The African Millionaire - Become a Millionare This Year, African Millionaire Club

Hendrik du Toit Investec Asset Management

2012-01-26T19:04:00.000+02:00

Hendrik du Toit Investec Asset Management
Born: Cape Town
Descent: Afrikaans
University: Masters Com. Stellenbosch, Masters Philosophy Cambridge
Former: Investment Analyst South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society + Chairman IDCSA + Lecturer Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University
Firm entrusted with: GBP59 billion of client assets in 2011
When did you make the UK your home?

Well, it’s debatable whether it is my home. I’ve been living here with my family since 2005. Investec expanded here in 1998 and I used to fly up and down between the two places. Eventually we were attacking the world from London, so more time was sucked in here. I still have a home in South Africaand I go back virtually every month. So I haven’t ‘left’ South Africain that sense.

And from a business perspective?
It was necessary for us to come to London because it’s the largest conglomeration of money managers in the world. Therefore you have better opportunities of touching and seeing clients who come here looking for people to engage them. London was a commercially logical opportunity for us, a little like the SA breweries, who just couldn’t do what they did from Johannesburg. Increasingly though, the way technology is evolving, you will be able to do business anywhere as the world. I guess my grandchildren will not understand why I had to come here.

How valuable are South African business people with connections in both SA and UK?

It’s a model I’d very much like to like to encourage. I think the idealistic notion of a ‘truly international person’ doesn’t work, because you don’t know where you come from, or where you’re going. I think UK locals still think that people who come to London from developing countries have fled. That’s mostly not true anymore. It’s not the refugees who pitch up here. People come here because they want to be part of the melting pot. The really smart ones, particularly the Chinese, retain the contact and are absolutely in the driving seat, as they can play both sides and are quite clear about their identities.

What were the biggest challenges you faced moving here?

Although people are very accommodating to South Africans in London, in the City it was seen as: ‘you’re not going to make it to the first beat; how committed are you?’ There was huge cynicism to deal with. So that’s why we had to move physically. We said: ‘No, we live here now, if we fail, we fail with you.’
Moving cross border is disruptive if you have an established life somewhere else. It’s more social pressure and a higher risk of failure. However, this was also motivational. We had no option, and we had to make it. The beautiful thing about the City of London is that it actually looks past ethnic, religious, or whatever orientation. It just looks if you can provide what they need at the right quality. You’ll notice there have been a lot of success stories in the city of London over the last 20 years, since deregulation, that have actually been that of immigrant businesses, or immigrant establishments doing very well, working harder than the incumbents, (not necessarily the locals).

Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and think, I’ve made it?
No, because that’s the beauty of competitive industries, you never make it. I have a poster by Nike, of a guy running and it says: ‘There’s no finish line’. That’s what this business is, you can opt out but once you’re in it, you’ve never ‘made it’. So definitely not, on the contrary, in London I keep on meeting people who have done so much, not financially, that have used their time so much better that one’s constantly humbled and almost embarrassed by what you’ve done with your chances. That’s the good thing again about being in a competitive industry, there’s no time for slacking.

What makes you a success within Investec?
Determination, that’s the most important thing in an environment of lots of talented, smart people. It’s all about a mind-set. The way the French rugby team came into the final of the world cup; they weren’t going to be pushed around. They weren’t the best team, but they almost did it. You can learn determination anywhere; you can learn that in a small village in Zimbabwe, when you have to walk to school long distances every day.

Your company is entrusted with billions of other people’s money. How is the pressure of that responsibility?
We are not in a traditional business. We don’t sell beer or sell riches and we actually take responsibility or part-responsibility in a supply chain for other people’s financial future. I spend a great deal of time trying to explain this to people in house. It’s not just their careers, it’s actually their uncle’s or your aunt’s money. If you’re irresponsible or you make a mistake, you’ve crossed honest people who’ve worked hard.
This industry, by and large, it is not as transactional with its clients as other parts of the financial services, who have recently been collecting flack for their behaviour, but it’s not perfect by any means. But it’s nice to think that if you do the job well, you’ll make a few guys live better when they’re old.

What role do South Africans play in the future world economy?

I was very excited when I went to the SA embassy recently. There were two guest speakers; one was Will-I-Am, the singer. And he said his dream as a creative person, (he’s not a businessman but obviously very sharp), was to see the next Sergey Brin from Google, or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook to come out of Africa and it is indeed possible. If they’re international enough and open-minded enough, they’ll be able to link into a supply chain. The message for Southern Africans is that if you’ve got a really good idea, if you’re competitive at something and if you’re open-minded, that probably means having spent some time outside your home country. You can go back to your home country and build a very good business. Or, you can do it in another country and you can then in-source from your own country because you know better, you can negotiate better, you can deal better.
source

The formidable and fiercely independent man behind Investec Asset Management's success

Hendrik du Toit fell into the Investec group almost by mistake. In one of those chance encounters when he was still an analyst at Old Mutual, Du Toit was covering Bidvest and was critical of its financial structure.Bidvest's bankers, Investec CE Stephen Koseff and group MD Bernard Kantor, came to its defence. They had a heated disagreement, but Koseff and Kantor could see Du Toit's intelligence and drive and picked him out as the ideal man to kick-start their asset management business in 1991.

Hendrik du Toit - Demanding leader

It's not a decision they regret. The CEO of Investec Asset Management has built a formidable business in 15 years. He runs it as an autonomous business, even though Investec owns 100% of it, and won't listen to Kantor and Koseff.

Kantor admits candidly that "Hendrik is impossible to manage, and even that can be considered something of an understatement".

This week Du Toit's team will walk away with a fistful of awards in the annual Standard & Poor's/FM unit trust rankings, including the best overall group for 2005 (the first time a best overall group has been awarded in SA), the best larger group over one, three and five years and the top fund of the year (Investec Commodity). Across the board, the rankings show that Investec has had the most consistent performance.

Du Toit's achievement is remarkable for two reasons: the first is that he has grown the business from a two-bit player with just R200m under management in 1991, to a shop with international reach and R330bn under management. The UK business alone has grown into a credible midsized player with assets under management of more than £11bn.

Du Toit's success is noteworthy for another reason, too: that banks, and to some extent merchant banks, have a patchy record in running asset managers. Nedcor destroyed two of SA's premier asset management shops, Syfrets and UAL, while Absa has a history of opening and shutting managers. One possible reason is that banks focus on short-term transactions rather than long-term investment trends. It is no coincidence that two of SA's most successful shops (both in profits and assets), Coronation and Allan Gray, have no links with any bank.

Merchant banks have been more successful. BoE Asset Management was successful for about a decade before the merger with Nedcor; and Rand Merchant Bank set up the highly successful RMB Asset Management in 1989, now one of the top investment houses in SA.

But there's no doubt that Investec Asset Management is an outstanding asset management business spawned by a merchant bank.

Investec Asset Management would not be where it is without the energy and drive of its founder and CEO. He may have officially relocated with his wife (Lorette, a former Beeld journalist) and two children to London, but with modern technology and regular overnight flights, his guiding hand is never far away.

Du Toit is disciplined, intense and demanding. He doesn't suffer fools and can be prickly. He can also be witty, especially on a platform, but he's not a party animal. His colleagues say that the closest he comes to letting his hair down is an all-night discussion on investment. He rarely drinks and never at lunchtime. He is definitely not the follower of a balanced lifestyle. He has limited time for family life and is known to work until 2 am and still get up at 5 am to jog.

His temperamental character, which makes the late opera singer Maria Callas look positively phlegmatic, is tolerated because he has delivered.

"Hendrik is the most creative thinker in financial services," says George Brits, MD of Stanlib Asset Management. "And he is just so self-disciplined and well read that he leads by example."

Du Toit is a master of detail but his colleagues describe him as charismatic rather than autocratic. He doesn't second-guess the investment professionals in the way they run their funds, and gives them the space they need.

He says he's not afraid to employ people "who are brighter than me - such as Brits, who was our global chief investment officer and has a PhD in physics. And I know I will never manage equity portfolios as well as Gail Daniel [manager of Investec Equity], or John Biccard [manager of the award-winning Investec Value fund]."

Du Toit is probably being modest. The skills he brings are that he leads by example, is a great motivator and is capable of spotting market trends ahead of his competitors. This last quality is what has made Du Toit so successful, given that good asset management is the art of getting the best return possible from the financial assets that an individual or institution may own.

Asset management may not be the biggest contributor to the Investec group - with operating profit of £38m in 2005, it ranks below private client activities (though of course it is a major provider of investment products to this side of the group); investment banking; and treasury and specialised finance. But Du Toit says the return on investment has been astonishing. Investec put just R1,5m of capital into Investec Asset Management in 1991, which very soon became self-funding. The SA business, regular as clockwork, produces operating profit in excess of R300m/year. It is run on a day-to-day basis by MD John Green and the investment team is the responsibility of chief investment officer John McNab.

Back in 1991, asset management was an attractive business for Investec, as it does not need much capital once the systems are up and running and the staff are employed. There is an annuity nature to the business, as fund managers are paid a fee (of, say, 0,5%/year) on assets managed. It is a great counterfoil to the much more volatile profits of investment banking.

Investec had a small exposure to asset management after it acquired Metboard in the 1980s. There was R200m split between the Metboard (equity) Fund and Metboard Gilt, but it was one of the rats and mice compared with the big asset managers of the day - Liberty Asset Management, UAL and Syfrets Managed Assets (SMA), the team that went on to form Coronation Fund Managers.

Du Toit accepted the job on condition that, after a few months getting to know the business, he would be allowed to start it up in Cape Town.

It wasn't just that Du Toit is a dyed -in-the-wool Capetonian - it gave the new asset management business a buffer against any interference from its investment banking colleagues in the holding company.

Interference by the holding company was then a live issue in asset management. In 1991 Sanlam was still forced to hold certain shares such as Gencor and Sappi in its unit trusts and segregated portfolios. And Donald Gordon would not allow the GuardBank fund to sell Liberty shares.

So corporate interference had to be addressed and was. Kantor and Koseff don't dare ask Du Toit to buy shares in any of their favourite companies.

As a niche player, it was important for Investec to develop an identity. "We positioned ourselves as growth equity managers, who were prepared to invest in second-line shares such as Imperial, Bidvest and Momentum."

It was a contrast to the much more conservative, value-based philosophy of the main investment guru of the time, Liberty's Roy McAlpine. His philosophy, which is shared by Allan Gray and Warren Buffett, has subsequently come back into fashion. But Du Toit attributes Investec's success between 1991 and 1998 to the fact that it positioned itself as the "not Roy McAlpine shop".

Du Toit knew that with a short track record and at a time when Investec itself was not exactly a blue-blooded establishment name, he needed to employ great salesmen. Investec's growth in the institutional market was driven from 1993 to 1997 by two friends who used to do fashion modelling together, Brett Comley and Robbie Alexander, who both have the ability to sell sand to the Arabs.

Investec unit trusts took off only in 1994, when Comley lured his former colleagues from UAL, the late Peter Anschutz, Andrew Bradley and John Kinsley, to set up Investec IMS, a linked product platform.

Though none of them would be mistaken for models, they were consummate marketers and, thanks to the luxury incentive trips they offered to brokers, money poured into IMS. It offered a wide range of unit trusts from other shops, such as GuardBank and Syfrets, but Investec received a disproportionate share of this business.

Du Toit himself and the head of retail at the time, Jeremy Gardiner, drove the retail growth in the next phase from 1997 onwards.

In London, after Investec took over Guinness Flight , the Alexander/Comley role was filled on the retail side by Jamie Macleod, a peacock dresser with a taste for handmade double cuffs, with a perhaps a little bit too much ego to survive there. Macleod is now head of the Skandia Investment Management business - and ironically has found himself working for an SA company again, in the shape of Old Mutual.

Du Toit will admit that he believes in having a large staff around him. "We have been criticised that our margins have always been lower than other shops such as Coronation and the defunct BoE. But I made it clear to Stephen and Bernard that I was building a sustainable business for the long term."

He will quite openly admit that he employs some people because they raise the profile of the business on the cocktail and conference circuits. After a spell as a private client manager and running the unit trust business, Gardiner now spends a great deal of time talking about the investment markets at breakfasts and evening functions.

And Michael Power, an academic employed by Investec a couple of years ago, has become an invaluable rent-a-quote on China and India .

But at the end of the day there is an impenetrable inner circle of colleagues who are also close friends - and no doubt, as they got in early, they are materially extremely well off.

Gail Boon (now Daniel) was Du Toit's first partner in the business when she was brought in to assist him on the Metboard Equity Fund. She still runs that fund (it is now called Investec Equity) and rates as one of the top equity managers in SA.

She is as competitive as Du Toit and could have been a professional tennis player (she beat Amanda Coetzer once) - Du Toit says he gave up tennis when Gail beat him.

Domenico (Mimi) Ferrini, who joined from stockbroker Kaplan Stewart, rose to chief dealer and now has the unenviable task of managing the investment professionals in London. And Kim McFarland (who has been businesswoman of the year) joined in 1993 as the chief operating officer and remains Du Toit's key executive on issues such as administration and finance.

Gardiner, who joined in 1992, is also part of the inner circle, as are John Green and Thabo Khojane, MD and deputy MD of Investec Asset Management SA.

Some people leave Investec Asset Management as they know they will never be CEO because Du Toit, still just 44, may be around for a couple more decades. A few have become CEOs of competitors - Brits is now MD of Stanlib Asset Management, while the former manager of the Investec Commodity fund, Johan van der Merwe, runs Sanlam Investment Management.

Others go to set up their own shops. Herman Steyn, who ran the Investec Index fund, set up Prescient, SA's top quantitative asset management business, and Piet Viljoen set up his own boutique, Regarding Capital Management, three years ago.

"There is room for only one entrepreneur at Investec Asset Management, and that's Hendrik," says Steyn.

Du Toit vehemently disagrees with this assertion. "Our key strength is that we are a talent factory. Inevitably some of the talent does move on from time to time."

Another illustration of Du Toit's success is that Investec is the only SA asset manager to have made a real success of its international business - Old Mutual has a larger asset management footprint but its businesses are still run by local management on a decentralised basis.

Investec inherited the fund management shop Guinness Flight when Koseff and Kantor bought Guinness Mahon and Hambros Plc. The purchase price has never been disclosed.

"We originally planned to grow organically, but when Guinness Flight was acquired as part of the Guinness Mahon and Hambros businesses, we inherited a platform and an infrastructure - though admittedly Guinness Flight wasn't exactly an A-list City [of London] firm."

Only two senior figures remain from Guinness Flight. One is Philip Saunders, whom Du Toit calls one of his investment muses (the other being Daniel).

A Cambridge man like Du Toit, Saunders was head of marketing at Guinness Flight after several years as a bond manager, but he has become the most important investment professional in the London office. He runs the Global Managed fund, in which most of Investec's institutional clients invest their 15% offshore allocation. At 48, he adds a little grey hair to Investec's team of 20- and 30-something investment professionals.

The other is John Stopford, who was relocated to Cape Town for three years to set up a specialist bond team. It is hard to overstate Stopford's contribution in setting up this business unit.

Though the fixed income team did not win any S&P sector awards this year, Investec (formerly Metboard) Gilt was second only to Henk Viljoen's Stanlib Bond Fund over five years. And the consistently above-average performance of its Income and Gilt funds contributed to the overall awards.

Saunders remembers that the integration of Guinness Flight was by no means easy. "It was a brutal time after the takeover. Hendrik sent in George Brits to rebuild the entire equity process. There are still pockets of the old Guinness Flight equity business, such as Temple Bar Investment Trust, a UK value equity fund. But we used to have a top-down process in which economic research would be the main driver and Investec was determined to bring in a bottom-up approach in which stockpicking was the main source of added value. They wanted to translate what had worked for them in SA to the UK."

