
<p>As FORBES AFRICA celebrates a landmark 10th year, we look back on our stellar collection of cover stars and features and some of the most &#8220;quotable quotes&#8221; from the last ten years. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-Dec_Jan-RGB-793x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52876" width="298" height="385" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-Dec_Jan-RGB-793x1024.jpg 793w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-Dec_Jan-RGB-232x300.jpg 232w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-Dec_Jan-RGB-768x991.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-Dec_Jan-RGB-1190x1536.jpg 1190w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-Dec_Jan-RGB.jpg 1258w" sizes="(max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px" /></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>I often say I can sleep on a mud floor as well as a feathered bed and be very comfortable. It has made me someone who can do without things in life because of what we went through.-Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, December 2020 /January 2021</p></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>“IF WE CONTINUE DOING THE RIGHT THINGS IN AFRICA WE CAN CREATE A VERY EXCITING AND COMPETITIVE GLOBAL MARKET HERE.”– Patrice Motsepe, October 2011 (launch issue)</p></blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screenshot-2021-10-28-at-17.31.24.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53194" width="439" height="349" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screenshot-2021-10-28-at-17.31.24.png 686w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screenshot-2021-10-28-at-17.31.24-300x239.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 439px) 100vw, 439px" /></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1-782x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52782" width="318" height="416" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1-782x1024.jpg 782w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1-229x300.jpg 229w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1-768x1006.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1-1173x1536.jpg 1173w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1.jpg 1240w" sizes="(max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px" /></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>THERE IS NO BULLSHIT WITH WOMEN. WE DON’T WASTE TIME OUT OF POLITENESS.– Wendy Appelbaum, August 2012</p></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>You have to sit down and look at your business model and say ‘can it be interrupted’? –<strong> Jannie Mouton, July 2017</strong></p></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>LIFE IS ABOUT TRIPPING AND FALLING AND LEARNING FROM MISTAKES, PULLING YOUR STRENGTHS AND MOVING ON.<strong>– Gbenga Oyebode, July 2018</strong></p></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>It’s not only all about how much money you would have made and what you would have got. It’s about having a little bit of fun.” –<strong> Sol Kerzner, October 2014</strong></p></blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2018-MARCH-RGB-793x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52852" width="414" height="535" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2018-MARCH-RGB-793x1024.jpg 793w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2018-MARCH-RGB-232x300.jpg 232w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2018-MARCH-RGB-768x992.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2018-MARCH-RGB-1189x1536.jpg 1189w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2018-MARCH-RGB.jpg 1258w" sizes="(max-width: 414px) 100vw, 414px" /></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-MAR-RGB-793x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52878" width="336" height="434" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-MAR-RGB-793x1024.jpg 793w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-MAR-RGB-232x300.jpg 232w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-MAR-RGB-768x991.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-MAR-RGB-1190x1536.jpg 1190w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FA-2020-MAR-RGB.jpg 1258w" sizes="(max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px" /></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>“If you fall flat on your face, beat yourself up and do it again until you succeed&#8230;” – Richard Branson, March 2018</p></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>“USING YOUR INFLUENCE TO CREATE IMPACT AND BETTER THE LIVES OF OTHERS — THAT IS WHAT BEING A POWERFUL WOMAN MEANS TO ME.” – Graça Machel, March 2020</p></blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screenshot-2021-10-28-at-17.31.36.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53193" width="339" height="384" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screenshot-2021-10-28-at-17.31.36.png 454w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screenshot-2021-10-28-at-17.31.36-265x300.png 265w" sizes="(max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px" /></figure></div>


quotes

FORBES AFRICA 10TH ANNIVERSARY: FROM PAST EDITIONS- Who Said What

<p>It’s a freezing morning in April and we are mooting wardrobe choices with Wendy Appelbaum in the closet of her cold marbled bathroom. Outside, the wind is howling menacingly. We are inside Appelbaum’s massive stone mansion, a chateau by all means, 450 meters above sea level in the Stellenbosch winelands of South Africa’s Western Cape. From here, you get sweeping views of the rolling hills and her endless 100-hectare wine farm.</p>
