a black person, your appearance showed that you had made it big.
She believes that one is shaped by numerous factors: school, parents, the environment and the status quo. This philosophy stems from the help she received throughout her journey. It is she who lends a helping hand to others these days.
Mashile-Nkosi’s next struggle was against apartheid. In her final school year, she participated in the 1976 Soweto Uprising that saw thousands of black pupils take to the streets in protest against the compulsory use of Afrikaans in schooling. The backlash killed many school children and caused uproar around the world.
It was among the activists that Mashile-Nkosi felt she finally belonged. Between 1976 and 1991, she became an underground operative for the African National Congress (ANC). In 1991, when it was clear that democracy would be imminent and the ANC was unbanned, she was a member of a welfare organization that helped return 1976 exiles.
She paid for her activism with her time as she was detained on several occasions. The first of which was a nine-month stint in solitary confinement. The authorities labeled her “a threat to the security of the state,” according to section three of the Security Act. They were long and desperate days under lock and key.
Mashile-Nkosi was so determined to speak to the person in the neighboring cell that she used a blanket to soak up the water from the toilet, her neighbor did the same. Then she covered her head with the blanket, so as not to be heard, and used the toilet as a telephone.
Years later she worked at retail and furniture stores and then at an IT company, but always struggled to settle.
“I was fired so many times. I then realized that I can never be employed. I was a performer at work but my big mouth wouldn’t allow it. I became a troublemaker because I asked the difficult questions,” she says.
This led her to establish an IT company, Temoso Telecommunication. She won a $9.03-million (R100-million) contract, but gave it away because she felt that she did not have the experience, money or the capacity needed to deliver on the project.
“I was not ready for it. Rather than mess up my name I’d rather give it to someone who could deliver,” she says.
It was in 1998 that Mashile-Nkosi’s foray into mining began, when mining businessman Sipho Nkosi, of no relation to her – who had occupied senior positions at Anglo-American Coal Corporation and BHP Billiton – approached her to start a coal mining company, Eyesizwe Coal, with him.
Mining was in her blood. Her grandfather, like many in those days, was a miner for Transvaal Gold Mining Enterprise. As the only woman in Eyesizwe, she wanted to bring more onboard. Her partner gave her a 24-hour deadline to do so. Strangely enough, she found a chartered accountant from the women’s consortium that had fired her by fax years earlier.
The story goes like this: a member of the consortium called to ask that she wait by her work fax machine for a very important document. An excited Mashile-Nkosi was not expecting what came next. Hurt and ashamed, she hid the letter in her bag and sat alone, until another member mentioned that she too had received the same fax.
Mashile-Nkosi became a rebel at Eyesizwe. After two years, she decided to start a mining company, Kalahari Resources, with the hope of pushing the role of women in mining. When she started the company people called her “the mad woman”, and said that she would never see the light of day in mining.
“We are Africans first and Africans are brought up to believe that women cannot do certain things… And also we are not brought up as women to support each other.”
In 2006, Eyesizwe merged with Kumba Resources’ non-iron ore assets to form Exxaro, which would be run by Nkosi. Today, it is the second-largest coal producer in the country with an annual production of 40 million tons and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Limited.
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Overnight, disaster struck Mashile-Nkosi and her brother as they were removed from the company’s list of directors and eight names were put in their places.
Speaking to FORBES AFRICA, at last year&#8217;s Mining Indaba, Mashile-Nkosi said: “I listened to some of the comments. The more I told my story, the more certain people doubted whether these assets belonged to me.”
One of those names belonged to Sandile Majali, who was an $1-million (R11-million) ANC donor in 2003. After a court battle, Majali was arrested for fraud and offered to pay Mashile-Nkosi’s legal costs. The siblings were restored to their company. In late 2010, Majali was found dead in his hotel room. He was no stranger to bad press and was reportedly involved in the Iraqi Oil-for-Food scandal.