Saunders says the most critical insight Du Toit took back to Cape Town from London was that specialisation was on its way.

Investec Asset Management's core SA business in 1998 was its bog standard institutional balanced product - pension funds would give it the discretion to run a full portfolio of assets for them, typically 65% in equity, 25% in bonds and 10% in property and cash.

Du Toit could see from the UK that pension funds were going to stop awarding balanced mandates and instead split their portfolio between specialist managers - giving one domestic equities, another foreign bonds, another property and so on.

He saw it was only a matter of time before SA moved the same way - as indeed it is doing.

"I was conscious that as we got bigger we faced the threat of specialist boutiques," says Du Toit. "I want the investment professionals here to have the best of both worlds - all the freedom, and most of the financial rewards, of a boutique as well as the infrastructural and marketing support of a large asset manager, without the financial risk involved in setting up your own shop."

Investec has separate "value propositions" (critics might call them silos) for different equity styles. There is the equity value silo investing primarily in undervalued sectors of the JSE, the equity core silo which invests across the market, and the equity growth silo, investing in shares with above-average earnings growth prospects.

Investec Growth and Value have both won S&P awards. Investec Equity came second in the much larger general equity category, to PSG Alphen Growth over three years and to Nedbank Rainmaker over five years.

Another silo is quants equity (a more sophisticated and expensive version of an index fund) . And there is an absolute return silo under Clyde Rossouw, which has, if anything, given better returns than it did under Rossouw's high-profile predecessor, Piet Viljoen.

With these pockets of excellence, Investec is well placed to continue winning awards.

It's a record Kantor is obviously proud of, though he's not complacent. "Hendrik certainly gets it right most of the time," he concedes, "though he does miss some trends - we should have built a far more substantial hedge fund business by now, for example."

Source

Marjorie Ngwenya Actuary

2012-01-26T18:45:00.000+02:00

Marjorie Ngwenya

High School: Chisipite Senior School

Tertiary Education: Institute of Actuaries

Qualifications: Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, Associate of Taxation Technicians

Family Status: Married

Lives In: London

Company / Organisation Name: Mazars

Title / Position: Director

Duration of time within your company / organisation: 2 years

Professional Membership held: Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and Associate of Taxation Technicians

Previous positions held: Head of Risk and Governance at Acorn Fund Management, Senior Risk Actuary at Swiss Re, Manager at Deloitte, Business Development Manager at GenRe

What are your main achievements / successes in the category you are being nominated for :

Being an inspiration to young professionals who may have suffered hardship during their careers: When I first returned to the UK, I was pursuing a BSc in actuarial science at the LSE when financial difficulties meant I had to leave university. I subsequently began working and qualified as an actuary through this route. This early entry into the working world gave me a career headstart and has meant that my professional achievements have been achieved through hard work and potentially earlier than if I had continued through the university route. I am honoured to be an inspiration and role model to some to show that perserverance really does pay off.

What makes you most proud about your business / organisation:

Our belief in our values which are Integrity, Responsibility, Respect, Continuity, Independence and Diversity. We live by them and adhere to them in all we do with clients and with each other. We are a truly international and culturally diverse firm. We believe in the concept of stewardship – that we must leave the firm in a better state than when we joined. I find this inspiring!

Community Involvement:

I am a board member for the Legal Assistance Trust representing the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa. I am an active volunteer for the actuarial profession and have a number of volunteer roles including examining students. I have volunteered to teach abroad at universities in Kenya and Armenia and found the experiences very fulfilling.
I am frequently approached to provide career advice to young actuaries, particularly those of African heritage as they identify with my background.
I am on the PR Committee of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries which has charitable aims.
Directorship / Leadership positions:

Editor of the Actuary magazine since 2009.
A member of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Council.
Board member for the Legal Assistance Trust.
Recent Awards: The South African Power 100 accolade

Favourite Business Quote: ”Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it” - Colin Powell

Mentor: I draw on the expertise of many of my fellow professionals who inspire me. I find this gives me a balanced and varied view of the world.

JUST how bright do you have to be to be an actuary?
Bright enough to be competent at mathematics subjects but more so you need diligence to make your way through the professional exams. They can be daunting.

Your education took an unconventional path, tell us about it.
I started off university at LSE but due to currency problems in Zimbabwe, I had to leave in my first year and didn’t go back. Once my actuarial career had progressed there didn’t seem to be value in returning to my original BSc Actuarial Science degree but I may one day go and do a language degree to indulge a whim.

When building a CV how important is it to have worked in a few companies?
I don’t think it’s imperative but demonstrating a range of skills and a degree of progression would be more important to me.

Where would you see yourself professionally in ten years?
Having grown and advanced in my career. I haven’t defined the path necessarily.

Do actuaries have an insider sense of humour that only they understand?
Ha ha, from time to time. If I told you my favourite actuarial joke you’d think so!

Yes? ‘e to the x’ walks into a bar. The barman says I’m sorry we don’t cater for functions here.

After last week’s £1.2 billion ‘rogue trader’ fiasco, the world is baying for risk management blood. Can a bank insure against such a loss?
My background is in life insurance so I’m sure that my non-life colleagues would be better informed. To my knowledge you can insure through directors’ and officers’ cover but in reality that kind of protection comes at a great cost which is passed on to the consumer at some point and it’s unlikely to cover the full extent of losses of that magnitude. We need better risk management frameworks and more honest individuals it appears!

How can you really balance risk management and the raw avarice it takes to fuel the banking system?
With difficulty. There should be separation of the activities which have conflicting objectives. Risk managers should be objective and unbiased; so the upside that traders stand to benefit from should not motivate them.

You’re from Zimbabwe and there must have been lessons learned by economists from Zimbabwe that had never been experienced in the world before. What’s your (honest) prognosis for the future economic health of Zim?
Zim economists could probably write (retrospective) theses on how to manage hyper-inflation! They dealt with situations not so commonly observed in today’s markets and hopefully behind us now. I am positive about Zimbabwe’s recovery. I was lucky enough to make it over for a visit recently and I continue to be encouraged by its development and progress.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Definitely travel. I’m always on the go and love discovering new parts of the world.

Personality quirks?
I hate fuss, and ironically I’ll go to great lengths to avoid it.

Unusual habits?
Doing unnecessary arithmetic in my head – just to keep checking if the brain cells are still up to it.

Famous relative?
A few relatives in the political space but none that I would call famous. People ask me if I’m related to Takudzwa Ngwenya who plays rugby (very well) for the USA. Not that I’m aware of.

Bob Collymore Safaricom (Kenya)

2012-01-21T04:35:00.000+02:00

Bob is the CEO of Safaricom Limited, one of the leading integrated communications companies in Africa. He assumed the position on November 1st 2010. The company reported Sh18.36 billion pretax profit for the financial year ending March 31st 2011.

Prior to joining Safaricom, Bob was the Chief Officer for Corporate Affairs in Vodacom Group responsible for the Group’s Corporate Communication, Ethics and Compliance, Legal, External Relationships and Corporate Social Responsibility. Prior to that, he was Vodafone’s Governance Director for Africa where he was responsible for developing and driving Vodafone’s strategy for its investments in Africa as well as representing Vodafone as a key direct foreign investor in a number of African countries. Bob has more than 25 years of commercial experience working in the telecommunications sector.

Bob now lives in Kenya after relocating from South Africa where he has lived for the past 3 years and had spent the previous 3 years living and working in Tokyo as Vodafone’s Director, Consumer Marketing (Asia), overseeing the development and alignment of Vodafone’s Japanese business. His previous roles included Global Purchasing Director for Vodafone and Purchasing Director for the Dixons Stores Group, one of the UK’s largest electrical retailers.

Bob is also a trustee of Holding companies in Kenya and Tanzania for M-PESA, Vodafone’s pioneering money transfer service.

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=871

Michael Jordaan First National Bank CEO (South Africa)

2012-01-21T04:32:00.001+02:00

First National Bank has emerged as the new face of cool business in South Africa. It’s an extraordinary feat, given that the industry is mostly defined by its conservatism. SIPHO HLONGWANE speaks to CEO Michael Jordaan about the bank’s gospel of innovation and other strategies for success.

South Africa’s banking industry sat on the sidelines of the worst of the 2008 financial meltdown. They were spared the fates of their American and European counterparts, and if you ask why, the answer varies. The government spin is that our strict banking regulations saved the banks from harming themselves by imposing strict exchange controls.
But that’s not true, FNB chief executive officer Michael Jordaan says. “A popular conception, and it is a lie propagated by the banks themselves, is that exchange controls saved us,” he says. “And this was a lie we were happy to go with because it was something the man in the street could understand.
“So all these foreign banks were investing in subprime mortgage funds through the exchange controls and South African banks didn’t. It’s a lie because if you wanted to, you could. There are mechanisms to get to CDOs [collateralised debt obligation]. So why didn’t we? And this goes for the whole industry and not just FNB by the way.
“First of all, we are very well regulated. It’s not always nice to be ruled by an iron fist, but we are. The second reason is South African bank management is excellent. That’s why in the World Economic Forum I said we are the sixth-best in the world. The third one is that you’ll find that the banks that took the most risks are those in economies that didn’t grow,” Jordaan says.
For banks to maintain the profit margins demanded by shareholders in those countries with poor economic growth, they began taking on more risk than they should have, Jordaan explains.
The result of all this is it has put South Africa’s banks in the enviable position of holding more capital than their European and American counterparts . Jordaan is confident South African banks will have a higher capital ratio in 2019 than their Western counterparts – even higher than the requirements of Basel III, the global regulatory standard on bank capital adequacy and liquidity agreed by the members of the Basel Committee on Banking Standards
The 43-year-old CEO has spent pretty much all his life in the banking industry, starting off at Deutsche Bank and then moving around in different leadership positions within the First Rand group before being appointed to the top of FNB in 2004. Since then, the organisation’s name has cropped up several times as the best bank in the South African and African industry.
Jordaan says the key to that success has been attracting the right type of people to the organisation. He cites their innovation reward scheme, where employees receive a prize of R1 million if they successfully come up with and implement an innovative idea, as an example of the incentives FNB uses to attract the right kind of people to the organisation.
“As CEO, I actually have very little to do,” he says. “It’s completely over-estimated what I do. I create an environment where people can come up with these ideas and do well. We’re blessed with people who can do that. The thing about being good with tech is that we can’t be a staid old bank. Very few people want to work for those. They like cool, hi-tech kind of companies to work for and so all I can do is create the environment and trust in the people to innovate.”
FNB is also somewhat of a telecommunications company these days through FNB Connect. This Internet service company which operates within the First Rand cluster, was an internal employee innovation which FNB implemented and now offers to customers as part of its incentive package.
The FNB CEO describes FNB Connect as an example of “wanting to do cool things for our customers”. The bank was also careful not to position FNB Connect as a competitor to other telecommunications companies.
“How FNB Connect came about is that there was an opportunity in the market for us to apply for a licence,” Jordaan says. “You’ll remember the court case between Altech and the regulator. It really opened the opportunity for us to get a licence about the interpretation of the regulations. We can now negotiate with other ‘telcos’ as a peer, not as a customer. Then the techies said we had a whole network and we should give that to our customers.
“The usage package for us is our customers use it exactly when we don’t use it. It’s a nice value-add for our customers. If you want to know a vision – in a few years time, there must be no rational reason not to bank with us,” he says.
A lot of FNB’s innovation that gets publicity is aimed at its top-end customers (with South Africa’s poor Internet penetration, it is the higher-ups in the ladder who are online). Jordaan says they haven’t abandoned the lower end of the pyramid, and are specifically competing with Capitec for lower-end customers.
“Capitec is a respected competitor. It’s come into the market and innovated. When it first came in, we didn’t take it seriously enough and that was a mistake. Now we’re taking it very seriously and we are rolling out branches faster than it is. We think that our EasyPlan branches are better because they offer more. We’re also price-competitive with Capitec.”
FNB’s African growth is based on three prongs: that of green-field ventures, accelerated green-field ventures and acquisitions. The thrust that would be used in the particular country depends on how easy it is to obtain a banking licence there, among other things. In countries like Botswana and Namibia (where FNB is the biggest company, employer and taxpayer), the company grows from the ground up, just like a start-up would.
This strategy is FNB’s favourite, Jordaan says, as it means the bank can implement its systems and breathe its culture into the organisation right away. When that doesn’t work, they acquire a small bank within the company and then put it on an aggressive growth trajectory (the accelerated green-field venture), as they have done in Mozambique. In countries like Nigeria and Ghana, where there is either privatisation of banks or a narrowing of the banking industry, the company would probably opt for an outright acquisition.
Jordaan is something of a big deal on Twitter, which he says is purely for fun. “What I really like about Twitter is that it’s short – and sometimes there is time for short bursts of conversation. Having started to do it, I can really see the benefit,” he says. He is not the company’s public face, however. That is “RB Jacobs”, a fake persona based on an old FNB ad joke.
Executive salary has been in the news of late, with South Africa’s trade unions throwing a huge fitwhen it was reported that executives enjoyed a 23,3% pay hike last year. Jordaan says although South African companies are among some of the most socially responsible in the world, he is not opposed to a wealth tax. And a lot of rich business people are actively involved in social responsibility projects.
“Some people choose to do these things and not make a big deal about it,” he says. “Personally I’d like to be in that category. I feel a deep social responsibility for this country. I want my kids to grow up here and I want this to be a successful country. You don’t only do that by working and drawing a salary, although that’s a very important part of it, but also by running a sustainable business and ploughing back into the country. It doesn’t necessarily all have to be in the public eye.”
A salary cap for executives would have mixed results, Jordaan says. “You’d have a lot of skill leaving the corporate sector and doing something else. Some of them elsewhere in the world, but some would become entrepreneurs. You’d just have skill being applied elsewhere. You’d probably have corporations which aren’t being run as well, and you’d probably have some entrepreneurs that do very well. In the end I think you have to pay for skill.
In big businesses that employ thousands of people mistakes are very costly. “If you make a mistake, it’s billions of rands in consequences and other people lose their jobs,” the FNB CEO says. “The real debate there is whether you are delivering value to you stakeholders, not just shareholders. It is actually about inequality and is a separate debate to how you reward people for value that they put into a company.” D
M

Grant Pattison Massmart CEO South Africa

2012-01-21T04:27:00.000+02:00

Grant Pattison was appointed CEO of Massmart Holdings Limited on the 1 July 2007,
only 9 years after a chance meeting with Mark Lamberti paved his route into Massmart
management.

An electrical engineering graduate, Grant began his career as a management trainee at
Anglo American Group. Four years later he became a consultant, moving to the Monitor
Group. After two years Grant realised that consulting did not enable him to focus on
long term corporate prosperity, and was not compatible with his desire for a family. After
attending an interview for Affinity Logic, located in the same building as Massmart, he
bumped into Mark Lamberti. Mark Lamberti was looking for an executive assistant and
after successfully completing a three round interview process, in June 1998 Grant joined
Massmart as Executive Assistant to the Executive Chairman.

Since 1998 Grant has held various positions within the Group, including Managing Director of Massdiscounters and Chairman of Masscash. He was appointed to the Executive Committee in 2000, to the Board on 7 December 2004 and to the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer on 1 July 2005. In July 2006 he became Chief Executive Officer Designate, to succeed Mark Lamberti as CEO the following year.

Grant has recently also been appointed as Co-Chair of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa.
With 11 years experience working for Massmart, Grant has a solid understanding of the Group and has played an integral part in forming and leading its long-term strategy.
Grant is a family man who believes in the importance of work-life balance. He has a structured approach to his work, recognising the importance of prioritisation and delegation in his role. In his spare time, Grant loves to partake in water sports and has competed in the Midmar Mile on numerous occasions and on weekends enjoys water skiing and boating on the Vaal River

Ashish Thakkar Mara Group

2012-01-21T04:19:00.000+02:00

Ashish J. Thakkar is the founder and managing director of the Mara Group, which comprises a number of companies. In 15 years he has taken the Group from humble beginnings to a global firm with a strong African focus, working in 17 African countries and employing over 4,000 people.