<p>For all the loftiness around us, Appelbaum is spectacularly down-to-earth and unassuming, and fuss-free too as she picks the outfits for this photoshoot – a black Donna Karan fur jacket, a Hugo Boss suit, a red silk Tommy Hilfiger shirt and a knee-length velvet coat the color of wine. She won’t change her jewelry. The gold Italian neckpiece she wears every day – she loves gold – and earrings will stay. She may be one of South Africa’s richest and most successful businesswomen, but says she does not quite care about switching handbags and jewelry each time she dresses up, and no high heels either – she is a farmer happy in her boots.</p>
<p>In her upstair office, filled with trophies, journals and a mahogany table weighed down by coffee-table books, the balcony, with its iron railing and hills in the distance, is the perfect setting for a picture. But when the windows open, the wind is vicious.</p>
<p>“It’s the lousiest day I have seen in a long time,” says Appelbaum.</p>
<p>Earlier, when we had driven up to the house, passing the guards at the manor house, the sloping vineyards and beds of roses, Appelbaum had greeted us in her warm country-style kitchen.</p>
<p>Beyond the kitchen, a long carpeted corridor features grand stairways on both sides, and life-size oil paintings of ships at sea, grim generals, horses and packs of dogs. Appelbaum’s own dogs, two endearing Jack Russells named Dotty and Jane, follow her everywhere, while her Burmese cats Sally and Molly vainly peer from the top floor.</p>
<p>Dotty dances on her lap as Appelbaum finally settles in the living room, on a wing-back chair, the drapes billowing behind her. In this room, a snooker table takes pride of place, along with an eyeful of treasures – Ming vases, leopard print chairs, fur cushions, silverware and stuffed birds.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30781 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Wendy-002-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Wendy-002-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Wendy-002-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Wendy-002-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Wendy-002-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Wendy-002.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></p>
<p>A large dining table at the far end with a fireplace, chandeliers and crystal decanters suggest the house receives many guests.</p>
<p>A floor below, in Appelbaum’s icy, temperature-controlled red-brick cellar, an iron chandelier overpowers a large oak table with leather chairs she “bought from a flea market in France”; on the walls are wicker baskets, pitchforks and shovels, and not to mention wines going back to the last century.</p>
<p>“We mostly do wine-tastings here. And if I have meetings [here], the cell phones don’t work, it is cold and I can keep [people] awake so they concentrate,” Appelbaum says mischievously.</p>
<p>“I love to entertain and cook,” she had said in the kitchen earlier. We spot pictures of her with Nelson Mandela, Thuli Madonsela, American feminist Gloria Steinem, even a picture of her with Hollywood hunk Robert Redford.</p>
<p>“Robert Redford is a friend of a friend who came here,” says Appelbaum wryly. “He said he had six Jack Russell dogs and picked my dogs up. And I said ‘do you mind if I smoke’, and he said ‘can I join you’?”</p>
<p>There are more pictures of her with sons Nicholas, a 29-year-old surgeon, and Matthew, a 26-year-old banker in Johannesburg. Appelbaum beams with pride when Nicholas walks into the room.</p>
<p>“Are you going to have lunch?” she asks him fondly. He says he needs to go into town.</p>
<p>How does it feel to have an energetic 24/7 mother, you ask Nicholas? His answer is quick and polite: “She is 24/7 with everybody else, but she is a mom behind closed doors. She is not cuddly, but she is capable of being motherly.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum beams again. “He is the most amazing child, so gifted, but unbelievably serious.”</p>
<p>In between, she calls for Jean, her butler, a 20-something lad in a Polo shirt who looks more Johnny Bravo than Jeeves.</p>
<p>It is clear Appelbaum is most happy on her farm, waking early to catch the first rays of the sun, like her wine estate itself, named DeMorgenzon, meaning ‘the morning sun’. Because of its elevation, it gets the first light over the mountains.</p>
<p>Appelbaum built and moved in to this house eight years ago.</p>
<p>“I wanted it to look like it had been here forever, I also wanted it to blend into the environment, that is why [it is in] stone. In fact, most of the time, you can hardly see it unless you look for it. It’s an adaption to the beautiful environment we live in.”</p>
<p>It explains why she prefers to spend more time in Cape Town, and less time in Johannesburg, “stuck in traffic, attending meetings”.</p>
<p>She travels to the Unites States (US) three times a year. She is a part of the global advisory board to the president of Harvard, looking into the globalization of Harvard. Appelbaum says the institution is on course to open its largest office outside of the US, in Cape Town. She has also been a member of Harvard’s Women’s Leadership Board for 15 years.</p>
<p>“And then I sell a lot of wine,” says Appelbaum simply, coming back to her turf. A medium-sized wine producer, she sells about half a million bottles of wine a year, exporting 85% of it, her main markets being the US, the United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and Canada. DeMorgenzon’s signature is Chenin Blanc.</p>
<p>“We sit on some of the best white wine terroir in the world – one of the reasons is our proximity to the sea, the cooling breezes and the elevation of the farm. [These are] mountain vineyards and we actually have the coolest vineyard site in the whole of Stellenbosch.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum says she always wanted to be a farmer; the important thing was finding what she loved, and she absolutely loved wine.</p>