Mashile-Nkosi pushed on with the Kalagadi Manganese project, in the Northern Cape, as a protest project on behalf of women. This was at a time when manganese was the territory of two multinationals – Anglo American and Assmang. After a long wait, Kalagadi’s license was awarded in 2005. A $1.13-million (R12.5-million) loan from Investec paid for the prefeasibility study. The favorable results landed them a $5.42-million (R60-million) loan from South Africa’s state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which finances developmental projects.
Kalahari resources has a 40% stake in Kalagadi – 62% of which belongs to Mashile-Nkosi – while the IDC holds 10% and global steelmaker ArcelorMittal holds the remaining 50%. The contenders for a partnership on the Kalagadi project were ArcelorMittal, as well as French and Chinese mining companies. ArcelorMittal won the bid because it is a consumer of manganese, while the others are producers who, at the worst of times, may choose to sell their product first.
But the relationship with ArcelorMittal soured and went to court. The steelmaker alleged a lack of corporate governance, which left Mashile-Nkosi and her team no option but to buy them out. They signed a $350.25-million (R3.9-billion) buyout deal in December 2012 and the relationship is the best it has ever been. It was a difficult time, having to raise billions for a smelter as well as the $350.25 million (R3.9 billion) for equity. Discussions for the equity are, as of going to print, being held with the Public Investment Corporation, one of the Africa’s largest investment managers.
“You need to take the initiative of making sure people believe in you, by doing it.”
The project involved sinking a shaft (±R1.5 billion), building an operational plant (±R2 billion), a sinter plant (±R3 billion) and a smelter (±R6 billion). A $650-million (R7.2-billion) framework agreement for the smelter has been signed. The team is working on the commercial terms, after approaching a number of funding institutions.
Mashile-Nkosi is the first black women to own a manganese mine and sinter plant. Her husband, Dan Nkosi, was her greatest supporter, but never got to see her dream fulfilled. The struggle veteran and former Robben Island inmate died from a throat operation that went wrong. She poured the pain of losing her partner into her work.
Black people have historically bought mines that are known to have plentiful resources and well-established infrastructure. In her case, and what sets Kalagadi apart, the land was bare. There was no electricity, water, rail or roads. And the diesel for the generators alone cost $25.30 million (R280 million).
The underground ore has 37% manganese content and three million tons will be mined. Once sintered, it will be transported to the Coega Industrial Development Zone, in the Eastern Cape, for smelting. Projected net sales revenues for the financial years ending 2015, 2016 and 2017 are $100 million (R1.1 billion), $433 million (R4.8 billion), and $632.63 million (R7 billion) respectively.
The mine launch was attended by government officials, including President Jacob Zuma, economic development minister Ebrahim Patel, and minister of mineral resources Susan Shabangu.
“We are proud that as we celebrate 20 years of democracy, we can count amongst this government’s achievements in the mining industry, the fact that we have more women in the sector. We hope that Ms Daphne Mashile-Nkosi’s example can serve as an inspiration to all women and remind them that it is indeed possible to achieve great things in a sector that has traditionally been male-dominated,” says Shabangu.
Thirty thousand jobs were created during the construction phase and the production phase will provide 3,000 full-time jobs. According to the South African Chamber of Mines, 10 people are supported for every job created in the mining sector. In the near future, Kalagadi wants half of its workforce to be women. All this at a time when mining is struggling in South Africa.
Mashile-Nkosi encourages people to nurture a culture of selflessness and upliftment, which she believes can also boost personal growth. The entrepreneur condemns, what she refers to as, the prevailing sense of entitlement.
“My grandmother [an orphan that became a domestic worker at 13] said to me one day: ‘I, or your mother, don’t owe you anything, we don’t have to work for you, we don’t have to feed you, we don’t have to clothe you. You are in this life on your own and you must get through this life.’”
The manganese tycoon believes that it is her calling to encourage fellow African women to become entrepreneurs through the words of her grandmother.

Tag: Telecommunication

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Where Is The Black Mark Zuckerberg?

The Charlatan Who’s No Longer Taking Calls

The Investment Hotspot

Struggle And Strife For The Woman Who Gave Away A $9.3-Million Deal