He was born in the UK and moved to Uganda when he was twelve. When he was 15, Ashish’s entrepreneurial spirit propelled him to start selling computers to friends and his school in Kampala, and before long he had set up his first company, Raps.

Ashish is passionate about the growth and development of Africa and he focusses most of his energy on commercial and philanthropic initiatives across the continent. This focus has seen the Group receiving global recognition for its achievements. In 2010 Mara Group was identified by the World Economic Forum's Community of Global Growth Companies (GGC) as a dynamic high-growth company - they believe the Group has the potential to be a future industry leader and a driving force for economic and social change. Ashish was a speaker and core team member at the African Leadership Retreat, which took place in South Africa during the FIFA World Cup in July 2010, where over 40 African leaders met with the aim of developing a stronger vision for Africa 2020. He has been appointed on the advisory panels to several heads of state in the sub-Saharan African region, and is a core team member of the Commonwealth Business Council and COMESA, of which Mara Group is a member.

Ashish will also be representing East Africa on Virgin Galactic's first mission into space – making him Africa's second astronaut!

Ory Okolloh Google Africa Policy Manager South Africa/Kenya

2012-01-21T04:13:00.000+02:00

Ory Okolloh is a blogger and open-government activist. She runs Mzalendo, a pioneering civic website that tracks the performance of Kenya's Parliament and its Parliamentarians. With a vote tracker, articles and opinion pieces, the site connects Kenyans to their leaders and opens the lid on this powerful and once-secretive body. (This is a Parliament that finally agreed to have its procedings televised in August 2008.)

Okolloh's own blog is called Kenyan Pundit, and it tracks her work with Mzalendo and her other efforts as part of the rebuilding of Kenya, following the post-election violence in late 2007 (she collected a powerful series of diaries of the violence, dozens of essays from Kenyans and others -- well worth a read).

Okolloh is part of a wave of young Africans who are using the power of blogging, SMS and web-enabled openness to push their countries forward and help Africans to truly connect. Tools like Ushahidi help to link a people whose tribal differences, as Okolloh points out again and again, are often cynically exploited by a small group of leaders. Only by connecting Africans can this cycle be broken.

"We feel that Kenyans not only have "a right to know” but also need to take a more active role in determining their country's role -- this is our effort to do more than just complain about how things are not working in Kenya."

Linus Gitahi

2012-01-21T04:07:00.000+02:00

Linus Gitahi

Linus W Gitahi is the Nation Media Group’s Group Chief Executive Officer, since November, 1 2006. Mr. Gitahi joined NMG after a long career as a senior executive with Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in East and West Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

Mr. Gitahi graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting major) from the University of Nairobi and later earned a diploma in management from the Kenya Institute of Management. He also holds an MBA from the United States International University.

He has been Managing Director of GlaxoSmithKline for West Africa since 2003, based in Lagos, and served the company previously in Nairobi as General Manager for Consumer Healthcare for East Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. He was also head of African Consumer Marketing and has held other marketing posts in the company, which he joined in 1989.

He is also a board member of Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), Trustee of Street Families Rehabilitation, and Board Director of Property Development Management (PDM).

Divine Ndhlukula Zimbabwean Millionaire

2012-01-21T03:56:00.001+02:00

Forbes

Divine Ndhlukula, a Zimbabwean national, is the founder and Managing Director of SECURICO, one of Zimbabwe’s largest security companies. The Harare-based outfit is a market leader in the provision of bespoke guarding services and cutting-edge electronic security solutions.
Ndhlukula has done remarkably well. In less than 15 years of doing business, SECURICO has achieved a number of significant feats: The $13 million (revenues) company now has more than 3,400 employees – 900 of whom are women. The company was also the first security outfit in Zimbabwe to achieve an ISO (International Organization for Standardisation) certification. Last December the company was the winner of the prestigious Legatum Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship.
Divine Ndhlukula is immensely proud of what she’s been able to accomplish so far. The Midlands State University MBA grad granted me an interview recently during which she recounted her start-up journey, shared a few lessons she’s learned in doing business in Zimbabwe and relived her experience in winning the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship.
Take me back to your earliest beginnings as an entrepreneur, right to the time you founded SECURICO. Of all the opportunities in the world, what prompted you to venture into the very male-dominated realm of security services?
I have an Executive MBA from Midlands State University and an MBA (Honorary) from Women’s University in Africa conferred me in recognition of my business leadership and efforts on gender equality. After attaining an accounting diploma from an institution in Zimbabwe, I worked briefly for the government and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation as an accounting officer. I went on to take up an appointment at Old Mutual and later took up a job at a local insurance company in 1985. While I was working at these places, I was always running around doing some small business on the side – I was ordering clothes from Harare factories and selling them to colleagues at work. Sometimes, I gave my friends in other companies some clothes to sell for me and I gave them commissions on clothes sold. Within a short while, I had made enough money to buy an 8-tonne truck, which I hired out to a construction company.
As time went on, a situation cropped up where I had to rescue my late father’s farm from being auctioned. My brother (who had inherited the farm according to our customs) had taken a loan with a local bank which he had been unable to service, so the bank opted to auction the farm which my brother had tendered as collateral. As a result, I had to sell the truck in order to raise funds to rescue the family farm from being auctioned. The title of the farm was changed into my name and I ventured into the farming business in 1992 and quit my job. I then took a loan against my house in Harare, to prop up the farming business and poured the loan in a maize crop that flopped due to a drought that season.
As I was almost losing my house in 1995, I then went back to my former employers, Intermarket Insurance (now ZB Insurance), and asked for my job back. Since I had been one of their top performers, the company was happy to take me back. In no time I moved to the executive team.
Let me say that right from a tender age, I had always told myself and everyone that I was going to start and run my own business which I always envisaged as a large business. Hence the time I had stopped working, I had taken time to learn about all the critical elements of business as I had learnt my lesson the hard way. Among the various development programmes I enrolled for was an Entrepreneurial Development Programme which I did in 1995 and this indeed sharpened my entrepreneurial competences in a big way. I learned elements like opportunity seeking, to goal setting, business planning, networking etc.
My quest to start and run my own company never dissipated and therefore, even as I was back at work, I started scanning at the various opportunities that I could see and think of.
Eventually in 1998 I saw an opportunity in the security services sector. The opportunity was prompted by what I had noted in this sector- a total lack of professionalism, quality and services that customers really yearned for. There were two distinct groups of security organizations: the first group was comprised of the long established and larger companies – there were about five of them at the time. They literally had the market to themselves and did not see the need then of meeting the customer’s expectations as they could simply rotate the business among themselves in a cartel like arrangement.
The second group was the small emerging or submerging companies which did not have the resource capacity to service big corporations and the multinationals. In short, the decision to start this company was made on the understanding that only service and value addition was going to carry the day.

With next to nothing in capital and no security background, just armed with passion and determination to succeed in a hitherto male area, SECURICO was founded in Dec 1998 in the cottage of my small home in Harare with 4 employees. The business idea was after the realization of a gap that I had noted in the market for a service and quality oriented security services provider.
I set up operations in December 1998 and the company was formally incorporated in 2000. We started with three security operatives and two administrators-I included. I used to do literally most functions like office administrative work, accounting, deploying operatives with my one vehicle, supervision, training and other related activities. We converted my servants’ quarters to an office and we had only one desk for furniture that we shared.
Give me a brief rundown of Securico’s security services. I know your company primarily provides uniformed guard services, but you’re engaged in other services I suppose.

When we started we were primarily offering guarding services but we started cash and assets–in–transit services in 2002. This service offering has grown phenomenally and we are now the market leader in this service in Zimbabwe with a fleet of over 80 armoured vehicles. We have since diversified this service to “Cash Management.” Besides moving cash, gold bullion and other valuables, we provide on-site banking where we deploy our own cashiers to receive cash from our clients’ customers. At that point the cash is considered banked so our customers are able to cut back on expenses to do with employment and transporting cash. They also reduce risks involving cash to zero. It’s a very attractive and innovative offering. We have also gone on to propose value to our clients by another offering of providing them with receptionists who besides being frontline personnel also provide security incognito for their premises.
In 2008, at the height of the Zimbabwean economic crisis, we acquired an electronic security systems company – MULTI-LINK (PVT) LTD as a going concern. We transformed this company into a high tech installer specializing in the latest innovative and cutting edge electronic security solutions. We have since established partnerships with suppliers in South Africa, China, Hong Kong and India. Within the last two years we grew this company into the second largest in Zimbabwe in the provision of electronic security systems like CCTV, access control systems, alarms, remote site monitoring and response services, electric fences etc.
We also do private investigations, employment vetting, and security consultancy. Our consultancy includes risk assessments, security policy formulation, setting up security systems and establishing security profiles of employees.
In 2005 we founded a subsidiary company – CANINE Dog Services – that breeds, trains and leases guard dogs. The company also trains dogs for domestic use or as pets.
The initial mobilization of funds was not easy. As a person who went into this industry as an underdog, we started very small, doing the best that could be done, exercizing a lot of discipline in terms of cash management and literally grew with very little borrowings save for bail outs from family when the need arose.
SECURICO is now one of Zimbabwe’s largest security groups. How have you been able to accomplish this feat?
Two things: Firstly, from the onset our emphasis has been on service quality and professionalism. Therefore when we started our operations our approach was distinctly different from the other providers. The aim was to establish ourselves as a high quality security services provider. We also worked hard to build a robust organizational culture with a strong customer orientation a culture that would define our make-up. Although we started building this culture from inception we decided to implement the ISO 9001 Quality Management System to buttress the culture. We became the first company in the security industry to attain the internationally acclaimed ISO9001 QMS.
We set a pace that transformed the private security business in such a manner that our brand became the flagship in this industrial sector. It involved very hard work on my part and my team but the effort led to the phenomenal growth that took us to where we are now.
Secondly, the security industry in this country was associated with people who hitherto had failed to make it into other careers. This resulted in the industry being served by people who had low self esteem and that indeed affected the quality of services. We embarked on an initiative to shift the paradigm altogether. This was achieved by a conceptual framework that I came up with that we implemented to change that mindset. That won the day and the security industry has tremendously transformed now to one that is respectable, professional and people are eager to build their careers in it.

You recently won the Legatum Africa Awards for entrepreneurship. How did that make you feel? Relive the experience for us.
Winning the AAE was the most humbling experience I have had in my life. I was awed to say the least. When it became apparent that we were going to be announced the winner, this is at the point when they had announced the other six winners and about to announce the grand prize, I just sat in my seat at loss for words and just managed to say to my colleague Mark Kupfuwa, “We are winning this award and I can’t believe it!” Though I tried very hard to be cool and composed, I just went up that stage not believing it was actually happening.
Before we got to Nairobi for the finals, my team and I had been so confident with our showing at that point that we were almost certain of getting the grand prize. However, after meeting the other finalists in Nairobi, whom I found to be dynamic and talented, I had then almost been convinced that the grand prize was going to any of the ten of us, but, at least I was convinced we would make it into the other 6 run up winners. So 8th December 2011 is a day I am unlikely going to forget for the rest of my life.

While we have won 11 national awards in the past 12 years, AAE is the most significant so far as we were competing with 3,400 companies in 48 African countries and this magnificent achievement has put us at a very enviable position. This will make our future growth plans easier.
Is Zimbabwe really an easy place to do business? Have you had to navigate some bureaucratic bottlenecks in trying to do business, and is corruption still a major problem?
I am a firm believer of the philosophy that there is no easy road to anywhere worth going to, especially business, in particular in Africa. The Zimbabwean business environment has been very difficult in the past ten years, however, at the same time, this presented opportunities for those with a good entrepreneurial flair. The record inflation, lack of consistent power, the uncertain political environment of 2007 to 2009 presented unimaginable challenges. We managed to pull through due to tenacity, creativity and determination.
Zimbabwe still boasts of abundant opportunities to do business. The environment has not reached expected levels necessary for ease of doing business but there is great progress. We are one of very few countries with potential for greenfield opportunities across all sectors. Competition in some of them is low and scope for maximizing profits exists. For those with little hesitation to plunge….this is the time.
Bureaucracy has been tamed now. The creation of Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) has plugged all cumbersome processes. ZIA has resulted in the realignment of licensing, registration and most, if not all statutory requirements, regulatory information is found under one roof.
Corruption, unfortunately, is the cancer the country is grappling to deal with. We as a business had anticipated to get a lot of government work after the multi-currency system was introduced 3 years ago, but we have not gotten much work from government as their awarding of tenders is fraught with corruption. Institutions created to superintend over graft have also been highly politicized rendering them ineffective. Graft exists in both private and public sectors. Yes, it is one of the negatives any investor will and is expected to deal with.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in business?

The biggest lesson I have learnt so far is that nothing comes easy. While I had always knew I was going to make it in business, I had not really anticipated the amount of hard work, discipline, commitment and determination I needed to get here. Hence, I have now have had to learn that the secret of success is found in one’s daily schedule.

What is your philosophy in business and in life?
My philosophy is anchored on the biblical “never tire in well doing, because, in due season, you shall reap if you faint not”. I believe that every good deed is a door opener hence I always try to be as good as I can to others, my word being my bond, as the key to my success is loving and connecting with people which are always the seeds of great things to come. I believe in playing by the rules all the time and most importantly upholding my personal integrity as this gives me good night sleep.
In a nutshell, what is the most important piece of advice you’ll give to young, entrepreneurial inclined individuals out there- particularly the ladies?

My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is start with an end in mind, know exactly what you want to achieve and start to work systematically towards the goal, exercising some patience.
Know the industry you want to get into, its internal and external environment.
Work your plan with passion, determination and diligence, and when a bit of cash starts rolling in, have the discipline to know that it is not your money yet.
My advice to women all the time is: If you want a certain future, go out and create it. Conquer your fears as that is what enslaves most women. Opportunities are now galore. We just need to roll up our sleeves, lift our feet, and walk through the door as no one will carry us.
Have a game plan and execute it with passion, determination and focus. Never mind that you are a woman. Do not think about that except as a competitive advantage. No one is going to give you anything on a silver platter. You have to work twice, thrice, five times as hard and do not lose focus. Work with your passion, it will keep you going and once you have a footing in your business, make the most of it and create the momentum and that will get rid of all the little challenges that may bog you down. Lastly, choose your team carefully and get rid of non-performers soon enough.