<p>“And it was a hell of a learning curve,” she admits.</p>
<p>“It really does not matter whether you sell computers, wine, investments or insurance, you have got to run a business like a business irrespective of what your product is and I think it was just bringing all my business library of knowledge together, but it was fantastic as I have been in advertising, in marketing, so that came into it, and I think it is very important to have incredible staff, and I did a lot of consulting to make sure our viticulture practices are world-class.”</p>
<p>The perfectionist that she confesses to being, Appelbaum wanted the best or nothing.</p>
<p>“I drive myself very hard… Life is too short to do something badly,” she says.</p>
<p>“Your priorities change when you become a farmer. All sorts of things like the weather become more important; you become more in touch with the earth.”</p>
<p>Her husband Hylton manages the gardens, playing Baroque music to the grapes 24/7 with speakers installed in the vineyards and at the winery to influence the ripening and maturation process.</p>
<p>“He makes this a beautiful place to live in,” says Appelbaum. “He propagates the wild flowers. The roses are important too – if a rose gets sick, you know your vines will get sick soon. We use a lot of color to attract insect life. Everything is as close to nature as you can find.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum’s first vintage was a Chenin Blanc in 2005, which was the first maiden vintage to get 5-star ratings in the Platter’s Wine Guide.</p>
<p>“The awards are Return On Ego,” she laughs, as she uses a ‘thief’ to draw a few drops of Shiraz wine from an ageing oak barrel when we go down to her winery.</p>
<p>“The wine industry is creative, it’s got so many parts, you meet some of the most extraordinary and passionate people around the world.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum says South African wines are gaining recognition for quality, and are really starting to be seen as a force in the international wine industry.</p>
<p>“There is no doubt in my mind we have some of the best grapes in the world. From the perspective of tourism, it is the most exquisite winelands in the world.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum is now looking to market her wines in the rest of Africa, eyeing countries like Namibia and Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>“The rest of Africa has become a very valuable market. This year, we intend to roll out into Africa. There is huge demand.”</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Early Years</p>
<p>An only daughter, Appelbaum grew up in Johannesburg. As a child, there was not a single game she couldn’t play, be it bridge, tennis, golf, scrabble or show-jumping.</p>
<p>“Games teach you an enormous amount in terms of negotiation skills. Women essentially don’t know how to compete. I am highly competitive, and I learned that on the sports field. I just challenged everything, I still do, and that’s what makes me a very good director.”</p>
<p>After a degree in psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand, she worked with her father, Sir Donald Gordon, founder of the Liberty Group. She was also a Director at Liberty Investors.</p>
<p>“I don’t think he was a good mentor,” she says.</p>
<p>“I think he was an interesting person and I learned some incredible skills from him, in terms of his determination, his attention to detail, patience and work ethic. He was an amazing role model rather than a mentor,” says Appelbaum.</p>
<p>Often, she was also the only one to challenge him in the boardroom.</p>
<p>“I always like a good fight,” she says.</p>
<p>“He wasn’t happy with it, but it was better to accept it than to challenge it because it probably made me worse. Every now and again he was patronizing, or gender-insensitive, but I never allowed him to get away with it, but even so he didn’t really go out of his way to promote women in his companies. He was a good sexist. He liked women, but he wasn’t so sure he wanted to work with them.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum was one of the co-founders and Deputy Chairman of pioneering women’s investment holding company Wiphold, from 1994 for about five years, and the company did really well.</p>
<p>“Those were fun days. But not just from the perspective of working with women, which is quite sleek and chic, but also from the perspective of when the country was changing and understanding different cultures. It was a sexy combination, and we had the capacity and brains.”</p>
<p>Post Wiphold, she was also Deputy Chairman of the Connection Group, another success story.</p>
<p>“I have been on so many boards I used to call myself a ‘serial board-sitter’,” she laughs.</p>
<p>“I sat on listed and unlisted companies, charitable trusts, foundations and all sorts of things. At one point, I was sitting on 15 boards, in the mid-2000s. It was insanity.”</p>
<p>For now, Appelbaum says she has embarked on a few new businesses, and “will be doing all sorts of fantastic things”.</p>
<p>In her mid-50s, Appelbaum’s philanthropic work continues.</p>
<p>She is a Director of the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, and believes true wealth is giving back, which is why she won’t admit how much she is worth.</p>
<p>“I loathe to say that. I think money for money’s sake is pretty evil stuff. If you have the opportunity to do wonderful work and make a difference in people’s lives, it’s a responsibility that has positive outcomes, but just to count pennies and pounds has really got to be one of the most mindless obsessions and careers.”</p>