Antoinette Sayeh IMF African Department Director

2012-01-08T09:44:00.000+02:00

Antoinette Sayeh

Knighted by her country for her service in building Liberia’s financial institutions and international credibility from the ground up following a destructive civil war, Antoinette M. Sayeh, who joined the IMF in 2008, has turned her energy and enthusiasm to leading the African Department at a critical time for the Fund and for the nations of Africa.
Antoinette Sayeh’s backstory: born in Liberia, educated in Liberia, Switzerland, and the United States, she spent most of her professional career at the World Bank because—among other things—a devastating civil war in her native country precluded working back home. A DC-based career as an economist at the World Bank followed.
The lengthy war in Liberia ended in 2003. A landmark 2005 election put the first democratically elected female head-of-state in Africa in charge of the fractured country. As President Sirleaf considered the massive challenge to rebuild a ravaged national psyche and a destroyed economy—broken roads, no electricity, little government or private sector capacity and a crushing $3.7 billion debt—she turned to Sayeh.
Today, Sayeh says it was a move she had to make. “You cannot pass up an opportunity like this, to make a true difference in the future of your country,” she explains.
In a whirlwind two-and-a-half years on the job, Ms. Sayeh oversaw a series of reforms that have set her still-fragile country on a stronger path. Among her successes: significant revenue expansion and progress on expenditure management, adherence to a balanced cash-based budget and economic governance reforms. Perhaps most significant: she spearheaded the drive toward clearance of Liberia’s protracted arrears to the IMF, World Bank and the African Development Bank, as well as the restructuring of the nation’s bilateral debt, making it possible for the country to access much needed new external sources of finance—including a PRGF facility from the IMF.
Hitting the ground running
Ms. Sayeh says that her position as director of the IMF’s African department represents a new chapter and a new professional challenge—one which she also couldn’t pass up. This is a unique moment in the history of the IMF as it seeks to rachet up its work with low-income countries, and she is eager to be part of the effort.
In her first weeks on the job back in 2008, Ms. Sayeh had to deal with the spike in the cost of food and energy, a crisis that threatened to derail the progress of Africa’s emerging market nations, and to further de-stabilize Africa’s poorest countries.
"My immediate priority, during my first weeks here, and to this day, was to make sure we do all we can to help countries respond to whatever crisis that they face," Ms. Sayeh says. The Fund can play an important role, through policy advice and financial support, she notes.
Beyond the immediate pressure of helping countries address the fallout from the current global economic recession, Ms. Sayeh has led her department as the IMF has taken a broader look at its financial instruments, a number of which have ungone changes in recent months to better meet the needs of low-income countries.
One-size-fits-all won’t work
African member nations have varying needs, according to Ms. Sayeh, who had worked on Africa issues among others at the World Bank prior to her position as Liberia’s Finance Minister.
Some countries, like Tanzania, have moved beyond their Heavily Indebted Poor Country status with strong macroeconomic progress and an ability to access private capital markets. Such nations may put a premium on the world class advice the IMF can offer as their own finances grow more complex. Post-conflict nations, like Liberia, will still require debt relief and assistance with basic financial management—a different type of response that might involve both technical assistance and financial support.
She also notes that an on-the-ground presence, in the form of the Resident Representative, is critical to the Fund’s future success in the region, and can have a significant impact on the Fund’s image.
"We need to think carefully about whom we are putting in these countries, and how we empower them," she says. "I plan to put a premium on the nature of our on-the-ground presence."
Like the IMF itself, the IMF’s image in Africa is in transition. "Ultimately, the IMF’s image in Africa will depend on how effective we are in supporting countries as they make progress, and in engaging with the broader society," Ms. Sayeh says.
Specifically, the IMF should rely more on its capacity-building skill sets to help build institutions in public financial management. "As an outsider, I was very impressed with the capacity building support and technical assistance we received from the IMF," she notes. "We can be more strategic about this however, and the work must be owned and led by the countries themselves."

http://www.imf.org/external/about/articles/sayeh.htm

Flex Kabuye Millionaire Uganda

2012-01-07T01:58:00.000+02:00

Flex Kayanja Kabuye was born in Rakai District, in 1973. Following elementary education at Kifamba Primary School and Ndejje Secondary School, he enrolled in Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute at Kabanyolo, where he majored in Animal Husbandry. He migrated to the United States in 1993 and enrolled in Howard University where he graduated as a Licensed Practical Nurse.

Entrepreneurship:
Flex Kayanja Kabuye is a prominent businessman, who resides in Macon, Georgia. He serves as President/CEO of a number of businesses, which he owns. His first business was Kifamba Travel Agency, which he started in 1994. That business was in operation until 1999. In 2000, he started a security alarm dealership, Triple Kings Security Inc., which provided security equipment and monitoring to residential and commercial clients. He sold that business in 2001. That year, he opened JK Procurement and Cleaning Services Inc. This company is involved in construction, real estate investment, contract dealings and supply of materials and labor for small and medium sized jobs in the south-eastern United States.

In 2002, he opened Flexible Security Inc., a security alarm dealership, installation and monitoring service affiliated with Monotonics Inc. This company sells, installs and arranges for the round-the-clock monitoring of security alarm systems for homes and businesses. In 2003, he opened an investment company called TFK and Associates, based in Warner Robins, Georgia. This company invested in gas stations and convenience stores. He sold that business in 2004.

In 2005, Kifamba Zukuka Program, a Ugandan-based NGO, appointed Mr. Kabuye as their Overseas Patron. This NGO was formed by the native sons and daughters of Rakai District in Uganda, to uplift the living standards and improve the welfare of the citizens of the district. As you know, Rakai is the district where the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda started in the 1980’s. The district’s population was decimated by the disease leaving behind numerous orphaned children in households headed by grandparents or by the children themselves. More details are available at www.kifamba.org

In 2006, Mr. Kabuye started Flexible Nursing Care Inc., a Georgia Home Health Agency. He employs Ugandan and other healthcare workers who provide in-home nursing care, as the client may desire. Mr. Kabuye has organized annual trade delegations since 2005. In June 2007, he organized and participated in the first Annual Uganda Medical Mission which took 20 healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, surgeons, pharmacists etc) to the Districts of Kalangala, Rakai, Masaka and Mbarara for a three week charitable mission. In December 2008, Flex Kayanja Kabuye hosted 12 orphans from Nnabbunga Primary School in Rakai District, who were visiting the State of Georgia on an exchange program with Heritage Elementary School in Macon, Georgia.

Flex Kayanja Kabuye has actively pursued business opportunities, but in addition, he has also worked tirelessly in the community and with UNAA to uplift the living standards of those less fortunate than he is. His experience with UNAA began in 1998. He has served as a Board Member on the Management Board of UNAA International in various capacities for the past ten years. He has served with five of the past presidents of UNAA. Today, he also serves as the president of UNAATLANTA, the Atlanta chapter of UNAA. Flex Kayanja Kabuye has the knowledge and experience to take UNAA to the next level of excellence.
http://www.flexkabuye.info

Harry Chakhala Umlilo Investments

2012-01-02T10:20:00.000+02:00

"What Africa needs is entrepreneurs. A country like Japan is surrounded by water and yet this is one of the top economies in the world. We on the other hand are blessed with vast resources and yet we continue to languish in poverty due to a lack of entrepreneurs in every sector."

Meet Harry Chakhala, a man whose background speaks nothing short of versatility. He holds an electrical engineering degree from the University of Malawi, an MBA from the Wits Business School and is both a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Marketer.
And as if that is not enough, this CEO of Computek South Africa is currently pursuing a PhD in Strategic Management. He says this latest qualification is partly due to his desire to lecture at University level when he eventually hangs his boots on the corporate game.
While Computek is a well-known information and communication technology (ICT) organisation with countrywide offices and over 100 employees, Chakhala is more eager to talk to us about a new entity he has recently founded – The Umlilo Investments Group.
"Umlilo was formed in 2009 and has since been working in identifying appropriate opportunities on the African continent," Chakhala says, "Our goal is to lead change in expanding Africa's renaissance. We believe that for Africa to become a success, the private sector needs to take a leading role in promoting business activities that add socio-economic value to the continent."
The Umlilo business strategy involves identifying target opportunities on the African continent and then assessing issues relating to regulatory compliance and risk mitigation. Thereafter, consideration is given to the delivery structure by clearly defining the method of bringing the product to the ultimate consumer. The investment and finance structure as well as ownership structures are also defined with an emphasis on attracting significant investment without compromising on the need to bring local participants on board.
"Our aim is to empower Africans!" Chakhala declares, "You will probably get a return of one to two percent on your investment in developed nations like the United States. Africa has the potential of giving returns of 10 to 15 percent. As part of Umlilo's corporate social contribution, we plan on spending up to 20 percent of our return on socio-economic projects for the local communities."
Umlilo has identified three areas of focus – infrastructure and construction development, energy and ICT development.
"Our plans around infrastructure include imminent plans to invest in low income housing in Zimbabwe and Tanzania. We look forward to replicating the success of such shelter in South Africa in urban areas in these countries at a low cost to communities and with preferential payment terms," Chakhala explains.
Further plans in the construction sector include private public partnerships in extending the railway network in Malawi and a water scheme for needy areas in Mpumalanga.
"Before we embark on this project in Malawi, we are seeking to understand the railway network as there is a significant difference between an inland and a coastal system. As for Mpumalanga, we note that water tankers are being used to distribute the commodity to remote areas which is very expensive. South Africa is a dry country and with continuous growth in population, adequate clean water is becoming a serious problem. We aim to build water reservoirs in this South African province."
Population growth is also having an effect on energy in Africa. Lack of electricity is hampering economic development and in recognition of this, Chakhala indicates that Umlilo is looking out for natural solutions to invest in.
"There is geo-thermal potential in all countries through which the Great Rift Valley runs including Malawi, Kenya and Zambia. We have done reconnaissance studies in these countries and collated a lot of data through the Geo-Thermal Development Company headed by Dr. Silas Simiyu. In addition, we have acquired 40% of a Malawian company, Geo-Projects (Pty) Limited which has an exclusive licence for electricity generation through geo-thermal resources in the country."
Umlilo's ICT plans revolve around establishing mobile platforms that provide value added services to consumers using mobile networks. Chakhala reveals that already a mobile valley is underway in Zimbabwe with similar prospects in Malawi and Mozambique.
"We are also looking at implementing the concept of Community Data Centres. The idea is to have storage facilities that are compartible with mobile technology through which communities can store their information and images for generations."
Umlilo means fire in Zulu and Chakhala says that the term captures how energised the brand is to transforming the continent. It is also symbolic as it has various meanings in African culture, mostly positive. But he is under no illusions, that their Pan African initiatives will encounter challenges on the continent.
"Self-interest is a significant problem as a number of politicians want to be bribed throug offshore bank accounts before they can give a project the go-ahead. We are determined to get these initiatives on the way but we will not compromise our integrity to do so. Politicians also have ridiculous demands; you may wish to construct a road and a President insists that it must pass through his village irrespective of its economic viability!"
Chakhala notes that mining has been excluded from Umlilo's immediate plans. This he says is due to its stringent requirements and the possibility of failing to position yourself within the value chain after having invested a lot of money.
He is confident that the group has the right leadership to achieve its goals. A truly pan African board has members drawn from six different countries, all possessing a strong business sense to embark on the journey ahead.
"What Africa needs is entrepreneurs. A country like Japan is surrounded by water and yet this is one of the top economies in the world. We on the other hand are blessed with vast resources and yet we continue to languish in poverty due to a lack of entrepreneurs in every sector," he concludes.
For more information visit www.umliloinvest.co.za

Hobbies: Loves to read; favourite book is the biography of Ernest Mcunu who mentored him early in his career.
Personal details: Age, 47. Son of a Malawian father and South African mother. Married with three children.
Inspired by: Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese-British founder of Celtel who is implementing change on the continent by pushing the idea of an index for good governance.

Musa Kalenga Millionaire Africa's Youngest Chartered Marketer

2012-01-02T09:59:00.000+02:00

At the age of 27, Lauded youth strategist and entrepreneur, Musa Kalenga has qualified as the youngest Chartered Marketer (SA) in Africa. With only 200 Chartered Marketers (SA) in Africa, the designation carries with it much prestige and responsibility.

Musa Kalenga is probably what Kwame Nkrumah had in mind when Ghana first won its freedom. In fact, much of this great African leader’s wisdom has inspired Musa to become the man he’s busy becoming: a visionary young African.

His keen insights into the youth led to the establishment of Monatefellaz, a marketing and research consultancy specialising in young consumers. Musa has been hailed as a marketing fundi by Sunday World newspaper and has received much acclaim for his work, including an unprecedented three nominations for the prestigious Black Business Quarterly (BBQ) Awards in 2008 in the categories: Young Business Achiever, Businessman of the Year and New Entrepreneur. His consultancy was also nominated for the Business Innovation and Best BEE SMME awards.

As part of his personal growth and progression, Musa now heads up IHOP WORLD – a content, social media and influencer and experiential marketing company. In May 2011 Monatefellaz merged with IHOP a division of the Brand Leadership Group.

As a television presenter, Musa features as an insert presenter for industry marketing TV show – maggs on media. Musa has also worked on the breakfast show Africa Awakes on DStv channel 107, broadcasting throughout Africa and much of the USA. With his Kalenga Touch show, he explored individuals who share his passion for life and entrepreneurial prosperity with the development of the continent in mind. Musa is a regular and respected conference and keynote speaker.

In 2005/2006 Musa became the first Chairman of the Youth Advertising Board of South Africa, enabling him to further advance his dedication to the youth empowerment cause by initiating a number of youth-related topical debates and discussions.

In 2009, Musa Kalenga was appointed as one of the ambassadors to the One movement with the International organization for migration. The movement is a social initiative to create a conscious awareness of the importance of upholding the principles of humanity amongst all people.

Musa obtained his undergraduate Bachelor of Commerce with double majors in Marketing and Advanced Management at WITS University in 2007.

http://www.kalenga.me/PersonalProfile.aspx

Zenzo Lusengo AMB Capital Limited CEO

2012-01-02T09:48:00.000+02:00

I was born and raised in Harare to a Zambian migrant father and Zimbabwean mother. I completed a Bachelor of Business Studies Honours degree at The University of Zimbabwe and got into banking by accident. A friend, Raymond Ndlovu, worked in the Project Finance division of Standard Chartered Merchant Bank (SCMB) he put my name forward as a trainee in corporate finance where I spent four years. In 1990 when Nelson Mandela was released, South Africa began to look quite attractive to me.

Zimbabwe was a small economy with only about 60 listed entities and I had already interacted with most of the prominent ones.
I therefore felt that it was time to move on and joined Standard Bank's corporate finance division in Johannesburg in December 1992.

Around 1993, the first Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) deals began to happen. Amongst these was the formation and listing of New Africa Investments Limited (NAIL). Based on the work we did for them Nail in May 1995 approached a few members of Standard Bank's corporate finance team with the idea of forming an investment bank for the new dispensation. This gave birth to Pleiade Investment Corporation (Pleaide). The company had a mere seven million rand start-up capital making it an incredibly risky move for me. My family and friends were concerned that I was making a mistake leaving a stable bank for an unknown entity. But I was 28 and viewed it as an entrepreneurial opportunity. It would be great if it worked and if didn't, I would have at least learnt some valuable lessons in life.

One of our first deals was acting as transaction advisors when an American company Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC) decided to invest in MTN. Soon after the conclusion of the SBC transaction, we made contact with an American investment bank called Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) who were interested in investing in South Africa, and following extensive negotiations, DLJ acquired a 51% stake in the business which was thereafter renamed DLJ Pleiade. Things were going swimmingly and in 1994, when African Bank went into curatorship, NAIL and AMB were involved in rescuing it. As part of the process, African Bank acquired a stake in our company this giving us additional capital.
With that capital injection, we now had more than the R50 million in primary capital that was required to obtain a banking licence which we acquired towards the end of 1996. After obtaining our banking license we became known as DLJ African Merchant Bank and in 1997 our trajectory continued as we listed AMB Holdings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). We grew very quickly boasting a staff complement of about 150 at our peak in 1998. AMB was the place to be, we worked hard and played hard. I recall one occasion when after a particularly successful year, we took some members of staff and their partners on a cruise off the east coast of SA.

In 1998 there was a bull run in the financial services companies listed on the JSE and in one week AMB had a market value of a billion dollars. We had listed at R8 a share and in mid-1998 we were trading at R83 per share. Fortunately for shareholders, there were lock in provisions that ensure that management could not cash in their shares. A year later in 1999, we did a rights offer at R30 per share and listed AMB Private Equity Partners which resulted in additional capital for our private equity investment activities. We had quickly moved from a simple advisory firm to a fully fledged investment bank involved in corporate finance, treasury and trading, private equity and structured finance.
One downside of being a listed company was that the remuneration of directors was published and as such people in Zimbabwe would regularly view my total remuneration to establish whether or not I was having a good year. I had to contend with such questions as: "What's it like being worth X million rand?"

In 2000, things started to go pear-shaped. We had a squabble with NAIL our controlling shareholder which precipitated a decision by NAIL to unbundle their shares. From having one strong solid shareholder with good BEE credentials, we suddenly had a shareholder base of about 20,000. Then there was a banking crisis when a number of banks went under. Consequently, our banking licence was not making us money and we eventually handed it back to the Reserve Bank in 2001. This was followed by staff cuts as we adopted a model that was limited to corporate finance, private equity and hedge funds. We also opened an operation in Ireland which we retain to date with a country manager and a few staff. A change in the leadership in 2002 saw the founding CEO Rob Dow step down for the current CEO, Andrew Sprague. There was poor market sentiment in our share price going below the original listing price. At one point in time, our net asset value was higher than our share price which precipitated discussions on the merits of delisting from the JSE.

In 2003 Allan Gray controlled a 30% stake in the company (on behalf of its clients) and rumours began floating that a hostile takeover was imminent. We called on an old friend at Investec South Africa and our discussions resulted in Investec financing a management buy-out (MBO) of the business. The MBO ultimately worked out well for all parties and by the end of 2009 we had repaid Investec's funding.
Now some may look at this story and view it as "The Rise and Fall of AMB". I think of it as "The Evolution of AMB". Whereas being a listed entity gives you visibility and enables the use of your shares as currency and to reward staff members, I do not see the point of remaining listed just for the sake of it. When we were listed management owned about 15% of the company, now we are six partners who control 100% of the business. It is a lean structure that works and we are able to harness its full potential. Decision making is quick and easy and we have full control of a solid balance sheet.
On a personal level, I have given a third of my life – a whole 16 years - to this company. I am the longest serving executive and it feels like I have worked for about five different companies given all the changes the company has been through from an exciting start up, to a registered bank, then a listed company and its current form as a privately owned investment banking business following the successful MBO. There have been a couple of lessons learnt along the way; firstly it is important to go into business with the right partners who will add value; secondly, you need to be cautious when you are growing too quickly; and thirdly, partnerships don't necessarily last forever. When you come together, your interests are aligned but at some point this can change and you may outgrow each other.

I cannot therefore say that I will be at the company "until death do us part". I consider myself a Zimbabwean who has settled in South Africa and so I will be really happy to close some lucrative deals in my country of origin for AMB. I think the dollarisation of the economy has improved the situation there even though I don't think that coalition governments are the answer to governance in Africa. I would prefer a ruling party that wins a free and fair internationally monitored election. That said, the signs in Zimbabwe are good and I would be very pleased to see the establishment of an AMB Zimbabwe.

Lebo Gunguluza Entreprenuer Millionaire from South Africa

2011-12-14T03:54:00.000+02:00

Lebo Gunguluza, Entreprenuer, Strategist and Motivational Speaker - "The Breakthrough Entrepreneur"

At the age of 27, he became one of South Africa's youngest self-made black millionaires, without any funding or tenders from government, and over the years he built a mulitmillion rand empire where he had to overcome tremendous odds on his entreprenuerial journey. He is one of the key founders of the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum to address issues facing black entreprenuers in South Africa. Gunguluza adapted the title of "'The Ültimate Breakthrough Entrepreneur" and was awarded with the "Africa Heritage Youth Entrepreneur Award" five years later. He also became a resident millionaire entrepreneur on a youth TV programme called "Take 5", where he guided, motivated and inspired aspiring youth entrepreneurs who are starting or running their own businesses. He was recently honoured by the Millionaires Club with the Leadership Award in May 2010, and also received the Bethesda Business Award for his contribution to the development of Entreprenuership in South Africa.

He is the Founder and Group Chairman of the Gem (Gunguluza Enterprises and Media) Group establlished in 2002, an intergrated media and hospitality group with interests in companies that serve in the media, communications, hospitality and IT spheres.

Mr. Lebo Gunguluza, the President of SABEF, has an extensive experience in communication and media having consulted as National Director of Media Communications for membership-driven organisations such as Nafcoc and the Institute for Local Government Management. Mr. Gunguluza's career started at SABC where he was responsible of promoting the African Language stations, and later Metro FM. He then left for a broadcasting course in the US, and came back to join Herdbouys Advertising. That is where he gained strong understanding of the media and advertising business. His journey as an entreprenuer started in entertainment through his first company Gunguluza Entertainment and later refocused his businesses towards corporate communication and media spaces.

He then later founded the Gem Group which has diversified to various portfolios within the media, leisure and hospitality space which include publishing, television, media technology, restaurants, hotels and resort properties. He is also the Chairman and Principal Consultant of the Local Government Business Network (LGBN). Having an interest in Uhuru Communications, has had him oversee the Commercial Direction of Uhuru Publishing, which publishes Sawubona - SAA's inflight publication, Metro Live - Metro FM's new publication, Municipal Focus and So Joburg amongst other publications. He further acquired an interest in Star Hero Communications, a specialist tabloid newspaper publishing house which publishes Kasi Times, The Red Carpet and the Career Developer, where he is currently the Chairman. He is also Chairman of Izani Speakers, South Africa's leading wholly black owned speaker bureau, which also plays a major role of motivating high risk/school dropout youth in the townships. He is partner at Pastrascor, South Africa's leading passenger transportation company that provides and manages any kind of passenger trasnportation logistics and servicesn, from providing Air Charters, Yachts, Armoured and Luxury Vehicles to both government and private sector. He also Chairman of U-move, South Africa's leading fully black owned and managed Car Rental company, with a breakthrough car rental proposition that does not require a credit car from customers, to cater for the majority of South Africans. He also drives Izani Media and Hotels, which activates and provides specialised solutions to media and hotel owners, as well as Izani Travel, which provides and manages travel solutions, hospitality and holiday packages for corporate, government and high-end consumers.

For more information on Gunguluza's activities visit www.sabef.co.za, www.lgbn.co.za, www.gemgroup.co.za, www.empowaspeakers.com.

THE ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH ENTREPRENEUR

Sunday World’s Shwashwi is one of the most recognized media brands in South Africa, but few know as much about the man behind this popular gossip sensation, not to mention the countless successes in both the media, entertainment and hospitality industries. Lebo Gunguluza is an influential innovator and the ultimate “breakthrough entrepreneur”. He has overcome the odds that were stacked against him from the start and broke the boundaries by starting a multi-million rand empire without funding and by creating a revolutionary organization with a group of successful entrepreneurs to help aspiring township and rural entrepreneurs start and grow successful businesses.

Having set clear goals of financial success for himself at the tender age that: by the age of 25, he must have been a millionaire; by the age of 35, he must have been a multi-millionaire; and by the age of 45, he must be a billionaire, Lebo Gunguluza achieved his first goal, at the age of 27, when he made his first million rand through a series of entertainment events and activities that redefined the possibilities of success.

Early Years: Lebo Gunguluza was born in Port Elizabeth were he matriculated with flying colours. Armed only with R60, he got on a bus to study at the University of Natal in Durban. This is where he worked part-time at a retail store to fund his full time studies. After acquiring his degree in record time, he then decided to move to Johannesburg to get a job to help support his family.

Getting Started: Lebo Gunguluza’s first experience in the world of media and business was with SABC, selling advertising space on black radio stations. This is where he developed a passion for the media industry. Before long he was promoted as Brand Communications Executive and spent most of his time designing programme packages that the advertisers bought into. He then moved through to Metro FM, ending up as Marketing & Sales Manager, and was sent to USA to attend a broadcast and media-training course. On his return, he joined Herdbuoys as Accounts Manager, where he managed key accounts like SA Breweries, Metro FM and the return of Hush Puppies to South Africa

Gunguluza’s upward-bound career came to a screeching halt in 1997 when he embarked upon a process of self-discovery that resulted in his resignation from Herdbuoys. “I knew I was going to be an entrepreneur”, he says. “I had made the decision to take responsibility for myself and had decided that I was not be surviving from hand to mouth in a new democracy with great opportunities, when I also needed to support my family in Port Elizabeth who were going through a rough patch.”

Entrepreneurial Spirit: Lebo Gunguluza’s entrepreneurial drive secured his first business deal with the owner of a night club called Insomnia, where he put together entertainment attractions and marketed them in exchange for a percentage at the door. The success of this deal made him a well-known promoter in entertainment circles with a reputation for organizing the best parties in Johannesburg. He used this opportunity to partner with YFM, a new youth radio station at that time, conceptualized major events that made him a big player and helped him reach a peak on his financial success through his sold-out youth events at Newtown’s Electric Workshop. The news of Gunguluza's success spread through the entertainment industry like wildfire and sparked an army of young budding entrepreneurs all wanting to start similar businesses. He responded to the imitators by establishing Gunguluza Entertainment, where he diversified his business interest by starting an independent record label and artist management unit which led him to form strategic partnerships with key promoters.

He invested most of his resources on these new initiatives but the return on investment was never realized. The market was also very fickle and unreliable, and the promoters were not helping either with their dodgy operational ethics. This was not enough to sustain his business. By early 1999 his income had slowly petered out and he was left burdened by debt. He was forced to sell his car and close all his account and had to bear the humiliation of being blacklisted with the credit bureau. Things got so bad that for a while he had to rely on his family to pay his rent. He lost weight simply because he could not afford to buy food.

It was in this, the darkest time of his life, that Gunguluza learnt three priceless lessons in business by which he has lived ever since. These were the importance of working with a good paying market, managing cash flow and the value of planning in business. “This was a light bulb moment in my life,” says Gunguluza. “As strange as it may sound, it had never occurred to me that I should carefully manage my cash flow or even plan my business.”

It was also during this time of poverty that he asked himself a critical question “Why is he so broke, and yet famous figures such as Richard Branson, Donald Trump and the the Onassis of this world were so rich.” He made a decision that day to go read about these guys. He spent endless hours at the CNA, reading biographies of these billionaires, and from time to time being chased away by staff members for not buying the books.

This learning phase inspired him to continue his entrepreneurial journey, with two great lessons on hand, the first one being that “Whatever business you go into, you must love it and know it like the back of your hand” and the second lesson being that “You must be its number one salesperson and that all companies are always looking for the best salesperson to improve their bottom-line”. Instead of allowing depression over his failure to engulf him, Gunguluza decided to start again from scratch and look for a new business opportunity that avoided the pitfalls of his last business. “This time I was looking for sustainability in a business,” he says. “I wanted to target a more stable clientele than before (a good paying market)”.

The birth of GEM Group of Companies: Lebo Gunguluza recognized his business sustainability was in the private sector, and that this market segment is broader and diverse. He secured himself a position in a corporate communication company to learn more about the business of selling media space in publishing and corporate events. Nine-months later, to showcase a clear change in focus he established Corporate Fusion, a corporate communication and events management company. Within 18 months, this company that was run from a townshouse with a single telephone line was generating over R2 Million. Gunguluza rewarded himself by buying himself amongst other things his first Porsche that he always wanted. Building on the success of Corporate Fusion, Gunguluza formed GIDE, a youth development and career guidance development company in partnership with his brother who also joined the growing group of companies. A year later the turnover had doubled, and Gunguluza decided to move into proper offices and register Gunguluza Enterprises and media, known today as the GEM Group, which was established to overlook the new divisions and growing group of companies.

The GEM (Gunguluza Enterprises & Media) Group of Companies was born as a multimedia and communication company with seven business channels namely: a television production company; a training and development company; a publishing company which produced amongst other publications a country-wide student newspaper called Campus Times; an events company that launched the Eastern Cape Awards, the South African Education Awards, the Soweto Awards and a number of major conferences.

The rise and fall of GEM Group of Companies: The company started turning over millions and Gunguluza had no experience in managing such high turnovers, and had no knowledge about investment markets. He then decided to acquire a million-rand building that the Gem Group was operating from and the rest of his new found wealth was spent acquiring more cars. He employed more than 40 people who were randomly recruited based on looks, friendship and family ties. He also travelled extensively overseas and started losing sight of his business operations. While overseas, one of his key projects took a big knock that affected his major account that used to succesfully sustain his busness. He came back early from his overseas trip to rescue the project, but it was too late. He lost that client and two other major clients all in the month of August 2004. This was the worst time of his life, as his company was fast going into debt. Within six month (mid 2005), Gunguluza was in debt of over R2-miliion and had to make some key decisions going forward. He fired most of his staff, sold some of his cars and businesses, but that did not help much. He finally closed the company for a while to settle his debts. Some the staff members took him to the CCMA, and had creditors houding him everyday for the next couple of months. The pressure became so much that he decided to close his cellphone line for a period of three months, and used that time to figure his next move.

New Business Opportunities: As the company collapsed, Gunguluza learnt his next crucial lesson in business. “I realized that if you don’t have the right people in your organisation, you don't have the right support, especially in times of crisis. A big part of one’s success is the fact that he or she is surrounded by competent and qualified individuals who excel in their duties and are able to offer good advice at all times.

”An opportunity then existed to operate Primi Piatti in Rosebank. Gunguluza’s ex- wife went for training to run the restaurant, while he was negotiating payment terms with the creditors from the Gem Group of companies. The restaurant became a sustainable operation which provided a stable income for his household and gave Gunguluza a chance to re-establish new business opportunities. It took three years to settle the outstanding debt from the Gem Group. The restaurant became very popular and helped further profile Gunguluza as a sustainable and celebrated black entrepreneur in South Africa. They further recieved the most coveted Tenant's Award for the Highest Growth in Turnover in their second year of operating the restaurant.

Unfortunately at this time that he was starting to re-build his empire, Gunguluza and his wife went through a divorce, where she continued by herself with the restaurant business. Gunguluza then continued re-building GEM Group of Companies by establishing new companies in the media and hospitality space and forming further partneships.

He further partnered with Uhuru Communications, the publishers of SAA’s Sawubona magazine, who also publish an arts & recreation magazine called Rootz and a campus publication Student Choice. He solidified his partnership by successfully launching a new publication called Municipal Focus, which covers the business of Local Government with a nationwide distribution to municipalites and government departments. He also took on an active role as a Commercial Director and had to set up the Johannesburg office to extend the publishing footprint in South Africa and Africa. He has recently initiated the publishing of the Metro FM publication called Metro Live and Loocha under the Uhuru stable amongst other initiatives. To strengthen his publishing interest, he further acquired an interest in Star Hero Communications, which focuses in niche newspaper publishing, which incudes titles such as Kasi Times, The Red Carpet and The Career Developer, where he acts as Chairman.

Gunguluza also partnered in a R6,2-billion development deal in Gauteng, which is 10 munites away from the OR Tambo International Airport. The first phase of this development kicks off in November 2011 with a R330 Million Hotel. His hospitality interests are activated and marketed under Izani Hotels and Resorts International, a wholly owned division of the GEM Group. In 2011 he also launched GEM Capital, the Gem Group's venture capital and private equity arm, which is already involved in a number of deals includung a R230 Million mining venture in the Northen Cape and R4.2 billion rand retail project in Ballito next to the King Shaka International Airport. He is also finalizing a deal to acquire a R200-million broadcast studio in Johannesburg to venture further in his passion for broadcasting. Gem Capital in partnership with Pastrasncor has secured an exclusive distribution deal with an internations Defence Group and will be launching that division in February 2012 as a national operation. To date Gunguluza has learnt a great deal about partnerships, and believes one should not reinvent the wheel, but also learn and build on opportunities that already exist.

Contributions: Gunguluza has been honoured with Africa Heritage Youth Entrepreneur Award for his dedication and contributions to the South African society. He is the co-founder and President of the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum (SABEF), a section 21 organisation established to promote, inspire and grow entrepreneurship in the black communities as the source of poverty alleviation, job creation and economic growth in South Africa. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of the Local Government Business Network (LGBN), a voluntary organisatoion established to promote the relationship between Local Government and the private sector.