<p>The view from Appelbaum’s mountain home is certainly inspiring, but even more so is this person fronting a beautiful piece of earth in Stellenbosch, and she’s fun, feisty and fearless.</p>


Wendy-001

The Multi-Millionaire Farmer Who Loves A Good Boardroom Fight

<p>Half of the 10 richest South African women either inherited their wealth from their fathers or built businesses together with their husbands. A few are standalone entrepreneurs, while some are renowned corporate executives.</p>
<h3>Wendy Ackerman, $300 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Retail</h3>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30774 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Shot-01-CF234920-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shot-01-CF234920-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shot-01-CF234920-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shot-01-CF234920-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shot-01-CF234920.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Wendy Ackerman’s husband, Raymond, founded Pick ‘n’ Pay, one of South Africa’s most dominant retail empires. She and her husband control the Ackerman Family Trust, the vehicle through which they own more than 40% of the retail giant. She has also served as a Non-Executive Director of the company since 2010. Pick ‘n’ Pay has outlets across Southern Africa and Australia.</p>
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<h3>Wendy Appelbaum, $200 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Insurance</h3>
<p>Wendy Appelbaum is the daughter of revered South African multi-millionaire insurance mogul Donald Gordon who co-founded Liberty Investors, an insurance and real estate company. She worked at Liberty before divesting her significant shareholding in the company. She used the proceeds to pursue other interests, most notably, DeMorgenzon, a wine estate in Stellenbosch. The philanthropist has donated millions of dollars to causes in education and health in South Africa.</p>
<h3>Irene Charnley, $150 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Telecoms</h3>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30776 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Irene-Charnley-15179-CEO-Smile-Telecoms-Holdings-Ltd-276x300.jpg" alt="" width="276" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Irene-Charnley-15179-CEO-Smile-Telecoms-Holdings-Ltd-276x300.jpg 276w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Irene-Charnley-15179-CEO-Smile-Telecoms-Holdings-Ltd-300x326.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Irene-Charnley-15179-CEO-Smile-Telecoms-Holdings-Ltd-600x652.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Irene-Charnley-15179-CEO-Smile-Telecoms-Holdings-Ltd-768x835.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Irene-Charnley-15179-CEO-Smile-Telecoms-Holdings-Ltd-942x1024.jpg 942w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Irene-Charnley-15179-CEO-Smile-Telecoms-Holdings-Ltd.jpg 941w" sizes="(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px" /></p>
<p>Charnley burst into the limelight as a trade unionist when she was a negotiator for the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa. She subsequently left union politics and joined MTN as an Executive Director where she was instrumental in negotiating for a GSM license in Nigeria, MTN’s most profitable market. She earned hefty stock options which translated into more than R2 billion ($71 million) as far back as in 2006. She divested her shareholding in MTN and founded Smile Telecoms, an internet services provider active in West and East Africa. Smile Telecoms recently closed a $365 million funding round from international investors to expand its broadband network.</p>
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<h3>Elisabeth Bradley, $100 million</h3>
<h3>Source: Investments</h3>
<p>Elisabeth Bradley is the chairperson of Wesco Investments, an investment holding firm and Toyota South Africa, a company that has the lucrative distributorship of Toyota in South Africa. Her father, businessman Albert Wessels, had the foresight in 1961 to acquire the distribution rights of the automaker in South Africa. It has paid off handsomely for Bradley. In 2008, she sold off 25% of Toyota South Africa to Toyota Motor Corp of Japan for more than $300 million.</p>
<h3>Judy Dlamini, $100 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Aspen Pharmacare</h3>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30777" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Judy-Dlamini-300x177.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="177" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Judy-Dlamini-300x177.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Judy-Dlamini-600x353.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Judy-Dlamini-768x452.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Judy-Dlamini-1024x603.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Judy-Dlamini.jpg 1023w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>Dlamini, a medical doctor by profession, is the leading shareholder in Imithi Investments (Pty) Limited, a black economic empowerment vehicle that owns more than 4% of Aspen Pharmacare, Africa’s largest pharmaceuticals company. She is also the chairperson of a black women-owned and managed company with operations and investments in health, facilities management, tourism, fashion retail and retail property.</p>
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<h3>Sharon Wapnick, $80 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Investments</h3>