Today Gunguluza heads up the GEM Group of Companies, an integrated media, hospitality and communications group that offers holistic media, hospitality and technology solutions to their clients. He continues to share his entrepreneurial successes and failures through radio and television interviews and special sessions that are meant to empower and motivate entreprenuers and employees of big corporations . This has further assisted the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum (SABEF) reach a breakthrough membership, made up of aspiring entrepreneurs, emerging and established entrepreneurs.

Mr Gunguluza is considered one of South Africa’s most celebrated media entrepreneurs, a strategist and a motivational speaker – the ultimate breakthrough entrepreneur.

Gibson Mandishona Zimbabwean Scientist

2011-12-13T03:02:00.000+02:00

Dr Gibson Mandishona was born in a small town of Chegutu , Zimbabwe in 1944. After attending secondary school in Zimbabwe, he completed BSc (Lond ) with majors in physics and mathematics. He later attended UK universities and attained MSc and PhD degrees in mathematics at the unversities of Kent and Nottingham respectively. In 1975 Dr Mandishona was a university lecturer in mathematics, before he moved to Addis Ababa, where he worked at the United Nations, as a consultant in statistics and demography (1976-1980). During his spare time he followed up activities of a newly developing movement; “intermediate technology”. In 1977 he assisted in the construction of a canvass type windmill, for water pumping in a rural village not far from Addis Ababa.

When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, Dr Mandishona was recalled home from the diaspora, alongside other specialists, and was appointed director of the Central Statistics Office. He continued work in this post, whilst experimenting on renewable energy devices on a part-time basis. He built his own prototypes of a biogas plant and a producer gas generator (gasifier). Finally he broke his chains from desk-bound statistical work in 1993, when he was appointed Project Manager of the five-year GEF Zimbabwe Solar Pilot Project (1993-1998). this project oversaw the installation of some 20,000 solar PV systems in rural homes ,business centres, schools, clinics and cooperatives. Dr Mandishona spearheaded the International Solar Energy Society hosting of the World Solar Summit ( 1996) in Harare, Zimbabwe. At the expiration of the GEF solar project in 1998, Dr Mandishona formed The Centre for Renewable Energy and Environmental Technology (CREET), which has been involved in consultancy and practical renewable tasks. Dr Mandishona and CREET have received awards and trophies locally and internationally. Dr Mandishona was founder chairman of the Scientific and Industrial Research Centre (SIRDC) for ten years; and he is currently chairman of the newly established Harare Institute if Technology (HIT). He is Dean of Physical Sciences in the Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences (ZAS).

He has participated in several conferences and seminars regionally and abroad on topics relating to mathematics and renewable energy.

On July 2 we published the first part of an interview with Gibson Mandishona, one of Zimbabwe’s leading research scientists and mathematician. Gibson Mandishona is also an accomplished musician and arts manager with shining track record.
This is part two of the wide ranging interview with News Day’s Munya Simango (ND) where Gibson Mandishona (GM)’s musical contributions to jazz are revealed.

ND: Tell us about some of the notable personalities that you have worked with.

GM: During my time in Ethiopia I worked with Bob Marley to compose the song Zimbabwe. Although I am not a reggae fan; music is music, and being knowledgeable on Zimbabwean themes and traditions, I was able to assist Bob Marley on the project.
I also facilitated for Simangaliso Tutani and Chris Chabuka, some of Zimbabwe’s finest jazz musicians, to study music theory at Berkley College in Boston, in the US. Simangaliso studied in the United States while Chabuka got his diploma from Berkley College through distance education using music materials which I procured for him.

ND: Besides being a musician you have been credited with making an outstanding contribution to jazz through promoting the genre in Zimbabwe. Do you acknowledge that and what are the highlights of the contribution?

GM: After the death of Tutani we established the Zimbabwe National Jazz Festival with Sam Mataure, Penny Yon, Mainos Mudukuti and others. This revived Zimbabwean jazz at the time, as we also groomed a number of young artists including Patience Musa, The Other Four and Africa Revenge. Later on I edited Joyce-Jenje Makwenda’s seminal book entitled Zimbabwe Township Music, which was a stimulating experience.
In 2002 we organised, under the patronage of Robbie Mupawose, Mbuya Mlambo and Pashapa; the National Hunger Concert with Joyce Makwenda, Fungai Malianga, Hilton Mambo and Ray Mawerera. Eventually we raised enough money to donate to various children’s charities spread nationwide.

ND: What is your view of Zimbabwean jazz music and musicians?

GM: The current crop of jazz musicians is doing well, they are dynamic and they are following modern trends . . . the young people are trying their best.

ND: We now have a number of jazz festivals; the Harare Jazz Festival, Jazz Under the Stars and Winter Jazz Festival.
Having provided leadership to the Zimbabwe National Jazz Festival in your time, what is you view of today’s jazz festivals and music festivals in general?

GM: I have observed the resurgence of festivals. There should be more local acts participating and festivals should use more venues in different locations. In the past, we used to have more than 30 groups performing at different venues as part of one festival.

ND: What challenges do you think Zimbabwean music industry stakeholders need to urgently address?

GM: Musical instruments and music theory books are in limited supply and are not readily accessible to the general population.
There is limited patronage of music and the arts by society, the absence of music as an examination course in the school curriculum, lack of palatable family friendly venues and limited corporate investment in the arts. Stakeholders should come together and map out strategies to improve this situation.

ND: You are a role model and mentor for the young people in the music industry today. What message do you have for the youth?

GM: I would like to emphasise the need for persistent practice in order to master one’s chosen instrument. Also we should not be copy cats. Let us create jazz that is uniquely Zimbabwean and based on our culture and music traditions.

ND: Dr Mandishona thank you for your time. We hope that your life and work will inspire many.

Fatou Bensouda Gambia International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor

2011-12-13T02:26:00.004+02:00

Fatou Bensouda at a glance
Grew up in the Gambian capital, Banjul
Father was a civil servant
Studied law in Lagos, Nigeria
Became The Gambia's first international maritime law expert
Joined the justice ministry in 1987 as a deputy public prosecutor
Became Gambian attorney general and justice minister in 1998
Worked for Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the ICC since 2004
Africa's Fatou Bensouda is new ICC chief prosecutor
By Farouk Chothia
BBC Africa

With the African Union (AU) having been a fierce critic of outgoing International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, it will be hoping for a better relationship with his successor, Fatou Bensouda - the first African to hold a top post at the ICC.
The AU lobbied intensely for the 50-year-old Gambian, endorsing her candidature in June after repeatedly accusing Mr Moreno-Ocampo - an Argentinian whose nine-year term expires next year - of selective justice by only investigating atrocities in Africa.
"Frankly speaking, we are not against the ICC. What we are against is Ocampo's justice," AU commission chairman Jean Ping said earlier this year.
"What have we done to justify being an example to the world? Are there no worst countries, like Myanmar [Burma]?"
The appointment of Mrs Bensouda, who has been Mr Moreno-Ocampo's deputy throughout his tenure, was unanimously approved at a meeting of the legislative body of the ICC, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), in New York on Monday.
Mrs Bensouda, a former senior legal adviser at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is trying key figures responsible for the 1994 genocide in the Central African state, got the job ahead of three other short-listed candidates.
They were Andrew Cayley, the British co-prosecutor at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia; Tanzania's chief justice Mohamed Chande Othman; and Canadian war crimes specialist Robert Petit.
"The AU has been adamant that an African candidate would be selected, and they got their wish," writes UK-based law blogger Mark Kersten on the Justice in Conflict blog.
He says the AU's hand was strengthened by the fact that African countries form the largest bloc in the ASP. Yet the ICC's various organs - including the presidency and registry - were headed by people from other continents.

"Bensouda clearly satisfied all of the political and merit-based criteria to become the ICC's chief prosecutor," Mr Kersten says.
'Great intellect'
Born into a polygamous family - her father had two wives - Mrs Bensouda is married to a Gambian-Moroccan businessman. They have three children - one of whom is adopted.
"I come from a big family, let's say it that way," she said in an interview earlier this month with the AFP news agency.
She told the BBC's Newshour programme that her African background would give her an additional insight into life on the continent, which would help her perform her new job.
However, she said she had been "proud" to have worked with Mr Moreno-Ocampo and so may not bring a radically different approach.
Mrs Bensouda was once a politician, with Gambian President Yahya Jammeh - who took power in a coup in 1994 and is accused of harassing the opposition and the press - appointing her as justice minister in 1998.
But the two fell out and Mr Jammeh sacked her about two years later.
"She was relieved of her duties while she was abroad," Gambian opposition leader Ousainou Darboe told the BBC.
"She is a fantastic person, and showed genuine concern about human rights issues [in The Gambia]."
Mrs Bensouda's appointment as chief prosecutor has been welcomed in the legal profession and among non-governmental organisations.

"She always struck us a very thoughtful person of great intellect," says Human Rights Watch senior counsel Liz Evenson.
A senior lecturer at the Melbourne Law School in Australia, Kevin Jon Heller, says Mr Cayley would have been an "excellent" chief prosecutor, but Mrs Bensouda was also "very qualified" for the job.
"She offers the best of both worlds - an ICC insider who offers institutional continuity, which will be critical in the coming years, but has a strong, independent voice that has not been tainted by Moreno-Ocampo's incompetent tenure," he writes on the Opinio Juris blog.
"Having spoken to numerous individuals involved in the ICC, from OTP [Office of The Prosecutor] staff to legal officers in chambers to defence attorneys, it is clear that Bensouda was the primary reason that the OTP didn't fall completely apart over the past eight years."
"I have also had the good fortune to spend time with Bensouda over the past couple of years. She is, to put it mildly, an incredibly impressive woman: smart, articulate, thoughtful (a welcome change from Moreno-Ocampo) and compassionate."
South Africa-based legal expert Shadrack Ghutto believes that Mrs Bensouda will keep a lower profile than Mr Moreno-Ocampo.
"He had a media-attracting personality and a propensity to make pronouncements before going through judicial processes," Mr Ghutto told the BBC.
"The chief prosecutor must not overshadow the court. I think it will now come to the fore."
The ICC has so far investigated conflicts in seven countries - all in Africa: Sudan; Libya; Ivory Coast; Kenya; Uganda; the Democratic Republic of Congo; and the Central African Republic.
Several of the cases are in court, with a verdict in the first trial - that of eastern DR Congo militia leader Thomas Lubanga - expected early next year.
'No shrinking violet'
"For many observers, it [the case] has been going on for too long, but a lot of things needed to be worked out," says Ms Evenson of Human Rights Watch.
"The two other trials [including that of former DR Congo vice-president and rebel leader Jean Pierre-Bemba] are going much more quickly."
Despite AU accusations of "selective justice", Mrs Bensouda is unapologetic about the ICC's focus on African conflicts.
"We say that the ICC is targeting Africans, but all of the victims in our cases in Africa are African victims," she said earlier this year.
"They are not from another continent. And they're the ones who are suffering these crimes."
Mr Heller says that while Mrs Bensouda will avoid "needlessly alienating" governments, he expects her to vigorously pursue justice.
"From what I know about her, she'll do what she believes is right - no matter how many feathers get ruffled. So if states think they are getting a shrinking violet, they're bound for serious disappointment," he says.
Mr Ghutto says for the sake of the ICC's credibility, Mrs Bensouda must address concerns that only Africans are being targeted by investigating conflicts in other parts of the world.
"The court has to be seen to be international in the way it operates," he says.
"Cases must be brought without fear, favour or prejudice."
The ICC says it is conducting preliminary investigations into eight other countries, including Afghanistan, Colombia and Korea.
Ms Evenson says part of the problem is that many powerful states, including the US and China, have refused to recognise the ICC, meaning that they cannot be investigated unless the UN Security Council - which is a "highly politicised" body - agrees.
"There has to be pressure to get more countries to join the ICC," she says.

A lawyer from Gambia, Fatou Bensouda, was named the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Monday, making her the public face and chief strategist of the tribunal responsible for investigating the world’s grave atrocities.

She will be only the second person to hold the job when she takes over the post from Luis Moreno-Ocampo from Argentina, whose term of office expires in June. She is currently Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s deputy at the court, which is based in The Hague.

Ms. Bensouda, 50, was voted in by consensus at a meeting at the United Nations of the 120 countries that have recognized the jurisdiction of the first permanent criminal court. The decision came after a yearlong search that involved a list of more than 50 candidates, which was whittled down to 8, then to 4.

Bensouda: ICC Prioritizes Crimes Against Women & Children from American Society of International Law on FORA.tv

But from the start, Ms. Bensouda had the support of almost 70 countries, among them all of the court’s African members. After it became clear that Ms. Bensouda would be the only candidate who could produce a consensus, the last remaining contender, Tanzania’s chief justice, Mohamed Chande Othman, withdrew.

When Ms. Bensouda becomes the world’s most visible prosecutor for a single nine-year term, she may bring a change of style, with her soft-spoken, low-key manner — a sharp contrast to her more publicity-conscious boss, who succeeded in quickly thrusting the new institution into the limelight after it opened its doors in 2002.

But having served as deputy prosecutor since 2004, Ms. Bensouda is expected to bring continuity rather than sharp changes to her powerful office, at least in the near future. A large docket of cases awaits, involving war crimes or crimes against humanity, and in the case of Sudan, charges of genocide. Only one trial has been concluded. Two others are going on.

Supporters of the court now hope that the presence of an African prosecutor could tone down some of the fierce criticism it has received from Africa, where many have labeled the court a neocolonial tool in the hands of the West because all the prosecution cases so far are from African countries. In four cases — the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Uganda and the Ivory Coast — the governments themselves called in the court; two cases, Sudan and Libya, came on instructions from the United Nations Security Council; and only one case, involving six suspects linked to orchestrating post-election violence in Kenya, was initiated by the prosecutor’s office.

But such details were overlooked in a campaign against the court first begun several years ago by the former Libyan president, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and joined more quietly by Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan who is wanted by the court on charges that include genocide. The arrest warrant against Mr. Qaddafi, issued earlier this year, was annulled recently after he was killed.

Being an African could bring different pressures to bear on Ms. Bensouda. Groups from Kenya continue to demand that investigations of their six citizens be conducted at home. And the African Union, which early on proclaimed Ms. Bensouda as its candidate, insists that its member countries ignore the court’s arrest warrant for Mr. Bashir. Some have called for the warrant to be dropped.

At a news conference following her election, Ms. Bensouda was asked how, as prosecutor, she would handle criticism from Africa. “My origin, being an African, has nothing to do with my mandate,” she said.

She has previously served as legal adviser and trial attorney at the international tribunal prosecuting leaders of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. In her home country, Gambia, she has also been attorney general and minister of justice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/world/europe/fatou-bensouda-becomes-lead-prosecutor-at-international-criminal-court.html?ref=africa&pagewanted=print

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16029121?print=true

Sakhile Nyoni Air Botswana CEO First Female to Achieve such a position in Botswana

2011-12-05T19:10:00.002+02:00

A Zimbabwean has scored a first by becoming the first woman to head Botswana’s national airline, Air Botswana.