<p>Sharon’s father, Alec Wapnick, founded Octodec Investments and Premium Properties, both Real Estate Investment Trust companies. In 2014, both companies merged to become Octodec. Sharon is one of the largest shareholders in the company. She also serves as a partner at TWB Attorneys, a commercial law firm in Johannesburg.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30772" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/SharonWapnickXXX-300x184.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="184" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SharonWapnickXXX-300x184.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SharonWapnickXXX-600x368.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SharonWapnickXXX.jpg 680w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<h3>Pam Golding, $60 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Real Estate</h3>
<p>Pamela Golding is the founder of the Pam Golding Property Group, a real estate brokerage which she started in 1976 with one sales assistant and no capital. Five decades later, Pam Golding is one of the largest real estate agencies in Africa, closing more than $1 billion in deals in 2015 and employing a workforce of more than 3,000 professionals. Golding is the chairperson of the company while her son Andrew is CEO.</p>
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<h3>Vanessa Gounden, $45 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Diversified</h3>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30775 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Vanessa-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Vanessa-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Vanessa.jpg 267w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></p>
<p>Gounden serves as the CEO of the Holgoun Group, a conglomerate she co-founded with her husband, Sivandran Gounden, in 2005. Holgoun started out in the clean energy business, but after it flopped, she and her husband set out to buy platinum prospecting rights and developed platinum mining assets through which they made their first fortune. The company now has an asset base of $250 million and interests in mining, healthcare financial services, property, media and security among other sectors. Gounden is now attempting to make her mark in high fashion. In 2011 she launched her own fashion label named Vanessa Gounden, a luxury womenswear brand that has a pop-up shop on Beauchamp Place near Harrods in London.</p>
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<h3>Bridgette Radebe, $25 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Mining</h3>
<p>Radebe is one of the few females to have thrived in South Africa’s male-dominated mining industry. Mmakau mining, a Johannesburg-based junior mining company she founded, has lucrative mining assets in coal, gold, uranium and platinum. Radebe started out in the 1990s managing shafts for larger mining firms on a contract basis. She is elder sister to South Africa’s first black billionaire Patrice Motsepe.</p>
<h3>Yolanda Cuba, $10 Million</h3>
<h3>Source: Diversified</h3>
<p>Yolanda Cuba currently serves as Executive Director for strategy and business support for South Africa Breweries Limited, but in her former life, she was the CEO of Mvelaphanda Group, an investment company with interests in mining and natural resources. Mvelaphanda was previously listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange, during which time Cuba was awarded stock options worth around $10 million.</p>


South Africa’s 10 Wealthiest Women In Business

<p>She is often portrayed as a tough and ruthless businesswoman, who doesn’t take prisoners. But face-to-face, Wendy Appelbaum shows she is anything but. Open, warm and witty, she makes it clear that being rich comes with the heavy responsibility of giving back to society.</p>
<p>With an estimated net worth of $183 million, Appelbaum is said to be the wealthiest woman on the continent. It’s a ballpark figure she dismisses as “complete rubbish”, while declining to comment further.</p>
<p>“I don’t think the point is how much you’ve got. The point is what you choose to do with it,” she says in her deep, guttural voice. “The more you have, the more responsibility you have to share it with those who don’t.”</p>
<p>She certainly takes this responsibility seriously. Philanthropy has been her focus and passion for years, with a large proportion of her charity work targeting women. Appelbaum has her fingers in many pies. She is a member of the Global Philanthropists’ Circle run by David Rockefeller’s daughter, Peggy, through her New York-based Synergos Institute; a member of Harvard University’s Women’s Leadership Board; the Helen Suzman Foundation as well as the International Women’s Forum and Women Moving Millions, an initiative started by Swanee Hunt, one of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt’s daughters, who motivated 100 women from all over the world to commit a minimum of $1 million for women’s causes, raising a total of $187 million in only a few months.</p>
<p>“For me it’s a no-brainer. It’s an honor and a privilege to give back to the society in which I live,” says Appelbaum, noting her surprise at how few rich women are involved in the world of philanthropy.</p>
<p>“If you look at Harvard’s reserves, or elsewhere, it’s an old boys’ club. It’s because for most of the world’s rich, charity is much more about status than helping the less privileged. Philanthropy is a sign of success. A sign that you have spare capacity. It’s what I call a pissing contest. Pure ego coming back in chunks.”</p>
<p>That needed to change, Appelbaum thought and co-founded the Women’s Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold) in the 1990s, soon after the end of apartheid. A South African woman-controlled company that raises capital for major investments in large corporations, like Old Mutual and Nedbank, with the profits accruing to the trust.</p>
<p>“We were 11 women on the board. The timing was perfect. BEE [black economic empowerment] was becoming the sexy thing of the day. And when you coupled that with women… the deal flow was extraordinary,” Appelbaum recalls.</p>
<p>In just four years, Wiphold turned from an initial $60,000 investment into a $120 million debt-free enterprise listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>Part of Wiphold’s business philosophy is to benefit poor women. The management team tutored women in townships and rural areas in basic finance and business skills and helped them to form groups to buy shares. Her peers of that time describe Appelbaum as an astute businesswoman, who poured lots of energy into finding solutions to complex matters and new investment opportunities.</p>
<p>“Failure did not exist in her books,” remembers Wiphold group CEO Louisa Mojela.</p>
<p>“Beneath that toughness there is an element of softness, kindness and a huge heart to give to the previously disadvantaged. She treats her colleagues with a lot of respect and humility.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum left Wiphold shortly after it listed, selling her own shares so that previously disadvantaged women could fill her space.</p>
<p>“I thought there was enough strength in the company to continue without me. Although a white woman fell into the previously disadvantaged group at that time, I certainly didn’t feel it myself. I didn’t think I should benefit,” she explains.</p>
<p>Appelbaum looks back at that time with utter satisfaction.</p>
<p>“It was probably one of the most effective boards I have ever sat on. There is no bullshit with women. We don’t waste time out of politeness,” she says.</p>
<p>Men, by contrast, operate in business with an entirely different strategy to women, she believes.</p>
<p>“Men look at life differently. They are not as upfront and as honest as women. They compete in a relatively underhand kind of way.”</p>
<p>It is exactly this different approach to doing business that companies could enormously benefit from if they only realized how much a combination of men and women’s different visions enhances corporate environments, Appelbaum says.</p>
<p>“Women have intuition, which men don’t have, and probably a softer side to us, on a certain level, where compassion does come in, it gives you a much more interesting and varied vision of the world. Men see the big picture, women see detail. And it’s when the two work together that you get a much better outcome for the business. That’s why congruent boards are much more successful.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum, who is often described as being frank to the point of being blunt, certainly knows what she is talking about. In the past 25 years, she has sat on countless boards—most of them dominated by men. She was deputy chair of IT and retailing company Connection Group Ltd and is still a trustee of investment holding trust The Tribune Trust as well as director of Sphere Holdings Ltd, to name a few. Her very first seat, however, was on the board of her father, Donald Gordon’s Liberty Group, when she was made director of Liberty Investors Ltd, the group’s previously listed holding company.</p>
<p>When Gordon appointed his daughter in the early 1990s, he certainly didn’t expect to be challenged by her. You can be sure the feisty Appelbaum had no intention of a subservient role. She piped up at her very first Liberty board meeting, raising questions. Gordon kept a straight face but took his daughter aside as soon as the meeting was over, firmly instructing her never to question him in his boardroom again. Appelbaum remembers how she stood up to him.</p>
<p>“I said: ‘What do you think I’m doing here? If you want a rubber stamp go to the post office. I’m not here to rubber stamp everything’. Nobody else would take him on. I was always the one who had to do it.”</p>
<p>One of the things that irked her most about her father was that “he was a sexist”, she frankly admits. Apart from his own daughter, Gordon never appointed a woman to a management position. He also described businesswomen who didn’t speak much as “very clever”.</p>
<p>“I thought to myself, ‘Oh no, you have a problem.’ I never saw him put a woman in an important position, ever. It frustrated me,” says Appelbaum.</p>
<p>Her father’s condescending attitude was an eye-opener that led her to become a feminist, she says, with American women’s rights activist and author Gloria Steinem, one of her role models, who later became a friend.</p>
<p>“I’m not a bra-burning feminist. I associate closely with Gloria because she has been able to maintain her femininity despite her belief in equality. I believe that women are equal to men if not better. There is nothing, aside from perhaps hard physical labor, that women can’t do as well as men. Many women just haven’t had opportunities.”</p>
<p>South Africa has had a slow start to acknowledging women’s rights and equality. The first recorded woman to work in an office was Miss Letty Impey, who was employed as a secretary by Johannesburg solicitor Henry Lindsay in 1894. Her employment caused such scandal that Impey had to work behind a screen in the open-plan office because it was regarded as “not quite proper” for her to be seen. She even became somewhat of a showpiece as curious men visited the solicitor’s office, peeking behind the screen to catch a glimpse of the female staff member.</p>
<p>Much has changed since then for women, but not nearly enough. South African women continue to struggle for equity in both their personal and business lives. This becomes particularly apparent at management level and in boardrooms, says Appelbaum, who to this day often remains the only female representative: “There are still some boards who really believe that women should be seen but not heard and who are taken aback when you give them an opinion.”</p>