Sakhile Nyoni also broke new ground when she became the airline’s first female pilot way back in 1988.
“I am humbled by the fact that the government through the board that appointed me gave me the opportunity to be the General Manager of Air Botswana. I am also happy that once again I made history in the aviation industry of Botswana. There are challenges here and there but I believe challenges are part of the solutions.
Though still early to talk about the positive things that have happened ever since my appointment there are pointers to show that we are moving in the right direction,” she said in an interview with The Voice.
She added : “I was the fi rst female pilot of Air Botswana and one of the very few experienced women in the aviation industry of Africa. It’s always nice to make history and I hope I have and will continue to inspire young women to take up this noble profession so that we can increase in numbers.
“I think that at the moment there are few women pilots in Africa and the world over because of the perception that it’s a tough job which needs masculinity, which is not the case. Anyone can succeed in this career as long as they work hard and are determined to make it.”
Nyoni was born in Bulawayo and moved to Botswana when she was very young. She said she always loved flying.
“I don’t think there is anyone or anything that inspired me to be a pilot but the love for aeroplanes came from the fact I grew up watching them shortly after take off and just before landing as we used to stay near the airport village where I grew up. I found them (planes) intriguing and as I grew older
I started reading about aviation and planes but it was just out of interest and nothing else.
The interest grew further after my first fl ight when I was 16 because it was just exciting to be up in the air. But I guess as fate would have it, I ended up pursuing a career as a pilot.”
Nyoni said although she was now the boss she still took to the skies.
“I have to keep my licence valid and the only way to do that is to fl y regularly which I did recently. I may not fly quite often but now and again I will be doing that. And besides I still have a dream to fly a long flight, like from Africa to Europe or any other continent so my days of being a pilot are not over yet.”

It was way back in 1988 when Sakhile Nyoni broke new grounds to become the first female pilot for Air Botswana.

Fast forward to June, 2011 and Nyoni-Reiling, once again scores another first by becoming the first woman to be the General Manager of the national airliner. With more than 20 years experience in the aviation industry, she is one of the few highly qualified female pilots in the continent and has once been at the helm of the aviation industry in South Africa.

But, it is not what she has achieved so far that Nyoni-Reiling would want to be remembered for but what she will achieve as the boss lady of Air Botswana.
Q. Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, an aunt and a friend.
Nothing makes me feel happy than playing all these roles and being around my family. I was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and moved here with my parents when I was five years of age.
Botswana is my home now, the country that I love and serve with pride and dignity.
Q. Before we talk about Sakhile the GM of Air Botswana , let’s talk about Sakhile the pilot, what or who inspired you to choose this profession?
I don’t think there is anyone or anything that inspired me to be a pilot but the love for aeroplanes came from the fact I grew up watching them shortly after takeoff and just before landing as we used to stay near the airport village where I grew up. I found them (planes) intriguing and as I grew older
I started reading about aviation and planes but it was just out of interest and nothing else.
The interest grew further after my first fl ight when I was 16 because it was just exciting to be up in the air. But I guess as fate would have it, I ended up pursuing a career as a pilot.
Q. What do you love most about being a pilot and why do you think there are a few women in the skies?
I love the good feeling that comes after a successful fl ight.
Being a pilot is one of those jobs considered to be very tough and passing the tests, getting a licence and fl ying a plane is one of the most fulfi lling things.
It just takes one over the moon. And one of the greatest things that makes me love my job is the fact I was the fi rst female pilot of Air Botswana and one of the very few experienced women in the aviation industry of Africa. It’s always nice to make history and I hope I have and will continue to inspire young women to take up this noble profession so that we can increase in numbers.
I think that at the moment there are few women pilots in Africa and the world over because of the perception that it’s a tough job which needs masculinity, which is not the case. Anyone can succeed in this career as long as they work hard and are determined to make it.
Q. What has been the highlight of your career?
The first time I flew an aircraft as a student, I remember that the only thing I could say was wow! because the experience left me speechless. The other defi ning moment was when I flew a plane as a captain. I was thrilled to say the least, I felt so proud of myself and I think I cried tears of joy on that day.
Q. And the lowest?
It must be some years back on the day I saw a plane crash. It made me see the realities and the dangers that come with being a pilot and that at times there is little that one can do to prevent such things from happening.
Q. You are currently on the management side of aviation in Botswana, does this mean your days of piloting are over?
I have to keep my licence valid and the only way to do that is to fl y regularly which I did recently. I may not fly quite often but now and again I will be doing that. And besides I still have a dream to fly a long flight, like from Africa to Europe or any other continent so my days of being a pilot are not over yet.
Q. Being a pilot and working in the aviation industry in general must be very demanding. How do you strike a balance between your career and your role as a mother and wife?
I have a very supportive family which understands the nature of my job. The other good thing is that my son is now grown up and at university. I am not staying with him and my husband at the moment as they remained in South Africa but we are always together over the weekends.
Its either I go there or they come over and I must add that the time we spend away from each other has made our bond even stronger because when we are together we spend quality time together.
Q. Now let’s talk about you as the GM of Air Botswana. How does it feel to be the fi rst female to head the country’s national airline?
I am humbled by the fact that the government through the board that appointed me gave me the opportunity to be the General Manager of Air Botswana. I am also happy that once again I made history in the aviation industry of Botswana. There are challenges here and there but I believe challenges are part of the solutions.
Though still early to talk about the positive things that have happened ever since my appointment there are pointers to show that we are moving in the right direction.
Q. You are not new to Air Botswana as you once worked there before going to South Africa, what were your reasons for leaving then?
I clashed with the management of that time over certain issues and hence could not continue working as the environment was no longer conducive. Although I moved to SA and held high positions in the aviation industry of that country, my heart remained in Botswana. That is why I did not think twice about taking up the offer to be the GM.
Q. Air Botswana is normally in the press for wrong reasons, loss making, failed take offs and something not working in one of the airports.
What are you doing to make sure that these become things of the past?
We have strategies in place like re-training all our staff to ensure good customer service so that we can become an airliner of choice. We want to create an environment that will make people love working for the airliner because that will translate to increased productivity. It might take time to turn around the fortunes of Air Botswana but eventually we will do that.
Q. One of the issues normally raised about Air Botswana is that it is expensive especially to fly locally, your comment on that?
People need to understand that as a business we need to make a profit or at least break even. No airliner or any business for that matter should operate at a loss.
And besides our fares are not at all expensive, they are very competitive in comparison to other airlines in the region.
The fare that we charge does not mean all the money go to the coffers of Air Botswana, there are taxes, airport and civil aviation charges that we pay so that we can continue operating otherwise if we reduce our fares we will eventually fail to operate and run into further losses.
Q. Lastly, what legacy do you want to leave behind as the fi rst female GM when you finally say goodbye to the airliner?
Profit making airliner, which is compliant with all aviation standards and recognised internationally.
I also want to leave Sir Seretse Khama Airport as one of the biggest airports in the region with international flights fl ying direct to Botswana.
FULL NAMES: Sakhile Nyoni-Reiling
PLACE OF BIRTH: Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
MARITAL STATUS: Married with one son
CAR DRIVING: Pajero (company car)
HOLIDAY DESTINATION: Austria
FAVOURITE FOOD: Seafood
PASTIME: Gardening, reading and photography
HOW SHE KEEPS FIT: Running and walking long distances
SOURCE OF INSPIRATION: Being around positive people

Yoganathan Ratheesan Lebara millionaire

2011-11-21T02:25:00.001+02:00

Lebara co-founder made virtual phone network a real money-maker
Yoganathan Ratheesan, 35, says he has no idea how he made Lebara such a success, but admits he is good 'at running things'

Juliette Garside
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 November 2011 12.37 EST
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Yoganathan Ratheesan, chief executive of Lebara mobile.

Yoganathan Ratheesan was 25 when he co-founded Lebara. Ten years on and the business of selling cheap international mobile phone calls to migrant workers in Europe and Australia is snowballing.
With 3 million active customers, Lebara is already bigger than Tesco Mobile. The firm made €21m (£18m) in pre-tax profits last year and its operations in nine countries are expected to double revenues to €1bn in 2011. Staff numbers have risen from 500 to 1,400 since the beginning of last year.
But Ratheesan, known to friends as Ratheesh, prefers to be modest. "I'm not an entrepreneur. I don't consider myself to be a businessman at all. I'm just very good at running things."
At 35 he still looks almost boyish in his double-breasted suit, and would rather give the impression of being a corporate newcomer than the creator of a rampantly successful money-making machine. "It's almost scary what has happened in the last 10 years. How did we do it? I have no idea."
Perhaps Lebara's biggest achievement has been making the international calls business respectable. While rival Lycatel was warned by regulator Ofcom over misleading advertising and unfair terms, Ratheesan has nurtured Lebara's good name. Carefully chosen sponsorship has played its part, including a two-year test-cricket deal and three years of association with the Mobos (Music of Black Origin awards).
The speed at which Lebara branding has been plastered on the windows of thousands of street corner phone dealers in recent months suggests not only a wide distribution network, but a brand embraced by sole traders as a badge of trust with which to reassure customers.
Not everyone is a fan. Until a couple of years ago, its call centre waiting times stretched into minutes. But complaints on message boards have died down ,and Ratheesan points out that Lebara won an award for service and for best virtual mobile phone network this spring.
Lebara does not own masts, but rents space from networks including Vodafone and then sells pay-as-you-go sim cards for customers to put in their own handsets. Its London call centre employs 270 staff who field up to 80,000 calls a week, and apparently answer them in about 30 seconds. Ratheesan checks by phoning in as a mystery shopper from his car most days.
The London hub serves all of the European operations in 25 languages officially, 32 unofficially. With 50 nationalities on its payroll, Lebara would seem to be the very definition of diverse, but Ratheesan begs to differ. "I don't much agree that we are a multicultural organisation. All my management team are from Europe apart from me."
Non-European middle managers have been asked to pick a mentor from the top team, and will be fast-tracked up the ranks. The idea is to find senior people who, like its chief executive, have similar life experiences to the customers.
Ratheesan arrived in the UK aged 15, his family having taken refuge from Sri Lanka's civil war. Twice displaced – he was educated at boarding school in India from the age of eight – he took a while to settle. "At the beginning I found it extremely difficult in England. The only person in my circle who could speak English and explain my studies was my uncle, who worked for the Bank of England. I would wait for him all day and ring him up at 8pm."
For the first two years he saved his pocket money, hoping to buy a ticket back to India to see his former headmaster's family, who had taken him in during the school holidays.
He survived secondary school. His father, who worked at a clothing factory in London, wanted him to take a degree, and he chose aeronautical engineering "because it had more numbers in it than any other subject". He says he was not very studious, but pursued a masters and took a year out to earn the £8,000 needed to pay for it.
He worked in a bar by night, and in a shop selling call-time cards in the day. Then the boss came down from head office and Ratheesan told him the company was losing money on calls because of a miscalculation. A couple of days later the boss rang back, with his accountant on the line. Ratheesan talked him through it. "He was screaming for half an hour, and then said, I would like you to come and work at head office."
Ratheesan said he would come for six months and then return to his studies, but he ended up staying for four years, running the pricing department and working in sales and marketing. The company was ICS, run by another Sri Lankan, Subaskaran Allirajah, who also founded Lycatel.
At ICS, he made friends with two other Tamil colleagues who eventually became his business partners. Rasiah Ranjith Leon had worked in Norway and Baskaran Kandiah hailed from the Netherlands. Lebara – a combination of their names Leon, Baskaran and Ratheesan – was from its beginning in 2001 a European concept.
First they founded a call card distribution business in the Netherlands, selling to independent phone shops. Then Yoganathan went on a training course and learned about the technology needed to produce their own phone cards. In 2004 they launched their first virtual network, in the Netherlands, selling pay-as-you-go sim cards and renting space from mobile carrier Telefort, a subsidiary of KPN. A similar deal was struck with Vodafone in Spain and then in the UK in 2007, and this was soon the company's largest market. France, which launched last year, is already almost as big as the UK.
While his partners concentrated on sales and marketing, Ratheesan became the administrator and the corporate figurehead. Unusually, Lebara has never received outside funding, even in the form of a bank loan, and each founder owns a third of the shares. Without a chairman or a board, Ratheesan had to invent one. "I have an imaginary boss in my head. I'm still scared if I'm late coming in to work. Everybody else has someone to drive them, I had to find that discipline within myself."
Lebara's internal culture is strongly egalitarian. Ratheesan spent a fortune on chairs, after deciding every employee should sit on the same model as the boss. All managers spend one day every three weeks on the front line, working on stands or selling to phone shops. All except the chief executive. "Leon and Karan have never allowed me to put up a poster, hand out a leaflet or sell a sim card. They see that as their role."
The three are firm friends and their next big ambition is to expand their charitable venture, the Lebara Foundation, which is already building a community with homes, a school and a clinic for local and displaced children in Chennai, southern India. To fund it, they plan to donate half their wealth to the foundation. RBS has been asked to run a review, which it is hoped will lead to a sale at around £650m.
The sticking point is that the founders want out so that they can take up charitable work full-time. Buyers are not sure Lebara can thrive without their expertise. The links to thousands of sole traders around Europe would be hard to replace. Vodafone has already withdrawn from the sale, having submitted an early low offer for part of the business. The few remaining buyers are being asked to meet management to see whether they could be persuaded to stay on.
Ratheesan seems torn. His co-founders are a little older and ready for a change, and the three do not want to be separated. However, he might stay if pressed. "If we did sell and there was a role for me, I would do it. I spent my life building this organisation."
To mark its 10th anniversary, Ratheesan set out the vision of Lebara as an ethnic brand as well known around the world as Western Union. In March, it began offering money transfer services with MasterCard. Ratheesan wants Lebara to become the "brand of choice" for 1 billion people by 2020. He seems the natural leader for that ambition.
Born 6 December 1975
Education Havering College, Hornchurch; BsC in aeronautical engineering, Kingston University London
Career 1997-2001, head of pricing and sales and marketing executive, ICS; 2001, co-founded Lebara; 2005, co-founded the Lebara Charitable Foundation
© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/17/lebara-co-founder-yoganathan-ratheesan-interview/print

Russell Zishiri and John Brinson Recycle Now Canada Million Dollar Venture

2011-11-18T04:55:00.000+02:00

VANCOUVER, Canada - Theatre-schooled Richmond entrepreneurs Russell Zishiri and John Brinson plan to make a million dollars a year returning bottles. That would be with the Recycle-Now! firm Zimbabwe-born Zishiri founded in 2008 and the native Philadelphian joined in 2010.

How it happened sounds like a fanciful script. Still, here's Zishiri's account: Aged 18, and picked for the Under-19 World Schoolboy rugby-football team in 1999, Zishiri said he was sponsored to enter Australia by a Brisbane professional team.

When visa errors closed that window, he picked fruit for six months, enrolled at the University of Melbourne and earned a degree in information system management in 30 months while selling telecom services at a call centre.

Meanwhile, with his family's farm in Zimbabwe appropriated, and Canadian authorities having rejected his immigration request, he arrived in Vancouver as a refugee in 2002.
Granted permanent residence in 2004, he sold the Yaletown condo bought while working at a Royal Bank customer-credit centre and went to study acting in New York. He met Brinson at a Juilliard School audition and attended church and shows with him. Returning to unsuccessfully repair a Vancouver romance, he enrolled in and eventually graduated from UBC's theatre school while selling for 1-800-GOT JUNK.

Brinson graduated from Juilliard. Hollywood lured but didn't deliver for him and choreographer-wife Sarah, whose parents are Canadians. How-ever a side trip reconnected him briefly to former pewmate Zishiri, who phoned months later with news of theatre opportunities.
As for serving six bottle-returning restaurants with a $1,200 truck he'd acquired, Brinson recalled Zishiri saying: "We can make a billion dollars up here."

More realistically, two weeks of cold calling got them 65 new clients, which they then had to service. "We were stuck in that truck for six months," Brinson said. "That's when we realized that, to make money, we had to get out of the truck, put on suits and ties, and focus on the sale process."

As for their business face: "You've got to make it fun, man. [Clients] don't care about the truck, the cardboard, the bottles, the cans. They care about a good relationship."