<p>It takes someone of Appelbaum’s poise and unshakable self-confidence to operate and make her mark in those corporate patriarchal environments. Perhaps it is the constant head butting with her father that taught her how to stand up for herself. Perhaps it is the security of her family background and wealth that make her undefeatable—although Appelbaum, who is in her early 50s, says she never once in her life felt she had to prove herself for being more than “just Donald Gordon’s heiress”.</p>
<p>She believes what made her strong and independent is that, apart from her stint as one of her father’s directors at Liberty, she was always an entrepreneur who worked for herself.</p>
<p>“I’ve never felt like a quota. If I wish something to be offensive, I make it offensive. Sitting on boards is not about making friends. It’s about doing the right thing for your shareholders. Corporate governance, for me, is absolutely paramount. But I think it does bother other women in that they feel marginalized.”</p>
<p>And so it became a vital imperative in Appelbaum’s life to help close the gender gap by blazing a trail for other women, something that is done far too little, she says, noting that few women who have made it in the business world care to promote their peers.</p>
<p>“You just have to take a look at some of the women-headed companies in this country and their female representation. You’d be deeply disappointed. Perhaps women don’t want to be seen as rocking the boat or showing prejudice.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum also complains about what she calls “repeat board seats”, where a number of select few women sit on multiple boards, causing the false impression that the gender glass ceiling has shifted upwards.</p>
<p>“If you look at how many women are exposed, it’s very low. There’s no point in one woman sitting on 10 corporate boards and filling out long forms of conflicts of interest prior to meetings. That’s nonsense. Women must get to the point where they widen the spread of individuals exposed at those levels. We’re making slow progress in giving women the equal opportunities they so rightly deserve.”</p>
<p>She believes the 2008 global financial crisis from which the world is struggling to recover offers an opportunity to women to re-position themselves in business and get breaks that usually wouldn’t be accessible to them.</p>
<p>“Companies are struggling due to the recession, and women tend to be much cheaper hires,” Appelbaum explains.</p>
<p>“One of the reasons for that is that women don’t have the confidence to negotiate for themselves. So they tend to get bullied. But they are getting the hires at the moment because their cost to company is lower. There’s a gap and they seem to be taking it. I think the glass ceiling is finally shifting a bit.”</p>
<p>Appelbaum had the benefit of growing up in a family environment where the glass ceiling didn’t exist, where entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen were passed down to her and her brothers, Richard and Graeme, every day.</p>
<p>“My father had a wonderful way of verbalizing what he was doing,” she says, joking that every dinner table conversation in the Gordon’s family home was like being at Harvard Business School: “It was like living in an MBA class.” It was her father who taught her how to identify opportunity and maximize its benefit.</p>
<p>Although a great admirer of her father, Appelbaum is keenly aware that he was far from perfect and has no illusions that her free business education came at a price.</p>
<p>“He wasn’t interested in your opinion; he was interested in you as an audience. My father needed to be told how clever he was all the time. There was that need for affirmation, which most serious executives need. They really need their ego stroked. That’s why, when you look at corporations, very often the succession is not there because they had a bunch of yes-men behind them, telling them that no matter what they did, they were marvelous. And they love that. My father was no different.”</p>
<p>While her brothers found their father intimidating, Appelbaum insists she never did: “I’m not easily intimidated, by anybody. In fact I can’t think of anybody that I find intimidating.”</p>
<p>It thus comes as no surprise that it is her—and not her two older brothers—who tends to be described as a chip off the old block.</p>
<p>“It’s not a bad old block to be a chip of. I am definitely the most similar to my father,” she laughs.</p>
<p>Coming from a family of European immigrants who arrived in South Africa in the mid-1920s with absolutely nothing, Donald Gordon knew from an early age he wanted to make money. Although his dream was to be a scientist, he decided to become an auditor instead, and one day, when auditing an insurance company, he noticed the firm was making profit despite the fact that it was badly run. ‘Surely I can do a much better job,’ he thought… and started the Liberty Group, which later became a major insurance and investment emporium.</p>
<p>Decades later, Gordon sold the Liberty Group to Standard Bank. All three of his children pursued their own business interests, but business associates say he would have handed the firm over to his daughter instead of one of his sons, had he not sold it. Appelbaum, however, says she has no regrets about the sale of the group and is skeptical that a close working relationship with her father—necessary to build up her succession—could have worked out in the long-term.</p>
<p>“I would have found it almost impossible to work for my father; because we are so similar, we used to argue a lot,” she admits.</p>