They care about deftness, too, as Memphis Blues Barbeque House co-owner George Siu showed by assigning them the chain's toughest locale, a hard-to-access single bin. "But he wanted it done right," Russell said.
Today, their client list tops 200, with growing numbers of the hotels, office buildings and residential towers that can generate six times the recyclables restaurants do. With-out taking their eyes from the bins, they see the bigger return Zishiri once promised. Refer-ring to the $91 million worth of bottles Encorp Pacific (Canada) reports recycled annually, Brinson said: "Why can't we get one per cent of that? It's just a matter of how hard you want to work."
The Vancouver Sun

David Mabilu South African Millionaire Businessman

2011-11-18T03:04:00.001+02:00

Property magnate David Mabilu, who hosted Julius Malema and a group of celebrities at his extravagant Mauritius wedding bash last weekend, made millions by buying land from one arm of government and reselling it to another.

The 44-year-old multimillionaire and his bride, Phala, chartered an airplane to ferry hundreds of friends, family and entertainers from South Africa to the Indian Ocean island for a weekend-long wedding party that reportedly set him back about R15-million.

Among the guests were the ANC Youth League president, a close friend of Mabilu, as well as other members of Limpopo's political elite, past and present. Guests said that no expense was spared.

The Mail & Guardian can now reveal how Mabilu has cashed in on public-land deals that have set the taxpayer back tens of millions of rands while officials apparently looked the other way.

Mabilu did not answer detailed questions this week, but said the allegations were “defamatory”.

In 2008 Mabilu's company, Promafco, concluded a land-swap with the Polokwane municipality through which he secured two lucrative patches of property in return for four farms.

High five!
A year later Mabilu sold one of the two patches at almost five times the price to the Limpopo local government and housing department through ill-fated parastatal Thubelisha Homes, netting an instant R20-million. And he scored about another R20-million by adding two adjacent pieces of land he had acquired privately and which were similarly escalated in value.

Meanwhile, the four farms Mabilu had transferred to the Polokwane municipality lie largely idle. The land, which is situated on the edge of Malema's home township of Seshego, became the subject of a bogus scheme last year when a group of unnamed people dubbed it "Julius Malema Park" and sold plots illegally to unsuspecting locals, who were later evicted.

One of the farms is used as a borrow pit to provide soil for the construction of roads, while a planned cemetery was later established elsewhere.

Mabilu, who has become a close friend of the Limpopo leadership, boasts a portfolio of thousands of Reconstruction and Development Programme homes and public buildings developed for public authorities in Limpopo since the early 2000s and, more recently, in Gauteng.

Although his work is credited with quality and has won a number of awards, Mabilu's associates also describe him as a shrewd operator who forges relationships with all the right people.

Setting up a killer deal
The series of transactions started in May 2007 when Mabilu's company, Vharanani Properties, bought two portions of the farm Doornkraal, situated in the development corridor between Polokwane's central business district and Seshego, from two companies that had gone into liquidation.

A month later, in June 2007, Mabilu's Promafco Consultants wrote to the Polokwane municipality. In exchange for four farms bordering Seshego, which the municipality had previously wanted for communal grazing, he wanted a Doornkraal portion as well as four prime erven in Polokwane's Ster Park, all owned by the municipality. Mabilu's letter and other documentation entered the public domain through an unrelated court matter.

Although Mabilu might not have shed serious tears over letting the four Seshego farms go -- they had just been invaded by township dwellers -- the acquisition of the municipality's portion of Doornkraal would have been of great value to him.

It was adjacent to the two Doornkraal portions he had just bought but also bordered Nelson Mandela Drive, linking the city and Seshego. Together, the three portions would have great potential for middle-to-low-income residential development.

A plan comes together
Three months later, in September 2007, Polokwane's municipal council approved the land swap subject to valuations being done. This culminated in Mabilu and the municipality concluding a deed of exchange in February 2008, in terms of which the properties would be swopped as proposed by Mabilu, but with him paying in an extra R5.9-million.

The ink was hardly dry on that agreement when Mabilu entered into negotiations with the Limpopo local government and housing department to sell it the three adjacent Doornkraal portions: the two he had bought privately and the one from the municipality.

The man he negotiated with at the local government and housing department was its then senior general manager, Ngoako Molokomme, who happens also to have been a guest at Mabilu's wedding in Mauritius last weekend.

Molokomme did not want to comment on the transaction this week, saying: "I cannot comment on behalf of the department as I no longer work for them."

He was also not willing to speak about his friendship with Mabilu. "Private matters don’t come into it."

Be that as it may, the department bought all three portions from Mabilu in March 2009 through Thubelisha Homes, the non-profit housing parastatal established by the national housing department that was already being wound down because of chronic administrative troubles.

R40-million ahead
This transaction netted Mabilu a cool R40-million-plus -- R51-million for property acquired at just more than R10-million -- and broken down as follows:
Thubelisha paid Mabilu R23.6-million for the two Doornkraal portions he had bought privately less than two years earlier for R4.4-million.

Thubelisha paid Mabilu R27.6-million for the Doornkraal portion Mabilu had acquired through the land swap agreement concluded with the municipality only a year earlier. In the land swap, that portion had been valued at R5.7-million.
Underlying this extraordinary, fivefold escalation was the valuation formulas used. In late 2007, before the property swap was finalised, a private valuer contracted by the municipality had placed a R210 000-per-hectare tag on the municipality's Doornkraal portion.

Before the Thubelisha transaction a year later, the same valuer, this time on behalf of the local government and housing department, valued the same land at R1-million per hectare.

The valuer, Francois Goosen, this week justified the increase, saying that the "market had truly turned rapidly", with other comparable properties fetching prices approaching that and that Mabilu had gained approval from the Polokwane municipality's planning department for township establishment, which would have increased the value.

But a town planning map he provided indicated the approval predated his first valuation, which could not account for the subsequent escalation. Goosen then acknowledged: "This does not make sense to me either."

Mabilu responds
Mabilu did not reply to specific questions this week, but said: "I have noted with concern the aspersion, intended or unintended, that your inquiry casts regarding the exchange of land between Polokwane Municipality and Promafco.

"I strongly believe that some of the allegations you have raised, and which you put as facts, are not only baseless but defamatory to my person and my companies, Vharanani Properties and Promafco."

Mabilu also referred to his victory in court against property developer Glenmatile, which had challenged Promafco and the Polokwane municipality for abandoning a separate tender for the Ster Park properties that were later included in the land swap. However, that matter is unrelated to the Doornkraal transactions from which Mabilu reaped his about R40-million profit.

"Finally," Mabilu said, "it leaves much to be desired and I'm perturbed and note with dismay that you raise questions which imply political insinuations without any bases thereto."

* Got a tip-off for us about this story? Email amabhungane@mg.co.za

Khanyi Mbau Millionaire Socialite South Africa

2011-11-18T02:37:00.001+02:00

3rd Degree: The bling episode with Khanyi Mbau (Part 1)

3rd Degree: The bling episode with Khanyi Mbau (Part 1)

Six years ago Khanyi Mbau was just a name but today she’s become a big brand that’s associated with fast cars, gold-digging, baby-mama drama, reality shows, domestic violence and a wealthy hubby.

Khanyisile Mbau is human like all of us. Some of us love attention and some of us don’t. Whether we love it or not and whatever we think or what the media says, she is being herself. While journalists write negative comments about her, she’s out there having the time of her life.

Even if she's messing up her life, marriage(s) and future. Its her life. She’s got the paparazzi and celeb-watchers wrapped around those blinged-up fingers, thanks to her outspoken diva attitude. But you know what? It works for her and we love to hate her.

Even though it’s been a while since she sizzled up the small screen, people are still talking about her stint in Muvhango. You could say Khanyi exploited her fame as an actress to launch her media career.
****************************************Khanyisile Mbau needs no special introduction in the South African entertainment industry. She took over from the late Lindiwe Chibi as the legendary Doobsie in Muvhango and got fired after being with the show for only a few months, then she started a steamy romance with enterpeneur Mandla Mthembu.

Mthembu, chairman of Martial Eagle Investments, is estimated to be worth about R2.5-billion. The Sunday Times and Sowetan featured letters from people criticising Khanyisile calling her a gold digger, saying she flaunted what she has in an article about her 600 pairs of shoes and seven cars – one for every day of the week.

She also played the role of Mbali in the SABC1 soapie Mzansi (season two). In 2007 she played the role of Zee in the mini-series After Nine. Mbau was born and raised by a single mom in Mofolo, Soweto. Her father was in the taxi industry and never at home, according to Mbau.

Get out, Khanyi!

Theunis Crous takes away the keys of the BMW Khanyi Mbau had been zooming around in. Inset: Businessman Theunis.

The black BMW Z4 stops, the driver’s face hidden behind large fashionable sunglasses. Socialite KHANYI MBAU (24) gets out and tries to sweet-talk her married lover, construction tycoon THEUNIS CROUS (51).

Theunis is clearly angry - she disappeared three days ago. He reaches into the car and grabs the keys from her, yelling and cursing.

We’re witnessing the latest drama in Khanyi’s life.

Theunis moved to Gauteng from Port Elizabeth with his wife and business partner, Primrose, and their two young children 18 months ago to be closer to the government. He has powerful ANC connections and the government gives his construction company most of its business.

But his marriage is at risk after he moved out of the family home in Dainfern, Joburg, and into a R10 000-a-month love nest in Hyde Park with Khanyi. He bought the BMW for her.

“I don’t want to throw dirt on her,” Theunis says later, after a screaming match that seemed to have ended their relationship. “During the affair everything was good. I’m a man and she’s a beautiful woman - who would not want to be with her?

“But when you get to know her you realise she doesn’t like men. It’s almost as if she has a vendetta against them. She sees men as meal tickets, nothing more. She knows how to play a man. She pulls you into her web then controls you.”

Theunis is now desperate to put things right with his family. “I was at home last night and Primrose and I talked. She’s still angry and hurt but I was allowed to stay. It will take time but my family is most important in my life.”

Grey-haired Theunis has now split from Khanyi. “If she were a better person she could have walked a path with me,” he says. “But now there will be no more fast cars, fast planes or fast cash.”

What do you think? Here’s the video…

Khanyi Mbau‘s Work Up On It Video made its debut on LIVE last Friday and it got Tweet-Tongues wagging. I think she worked hard on it and deserves props for the effort. It’s only the make up I have a problem with… Video’s good and the song is nice!

and a few stills from the shoot.

She’s got gorgeous legs!

And what’s a Khanyi Mbau video without the Lambo!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the video.

I thought I’d see it on her website but nope, months after we wrote of its launch, there’s nothing going on over there and even her TV show videos aren’t available anymore. *shrug*

Felicia Buthelezi Fisokuhle Media Publisher Millionaire South Africa

2011-11-18T02:16:00.000+02:00

Felicia is the founder of Fisokuhle Media, publisher of I Do magazine. Her passion for the state of marriage and her understanding of the ensuing complexities inspired the launch of this critical venture

– one that aims to give hope and inspiration to married couples and those planning to marry.

Felicia started her meteoric rise in the business world when she established a facilities services business eight years ago. Her hard-earned successes, innate business acumen, professionalism and determination led to a trail of prestigious business awards, including one from the Business Women Association the as well as the Umyezane Award. She was also shortlisted by BMF as The Best Upcoming Leader in 2004.

Felicia sits on the UMAKHI Youth Development Institute board, a non-governmental youth initiative based in Cape Town. In conjunction with i do magazine, Felicia established the Fisokuhle Foundation which offers support to marriages that are challenged, while benefiting less-privileged families that are normally without such recourse.

Felicia Buthelezi is a wife, a mother of two boys and a family woman of substance. Her many accolades are a testament to her personal motto: ‘Anything that your mind can conceive is possible’. She is lives by the words pragmatism, quality and excellence.

Futhi Mtoba Deloitte South Africa Chairman

2011-11-18T02:08:00.000+02:00

Futhi Mtoba is Chairperson of the Board, Deloitte South Africa.

She is a CA (SA), holding a Higher Diploma in Banking Law (Rand Afrikaans University); B Compt (Hons) (University of South Africa); BA (Econ) (Hons) (University of South Africa); BA (Econ) (University of Botswana and Swaziland).

Futhi joined Deloitte South Africa in 1988 and rose up the ranks to become the first African black woman to be appointed as a Partner by one of the top four accounting firms in South Africa.

Futhi Mtoba is Chairperson of the Board, Deloitte South Africa.
She is a CA (SA), holding a Higher Diploma in Banking Law (Rand Afrikaans University); B Compt (Hons) (University of South Africa); BA (Econ) (Hons) (University of South Africa); BA (Econ) (University of Botswana and Swaziland).

Futhi joined Deloitte South Africa in 1988 and rose up the ranks to become the first African black woman to be appointed as a Partner by one of the top four accounting firms in South Africa.

Her experience includes managing the audits of large corporate treasuries, local and international financial institutions, including the treasury of a large parastatal organisation.

Futhi is the first woman National President of the Association for the Advancement of Accountants in Southern Africa (ABASA) and the past Chairman of the Johannesburg Branch of ABASA.

She is a past board member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and is further involved in the transformation of SAICA as a Board member of Thuthuka.

She is also one of the four Vice Presidents of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA). She previously led the Black Business Council Economic Research Unit and was also a member of the Black Business Council Presidential Working Group, which provided policy input to government’s macro-economic framework.

Futhi serves as Director and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) with assets under management of R400 billion (US$60 billion). The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is a non-banking financial intermediary responsible for the investment of social security and trust funds, but more particularly, for the investment of public sector pension and provident funds.

She is an adjudicator to the Financial Services Charter and was a member of the financial sector working group that was responsible for the formulation of the Financial Sector Transformation Charter which provides a framework and establishes the principles upon which Black Economic Empowerment will be implemented in the financial services sector - a milestone in South African history.

She is a member of the NEPAD Business Group, which works with the NEPAD Secretariat to develop effective public-private partnerships to support the New Partnership and is also a past Convenor of the East Central Southern African Federation of Accountants (ECSAFA) NEPAD Committee.

She is a Trustee of the WDB Trust which is a woman-centred socio-economic development programme targeting poor women by building their capacities through access to reliable financial services, appropriate business skills and technical support as well as information and communication technology training.

She was honoured as “2004 Business Women of the Year” by the Businesswomen’s Association and Nedbank and she was honoured as the 2005 OWIT (Organisation of Women in International Trade) International Woman of the Year.

Despite holding these important positions in the South African professional and regulatory environments, she can count her life’s passions on one hand: her two children aged 15 and 10, her husband Mbulelo who is a medical doctor at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg, the advancement of black people in the accounting profession, and the importance of corporate governance and ethics in South African and global business.

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Kennedy Bungane The Standard Bank Chief Executive Officer, Corporate and Investment Banking,

2011-11-18T01:59:00.000+02:00

Kennedy Bungane (affectionately known as KGB) obtained a BCom degree from the University of Natal. He is an alumnus of the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) with an MBA in Advanced Corporate Finance and Marketing Strategy. He attended the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Programme in 2006.

He started his career with the Standard Bank’s Vereeniging branch in 1991, joining the Global Markets (Treasury) Unit of Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank (SCMB) in 1996 as a forex trader and dealer. He returned to Standard Bank to launch and head up the Forex Sales: New Business Development Unit. The motivation for such a unit was partly influenced by the conclusions reached in the research for his MBA project, which was based on a concept of marketing strategy to defend market share in forex for domestic banks.

He was invited to join Standard Bank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) as a member of the executive committee in 2003, where he launched the BEE Financing Unit in investment banking. He later ran the Coverage and Distribution Businesses Unit of CIB South Africa. He is currently the Chairman of the Credit Suisse Standard Securities and was appointed as South African Deputy Chief Executive of CIB South Africa. He joined the Standard Bank Group Executive Committee early in 2008.

This alumnus of the University is widely recognised as one of the key architects of the transformation strategy of the financial sector and is a leading opinion-maker in the unfolding process of Black Economic
Empowerment.

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