<p>Since then, she has proven herself many times as a businesswoman in her own right, with pretty much all of her ventures ending in success. She bought De Morgenzon—the Morning Sun—a wine estate in midst of the Stellenbosch winelands, 45 minutes from Cape Town, with her husband, Hylton. Their maiden vintage, a 2005 Chenin Blanc, became the first wine to get five stars in South Africa’s leading Platter’s Wine Guide.</p>
<p>“I’m an absolute perfectionist,” Appelbaum, who also breeds racehorses, describes her modus operandi.</p>
<p>“Whatever I decide to do, I will drive myself insane until it’s right.”</p>
<p>A game player at heart, which she says is based on her deep competitiveness, she was a provincial tennis player as a child and a provincial golfer as an adult, although she only took up the sport at the age of 30. Business to her is like a game, too, one that demands strategic thinking, passion, skill and stamina.</p>
<p>Going into the wine business has been one of the greatest challenges of her career. To produce a top quality organic wine, she has planted wildflowers between the vines for natural pollination, while Baroque music softly floats throughout the vineyard to bio-dynamically support plant growth. Appelbaum has also taken utmost care in selecting the right winemaker for the estate.</p>
<p>“I had four or five winemakers making wine for me. Not only did I look at the quality of the wine they made, but for a number of years, I interacted with them to see who I would get on best with. The winemaker is the one who grows the grapes to their best advantage. What I have to do as the entrepreneur is to give him every single opportunity to make the very best wine he can,” she says.</p>
<p>But there is one major component to wine making that is out of every farmers’ control: the weather. It’s an aspect, Appelbaum admits, she struggles with.</p>
<p>“For a control freak like me, the wine business is a hell of a challenge. It’s very frustrating,” she says.</p>
<p>That’s why she is as hands-on with the day-to-day running of her wine farm as her time allows. The Appelbaums live in a beautiful mansion on top of the highest point of the farm, overlooking the vineyards and the far-reaching, picturesque views of Stellenbosch’s rolling hills.</p>
<p>From here, Appelbaum manages the estate, admitting that she can be a little bit authoritarian.</p>
<p>“It’s my way or the highway. But only because I’m so sure of what I want.”</p>
<p>Her staff appear to appreciate her driven, forthright management style.</p>
<p>“What you see is what you get. She has a very transparent management style. She tells you things straight. She leads with integrity,” says De Morgenzon tasting room manager, Diana Renke.</p>
<p>Integrity is a trait Appelbaum rates highly, and it was when she auctioned a second wine estate, Quoin Rock Winery and Manor Estate, for $6.5 million in December and sniffed corruption that she decided to publicly take on a multi-million dollar industry—to protect her own integrity while fighting a battle for South Africa’s greater good. She laid a complaint with the National Consumer Commission (NCC) after discovering she had competed for the estate with a ghost bidder, someone hired by South Africa’s largest auction group, Auction Alliance, to drive up the price.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Appelbaum, who doesn’t like the limelight and chose not to keep her maiden name because she “did not want to be just associated as Donald Gordon’s daughter”, suddenly found herself in a very public spat with Auction Alliance CEO Rael Levitt.</p>
<p>“Mr. Levitt took me out of my comfort zone because he chose to fight me in the media. That fight with Mr. Levitt was a fight for good. For me, there’s either right or wrong. There’s nothing grey in matter. I believe that I have done South African society a great service because corruption is rife in this country.”</p>
<p>The outcome proved her right: in March, the NCC found Auction Alliance guilty of contravening the Consumer Protection Act by conducting a mock auction and fined it 10% of its annual turnover.</p>
<p>Appelbaum’s love for a “good” fight stems from a friendship with well-known anti-apartheid activist and politician Helen Suzman, who was a family friend of the Gordons and later in life became one of Appelbaum’s mentors.</p>
<p>“She was a no-bullshit woman; tough, clever and not intimidated by anybody. She encouraged me to be feisty and cheeky. She’d fight anybody as long as it was for somebody’s benefit,” remembers Appelbaum.</p>
<p>Appelbaum is a woman without regrets. If there were one, it would be that she never became a doctor—a profession her father, who wanted her to take up accounting, didn’t approve of. When she wasn’t accepted into medical school due to strict quotas on women at that time, she studied psychology instead, with economics as one of her subjects. But her interest in medicine became a lifelong passion, with a large chunk of Appelbaum’s philanthropic investments going towards health.</p>
<p>She is a trustee of her father’s Donald Gordon Foundation, one of the largest private charitable foundations in Southern Africa, which includes the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg. She is also a trustee of CHOC (Children’s Haemotology Oncology Clinics) and recently founded the Wendy Appelbaum Women’s Health Institute for the advancement and improvement of treatment for disorders affecting women.</p>
<p>Only now, much later in her life, has she found time to pursue her childhood dream somewhat: She recently enrolled in a course at Harvard Medical School to learn about the connection between human rights and healthcare.</p>


Tag: Wendy Appelbaum

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